The Continuing: 2007-03-18

Saturday, March 17, 2007
1:28:55 AM
(Updated!)

Today was one of the most intense days of the trip thus far. Getting up at 4:45 am, I scarfed down a pop tart, a slimfast, and a bagel as we headed out to the morning drop off point. Unfortunately I was there for over an hour and a half because the driver of the carpool slept in. It happens. We eventually found our way to the theater located in Opreyland where setup was well underway. People were wondering where the heck I had been. Needless to say, we did get everything setup and had rehearsal in the morning. There are a lot of peoples families here this week. We had boxed lunches containing ham sandwiches, cookies, and chips. I worked in the house before the show handing out programs so I missed green room for the fourth or fifth show in a row; that’s ok with me though. Unfortunately I don’t think we attracted the numbers we had hoped to and probably as a result the show suffered from a lack of energy. I don’t know what happened between the two shows (besides supper where they served brownies with pecans) but the second show was much more energetic. The audience was a bit bigger in the evening but I’m sure that wasn’t all of it. Anyhows, it was all good. Following the show I helped conduct 2 interviews. My first interview was with My and it went very well. The applicant was passionate about theatre and doing community service. The second interview I conducted with Lauran and it went well as well. Afterwards I finished up my truck crew internship by loading nearly perfectly one of the transport trucks. We finished up just around 11:30, unfortunately there were two people from my carpool that were no wheres to be seen. As it turns out they had gone home with their host family. Danny, Patrick and myself navigated our way back to my host family’s house using the hand written directions my host mom had given me. We arrived there a bit after midnight. I started in on the daunting task of packing but didn’t make it very far before I fell flat out asleep on the bed with the would be suitcase contents scattered everywhere about the room.

Sunday, March 18, 2007
March 19, 2007 9:24 AM

I woke up surprisingly early this morning considering the day that I had just experienced yesterday. (about 11am) I finished my packing and my host family finished my host family book. For brunch we all went to the famous “Loveless Café”. They are famous for their biscuits. I had steak biscuits which were as it turned out, biscuits with steak in them. They were served with grits (to which I added cheese and later some apple butter). After that we drove to see some of the sights in the downtown and midtown districts. We also walked through their big city park with a full replica of the Parthenon at its center. There were also a lot of Canadian Geese. On the way back to the house we passed a field of one of the schools where there were 2 sports going on; ultimate frisbee, and medieval combat. Some of the people participating in that were all dressed up in costumes and carried large foam covered weapons such as swords, flails, and war hammers. It was neat to watch. In the afternoon I finished packing and when it was all done we went out to supper at a renowned Tennessee BBQ restaurant called Jim’n Nicks BBQ. I’ve got to say, I’ve not seen better service anywhere in the US at a restaurant. The food was nothing short of fabulous either. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for some authentic cuisine. I had the Pork Sausage with and I was stuffed. After supper they dropped me off at the Greyhound bus depot to catch my bus to Atlanta. The place was absolutely nuts. I stood in line for a good 45 minutes and when I got to the counter I realized that my debit card wasn’t working. This left me with a few different choices; get stuck in Nashville, open up my fiddle case and play a few tunes, or try and find another ATM somewhere. Leaving my luggage at the depot (save my laptop bag) I headed downtown on foot. I had planned to catch the 10:30pm bus but it was already booked solid. This was a good thing because there was a bus at 1:30Am which gave me some time to find some money. The first place I ended up at was the Holiday Inn Express downtown. I find that dressing snappy gets you better service in places like this. The desk clerk was very helpful in making suggestions of action to take. With time soon becoming critical I decided to fall back on my last resort plan. I started calling around to the UWP staff and asking for help. I first tried Danny and Joern but with no avail. I was able to get a hold of Chris and Jeremy in the staff hotel and I was bailed out. They even brought me some fried chicken to snack on the bus ride. For the Record I owe Jeremy 50$ US for my ticket.

Monday, March 19, 2007
March 19, 2007 9:53 AM

Somewhere during the night we crossed over a time change to Atlantic time on our way to Atlanta. I wrote some things down on a piece of the chicken box while riding the bus. Just another point of interest, the guy sitting next to me was from Sudan, but we didn’t get to talk because he slept the whole trip. It was sketchy.

“Irate Obese Americans swear as the bus driver warns us against smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes, marijuana, and crack while on the bus. The air smells of vomit and McDonalds French fries. Am I the only sane person on the bus? No, we are all insane.” - Thank you America.
We did finally make it to Atlanta. One of the people who I had talked to at the terminal back in Nashville informed me about the rail transit system called Marta that could take me right to the airport for about 2$. I bought a ticket, gave some change to some homeless people, did some beat box with the robot king (another bus rider), and talked to an internet radio host. I watched as the sun slowly rose over what at this point I could only assume to be Atlanta. Exiting the train I took an elevator down into the terminal where I found the Air Canada counter. There was no line at all which was a good thing so I could take the time to repack my suitcase that was 10 lbs overweight. All I had to take out were my shoes and european travel adapter and it was underweight again. Somehow I managed to pack them into my backpack. The lines for security were very long with waits well over an hour. Luckily I picked the shorter of the two lines and was through in less than half that time. I was really worried about getting through but everything went smoothly. One of the other security measures that I’ve noticed here in the airport is that all of the garbage cans are mechanized and compact the trash after you deposit it. Right now I’m sitting outside my gate with a family of Japanese people playing cards. The weather is sunny and everything seems to be on schedule. I’ve got a terrible headache though. Too bad I can’t get a coffee.

11:36:26 AM

I'm run off of my feet this week; hopefully I'll have some more time to post next week. But I'm ok and things for the most part are going well.

Acuff Performance Venue