Photo Captions: Me; Kory (cast Manager), Me, Whittney, Mayoka, and Peppe; Angelo From Curaco with his nations flag in the Culture Jam

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
11:37 pm

Today was a really busy day indeed. This morning I got up a bit earlier to have breakfast. Kory the cast manager drove us in to the campus this morning. Along with us was Whitney from Panema, Mayoka (probably wrong spelling) from China, and my room mate Peppe from Sweden. After our morning meeting, we had our first vocal session where the entire cast started learning the music of the show. Later that morning we had a seminar on host family expectations where we discussed expectations on both sides of the table with regards to what goes into being a host family and what you are expected to do as a student. This included such topics as curfews, alcohol, and house chores. Lunch was the already routine soup and sandwich; but the conversation is always good. In the afternoon we spent several hours in dance lessons; yes dance lessons, and yes this is Brennan here. By the time I’m done with this program I should be at least somewhat proficient in many styles of dance from Latin and Swing to Hip Hop. I think some of my friends back in Canada would pay to see me do that. None the least of which is Adam Daniels, My home boy holding down the fort up in St. John’s; Keep it Real! (or Keep it reel if you are from Cape Breton). Following dance we had another seminar with some alumni from UWP and how it has its roots in the Moral Rearmament Movement long before 1965; the year of UPW’s unofficial founding. We had dinner with them as well. We had steamed rice, chicken and salad. Tonight we also had another great even we call “Culture Jam” where anyone who wants to share something (perform something) from their culture has the chance to do so. Many people danced, some sang, some even acted. I played the fiddle. I am so fortunate because even though I didn’t bring my fiddle from home; my host family was able to find one that I could borrow. Even though I screwed up a little they all still clapped. It was all Good™ And so now its going on midnight here and my room mate Peppe is snoring away in the sofa bed next to mine so I’m going to wrap this cornucopia of awesomeness up and turn in for the night. Cheers!