Goodbye USA

Our final city on our U.S. tour was to Plymouth.  Our goal as interns is to be able to run the city the last week of our internship.  Running the city meant that we had to prepare several education workshops as well as be in charge of our community impact days.  Our first task for Dristy and I was to develop a presentation for the cast.  Dristy and I chose to teach the cast about effective communication and dialogue.  I spent my senior year of college studying and researching dialogue, so I was very excited to share what I had learned with the rest of the cast.  Dristy and I spent a lot of time preparing for our first presentation and it was so nice to have our cast mates tell us how much they enjoyed what we had done.  Definitely a great way to start off the intern week!

After our presentation, the cast got to spend several hours at Plimoth Plantation, which is a living museum where you can interact with Native Americans who share what life is like as a native people as well as talk with pilgrims who settled in the area.  It was such a neat opportunity to hear about life for the settlers who came on the Mayflower as well as hear the other side of the story from the Native Americans.

This week I stayed with Sandy and her 17-year-old son Austin.  Sandy is an inspirational speaker, a spiritual author, and a spirit medium.  She has her own business where she helps spiritually heal people who have lost a loved one.  She also speaks across the country giving motivational talks in addition to her two books and self-help discs.  It so great spending the week learning about Sandy's inspirational work.  

Tuesday was a Community Impact day and I had the opportunity to work at Plimoth Plantation cleaning up some of the trails and making the area look nicer.  Tuesday afternoon, Dristy and I facilitated a USA wrap up where we reflected on our time in the US.  Our two Chinese students then took over and prepared our cast on what to expect while we are in Taiwan and the cultural differences of which we need to be aware like taking off our shoes when we enter the home, or never laying our chop sticks in our bowl when we are finished.  

My friend from college, Mishayla, and her mother came to Massachusetts to visit me and see the show.  Tuesday night, Mishayla and her mother Joyce took me out to dinner along the sea across from the Mayflower.

Wednesday was another Community Impact day where I went to The Center for Natural Sciences, which was a natural science museum.  We cleaned up the entry area and removed large bushes and an overgrowth of weeds.  Mishayla joined our community impact day, and it was really fun to have her spend the day doing what we do on a weekly basis. 

Wednesday afternoon was our second culture fair for the Europeans and Asians.  As education interns, Dristy and I organized culture fair.  Just like the last fair, I was blown away by the enthusiasm and dedication of the presenters.  The North and South Americans visited the different booths and played games, learned cheers, listened to music, and ate food from the European and Asian countries.  Dristy and I were so pleased at how well the culture fair went and we were so happy to be a part of such an educational event.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were our final three shows in the United States.  During rehearsals we continued to work on our Taiwanese songs as well as begin to learn the music to our Philippine songs.  All three of our final shows were well received and we had very engaged and excited audiences.  It was a great way to end our tour in the U.S.  

Sunday, on our host family, day Sandy took Austin and I along with another cast mate, Julia from Germany, out to a nice brunch.  In the afternoon, Julia, Sandy, and I went apple picking.  It was nearing the end of apple picking season because the only apples left were the ones at the very top of the tree.  So, I decided to put Julia on my shoulders so we could reach the apples.  I must say it was a success and we filled our bag to the top with delicious apples.  That evening Sandy made us a wonderful dinner and we invited another cast mate and his host mother over to join us.  The rest of the night was spent laughing and  having a nice time together...until it was time to pack for our 17 hour flight to Taiwan the next day.

I am very blessed to have had the chance to live with Sandy during my final week in the U.S.  Sandy's positive outlook of life was so inspiring and uplifting.  I only wish I had more time to spend learning how to think in such a positive way in any situation.  Sandy was so kind and gracious and she truly inspired me to be a better person not only in my actions but also in the way I think and respond to situations and experiences.