31.08.2007., petak
Our first advanced team working day
Yesterday was our first advanced team working day. We woke up early, around 5 o’clock and I remember looking around me and not knowing where I am. I asked myself:”Where am I? This is not Thailand, it’s not Denver as Faith is sleeping just next to me… yes…we are in Sweden!!” And than I noticed that Faith is looking at me and probably has the same question as I do. We started laughing.
After breakfast our little host brother Johan (he is not little, he’s taller than me) took us to Taljehallen where is the show going to be that we could check the place. Place is sport centre and it looks great. I think cast will love the place. There I also meet 2nd Croatian person. Her name is Lucija and she moved to Sweden during the war and both of us were really excited to meet each other. I didn’t mention yesterday, but when I was in Stockholm in office, I met Susane who is working here and living in Sweden from her child. This is soo exciting
After checking the Taljehallen, we went to office to start working. Around 12 we had our lunch and we went to visit some restaurant and it was the best meal I had in past 2 months and really healthy meal. Wow…I loved it.
After lunch we come back to office and continue working. We finished around 18 and than Faith and I called our host mum that we are coming and we just had to check address so we can return to right place. It wasn’t hard at all to find the street and house.
Our host mum prepared us nice dinner and after dinner we were singing with her and enjoying the evening time with host family. Our host family is really great. All of them are so nice.
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- 12:09 -
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30.08.2007., četvrtak
Update for Thailand and traveling day to Sweden
It's morning and I'm updating you about the rest of the trip in Thailand. Photos will be soon uploaded, I promise. Some computer problems are occurred and I have to fix my computer first. I think is wireless problem as it shuts down my computer when I try to turn on wireless connection. I hope I will fix that soon so please be patient. Greetings from Sweden.
August 29 – Our first day in Sweden
We woke up around 8, eat breakfast and around 12 Ulrika and Florence came for us. Ulrika is alumni and she lives in apartment where we were situated during that night and Florence is our CRC which means that she is responsible for setting the city up.
We went with Florence to Stockholm Up with People office to meet Kay who is regional director and we talked about our job here in Sweden.
It’s freezing here in Sweden. We came from Thailand where it was 30 Celsius during the night and here was probably around 12-15 Celsius today. It’s freezing for me.
Around 18.00 we hit the road to Sodetalje to meet our first host family. Cast is coming to Sodertalje in 2 weeks and Faith’s and my job is to help Florence in setting the city up.
Our host family is great. They all speak English so it’s not going to be hard communicating with them.
August 28 – traveling day to Sweden
We woke up around 7.30 so that we can get ready until 9.30 and by that I mean packing and eating breakfast. At 8.30 we agreed to meet downstairs to eat breakfast and at the same time we arranged our morning meeting. It was so funny. So, I was the city runner which means that I was running the meeting. We went all through meeting from announcing sick calls, birthdays, guests all the way to all announcements from every each of us. Sophia was responsible also for taping our morning meeting so we have proof that we were actually running the meeting. Sooo funny…
At 9.30 we catch 2 taxies and we started our journey to Finland. We came on time to airport and by the time we reached check-in desk, there occurred some problems with seats in the plane. Lady said that our seats are occupied. It took her half an hour of time to find some seats and it was so close to the time when plane was leaving that we were running on the airport to catch our plane. We made it!!
Sophia and Danielle were my seat mates and Faith was sitting few rows in front of us. It was 10 hour long flight but I didn’t have that feeling at all. I was chatting with Sophia all the time and time just passed by.
When we reached Finland, it was our time to say goodbye to Sophia and Danielle. First we had to take our luggage and check in again and so we did it. At Finland airport we eat dinner and we watched very beautiful sunset at airport. Our plane to Sweden was arranged for 21:50 and so we took that plane. When we came to Stockholm airport, there was a taxi driver who was waiting for us to take us to our Stockholm one night stay over. Annika, who is an alumni waited for us and welcomed us to Stockholm. Thank you for that.
August 27 – traveling to Bangkok
Today was our traveling day to Bangkok. Our host family wakes us up at 6 so we will have enough time to get ready for traveling. We met in Satree School and our bus left Phuket at 8 o’clock.
We soon reached Phuket international airport and first we had to pass security check to enter check-in section. This was soo weird. After that we had to check-in our luggage, get passport check and get boarding passes. At that time we also find out that our flight is going to be delayed for 2 o’clock, not at 11:45 as it was planned so we got lunch vouchers for airport and we decided to go to Burger King as there was nothing else left on airport that we could use our vouchers for.
At 2 our plane finally left Phuket. I was soo excited but at the same time really sad about leaving our cast. I tried to sleep in plane. Flight was really short, maybe around 45 minutes.
When we reached Bangkok airport, I said goodbye to most of the people as we had to run to get a taxi and move to Bangkok hotel. At that point my, Faith’s, Sophie’s and Danielle’s little adventure started. When we reached our hotel, Silom Village Inn, Paul waited for us to check us in hotel and brief us about our traveling day to Finland.
After little break, we went to see a little bit what’s going on around our hotel and we found some cool places, but we also concluded that stuff are really expensive in hotel area. At 18.30 we met Paul again and also Luis from Brazil come (he was our Phuket CRC for us) and we had nice dinner with them just few meters away from hotel.
After dinner Luis took us to market. We had to take tuk-tuk to travel to market place and it was just few blocks away. This was my 2nd tuk-tuk experience, but it was different from Phuket tuk-tuk as also Phuket tuk-tuk looked a little bit different. In Phuket tuk-tuk was 4-viels car and here in Bangkok is 3-viels car. It was night market place with all kind of bars all around us. There were bunch of people inviting you to come visit different kind of shows mostly ping-pong show. Well, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what is ping-pong show if we really didn’t decided to go to see that show and I can only say that there were woman included and ping-pong balls. Ask me privately what’s all about that show if you are more interested in it. We continue hanging around and we went to visit Go-go girls show also. This one was pretty boring as girls were slowely dancing and doing nothing else and they weren’t even as pretty as I expected them to be. I liked more lady boys from yesterday.
At the end we finished in normal bar where we had chance to dance. There was band playing and singing popular and rock songs and I loved it.
Night life in Bangkok rocks but I don’t think that I would survive in night life more than 2-3 nights as there are so many places you could visit that you just try to go all around to see all of them.
August 26 – My host family day
Today I woke up around 9 o’clock and when I come downstairs to take breakfast, my host family told me that we are going to beach and I understood that we are going to have breakfast there. Of course, I understood wrong and I didn’t have any breakfast at beach. I wasn’t so hungry as we had nice dinner day before.
We came to Patong beach just next to lifeguard. Flag at the beach was yellow which means that you can go swimming and that lifeguard will watch really closely to you. I knew from the start that my roommate is not going to swim as she didn’t have bikini, but at least I hoped that the rest of the family is going to swim and none of them did. They said to me: “Go! Go swimming and lifeguard is going to watch on you.” And so I did. I was the only one swimming at that part of the beach and it was incredible. Waves were still too big for me, but you could feel the real power of waves just closer to the shore. As I went swimming a little bit far from shore, I couldn’t really feel the power of waves and I could still stand there.
When I ended swimming our host-grandma had surprise to us. She paid usage of Jet Ski for Amy and me. So Amy and I and our driver went on Jet Ski drive. As the waves were a little bigger, we could feel the waves and there were times when we were flying. Wow, that was amazing. At first I was a little bit scared, but soon I started to have so much fun. He took us around Patong beach so we saw more little beaches around that looked amazing. I couldn’t believe that I was in Thailand in Phuket driving on Jet Ski in Patong beach. Wow, that was amazing experience.
After that we went swimming again and as Amy was all wet from Jet Ski, she continued swimming in her clothes as well as the rest of the family did. It was so much fun as we were all closer to the shore so we kind of were “fighting” the waves.
When we came home after swimming, lunch was ready so we ate lunch and started to prepare for island tour. My host-family took me to see the rest of the island and we saw some other amazing beaches on the island. At that point for the first time I noticed signs all over some beaches that this beach is Tsunami Hazardous Area and the signs always showed also which road to take to save yourself in case of tsunami.
After visiting some beaches they took us to see Promthep Cape what is headland stretching in the sea and forming the extreme south end of Phuket. There was also view point and we could see the entire area around. That was amazing. My host-mum and host sister Cookie and I went hiking down to Promthep Cape and only thing I can say that I felt great being there. I still cannot believe that I was standing there. “Prom” is Thai for the Hindu “Brahma” signiflying purity and “Thep” means “God”.
After seeing all that places, we went to fish market so buy some fishes for dinner. There were really different kind of fishes and crabs. After buying fishes we went to Chalong Temple. Chalong temple is Buddhist temple and it’s really beautiful. As we reached place, first we took coconut milk to refresh ourselves and than we went to visit temple. It was amazing. We were part of Buddhist ceremony which was lead by our host-family. First we lighted 2 candles before even stepping inside of the temple. Than we lighten the smelling sticks and we put them just at the entrance of the temple. Last part of ceremony was going inside of the temple. There were 3 different statue of Buddha and we had to put golden papers which we got on every single statue and at least my host-mum took part of golden paper which was already stick to statue and put it on my forehead. What was that all about? At that point of time I didn’t have a clue what was I doing but after that I asked and I received answer. Lighting candles means inviting the spirits to come. 3 statue of Buddha present 3 statues of life: birth, living and dying and putting the golden paper there means praying to every statues of life. Putting the golden paper on forehead means blessing and so I can say that I was blessed by my host mum.
After visiting temple we went home to rest for a while before having dinner. Our host-family prepared us nice sea food barbeque in front of the house and it was so cool. We ate at the front porch sitting on the carpet. They prepared 7 different kind of sea food so I had a chance to try crabs, squish, and 2 different kinds of fishes and scrimps. That was amazing barbeque.
After dinner, host families good friend took Amy and me to the last visit of Patong beach night life. We took tuk-tuk to come to center of shopping and night life in Patong. It was fun. We went shopping for my carry-on suitcase and we ended up at lady boy show. Lady boys are boys who like to dress as the girls and some of them are really beautiful one and if you do not pay much attention on the moves and gestures you could never see that is man behind all that make up and dress. So, as we entered to lady boy bar to see lady boy show, first thing I noticed that we were the only guys inside of the bar. Show was fun. Lady boys were mainly singing with playback but dances were fun. We stayed for few songs as we had to hurry to buy suitcase and start packing ourselves. It was fun experience to visit lady boy show as everyone told me that this is the show you really must see when you are in Thailand as such things you are not able to see anywhere else.
August 25 – 2 shows in one day
Today we had 2 shows in Phuket. First thing in the morning, after the morning meeting we had educational workshop about stereotypes and how people see them. They also made workshop for getting to know each other better as the conversation about grouping people the other day make a big impression to a lot of people. So, we had to write one word which would describe us as we think other people see us and than we went around room talking with people we usually do not talk to and discuss about that word. Another assignment was to write word which would describe how we want to bee seen and again we went discussing with other people. It was really useful workshop as finally we had a chance to talk to some other people than we usually do not talk to. The problem is that we work all day and in the evening we go directly to our host families so there is so little time to get to know every person better in so little time.
After that workshop we practiced a little bit and at lunch I and Faith had meeting with Wouter to discuss about logistics in advanced work. After that we had to get ready and prepared for the show as the show was just to begin.
Show was amazing again. It was our first show today. It was at 2 o’clock. We had one more show at the evening at 7 o’clock and at both shows we had full auditorium. Today we also had Thailand Minister of education visiting our show. Before 2nd show we found out how much money did we raise for the Satree Phuket school. Are you ready?? We raised 10 million Baths which is around 300 000 American dollars. Wow!!! All that money goes to Satree school to build one more building as that school has around 3000 girls and 300 boys attending the school.
August 24 – first show in Thailand
We had our first show in Thailand today and I can only say that was really crazy show.
When I woke up I had little headache and I didn’t felt like performing at all but it become better after taking headache pill.
During the day we mostly practiced and we practiced new Thai songs. At 5 we had our dinner and at 6 we had green room. Green room was full of emotions. Tech team was responsible for running the green room and it was super crazy. Faith also wrote the poem for the green room so we heard her poem which brought a lot of tears. It was really emotional and she talked about our Thai experience here in Thailand. I could say that everyone found themselves in that poem.
So, the show started really quickly after the green roam and wow… we had really amazing show. Girls went crazy about all our guys especially about Brodie. They were screaming when he was singing. It was sooo funny but also so nice to hear that they love our show and they love Brodie.
After the show we got some snacks to eat and Amy and I soon went home to sleep and to prepare for next day when we will perform 2 shows. I was sooo tired from all day that I just fall asleep so quickly.
August 23
Wow… I can only say that for today.
So, it was our last community impact day and I was luckily in Sunshine Village. First they said that we will be in Habitat which also wouldn't be bad, but it would consider more labor work and not playing with the kids. In Sunshine Village we played with the kids, at least Nanako and I did and in the afternoon we painted the flowers.
In the evening when we were finished with all our activities, our host family took me and Amy to Thai massage. Wow, that was amazing. They took us to some friend of theirs all the way to Karun beach and we really enjoyed Thai massage. I didn’t have idea how Thai massage looks like. Lady who massages uses her whole body to massage so it’s quite different than other types of massages. It was amazing. After Thai massage we got one foot massage and that was also amazing. I loved it.
Really nice day with kids and nice relaxing finishing of the day with Thai massage.
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- 07:07 -
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29.08.2007., srijeda
Welcome to Sweden!!
Here I am in Stockholm, Sweden. I'm doing my advanced work in Sodetelje near Stockholm and I just want to say that I came in one piece from Thailand. I will finally have more access to internet so in next few days you will be able to read more about my adventure in Thailand and I will also try to upload all photos all the way from San Diego to Thailand and coming to Sweden.
Keep reading my blog and I'm sending you greetings from Sweden.
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- 12:18 -
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22.08.2007., srijeda
Update fot Thailand trip
August 22
Today I worked in Sunshine Village all day. I wasn’t working with kids but I was painting flowers on buildings all day. It was fun. I discovered that I really like painting and especially painting flowers.
After we come back from CI, we had some educational classes about cultural diversity and it was pretty much fun. We were split in 4 groups and every each group got assignment how to act when talking to people from other groups and so we started. I was in a group of people who waited 5 seconds before answering someone question and I first talked to Wouter. He tried to give me a sock as it was his gift for me and for me it was hard to talk to him as he talked too much and I had to wait 5 seconds after he finish talking. It was fun as none of us know what was happening.
After that Mitch and Brenna presented us new imaginary culture and how does that look to us. Conclusion was that we all had wrong image of that culture as we didn’t know anything about it and we tried to make conclusions from what we have seen. My conclusion is that we should never judge people. We should talk to them and try to learn more about them and why do they act the certain way.
After educational classes we had cast meeting and it was hard. People opened their hearts and shared things. I’m always impressed how cast meeting affects me. It’s always heartbreaking but I’m happy that we have that cast meetings so that we can solve certan problems in cast, talk about feelings and problems and how does change affect us and talk about happy things also.
Let me share some more things with you about my Thai experience. Well… it’s been more than 5 days that I’m here and I finally feel that I passed crises zone. I don’t have any problems with using toilets anymore, that’s how life is here and I got used to it. Toilets are special topic here. They don’t have toilet paper and you use water in bucket to clean yourself and to flush the toilet.
I got used to cold shower and I can say that it’s even refreshing to come home all sweaty and take cold shower. They don’t have warm water anyway.
I still didn’t get used to Thai food as it still taste strange to me and I’m really not able to eat it. I got stomach problems only that first day and after that I’m feeling great. I avoid spicy food and I’m feeling fabulous.
I talked to my advanced team trainer today and I received some notice about our (Faith, Sophie, Danielle and me) trip to Europe next week. We will leave Phuket in Monday and we will stay in Bangkok for one night. Than we will take plane for Finland and than Faith and me are going to take plane to Sweden. Than we will stay one night in Stockholm and another day travel by train to Sodetelie (sorry for miss-spelling). Long trip again.
August 21
So, today was new day. We went to school with Pookie and Tookta as today they had school.
After morning meeting we went directly to Sunshine Village and in the morning Dave, Fola, Emily from Sweden and I played with the kids and the rest of the people were painting the flowers on the houses. It was fun. We were taking care of small kids as most of the older kids were in school so we teach small kids English. After lunch we went to paint with the rest of the group and it was fun painting.
I discovered today my new skill which is painting. I’m not so good at it but at least I discovered that I liked it and who knows, maybe one day I will have my own expeditions of who knows what kind of paintings. After wrap-up meeting, we were singing Brother John song for Guinness book of records. The thing is to sing in different languages same song.
When we come home, I went to Patang beach with my host-sisters. I wanted to swim, but the flag on the beach was red which means that is not allowed to swim as wind is too strong and waves are too big. We were just walking at the beach and I loved it. Sunset was really beautiful and whole beach is really beautiful. My host-sisters also catch some kind of animals so I tried to catch one, but they were too fast so I couldn’t do anything about it.
August 20
What did I do today?? It was our first CI day. After the morning meeting we had arranged transportation to CI for which we were assigned for. I was assigned for Sunshine Village which is the place where children who are abounded or tsunami victims live there.
We came to village at 9h and heartbreaking thing I saw was Tina entering the building and one of the kids running towards her and hugging her immediately. I loved it. Soon after that we started playing with the kids. They were a little bit shy at the beginning but soon they become opened and aware that we are there for them and they started to play with us. After few games we had in mind, it was lunch time and after lunch we played with kids again. Some of them just started to hang ( direktan prijevod) all over me. They wanted me to carry them around. They just loved it.
It was day full of emotions for children but day wasn’t over after 3.00 when we finished our job in Sunshine Village.
Amy and I come home around 17 and our host-family decided to take us to shopping. They took us to shopping center, really big one in Patang beach. It was pretty much the same as all European or American malls are by the time we didn’t go to “garden”. There was big fountain with music and lights and as the music played, and lights changed, you could see moving pictures in fountain. Wow, amazing.
I bought Thai pants there and after that we went to Patong market place to buy other stuff. Of course, you have to barging with them, as it is part of culture and they would find it offensive if you don’t want to barge with them. There at market place I found summer pants, skirt and bag. After that my host-family took us to bar to drink and after that we went to visit night life street at Patong where all bars and all disco bars are situated. We were just walking and we saw a lot of lady boys and I even saw a little bit of lady boy show. Wow, some of this lady boys are really pretty and you could never say that they are in reality man dressed as woman and acting as woman. I liked that street very much but I was tired of shopping and playing with kids all night. Who could tell that kids can be so tiring.
Day with cast - August 19
Today’s day was really hard. I woke up in before 6 and I didn’t felt well in my stomach. I felt really bad and first thought that come to my mind was diarrhea I had yesterday. Well, I pushed myself to get ready, even though I wasn’t feeling really well.
We packed our bags and we were ready to go, but no one from the family get up to take us to school. So, Amy and I knocked on mama’s door for a while and when she finally wakes up, she arranged transportation. It was surprise, as we were waiting for them to come and some man just showed up. For both of us it was the first time to see that man and we sit in the car and he took us to school.
When the drive for school started, at very first curve, I started to feel even worse than before and luckily I found plastic bag and I throw up. After that I felt much better and I decided at that point not to eat Thai food anymore.
When we come to school, we had morning meeting and after that we went to visit Sea gipsy village. It’s poor village where gypsies live and it was devastated during tsunami. Interesting fact is that no one died from village during tsunami as they are all fisherman and they follow the wind and they felt strong wind coming so they went to the mountain. It was hard to see how people live there. We also played with the kids from the village and we sing them Thai song named Chong.
After visiting village, we went to see monkey place where you can see a lot of monkeys. We didn’t spend much time there as it started to rain so we directly went to boat for island. We went to visit Coral island. Sea is soo green-blue color that it’s so beautiful to watch it. When we finally came to island, we had white sand beach with palms and it was amazing. Everyone went swimming or snorkeling immediately and it was amazing. I was snorkeling for few minutes and in that time I saw a lot of amazing fishes with different colors. Wow… I love it. Sea is really warm and I love it. So, I can say that I was swimming in Indian Ocean.
We had lunch provided at island and one nice lady from Phuket paid everything for us. For lunch I only took rice without anything as I was afraid to get sick again.
Around 4 we were ready to leave island and come back to Phuket Island. It was pretty rocky at sea but we survived. When we come back, we didn’t have much time and we had to get ready in our nice outfit in only few minutes. Why? Because we went to dinner in hotel which Rotary club paid for us. Dinner was really good. Rotary club also paid for FantaSea show where we went immediately after dinner. It’s the show with different performances and with elephants and other animals. It’s really modern show and I love it.
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- 18:01 -
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18.08.2007., subota
Greetings from Thailand
Here I am..in Phuket, Thailand...alive and happy. Flight was very long, I think around 42 hours all together but we made it.
Before caming to Thailand, we spend 2 nights in San Diego. We were sleeping first night in high schol gym and next day in church. Day before going to Thailand, we were working on promotion of Show on cast B and in the evening we had beach party at one of the California beaches. It was awesome.
So, we started our trip to Thailand on 15th August and we were traveling to Tokyo first. Flight was 110 hours long. At Tokyo airport we were waiting for the next flight for 2 hours and in that time I tried different flavors of rice cake, sake and some sweets. Flight to Bangkok was "only" 5 hours long. I was sleeping all time as I was tired. When we came to Bangkok, bus for Phuket was waiting for us and here we are now. We took bus around 1 in the morning and we came to Phuket around 1 at lunch time.
We had really nice welcoming - all students from high school waited for us in front of the building with flowers neckleses. I couldn't believe it. Host family is great. They don't speak english very much( or at all) but since now we managed to comunicate. Toilets are strange (they don't use toilet paper and you have bucket with water to flush toilet). Also, shower is in toilet room and they only have cold water. Food is very spicy, but until now I managed to avoid it. My host family live near Patanga beach where Tsunami happened few years ago. We didn't sea a lot of the beach as it was raining all day (we came in monsun season).
I don't have easy access to internet so don't expect crazy stories from me this week. I'll do my best to update you, but don't promise, and I promise that I'll update all Thai stories when I will have easier internet acces in Europe. Kisses from beautiful Phuket.
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- 15:24 -
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12.08.2007., nedjelja
Relaxing sunday
So... today I was relaxing and enjoying the free day. Luckily, I started to feel better and my fever is not so bad anymore. I was able to do most of the things during day.
Danielle (my roommate) and I, we were playing with Nomia most of the day. We played monopioly, some logical games ande we jumped trampolin.
At the end of the day, when the sun wasn't so hot and strong, we went to the roof of the house and looked to the desert to see maybe some animals. Terri, my host-mom says that she saw coyote, jack rabbits and similar animals, so we were also waiting to see at least some. As night come really quickly we haven't seen any of the animals but it was fun to be on the roof and just enjoy the desert. Let me just be clear with Arizona desert, it's not only dirt, it has many different kind of cactoses and many different kind of plants.
Have to continue packing... tomorrow is our traveling day to San Diego and we will stay in San Diego for 2 nights.
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- 22:33 -
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Saturday…regional learning
Today we mostly had some lectures. First in the morning we went to Westin hotel as all our activities were planned there. First we were listening Songs of the world where Coldwell brothers and their band performed for us some of the songs they learned during their travels. It was amazing.
At 11.00 our speakers were Belks and Sohma family. Mr. Belks is founder of Up with People program and Mr. and Ms. Sohma are their good friends from Japan. It was inspiring to listen Mr. and Ms. Belks talking about their Up with People experience.
After lunch, Dr. Carolyn Lee talked us about her Up with People experience. She was traveling with Up with People as a teacher for few years as back than Up with People’s structure was different that today.
At 15.00 we had internal time with our cast and we talked about how do we feel and what are our expectations for the future. Everyone was talking about their feelings and it was hard to open our hearts but it was also good as we get closer as the cast.
Around 17.00 bus waited us for barbeque party in some house which was rented only for both casts. House was little with little swimming pool and they were also preparing barbeque. Everyone was swimming and enjoying. I enjoyed sitting at the back and talking with some friends from cast B as this were our last moments together. I didn’t want to swim as my throat was still hurting and I was afraid not to catch cold.
At 20.00 we went back to hotel to watch ERA show. ERA show is show where all alumni try to perform songs and dances which they were dancing and performing when they were participants of Up with People. It was nice to watch them performing but at the same time it was so freezing that I couldn’t believe.
I ended up coming home with fever. I took aspirins and hot tee and went to sleep immediately. We came home after midnight again. We really had rough schedule during our last 2 days and that is the reason why I wasn’t writing on the blog. Luckily, today is host-family day so we stayed at home. I had a really good night sleep and I hope that I will get over this cold I have till tomorrow as tomorrow is traveling day and tomorrow we are traveling to San Diego for 2 nights. I knew 2 days ago that I will catch the cold when we came to Westin hotel for the first time. Hotel is really nice but inside air conditioning is really strong. I never thought that I will be freezing in Arizona where temperature is always around 35 Celsius or higher. These 2 days were really hard for me and as Carolyn Lee said: “Up with People experience was hard.” she really didn’t lie about it. I felt a little bit lonely at one point of time during the day, but to be honest I wasn’t good company also as my cold took over my body.
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- 08:57 -
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10.08.2007., petak
Our show in Tucson
Today was our show in Tucson. Let me retell you from the beginning how whole day looked like.
After breakfast we were in hurry as we could be late and I also forget to take my nice clothes so we had to come back to house. When we finally reached Centennial Hall of University of Arizona we realized that we are not late. Rehearsal started after morning meeting till 12.00 when was lunch. We had to rehearse more as both casts are going to be in the show. Michael and Eric( persons responsible for the show) decided that cast C is going to be base team for first part of the show and cast B for the 2nd part, after the intermission.
So, around 12h I run away to change in my nice clothes as I had arranged meeting with at European alumni meeting and I had to be in Westin hotel by 13.00. Celiana took me there. When the meeting was starting, there were around 30 people from Europe who came to European alumni meeting. Meeting started with remembering what was Up with People in the past and what is now and how every alumnus is special. They also talked about casts who are traveling now and by that time they also invited me to say few words. I started to tell them how this experience is very important to me and how much I appreciate being here and that without their help I wouldn’t be here. I thanked them and I presented them gift for all alumni and Up with People. Gift was neck tie Croata with special design of “Glagoljica” letters, old Croatian letters. Martin, cast manager of cast C came to receive the gift in behalf of Up with People. It was very touching moment for me.
After the meeting I came back for rehearsal and till 17.00 we rehearsed. At 17.00 we had dinner and than we started getting ready and finally at 18.45 we had Green room. I don’t remember if I explained the Green room. It’s the place where we all together meet before the show and we either play games or sing or share moments for raising our energy in the show.
Show started in 19.30 and energy was at the top as we saw whole hall full of guests. More than 1200 alumna were there and all other people. Someone said that there were around 2500 people all together. I was feeling energetic but tired and I started to feel my soar throat. I went out there with only one thought that I’m doing this for the both casts and I can do it. It was amazing standing in front of the all people and performing. Our special guests during the show were Coldwell brothers with their group who were first performers around 1965. After the show we started to greet people and thank them for coming to our show. I still don’t believe but I shake hands with Mr. Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
After the show we had to have advanced team training but it was impossible considering the time we had. We came home after midnight and tomorrow we have to be at Westin hotel around 8.
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- 23:54 -
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09.08.2007., četvrtak
Alumni afternoon
Today advanced team had first training. We talked about our advanced team expectations and what we will have to do in advanced team. We also worked in presentation skills. It was really fun.
We had our packet lunch at The Westin La Paloma hotel as there is where alumni are staying. After the lunch we greeted alumni and we talked to them. It was pretty amazing to talk to some of the alumni and I’m really looking forward to it. There have been more than 1200 alumni and all or they are going to watch our tomorrow’s show. Wow… it’s going to be really amazing as Up with People is not as it was 10 or 20 or even 30 years ago. Mission of the program is still the same, but they changed a lot of things.
Did you know that there is a cactus called Jumping cactus and that he shots needles if you touch him. Also, saguaro cactus grows his hands at the age of 75 and most of that kind of cactus's here are more than 100 years old. Wow, that’s amazing.
Today we also had a chance to meet Mahatma Ghandi's grandson and his lovely wife.
Well, tomorrow is the show day and we have a lot of practice to do tomorrow as we are performing with cast B. We are going to present Up with People both casts in tomorrows show. Wow, that’s going to be something.
My host family and roommate Danielle.
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- 21:48 -
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08.08.2007., srijeda
Welcome to Tucson
Early in the morning we have to prepare ourselves for trip to next city so my host mum wake me up so I could prepare myself and I could eat breakfast. We met at Baptist church and we had guest speaker Zonnie M. Gornman who is a Native American speaker and she talked us about Navajo Code Talkers in WW II. What’s the story about? It’s about how American Army asked Navajo Native American tribe to help them to make new code with which they would communicate during World War II. It was really interesting story and lady was really interesting in retelling it to us.
Around 9.30 we hit the road to our new city Tucson. Ride was very long and we saw some really beautiful landscapes during our journey. My bus date was Netta from US.
When we finally come to Tucson, we had very nice Welcome from cast B and when we came out of the bus, hot air just flushed us. It’s soo hot here in Tucson and I don’t know how we would survive if they wouldn’t have air conditioning. But, we have to get used to it as soon as possible as Thai experience will be without air condition.
We had half an hour free before our host families had to pick us up so we went around to see a little bit of Tucson and I will repeat myself again, it’s hot. It’s quite different than Denver or Gallup and it’s more likely to Mexico (at least that’s my opinion). I also had a chance to see the auditorium where we are going to perform and it’s huge. Wow… and we are going to perform for over 2000 people in Friday.
So, my host family code was Barbie and theme was famous couples so I had to find match to Barbie. It was Ken and I saw nice lady standing with Ken sign. Her name is Terry and she live with her youngest daughter who is 9. Before going home, she took us to her Princeton alumni meeting and it was nice to meet Princeton alumni. There were some freshman students and mostly alumni tried to give them advice how to spend and get most of your time at Princeton University.
When we come finally home, we had a chance to meet Nomia, 9 year old daughter. They have house full of animals and they live just at the edge of the desert. We didn’t have chance to see it as it was night and it was dark, but tomorrow morning I’m looking forward to see the edge of the desert.
Here you can find photos.
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- 23:52 -
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07.08.2007., utorak
Gallup Show
From the beginning of the morning I was part of set up team which means that I was in a team who had to set up the stage, lightning’s and sound for tonight’s show. I worked mostly on lights and it was fun being on set up.
We actually had our show in High school auditorium and it is really huge building for such small city. Show went pretty good. I liked it and audience was amazed with our show.
I also received information that in Gallup lives a lot of Croatian people and I asked about that my host dad and he said that it’s true. He even showed Croatian-American Monument which was built in Gallup. Mostly, Croatian people moved here because of rails. Also, mail road in Gallop used to be part of Route 66, some 50 years ago when there were no real highways.
I’m really sad that we don’t have more time to spend in Gallup as I believe it would be really nice city to see and learn more about it.
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- 23:31 -
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06.08.2007., ponedjeljak
Our first traveling day
Today was our first traveling day and we met at Teikyo parking at 7.45. Our bus started to drive us at 8.30. It was hard to get into the car and leave our first host-family. All the way to meeting spot I was just sitting in the car and thinking how time has passed so quickly.
So, after we said goodbye to everyone, our trip to Gallup, New Mexico could start. It was pretty hard to sit in the bus and hit the road especially as we spend so much time with our first host-family.
Ride was really long. We had 2 breaks during our drive and I saw some amazing places from the bus. We also had to cross the border of the state Colorado to state New Mexico. I didn’t know that they have like real borders in US. Of course, it’s nothing similar to any other border as you just have to pass it and you don’t need to show any kind of ID but it was amazing moment when I realized that borders of states exist, no matter that it’s all USA. View from the bus during the road was amazing. It’s all desert, but I liked it very much. There was nothing anywhere close for kilometers (or miles), only desert.
When we finally come to Gallup, we got our stuff from the bus and we had chance to meet our new host family. Host code this time was Turquoise and my host family is young couple with 2 cute kids. My host roommates are Amelia from China and Kristin from US who is also the staff member.
Julie, our host mum prepared us nice dinner and my first impression about Gallup is that is so different than Denver. Not only if I look at the size of the city as is the difference huge. Gallup only has around 20 000 citizens. Difference between states is huge, I mean, it must have been as New Mexico is desert and Colorado is mainly mountains state.
Well, I like it so far and I’m open for new experiences. We are going to stay in Gallup only 2 nights. Tomorrow we are having show in Gallup and in Wednesday we will continue our traveling to Tucson, Arizona. Tomorrow is a big day. I’m in the striking team again tomorrow morning as we have to prepare stage for the show.
Here you can see the rest of the photos from Gallup.
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05.08.2007., nedjelja
Packing for the life on the road
Today I had to pack for the next city. Did I finish my packing?? Of course, not. Whole day I was relaxing and I started to work on my host-family book and I’m really happy that Diane and Brian are going to be the first one to write me something in my host-family book as they were always here for me when I needed them during staging in Denver.
How do I feel today?? Well, I could say excited and I wouldn’t lie but also it’s not the whole truth. I’m feeling excited and at the same time really sad. I cannot believe that 4 weeks of staging in Denver are over. Time passed so quickly that I’m still not really aware of the situation that from tomorrow on we will be on the road for the next few months. Does that make me happy? Of course. But at the same time I feel empty as I’m leaving great host-family here in Denver.
I can still remember the very first day when I just came to Denver and they took me and Faith home and the welcomed me as their own daughter. I can remember the very first embarrassing moment that happened the very first night just few minutes after everyone went to sleep. (Remember that we came to their house around 23:00) I needed to use bathroom really badly and I managed to block the toilet. What an embarrassing moment. I didn’t know what to do so I knocked on the Faith’s door, even more embarrassed as I just met her, and ask her to help me. We were standing in the bathroom for few minutes trying to figure out how to fix the toilet and we didn’t find any solution so we had to go downstairs and wake up Diane and Brian to help us. That’s how started my life here in US…blocking the toilet for the first night in my first host-family. Can you imagine more embarrassing situation than that?
Well, that’s how it started and now, after 4 weeks I can only say that I’m going to miss them very much as they opened their home to me and they made really big impact in my life. Thank you Brian and Diane!!
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- 23:44 -
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04.08.2007., subota
Our first show – cast C 2007 Show
Oh my god!! I feel sooo great about show and everything. It was amazing. We were amazing. Let me tell you what we did from the start.
After the morning meeting internship results were announced. I didn’t apply for any internship as soon I’m leaving for advanced work internship and I cannot apply for regular internship if I already have assigned internship. All internships are 6 week long, only advanced work internship vary.
After internship results, we started to work on the show and we worked really hard till 17.00 when we had dinner and than we started to prepare ourselves for the show. It was pretty crowded in the dressing room. Our staff didn’t want to let us go till 18.00 from the dressing room as they prepared us big “party” for our first show in the “green room”. Green room is tradition in Up with People and there all of us get together before the show and rise energy and excitement for the show. We shared some really emotional moments with each other for the past 4 weeks we spent together and all of us were really touched.
The show started at 19.00 and I was so excited about it. I couldn’t believe how many people came to see our show. When the first song started, my excitement was rising really fast and I couldn’t wait to go on the stage and perform. We all worked as a good team and we made amazing show. I was amazed how supportive we were to each other and energy was all around us. I felt soo great. WE DID IT!!! :) I’m so proud of myself and I’m so proud of all the people from the cast. We wouldn’t succeed without each other.
After the show I talked with people who came to see us and it was really exciting to talk to people and hear how they did like the show. Few minutes later I had to run to change my show costume and prepare for “the strike” as I was part of the strike team. “Strike” is expression we use when we talk about setting up the stage or putting down the stage. We had to put down the whole stage, from the lights to all sound equipment and all other stuff we use for the show. It’s hard work but I was excited to be part of it and I feel more connected to people who were also in the strike as we really had to work hard.
I came home around 1 in the night and Tina made tea for us and we sited in living room and just chatted.
I don’t have any pictures of my first show as I was too busy with preparing for the show.
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03.08.2007., petak
Cast B Show day
I came home just few minutes ago and it’s already almost midnight. Cast B had their show today and they were awesome… full of energy and I just loved the feeling when I was looking the show.
For Cast C day was also long, but probably not as long as for cast B. In the morning we had inspiring guest speaker Steve Farber. He was talking us about leadership and he pointed out some quotes from other inspiring people. I will quote Steve and one of his thoughts: “If there is something you need to do and you are scared of doing it. Fear is the reason why you are not doing it and you know that you should do it. You may have the time of your life.”
After guest speaker, we had Thai preparation and we were split in home teams and we discussed about our concerns and worries and our feelings about going to Thailand. I’m really scared and at the same time excited in visiting Thailand. Why scared? Few days ago we received list of “rules” how we should properly act in Thailand considering the Thai culture, and remember, we are not going to Thailand as tourists but as people who are going to involve in community and do major regional and cultural learning.
What are some of the rules? When you pay, you should hand money with King’s image facing up and you should pay with your right hand or both hands. Don’t show emotional feelings (hugging, kissing) in public. Never point at someone…etc… there are so many that I’m scared not to offend someone by doing something wrong. Also, there is big issue of discussion that we may be in host-family who do not speak English so we will have to cross the communication barriers. Wow… so much stuff about Thai and so many things to learn. I’m really excited about host-families living in Thai and learning about culture. I’m 99% sure that I will experience cultural shock for the first time.
In the afternoon we were practicing the show and we also heard translation of Hanamazuki lyrics, Japanese song from the show. It was really touching as it is dedicated to casualty on 11th September.
At 19.00 started the cast B show. People started to show up already around 18.15 and there were a lot of people who came to see the show. I love how energetic they were. Well, tomorrow is our show so I have to get enough sleep that I can be as energetic as they were.
Here are some photos from our last nights show dress rehearsal:
Cast B Show day
I came home just few minutes ago and it’s already almost midnight. Cast B had their show today and they were awesome… full of energy and I just loved the feeling when I was looking the show.
For Cast C day was also long, but probably not as long as for cast B. In the morning we had inspiring guest speaker Steve Farber. He was talking us about leadership and he pointed out some quotes from other inspiring people. I will quote Steve and one of his thoughts: “If there is something you need to do and you are scared of doing it. Fear is the reason why you are not doing it and you know that you should do it. You may have the time of your life.”
After guest speaker, we had Thai preparation and we were split in home teams and we discussed about our concerns and worries and our feelings about going to Thailand. I’m really scared and at the same time excited in visiting Thailand. Why scared? Few days ago we received list of “rules” how we should properly act in Thailand considering the Thai culture, and remember, we are not going to Thailand as tourists but as people who are going to involve in community and do major regional and cultural learning.
What are some of the rules? When you pay, you should hand money with King’s image facing up and you should pay with your right hand or both hands. Don’t show emotional feelings (hugging, kissing) in public. Never point at someone…etc… there are so many that I’m scared not to offend someone by doing something wrong. Also, there is big issue of discussion that we may be in host-family who do not speak English so we will have to cross the communication barriers. Wow… so much stuff about Thai and so many things to learn. I’m really excited about host-families living in Thai and learning about culture. I’m 99% sure that I will experience cultural shock for the first time.
In the afternoon we were practicing the show and we also heard translation of Hanamazuki lyrics, Japanese song from the show. It was really touching as it is dedicated to casualty on 11th September.
At 19.00 started the cast B show. People started to show up already around 18.15 and there were a lot of people who came to see the show. I love how energetic they were. Well, tomorrow is our show so I have to get enough sleep that I can be as energetic as they were.
Here are some photos from our last nights show dress rehearsal:
Here you can see the rest of the pictures from dress rehearsal.
You can also visit our cast blog: Cast C blog
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- 23:56 -
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02.08.2007., četvrtak
Dress rehearsal day
Today we had our first dress rehearsal day and we performed for cast B and people who wanted to came to our show. It was awesome. I felt so good at the stage and performing. People loved our show and it felt so good to get applause.
Well, this was just dress rehearsal. Our first show is in Saturday and we will have much bigger audience. I’m really looking forward to that.
In the morning our staff members made a theater show. Theme was how we should act on the road when we start traveling like bus drives, hazardous activities etc. It was sooo funny. I liked how they presented us the rules which we have to follow once we hit the road.
I never believed that I would be part of traveling show group and today when we were preparing for the show, it just hit me that we are really a group of people who are going to perform and do community service and live with host family. Feeling is awesome.
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- 22:23 -
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01.08.2007., srijeda
Preparation day
Today we practice for the show really hard and we did amazing job today. We really improved from the last day and I’m happy to see that everyone is giving a lot to make this show perfect.
Today, one of my friends from cast B left for advanced work and I was really sad about it. Kellys, take care and stay in touch.
Today also cast B had dress rehearsal which mean that they were rehearsing for us and this was my first time seeing Up with People show and it was amazing. Wow!! I love it. Tomorrow we are performing for cast B and than in Friday is the show day for cast B and in Saturday in our show – cast C show.
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- 22:42 -
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