One week left to go!

Sunday. Busy day. Woke up around 9:30am, had homemade biscuits and gravy...mmmm, got dance shoes and other dance stuff, got a haircut, got some stuff at the grocery store, and came home to Thanksgiving dinner! That's right, Thanksgiving dinner! Sandra my roommate is from China, thus has never had a Thanksgiving, so Dad cooked us a real dinner with all the fixin's (cranberry sauce, mash potatoes, corn, rolls, black olives, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie (with homemade whip cream)) I am still full, it was soooo incredibly good!

So that was my Sunday.

So this week was a rough one for me. I'm still sick but thankfully I only have a cough now and don't feel like an elephant was standing on me. Other than being sick the week from Wednesday was pretty good and very busy! Thursday, we had a basic day that started with a presentation on Culture Shock...yes even us Americans are gonna go through it. And then we finished the day with the "Inconceivable Truth" a documentary by former Vice President Al Gore about Global Warming. I highly suggest that if you have the opportunity to see it you do so. It was very informative and supported very well. However, as one of my staff members mentioned, if the subject is of interest to you seek out other sources to ensure non biased information.

Friday came and we started our day with a presentation by Bruce Early an UWP alumni that talked to us about the "Fishbowl" and how now that we are in UWP we are now in the fishbowl and everyone is watching us, every move we make! He was very humorous and made some great points about the fishbowl. Then the day proceeded with more rehearsal.

Saturday guess what...we had more rehearsal. We also had a presentation on global issues and how things in the world are all connected to eachother. For example- Tell me what you know about Madagascar, Bangladesh, China, Italy, Malasysia, Korea, or Palastine and then look at all the tags on your clothes. That's just one example of how we are connected. After that we were challenged to see in what other ways we are connected, like food, war, water, materials, deforestation, medication and healthcare, etc. Very interesting. After the Global Grab Bag we rehearsed more the good news is that we are starting to look and sound really great. I love the dancing and am having a lot of fun learning more and more and seeing everyone do more and more. It's pretty cool, especially the main dancers, they are incredible! Saturday evening was also pretty amazing. At first we didn't think that we were going to go anywhere but then a bunch of us from our shuttle area decided to join up and see "Blood Diamond" (This is the movie that stars Leonardo DeCaprio) The next part is pretty tough to take so if you are not sure that you can handle difficult subject matter please skip this part... and go to the part with the ***


Blood Diamond is about the wars, deaths, and slaveries caused by the greed over diamonds in Africa. If you are married and have a wedding ring, look at it. Did you ever buy or receive a diamond (earrings, rings, necklace, bracelet, watch)? Do you know where it came from? Some of those diamonds you have may have been the cause of thousands of brutal murders. Some of those diamonds in your possession may have been harvested by a slave in Africa mining at gunpoint by a 10 year old child kidnapped and forced to be a murderous soldier. Right now there are still over 200,000 child soldiers in Africa. I cried not during this movie, but as the credits were rolling. Please don't go see this movie because you heard is was a "good movie." Go see this true story movie to try to understand and be willing to not stand for such terrible things just so you can have a beautiful piece of jewelry. If you don't see this movie, please remember this and promise me this- if you buy a diamond insist to your jeweler that it be a "conflict free" diamond. If they don't know or won't say...don't buy it. Think about it and make a change.



***Tomorrow we switch colleges and go to the school that our actual performance will be at. We leave Colorado next Monday! I can't believe it! I'm really excited and can't wait to start our journey!