Orlando/St. Augustine

This week we had two cities. Which is kinda strange for UWP nowadays usually we spend a week in a city and have a show at the end of the week. We spent four days in St. Augustine had some really good community impact projects I will explain these later in the post after I sum up the week. We left St. Augustine on Friday morning and drove to Orlando.

St. Augustine being the oldest city in the USA was really fun. We went on a trolley tour and saw all of the old buildings. Even if they aren't that old to European standards I really enjoyed seeing them. We went to the original Ripleys Believe It or Not Museum. This was really fun with all of the weird stuff in the museum I could have spent hours there, but sadly we only got to stay for a short time. Later that day we went to Flagler College and had a culture fair. Since I have no culture at all except for being an American which is boring, we just played football.

The next day we went to an elementary school which has special needs children in it also. These kids sang to us and it was so amazing what the music therapy teachers have done for them. It was a very touching time for everyone in our cast that got to experience it. These children are really inpiring because they know that they are different but as the song said "I am perfect the way I am." After the kids sang to us we had lunch and then went into classrooms to play games with the kids. I volunteered for a second grade classroom and we went in and had a great time showing the kids all the games we have learned so far on our tour.

The next day was show day so we had another awesome show outdoors. The show was really good except we lacked the energy to inspire the crowd for some reason. I performed in the "Love Medley" which was really fun again, it always is though.

Friday we went to the Deaf and Blind school of Florida. This was another great experience for the cast. I got to see the dance team perform there and this was really fun. The people that performed for us ranged from hard of hearing to completely deaf. I couldn't believe how they danced when they can't hear the music but I guess when it is really loud they can feel the vibrations in the floor. We had lunch with them after they performed and I got a sign name. Ask me about it when you see me again and I will let you know how and why I got this one.

After we got done at the school we traveled to Orlando and got a new host family. My host dad is an alumni of UWP in 96'. As soon as my roommate and I got in the car he informed us that we would be going to the House of Blues that night to watch some local bands perform. This was a great time the bands were awesome and after the show was over we walked around Downtown Disney.

Saturday was showday again. This was a very good show with an excellent crowd. There were a lot of alumni in the audience and they went nuts for UWP. Once again I was only in the "Love Medley" the occurance of this happing is starting to really get on my nerves. After the show I was supposed to to interviews for prospective students but since we only had four people come to the admissions room I didn't get to interview anyone.

So another week gone and this trip is really starting to speed up on me. It is gonna be no time and I will be back in Sioux Falls going back to my typical day.

Tune in next time for another awesome post from ME.

Wow I Haven't Posted In Awhile

So I have been beyond busy for awhile. I am really sorry about not posting for so long. So now I plan on making up for it. I might not remember everything that happened but I will give you a general overview of the past two weeks.

So Greeley, CO was a fun city. I stayed with four guys with a lady named Shirley. This was a challenge because of the fact that she was a vegetarian, this was very different. I haven't gone an entire week without red meat until then.

We had a show in Greeley and I think it went really well. The audience loved it which makes the whole difference for our shows. We have to have energy to make a good show and the audience in Greeley fed us energy the whole night. My mom, brother, and sister came to Greeley and this was wonderful because I did miss them as much as I try to hide it.

After the performance in Greeley we had to drive back to Denver to catch a plane. I did not enjoy our forty hour day. I was so tired that I could barely move. When we arrived in Miami we found out that they didn't have enough host families for us. This really made me mad since I wanted a host family in Miami, this turned out to be okay since we stayed in a hostel for the weekend. By Monday we all had host families to go home with.

We had two outdoor performances in Miami which were really fun. Both performances drew a pretty big crowd and they loved the show. On our day off I went with my roommate to the Metro Zoo. This zoo is huge it was so much fun, the only problem was that my camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get to take pictures of all of the cool animals.

So that was my catch up for now. I will write more for later in the week.

Sick/Run Through

So recently I have acquired a wonderful cold that is just really ruining my days. I can still dance but I have coughing fits after every time we run a song. This is getting rather annoying but life goes on.

For the past couple of days we have been doing run through of our shows about once a day. This is really good for us since we are finally starting to piece together the show that we have been working so hard on. Every time we run a show we put up a show list so that we know what we are doing for the run through. As of the past two runs of the show I have been dancing in seven specialty dances which takes a lot of energy. Surprisingly I am not singing at all in the show as of now. This has me a little confused since I was pulled aside in the beginning quite a bit to sing certain songs. I can't really complain though because I am dancing so much that I would hardly have time to sing anything anyway. The dancing is starting to come together I believe that by Wednesday, which is our performance for our host families, the whole cast should have a pretty decent show put together not perfect by any means but presentable.

The other day I was walking out of our room where we have lunch and our cast manager, Jen Moody, started talking to me and she said that I was looking really skinny. I went home that night and weighed myself and discovered that I have lost almost thirteen pounds since the start of staging. I am really loving that since now I am starting to get back into shape.

Stuart

Trying to Remember

So the past couple days have been very crazy since I haven't posted since last week. I have a lot of catch up so I will try to remember what has happened to the best of my abilities.

I have been dancing almost every day which is great but really tiring. We learned the love medley on Thursday, the ending to it on Friday, and the blocking on Monday. This was great since this song might actually be stuck in my mind. Every other song that I have learned it seems is just a big jumble in my mind. I don't know if I remember any of the dances that we learned in our first week. That could be a big problem because our first show is February 4th. I think as soon as we start running the show it will be better at least I hope so.

Today as in Tuesday we learned the lifts for the swing dance "Go Daddy Oh" which is really fun but challenging. I have the same partner for the love medley which makes a huge difference since we trust each other so the lifts can go smooth. Even so I doubt that we will be partnered up for the show since they like to throw those curve balls to you by switching up your partner. After the day was over we went out to dinner at Chipotle, this place is kind of like Q Doba but not as good. Later I went to a book store with Zola, Karoline, Kyle, and Lindsey. This was a great time I had another great chat with Karoline about all sorts of stuff.

Well it is almost 10:30 which means I have to get up in seven hours so I am gonna go to bed sorry for the bad post. I will make things back to usual by tomorrow evening for this blog. I am having a wonderful time in Denver and I can't wait to get out on the road, even if that means adjusting to a new host family every week.

Stuart

Tour Schedule

Cast A 2009 Tour Schedule
January 9 - June 15, 2009

Orientation: Denver, Colorado: January 9 - February 5th
Greeley, CO - February 5 - 12
North Miami, FL - February 12 - 23
St. Augustine, FL - February 23 - March 2
Dade City/Zephyrhills, FL - March 2 - 9
Pensacola, FL - March 9 - 16
US City - March 16 - 23
US City - March 23 - 30
US City March 30 - April 4
Taipei, Taiwan - April 5 - 17
Taichung, Taiwan - April 17 - May 4
Saltillo, MX - May 4 - 10
Veracruz, MX - May 11 - 17
Mexico Norte, MX - May 18 - 24
Tampico, MX - May 25 - June 1
South USA: June 1 - June 15

Catch Up

Okay so I haven't been able to post for a couple days. Sorry for everyone who is reading this regularly I have been really busy and getting home later and later each night. I am gonna try to sum up the past two days in a few sentences because I am afraid I am gonna fall asleep on my computer.

So Wednesday was our first day of blocking which was interesting. We were taught all of the entrances and where the mics are at during the show. We also did some blocking today, as in Thursday. Nothing to out of the ordinary happened during blocking, except that I got to rest my legs for a day which was wonderful.

Later in the night Cast A 2009 had its culture jam, this was great I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The things that certain countries did were just hilarious.

Thursday began the dancing again, we started off the morning with some more blocking but added on some parts of the show which I won't tell you about so you have to see them yourself. Later in the day we had the "Love Medley" workshop this is a really fun song that if you have seen the show has no message at all but is just there for pure entertainment.

That is all I can write tonight I have to get some sleep. Goodnight and I hope to get an extra long post done this weekend since it is a free weekend.

Stuart

Ayiko Reprise

Today was not really a busy day we learned the beginning of "Ayiko" which meant the entrances. This was fun and rather difficult it was very precise on timing and such. I did not do to much today besides that, we only had one dance workshop and these are starting to wear me out. I have some really funky pain in my Achilles Tendon and pain in my shins which I think is the beginning of shin splints. This is causing me discomfort but nothing that I didn't feel during a wrestling practice. I just need to tough it out since I know that my body will adapt to the tiresome activity soon enough.

I can't believe that I have been gone for almost two weeks, this is just crazy to me it feels like I have been gone for months. Funny thing is about UWP I have been told that it goes fast but slow. I might be gone for only six months but it might feel like years because of all the fun/work that we have to do.

Tomorrow we have our first blocking part of the show. This means show costumes, not really looking forward to dancing in black pants I am so used to sweat pants.

Another day gone so far they are flying by but at the same tim seeming really slow. I hope to talk to everyone who reads this soon so I can give you a more in depth story to how my life is going in the amazing metropolis of Denver.

Stuart

Marade

Yesterday on Monday we attended the Martin Luther King Marade. Okay so all of you reading this are like what in God's name is a marade. A marade is not a march, which can be seen as a protest and not entirely a celebration which is a parade, therefore the word marade was invented. This was a very interesting experience since I have never taken part in anything of the sort. The ending total for people who maraded was 45,000 people. That is just mind blowing to me because of how much of a percentage of Sioux Falls' population that is. During the marade I got to hold a sign that said "Think Globally/Act Locally" I held this sign high for the purpose of shade. The temperature as we walked down Colfax Ave was 66 degrees farenheight.

After the marade a couple of us went to Subway for a quick lunch, or as my European friends say "American Lunch". We hurried back to our staging building for the rest of the days activities. These included for me dancing "Keep the Beat" which is a very fast jazzy song, it struck me as almost lyrical because of how precise all the movements have to be. Later during cast movement I was pulled downstairs along with another guy to sing. We sang the opening to "Ayiko" which is a chant, "Ounce of Positive" again which is a blues song, "Power With" which is a hip hop song, and "Oye El Boom" which is the salsa number for the show the hard part about this is that it is in Spanish and I have no experience in speaking or singing Spanish. The vocal dude, who is really cool I would tell you his name but I forgot, told the both of us that we sound to choir boyish, thanks Mrs. Britton you accomplished your goal. I know have to change every aspect of my singing voice for this show.

So there is another day highlighted I skipped over the class portions of the day since they are not as interesting. I am going to try to upload "Oye El Boom" onto they blog so you can listen to what I have to learn how to sing.

Saturday

Sorry to everyone who is keeping up with my blog I got home Saturday night at about 10:30 so I didn't get an entry done.

Yesterday, being Saturday was another fun filled day of rehearsal in downtown Denver. We started the day with vocals and I got pulled out twice to sing for one of the staging staff on different songs. I was asked to sing "Power With" which is a hip hop song and "Ounce of Positive" which is the blues song for the show. I have to say that my favorite of the two is "Ounce of Positive" you have so much freedom with the song which means I can do pretty much whatever I want vocally as long as I stay in the scale represented.

In the afternoon we practiced "Oye El Boom" which is the salsa number in our show. We had a special teacher for this song who is an UWP alumni and her husband. They were great teachers because I have never done a salsa dance before and I picked it up rather quickly because of how well they taught us. I was partnered with Sisa Cernan, she is from Slovakia and is a wonderful dance partner. I really hope that I get to be in the show for this song it is so much fun.

Later that night Zola and I hung out with a couple people downtown. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe which was really good, Hans Nelson one of our staff memebers showed up with a couple of his friends from his traveling cast so we decided to play a prank on him. We told the hostess that it was his 16th birthday and at the Hard Rock they bring you to the front of the restaurant and scream it out to everybody. After eating we just walked around downtown until about ten.

Sorry everyone for not blogging last night again I was to tired to get it all done. Hopefully this sheads some light on what is happening in my life as of now.

Gypsy/Power With/Pot luck/Oye El Boom

Oh what a day, it all started off with an educational class with the amazing JC and Aoifa. JC is from California/Mexico and Aoifa(I hope I spelled her name right) is from Ireland. So today's workshop was all about stereotypes. At first I thought it wouldn't be too bad but we had to walk around and write our stereotypes of each country. This turned out to be really bad for the good old USA it seemed to me that every person really let the "hate" fly today when it came to our poster. As much as it was an exercise it was really revealing to me what the rest of the world thinks of America and makes me want to change those stereotypes.

Okay so moving past how everyone views America, we had alot of dancing today. The Gypsy dance is not a thing I would suggest doing after lunch but guess what we had to do it anyway. I really enjoyed this even if it turned out to be very physically challenging. Gypsy dance is just a bunch of partner stuff and if you see the show you will like it a lot. "Power With" on the other hand is a very kind of mellow tempo hip hop song, something about this song really makes me want to sing it all night. "Power with a sister or brother is stronger than power over each other" that snippet of the song is just really great it means so much. If we could all just use our "powers" together rather than trying to make ourselves better than each other this world would be so much better off than it is now. There is my philosophical thing for the year since I know none of my usual readers expected that.

Tomorrow I am in the dance workshop of Oye El Boom which is the spanish salsa dance for the show. I am really excited for this one since I have always wanted to learn how to salsa. I hope I get a good partner because I might suck at it.

Alright I am gonna try to scrape the barrel of my brain and remember what happened last night. We went to a pot luck at the church right next to our building. This was a great time so many people showed up. I think that this should be a UWP tradition in each city we go to, it was just a great opportunity to meet all of the host families that have to deal with all of us. Zola and I were driven home by Bob who is hosting Karoline and Lindsey. If you don't remember Karoline is from Norway, and Lindsey is from the state of Washington. This was a really nice gesture towards Zola and I because we didn't really want to ride the bus last night.


Stuart

Ayiko

Today was a very interesting day and I know that sounds lame since I have said every day is an interesting day so far. We started off the day with our morning meeting and then went right into vocals where we had a great time singing for a couple hours. Lunch was really good today since the breakfast I had was long worn off. After lunch was another cast movement but we didn't do any aerobics today we just learned two dances, Ayiko(the cast movement not the specialty dance which I will elaborate on later) and a brand new song to our show called "Lets work it out." This new song was rather fun since we had learned the words to it earlier in the day.

So on to the specialty dance, we learned the front row stuff for Ayiko and it was really fun. I mean it was hard but since we were taught so well by Ken, the choreographer, it was made easy for us. I really enjoyed this dance it took us about two hours to learn the whole thing and at the end we only ran through the whole thing three times with music! That is kinda scary for me cause I want to make the impression that I am reliable but if I forget the dance by the next time we cover it there goes my chance.

After wrap up I checked the board for announcements and I am in two more specialty dances tomorrow. One for "Power With" and "Gypsy Dance" I am so excited for these they should be great but difficult.

So there is a summary of another day at UWP staging in Denver. This experience has been wonderful so far and I can't wait to get more involved with everything including getting to know all of my cast mates and staff really well.

Dance Dance Dance

Well I guess after today things should get better...at least I hope. We had our first cast movement today and it was really difficult. Rafael(Rafa) who is a personal trainer in Canada took us through about an hour and a half of aerobics/pilates. This was really rough on me since I haven't done anything really athletic for about two years. The burn was there but it was a good burn, I am really looking forward to later sessions after I get in better shape. After lunch we had another two hours on dance, we learned the song "Keep the Beat" which is really fun. The song is rather fast and has a mixture of many types of dance from all sorts of cultures. I picked up on the choreography rather quickly but that doesn't mean that I will retain it over the next couple days when we have tons of other songs pounded into our brains.

So after all of that we left as usual. Zola and I found a couple friends to ride the shuttle downtown with now which is great since I haven't really met these people yet. One is Karoline from Norway, she told me tonight that I was a very good dancer and I really apprectiated hearing that. The other girls name is Lindsey and she is from Washington. They are roommates and live in Boulder, CO with a host family that has now had eighty students in their home.

Well that is all from me for the night. I think I am gonna head to bed rather quickly wake up and do the whole thing again. If I haven't had the chance to talk to you on the phone yet give me a call sometime around eight my time, I am usually free and will be very happy to talk to you.

Stuart

First and Second Day

These past two days have been a blur just crazy stuff is going on. We woke up on Monday thinking we would walk to our bus stop and it was snowing, probably around three inches already. Thank God for our host dad who very willingly gave us a ride to the bus stop. Now for my first day of public transportation ever this was not a very good experience. The free way was really icy so the bus was sliding all over the place. What should have been a thirty minute ride turned out to last about an hour. When we finally arrived we caught the free shuttle bus on the 16th street mall. This is a really cool part of downtown, only foot traffic and shuttle buses are allowed. Zola, my roommate from Ethiopia if you forgot, had to walk about three blocks to our building, when we arrived several staff members were waiting there. They told us that we, along with about twenty other students, were the only ones to have arrived yet this seemed odd since we were just on time. I guess the city of Denver had no idea that it was going to snow and the plows weren't sent out until later in the day.

Anyway after all of the trouble I had with the bus we had a pretty good day. The cast did some ice breaker games. My favorite was a game where we had to stare into another person's eyes for about two minutes while someone asked us questions. We couldn't talk so we had to think about what our answers would be, it was really fun. We had our first cast vocals later in the day, this involved us singing Ayiko and Shine the Light. The songs were rather high, even for me to sing, but I got through it.

Today, as in Tuesday, was module day. Modules are UWP fancy way for saying auditions. I started of with singing right away in the morning. The group I was in sang the song "We'll Be There" which is slowly becoming my favorite song from the show. I think I did pretty good, there wasn't any comments from the "judges" as I thought they were. Really they were just the singing staff members. I am now going to be singing tenor throughout the show, I have to say that I rather expected that. We had modules in speaking, technical aspect of the show, costumes, and the worst one of all...dance. Dance was really easy but the way that they taught the choreography was really fast. I was not used to how quickly we went from learning the moves to dancing them with music. I think I did rather well in this one too but only time will tell.

During the day we had alot of free time to meet our fellow cast members. Today I had a very interesting conversation with a girl from Nepal, her nickname is Subu, I can't remember her full name and most certainly can't spell it. Subu told me about all kinds of stuff and even sang me a Nepali spiritual hymn after my intense begging to hear it. Subu has a very warm singing voice, though she tried to tell me that she was a horrible singer. I can't be lied to about something like that. We continued to have conversations throughout the day whenever we had free time. I can't wait to learn more about Nepal.

Later in the day I met a girl named Zelda, she is from China and has graduated from university with an antropology degree. Zelda and I discussed all sorts of things during our conversation, from how her English was to looking past all of the stereotypes that Chinese have of Americans and vice versa. We cleared up all of the stereotypes quite easily so easy in fact that I believe that Zelda and I will be great friends on this trip.

So the day wrapped up, the bus was easy we got home around six thirty. Zola showed me some interesting foods that he brought with him. I was delighted to be able to try some. Here are the names of them if you want to look them up on the internet. Injera, Berbere, Shiro, Beso, Kolo, Dabo Kolo. These foods are really awesome Zola said that he is going to cook for us one night, I can't wait. Well I am going off to sleep now I am gonna wake up a little later tomorrow morning. Hope everything is well with everyone who reads this, and I hope to talk to you soon.

Stuart

First Look at the Show

We had another easy morning, I woke up rather late since it will be my last day of doing that for a long time. Today at four was the staff showing parts of the show to the students/host families that came. It was really good, they sang a new song for the program that was looked amazing since they had only been practicing for two days. They also sang "We'll Be There" which reminded me of Laura Aussems, who stayed with my family when UWP was there in November. That song and "Up with People" really got me excited for everything to start tomorrow. So now I have to get everything ready for tomorrow since we have to wake up at about 5:30am to catch our bus at seven. Goodnight and I hope to talk to you all soon.
Stuart

Free Day

Today was a free day with your host family. So naturally they let us sleep in for a little while since we will be getting up at 5:30am to be able to make it to our bus on time. We just stayed in the house for most of the day. Zola and I went for a walk to pick him up a calling card so he can call his family in Ethiopia. On the way we saw a huge prairie dog town and Zola had a good laugh when I called them prairie dogs since they decided at that point to chase each other around the field they were in. Along the way we walked by our bus stop that we will be using for the next month it was a good fifteen minute walk from our house. On our way back Zola noticed a squirrel and since he has never seen one before stopped to look at it for a little while. This was such a cool experience for me because growing up around these animals you never stop to really look at them anymore, so if you are with someone who has never seen one before it is just an awesome site. We went to Sutton, my host brother's, band concert this afternoon, it was a really good concert. I was really impressed in how well they sounded since they got their music for the show on Monday of this week. After the concert we had dinner and played apple's to apple's with one of my host family's friends. Tomorrow starts the whole thing, we have to be in Denver by four to meet the staff that we didn't see on Friday. I guess there is a special thing happening too which has me rather excited.

Arrival

So today is the day that everything starts. My brother wanted to go see the mountains so we traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park, this was really worth it even if we didn't go into the park itself the scenery was just surreal. We saw some big horn sheep on the road as we left the area of the park which made Billy's day and was rather exciting for someone like me too. After that we traveled back to Denver and promptly got lost trying to find our way to the arrival area, my mother still insists that she has an infallable sense of direction. When we arrived I walked in and was greeted by many "hello and welcome to UWP." This really was just the thing I needed when I got there because as we were pulling into the parking lot for the building I really got nervous and kind of didn't want to do it anymore, but this way of welcoming and since I already saw several familar faces in the greeting crew helped to calm my nerves. After that my mom and brother said goodbye to me, with my mom trying to be strong and not cry and Billy just acting like the tough guy that he is wished me luck. I really hope that they can travel back in February to watch the host family show. Later in the day as more and more cast members arrived I met my roomate, Zelalem(Zola) Gedamu from Ethiopia. I know we will become really good friends over this next month with each other. We met our host family Katherine and Phil Rowe, who live in Westminster, CO with two children Sutton and Aily. They are very nice people and welcomed us gracefully into their home for the next month. Tomorrow we are just gonna play things by ear and see what Zola wants to do since he has never been to the United States, at four though we are going to Sutton's band concert since he recently made it into the County Honor Band for playing Trombone. Missing everyone in Sioux Falls, hope you are all well and I will talk to you soon.

Stuart

Departure

Well the day has come I have left Sioux Falls for six months. I have to admit that today was rather hectic and really sad. I know that it will be fine I am just gonna miss everyone in Sioux Falls a lot, don't forget to call/facebook me whenever you can I hope I will be able to respond accordingly. I can't wait to get started with staging in Denver, really this experience is going to be wonderful. I can't wait to meet all of the people in the cast and the staff members who have to put up with me for this trip. We are leaving early tomorrow morning so we can arrive in Denver by around four. I guess we will be meeting with Paul Conzemius' host family tomorrow night, I am rather excited to meet them it should be a lot of fun.
Stuart

Anticipation

So here is the deal I leave for Denver, CO in three days. I have to say that I am pretty pumped to be headed out for this ordeal. Only problem is that I am not ready to leave yet, I have so much packing to do. So for everyone who will not see me before I leave know that I will miss you and you can always keep in touch with me over Facebook. Hopefully I keep this up to date because I have never really tried to keep a journal of any sort. Once again if I missed you this holiday break and won't get to see you until June goodbye.