Up With Zeljka

 31.07.2007., utorak

Practice day

 30.07.2007., ponedjeljak

“The Show“ week

 29.07.2007., nedjelja

Active and relaxing Sunday

When I woke up around 8, first I went to check my emails and than eat breakfast as soon as possible so I can get ready for Rocky mountain hiking. I was sooo excited about it. Tina from Sweden and I went hiking with Brian and Diane and Faith went to church with her friend. We went hiking from Boulder, which is city just underneath the Rocky Mountain. It was really hot as most of the tracks don’t have any shadow but it was amazing. I love Colorado weather as it is hot but not humid at all. All the way where we were hiking was the smell of pine trees. It remained me a lot of Dalmatian camping places as the smell are almost the same and it’s not humid and it’s hot. We didn’t hike all the way to the top as it would take us more than 2 hours and we didn’t have so much time so we hiked to sightseeing place from where you can see city of Boulder very well and if it wouldn’t be so much moisture in air, probably we would see also Denver. When we finished hiking, we went to visit Boulder Creek which is popular place for summer Sunday picnic. There is river and children play in that river. In the afternoon we went to barbeque to one of the host-families in neighborhood. Kathy and Lucas live with them and they invited us. Also, Scott from US and Raine from Canada came and we had some great fun jumping in trampoline. After that, we played game Mexican railways and it was super fun. Here you can see all other pictures from Sunday hiking.

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 28.07.2007., subota

Saturday full of excitement

When we arrived today at our morning meeting, there were strange things happening. First, we were all sitting in the circle which was great as everyone could see everyone. Second, Andrew, staff member, played heart-beat sound and than he announced winners of admission cards – Justin and Jalee. After morning meeting we had lectures about admissions as we are going to be part of admissions during our tour. We will be interviewing new candidates and we are already working hard in promoting our show and inviting young people to join in Up with People. After that we had debriefing about Thailand so that at least we can see what it is going to be like in Thailand. So, it is really hard to get to Thailand from US. We will be traveling all together around 35 hours. But, that’s also new experience which will bring us even more closer as we will be spending sooo much time together. Around 12, we had a bus which took us for our new Community service. This time we helped Leaders Challenge in their project. Leader’s Challenge is a non-profit youth program providing leadership training to high school students. They were planning community work and Up with People were happy to join them. So, we were all split up in different teams with Leaders Challenge students and every each group had their own project to work on. I was in group who went to visit CHARG Resource Center. CHARG is an innovative community that serves adults who suffer from major mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar illness. We helped with gardening and cleaning the house. Community is situated in small house with nice garden. Margie, the lady who is program director, was also working with us and she was really nice in explaining us everything and sharing hers experience with us. I liked working with CHARG and Leaders Challenge very much.

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 27.07.2007., petak

First raining day

So, today is exactly 20 days since I left my home. I have to admit, I miss some of my stuff at home and I miss walking some streets in Varazdin. Today in the morning we had some lectures. First, Rob Sloat was talking us about World Campus program which is international program in Japan and I’m planning to apply for next year. After Rob, we had a guest speaker Bruce, who is father of one of the participants in cast B. He was telling us how to deal with popularity and media and how to act as Up with People participant during the tour. He was really entertaining. After lunch, we had some performing arts classes. When we finished our day and we wanted to go home, thunder started and it was impossible to go anywhere. Lightings were really strong and streets were full of water. I have never seen such rain and if I remember well, in yesterday’s post I wrote something about raining and how is not raining at all here… yeah… until today. Traffic was crazy and also our bus was late.

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 26.07.2007., četvrtak

Regional learning – Boulder

After the morning meeting we went to Boulder to have some regional learning. When we reached Boulder, we received our assignments for skeleton hunt. If I remember well, we had around 15 questions which we had to fill. We were split in teams of 6 persons with at least 3 different nations. So, I was with Maria from Sweden, Faith from USA, Shannon from USA, Netta from USA, Manuel from Mexico and Wouter from the Nederland. First we went to Boulder campus as we had to find some answers connected to University and also we had to find one professor and take photo with professor. It was fun to go around campus. I like American way of studying. Campus is pretty big and you can find whatever you need. Students really live they real student life. I also saw some of the fraternity houses and this was the first time for me to see that such things really exist. After campus, where we luckily received most of our answers, we went to Boulder downtown to search for some more answers. We had to visit hotel Bouldorado to get answer why is it called that way and the reason is that they wanted for people to remember where they were so they named hotel as for Boulder, Colorado. There are some really interested fact I would like to tell you more about Boulder, but we had to hand our paper to tour guide so he can check answers for all groups and he can announce winners. After skeleton hunt, we went to visit tee factory called Celestial Seasonings which is the most famous tea factory in USA. Before going to tour, we had a chance to taste for free different kind of tea flavors and I liked the most African Orange Roiboos tea. I was even part of the actual survey for producing new flavor for next Valentine’s Day. They want to make some chocolate tea and I was able to taste both flavors and than decide which one is better. It was ok, but I prefer green tea rather than any other. When was the time for the tour, first we saw short movie how do they produce tea and than we went to see one part of the factory – packaging. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside of the factory and we had to wear hear nets. We saw big boxes of tea which are waiting to be packed in little tea bags. They put separately normal herbal tea and basic ingredient in most of the tea is hibiscus tea. In separate room they keep black tea and white tea because they would take the flavor and smell from hibiscus tea. In other room they keep peppermint tea as all other flavors would take peppermint flavor as it is really strong. We went inside of that room and some of the people were not able to stand there more than few seconds as peppermint made tears to come to their eyes. I and some more of the people were enjoying the smell of peppermint and we could stay there like forever. Our tour guide said that we are mint junkies. Yeah, I’m a mint junky. Guido from Italy and me After the tour, we had a chance to buy some stuff in gift show which is really huge and has so many nice things – especially cups for the tea and tea flavors. Different flavors of tea Diane come to pick us up and we went home to make dinner as we had special guest at home. One of our dance teachers comes to visit us. Diane and Brian were her host-parents year ago when she was participant in Up with People.

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 25.07.2007., srijeda

Performing arts day

 24.07.2007., utorak

Practice day

 23.07.2007., ponedjeljak

Photos/guest speaker day

Today we didn’t have any kind of dancing or singing practice. First we had “Cultural shock” lessons. It was interesting to hear how to recognize cultural shock and how to handle when it happens to us. We talked about different stages of cultural shock and we got really interesting assignment to brainstorm on and it was really interesting. Different cultural stages are: 1. Honeymoon, 2. Crisis, 3. Adjustment 4. Adaptation When we discussed about that, we had to put a little dot on U-diagram so we could all express ourselves where we are at the moment. So, I put my dot somewhere between adjustment and adaptation as this it how I really feel at the moment. I had my honeymoon stage at the beginning. I didn’t feel crises as I’m kind of used to rough schedule and I kind of get to know American way of life through TV shows so there were no major surprises for me. I kind of know what to expect. After cultural shock lessons we had photo shooting and some of us were wearing international costumes which was great as we were different than others. From left to right presenting countries: South Korea, China, Cambodia, Croatia, Japan, Hawai After lunch we had guest speaker, Mark Gerzon, one of the greatest people who helps leaders and other organizations learn skills that are critical for dealing with conflict and leading across difficult social divides. We were discussing about different subjects, but I think that ignorance interested people the most as many people don’t know everything about every each country presented here with Up with People. What we learned is that we are in great position to learn so much from our cast members about their country and culture from the first hand and that is what makes Up with People really great program to become global leader. Here you can find more photos from my 3rd week.

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 22.07.2007., nedjelja

Rafting trip day

Today we woke up around 4.45 so we could get in time to place where we went rafting. Tina and Faith were sleeping in car during our drive and you know me… I love rising of the sun so I was super excited and I was looking surroundings. We were driving towards mountains and we were driving in the mountains. We even visited South Park. It’s small village and creators of TV show “South Park” come from that South Park village, at least that’s what people say. When we reached place where we went rafting, first we had to check in, than take our life-gourd belt and than start preparing for the rafting. School bus (yellow school bus you can always see at the movies) took us to the river and our little river adventure could start. There were 8 of us in the boat and first part of the river was easy and calm. Nature was beautiful. I’m soooo sorry I didn’t have my photo-camera with me, but I can still remember the beauty of the canyon where we were rafting. We had few huge rafts, but we survived. Adrenaline was and still is in my blood and I enjoy it. River water was pretty cold and we were lucky not to fall into the water. Day was sunny and hot. We also had few boat fights which mean that we were all wet after fights. Our guide Katie A. was great. She told us some great stories about canyon and river and she was great guide leading us to rafts. When we came to our destination, school bus was waiting for us and when we were prepared to go, bus took us to rafting center. During bus drive, our guides were telling us jokes and stories and we got small snacks. It was great. After rafting, Diane and Brian took us to some restaurant close to rafting center and we ate Mexican food as it was Mexican restaurant. Here you can see all photos from Rafting trip.

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 21.07.2007., subota

Working Saturday

 20.07.2007., petak

Community impact day

Today was our first community impact (CI) day. So, what were we doing?? We helped a lot and I feel amazing. At 8.30 we were leaving Denver to hit the mountains as there was our first CI. While we were driving we witnessed some areas which were burned from the fire and there were no healthy trees at all. It was sad to see those kinds of pictures. When we came close to the place where we were supposed to work, we were split in 2 groups, one which worked at lower area and the other one which went more up to the hill. I was in first group so I had to leave bus earlier and we were again split in 3 groups. Every group had their own ranger in chare of everything. Other 2 groups went away in the mountains and my group stayed around parking spot and we were mostly doing landscaping and building wooden kind of sticks which would prevent people to park their cars to that area. The other groups were doing really great job which was building trails for hiking and also to prevent flooding. After we finished our community service, we were ready to hit the road to go home, but we’ve received new surprise. Rangers decided to take us to ice-cream. They were all so nice. I talked with Julie, our ranger, about the fire and about the mountains and she was really patient in explaining everything to us. I’m tired and I got sunburned so I’m just going to say that it was great pleasure to work in mountains today. As I have classes tomorrow (I know, it’s Saturday but we have show in 2 weeks and we have to work on that show really hard). I bought external hard drive today also as I have no more free space on my laptop. I cannot believe than in less than 2 weeks I managed to use more than 7GB of my laptop memory on pictures and videos. That’s why I bought 500GB one and I hope it’s going to be enough till the end of the tour. Here are some more photos from Community impact day.

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 19.07.2007., četvrtak

What a day

 18.07.2007., srijeda

Welcoming leaders from business and politics day

Today we had “Leaders round table” session. After the morning meeting we went to ballroom and we sited around the table and 8 great leaders came to talk to us. We had 10-12 minutes of conversation with every leader who came and it was really great. I noted so many of inspiring and useful information from leaders who came to visit us. There was one sentence from Douglas Jackson that really made me think more about what I want to be and who I want to become. I’ll quote Mr. Jackson: ”Any time you get involved in leading a group of people who don’t have to be there, its powerful thing how do you motivate people who you can’t pay and can’t fire. If you can answer that question you’ve found the crux of what it means to be a leader.” Wow…I’m still impressed of power of that sentence and how deeply it touched me and made me think. Please, read that sentence one more time and close your eyes and picture who you want to be. After Leadership session, we had introduction to community impact in which we will be involved this Friday. Wow, my first communities work with UWP. I’m really looking forward to it. First we talked about previous volunteering experiences and there were really amazing stories from my cast mates about their previous experience. What an amazing people I will be traveling with. After that, we received brief information how our community will look like. So, in Friday we are going to build trails in mountains near Colorado Springs. More about that in Friday. After lunch, we had dancing lesions and today we learned how to step. That’s hard dance to learn and I had some big problems with it so I really need to put more effort in learning how to step but it was really fun, especially when we started to make choreography. After dancing lessons we had a game to play called Barnga. The rules were really simple. There were 9 tables for exact number of people and you had to choose one to sit and you have 5 minutes to read rules and discuss with others about it. After that, you are not allowed to speak; you have to find way how to communicate with others without speaking. We were playing cards. Every winner and loser of table has to move and sit to some other table and so we started. First round was easy as we all know the rules. When we started to move from one table to another, problems started, especially with communication and we spent more time in explaining rules of plays than in playing. Some people took it very seriously. I kind of got an impression that every table has different rules so I tried to be flexible as much as possible and I enjoyed playing cards. It was fun. After the game, we had brief discussion what happened during game and than we finally find out that every table had different rules and it was kind of simulation what will happen when we start traveling. We will have to be as flexible as possible in many different situations and we will have to follow new rules. Or, how did my roommate Faith explained (I’ll try to quote her): “Our first table is our home and it’s always nice to travel the world and get to know new things, but it always nice to came back home, and you will for sure eventually come back home (to your first table) and there may be some changes and you have to see those changes and again try to adopt to them even if you are at home.” That’s what she said, maybe I have added more lines, but that’s the way I also feel. So…this is how I spent my day. For dinner, Diane made some Mexican food and it was really tasty. We had some guests during evening and it was girl who was also involved in Up with People and she was also host-kid in Diana’s and Brian’s house. She moved to Denver and now they are really close friends and they spend at one evening during the week together. I love how life can be unpredictable.

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 17.07.2007., utorak

„Who do we(cast C) want to be?”

From now on, we are cast C and that is how our day also started. We were set up in auditorium and cast B was set up in some other room for the morning meeting and that is how it’s going to be from now on. So, we had our morning meeting and lectures about expectations only with our cast members. It was fun and inspiring to hear what Up with People expects from us and how we are all going to act to make things easier to each other and also to help each other and make a good team. “We are Cast C!!!! “ We made our list of characteristics how do members of cast C wants to be during our journey: After lessons, we had vocal lessons and it was fun to sing especially as I’m feeling that my throat is much better and I’m able to sing. After lunch we had movement part and we were practicing dances which we have danced previous few days. Somewhere in the middle of the show, I was invited to join MC meeting which stands for microphone communicator which means to be in charge of speaking part of the show as opening the show, introducing new songs and dances etc. and closing the show. So, few of us were practicing how to speak openly with our own character in front of the public. It was fun as we got a feedback from others and we are able to improve our public communication skills. When we came back, our mates were still dancing so we came and join them. After dancing we had vocals again and we finally learned “Up with People” song which was so exciting as the whole cast was really looking forward in learning that song. After vocals, we had final meeting. When Faith and I come home, we had dinner with our host family and we waited Tina to come so we can share our family pictures. First it was me showing pictures of my small but loving family (dad, sister and her husband, grandpa) and some pictures of my friends. Faith show us also photos from hers family and photos from her graduation day. It was sooo fun. Brian and Diana were really excited to see our family photos and we were really happy to share our family photos with them.

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 16.07.2007., ponedjeljak

"Which cast I am going to be?"

“Which cast I am going to be?” was a question which most people talked around today. So, in the morning we had our first leadership lessons and we talked about global leadership. It was interesting to hear that different people have their own leaders in their mind. After the lectures, we were split in 4 groups considering the continent we are coming from and we had to make a list of characteristics that we think good lieder should have. When we have a list of characteristics we have to show other people with pantomime those characteristics. It was fun how people managed to show characteristics. I liked Asian group the most as they made character V as the birds are making when they flay far away and they explained some characteristics and at last they said that leader should be team player and the person who was standing just on the bottom of V chanced place with other person so that leader could rest while someone else is leading the group. Very deep. I love it. After leadership lessons we had our dance lessons and song lessons. But, what we were really excited about was announcement of names that belong to which cast. It was 3.30PM and everyone were very nervous. When they arranged finally all the lists they let us to go to see the lists but there were no written cast to which we belong into. There was only written in which room we are going to meet our cast mates. So, for me it said I should go to “base 2” room. When I came there, all my cast mates were making photos of each other and hugging each other. It was a really emotional moment as I could also see that people with who I already made some bonds were in my cast group. I was so happy. Than we heard strange sound coming from other room and we went to see it. It was dark but flashlights were all over the room and there was also laud music playing. We all started to dance and after a while our cast manager welcomed us to CAST C. Everyone got crazy screaming and smiling of happiness. It was so exciting. Than we sit on the floor and Andrew (staff) read us some inspiring notes and after that our staff members prepared us some welcome notes. Than cast manager read all our names and also our staff members introduced themselves to us. Our cast manager: Some welcome notes for cast C: Whole cast C group names: We also had a chance to see and hear where we are going to travel with cast C. So, our first station after Denver is Gallup, New Mexico, USA and there we will be staying for 3 days. After that we will be in Tucson, Arizona for few more days and than we are hitting the road to Thailand. In Thailand we will be staying at first in Phuket and after that Khon Kaen/Nampog where we will have chance to experience real Thai as families are not speaking English at all. After Thailand we are going to Europe and first we will visit Espoo in Finland. From Finland we will be traveling to Sweden and we will travel with… listen this… this is really good and I still cannot believe as I’m writing it… so we will travel with CRUISE SHIP where we will have our performance on that ship. In Sweden we will visit Sodertalje and Vimmerby. After Sweden we will be in Erfurt Germany and after that we will stay in Hasselt, Belgium where we will perform 2 shows as the first show is ALREADY SOLD OUT. And than we came back to US and we still don’t have any information about our US tour. We only know that we will be traveling eastern part of US and that on 22 November 2007 on Thanksgiving Day we will be in New York at Macy’s parade. Wow, that’s huge. After that we went to see Cast B and party with them for a while. I’m sad that Kellys from Venezuela, Rafael from Brazil, Yuri from Japan and some other people are not going to travel with me but we still have 3 more weeks to spend together and we have to take most of these 3 weeks. When Faith and I come home, we had a chance to meet Brian’s children, daughter Karri (I’m not sure if I spelled hers name well) and son Ethan and Karri’s husband Alex and their son and Ethan’s daughter. It was nice to meet Brian’s family. I’m overwhelmed with all the feelings and I still cannot believe that this is happening to me. My dream is coming true and I’m sooo excited and sooo happy about it. More photos you can see here.

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 15.07.2007., nedjelja

Chilling Sunday

Today we decided to relax a little bit. I woke up around 8 and I went to check my emails. As there were some, I also get a chance to talk with some of my friends back home. I decided to write some postcards and I was sitting at the back porch, writing my postcards and watching golfers playing golf. What a better thing to do in a Sunday morning. After breakfast, Diane took us to Wall-Mart, Target and Payless to buy some stuff for the show. Major concern I had were shoes, as they needed to be black and comfortable for dancing. After we searched Wall-Mart and Target, I managed to find one in Payless. They are so cute; I just hope that costume lady will approve them. After the shopping, we came back home and started preparing dinner. When dinner was almost over, Tina came from her camping trip so we all together ate dinner and we watched movie. This is how my Sunday looked like. It’s ok to have also a chill out day.

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 14.07.2007., subota

Going to Rocky Mountains

It’s Saturday and our (don’t forget I’m with Faith and Tina) made some plans to take us to Rocky Mountains. That was so cool. So, first thing we visited was Golden Hill Village which is quite a big change comparing to Denver city which is a really huge city. So, Golden Hill is small village in the mountains with small shop and small elementary school. There are only few houses, but the village has a spirit and I felt like at home there. After Golden Hill we hit the road and continue traveling into the mountains and we saw some really nice places. First we saw Peaceful Valley Ranch where Diane and Brian got married. It was so nice to see that place as it has a special meaning in their family. After that we saw Peak to Peak where are “the twin sisters” – mountains peeks that look the same one to each other. After the long drive through the mountains, our family took us to Estate Park and there we had our lunch. I had my very firs Americans burger… of course vegetarian one and it was ok, but I’m not so much into that fast food. After nice lunch, we went around the city to see some stores. It’s quite a tourist city with a lot of tourist walking around and there is a rodeo actually going to be this evening, but we’ll be at home at that time relaxing. After visiting Estate Park, Diane and Brian took us to Lyons to have an ice-cream. I took some stuff similar to shake, but it’s not the shake and it was great. It was too much after that big lunch we had at Estate Park. It was really great day spent with host family…I like it a lot as we really had a chance to get to know each other better. Well, we still have tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be nice to spend a day with Brian and Diane and Faith again. Maybe you’ve noticed that I only mentioned Faith and I didn’t mention Tina. It’s because Tina as a stuff member is having a team building camping in the mountains. She’s coming back tomorrow evening. When we came home, we watched some reality shows and it was fun to see it. After that, Faith and I went to bed but we ended up talking about different stuff. It was fun. Here you can find the rest of the photos.

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 13.07.2007., petak

Friday 13th

 12.07.2007., četvrtak

Our first rehearsal day

So, from now on our days are going to be pretty much the same…rehearsing and rehearsing for The Show. About the Show you’ll read more about later, for now I can only say that it’s the way Up with People communicates with people as they think that music and dance is the universal language that everyone can understand. So, today first thing in the morning we had a little exercise and after that we were learning how steps for our first dance. That was tough but it was fun. After that we had a vocals session and we learned how to sing 2 songs for the show. It was fun. As I have just a little performance experience, this is going to be really challenging for me to do and I’m super excited about it. After that we had our 2nd Cultural Jam and today there were 27 different shows presented on the Cultural jam. It was fun. I was impressed how many cast-mates are really good singers. (What am I doing here? :P ). I didn’t know that we are going to have such a fun with Up with People program. It’s really nice to be part of that organization. I’m really happy to be here in Denver :)))) So, I uploaded some new photos from yesterday and today. You can see them all following this link. Denver sky-scraper: Me in the Colorado Capitol Kellys from Venezuela and me just before the Cultural Jam Me with the Chinese girls

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 11.07.2007., srijeda

Orientation day

Today we had our “orientation day” which means that we were supposed to sing and dance to show them our abilities. So, first thing after some lectures, we were supposed to dance. We were separated again in groups of 7 people and 7 of us went for dancing session. It was OK. I survived. The guy was showing us some steps and we were supposed to follow the steps and show them how we move and how comfortable we are feeling with dancing. After that we had our vocal session which also went OK. We had to do the vocals so they can put us in alto or soprano voice in the show. So, I’m totally alto. I’m not able to sing high. After that we also had our costume session where we had to show our costumes to lady who is responsible for costumes and she was happy with my outfit. I only have to buy some bra and shoes. After that some of girls and me went for some sightseeing as we had some free time till the dinner time. We have visited to Colorado’s Capitol which is the center of Colorado state government. So the building is huge and it houses the Senat, the House of Representatives, the Office of the Governor, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the Department of Treasury. I love it. In the evening we had “Cultural Jam”. It is kind of show where people presented their culture via singing, dancing or spoken word. It was interesting to see it. Participants presented Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium, Germany etc. Tomorrow is another cultural jam and than is when I’m going to present Croatia wearing national costume and singing one song. I still don’t want to revile it which one is going to be. It was a really long day and I’m feeling really sleepy so I’ll upload more photos tomorrow.

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 10.07.2007., utorak

Lectures day

What I liked the most of this day was something we did first thing in the morning. It was the morning meeting where everybody are able to share their experiences with host-families, put an announcements and hear the news from all over the world. This is what we are going to do every day and I’m really looking forward to that activities. After morning meeting we had Alumni panel on our schedule. All of us had to take round table and there were like 10 of us per each table and alumni came to us and talk to us how is it going to be on tour, they shared they experience from the tour and give us advice on what to be careful so we can get the most of the program. So, I learned a lot from alumni, but there was one deep thought that really make me think. I’m just going to improvise: “There will be the days when you won’t feel participating in activities and you will feel tired of everything. Those are the days that you should really participate and you will gain the most of it.” After the lunch, which was tortilla with chilly sauce (and even didn’t think that it’s going to be so spicy that I put so much of that sauce), we had our lectured on expectations. At that moment we were really for the first time split into 2 groups: red and green (as they still don’t want to tell us which cast we belong to). I’m the green. So, we were discussion about our expectations and after that we had a little workshop on stereotypes. There were spreadsheets all around the room with the names of countries and we had to write some stereotypes about them. What I received as a stereotype about Croatia was that people even didn’t know where is Croatia so I had to explain a little bit about that. The other stereotypes were connected to war and beautiful landscape. It was interesting to hear feedbacks about all the stereotypes people have about other countries and I really learned a lot about some countries like Venezuela or China etc. After stereotypes lectures, we had our first time performing arts vocals activity. We received our lyrics sheets and we had to sing which was really challenging as people were separated in different groups depending on how high or low they can sing and we really managed to sing great after one hour of practicing. Finally at the evening when we got home, Diane prepared us a nice dinner and we ate it just at the back porch as the weather was nice. From left to the right: Brian (host dad), Tina (Sweden), Diane (host mum) , Faith (USA) Thank you all for reading my blog. It really means a lot to me, especially as I'm far away from home and this is the only connection I'm having with you. Sunny greetings from Denver!!! Kisses&hugs

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 09.07.2007., ponedjeljak

Our first day

 08.07.2007., nedjelja

July 8th - Sunday

Because of the sleeping problems I had last night, I managed to sleep only till 9 in the morning. I probably fall asleep around 5, but who knows? When I woke up, I went downstairs and Diane and Brian were already waiting for us, reading newspaper in the back yard. I had morning chat with Diane before Faith woke up and than we were ready to have real breakfast. First thing I noticed when I came to back yard was the golf court. I just couldn’t believe it. Sitting at the back porch, eating breakfast and watching in live golfers playing golf. Amazing :) After the nice breakfast (waffles with maple syrup and fruits) Brian and Diana decided to take us to Boulder. It took us a while to come there, but it was interesting trip on the road watching American way of living. It was road and both side of road were just the land without anything on it, state land where it’s not allowed to build or do similar stuff. When we came to Boulder first thing I noticed was red floor of that square. It’s all in red. Amazing. I like it. Boulder is small “city” where is student campus and it’s full of students. We actually met some of Up with People students going there with their host-families and it was great to meet more Up with People participant. :) I couldn’t miss to notice a lot of street performances during our little walk through Boulder. It was nice. Of course, everybody are doing something, playing guitar, singing etc., for money, but… there was guy and a girl with the dog who put the sign “Trying to get drunk” and it was nice too see them, at least they were sincere what for are they collecting money for. After that little walk, we went home, and after few minutes I went with Brian to some bookstore while Diane and Faith were preparing dinner. I was amazed of the size of that bookstore working on Sunday and I also found so many books I would like to buy. Well, father, prepare one big shelf in my room for extra books. LOL. I would really like to buy them, at least some of them, but my luggage is heavy even without it, so maybe at the end of my tour I’ll buy one more suitcase just for books :) After that we had some free time for ourselves to write emails or similar things and after the nice lunch at the back yard. Sunset was so nice :) I’m feeling pretty tired of whole day activities and especially because of my cold, which is BTW not so good at the moment. I hope this night my body will be strong enough to fight the cold and that I’ll be feeling better tomorrow. Jet leg, all the traveling really made my immunity system weak.

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7th July – the longest day in my life