Hitting the Road

Last Monday was our first travel day, which began at 4:15 in the morning.  It was difficult leaving Bruce and Linda after living with them for five weeks.  I grew in many ways during the first five weeks of staging and I am blessed that Bruce and Linda were a part of my experience.  Although it was hard to say goodbye to such a loving and supportive family, they are a very special part of my life and I know it will not be long before I see them again.

Our cast had three different flights out of Denver where our final destination was Boston, Massachusetts!  I was on the first flight that left at 8:00 am.  Our group of 19 had one flight from Denver to Atlanta and Atlanta to Boston.  We had a great time traveling together on our first travel day.  We had fun laughing with each other all the way to Boston.  

Once we all arrived in Boston in the early evening, we took a bus to our first city on the road-Lowell, Massachusetts.  We unloaded all our bags our at the host pick-up facility and waited to meet our new host families.  Since both my previous host sisters-Marloes and Linda left early to set up the cities in Massachusetts, I was very excited to have a roommate.  Luckily, my first roommate was Georgie, one of the most fun and energetic people I have had the privilege of meeting and he made my first host family experience on the road much more relaxing and comfortable.  

Georgie and I got to meet our host family at 8:00 pm on Monday night.  We stayed with the Hollinger family-Cheryl and Mark and their three children Mary-15, Graham-12, and Thomas-9.  The Hollinger's live in Littleton, a small city outside of Lowell.  As we pulled up in the driveway, it was as if we were driving back in time 100 years ago.  Cheryl and Mary explained that their Victorian home was built in 1906 and at one point, before a fire in the 50's, it had a ballroom on the third floor.  There is no single front door to the house.  However, there are two double-wide glass doors that were used when the women came to the house for a ball in their large-hooped dresses.  The first thing Georgie and I wanted to do when we saw the house was to play hide and seek.  

Tuesday was our first of three Community Impact days in Lowell.  This week, we had many different Community Impact sites from which to choose.  I spent the day working for the National Park Service cleaning up a little park area in the center of the town.  We swept up leaves and dirt and scraped off old rust on an iron fence so we could repaint it the following day.  I was amazed at how appreciative the community was with our helping to clean up such a small area of the park.  We had several people stop as we were working to tell us how nice our area looked and it was nice to know that our service was noticed.  

Wednesday I was signed out for the day to work with the education team and training for my internship.  My goal as an education intern is to teach the cast about dialogue.  I spent my senior year researching and studying dialogue, which is a form of communication that focuses on the reasoning behind people’s viewpoints and teaches how to appreciate and respect those differing viewpoints.  For the next five weeks I will be planning how I will teach the cast the fundamentals of dialogue through theory and practice. 

Thursday I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club of Lowell.  The kids were working on a talent show so I had the chance to watch them perform and help them prepare for their show.  The children loved to dance, so I taught them part of one of our dances from the show.  The kids had fun learning the dance and then they decided to have a dance off, so we got in a circle and showed off all of our best dance moves. 

Thomas celebrated his 10th birthday on Thursday night, so Cheryl made the most delicious home-made fried chicken, pea soup, corn, pasta with pesto, and to top it off, home-made blueberry and strawberry-rhubarb pie.  It was really special to get to be a part of Thomas birthday celebration.  

Friday was our first show day on the road!  I spent the morning learning some new dance techniques with some of the dancers in the show to help take our dancing to a more technical level.  Unfortunately, I did not do some of them correctly and I irritated my knee.  So after dancing on my knee all afternoon, I was in pain after the show.  Luckily, a little icy-hot, ibuprofen, ice, and several days of rest helped solve the knee pains.      

Mark’s hobby is flying his father’s plane and teaching Mary how to fly, so on our host family day, Mark and Mary took us flying in their four-person plane.  We drove about 20 minutes to their hangar and we took off from a small airport.  Within five minutes of taking off, Mark let Georgie fly the plane.  The first thing Georgie did was push the controls downward and we took a fun little dive.  Georgie had fun experimenting with the controls and it certainly made for an exciting plane ride.  We landed about 20 minutes later at another small airport so Georgie and I could switch seats.  After Mark took off, he gave me control of the plane, and, just like Georgie, I experimented with the controls-it felt like we were on an awesome and intense roller coaster ride.  Mark then took control of the plane again and showed us what happens when the plane stalls.  A plane stalls when it is no longer moving fast enough to gain lift, so the plane "stalls" in the air and begins to drop.  Mark slowed down the plane and it eventually shook and began to drop.  He then quickly used the throttle to gain speed and we were back soaring through the sky.  I had a huge smile on my face the entire time that we were with the plane.  Flying a plane has always been on my bucket list and I am so grateful that the Hollinger's were kind enough to take us flying. 

After flying the plane, Georgie and I went with Mary to explore Boston.  She took us all over the city from the waterfront to Harvard Square.  It was raining sporadically throughout the day, but we still had fun walking around the city.  

Sunday was Mark and Cheryl's wedding anniversary, so Georgie, Mary and I decided to bake a cake to celebrate.  It ended up taking several hours to bake the cake because we kept taking breaks to dance around in the kitchen to the music on the radio as well as having powdered sugar fights.  All in all, the cake was delicious and we had a wonderful time celebrating their anniversary.

I had an incredible week living with the Hollinger Family.  Everyday was filled with laughter and joy in their house and they were so kind to us.  It is amazing how close you can become with a family in such a short time.  They welcomed us in and made us feel like member of their family.  The one thing I will always remember about the Hollinger's is the love and respect they have for one another.  I am so thankful that I had the privilege of living with such an amazing family.