A Very Happy Birthday

Monday morning we began our travels to St, Peters-liew, which is a suburb of Brussels.  We when arrived into the city we had internal time where we planned our expression session, which is a chance for anyone in the cast to express themselves through song, dance, poetry, or whatever they choose.  We also had an education workshop where we picked five people in the cast that we wanted to appreciate and we got to tell them why we appreciate them. It was very heartwarming to hear the kind things people said to me.  Their kind words brought me to tears.

For the week I was hosted with Pedro again, from Cuba.  We lived with Sandra and Ivan and we had two younger host brothers Maarten, 15, and Nathan 10.

Tuesday we a had Community Impact day and I had the opportunity to go to an alternative school and help paint and clean the building. It was a very large building, so we only finished half the building on the first day.

Tuesday night we hung out with our family and laughed for hours in the living room.  Pedro is a phenomenal singer and we spent the evening listening to him sing and play the piano.  At one point, Pedro sang Piano Man in Spanish while I sang it in English for our host family. It was such a great evening.

Wednesday was my birthday and a show day.  When I woke up and came downstairs my family had all sorts of pastries for me and had candles on the table in the shape of my age, 24. They also had a very kind card waiting for me on my plate.  It was such a special way to start a very blessed day.

When I arrived to the show facility, I was immediately greeted with many birthday wishes. During our morning meeting, my closest friends put a skit together of things that I love.  Four girls began by singing a chorus of my favorite song, I Wanna Dance with Somebody.  Then, some of my friends impersonated me and went on about how much I love to plan things whenever we have a free second.  After the impersonation, the girls sang the same song again, but they changed the key on the song.  The quickest way to out a smile on my face is to listen to a key change.  My friends then continued with more skits about my love for water features and body rolls. Between each skit, the girls sang another chorus of the song in a new key.  Once they were done, people in the cast stood up and told me why they appreciate me, which again, brought me to tears.  Then, Brekken presented me with a large bag of donuts, my weakness.  I had never felt so loved and I could not have been more grateful to have spent my birthday with 120 of my closest friends.

During lunch, my host family came to surprise me with cakes that they had made for me and the entire cast.  There was a beautiful pond behind our show facility so, for lunch, I went with my friends to enjoy the beauty of the pond and wonderful company.

After a great show, my host family had birthday balloons and a huge bag of candy to give me. We then went out for a beer to celebrate such a perfect day.  I have never had a more perfect and blessed birthday.

Thursday I returned to the school for another CI day. We finished the other half of the building and it looked like a new school.

In the afternoon we had internal time with an education workshop.  Seven days prior to the workshop, eight students were chosen to live their life as if it was their last week. They were given challenges and things to think during the week that would help them live their life to the fullest. During the workshop the eight students got to give a last lecture and share with us how they changed during their week. It was so incredible to hear what my cast mates had to share with us.  They truly lived their life for the week. The one thing that stuck with me from the last lectures was what Simone from Denmark learned.  She shared with us how important it is to forgive ourselves. Like her, I am quick to forgive others, but I have never thought twice about being able to forgive myself.  It was such an eye opening workshop and I was so thankful I had the chance to hear their lessons.

Thursday night Pedro and I went with our host brothers to the swimming pool.  Both our host brothers competitively swim.  Maarten is the fifth best swimmer in Belgium for his age.
Friday was a regional learning day where we got to visit a brewery.  In Up with People, we are not allowed to consume alcohol during operational hours, which is any time that we are together.  However, as part of the Belgian culture, we were allowed to have beer during the day.  We first spent the morning visiting a castle. I had never seen a more perfectly preserved castle. I felt like I was walking into the set of a movie. It was this picturesque castle with gorgeous lakes surrounding it. Behind the lakes was this forest where the golden beams from the sun illuminated a blanket of purple flowers.  I could not believe what I was seeing. I was with three friends and we had to sit down and just take in this unbelievable experience we were having.  It will almost be one of my favorite memories from the semester.

After lunch and a beer, we headed to the brewery for a tour. We got to see where and how the beer is made. We then got to have a beer tasting where we tried every kind of beer they made.  I never wanted to leave.

After our beer tasting, we headed back to our facility for some old fashioned Home-team Olympics.  We competed against the other home teams in friendly competitions. We had to make a dress out of toilet paper in two minutes, we passed an orange around our group using only our necks, and we had a wheelbarrow race in the sand. My favorite challenge was the epic sock battle. Each home team sent ten players into the ring and the point of the game was to take the socks off of the other home teams.  Little did we know that this challenge would turn into a Hunger Games war.  It was like we all became savages.  All I can remember from the game is making eye contact with a cast mate from another home team. All of the sudden, like wild dogs, three of them came my way and attacked.  I fought to keep my socks on for ten minutes in a 3-1 battle.  I fought for as long as I could until I had no more strength left and I had to let go of my sock.  I cannot describe how much fun we all had watching and participating in the epic sock war.

Our home team did not win, but we sure had an awesome time with lots of great memories to share.
Saturday was another show day.

On host family day mom and dad took us to Brussels to explore.  We took a bus tour of the city in the morning and then walked around the city.  We stopped in the national cathedral and walked downtown to see mannequin-pis, the famous statue of the little boy peeing.  After lunch, we met up with the boys and we all went to mini Europe, which is a fun park that has miniature sculptures of famous buildings and structures in Europe.  We then went to the Atomium, which is where the Worlds Fair was once held.

After an eventful day, we returned home for a delicious dinner and laughed all evening.  Sandra, Ivan, Maarten, and Nathan have a very special place in my heart and I know I will return to see them again.  They made my week so very special and blessed.  I always ask myself how I get to be so lucky to meet such wonderful and loving people.

Back to Europe

Monday morning began with goodbyes as we all made our way back to the airport to head to Belgium.  We were delayed because of the cold weather and ice on the wings of the plane. We were quite worried about missing our connecting flight since we only had 45 minutes. While we were stressing, we met the kindest flight attendant who laughed and talked with us the entire flight. When we landed she held the passengers on the plane to allow us to run to our next flight to Madrid. Even with her help, we missed our flight.  We were rerouted on a later flight through London and then on to Brussels.

There are several aspects of UWP that I find carry into my everyday life. For example, there is an UWP syndrome that I like to call "follow the leader."  We often find ourselves following whoever is in the front of the group. More often than not, the person in the front has no clue where we are going, yet we still follow them like a heard of wandering sheep.  As we walked off the plane, we just began walking and following the crowd, like we so often do.  However, this crowd took us to customs and border patrol. Once we arrived to the line of customs, we still continued following the crowd and waited in line until it was my turn to speak with the patrol officer. When I realized I did not have any customs forms and that I was not entering into London, we had to laugh at ourselves and find our way back to connecting flights. After a long and entertaining travel day, we finally arrived in Brussels where we then took a train to meet our host families for the week.

I was roomed with Daniel, from Mexico, and we had three young host siblings.  One of the best parts of staying with my host family was that they grew their own organic food and best of all, they had a peacock!  

After a restful night, I arrived Wednesday morning for a Community Impact day.  I spent the morning at an organization that helps poorer families find a way to sustain themselves.  With some of the families, I learned some Belgian country dances.  It was a fun morning of interacting with the families and sharing our cultures with one another.

In the afternoon, some of us went to a music school to interact with the children.  After singing with them, we all went on a long walk together around a beautiful lake in the forest.  

Thursday was an internal day with the cast.  Larissa and I spent time with Ken, our Associate Producer and Choreographer, learning the movement to some of the music in our Mexican medley while we were back in Denver.  For part of the day, Larissa and I helped teach the movement to the cast to help us get ready for our transition to Mexico in a couple weeks.  

Friday was our first show in Mol, Belgium.  It was a special night because I had dear friends come to the show, Tineke, Mark, Jolien, and Lander.  Three years ago, I backpacked through Europe and stayed for a week with family friends in Belgium.  I have kept in touch with them over the past few years and they came to the show in Mol.  It was so great to see them again and after the show, I went home to spend a few days with them.  

Saturday was a host family day so, after sleeping in for a few hours, Lander and I biked with his mom, Tineke, to the market to get some groceries.  After going to the market, Lander and I biked from his house 45 minutes to spend the afternoon exploring Antwerp.  Lander and I had a blast walking around the city looking at all the historic sites and beautiful buildings.  For lunch, Lander and I had Belgian fries, which were delicious.  After lunch, we walked down the big shopping street looking at all the shops.  

When we arrived home, we had a big dinner with some good Belgian beer.  Once we were done eating, we just sat on the couch and talked for hours.  I felt like I was right at home with family.  It was so special to get to stay with them again, even if it was for such a short time.  I look forward to the next visit with them in the future.  

Sunday morning, Tineke, Mark, and Lander took me back to our show facility for another show.  It was tough to say goodbye, but it won't be long before I see them again.  

Back to the U.S.

On Monday, I had an extremely long travel day back to the United States.  I was given a special opportunity that required me to fly to America for the week and then fly back to Belgium.  Along with three other students; Brekken from Wyoming, Larissa from New Hampshire and, Beyah from Arizona, we were sent to Denver to perform at the 2nd Annual Up with People Gala, which is a huge fundraiser for the Global Scholarship fund.  Monday morning we began our travel to the United States via London.  As we were five minutes from landing in Denver, I noticed it still looked like we were in the clouds.  Even as the clock said we were landing, I was confused because I could not see the ground.  All of the sudden, I felt a bump and then heard the pilot say "Welcome to Denver."  It was then that I realized we had landed in a horrible blizzard where I could not even see the ground from the landed plane.  What a great way to be welcomed back into the States.

I had known that I would be flying to Denver for four weeks and I did not tell my parents about it because they would be coming to the Gala and I wanted to surprise them.  I stayed with my host family from staging last semester, Bruce and Linda Erley, who are very dear family friends.  It was so nice to be back in their home again after so long.

For the first time in four months, I had the chance to sleep in until noon.  Unfortunately, my body decided to wake up every few hours starting at 3am.  Once I was up for the day, we headed to the Up with People office.  After multiple hugs and hellos, we began rehearsing and preparing for the gala.  Beyah, Larissa, and I dance in the show so, we worked with Ken, our Associate Producer and Choreographer on some of the dances we would be doing for the gala performance.  We spent all afternoon rehearsing until the evening when everyone else arrived for rehearsal.  The four of us were brought home to be part of a larger cast made up of UWP alumni from around the Denver area.  All 20 of us spent the first night learning the vocals to all the songs we would be singing.  The four of us knew most of the music since a lot of it was from our current show.  However, we also had the chance to learn some new songs too.

Wednesday, after another restless night, we headed into the office after lunch to start loading the truck with the equipment for the show.  Even after traveling for eight months, I have only been signed out to help with setting up or striking the equipment once during these eight months.  That meant I still had no idea what to do with any of our equipment.  Luckily, Jeramy, our Technical Operations Manager, took the time to help teach me about our equipment and how to load our truck in the most efficient way.  I had a blast working with the equipment and getting it ready to unload a few days later at our show facility.  That evening, we met with the rest of the cast to work on cast movement and continue working on perfecting details with some of the dances we would be doing.

Thursday morning, I woke up and spent the morning making a snowman with Linda, my host mom.  I had not made a snowman since I was a little boy, and Linda and I had a blast rolling balls of snow and walking through the yard to find the perfect sticks and rocks to make the eyes and hands.  After lunch we headed to the office to begin another day of preparations.  Thursday was the day of the big surprise when my parents arrived to Denver.  They were scheduled to arrive at the UWP office for a meeting at 2pm.  I sat at the reception desk in my newly purchased Austrian hat with my head down pretending to be working.  As they walked into the office, I popped my head up and said in an enthusiastic voice, "Good afternoon, welcome to the Up with People office.  How may I help you?"  The only thing I remember is the high pitched shrill from my mother right before she burst into tears.  It was the perfect surprise and my parents where thrilled because my brother and I would have the opportunity to perform on the same stage together at the gala.  We spend the rest of the afternoon preparing the specialty costumes that everyone would wear for the show.

After dinner, we had a stop and go run-through of the show.  Even after only two rehearsals, the show was coming together quickly.

Friday morning, we began loading the rest of the equipment into the truck and after lunch we headed to the Denver Marriott to unload.  Once the equipment was unloaded, we began setting up the stage.  In all my time as a student, I had never set up our stage and I guess it is never too late to learn how it all works.  It is always magnificent to see the magic of the stage, lights, band, and curtains come together to create a the scene of a rock concert.

Saturday morning began at 8am to finish setting up the stage.  In the middle of the morning, Kirsten, my best friend growing up, arrived to watch me perform at the gala.  We got to spend some time in the morning catching up and hanging out.  However, like every other show day, come 1 o'clock, we began our rehearsal.

Once we finished rehearsal, it was time to get ready for the show.  Before the show started, I had the chance to see many dear family friends who traveled with my parents.  I also had the opportunity to speak with J. Blanton Belk and his wife Betty who is the founder of Up with People.

The energy during the show was like nothing I had experienced yet during my travels in UWP.  There is something special about performing for alumni that just takes the energy to an unparalleled level.  After the entertainment portion of the gala, we had the chance to sit and listen to the speaker, Eugene Cernan, who was the last astronaut to walk on the moon.  Captain Cernan and Blanton Belk are very good friends and it was so incredible to listen to the two reminisce about their passion for UWP.  One thing that really stuck with me from Captain Cernan was what he said about dreamers.  He said, "The dreamers of today can become the doers of tomorrow."  It was an out of body experience to listen to a man who has seen the world from such a distance where visible borders no longer exist talking about hope for the future.  We ended the show with one final song called "Moon Rider," which was written about Captain Cernan's experiences in space and how he saw the "world without and borders."  I was so grateful I had the opportunity to have such a treasured experience with performing for our founder Mr. Belk, Captain Cernan, and sharing the stage with my brother, who played the drums.

Sunday we spent the day at the mall stocking up on more toiletries and clothes to take back with me to Europe.  It was a very relaxing day hanging out with Kirsten and my family.  I was very thankful for having the chance to enjoy time with family and friends.  It was a very special and memorable week.