First Stop-Switzerland

Monday morning began in a mad scramble to pack for our trip to Europe.  After triple checking my suitcase, we all headed to our drop off facility for the day.  Our flight to Europe was scheduled for 9:45pm, so we spent the afternoon working on our cast movement and vocals for our European medleys in the show.  After lunch and our education workshop, the staff threw us a little celebratory party with balloons and dancing in honor of our final hours in the United States.  We then loaded the buses and headed to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport, we discovered that our flight was delayed by four hours and would now be departing at 1:45am.  Not surprisingly, the cast was very excited to have some free time to hang out and roam around the airport.  After restless hours of riding the train to other terminals, working out on the carpet in front of the gate, and practicing and teaching dances, it was finally time to board the plane and head to Switzerland!

With a quick layover in London, we arrived in Geneva and were greeted with Swiss longhorns echoing in the crisp Alpine air.  This week I was hosted with a family that owns a Bed and Breakfast and I was hosted with nine other cast mates.  After making our way to the Bed and Breakfast by public transportation we settled into our rooms.  The two staff staying with us stayed in a two-person room while all eight students shared a large dorm room.  We knew it was going to be an awesome week together in our first European city.

Although one day was not enough time to adjust to our new environment, we had a show the next day-Wednesday.  Furthermore, not only did we have one show, but we had another show the following night.  As challenging as it was to find our energy, we pulled through and performed two great shows for our first city in Europe.

This was my final week as an intern and it was my responsibility to step in as the dance captain.  I had the chance to make many of the decisions in the show relating to dance, give show notes and make corrections, and lead my final warm-ups for the cast.  For the last six weeks I have led my warm-ups using different musical themes.  For example I led a Disney-themed warm up in Orlando and an American theme in our last US city.  For my final warm-up I went all-out with an 80's theme.  I wore a sweatband, tube socks, and short shorts.  It was a great way to end my internship with a successful and smooth transition into our first European city.

Friday, I had the opportunity to facilitate a workshop on global leadership to university students.  I had such a wonderful time with the students because they were so engaged in conversation and so willing to learn from one another.  It is for this reason that working in classrooms is my favorite Community Impact that we do.

Saturday was a relaxing day that was spent with the second-semester students.  We do not often have time to come together as second-semester students and hang out.  Because this is our second semester, we are learning new things about ourselves and facing new and different challenges than we did during our first semester.  It is always nice to have the chance to come together and talk about how we are growing from the previous semester as well as how we are being challenged.

The eight students living in the Bed and Breakfast decided to go explore Old Town Geneva on our host family day on Sunday.  We spent the morning roaming the streets until we came upon a beautiful cathedral.  We found several different street musicians playing their instruments and we could not pass up the opportunity to dance in the street with them.  We came across a cozy cafe and decided to sit down and have some hot wine which tasted like candy.  I could have drank several cups had it not had alcohol in it.  We continued the day stopping in pastry shops until we came to a park with life-size chess boards, so we decided to stop and play for awhile.  We then continued on our way until we walked into a traveling amusement park in the middle of the city.  We could not pass up the opportunity so we walked through the rides and games while enjoying chocolate crepes.  It was a wonderful afternoon together full of laughter and in good company.

That evening we came home for our final dinner with our host family and had a feast called Raclette, which is a very traditional Swiss meal.  Raclette is a type of cheese that you melt using a hot plate and then you pour the melted cheese over steamed potatoes.  Because it is such a heavy meal with the cheese, it is important to drink some form of alcohol to help settle the food.  Since we lived on a vineyard, we enjoyed delicious sweet wine that came from our own backyard.

We had such an incredible week with Sylvie in her Bed and Breakfast and it was a unique opportunity to live with so many cast mates and we certainly made a lot of special memories together.