Good to be Back

From Naucalpan, we went to visit the pyramids in Teotihuacan.  Although this was my third time seeing the ancient ruins, I have never lost the thrill of climbing the third largest pyramid in the world and looking out across the open fields imagining what life was like during that point of history.  It was so freeing to feel the wind graze my face as I stood at the top of the pyramid. It was another memorable experience in Teotihuacan. 

This week was a very special week because from Naucalpan, we headed back to Toluca, my favorite city in Mexico.  It is my favorite city because I met the kindest people in Toluca and because I got to stay with my host mom again with whom I I have kept in very close contact. Ever since I found out we would be visiting Toluca again, I have been looking forward to this city the most. My host mom, Jahzeel, is a cousin of one of my cast mates, Miguel, who is from Toluca.  

When we arrived to Toluca, we were greeted by a  potluck party with our host families.  I could barely contain my excitement because I was so eager to see my mom again.  I walked, rather quickly, around the room trying to find her until she jumped out from where she was hiding behind two people.  It was so wonderful to hug her once more.  The last thing I said to her six months ago as we were crying and hugging one final time was that I promised her I would come back to see her again.  I could not have been more blessed to see her so soon.  

That evening Jahzeel took me out for dinner and then we headed back home.  We sat at the table once we arrived home and talked about our lives.  It was like no time had passed between two best friends. 

Tuesday we had a culture fair at a school that many cast mates host siblings attended.  We spent the morning teaching them about where we were from.  In the afternoon we had our BTS, which is a Backing Track Show.  A BTS is a 20-minute mini show with some of the highlight songs and dances from around the world.  We rehearsed for an hour and then performed for the entire student body at the elementary school.  

That evening, I went home with Miguel's family, with whom I am also very close.  Miguel's mother, Martha, and his aunt, Karla, are very special to me like Jahzeel.  He was hosting 8 people at his house and we all got together for a party.  As we were enjoying pizza and tequila, a private mariachi band surprised us and we continued the night dancing and singing with the band.  It was one of those nights I never wanted to end because I was surrounded by so many people that I loved.  

The next day I was signed out for set up to help set up the stage for our show the next day.  The theater was gorgeous and very spacious.  It was one of the biggest auditoriums in which we have performed.  I have a great admiration for all of the students who set up our stage because even after a year of being on stage, I still do not know how to hook up the lights or which cable gets connected where.   

Thursday we had our first show in Toluca in the beautiful theater.  We had a huge audience and it was a phenomenal show.  Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but we stuck together and put on a great show.  At one point during the second song, the sound went out, and without missing a beat, we all continued to perform and sing twice as loud.  We also had someone cut their foot right before he had to sing, so we were all running around backstage taking care of his foot, cleaning up the blood, and helping our vocal instructor change in 30 seconds to go on and sing the song for him.  It's shows like this that are special to me because it reminds me that we work as a family and perform as a team.   

Friday was another BTS at a university in a poorer community outside of Toluca.  After a two hour bus ride, we had very little time to rehearse and prepare, so we had to warm up in the bus.  Our dance intern led the warm up, which was hysterical.  We stretched our legs on the seats in front of us  and stretched our back on the seats behind us.  There was not much else we could do to stretch on a bus other than toe raises or eyebrow raises.   

The BTS was great and the students really loved the mini show.  We took pictures with the students after the show and I do not think my mouth has ever hurt so much from smiling before.   

Once we arrived back to our facility we had a cast meeting. We began our cast meeting by playing a giant game of musical chairs, which was a blast.  I should have guessed that playing musical chairs with people my age who make the game way more intense, but it was a blast.  In our cast meeting we talked about the stages of loss.  As our semester comes to an end, there are a lot of emotions that are felt and expressed.  There are five stages-denial, depression, anger, bargaining, and acceptance.  Personally, I have been jumping between acceptance and bargaining.  I am so excited for the next chapter in my life and moving on to something new, but I have been bargaining with that excitement and not allowing myself to experience the pain of not seeing this family every day or not being with the people I have traveled the world with for the last year if my life.   

Friday night my host mom took us out to a club with Miguel and I and his roommates.  We also saw many other cast mates at the club.  It was a fun night of being able to step away from the UWP life and let loose.  

Saturday was a special show in the public plaza in downtown Toluca.  It was an outdoor show, so our massive stage was constructed at one end of the plaza with tents behind it for us to use.  It started raining as we were finishing rehearsals, but that did not stop us from putting on an awesome show for 5000 people watching.   

Sunday was host family day and Jahzeel took me to the town where her parents live.  They own a beautiful hotel in a very touristy area.  After spending some time with them, we went to Miguel's summer home which is also in the same town.  We spent the afternoon swimming in the pool, eating and drinking, laughing, riding horses, getting massages, and just enjoying such wonderful company.  It was another one of those perfect days that I will never forget.  As we were  getting ready to leave, we all sat on the wall that overlooks the golf course, we sat next to one another with our arms around each other.  We could not believe how lucky we were to share such a beautiful memory together.  

It truly was a perfect week and I felt like I had come back home because my Toluca family is so dear to my heart.  It was even harder to leave a second time, but I promised Jahzeel and Miguel's family that it would not be long again before I would be back to see them.  

Viva Mexico

Our cast's over-night ended at 3 am as we loaded the busses and headed to Frankfurt, Germany for our flight to Mexico.  After a long 14-hour flight, we landed in Mexico City in the late evening.  We took a bus to our first city, Naucalpan, which is a suburb of Mexico City.  I lived in Naucalpan last semester with one of my cast mates families, Dany, and I was fortunate to have the opportunity to stay with his family again.  It was a houseful for the week with Sean from Orlando, Raymundo from Mexico, Abby from Colorado, Julia from Germany, Georgie from Minnesota, Dany, and myself.  It was really great because all of us have been traveling together for the past year, so it was a special week to talk about all our memories together.

After a quick night of sleep, we had the opportunity to facilitate workshops in schools on Tuesday.  It was a challenge fighting the jet lag on our first day in a new country, but we made the most of it and had fun interacting with the students.

Wednesday was a full cast set up in the morning at the school where we facilitated workshops.  In the afternoon, we had the Hunger Banquet, which we did last semester in Taiwan.  During the Hunger Banquet, we were all divided into three groups that reflect the distribution of wealth around the world.  The few who were the wealthiest, sat at a beautiful table and were served salad, fruit, chicken, and vegetables.  Those who were middle class, like myself, sat in chairs and had to eat rice out of cups.  Those representing the poorest class, sat in trash on the floor and had to eat rice with their hands and drink dirty water.  The food that we were not able to finish was thrown out right in front of us.  We had to watch the staff dump buckets of rice in the trash and throw all the delicious food that the wealthiest class did not eat.  It was another eye-opening experience which really made me reflect on how blessed I am each day to go to bed with a full stomach.

Thursday was a full cast load-in meaning that the entire cast helped set up our stage for our two shows the following day.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in rehearsal and preparing our Mexican medley.

While we still continued to fight the jet lag, on Friday, we had two shows.  The first show was for all of the students at the school that we had done workshops with and the audience was full of screaming girls.  We end our show with a famous UWP song called, "De que Color es la Piel de Dios," which means "What Color is God's Skin."  As we finished our first show, it was so touching to hear every child in the audience singing the song with us.  I got chills as I heard the children sing, "What color is God's skin?  What color is God's skin?  I said it's black, brown, it's yellow, it is red, it is white.  Everyone's the same in the good Lord's sight."

Saturday was our host family day.  Dany's brother, Armando, who is also our Mexican tour manager, took us all around Mexico City to see the historical sites.  We began the morning by visiting Chapultepec Castle, which overlooks the entire city from a large hill.  Armando did a wonderful job explaining the rich history that has given Mexico its beautiful culture.  After visiting the castle we walked to El Reforma, which is a very famous avenue with many historical monuments.  After exploring the city and having a drink in a cafe, we headed home to have a big dinner full of lots of laughs.

Sunday was another double show day.  By our fourth show, the cast was extremely exhausted and rundown.  During the last show, people were dropping like flies and getting sick.  Having multiple people getting sick during a show creates a lot of excitement and chaos backstage because we are all scrambling to fill soloist and dance spots.  Somehow, we all managed to pull off four successful shows despite the jet lag, exhaustion, and new country transition.

Goodbye Europe

Monday morning was a sad goodbye leaving such a special family.  The thirty 2nd semester students all got on one bus for a three-day trip together.  We headed to the south part of Belgium to a summer home of one of our cast mates' grandparents.  When we arrived, it was like we pulled up to a mansion.  The spacious backyard had beautiful paths that took you on a walk through blooming flowers and lush trees.  Before we began any activities, we all raced into the house to claim our bedrooms.

Once we were settled in, we began rehearsing for expression session that was coming up.  All the second-semesters decided we would show the first semester what our Mexican medley looked like since we have a completely new medley this semester.  Before we began our rehearsals, we sang through all of our old medleys from Taiwan and the Philippines.  It was fun to reminisce about our experiences last semester.  We also had a blast singing and dancing along to our Mexican medley.

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying each others' company until some of us began preparing dinner and some built the fire pit for a bonfire.  We had a wonderful family dinner together and then headed outside to sit around the fire.  We sat around the fire and shared our favorite and most memorable moments together.  Many tears where shed thinking about how far we had come and all the memories that we have been privileged to share together.

The next morning we woke up early to head out to do community service/regional learning together.  Our community impact was walking along the beautiful trails through the forest and checking the signs to make sure they were clear and easy for hikers to follow.  It was more of a relaxing hike with friends. We divided into groups and then hit the trails.  The morning was filled with great conversation and endless beauty.  We came across fields of cows and decided to take a break to play with them.

In the afternoon we visited underground caves that reminded us all of the caves we visited together in The Philippines.  The caves were beautiful and so peaceful.  We came to a huge opening in the caves and we decided to take a break.  We all stood together and sang one of the acapella songs from our show called "Let the Music Play."  We all had chills as we heard our voices ringing together throughout the caves.  It was one of those moments where I had to stop myself and appreciate the moment and the experience I was having with my family.

That night, we hung out for hours laughing, playing games, and talking.  It was one of those nights that I never wanted to end because it was so perfect.

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed to our final activity together before joining the rest of the cast.  We went to an adrenaline park, which was full of rock walls, long and high ropes courses, and team bonding activities.  We divided into two groups and spent the morning climbing across large gorges on tiny wires.  After lunch, our group completed two team-building activities.  Our first task was to get our entire team onto a small platform using only a swinging rope.  We completed the task with ease.  We then moved on to the second task, which was to have our entire team cross a tiny and very long wire that was hooked to many trees.  It took our team several attempts, but once we figured out a plan, we completed the task together.  Before we left, we all had the chance to zip line from the top of the cliff to the bottom.  I felt free as I flew over the tree tops and listened to the sound of my family below cheering me on.  It was the perfect way to close out a year of memories with such dear and treasured friends.

Thursday was an incredible Regional Learning day where we got to spend the entire day at the Belgian Special Olympics being fans and cheering on the participants.  It was so amazing to see the sportsmanship of the competitors.  I watched the competitors accidentally knock each other down and without missing a beat, one competitor would reach out his hand to help his competition off the ground.  Our world would be a different place if  we all extended our hand to whomever needed our help.  It was a truly blessed day.

In the evening, we had our expression session which was full of talent and laughter.  All of the second semester students had a blast performing our Mexican medley one more time.  I also helped Blair, from Canada, with some lifts in her lyrical dance.  It was fun to see all the creative talents of my cast mates.

Friday was a very special day because one of my closest friends from college, Desirae, came to Tielt, Belgium to see me and what I have been doing with the last year of my life.  Desirae spent the day meeting all of my friends and watching our rehearsal in the afternoon.  That night, she got to experience her first Up with People show.  Additionally, my host family from the previous week came to see me again and I got to introduce Desirae to my Belgian family.

Saturday was also another great show.

On host family day, Desirae and I took a train to Brugge to explore the city.  Brugge is one of my favorite cities in Belgium because of its beauty.  The city sits within a series of canals where you can take gondola tours to see the historic city.  We had a blast walking around the city visiting cathedrals, eating fries in the plaza, and enjoying Belgian beer.

That evening I had to quickly pack because we had a cast overnight since we had a 6 hour bus ride to Frankfurt, Germany for our non-stop flight to Mexico.  Having Desirae with me for a few days was the best way to close out such a memorable time Europe.