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.  

Positive Impact

From Hamilton we made our way to Boston before we continued on to Concord.  We spent the afternoon exploring the city and following the Freedom Trail, which is a walking path that hits all the major historical sites of Boston. 

This week I lived with Paulette and her 16-year-old son Sean in a small city outside of Concord.  Sean is very involved in marching band, so it was a lot of fun to spend time sharing my memories of marching band with him and hearing about his experiences. 

Tuesday and Wednesday some of the cast facilitated anti-bullying workshops in all the middle schools in Concord.  Anti-bullying is a large part of the curriculum for middle school students so we facilitated a 90 minute workshop that allowed the students to reflect on bullying in their school and stand up against it. 

I was so amazed at how well the students responded to the workshop and how much they appreciated our time with them.  One of the most memorable moments was when we were working in an 8^th classroom with students who were not at all interested in hearing yet another presentation on anti-bullying.  The two other facilitators and I were very frustrated with the lack of participation with the students.  However, halfway through the workshop, when we were doing an activity that required the students to take a stance on a particular statement about bullying, something changed in the students and they began listening to one another.  I was blown away at how engaged the students became and how they openingly shared personal experiences with their classmates.  It’s moments like that where I am reminded that I can help make a positive impact in someone’s life.

This week was an extremely exhausting week with four shows in three days.  Thursday and Friday night we had shows in two different locations.

Saturday was host family day and Paulette wanted me to have a relaxing afternoon after having a busy week.  I slept in until 11am which was so great and I spent the afternoon catching up with friends from home as well as organizing my presentations for the next week for my education internship.  After a much needed relaxing afternoon, Paulette, Sean and I went into Boston to have dinner in the North end.  We ate at a delicious authentic Italian restaurant and ended the evening by walking around downtown.

Sunday was the first time that we had two shows in one day.  It was so tiring, yet we all had so much fun performing two shows together.  Because we are getting ready to head to Taiwan, we spent some of our rehearsal time working on our Taiwanese songs for the show.  We will be adding two songs to our show-one is a folk song and the other is a popular boy band song in Mandarin. 

I had a wonderful week with Paulette and Sean.  Paulette told me the first night I met her that her husband had passed away two years ago from cancer and I could see how much he was missed in the family.  The most special memory that I will never forget is when Paulette sat with me and told me about her wonderful husband and all of the fun memories she had with him.  

Setting Sail

From Newburyport we drove to Salem, Massachusetts-famous for the Salem witch trials.  We had about two hours to go exploring around the city on our own.  For some reason, I expected at least some of Salem to look like it did in the 1700's with old wooden houses and open fields.  Much to my disappointment, it looked like a regular modern-day city.  However, we did come across a witch on the street!

After exploring Salem, we headed to Hamilton/Wenham where we had the opportunity to meet General George Patton's daughter-in-law who now lives in Hamilton.  It was so special to hear what life was like for her as a member of a celebrated army family.  She was thrilled that we were in town and she was so grateful for the work that we would be doing throughout the week.  Hamilton/Wenham  was so excited for us to be in town that almost every cast member was housed alone because everyone wanted to host us.  It's such a special feeling to arrive into a town and be so graciously welcomed.  This week I lived with Ian, Carey, and her two children- Ella who is 16 and Cooper who is 14.

Schools have finally begun in Massachusetts and Tuesday was our first time to go into the schools and work with the children.  Instead of our usual community impact projects, this week was spent in the schools.  I worked in an elementary school on Tuesday in a fourth and fifth grade class where we facilitated an activity called personal flags.  The purpose of the activity was to give the class a chance to design a flag that represents them.  At the end of the class, we put all the flags together making one large flag that represents the entire class.  It was so great to spend time in the classroom and interact with the kids.  At the end of the day, some of the kids were having a hard time letting us leave.

Wednesday we performed three 40 minute shows in the morning for the entire middle school and high school.  It was an exhausting morning, but the middle and high schoolers loved our mini show and it was a good way to promote our two full shows at the end of the week.  Later in the afternoon I worked on preparations for Concord next week.  Some of the cast will be facilitating anti-bullying workshops in the Concord schools.

I had the opportunity to work in the high school on Thursday.  With high school students we facilitated an activity that revolved around values.  We had a "values auction" where students try to outbid one another on certain values.  The purpose of the activity was to get the students to commit to their values and to help them realize that if they feel strongly enough about certain values they are worth fighting for.  I was really surprised at how engaged and participative most of the students were when we were working with them.

This week our two shows were in the high school gymnasium.  We built a stage on one end of the gym and set up our usual equipment.  Friday night was a sold out show of 1000+ and the audience was full of energy.  People were standing up and dancing and singing with us through most of the show.  Because our performance was in the gym, it was incredibly hot.  One song in and we were all sweating uncontrollably.  By intermission you could not tell if I was sweating or had just gotten out of the shower and forgot to dry off.  But despite the unbearable heat, the energy from the audience made our shows in Hamilton the most fun performances yet.

Sunday was our host family day so we started off the morning by going on a walk through the woods.  We never had a dull moment together and we always found something to talk about or laugh about.

After our morning walk, we all headed to an apple orchard for some old fashion apple pickin'.  Many other host families had a similar idea, so it was fun to see cast mates and their host families also picking apples.  Ella, Cooper, and I had a great time running up and down the rows of apples trying all the different types.  After tasting eight different apples, we about had our fill of apples for the week.  One of the highlights of the orchard was the apple cider donuts, which basically tasted like heaven fried in oil.  After the orchard we headed back home for a mid afternoon snack.

Ian loves to sail so Carey and Ian took me sailboating in the afternoon.  Sailing has been on the top of my bucket list for many years so I was incredibly excited not only to be on a sailboat, but learn how to sail.  Before we set sail, we stopped in the yacht club to get a nice adult beverage for our sail.  Once we were on board, Ian immediately began teaching me about the parts of the boat.  We started untying tons of ropes that served some purpose for sailing and then we raised the main sail on the mast.  The main sail is the larger sail that is attached to the mast and the boom, the perpendicular pole to the mast and extends the foot of the sail.  We then raised the jib, which is the smaller sail in front of the main sail.

We untied the boat and off we sailed.  We had about a nine mile an hour wind, which helped us sail at a steady pace.  As we began, the wind caught the sails and the boat tilted to about 45 degrees as we moved through the water.  At first, I was a little worried that I was eventually going to be swimming home if the boat did not stop tilting.  However, Ian explained to me that there is a 1000 pound keel on the bottom of the boat that counteracts the sideways movements of the boat.  Ian eventually showed me how to steer the boat with the tiller, which is a long handle connected to the rudder.  

We sailed around the harbor for about an hour and I can assure you I had the largest smile on my face the entire time.  

It was very difficult to say goodbye to Ian, Carey, Ella, and Cooper because I grew very close with the family throughout the week.  The reason Up With People had the opportunity to come to Hamilton/Wenham was because Carey saw a show when she was in school and remembered how much she enjoyed her experience.  She decided to call the Up With People office in Denver three years ago and she has been working ever since to bring us to her community.  We spent every available minute talking, laughing, or just being together.  I am so blessed to have lived with them for the week and they truly made me feel like part of their family.  Staying in different host families has allowed me to think about what kind of family I would like to have someday.  After this week, I know I want to have a family that is as incredible, loving, and as fun as the Nielsen family.