I'm really in Florida....I ATE alligator!!

This week has been exhausting in the best possible way...every day we're working from 8 to 5:30...lots of singing, lots of dancing, lots of learning, and lots of playing. We have already learned almost half the songs for the show and quite a few dances!! We've had a lot of workshops about a range of different topics...from cultural diversity to team building to the history of Up with People. The workshops are always very interactive, which is really beneficial to learning about the different things we all need to know before traveling. We've also been doing a fair bit of auditioning...on Tuesday we split into lots of different groups and had "modules," which were like stations for different aspects of the show (singing, dancing, learning about tech, costumes, and discussing admissions). Everyone had to sing solo for the music director, who told us he has heard every single person sing who has been in Up with People for the past 20-some years. From there, we have been leaving the cast in smaller groups to sing or dance more, so that they can get a feel of everyone's different talents and strengths. I was chosen to be in the first dance of the show...a high-energy but very simple dance, which was really exciting...especially because all this dancing has made me remember why I decided to stop dancing 10 years ago! I'm really enjoying it though, and I'm working hard tog et all the steps down right...I think I'm doing a pretty good job!

My evenings are normally pretty relaxed...we bike home (only a few minutes bike ride!), get changed out of our sweaty dance clothes, and hang out...then dinner (usually at least an hour-long event...our host parents are so fun to talk to!), often an episode of Lost (we started watching in class and are now hooked...), and then bedtime!! Bedtime has become one of the best parts of the day, and normally happens around 10:30...earlier if possible! I know, I know, how could I possibly be the same Amilee?? Well, they say Up with People is a life-changing experience!

We did have some pretty exciting nights yesterday and the day before though! My castmate Amy was on Wheel of Fortune on Friday night, and her host parents were wonderful enough to open their house to the cast to watch her episode when it aired! Unfortunately, she had some bad luck and only won 1,000 dollars, but it was great fun to watch her on screen and to hang out with everyone without having to follow a schedule!!

Amy is the one on the right!

Last night was possibly my favorite night so far...it was one of my roommate's last night in Lakeland, since she is a Promotions Representative, and left this morning to go to Statesboro, GA to help prepare the city for our arrival in a month or so.  Our host parents decided to do something really special and really Florida for her last night, so we drove a half hour to the "best" place to eat....alligator!!

Host Dad Kevin, Me, Misa, Nikka, McKenzie, and a stranger
who was sitting next to us...Floridians are very friendly!

I don't think I've tried so many new things before in one sitting ever...we ate raw oysters on the half shell for appetizers...

First with crackers:

And then we were back for seconds and thirds, straight from the shell!

We were really proud of ourselves!!  We also had scallops, catfish, shrimp, oysters, frog legs, and.....alligator!!

Okay, not this alligator...

...This one!  Clockwise from the dark circle is a conch fritter, shrimp, catfish, frog legs, alligator, and the middle is an oyster.

 We weren't so sure about the frog legs once we realized what they actually fired was a whole frog butt....turns out they really do taste like chicken!!  ...except flavorless, kinda water-logged, and not yummy.

All in all, it has been an absolutely wonderful week, with Up with People, with my castmates, with my host family, and with my roommates....I really couldn't have asked for more!

Yes, this is the result of my over-exhaustion...

...Mac looks tired too.

Finally more people are here!

What an incredible week!  I can honestly say that every day was not only a good day, but a great day.  I a so happy to be down here with Up with People, I know this is absolutely where I'm supposed  to be :)

My last post was only a little over a week ago, but it feels like a month ago...so much has happened!!

Last Friday, the ten of us who are taking classes got the opportunity to go on our first CI, or Community Impact.  We went to Lighthouse Ministries, a Christian homeless shelter and personal rehabilitation center in downtown Lakeland.  The shelter takes in residents, and helps them by providing education, job opportunities, and counseling, as well as meals and daycare, as a lot of the residents are women with children.  

Mom, I know you were probably wishing I was home to help take down our Christmas decorations, but you should know that I definitely did more than I would have at home!! Even with 11 of us (10 students plus our Leadership professor, who was able to come along), it took us all morning to un-decorate the place. We probably took down more than 50 strands of lights, at least 3 fake trees, a blow-up snowman and all of his blow-up friends, and anything else you can imagine.  

Working hard....

   
   

Or hardly working?

   

We found some great princess dresses at the thrift
store...Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, the
Wicked Witch, and Cinderella!

Only some of the Christmas lights we took down!

We really had a great time working together and it felt great to help out Lighthouse Ministries, since this would have taken the staff even longer than it did us, and they were able to spend that time on more necessary tasks.  They were very appreciative of our work, I think everyone was done with Christmas...it's hard to stay in the Christmas spirit when it's 80 degrees outside!!

Misa, Abby, Amy, Mallory, Ambrea, Amilee, McKenzie, Tara, Claudia, and  Frank

We got the chance to meet one of the residents and hear her testimony.  It was truly a moving story to hear how many times she had come clean and then fell back into addiction again.  After a few cycles of that, and a few months in jail, she finally found Lighthouse Ministries and has been able to begin to turn her life around.  We got a tour of the facilities as well, and heard more about their ministry, which was really nice to know that we were helping such a wonderful place.

 

There was a beautiful wall mural...the idea is that at first, the there are many paths that are crooked and in shadow, but then they reach the lighthouse, and the path widens and becomes more lit, and then eventually there is only one path that leads to the cross.

Then in the afternoon, the rest of the cast arrived, which was the most exciting and happy and overwhelming experience!! Everyone was so excited to meet everyone else, and as each busload arrived, there were more people to greet and shake hands with and kiss (only the Mexicans!) I had such a headache after a few hours of constant smiling...but it was so worth it :) Over this whole week I've gotten to talk to more people and it is just so fun to hear everyone's story...where they're from, why they're here, their goals, dreams...

    

So excited to be here...and this is only about half of the cast (plus some staff)!

We took a well-deserved sleep-in day on Saturday, and on Sunday I went to church with my roommate from the Philippines and my host aunt, since our host parents went to the beach for the weekend. After church, Host Aunt Noreen took us to a great little bistro on one of the many lakes in Lakeland, with a great view of the beautiful swans, which were originally donated to Lakeland by Queen Elizabeth.  

Nikka, McKenzie, Host Aunt Noreen, Me, and Misa in front of Lake Mirror

Later that afternoon, we had a welcoming ceremony, which of course was a lot of introductions and applause, but the best part was when some of the staff and the second semester students performed a few songs from the show...very moving, very inspiring songs. And when everyone started to sing together, I cried a little (thanks, Italian genes)...it was so special to be able to experience a little piece of the show that I am so lucky to be a part of.

I'm really in Florida, I saw an alligator!

Hello all!

So a lot has happened since my last post, I will do my best to remember everything!

Our days have been largely taken up by our classes, since we are trying to "front-load" now before we go on tour.  I am SO excited for these classes...the professors are very much aware of the UWP program and what we do during our semester, and so a lot of assignments will have us reflect on our experiences and use our experiences to inform our papers.  As someone who really values practical education and hands-on learning, this is just a wonderful addition to everything else we'll be doing.  There is (and will continue to be) a lot of overlap between both the individual classes and what we'll be learning on the road, and so I am really enjoying the cross-curricular aspect of it as well.

Here's a great picture of the 10 of us taking classes through Florida Southern College. (Note the railings!)

In other news, I finally got around to taking some pictures of Lakeland, which are on facebook.  For those of you without a facebook, you can view them here.  There is a beautiful lake (Lake Hollingsworth) right near Florida Southern's campus, and my host family's house is about a quarter of the way around the lake, which is about a 3/4 mile distance.  We have really been enjoying walking to and from "school" every day, and the weather has been PERFECT.  In fact, yesterday and today were record high temperatures for Lakeland in January--a balmy 82 degrees!

Yesterday we took a walk all the way around the lake (about 3 miles) after we finished with classes.  It was really interesting to see the variety in the architecture ..a lot of the houses were more typical, like the one I am living in, but some looked more like Italian villas, and some were just not to attractive...I took pictures of a lot of them if anyone is interested :)  But the most exciting part of the walk was definitely when we saw our alligator.  He was real big, about 6 feet, which is actually the biggest they can be before they have to be removed and either shot or relocated.  They are no longer endangered so they'll often shoot them if they get too friendly (within 10 feet of a human) or longer than about 6 feet.  Here's a picture!  (For those of you who know the story...that's my monkey face, too.  Thankfully the alligator didn't see it, or I would not be writing this!)

I have really enjoyed spending time with my host parents, Maureen and Kevin.  They both grew up in the northeast/midwest, but have lived in Florida for abut 30 years.  They have three children, all grown, and a black lab, Mac, who is absolutely the sweetest dog I have ever met.  He is definitely turning me into more of a dog person...and I'm not allergic to him!  Quite a change from Fat Stella.  The way they run their house is very similar to what I am used to and what I am comfortable with, so it has been an easy transition for me...I have to remember that's not how it will always be!  The fun fact of the day yesterday was that one of Kevin's patients (who is the senior cardiologist at the hospital clinic in Lakeland) lives part of the year in Whitehouse, NJ!  I was pretty excited to here a little piece of home had followed me here.

That's about all for now.  We are all getting really excited for Friday when the rest of the cast arrives!!  We got some brochures the other day to distribute about the show...

...it's all terribly exciting.  (Vanderhoofs, note the earrings...I love my Epiphany gift, thank you!)
[sorry the picture is backwards!]

I send all my love!  Thinking of all of you in the cold dreary winter while I enjoy myself by the pool :)

I am so incredibly blessed!

Day One is ending and I am starting to feel settled...for now!  My host family is an older couple who live in this MANSION with a beautiful view of one of the many lakes in Lakeland.  Their house is a five minute walk from campus too, which is lovely.  The weather here is super gray and icky today but I've been promised that will not last...I hope that's true!

I'll be with this host family for the first three weeks here, with (eventually) 3 roommates.  So far I just have one roommate (the other two had their flights delayed).  So far we get along very well, which has been very comforting to me.

There are about ten of us here early for the credit program (I over estimated before, oops!)....strangely enough, I am in the minority because I am not a female from the mid-west.  Out of those of us here early, there is only one guy and I am the sole East Coaster...so far!  Our first set of classes is tomorrow, but we'll have a half day, so I am very much looking forward to enjoying the sunshine (hopefully!) and taking a nice walk around the lake tomorrow afternoon.  There's about a 3 mile loop around the lake, and it sounds like it's a bit of a destination (my host mom stressed how people drive here to walk around the lake!).

And as if I was not already lucky enough with incredibly friendly and outgoing and INTERESTING host parents with a beautiful house in a beautiful location, they are also very involved in the Catholic Church, and so were quite happy to hear that I wanted to go to mass.  (And we said grace before dinner!) My host mom said she wanted to be a nun before she wanted to be an elementary school teacher...but that was all back in 1st grade.  We had a great time tonight telling each of our life stories!


Sorry my thoughts are all over the place...it's late but I wanted to share SOMETHING before I got distracted with all the new fun I'll be having :)  I promise I'll try to be a little less scatterbrained in the future!

Pictures to come!

The Final Countdown Begins...

As the days before I leave become fewer and fewer, I realize that I have to stop procrastinating writing my welcome blog post that I have promised to so many of you. First of all, I figured I would explain what exactly I am doing in these upcoming 5 months, as I realize many of you have very limited information on that. If, however, you’ve heard it explained over and over, feel free to skim through :)

(from their website):

Up with People is a global education organization which aims to bring the world together through service and music. The unique combination of international travel, service learning, leadership development and performing arts offers students an unparalleled experience and a pathway to make a difference in the world, one community at a time.

(read more here if you're interested)

That said, my particular Cast (the group of about 100 people which I will be traveling with) will be traveling to Florida, Georgia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Mexico. Each week, I will live with a local host family in the area in which we are working. The first 4 weeks in Florida will be time for “staging,” in which we will put together our entire show, a show which will encompass music and dancing of all different cultures. Each week after that will follow a similar schedule, with various kinds of community service during the week, with our show on Saturday night and a day of traveling each Monday.

A detailed list of our tour schedule can be found here (scroll down to where it says Cast A 2013).

I will also be taking three classes during my time away: Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication, and Contemporary Leadership Models. I, along with about 20 other people, will be traveling down to Lakeland, Florida, (the home of Florida Southern College) for an intensive week of classes before staging. After that week, the classes will be mainly online.

And so my last few days at home will be (have been) spent doing last minute shopping and packing, an excruciatingly difficult task, as I have very limited luggage space for 6 months of clothing for many different weather conditions and occasions. I’m packing everything from business clothing to work clothes, and trying to keep my shoes to an absolute minimum. (A very difficult task indeed….I think I’ve settled on 4 pairs right now, we’ll see if that lasts.)

I expect that my later blog posts will be shorter, but hopefully often enough that I will be able to keep them short and sweet (I sure all of you will appreciate that as much as I will!) The interesting bits are yet to come, stay tuned! Or don’t, that’s fine by me.

I leave around noon on January 4th and I return home on June 11th. Five months and one week of complete unknown. Unknown people, unknown places, unknown experiences. It’s a little scary, but I’m so excited to have this amazing opportunity to see the world and discover more about the world and myself.