Opening Night!!!

hey all!
I know it's been a super long time since I've written. I'm really sorry. i better get started, there is SO much to cover!!!

I think I need to cover the move to teikyo loretto heights first! This is a university in Englewood (a suburb of denver). It's in a rather shifty part of town, but has an absolutely beautiful campus. We did a lot of staging there, and got to eat our meals outside on the green green grass under a beautiful tree! We often played soccer out on the grass when we were done eating.

This last week was so much work! Everyone learned how to play the buckets for the rhythm part of the show and rehersed and rehersed really hard all week! Instead of having days until 5:30, we upped them to 8:00 this week so we could get more done. Cast B had a dress rehersal for the other cast on Wednesday, and Cast C did did ours on Thursday.

It was wonderful to see how far both casts had come in only 3 weeks! But we still had SO much to do! The day of Cast B's opening night was quite calm for us. We went through our show a couple times, but most staff members were working with the B's, so we had a relaxing day. We had a guest speaker, Steve Farber, Jeremy's dad, We even had an hour to meditate!
I felt really really bad, because i was very tired this particular morning and could NOT seem to keep my eyes open! Steve Farber was an incredible speaker. We was inspiring, and funny, and informative, and i was very very impressed. He taught us about purusing "OS!M's" (if you want to know what these are please ask... unless small children are near.) and had a lot of great quotes to live by. "If you live in this world without every trying to change it, you've just sold a ruby for the price of spam!!" <--that was one of the favorites of his quotes. He was trying to inpire us to actually do something w/ our lives without just sitting around and going with the flow. He definitely succeeded. Some other inspiring quotes are "Wake up, stay fascinated, be yourself!" and "Stoke your business, amp your life, make a difference." He got a standing ovation and lots and lots of respect that morning. :)

Meditation was quite an experience. we all spread out and layed down or sat comfortably on the floor downstairs. Kristen then began reading the exact translation to Hanamizuki! It was so incredible to finally understand what we had been singing for all this time. They had told us the general idea, but this experience meant so much more! I had found out a couple days earlier that I would be singing this solo for the show, and I was overcome with a feeling of dread when i found out was I was singing. This song was so meaningful and full of passion and emotion, and I didn't think I could do it!

After Kristen read this translation, and most of us were quite teary-eyed, we just relaxed and listened to music, reflected, slept, or whatever we needed to do. After the first relaxing song, Seasons of Love was played from the musical Rent, which is one of my favorites. I was so filled with emotion, thinking that these six months were the only times I had with these amazing people. I realized how important everyone was to me, and how incredibly close we had gotten the last three weeks. After a few minutes when we had to go upstairs for supper, we all stayed around hugging each other, consoling those who had some uncomfoortable emotions arise, and some were even laughing together.

That night, Cast B did an absolutely amazing job! I was So impressed, and became nervous, hoping my cast would develope as much as the other. I was truly moved. :)
The next day was SO stressful!!! it was the day of my show and we went over and over the things we needed to. It was exhausing but worth it. we were crunched for time and stressed most of the day, but i suppose we'll just have to get used to that!

After dinner we all got ready downstairs outside of our greenroom. We helped each other with makeup and took lots and lots of pictures. Then came time to start greenroom. it began just like when we found out which casts we were in. we walked into a dark room, with staff members waving flashlights on either side of the walkway. when we got through we had another dance party, but this time it was to "Celebrate Good Times." They then held of signs saying things like "C yourself waking up on a mat in Thailand," "C yourself hearing your host brother saying he wants to be just like you," and "C yourself on 5th Avenue on New York in the Macy's Day Parade!!!"

We then had some very meaningful presentations. We started a book that had a letter written to someone in the cast that was an inspiration to Andrew, an amazing staff member. This week's letter was written to Faith, who absolutely deserved it!!! Then the staff members passed out pins to everyone to wear underneath our costumes to remind us that we were all inspirational. After such a moving ceremony we were obviously very emotional, so after taking a while to calm down we got all pumped up again, doing chants and dancing and such. Then it was time for the show!!!

It was SO surreal! I've been wanting to do this my entire life!! This was an absolute dream come true! While we were waiting backstage I couldn't keep still. My adrenaline was pumping, and hands were shaking, and I just could not get the smile off of my face!!! The show was incredible. It was so surreal, and it just felt amazing the whole way through. The staff members thought it would be a lot more effective if I sang Hanamizuki with Nanako from Japan. This was an amazing idea!!! It symbolized exactly what the song was about. Hope: two countries that had been enemies before, coming together as one promoting peace. It was spectacular.

After the show i was still pumped and proud of what we all had just done together! Tons of my friends and family came down to see the show: my mom, dad, and brother, my best friend jess, boyfriend tyler, two sets of great aunts and uncles, another uncle, my grandma, three family friends from boulder, and an amazing family that I've grown up with at my church! it was great to have so much support and love there at this moment that is definitely the highest point of my life so far. Even more so than graduation, although that lead the way to this moment.
After lots of hugs, and pictures, my real family met my amazing host family, then we set off to go out to eat, spent more time together, then parted ways.

Whew!!! SO that's part of what i need to talk about, but it's super late here... and i need some sleep. and I think I'm keeping my roommates awake. i'll write the rest tomorrow! (I'm in Gallup, New Mexico by the way!)

much love! and hugs
xoxo --callie