Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Saturday, March 3, 2007
I am ALIVE...REALLY, I am :)
Hello everyone! Just a quick note...sorry this is not an update but just a note to quickly explain what is up with my blog. Things are going great here with everything...which means it is a big challenge to get on my computer after very long days to sit down, load hundreds of pictures (I took 476 this week), and then write a blog about everything that has happened. Right now it is 12:09am and I have to be back upo at 4:45am to get ready for our show day. I will try my hardest to have something posted by Monday morning. I appreciate everyone's patience and caring words. I read my mail and comments and appreciate it all so much. So for now I'm heading off to bed. I love you all.
Jessica
Jessica
Sunday, February 11, 2007
NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE!!!
Scroll down to "MY FINAL WEEK IN COLORADO" to catch up before you read about New Mexico!!! Chao!!!
My week in Farmington, New Mexico!
So this week has been great! Monday was our travel day and we made it to Farmington at little late and a little tired and a little hungry, but ready to meet our new family and roommate!
We arrived in Farmington around 7pm-ish and first found our roommates. Yulin from China was my roommate this week and the Bedford Family was our host family. We found them from our "host code" we were assigned. This time the host code was food. We were given the name of a non parishable food item and our goal was to find the family that held the actual item. Afterwords, the food was donated to one of the non-profits that we worked with throughout the week. So we made it home and had some dinner, then chatted till about 11:30pm about everything and anything and nothing. It was really nice. Our host family is a family of four with two girls, Veronya (9yrs.) and Claire (5yrs.).
The next two days were spent doing community impact where we worked side by side with highschoolers from the area at local non profits. The two places I worked at was Desert View Sexual Assault Services and P.A.T.H (People Assisting the Homeless). We started our days with icebreakers to help get the students comfortable with working with us. At each of the places we did a lot of painting and at PATH we did some remodeling. At the end of the day we had accomplished a lot and it felt great to make a difference that we could see.
Thursday was our first official show. We rehearsed all day. And the night, in my opinion went very well.
Friday was our day of regional learning. We went to the Navajo Reservation and visted Shiprock and the highschool in the area. Shiprock is a giant vocanic rock in the middle of nowhere that the Navajo Nation believe was sent to them by the spirits and therefore it is considered very sacred. It was breathtaking. We finished our afternoon with a presentation in Navajo dance and culture. Two Navajo princesses spoke (they will also be traveling with us next semester) and the Vice President of the people also was there to speak. We got back to the center that UWP hung out at and had a long round of reflection about where we feel we are at now in our UWP experience. That evening we got home and had some dinner and then our host dad invited us out to a local country dance bar. Our host mom didn't go because she was feeling under the weather, so the three of us got ready and left to tear up the dance floor. We got home just after 1:30 from having a night of sooo much fun. I two stepped for the second time in my life, and got to see Yulin experience A LOT of fun firsts. It was a great night and sooo memorable.
Well, we had to be up early for Saturday morning but surprisingly I was wide awake and full of energy! Saturday also consisted of rehearsal as our second official show was Saturday night. Saturday's show didn't go as well as Thursday's and I was pretty disappointed in my performance. However, the vibe I got was that it wasn't just me so I think we all need to work more on how to stay more focused and keep our energy up weven when our butts have been kicked. I did m,y second interview yesterday too and interviewed a wonderful girl that I hope will have the opportunity to travel with us soon.
Today, Sunday, was a pretty chill hang out day. Our host mom made us blueberry pancakes- I had 4- and then we all just kinda sat and chatted. My host mom and I shared pictures and Yulin and our host dad shared in depth conversation. We hung out some more then decided to checkout Farmington and some shops. We ultimately ended up at the mall because all the shops in Framington are closed on Sundays. While I was disappointed that I might have missed out on souveneir shopping it was really great to see how a whole town still values the "day off." Regardless, the mall had what I wanted. After the mall, we raveled back up to Colorado to visit a town called Durango. This is where my host dad grew up. Wow. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy and eventually snowy, but still really beautiful netled in a valley in the mountains. We finished out our evening with dinner at a Southwest Mexican restuarant. I had a Pina Colada, Fajitas, and we all shared a really yummy desert. Oh, how I love food!!! I fell asleep on the way home bu not before we chatted and giggled a bit.
Tomorrow we leave Framington and our family and head on out to Arizona. And like Denver I know it will be hard to say goodbye. I had a lot of fun in New Mexico and loved my family for everything they shared with us. Thank you Bedford Family!!!
Again I'm in the process of uploading more photos so i will have them up when I can. Till then enjoy the one's I've posted!!!
Now I'm off to pack and get to bed. We leave tomorrow at 7:30am for Tucson, Arizona!
We arrived in Farmington around 7pm-ish and first found our roommates. Yulin from China was my roommate this week and the Bedford Family was our host family. We found them from our "host code" we were assigned. This time the host code was food. We were given the name of a non parishable food item and our goal was to find the family that held the actual item. Afterwords, the food was donated to one of the non-profits that we worked with throughout the week. So we made it home and had some dinner, then chatted till about 11:30pm about everything and anything and nothing. It was really nice. Our host family is a family of four with two girls, Veronya (9yrs.) and Claire (5yrs.).
The next two days were spent doing community impact where we worked side by side with highschoolers from the area at local non profits. The two places I worked at was Desert View Sexual Assault Services and P.A.T.H (People Assisting the Homeless). We started our days with icebreakers to help get the students comfortable with working with us. At each of the places we did a lot of painting and at PATH we did some remodeling. At the end of the day we had accomplished a lot and it felt great to make a difference that we could see.
Thursday was our first official show. We rehearsed all day. And the night, in my opinion went very well.
Friday was our day of regional learning. We went to the Navajo Reservation and visted Shiprock and the highschool in the area. Shiprock is a giant vocanic rock in the middle of nowhere that the Navajo Nation believe was sent to them by the spirits and therefore it is considered very sacred. It was breathtaking. We finished our afternoon with a presentation in Navajo dance and culture. Two Navajo princesses spoke (they will also be traveling with us next semester) and the Vice President of the people also was there to speak. We got back to the center that UWP hung out at and had a long round of reflection about where we feel we are at now in our UWP experience. That evening we got home and had some dinner and then our host dad invited us out to a local country dance bar. Our host mom didn't go because she was feeling under the weather, so the three of us got ready and left to tear up the dance floor. We got home just after 1:30 from having a night of sooo much fun. I two stepped for the second time in my life, and got to see Yulin experience A LOT of fun firsts. It was a great night and sooo memorable.
Well, we had to be up early for Saturday morning but surprisingly I was wide awake and full of energy! Saturday also consisted of rehearsal as our second official show was Saturday night. Saturday's show didn't go as well as Thursday's and I was pretty disappointed in my performance. However, the vibe I got was that it wasn't just me so I think we all need to work more on how to stay more focused and keep our energy up weven when our butts have been kicked. I did m,y second interview yesterday too and interviewed a wonderful girl that I hope will have the opportunity to travel with us soon.
Today, Sunday, was a pretty chill hang out day. Our host mom made us blueberry pancakes- I had 4- and then we all just kinda sat and chatted. My host mom and I shared pictures and Yulin and our host dad shared in depth conversation. We hung out some more then decided to checkout Farmington and some shops. We ultimately ended up at the mall because all the shops in Framington are closed on Sundays. While I was disappointed that I might have missed out on souveneir shopping it was really great to see how a whole town still values the "day off." Regardless, the mall had what I wanted. After the mall, we raveled back up to Colorado to visit a town called Durango. This is where my host dad grew up. Wow. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy and eventually snowy, but still really beautiful netled in a valley in the mountains. We finished out our evening with dinner at a Southwest Mexican restuarant. I had a Pina Colada, Fajitas, and we all shared a really yummy desert. Oh, how I love food!!! I fell asleep on the way home bu not before we chatted and giggled a bit.
Tomorrow we leave Framington and our family and head on out to Arizona. And like Denver I know it will be hard to say goodbye. I had a lot of fun in New Mexico and loved my family for everything they shared with us. Thank you Bedford Family!!!
Again I'm in the process of uploading more photos so i will have them up when I can. Till then enjoy the one's I've posted!!!
Now I'm off to pack and get to bed. We leave tomorrow at 7:30am for Tucson, Arizona!
My final week in Colorado.
Good Morning!!! Sorry it has been a while with my blog...I am learning some great things with Up With People about a very important subject- TIME MANAGEMENT! Anyways, I hope to gt better as the weeks and months progress, but till then be patient and I will try my best to stay in touch.
One of the main reasons that I didn't get around to writing last week was because of the hours we were putting in with rehearsal for our first show (dress rehearsal in front on 1000 people). Every day was incredibly long starting at 5:45am and going till 8 or 9 each night then getting even longer come the show nights.
So let me take you to Wednesday, as most of the week was the same. Oh but before I do that I want to mention one really cool event... The announcements of the internships and assistantships. I applied for the Education Internship as well as the Admissions and External Realtions Internships. Unfortunately, I wasn't chosen for an internship this time around, but I was asked to do two assistantships! One for the Education Team as a Community Impact Crew Leader and the other for Photography. I was a little bummed about not getting an internship this tie around, but am really excited for the people that were chosen as well as for the fact that I still have the opportunity to try out two other areas that interest me. I was encouraged to apply again for Europe and I wouldn't pass that up for the world!
So now...for Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007. Wenesday we not only rehearsed but had our first dress dress rehearsal. It went well but with A LOT of notes. We didn't get home till pretty late that night...about 10.
We had a very special visitor Wednesday and Thursday. Ben Shalom from the United Nations. He is part of a program intituted by the UN called Culture of Peace, a project that includes much of the same mission statement of Up With People. He spoke briefly to us about the program and even attended our show!
Thursday was our show day- dress rehearsal for the entire tour. We say dress rehearsal, but we performed in front of a real audience with host families, alumni, prospective students, and sponsors. That night there was a blizzard and our sold out audience of 1000 turned out to be about 450, but it was still great and it was so nice to have those there that were there...even after driving 2 hours...Thank you Mom (Ellen), Dad (Mike), and Rosie!!! Before the show, the cast goes into the Green Room to get ready and get motivated for the show. Just before Green Room we got ready to perform and got into our costumes and make-up. I'm letting you know that part because Green Room was great but they made us cry! And after all that time putting makeup on, most of the girls had to go back into the dressing room to fix our makeup!!! (The crying part was good, and was a nice way to reflect on all our hard work.) I have pictures of Green Room, but I'm going to save those for when I get home to share with others. Green Room is an awesome experience that I would love to share, but there are things I would like to keep closer and for myself.
The show went great. Of course there were messups and lots of things we need to work on, but for a first show I think we did awesome and it's really nice to see all the support everyone gives.
I was part of the infamous "Strike Crew" on show night which meant that I got to help take down the stage and load everything up into the trucks. I learned a bit about technical stuff and some of it was interesting but I definitley think my calling will not be in staging! That night I didn't get home until 1am. Friday moring started again at 5:45am.
Friday was a "on the road" prep day. We learned how to do interviews on the road. We learned about what we will be doing when we go into the schools to do Stand for Peace. Our day was an hour shorter, but our night wasn't over...Margeaux and Charlotte had a birthday party hosted by Margeaux's host family. We had spaghetti, and salad, and cake, and all sorts of stuff. Then we did some Karaoke we played around with some of our UWP songs for our host families. It was a lot of fun. We got home Friday around 11:20pm.
Saturday was great! Because we striked the set on Thursday we got the day off. Sandra and I got to sleep in a bit, and then our familiy took us to Estes Park up in the mountains. It was so gorgeous!!! We ate, shopped a bit, went siteseeing (I saw ELK!!!!) After our afternoon in Estes Park we had dinner in Loveland, CO at a place called Blackeyed Peas. It was really good and we had a lot of fun. That pretty much ended our night and Sandra and I were beat!
Sunday fulfilled childhood dreams...our Dad (Mike) is a Firefighter and invited us for brunch at the Firehouse. So Sunday morng we piled in the car and went to Denver for brunch and a tour of the Firehouse. The firshouse has 9 people staying there at a time. And one of those 9 is a woman...I give that girl LOTS of credit to hang out with men for 24 hours at a time!!! Seriously though, they were all really great and in Sandra's words, such "hot firefighters!" There was soooooo much food...Eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, green chili sauce for breakfast burritos!!! And soo good! Firefighters are excellent cooks! Afterwords, Sandra and I got a tour and got to try on the suits and gear. Then we got to spray a firehose and ride in the firetruck! It was sooo cool! Check out the pictures! So it came time to leave, but because our dad was in the middle of his shift we had to say goodbye because he would not be there Monday morning when we left for New Mexico. It was our first goodbye and I know now that 19 more are going to be really tough.
The rest of our day consisted of packing, laundry, uploading pictures- which took literally 12 hours! Monday morning we finished everything up, said a sad goodbye to Mom and Rosie, and headed out for Farmington, New Mexico.
One of the main reasons that I didn't get around to writing last week was because of the hours we were putting in with rehearsal for our first show (dress rehearsal in front on 1000 people). Every day was incredibly long starting at 5:45am and going till 8 or 9 each night then getting even longer come the show nights.
So let me take you to Wednesday, as most of the week was the same. Oh but before I do that I want to mention one really cool event... The announcements of the internships and assistantships. I applied for the Education Internship as well as the Admissions and External Realtions Internships. Unfortunately, I wasn't chosen for an internship this time around, but I was asked to do two assistantships! One for the Education Team as a Community Impact Crew Leader and the other for Photography. I was a little bummed about not getting an internship this tie around, but am really excited for the people that were chosen as well as for the fact that I still have the opportunity to try out two other areas that interest me. I was encouraged to apply again for Europe and I wouldn't pass that up for the world!
So now...for Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007. Wenesday we not only rehearsed but had our first dress dress rehearsal. It went well but with A LOT of notes. We didn't get home till pretty late that night...about 10.
We had a very special visitor Wednesday and Thursday. Ben Shalom from the United Nations. He is part of a program intituted by the UN called Culture of Peace, a project that includes much of the same mission statement of Up With People. He spoke briefly to us about the program and even attended our show!
Thursday was our show day- dress rehearsal for the entire tour. We say dress rehearsal, but we performed in front of a real audience with host families, alumni, prospective students, and sponsors. That night there was a blizzard and our sold out audience of 1000 turned out to be about 450, but it was still great and it was so nice to have those there that were there...even after driving 2 hours...Thank you Mom (Ellen), Dad (Mike), and Rosie!!! Before the show, the cast goes into the Green Room to get ready and get motivated for the show. Just before Green Room we got ready to perform and got into our costumes and make-up. I'm letting you know that part because Green Room was great but they made us cry! And after all that time putting makeup on, most of the girls had to go back into the dressing room to fix our makeup!!! (The crying part was good, and was a nice way to reflect on all our hard work.) I have pictures of Green Room, but I'm going to save those for when I get home to share with others. Green Room is an awesome experience that I would love to share, but there are things I would like to keep closer and for myself.
The show went great. Of course there were messups and lots of things we need to work on, but for a first show I think we did awesome and it's really nice to see all the support everyone gives.
I was part of the infamous "Strike Crew" on show night which meant that I got to help take down the stage and load everything up into the trucks. I learned a bit about technical stuff and some of it was interesting but I definitley think my calling will not be in staging! That night I didn't get home until 1am. Friday moring started again at 5:45am.
Friday was a "on the road" prep day. We learned how to do interviews on the road. We learned about what we will be doing when we go into the schools to do Stand for Peace. Our day was an hour shorter, but our night wasn't over...Margeaux and Charlotte had a birthday party hosted by Margeaux's host family. We had spaghetti, and salad, and cake, and all sorts of stuff. Then we did some Karaoke we played around with some of our UWP songs for our host families. It was a lot of fun. We got home Friday around 11:20pm.
Saturday was great! Because we striked the set on Thursday we got the day off. Sandra and I got to sleep in a bit, and then our familiy took us to Estes Park up in the mountains. It was so gorgeous!!! We ate, shopped a bit, went siteseeing (I saw ELK!!!!) After our afternoon in Estes Park we had dinner in Loveland, CO at a place called Blackeyed Peas. It was really good and we had a lot of fun. That pretty much ended our night and Sandra and I were beat!
Sunday fulfilled childhood dreams...our Dad (Mike) is a Firefighter and invited us for brunch at the Firehouse. So Sunday morng we piled in the car and went to Denver for brunch and a tour of the Firehouse. The firshouse has 9 people staying there at a time. And one of those 9 is a woman...I give that girl LOTS of credit to hang out with men for 24 hours at a time!!! Seriously though, they were all really great and in Sandra's words, such "hot firefighters!" There was soooooo much food...Eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, green chili sauce for breakfast burritos!!! And soo good! Firefighters are excellent cooks! Afterwords, Sandra and I got a tour and got to try on the suits and gear. Then we got to spray a firehose and ride in the firetruck! It was sooo cool! Check out the pictures! So it came time to leave, but because our dad was in the middle of his shift we had to say goodbye because he would not be there Monday morning when we left for New Mexico. It was our first goodbye and I know now that 19 more are going to be really tough.
The rest of our day consisted of packing, laundry, uploading pictures- which took literally 12 hours! Monday morning we finished everything up, said a sad goodbye to Mom and Rosie, and headed out for Farmington, New Mexico.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Off to Farmington, New Mexico!!!
Well, it's 6:31am and in just a few minutes we will be leaving for the buss that will take us to New Mexico. All my photos JUST finished uploading and I hope to have something written and post about this last week and my experience here by tomorrow night.
Colorado has been great and I am going to miss it very much.
Colorado has been great and I am going to miss it very much.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
