Saturday, January 27, 2007
12:15:25 AM

Hey all, Today was another ion a series of awesome days. Although I was [still] sick and quite tired I made the best of it by singing and dancing to the max. It was intense. I’m glad to have found out that I’ll be in the microphone groups for a number of the songs (that is, I don’t dance, I just sing and look good). This morning we had a session on “Living life in the Fish Bowl” and how we are always going to be watched from here on out and every thing we do reflects back on the program and our home countries. So needless to say no matter how tired and sick you are; you’ve gotta be positive and smiling. This isn’t an issue with me. We also did a recap session on Culture Shock. Some people are really not doing so well with dealing with it. I think I was over mine within the first 5 minutes at Newark airport. We did a near complete runthrough in the afternoon. On Monday we will be switching to a new facility where we will be starting technical and dress rehearsals. Our first full dress rehearsal is on next Thursday. It should be good; well, aside from the fact that I have yet to see the fiddle music for the two Irish pieces I’m supposed to be doing to start off the “Culture Jam” session of the show. Its all Good™. After we finished today, the Skillens, Peppe, and myself went out for supper to a place across town called “Jason’s Deli”. I had a Spicy Chicken Panini and half of Kevin’s special made “Ruben on Rye”. They did have all you can eat ice cream for dessert but I was to stuffed for seconds on dessert. My stomach has definitely shrunk somewhat. Following supper we went to the Flatirons (name of the suburb) Plaza. I bought a shirt for my stage costume and also visited [yet] another Apple Store. It was Awesome. Anyhow. I’ve tried to put a video from YouTube of one of our dance numbers in rehearsal on this page. Also you can check out the UWP promotional video from the link below. And Remember, Its all Good™


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHVCemWNxsU

Remember your PIM's, YNK's, and TOOT's!
Soo Tired
RMCAD Clock Tower
Listening Intently
A Newfie in the Big City
Leonardo & his dance partner.
Jason’s Deli
Michelle & Kevin
Me at Yet another Apple Store!
Apple right Next to Victoria's Secret: Trying to tell us something?

Watch Us Dance!!
(Shout out to Jon Moore in St. John's NL)

Thursday, January 25, 2007
6:09:14 PM

I woke up sick this morning. I slept almost right until 7:20. I considered breakfast but I was too sick to eat anything; I didn’t even have a coffee. Morning was killer doing vocals because I could barely sing. The second half of the morning was devoted to making fun of my poor dance skills (although its probably just me being ill and having no breakfast or coffee). Over lunch we decided on a hosting service for our www.casta07.com website. All afternoon we were slotted to do more dancing and blocking. Fortunately I was pulled from the group to start rehearsing for the on stage backup mic group. I figure this is what I’ll be doing for quite a few numbers in the show. Between that and the two Irish fiddle pieces I’m doing, I figure I’ll get to excuse myself from some of the more hard core dance numbers. Its all Good™. The other Bass in the mic group section is Bjorne who I was told doesn’t look like a very energetic singer compared next to me. The second half of the afternoon we spent working with the writers and choreographers of two of the show pieces “Stomp” and “Power With”. It was awesome. I’ll admit I did learn some pretty cool rhythmic dance moves from them. Today we’re staying late on campus to watch the movie “an inconvenient truth”. Its open to all students here so the theatre is packed.

In lieu of Global warming, Louigi from Venezuela decided to wear some more temperature appropriate clothing.

I also for got to mention that yesterday was the first time I had ever tried Wrigglies "Orbit" gum; made in Canada, sold only abroad as well as my first Cheeze-its. It was all good.



The movie "The Inconvenient Truth" was about global warming and was done by Al Gore. It was quite well done. I, however having done a fair amount of research on the topic still learned a fair bit. I would recommend this film as well as the movie "The day after Tomorrow".

Another interesting site that we touched on was http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp
where you can calculate your ecological footprint and see how many earths it would require (resource wise) if everyone lived with the same standard of living as you.



Another site that I think is really eye opening is http://www.miniature-earth.com/. In its video it brings the world down to 100 people and shows you the breakdown of wealth among other things. Its defiantly worth checking out. In fact if you only click on one blog link from my entire blogs its this one. Watch it. (hint hint teachers; show it to your classes its less that 5 minutes)

Also one correction to make; here is the correct URL of the food bank agency that I worked with yesterday. http://www.foodbankrockies.org/

I can't believe we have to perform the show in less than a week; Its going to be intense. I can't wait to get on the road!

Oh!, for those interested; here is the data that Google analytics spits back to me about who is reading my blog; You can't even see Newfoundland for the dots anymore!



Its all Good™

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
11:24:14 PM

What an awesome day! After our morning meeting, we broke into our 4 groups and headed off to our various CI sites. I, along with 21 others headed to the “Foodbank of the Rockies” on the bus. I had incorrectly indicated yesterday that I was going to be workign with Share Colorado when it was another group that was working there. Upon arrival we were greeted with signs welcoming us the UWP volunteers. I thought it a bit odd but oh well. After a brief introduction we were set up to work on an assembly line style production line. From making the boxes, filling them, and taping them up and stacking them 50 at a time on wooden palettes; we did it all. We switched around jobs every so often. I started out with instant potatoes and beans, moved to canned fruit, then to canned potatoes, and ultimately to rising to become a tape gunner. We were provided with ample snack food at lunch to supplement our healthy bagged lunch. After we had wrapped up around 3:30 they totaled the boxed we had packed and it came to 1431; not too bad for just 20 people. That worked out to be around 29 pallets full. Most of the food in the warehouse was provided through the USDA and major companies such as Kraft and Kellogs. The boxes we packed will be shipped out to all over Colorado and surrounding states to hungry people who don’t have the means to purchase healthy meals themselves. In the wrap up session today everyone was absolutely crazy about such a good day it was. I’m aching all over and I’m feeling a bit sick but it definitely was for a great cause and I’m looking forward to the next CI day. Its all Good™

Getting there
Denver Skyline
The Line
Boxing
Mission Statement
Lunch Time!
Me and My Sliced Canned Potatoes.
Olive, one of the Warehouse managers.
Sleepy on the way back

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
12:01:45 AM

A good chunk of this morning was consumed with the taking of the cast photos. I am officially the second tallest person in the cast. The tallest is a guy named Wouter (Vouter for you non Germans) and he is one of the education coordinators and consequently the staff member helping with my particular CI project tomorrow (community impact). Tomorrow I am spending the day working at the food bank (http://www.careandshare.org/) <-- I’m pretty sure that is the right link. This is our fist of many CI days. We will usually devote 2 or 3 days specifically to working on CI projects per city.
This morning we had a session with John Butler, the founder of Rocky Mountain Relief, an organization designed to help the victims of hurricane Katrina. It was really inspiring how one person with a single idea and a little motivation could put all of this together. I would encourage you to read more about his project at (http://www.rockymountainrelief.org/about.htm). Lunch was Turkey salad subs. One thing that I have found to be rather odd here is that they tend to throw apples into everything. There was apple in the turkey salad sandwich which caught me completely off guard. It adds a certain sweet flavor to places you wouldn’t normally expect it.
The afternoon was spent for the most part doing some of the finer blocking of the show. We did two complete run-throughs and fixed a lot of things. One the ride home, Kory the cast manager showed off his new in car GPS system that speaks the directions to you as you are driving and shows you a 3d map of where you are. We tried unsuccessfully to come up with a female name for the device. My vote went for Sacajaweya because the brand name was “Tom-Tom” (I guess because it kind of looked like a drum and you tapped the screen of the device), and of course she was the native tracker on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Anyhow, Supper was slow cooked roast beef and with that I had the leftover baked beans from yesterday; ah a taste of home.
After supper I took a little walk around Arvada. I went to the Conoco gas station, the Walgreens convenience store, and the Starbucks. I bought a package of Junior Mints because I’d never had them before and I remembered them from an episode of Seinfeld. As it turns out Peppe is a big fan of Seinfeld and has a big poster of George on his wall. Well I’m going to need some sleep for yet another big day tomorrow. Its all Good™


Walgreens
Junior Mints, Kramer was right, they are good.
Its always sooooo Sunny!
Self Portrait
The Music Man
Afternoon Sun
Theses Squirrels Got Attitude!
Peppe, our Mexican friend off to do advanced work in Farminton today.
The Lunch Crew.
Center Stage

I can here the train whistling in the distance as I fall asleep..
Its all Good™

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
12:21:53 AM

Today started out with a rather rough start. One the way to the campus this morning we saw two car accidents; one serious and one just a fender bender. Team 7 presented the news from Africa this morning. This is one one place that Up with People has yet to travel to. Much was said about political instability, HIV/Aids, and the new movie “Blood Diamonds”. For the rest of the morning we did cast movement and vocals; they seem to be coming along nicely. In the afternoon we had a round table discussion with 8 different different community leaders ranging from college alumni affairs to businessmen to doctors. I wis wish I could write more but I can’t find my sheet of notes. I learned a lot about leadership and how there everyone is a leader but in different ways at different times. The key is to know when you need to lead and when you need to be a good listener and follower; because there wouldn’t be leaders if there were no followers. For the last half of the afternoon we did an activity called “Cross the line” in order to learn more about each other. The room was taped in half down the middle. Statements were read out and those that felt that they agreed with them or felt that it applied to them would cross the line and then we would have a discussion about it. Some of the questions were very difficult, some were fun. In our debrief session there were many people who cried after sharing what they had shared. Our cast is really getting close. I can’t imagine what its going to be like after a few months of this.
Today I also signed up for the assistantship position of helping with the truck crew which basically for the US tour involves loading and unloading all of our stage equipment from the truck. Yay, exciting I know but hey, I do what I can. I also signed up to work all day Wednesday at the colorado food bank. Tomorrow I am applying for the Education Internship within UWP where I basically shadow the education team; doing presentations and organizing activities as well as visiting schools and doing presentations there, Tomorrow is also the cast picture day.

Its all Good™

Sunday, January 21, 2007
12:01:57 AM

Today was a rather relaxed day. There were no workshops to attend, no dancing to do; Just catch up on some sleep. I was able to accomplish this task for the most part thanks to my trusty set of ear plugs as there was still ongoing construction in the bathroom upstairs. It looks really good now with white instead of that old beige/cream colour. We went to breakfast around 4 in the afternoon to The International House of Pancakes, or IHOP for short. I had (of course) all you can eat pancakes and was able to down about 7 of them before I was full. They had a variety of syrups including blueberry and butter pecan as well as the traditional maple. After that we went to Office Depot so Peppe could buy some blank cd’s and I could buy a screwdriver to install the ram into my macbook with.
All of that is well and good but today was really one of those days when you had to stop and think. And think I did. I know its been almost a month since I’ve last seen Miranda; and I also know that we knew it wasn’t going to be easy to be apart like this. Bad days are bound to happen I know. I’d just like you all to know that I really do miss her and that I love her and in-spite of all this traveling around the world that I’m doing; my heart will always be in Newfoundland with her. <3

Its All Good™

A dusting of snow
International House of Pancakes
I knew what I wanted when I walked in.
Coffee was good too
And they did bring me more.
Let them Eat Pancakes!

Sunday, January 21, 2007
2:31:29 AM

Today was our first pseudo Friday. We still had sessions all day today instead of having the day off. We did the rough blocking for the entire show today as well as were given more details as far as mic groups and dance leaders are concerned. For lunch we had spaghetti and do-it-yourself caesar salads in the Rotunda building (as the café was closed). We wrapped up an hour earlier than usual today after having some home team time to share more about ourselves and eat doughnuts. I talked about how I always have my camera with me and that its “start up screen” is a picture of Miranda my fiancé and myself. Everyone thought it was real cute/awesome. Also during home team time we played a game called Click Click Bang Bang. It starts out with only one or two people knowing how the game works. With everyone sitting in circle, one of these “knowing” people points at random people and either says click or bang in any random pattern. Then they ask the question “Who Died?” The other players don’t know that it is completely random and try to find some pattern to the clicking and banging. The beauty of it all is that the person who dies is the person who talks first after the question is asked. Unfortunately most players are too caught up in all the clicking and banging that they overlook this most obvious of points. We played for a good 20 minutes and I was one of the very few who figured it out (even before a Harvard student; Go MUN Go!). After the day was over we arrived back to the house to find the work crew still working away in the bathroom. After a delicious Irish supper of mashed potatoes and cabbage with chicken, Peppe and I decided to go and take in a movie in old downtown Arvada. We saw A Night in the Museum. It was awesome! I won’t say too much about it but It was all Good™ (and very funny too). After the movie Peppe and I walked around for a while trying yo find a place that sells #0 phillips screwdrivers to install the RAM into my MacBook. We never did find one that was open. We did however come across a restaurant called Ruby Tuesdays. We went in and he had a Heineken and I had a Dr. Pib (rip off of Dr. Pepper). We talked at great length about differences between our countries and their education systems. Michelle came and picked us up afterward. While we were waiting for her we practiced some of the dance moves from the UWP show on the sidewalk and were cheered on by passers by from their car windows.
I’m dead beat and can’t wait to sleep in tomorrow......
Its all Good™


Arvada Movie TheatreFrappaccino; Starbucks Style
Me & Peppe @ Ruby Tuesdays
Ruby Tuesdays
Ruby Tuesdays
The Name Game
Home Team # 5 (aka the best home team ever)
From Left to right:
Aoifa (Ireland), Patrick (US), Lauran (US), Christa (US), Peppe (Sweden), Maria (Germany), Michelle (Canada), Peppe (Mexico), Sandra (China)
asd