Sunday, November 25, 2007

rhode island/connecticut


vania read a poem in bulgarian. it was gorgeous. so was the translation.

a guy in our cast is a bellydancing instructor, so he showed us his sweet moves!

we had an expression session in rhode island and this was a song a few of the staff members sang for us.

this was an old cemetary in boston where the boston massacre victims, benjamin franklin, and quite a few other famous people were buried

parade of cows!

the parade of cows was in west hartford while we were there...

new yowk


these are all the girls hosted in one house this week. our host mom tie-dyes clothes and sells them and let us all pick a shirt out! I love them!!!

a tiny chunk of times square from where we were rehearsing in front of macy's!

we had to bundle up for macy's!!! long johns were a must!

this was one of the balloons in the parade. i didn't get to see much considering i was IN in... good times!

this was our crew for thanksgiving! it was so much fun!!
a few of us got up at 3 am the day after macy's to be on the today show!! it was freezing, but we got on tv 3 times!!! :)

this was later in the morning when we broke out our international costumes!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

sick...

i'm home sick today.
i have a really really bad cough.
hopefully i'll be better by thursday and friday. we have shows both days.

i'm staying with an alumni who is super sweet, and her husband.
they're expecting a baby in about 4 months! YAY!

rhode island is really pretty. especially providence.

i'm gonna get some rest now! keep in touch!

--callie
xoxo

winston-salem/easton/washington d.c.


the white house





my family came to see me!





we saw the capitol building





we went to the world bank to hear some speakers on our regional learning day...




some staff members dressed up as the spice girls for our halloween party!




we covered a trail in mulch at a place called pickrin creek in easton, maryland for our CI.




a really really old organ at "Old Salem"...

Thursday, November 1, 2007

i've discovered a whole new world!!! :)

I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?

I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming

A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with you
Now I'm in a whole new world with you

Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky

A whole new world
Don't you dare close your eyes
A hundred thousand things to see
Hold your breath - it gets better
I'm like a shooting star
I've come so far
I can't go back to where I used to be

A whole new world
Every turn a surprise
With new horizons to pursue
Every moment red-letter
I'll chase them anywhere
There's time to spare
Let me share this whole new world with you

A whole new world
That's where we'll be
A thrilling chase
A wondrous place
For you and me

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Georgia pictures


a bad picture of our beautiful facility the week in atlanta





this was the outside of the Hindu temple we visited in Georgia!
gorgeous





this was a stand for peace classroom we went to in Creekwood Middle School. it's the largest middle school in the US.





Dr. and Mrs. King's grave





this man was spectacular! he was 91 years old and he didn't look a day over 60. he fought hand-in-hand with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he was a wealth of knowledge! Straight from his mouth: If MLK hadn't died we wouldn't have been there. a multi-national group would not be standing in that spot talking to him. he was amazing




MLK






Martin Luther King Center, ATL, Georgia

Sunday, October 21, 2007

catch up

hey!!!
i'm really sorry i havn't written in so long!
i'm now in atlanta georgia! back in the US!

so you missed uelzen and erfurt, germany, and hasselt, belgium.

uelzen was a cute little city in former west germany. the first day we were there we went to a concentration camp called bergen-belson. it wasn't what i expected, but it was so incredible to experience this. it was really strange because we walked down this beautiful path through the woods, and it was sunny and bright outside and the guide suddenly said "okay, this was where the outside wall was into the camp." i looked out and it was just a big field full of grass and even a few flowers. it looked like any other place in germany, except that this was an evil place full of hate. it really made you realize that horrible things could have happened anywhere, but they may have been forgotten. you could be standing in a place where people could have been massacred or beaten just because of what they looked like, or even no reason at all. there are places all around the world like that. its so hard to imagine...

i mostly did school presentations for admissinos during this week, but i was also in charge for a few days when the admissions coordinator had to leave. i was in charge of the vip tour for students on the show day and the entire presentation after the show! pressure pressure pressure.

also during the week i went to a town called luneburg. it was such a cute town full of very very very old buildings. something that makes this town unique is that it was built on a salt mine. that means that as the salt dissolves and leaves big spaces underground, the town sinks. there are buildings that are very very tipped because of this. in a playground for kids the city had a net put in underground so it the ground falls out from underneath them they'll be caught! crazy, huh?

for CI in this city i worked at an after school program for immigrant children who needed extra help because their english skills wern't quite as high as the other children. that was a lot of fun.

then we went to erfurt. erfurt is a beautiful city in eastern germany. for regional learning we got to plan our own day and a few people and i decided to check out a library at the university and look at their ancient books. they had a room where there were books clear back from the medival times. it was really interesting. there was also a floor just with books about different countries. there were so many different languages it was incredible.

for CI i cooked some traditional foods from lots of different countries. we made chicken teriyaki from japan, and potato ball things form sweden. i also made delicious brownies from the US. haha. we made a huge vat of potato salad and veggie salad. it was really yummy. for CI we all split up and did a lot of different things. some of us spray painted a gym wall at a high school with professional spray painting artists, some people made musical instruments, and one group wrote a song with local youth and they ended up playing it at our show. it was really really good. after all our CI's we got together for a party thing and presented what we had done all week. the point of the CI's was mostly to interact with the youth there.

erfurt was beautiful, we saw some very symbolic, old buildings, and a gorgeous cathedral. it was so much fun. we walked everywhere, on cobblestone and it was such a great experience. there was also a oktoberfest party going on in the town square with a carnival. there was a HUGE ferris wheel and it was super fun! :) i really liked this city.

i actually took a day or two off with a 3 other "uppies" to go home with one of our cast mates. we all missed the first 2 days in belgium, but had an amazing time in the netherlands. we stayed with johan and his family. his step-mom is iranian, and her sister was visiting that week from iran so they both made us a delicious iranian meal. it was great. it was really interesting, because johan's family obviously spole dutch, but his step-mom only spoke german, so pretty much the whole family speaks german too, but his step-mom had to translate into persian for her sister, and johan had to translate some into english for us. it was very very cultural. it was SOOOO much fun! haha. :D

the next day we did a school presentation at his old high school, and then we all went into germany to visit his dad's doctor office. it was really interesting! that night we all went grocery shopping and cooked something from our culture. sara from tucson made tacos/quesadillas, jonathan from sweden made this salmon on toast stuff, johan made tomato soup and i made brownies! we stayed up talking about TONS of stuff. SO much fun.

the next day we joined the cast in Hasselt, Belgium. it was good to see them. i missed them after only 2 days away! so in belgium i did more school presentations and promotion. we actually had a promo bus at this huge event for the equivalent of the MTV awards in belgium. FUN! well... kind of strange... there were drunk people everywhere, but we passed out a lot of flyers. a group of us also went to a big governmental building and performed at a black tie affair that evening. there were representatives for the king and queen there!

the show was amazing! we had tons of people for the backstage tour and LOTS of vips. we had champagne tables in the front and the elite from all the businesses around the area came to see if they'd like to sponsor UWP someday. it went SO well. we had 2 shows and it was a big success. we actually performed on the same stage the "MTV awards" were at the night before. i heard fall out boy and rihanna were there and performed on the same stage, but it may be a rumor. fun though!!! :D

for my host family day we went to this cute park with my host parents and their daughter and granddaughter. we walked through perfect leaves. it was so autumny! :) i loved it. we just walked around... played with melany (the grand daughter) and relaxed. good day.

now i'm in atlanta... i actually leave tomorrow... but the first day here we went to the Martin luther king center. that was really interesting! its so strange to see that all that happened so recently! then we worked with the boys and girls club in the area. it was fun to be with the kids there. they taught me some dance moves. it pretty much rocked my face. we had a show on friday. it went pretty well. on saturday we went to a hindu temple! it was SO gorgeous! there were 75,000 pieces that were all handcarved in india and shipped over here. CRAZY!! oh my goodness it was beautiful.

so here i am... packing... getting ready to go to winston-salem, north carolina; the headquarters for the 3 biggest tobacco companies in the US. it should be interesting!

hope all is well back home and all around. sorry it took me so long... and sorry there are no pics. my camera was stolen in sweden. :(

big hugs
--callie rae