31.10.2007., srijeda
Halloween day
Today was Halloween day!!! Happy Halloween!!!
Whole day I spend doing logistics with Wouter (logistics staff) and Faith (logistics intern). I am new logistics assistant. Together we had first logistics debriefing and after that we started to do exact job.
Around 4PM, cast arrived from CI project and we started to prepare ourselves for crazy Halloween party. I was some kind of devil/witch. Everyone got crazy and we had really good party. We were dancing all night, playing games and just enjoying party with masks. Some people got really crazy and we had some really funny masks, some really creepy and some really innovative masks. I loved it!!
I got more than 350 photos from party and I’m really leader in taking photos. And please, don’t ask me how many photos I have so far…some people from cast would say “toooooo much!!!”
Unfortunatelly I was unable to upload photos today because of some technical issues.
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30.10.2007., utorak
Educational day in Eastern
In the morning we had little workshop. Our facilitators throw pennies on the floor and we had to catch them as much as possible. They did that 3 times, but with different rules. First time there were some fighting, but at the end, we found out about conclusion of the workshop. Workshop had to show us poverty in the world and how money is spread around the world, or around our cast (in that case). After that we were split in 3 groups: high, medium and low income and we had to discus what we can do to equally spread money all over the world. I was low income and we concluded that there is actually nothing that we can do as we are struggling for survive.
What is poverty?
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.”
“The most commonly used definition of global poverty is the absolute poverty line set by the World Bank. Poverty is set at an income of $2 a day or less, and extreme poverty is set at $1 a day or less.”
Resource: World Bank
After you read those two definitions, I challenge you to think more about what you have and how do you appreciate what you have. If you are able to read this, you are more likely very fortunate for what you have in your life than probably 60% other people in the world.
After that we had introduction to World Bank as this Friday we are going to visit World Bank Headquarters in Washington, so we are preparing for that big day.
After lunch I had cultural presentation on Croatia and I did it great. :)
In the afternoon we had promotion in city and my team went to city center and we did some good promotion there. Walking in downtown, I realized how small it is and it’s perfect for families with small kids. There are no chain restaurants or coffee shops in center which is really good and it remained me a lot of TV show “Gilmore girls” city.
After host family pick up, Sara and I had nice dinner at home and we played a little bit with doll house. Our host mum has several small doll houses and we played with kitchen. Everything is so tiny mini and amazing how detailed they make this things.
I’m really tired as I haven’t slept yesterday night because of today’s cultural presentation so I’m rushing to go to sleep finally.
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29.10.2007., ponedjeljak
Update for past 2 days and coming to Eastern
October 29 – Traveling day
Today was our traveling day. We passed Washington DC while we were traveling to Maryland and we also had to cross big bridge. And now we are finally in Eastern, Maryland.
My roommate is Sara from Tucson and we live in nice family. They are married couple and their kids are all grown up and live away from home. I have my own bedroom.
October 28 – Host family day
I was sleeping until 10.20 and at 10.30 our host mum comes to pick us up to go to church. It seems that I really needed some sleep as I didn’t hear any noise around 9 when whole family woke up. Instead of going to church, I went to bookstore to buy some books. I could stay there for hours and still 1.30 hour wasn’t enough to research all books I would like to buy, but at least I bought some.
After bookstore we went with out host sister Avery to watch her practice for lacrosse. Lacrosse is very popular sport here in US and basically you have some sticks where you can put small ball in and you have to shoot ball into goal. Andrea and I, we went running in park for 30 minutes and it was just perfect sunny and warm day to stay outside and chill a little bit on the sun. I never could imagine that I would be in my shorts and t-shirt at the end of October. Amazing!
After lacrosse practice, we went back home to have dinner and some host family quality time just talking and sharing stories. It was really fun.
October 27 – Show day
I can only say that we had amazing show. It was full of energy and we had also guest during our CI interview. It was Ronald McDonald from Ronald McDonald house. For those who don’t know who Ronald McDonald is, he is McDonald’s clown you can find at any McDonald’s place. I didn’t know about that until they showed me the picture.
It was such a nice and sunny day and we had to be most of the day inside practicing. Oh yes. We also had “Show me” which was kind of audition for people who practiced certain song or dance from our show and wanted to perform on that place in the show.
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26.10.2007., petak
Regional learning day and rehearsal
Our regional learning morning we spent in Old Salem. Old Salem is America's most comprehensive history attraction. It is combination of 4 different museums and we had chance to visit some of them.
It was pretty rainy morning. First we visited church where organs from 18. Century is situated in. We also heard few songs played on that organ. Amazing!
After that we moved to Old American-African church which is situated on old cemetery and you can actually see graves all around that building and also underneath building. It is a little bit creepy standing there and knowing that people were buried few centuries ago on the same place and until now they still haven’t found those graves as they are under the building.
After church, we went to visit Toys museum and I wish I had such toys when I was kid. All toys from past were there, from amazingly big doll houses to little cars and games for thinking. I was truly impressed with tiny mini silver spoons for dolls smaller that Barbie dolls and how detailed they usually made those houses. Impressive!
After visiting Old Salem, we went to have lunch in Methodist Church and after that whole afternoon of rehearsal for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was waiting for us. It was tough training and rehearsal day and we did great job.
After rehearsal, our host families prepared really nice dinner in Methodist Church where we also had lunch today. Few host families decided to make such dinner so every each brought some food and we all ate together. It was really fun. From cast there were my roommate Andrea and others: Wouter from the Netherlands, Emi from Sweden, Jeremy, Johnny, Aubrii, Jeff, Sokhoeun and Mitch.
When we come home, we decided to watch movie before going to sleep and so we do that right now.
Here you can find photos from North Carolina.
Dinner in restaurant
Our CI day
My host family
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25.10.2007., četvrtak
Rehearsing for Parade
Today we were all rehearsing for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York soon. I didn’t realize until now how huge this even is as in Croatia we do not celebrate Thanksgiving day on that date and it’s not so huge how is in US.
So, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is big parade of different performances and with huge balloons going around city and Parade brings Santa Claus to town so it’s considered to be opening Christmas shopping season. Click here to read mor about it.
We rehearsed today our choreography and also we got our costumes for the show and it seems that everyone is going to wear different international costume. I’m wearing my Croatian costume and I’m flag holder also. I’m holding Croatian flag and I’m really proud of that assignment.
They showed us piece of last year’s parade and from what I’ve seen it’s really big parade and I cannot believe that we are actually going to perform in it.
You never know what life is offering to you.
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24.10.2007., srijeda
CI day in Food Bank
My community project for today was working in Food Bank. It was so much fun and we ended up sorting different kind of food that Food Bank receives from groceries stores and we were mainly checking the expiration dates and sorting them as type of food they belong to. We were working with 5 boys from Winston-Salem high school and it was fun to meet them.
After CI, we come back to our main facility and we had some educational time. We were discussing about poverty and we had few very interesting workshops. Last one was the one who touched our hearts very deeply. We were invited to come into one room and pick one small piece of paper from hat and after that we were split in 3 groups – high income, middle income and low income. My paper said that I belong to high income. There were around 8 people in high income, around 15 in middle income and all others (around 30) in low income.
High income had a chance to sit at the nice decorated table and we got really nice food served to us. Middle income got bi pot of rice and a lot of lemonade and low income got small pot and 2 glasses of water they had to share. Me being in high income, it was really hard to eat nice food when watching my cast members having to share small pot of rice and not being able to give them our food was frustrating but at the same time really awkward. I didn’t have appetite to eat any food.
Of course, after the workshop, we started really nice discussion and it seemed that everyone were frustrated because of the situation how in reality it’s really hard to help poor people as sometimes government doesn’t help you to help. It’s been really harsh discussion.
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23.10.2007., utorak
First rain in North Carolina
22.10.2007., ponedjeljak
Traveling to South Carolina
Our host family drop off today was at 7.30 and at 8AM we hit the road to reach Winston Salem in North Carolina.
Trip wasn’t so long and my bus date was Kei from Japan. We had really nice talk until he fall asleep.
I was also really tired as I was packing my suitcase until 2AM, but I just wasn’t able to sleep.
We came to Winston Salem around 2PM and they gave us 2 hours free to go shopping in big shopping mall.
After shopping we finally had allocation meeting and we met our host families. This time I’m rooming with Andrea from Minnesota and I have 2 small host siblings – host sister who is 8 and host brother who is 12.
I’m so tired that I will try to catch some sleep tonight as this week and weeks in future are going to be even harder and harder.
I managed to upload photos from Belgium - host family day spent in Brussels. Here you can find photos from Brussels.
Me and my roommate Johan at Manneken Pis
Joyri, me an Johan
My host sister Joyri and host mum Tine
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Host family day in Atlanta
Today we spend really nice host family day with our host family. We woke up around 10AM and ad really nice breakfast. Our host mum prepared us nice tofu and special potatoes for breakfast.
After breakfast, we went to do some shopping and you won’t believe what happened to me. I bought some body wash and similar toiletries and I forgot bag with those stuff in shop, but I took big bag with warm clothes I bought and I realized that too late. I cannot believe that such thing can happen to me, so now I’m left out without body wash and tooth brush until I will go to shop again in next city. Crazy!
After shopping we finally met our second host sister who is studying at Georgia Tech University and she is not living at home. We had nice lunch with her and it was all Indian food. I love it. It’s really amazing to eat Indian food and experience Indian culture.
After lunch we were just relaxing…talking…watching some Indian dances as our host sister’s are dancing traditional Indian dances. It was really fun.
Evening we spend also talking and enjoying time together and time passed so quickly that it was already 11PM and we realized that we didn’t pack at all so we went to pack and actually it didn’t take me a lot of time to pack, it was just too hard to put everything in suitcase again and close the suitcase.
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21.10.2007., nedjelja
Photos updated
20.10.2007., subota
Regional day/ CI Saturday
It was soo hard to wake up this morning and follow the schedule. I had big problems wakening up and especially after taking shower to go out and do our UWP day. I felt so tired and it’s not surprising to feel like that after only 5 hours of sleeping after week full of similar kind of days when we were sleeping so less.
But when we came to Hindu temple after our morning meeting it was just amazing and inspiring. I have never seen such amazing art of architecture. It is quite new temple and they made it from Turkish and Italian marble stone from more than thousands and thousands of small pieces all together. Numbers for building this temple are amazing. There were more than 900 volunteers working on this temple and result is just amazing.
We weren’t allowed taking photos inside so I just have outside pictures but I can suggest to everyone to go to visit Hindu temple.
First we had short video about temple and after that we visited secret room where all gods were situated and where people went praying. Architecture was just amazing. I’m still impressed what human hands can do from stones. Wow! We were also part of special Hindu blessing ritual. They separated men and woman and after praying to god they brought candles all around us and we got blessing from candle lights from gods.
After little sightseeing of temple and Hindu ritual, we finally went to do our CI. We were split in 3 groups and I was working in group where we were helping to clean new built room which is going to be kitchen in future. It is huge hale for more than 6000 people. It was pretty dusty but I enjoyed it much as I had chance to talk and learn more from people who worked in temple about religion and temple.
Did you know that Hindu people celebrate New Year on November 10th? And it is a huge holiday and celebration. For example, they expect more than 12000 people coming to temple for New Year’s.
After lunch we come back to our basic facility and we had cast meeting where we discussed about different things like finances, surveys we recently made and just casual cast stuff.
Evening we spend with out host family in park cinema. This is such an American thing and I really felt great about doing something typical Americal. I mean, it is almost end of October and we were sitting in the middle of the park in our summer clothes and having a little picnic with one more host family and watching movie. It was “Night at museum” on schedule and it was really fun to watch it. It become a little bit freezing as movie was getting to an end but we survived and I felt really great about it.
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Show day in Atlanta
Today, or better say yesterday was the show day here in Atlanta. It was our first show in US after tour in Thailand and Europe and it was really good.
Whole day was the same as any other show day… rehearsal, preparation lectures for next city and show.
Today before rehearsal we did something new and special. We split up in our home teams and every team had to come up with some dance and we combined all team dances into one and it is our cast dance. That was fun. We had our very first audience during green room. We showed our cast dance to our green room guests. It was fun.
I’m so tired that I’m just going to crash in bed now. Midnight has passed and I really need to go to sleep as tomorrow we have to wake up early as we have one more CI day and we are doing something really special.
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18.10.2007., četvrtak
A little update on Atlanta, Georgia, USA
October 18 – Stand for peace project
Today was the first time working on “Stand for Peace” project. “Stand for Peace” (SFP) is educational project where Up with People students are going to schools and through games try to explain how it is important to learn about diversity and by learning about diversity is way to peace.
I was in team with Justen and Abby and we worked in one classroom of 45 students of age 11-12. It was first time for me working with so young kids and it was a little bit challenging to keep them quite but once you manage to do that, they were really interested and they participated in all activities. It was really fun.
After SFP we had a little BTS show (Back track show) for middle school kids and it was really interesting. They were so interested in show and they were cheering all time and it was overwhelming to see this.
After the school we went back to work in Boys & girls club and again we helped with homework or played with them.
October 17 – Regional learning day
Today was our regional learning day and partly CI day.
In the morning we went to visit Martin Luther King’s National Park in Atlanta and we heard some great stories about that great man. One of rangers also told us nice story about him as he was marching with him and he was fighting with him for human rights. He was a living history book and I’m sorry that we didn’t have more time to spend with him and hear everything.
I also saw Martin Luther King’s birth house but I couldn’t go inside as it wasn’t open for visits.
After lunch we went to “Boys & girls Club” which is basically club where parents can live their kids in case they cannot pick them up after school (if they work or similar) and kids can do their homework and play with other kids. We spend whole afternoon with them helping them with homework and playing with them. It was fun but in the way.
Funny thing happened today before going to Boys & girls club. We had some time for promoting the show and we were just walking around and at one moment I saw at one shop window written: “Pivo – vino” which translated from Croatian means Beer – Vine and I kept reading and it had written all other Croatian names for groceries so I went inside and it was actually Bosnian shop but many Croatian people are shopping there and they have mostly Croatian products. I got so excited and I talked with Croatian costumers there and I decided to buy a lot of Croatian candy so I can share candy with cast so that they can try some Croatian stuff. I can only say that I bought candy with which I basically grow up and when I presented it to cast, everyone loved it.
At dinner, our host mum prepared us nice Indian food. She said that it’s not spicy, but for me it was a little bit spicy, but not as how it was in Thailand. I loved the food.
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Belgium update
October 15 – Goodbye Europe, preparation for USA
Crazy morning! I had to finish packing and around 9AM we had to be in facility to start our day. During day we mostly had some educational workshops and feedback on Europe and US preparation. Plan was to stay in facility until 2AM next day when we had to take bus for Brussels airport but that facility was just too freezing so fire department offer one room to stay with them until that hour.
Gaby, our technical manager tried to entertain us and he showed us some fire shows what he used to do in past. It was basically blowing the fire from mouth and similar stuff. After that we had short cast meeting and after that we just waited 2AM to come so we can load the bus and go finally to Brussels.
October 14 – Belgium show day
Belgium Show day was really crazy. We had 2 shows and whole day was crazy.
Our super set up team went to set up stage at 6AM and I and my roomy Johan had to come around 9AM. We started rehearsal immediately as we had a lot of things to think about and our Belgium show was a little bit changed from other shows.
First show was set up to be at 17.30 and it was crazy as we had only 10 minutes between rehearsal and green room for the show. Audience was great and show was successful.
Second show was just one hour after the end of the first one and we also had dinner between 2 shows. This show was even crazier and they loved it. Whole audience was full and everyone enjoyed the show very much.
Our strike was finished around 1AM and I went to sleep finally around 2AM as I tried to pack my luggage a little bit also.
October 13 – Host family day spent in Brussels
I spend my host family day in Brussels. Around 10AM Johan, Joy and me took train to Brussels and we spend whole day there. We saw a lot of old monuments and I can only say that Brussels is really nice and I love it. We ate a lot of Belgium and Brussels waffles, a lot of Belgium chocolate and we tried Belgium beer.
We took tour sightseeing bus as it is not so expensive and it took us around the city to the most popular places. It was really nice. We went to visit EU parliament, but as it was Saturday it was closed for visitors. We also went to visit Atomium and it was really nice to see Brussels view from top sphere.
At the end of the day, as our last stop, we went to visit pub where you can find 2000 different kind of beers. It was such a cool place and I went to see if they have some Croatian beer and they have it. I couldn’t believe. They even have African beer from some African countries. Crazy. Place is really beery decorated and I just love it.
October 12 - Bare foot walk and football stadium party
I still cannot believe what I did today. It was crazy. We had regional learning day but full of different activities and it was just crazy.
In the morning we went for bare foot walk in woods and I’m completely serious when I’m writing about that as it was really pushing my comfort zone to the edges. Outside temperature was around 5-10 Celsius and it was freezing to the bones. My feet were completely frizzed even before I took my socks and shoes off. It was one of the “Oh well” moments when you thing about situation how crazy it is but in the other hand you just want to adopt and you just do it. So, I took my socks off and we started our little bare foot walk in woods. My feet were freezing even more but feeling of dirt was comfortable. As we were walking we passed mud all the way to stones, wood, water and much much more. As we were so freezing, it stared to feel comfortable walking bare foot and I started enjoying it a lot. You really have to do that in close future. I’m serious.
Worst part was “huge lake” where water was ice clod freezing and water went all the way to our knees. It was 2m long and pretty soft inside and as much as I enjoy comfort, it was so freezing that I wanted to pass it ASAP.
After bare foot walk and washing our feet in cold water and wearing shoes it was really strange. In the way I felt that I just want to take them off and continue walking barefoot but in the other hand it felt nice. My feet started to burn from heat in only few minutes when I started to wear them.
We had lunch in Turkish restaurant and they were really excited to have us there so we had to perform one little part of our show to all guests in restaurant. Food was very good and there I met lady from Croatia and she was really nice.
After lunch we had scheduled interview with football player who is playing in KRC Genk. He was really nice Brazilian player and he talked about how it is to be foreigner in Belgium and Europe general and how it is to play in multinational football team as all players come from different countries. After interview we had scheduled tour of whole stadium and it was interesting as we were sitting at some VIP seats and seasonal ticket for those seats cost more than 3000 EUR.
After the tour we had Orientation walk game and we were split in out home teams and we got map and we had to find all the spots. It was really nice as we were walking in the nature and we had some nice home team time within our home team.
After that we had dinner at football stadium and little “party” until 11PM.
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16.10.2007., utorak
Back to USA
We are in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. We come today around 3PM and everyone are feeling really happy about coming back to US.
It was long trip and most of us haven't been sleeping a lot lately and most of us are feeling pretty tired.
Our traveling day started on 16th October around 3AM when we took bus from Hasselt to Brussels. We reached Brussels around 4AM and our plane from Brussels to Frankfurt was at 7.05AM. I almost fall asleep but trip was too short to really fall asleep. It was only 45 minutes plane flight.
In Frankfurt we had 1 hour before next flight so we had to pass security pass for 2 times and once when we were at plane, I just fall asleep until the time when flight attendant wake me up to give me special vegetarian lunch. After lunch I fall asleep again.
I’m having 3 roommates: Veronica, Scott and Jaakko. Someone from cast asked: “Are all vegetarians hosted together?” Yes, we are. We are hosted in Indian host family and they are really nice.
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11.10.2007., četvrtak
CI project in Belgium
Our first and only CI day happened today here in Belgium. It was challenging CI as we worked in school with mentally and physically disabled children. I was working with children from 12-20 years old and they were really nice and clever. We were talking with them about everything and they were really interested in US politics and Andrea from US had really challenging job to answer all different questions. It was really fun interacting with those children and I realized that they are so nice and clever people and that they really have huge knowledge of English and it is really nice to speak to them. They were really happy that we were there and that we were interacting with them.
For me it was first time working with disabled people and I loved it. I can admit that I was scared because I didn’t know how to interact with them but now I only have positive impressions about it.
After CI we come back to city and we went doing promotion. One music TV station has had music awards in city and also there were boots of student organizations inviting new students to join them and we also got chance to be there. We got moving bus and we played music there and promote Up with People. It was really successful promotion.
Few of us also received unique opportunity to perform song “One to one” in Governors house in front of governor and King and Queen’s representatives. It was really cool and fancy and I never imagined that I would have such opportunity.
Belgium is really nice country and Up with People is really popular here and we really have busy schedule and a lot of media following us all the time.
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10.10.2007., srijeda
Education day in Belgium
09.10.2007., utorak
We are in Belgium
So, finally we are in Belgium. It is our last city in Europe and after that we are coming back to US.
Yesterday was traveling day and we were traveling with bus for around 8 hours. When we come to Hasselt, first we had major reception in city hall so we went immediately to city hall and after short speech we had little reception with national Belgium drinks. City hall is really nice and old.
After major reception we went back to facility and we had allocation meeting and host family pick up. This time we had to sing certain songs and if our host family recognizes song, they wave and we are matched. My host roommate is Johan from the Netherlands but he had to go to do some promotion work to the Netherlands and he is coming back in Wednesday.
When we got matched, my host family took me home and gave me dinner. They have 2 daughters, but only one living at home and they are already hosting one more girl from Dominican Republic and that is really cool.
Today we had regional learning day. In the morning we had short presentation from ladies who are working in CarGlass about their project in South Africa. After that we had alumni who is HIV positive talking about how it is to live with disease. That presentation and discussion after that was really interesting as it was the fist time for me to speak with someone who is HIV+.
After that we went to “Juvenhalmuseum” where we learned how national Belgium liquorish drink made is and we had a chance to taste it. If you ask me, I don’t like it. I tried normal one and fruit flavored one and I don’t like any of them.
We finished one hour earlier so we still had some free time in city and we went to walk a little bit around and I got a chance to try Belgium waffles which are really good and also I tried Belgium chocolate which is awesome.
After that we come back to facility and we had wrap up and my host family picks me up and my host mum prepared really nice dinner. This was the first time I ate pumpkin soup. After dinner I had chocolate pudding and host mum prepared chocolate cake which was yummy.
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07.10.2007., nedjelja
US update
Few weeks ago we received notice about our US tour. As we are traveling to US soon you are curious where are we going to go:
Gwinnett County, Georgia - October 15 - 22
Winston-Salem, North Carolina - October 22 - 29
Easton, Maryland - October 29 - November 5
Woonsocket, Rhode Island - November 5 - 12
Hartford, Connecticut - November 12 - 19
Suffern, New York - November 19 - 26
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - November 22
Somerset Hills, New Jersey - November 26 - December 3
Bangor, Maine - December 3 - 10
December 10 - Future - No idea....
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Still in Erfurt
It's been crazy last few days and I didn't have much time to write what was happening every day so I will just retell in few lines.
In Thursday we had 2nd CI day and it was as cool as the fist one also. After morning meeting we met boys and we went taking photos of landscapes around the city so again we had a chance to see Erfurt in different lights. Around lunch time we come back to facility and we started working on photos and that was really cool. At 6PM we had presentation of all CI’s and what we did so we also had presentation of our photo art work and all other people presented their work. It was interesting to see what were all other people working on.
In Friday it was the Show day. In the morning we had education workshop and discussion about media and it was interesting to hear different opinions about media from other people. After that it was fitness time and we were doing some workouts and running in the woods near show facility. Than it was time for Belgium preparation and after that rehearsal for the show. Show was awesome and I especially loved German song part where we were singing “Was wir aliene” from Xaviar. It was pretty dark on the stage and we were all holding flashlights and it must look really nice from the audience.
In Saturday it was Educational day but it was made as “Create your own educational day”. I spend day with my host sister wondering around city and window shopping and at least we went to October fest to do some crazy stuff there. We went to big weal and some other things and it was really nice. I tried some October fest sweet specialties like sweet almonds or Orange with chocolate. Mmmmm… nice. When we came home, we had nice dinner with family and after that we were sharing photos from our families and photos from our countries. It was nice to do that so that we can meet other members of family and as well to get to know my host roommate Cindy better.
Today is host family day and my host family already have some nice plans for me so I have to hurry to prepare myself.
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03.10.2007., srijeda
October 3 – Reunification day for Germany
Today is Reunification day in Germany and it’s a holiday. Reunification day means that on 3rd October in 1989 the Berlin wall fall down and East and West Germany was unified.
Up with People organized morning sightseeing for us do we were split in 3 groups and we went sightseeing. Mostly I saw places which I already saw day earlier, but I heard some great legends and history stories about Erfurt.
After sightseeing, we were split in groups and went for scavenger hunt. I was with Lena and Mitch and it was fun to check some answers. Some questions, we just couldn’t find answer.
After scavenger hunt, it was lunch time and after lunch we visited former political prison in center of Erfurt where people who didn’t agree with politics were put inside. As Erfurt is part of former East Germany, many people who were more West oriented, were put in prisons. We got a chance to speak with 2 people who were in that prison because of political reasons and they talked about their experience. Prison was open in sometime in ’70 and closed in 1989. Cells were really small and it must have been horrible to be there.
After that our UWP day was over so our host family picked us up and we went together to have dinner in nice restaurant on top hill under Erfurt. It’s really nice place and you can see panorama view of Erfurt. I had really nice dinner, pasta with mushrooms and I really liked the place.
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02.10.2007., utorak
Update for Uelzen and Erfurt
I'm really sorry but I really didn't have chance to get on Internet and update my blog earlier and as well, I hope I will have chance to upload my photos as at the moment web page where I usually upload my photos is out of order at the moment.
October 2 – Our first CI day in Erfurt
Today I had my first CI day. After morning meeting we were split in groups and we went to have our CI. I was working in photography workshop with high school students and it was really cool CI. We were working with few students and we all went around the city to take photos of Erfurt as our main topic of photos was city Erfurt.
I met some really cool people today and from what I’ve seen, Erfurt is really nice city and I love it. It has the most quite trams I ever heard. They just sneak behind you and suddenly you realize that you might get hit by tram just for few centimeters. That’s scary.
We also visited cathedral and it’s really nice. I love it.
October 1 – Traveling to Erfurt
My host mum drop me off at 8 and our trip to Erfurt could start. We were around Erfurt area around 1AM and than we got police escort to Erfurt city center. It was so cool. This is the first time I have been escorted by police to some place.
Our meeting point was city hall where we had meeting with major and host family meeting. When we come there, first we had cast meeting and as our cast manager Martin is back from Las Vegas business trip, we had a lot of news to share with him and as well he had some great news to share with us, but more about that when the time for that comes around.
After cast meeting, major made a little speech and than we met our host families and after that we had little buffet.
I’m rooming with Cindy, staff member, this time and our host family is really nice. We live in nice house and I have 2 host sisters and host brother.
September 30 - Host family day
It's my host sister’s birthday and my host family prepared special day for her.
I woke up around 10.30 and soon after having breakfast and a little break, we went to bowling place to play some bowling. I have never bowled in my life so it was really nice to do that. Of course, first few time's I didn't hit anything but than I started to improve, but I never hit the „strike“how it is called when all bowls fall down.
After bowling we went to city to have lunch in one restaurant and I had some Asian food, really nice and tasty. After lunch we took short walk to city and I saw some Up with People people around.
When we finally come home, my host mum and I went outside to play badminton which was a lot of fun and after that we went to ride bike around the city area so that she can show me how their aria looks like and it's all new houses and it looks really nice. I love it.
September 29 - Show day
I still cannot believe what happened on our show day in Uelzen. I’m still under impression and very happy. Let me start from the beginning.
So, in the morning we had Tech workshop which mean that our Tech crew wanted to show us what is happening behind the scene while we are on the stage and how things work behind the scene. First, Gaby was explaining how the lightening board works and how he has to handle lights during the show. After that Andrew teach us how the sound board works and what you have to do that sound will be perfect. Michael, our truck driver, showed us what does to be in focus crew. Kristine explained what does it to be in band and how things work with band which. Jeremy was showing us how video and screen works and what he has to do during show for that. And last, Chris and Mitch showed us what means to have trust in your friends and people with who you work with. We did the trust fall from 2 different highs. First high was not so high so it was easy just to fall on your back and trust that your team is going to catch you. But 2nd fall was a little bit challenge as we had to fall from 1.5m. First I didn’t want to go as it seemed too high, but at least, I decided to take risk and I went. Standing up there and starting to fall seemed that fall is taking so much time. But it was totally worth. Feeling was great.
After tech workshops we had rehearsal and it was a little bit boring as rehearsal time passes so slowly sometimes. When it was over, we had dinner and I was rushing to take dinner and Sherlock stop me to tell me that some boys are searching for me and that I should go to see them. I decided to do that after dinner as I didn’t have a clue who is searching for me, but Sherlock didn’t want to resist and I had to go to find those boys. I went to another hall and when I saw who is standing there I screamed and I started to run to hug my dear friends and my host brother from Sodertalje. My host brother and Rodolfo and 2 girls come all the way from Sodertalje to Uelzen to visit me and to see Up with People show again. How cool is that?? It was really nice surprise and that really brighten my day. I was so excited and when I realized that my host brother and friends are going to watch me in the show (I wasn’t performing in Sodertalje as I was advanced team and I was watching the show), I started to feel a little bit nervous.
We ate dinner together and talked how it was for the past 2 weeks. At that time I still couldn’t believe that they are really sitting next to me. After dinner, I prepared myself and I brought them to Green room and after that show could start.
I had so much energy in the show that I was really happy. Show was really great and German song really brought excitement in audience.
After the show, I went to say hallo to my host family from Uelzen and I saw that they really enjoyed the show which was great. Also, I said goodbye to my Sodertalje friends and it was hard for me to say goodbye for the 2nd time but I was really happy that they showed as surprise here in Uelzen. Thank you guys… you really made my day! :)
After the show, I was part of strike crew and it was really exciting to be in the strike. I just love strike more than set up. Cannot help it. ;)
September 28 - Day in Hamburg
Today is our regional learning day and we were split in few groups and me and my group went to Hamburg. Train station in Uelzen is really nice. Its Hundertwasser artist architecture. Train we took to Hamburg is double floor train and it’s really cool. We took the train around 10AM and reached Hamburg at 11AM. I was in group with Guido, Jakkoo, Manuel and Sherlock.
We went all around the Hamburg. We also visited city hall which was really cool as city hall is really nice. Than we went to St. Nikolai’s church which is actually ruined church and only tower is left not so ruined and they made panorama view elevator on 75.8m high. There is really nice panorama view of whole Hamburg and it was worth 3EUR how much we had to pay for that.
After that we went to have lunch in Shopping center and I had really nice pasta with mushroom sauce. After that we went all the way down to river and it was really cool as river was really low and all surrounding buildings are red. It’s really nice place.
We had to take train to Uelzen at 2.58PM.
When we reached Uelzen, it was time for set up the stage in Theater where we are going to perform in Saturday. Set up was fun (or maybe I felt that way as I haven’t done strike for a while).
After strike, my host mum took me home to have dinner and after dinner she took me to center to meet Nicole, my host sister and go out with her. She took me to bar named Komma where I also meet some Up with People people and it was really cool. In the way I felt like being at home in some Croatian bar as the music is loud and it’s hard to hear German language. We stayed out till midnight as I had to go home to get some sleep for tomorrows show.
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- 23:45 -
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01.10.2007., ponedjeljak
Welcome to Erfurt
I'm in Erfurt. I'm writting you just a short notice and I'm sending you greetings from nice city of Erfurt. Tomorrow you can expect update stories from Uelzen and hopefully photos from all cities.
I have so much to tell you all about today's day but you'll have to wait until tomorrow.
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- 23:06 -
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