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.

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.