Up With People - Callie's Edition

rhode island/connecticut

2007-11-25T18:20:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

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!

sick...

2007-11-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-07T14:36:00.001-08:00

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"...

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

2007-11-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

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

Georgia pictures

2007-10-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

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

catch up

2007-10-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

pippi!!!

2007-09-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

Now i'm in Vimmerbe, Sweden. This is the home of Astrid Lingrin who wrote Pippi Longstocking. She is the number 2 most translated author after Shakespeare. her books have been translated into more than 90 languages! :D

A beautiful bus stop in Sweden! it was next to a gorgeous lake...

a statue at Astrid Lingrin's barn that was supposed to inpire thought. did it work?

the ginormous door!!! hehe

all the buildings were from stories from Astrid Lingrin's books. this was the big room! FUN!!!

Some lovebirds on a cute lil' bridge... these paths and things were SO adorable!

Jonathan walking through the woods...

this was in Astrid Lingrin world... i was on a shelf! :D with Jonathan from Sweden...

Sodertelje Sweden

2007-09-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

We were on a ferry boat, kind of like a small cruise ship, from finland to sweden. it was a lot of fun! :) when we got off the boat we had all day to spend in stockholm! it was a blast. that is such a beautiful city.

in a square next to a rose garden. gawgeous...

this was inside a cafe we were at... (still stockholm)

just walkin' in a park...

we had lunch on those steps by the harbor! YAY STOCKHOLM!

an archway in the middle of stockholm sweden...

We got to our host families in sodertelje. i stayed with a castmate's family with her, abby, and mitch a staff member. we had a blast!!!

abby, maria, maria's mom, and her sister annika at a lake 2 minutes from our house! it was gorgeous!

Chillin' in the hot tub <3

This was our group of kids from high schools around the area. that was our CI for this city. most of them had immigration backgrounds, so we worked with them to see that diversity is a fantastic quality. we were the COBRA'S! clap clap SSSSSS!

this is maria and abby at maria's crayfish party!! it was SO much fun! :D

oi suomi!

2007-09-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

the parliament building is helsinki

the museum of modern art

going for a walk with dad, skipper, and the bros.

robert on the tramp in the backyard

at a monument for a famous finnish composer w/ robert and roomie jalee!!!

robert and sebastian on the tour boat :D

dad and mom! :D YAY!

a cathedral next to the water with real gold tops!!! there are only 2 people in the entire world who can restore them too!!! crazy!!!

a random red boat :D

the cute lil town i was talking about!!!

another part...

my dessert at an outdoors restaurant with heat lamps (without the ugly red light) to keep you warm while eating. they also had blankets on the backs of the chairs unless you got cold. i ate reindeer!!!! :S it was really yummy actually...

love!!!

updating from suomi (finland)!!!

2007-09-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

its been a while, eh?

well now i'm in espoo, finland (es-poe like edgar allen). its so gorgeous here! it kind of reminds me of colorado in a way, except that there's a sea in my backyard! how sweet is that?

so anyway... about thailand... it was quite an experience. honestly, sleeping on a mat, dumping a bucket over my head for showers, not having soap or TP in bathrooms, and eating stuff i would normally eat for dinner for breakfast has totally taught me how thankful i should be about the things i already have. i got to finland and have a BED!!!, and soap to actually clean myself!!!, i ate cereal for breakfast, and i knew what everything i was eating actually was at dinner!!!, its incredibly how much you take for granted. even today when i went to wash my hands and had soap, paper towels and warm water it brought me into a better awareness of how lucky we really do have it!!

so i've been in finland since thursday?... i think :S. i really really love it. my host family rocks! my host mom owns her own business and my host dad was a navy officer who taught the divers (rescue divers, bomb-blower-upper divers, etc.) and he sure looks like it!! haha, and my host brothers are amazing alpine skiiers. you should see all of their trophy's.... and the bike that robert won, and you should really hear sabastian play the piano. i love it. OOH the best part!!! they have a yellow lab!!! just like ben at home... i miss him. hehe. they're so fun, and i've learned TONS from them. they have a lot of stories about finland and just funny things that have happened to them. its awesome.

i worked in schools for my Community Impact. that was fun. i met an alumni named Riikka who is a doll, i really admire her. she actually studied in maine even though she's from finland and is now a teacher.

we had our first european encore!!! it was incredible!!! the show was awesome, even though i really messed up a couple times :S...

today my host family, jalee and i went on a tour boat for our free day and rode around the islands around helsinki, then we went east to a tiny little storybook village with authentic cobblestones and adorable little houses. then we went to a friend of the family's who is hosting 2 other uppies and had tea and dessert. we also played some ping-pong, dodgeball, and blow-ball all in one. :D i LOVE

we came home and got in a finnish sauna and i just got out. saunas are SO popular here! its really interesting.

by the way... if you have any questions or comments or anything you can email me at pink_hunny_7@hotmail.com
we also have a cast blog at www.castc2007.com
hope you enjoy!

much love
--callie

Thailand pictures

2007-09-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

THESE PICTURES ARE BACKWARDS. START AT THE BOTTOM. DO IT.

at the airport on the way to finland... where i am right now by the way. Espoo to be exact. my host family is AMAZING!! they have so many stories! :D

our first cheeseburger in almost 2 weeks! it was wrapped up all cute and perfect.

a cute little thai man who hit on us! haha. he was super nice.

the strings that are tied around our wrist are supposed to bring us good luck, happiness, and safe travels. its a laos tradition that they do in the north of thailand

planting trees at a Monks' meditation center

a restaurant on stilts next to a lake!

a buddhist temple at the top of a hill in nampong

i ate half of these. no joke! they weren't that bad!

part of my host and extended host family in Nampong

we kinda had a flour fight... whoops...

we had cast olympics with the boys town boys a few days afterward and did sack potatoe racing, stilt walking and coconut shoe running!

after the cobra villiage we went to a temple where we lit inscence, knelt and made a wish. we then blew out the inscence and lit a candle. we put the tiny gold flake on a statue and walked around that big white spiky looking thing 3 times. then we went to a building where we got our fortune told. mine was really good. :)

this was at the Cobra Villiage outside of Nampong Thailand. this lady had the snake IN HER MOUTH. there were cages all around this stage with tons of snakes. they also had monkies in tiny cages and a black bear in a cage that was only 3 times his size, with only cement floors. there was a huge discussion afterwards about animal rights... at the cobra villiage they also had "cobra boxing" with men who just hit at cobras and stuff. it was disgusting...

in front of the habitat house we put our sweat and blood into, literally. there were zero modern tools at the site. we worked in rain and shine barfoot in at least 4-6 inches of mud. we used baskets to haul sand and rock and hand mixed our cement. we built this house for a tsunomi victim...

in front of the chalang wat temple

a hilltop view of Phuket

squid, eel, huge scallops, crab, fish fillets, clams, hermit crabs, shrimp, prawn, deep fried seaweed, and much much more... scary...

a cute lil pineapple slush at a restaurant literally steps from the beach... ( a different one! )

snorkling with beautiful coral, tropical fish, and seashells, peaceful cabanas, dancing in the rain on the beach and coconut milk, is there anything better?...

singing on a boat on the way to Coral Island. BEAUTIFUL!

a buddhist altar on the beach

aoife from ireland holding a local child at the Sea Gypsy Village

a beautiful mess

the traditional band at the welcoming dinner in Phuket

after the satree phuket school kids welcomed us to Thailand...

a random HUGE statue in the Bangkok airport

from the U.S. to tokyo to Thailand!!!

2007-08-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

so i'm in Phuket Thailand right now. be jealous. it's amazing!!! however you're pry interested in how i got here...

we went from tuscon to san diego california! we did a lot of promotion work for cast B at a beach and a farmer's market. after our long day's work we had a party at Moonlight Beach! it was amazing. i swam in the Pacific Ocean for the first time since i was little!

it was incredible to have such enormous waves crashing down on me. there was so much force in what looked like such a tiny swell. the times i was englufed in a bigger wave was amazing! you feel the swirl and the swoosh of the water all around you and you can't help but thank God for all the amazing opportunities he's given you, and the miracles he's put on earth for us...

are you ready to hear about my FOURTY TWO hour travel day/s? i sure hope so!

we woke up at 4:15 in san diego and headed to L.A.X. we checked in and waited until our flight at about 12:45. when we lifted off our pilot announced that we crossed the international dateline and that it was now 5:45 in the morning. this flight had some really really good food for being airplane food! i also met a really interesting guy from the us who was moving to japan to teach english!

we flew about 11 hours to tokyo where we had a 2 hour delay. i bought my brother some stuff because i knew how much he wanted stuff from Japan. (love ya!) we then boarded another plane and flew to bangkok, thailand for 7 hours.

this is where we had the easiest immigration and customs check ever. the immagration interegator asked me how long i'd be in Thailand, and i was free to go. for customs you just got in a line that said "nothing to declare" and went straight through!! it was crazy. here comes the fun part. in Bangkok we loaded up two buses and drove 13 (ish) hours from i think around 11 at night until 2 the next day, when we arrived in Phuket!!!!

(i was SOOO tired so i may be messing up some times, but our logistics coordinator, wouter says it was 42 hours. what he says goes.)

may i also mention that the only shower i had before we got to phuket was a rinse off at moonlight beach the night before flying out of LAX?.... talk about disgusting!!!

so anyway... we got to phuket and we pulled up to Satree Phuket School! there were hundreds of students w/ lais for us outside of our buses! they were made out of Orchids and little white flowers that symbolize love. later on they gave us all handmade silk scarves, made by the students at the school! they are gorgeous!

they had an amazing buffet dinner waiting for us and our new host families, who happened to be the parents of some students at the school. they had 3 traditional dances to perform for us. the dancers were incredibly talented! it was really great to see. they also played a lot of traditional music for us. they intruments are really interesting, but i didn't get a chance to ask anyone what they were called, but i do know they can't wear shoes while playing an intrument here.

while at the dinner the math teacher taught me how to "properly" use my eating utensils. by holding a big spoon in your right hand and pushing the food onto it w/ the fork in your left hand. my bad :)

i met my host parents and sister. Mom, Dad, and Pang. i also found out i'd be rooming with Tina, Faith, and Vania again! :) we were driving around downtown, with lots of tiny little shops and things everywhere and we turned into an alley. at the end of the alley was a beautiful white house with an iron gate with tons of little plants everywhere! this was my new home. CRAZY!

we removed our shoes before going in and we immediately saw marble floors, and a huge wood and glass staircase with maroon marble steps. this house was gorgeous. i got to my large room with hardwood floors, a king sized bed, and a balcony and realized i was in heaven. the bathroom is also wall-to-wall marble!!! it's so beautiful!

my host family is really nice, too. we went shopping that night for breakfast food and ended up coming home with two shopping carts filled with food. they are very generous, kind people. they language barrier was difficult at first, but now we're learning how to understand each other. Pand is in the English program at school, so knows quite a bit of it. her parents actually know English too! This is unusual, but very refreshing. :)

a few days after we got here to Phuket we had a Regional Learning day! this entire day had no budget to us. the 7 Rotary clubs here in phuket sponsored all of it.

first we went to Sea Gypsy Village. this is a small part of Phuket where many fisherman live. this is an experience i could only have in UWP. We talked to some ladies about their culture, and then taught some children the "Stomp" part of our show. it was SO much fun.

after we left them, we took a trolly boat over to Coral beach! OH MY GOODNESS was it gorgeous. we rode very slowly on the boat so we could take in the tropical beauty all around us. we saw islands completely covered in lush trees, and fishermen out in their handmade wooden boats. when we finally got to "our island" we were so pumped!!! this place looked like something out of a tourist brochure! there was a beach with an enormous jungle behind it. there were seashells on the beach and tropical fish that came swimming up to your toes in the warm, clear ocean. Heaven.

quite a few of us went snokeling. you could see hundreds and hundreds of fish. some of us fed them bananas, but they are fiesty little things, and sometimes missed and nibbled your fingers. you could see all types of coral, sea urchins, starfish, and we even saw some baracuda!! this was an amazing day. the only thing that made it better was the rain! while we were swimming it started to sprinkle. i love the rain, so i was enthralled! i was in a beautiful cove in the warm, salty ocean with soft, cool raindrops falling on my skin. it was incredible.

unfortunately we had to leave Coral beach, but i will definitely have to go back someday, or to somewhere similar. we then had a very important dinner with the heads of the Rotary clubs here in Phuket, and they decided that next time uwp went to phuket they wanted to know details so they could plan their events and community service so they can work hand in hand with us!!

Then came another fun part. the rotary club came through again and sponsored tickets for every single one of us to go see a very famous Phuket show called FantaSea! it was so much fun! before the show you wander around a kind of park, like disneyworld, with lots of shops and little restaurants. there was some amazing architecture. it was beautiful.

the show was fantastic as well! the special effects were out of this world, with bungee cords, optical illusions, crazy lights, and much more. the dancers were exceptional, there was always something going on, and there were 16 elephants on stage. it was so great! there are thousands of seats in this theater and it was sold out! :)

i've made a few observations about Phuket, Thailand so far.

1) they drive CRAZY here. they drive on the opposite side of the road than us, but you may not even be able to tell!! they drive over the line in the street, and there are also more motorcycles than cars here, who just weave in and out wherever they want!

2) its hard to tell where you are because most shops have the same signs, and all the roads are very windy.

3) there is no one culture here in phuket, they have influences from all over the world!!!

4) the food is SPICY!!!!

5) they people here are always smiling, joking, laughing, and just having a good time. i LOVES it!

6) there are barely any trash cans around! i don't really understand what they do with their trash!!

7) their napkins at restaurants are one layer, and half the size we have in the US.

i started my 4 day community service today, but i think i'll write more about that in another post. i love you all!

hugs!

xoxo
--callie

tuscon pictures

2007-08-12T23:27:00.000-07:00

The pics are going backwards... but here ya go! :D

a song for the casts...

2007-08-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Life Uncommon by Jewel

Don't worry mother, it'll be alright
And don't worry sister, say your prayers and sleep tight
It'll be fine lover of mine
It'll be just fine

Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And you shall lead a life uncommon

I've heard your anguish, I've heard your hearts cry out
We are tired, we are weary, but we aren't worn out
Set down your chains, until only faith remains
Set down your chains

And lend your voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And we shall lead a life uncommon

There are plenty of people who pray for peace
But if praying were enough it would have come to be
Let your words enslave no one and the heavens will hush themselves
To hear our voices ring out clear
With sounds of freedom
Sounds ot freedom

Come on you unbelievers, move out of the way
There is a new army coming and we are armed with faith
To live, we must give
To live

And lend our voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend our strength to that which we wish to be free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And we shall lead...

Lend our voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend out strength to that which we wish to he free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And we shall lead a life uncommon

tuscon

2007-08-11T01:37:00.000-07:00

its me again...
so i'm in Tuscon now. have been since monday night. I'm losing track of when i've been writing. i'm not sure what i've gone over so far. but here goes anyway.
we left gallup NM monday morning. my host family sent me off with yummy sammiches and chips. we watched fight club on the bus, but other than that it was a pretty typical bus ride.

we got to tuscon earlier than expected and cast B was waiting to greet us when we got off the bus! they had signs that said "We love cast C," and they were screaming and jumping up and down outside the bus. it was so great to see them again!! we all really missed them even though we had only been apart a few days.
we had announcements a few minutes later and found out for sure that Up with People will be performing in this year's Rose Bowl!!! It was SO exciting! We also found out that Cast B will be going to Las Vegas!!! I am so incredibly happy for them. that should be such a fun experience.

after a while we were finally able to meet our new host families!!! My host parents are Barbara and Larry. They have two kids named Kylie and Alex. They are SO adorable!!! I also got to meet Leigh Ann and her husband who are Larry's sister and brother-in-law. Leigh Ann is really good friends with Rajean, so it was really really good to meet them!

we got to my host family's house, and i seriously don't want to leave! They have a gorgeous view of the entire city from their backyard. it's filled with palm trees, they have a salt-water pool, and a small putt putt golf course in their backyard. we had a delicious supper of steak, salad, and potatoes.

we all split up and did a bunch of community impact work throughout the city on thursday. I went with three other people to the el rio clinic and read books to kids in the pediatric waiting rooms. it was so much fun, but it was challenging at the same time. i had to use the spanish that i had mostly forgotten from high school to speak to some of them. it was so great to see the kids that started out really really shy break out of their shells and end up giggling and talking up a storm.

we had some guest speakers that afternoon that were pretty good. We met some of the cast from '72 that were in Munich during the olympic scare with the israeli hostages!!! we heard their stories and it was SO moving. it became apparent at that moment how much of an impact we can really make. we can really make a profound difference in this world, and it's even possible to do it through music!

that evening we all went over to the gepharts for dinner. there are a bunch of Uppies staying w/ families from this neighborhood who are really good friends. Sayuri and Suzanne from cast B, Matt from cast b and Scott from cast C, and Grant and Josh from cast B. it was super fun. and its good to get so close with all of them.

I have a feeling i'm mixing up all these days. they are jumbled around in my head after all. one night, Grant, Adam, Vania and i went driving around Tuscon. we ended up driving to Mount Lemon to see the city skyline at night, and oh my goodness was it worth it!!! the stars were breathtaking, and seeing the mountains at night is even more amazing than during the day. all you can see are these huge majestic pieces of the land jutting out from the earth. it was incredible. we were also in a convertible, so it was even more amazing. we could see everything!!!

friday was a big rehersal day. we went through our show, and practiced the new parts we were adding in. we blocked the show with both casts and ran through for a long long time.

I'm on the Admissions Team, so i had to get ready really fast after supper (45 minutes sooner than everyone else) and go down to the lobby to greet people. it was so exciting to see all these people come to watch our show. this was a huge show by the way. all the alumni at the reunion came to watch it. we performed at Centennial Hall at the U of A campus. this seats about 3,000 people!

I welcomed many many people and got to know a few of them. the energy around this place was SO intense. this was the proof to some people that up with people was back! this was their dreams being rekindled for newer generations and the joy and anticipation was incredible. as i was walking around the crowd you could just feel all these emotions and more.

by the time i got backstage i could not hold in all this excitement anymore!!! I couldn't keep still. I was jumping up and down, doing crazy dances, and i even had to go to a back hallway so i could scream as loud as i could. i felt like if i stood still and didn't shake all this feeling out i would explode. these people were expecting so much and i couldn't wait to give it to them!!!

the show was phenomenal!!! people were coming offstage crying, and hugging, and jumping, and it was SOOO great!! i saw my old host sister and brother. Delaney came up onstage for Sound of Peace, and Spencer did stomp with the other teenagers. it was so good to see them again!! :D

During the last song of the show, We'll Be There, which is famous for being the most moving in the show, all of our emotions came out! people were giving it all they had and it showed. the audience was on their feet, clapping and singing along. tears were falling down our faces. we could tell all of our hard work was absolutely worth it!

we greeted people after the show and they all said they were very impressed. we were all incredibly proud of our show! it was fantastic. even now, words can't express how spectacular that feeling was. it was the most joyous, euphoric moment of my life so far!! i just wished more people i knew were there to see it!!!

Saturday was amazing as well. my roomate and i got there late, but we still got to see some incredible speakers. first we met Mr. and Mrs. Belk, the founders of Up With People. they gave us some great advice. it was so mcuh fun.... then we got to meet someone you will not believe. the grandson of GHANDI!!! his wife came along as well. it was SO unreal to actually meet a blood relative of this amazing man!!! Words can't explain how spectacular it was to meet him!!!

Right after lunch both casts got together seperately to have cast meetings. these are some of my favorite moments. we just get together to talk about how we're feeling and our different struggles and how to help each other with them. we got a lot out, and had a lot of wet faces, but we got so much closer, even through that mere hour and a half.

Saturday afternoon both casts got together again to go to a community pool to swim, play soccer, and have a BBQ. It was such a blast. we had chicken fights, people doing flips and belly-flops into the pool, and king of the raft!! haha. the food was also amazing!!!

after our relaxation time together we all went back to the Westin La Paloma to watch the Era Show by the alumni. What a great time!!! Each cast that was there performed a few songs from their show and even had the choreography to it! :D before each era performed... from 67 all the way to 97... there was a video about UWP at that time. the kids and teens of the alumni got to perform at the Era Show as well. it was so exciting!!!

Then came a really really tough part about this semester. we had to leave at intermission to say goodbye to the other cast. we were in the lobby and only had 15 minutes to officially say goodbye to our incredibly close friends who wouldn't be travelling with us. I was SO upset, but i heard many encouraging words, and eventually dryed my eyes, with much difficulties.

i know for a fact that i will never ever forget these people. they truly are family to me, and have already made a huge impact on my life. i love them all and can't wait to see them in 5 years!!! :)

that night ended up being so much fun!!! since Grant and Josh (both of cast B :( ) live right down the road from Vania and me, we went out to a hilltop again to take pictures of the skyline! then we went to the community pool, set out a blanket and looked at the stars. they are beautiful here in Tuscon by the way. we took our time together to bond and talk. it was great to have a real goodbye with them, rather than a short quick rip, like the others...

today was a calm day. i got to sleep in, do laundry, and pick up some stuff i needed at the grocery store. we picked up some groceries and headed home to make salad and marinate some chicken. the whole neighborhood was getting together again for a dinner. we got to the gepharts again and went for a swim.

our dinner was amazing!!! we had a great salad (with avocado!!! :D), pasta, fruit salad (with peaches, mangos, cantilope, and bananas), and lots of chicken. we had chocolate cake or cheesecake for a dessert. after dinner we had to say goodbye to the other families. it was really hard, but i was dubbed "Smily" by the adults here. so that's cool! hehe. Leigh Ann had a tough time saying goodbye. she said she felt like i belonged to Stu and Rajean, so it was even harder to let go.

we got back to my host families house and took a lot of pictures. it was good to get them! it's the kid's first day of school tomorrow! it is so unreal to me to imagine going back to school. its really funny, my friends are all starting college, and i'm going to thailand! hah! i win. :) just jokin'

by the way. tomorrow i leave and go to San Diego, California until Wednesday. Then we all fly out to THAILAND!!!! i'm so excited, but idk if i'll be able to write much. i'm assuming there won't be much internet!

i'm gonna get to sleep now. i love you all! :D

--callie

to gallop

2007-08-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

why hello there!
Okay. so i have a little more free time tonight. I'll finish up my little adventure.
So sunday was our free day. my boyfriend tyler called me around 9 am, and my host family invited him over for breakfast! It was so delicious. After breakfast we went to the sixteenth street mall and window shopped. after a while we walked towards the capital to this beautiful park with lots of flowers and shade, and fantastic architecture. It was a little scary because there were quite a few homeless people around. the scenery was amazing none-the-less. we walked around the denver public library for a while. it is obviously much much much bigger than ours, so that was quite an experience.

on the way home on the lightrail it started to rain really really hard, but i absolutely love the rain. It truly makes me happy when it rains. without rain there are no rainbows after all!
We arrived back at my host family's house and they invited tyler in for dinner again! we had homemade pizza and it was delicious. we laughed and talked for a really long time. I started laundry while we started watching "remington steel." Its an old 80's tv show with pierce brosnan in it. its really funny.

tyler stayed for a while while i packed so he could take home some clothes i didn't need. before he left darlene gave him their contact information for when he gets out of basic. she noted that he truly fit into the family. I got really close to this family, so it was really hard to say goodbye the next morning at loretto heights.

we were supposed to be there between 7:30-7:45 but my entire host family woke up at 7:20!! so i got there around 8, but thankfully the bus wasn't supposed to leave until 8:30. my bus date was abby! i love. we had a 9 hour drive with two pit stops. we voted to watch monty python and the holy grail. we finally got to gallup, new mexico 45 minutes later than we planned.
my luggage was 40 minutes away on the UWP truck, so two of the other five of my roomates waited with me while the others went on to my host family's house. my host parents are retired, but their son runs their old bakery, and another of their sons runs a bakery in town. my host dad is an a west-mex band where he plays the accordian. we had an amazing dinner, and then their son brought us fresh pie!!

after dinner we went out on the porch and jammed with dick's accordian for a while. then we all decided on shower schedules and went to bed. we went to the bakery in the morning for breakfast and could pick out whatever we wanted!!! it was delicious! :D

today was really busy, doing admissions training and stuff. we had some high schoolers do a backstage look at the show, and they did the stomp with us in the show. it was really fun. since i am an admissions assistant i helped with the presentation after the show and have been working since then. I'm super pooped and can't wait to get to our host family's house to sleep!!!
love you all. i leave for tuscon tomorrow!!!

xoxo --callie

Opening Night!!!

2007-08-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

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

the day after...

2007-07-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

why hello there-

first i should say i hope all of you had a wonderful day today! mine was very very full.

this morning on the light rail (the electric train that takes me into downtown denver) all the UWP kids ended up sitting next to each other again! but this time it was on accident. i must say it was a lovely surprise, though. Cast B left this morning for Boulder for a regional learning day and Cast C stayed at the Sherman Center to do blocking. We did Vocal practice first, and then while the rest of the cast went to movement practice in the ballroom, a few of us went to the Power With hip hop dance workshop upstairs. i had missed the last 1/3 of this dance last time we had the workshop, so i was a little behind, but i'll figure things out eventually.

during lunch a few of us had a very interesting conversation. there are a few staff members in Cast C who are self-proclaimed "science nerds." apparently one of the dance instructors almost has his doctorate in chemistry!!! so we talked about science classes, and how the farther north you live, apparently the higher your cheekbones are. one staff member also went into great detail about disecting cadavers in college! it was really really interesting.

after lunch 14 of us went to go learn a bunch of songs for "mic groups." there are the people who stand on a riser in the back of the stage singing straight into mics just in case the cast singing below are focused a lot on dancing and can't neccesarily get a lot of sound out. they also add specialty harmonies to the group! :)

we had cast blocking/runthroughh later in the afternoon. i actually felt like we got something done today! we didn't stop, going straight through our show. it was a lot of fun, because we used the lights and everything as well.

we had to wait for Cast B to return to the Sherman building before leaving, and they had gotten slowed down in the rush hour traffic and were 30 minutes late!! but it only gave us more time to bond. :) my host family picked up maria and me up and we went to an "inclusion" banquet, which celebrates leaps made by and for handicapped citizens throughout society. it was really really interesting to hear all these inspirational stories! the first speaker was SO funny. his name was Ian, and i was SO impressed by his speech/comedy routine.

now here i am! letting you all know what's going on! neat, huh?

a few of you have asked about information on my show. so here ya go!!!:

it will be August 4th at 7:30 p.m. at Teikyo Loretto Heights in Denver Colorado.
to get tickets you'll have to call the Up With People office. i'm not sure of the number, but you can surely look it up at upwithpeople.org you should follow the prompts to get to the ticket-buying info. and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

i'm gonna jet. have a lovely night all!

xoxo
--callie

the big 1-8

2007-07-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Today is my 18th birthday! Its so hard to believe, but it's also a big relief because I'm so much younger than everyone else!! p.s. happy birthday to Matt today!!! he turned 21!!

It was a good day. Megan baked me a birthday brownie, complete with my name in frosting and a candle! a bunch of people from UWP got on the light rail the same time i did, and we all sat together. That was a rare treat. when we got to the building where we're staging i was overwhelmed with hugs!! and "nothing pop." it didn't have calories, or sugar, or carbs or anything, and it actually tasted really good!! That was courtesy of Brodie. i heart.

After all the love i had to go upstairs and do the swing dancing workshop with a few castmates while everyone else was in the ballroom doing movement. It was SO hard, and really exhausting, but it felt so great to actually get a grip on how fast it was and do a good job!!! Andrew and i kick some major butt. haha. its so fun to do!!

After the "go daddy oh" workshop we went down to vocals where we learned the culture jam part of our show. i won't ruin the surprise just in case you guys decide to come down and watch!! during lunch i showed hector from mexico the children's book "C is for Cornhusker" because he had asked about Nebraska. I explained all about it, and he was genuinly interested! I'll be getting a mexico lesson from him soon enough.

After lunch was blocking. I've talked about this before, but today it actually seemed like we got something done!! it was really great. we actually went completely through our show 2 or 3 times.

Then i came back to my host family's house and we had mini pizzas for supper. they also got me a pretty necklace for my birthday! They're so sweet. well i'm gonna head. have a lovely day all!!

xoxo
--callie

catch-up!!!

2007-07-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

hey all!

sorry i havn't written lately! I've been SO exhausted I just pass out at my host family's house every night. It's been a long few days.

We've been blocking our show: for those of you who don't know what that means, we're learning where we're standing for which songs and presentations. The problem is, we'll all switch roles over and over this semester so we have to learn EVERYONE'S blocking. It's really tough, especially with those who have never been in a play or anything before where they had to block. It's turning out alright though. Kind of slow... but we'll learn it all soon.

So far I've been called in to do specialty dances for Go Daddy Go (a swing song), and Power With (a hip-hop song). It's so much fun to actually get challenged and learn such difficult choreography! Go Daddy Go is absolutely amazing! The footwork and choreography is really complicated and it looks amazing all put together (complete with flips and lifts!!!). Power with will take me longer to learn, but once i do it will be GREAT!! SOOO much fun. :)

So last friday Cast C did their Community Impact work (CI). We drove and hour and a half up into the mountains to work with the "Coalition for the Upper South Platte" or CUSP. They basically maintain the 1.2 million or so acres of land the source of the South Platte river comes from. This was actually quite relatable for me. The water i swam in that day most likely ran through North Platte, unless it was used for irrigation!

We first split cast C into two parts, one going farther up the mountain, and the other staying lower. Once we got split ( i was on the lower mountain) we split into smaller groups of about 15. My group got to work with Craig who is a biologist for the equivalent of the Game and Parks Commision in Colorado. Craig is SO much fun!! We all really really liked him! He was so much fun, and told lots of great stories.

We had to hike about a mile and a half to the place where we were going to work. It was really hot and most of us wern't used to hiking uphill in such hot, dry weather, so that was a challenge. What we ended up doing when we got to our "spot" was covering up the "social trails" the fisherman make to get down to the river faster. These social trails (beaten off of the regulation trails) cause much more errosion than is safe for the environment here. The more it rains, the more sand and plants go into the South Platte, which is also where 75% of Colorado residents get their drinking water!! Who knew something like walking off the beaten path could cause so many problems!!

So what we did was gather duff and slash. Duff=pine needles piled up on the ground. Slash=branches sawed off of pine trees. We worked for about 2 hours picking up both of these and dragging them quite a ways down the trail to cover up the social trails. They actually look really really natural! We also planted more seeds to cover up the trails, and even made one more trail towards the end where we had to clear out some poison ivy.

Overall this CI was quite a success. Craig even said we were one of the best vounteer groups he's ever worked with!!! :D go us!! :)

After we left we went to a very very small town about 5 minutes away where CUSP bought us all ice cream cones!!! all 70+ of us!! They were so incredibly nice, and we were honored to be working with them. :)

Okay, so it's getting late. I'll let you all go. I'll do my best to try and update this more often. Sorry about the delay!!

xoxo

--callie

p.s. I turn 18 TOMORROW!!! the 24th!!! GO ME!! rock my face.

letter to self

2007-07-17T21:52:00.001-07:00

the first week we were supposed to write a letter to ourselves explaining our personal goals for the UWP program. we will be getting them back sometime within our tour to see how we're doing. this is a letter a staff member who traveled last semester wrote to himself.... enjoy

What I would have written, had I only known.
Dear Andrew, Listen carefully; I have something very important to tell you.
This is a remarkable world, and it deserves all of the attention you can give it.
Let everything inspire you. Focus on yourself and all that is around you.
Find the patterns. Search for the differences.
Understanding these will help you make sense of your life.
It will help you break the habit of falling down in the same place where you’ve always fallen down before.
But be warned, it’s a hard habit to break.
You are about to journey to far corners of this world and in every one of them a secret is waiting to be revealed to you.
You’ll have to keep your eyes open to see them.
You can’t keep your heart locked up like a secret if you’re going to realize that you are so much more than just yourself.
You are a part in the great mystery of everything.
Just think, for a second, of every thing that’s happened to bring you here today.
Not just your life, but all the lives that came before you.
You can believe in anything, God or the ground beneath your feet, to know that your existence and presence here today and in the world is what they mean by ‘miracle’.
Now think of what could be waiting out there for you.
All that is about to happen that you cannot control.
Families across the world who will welcome you with open arms.
You may never really know if people can change.
But you are about to learn that experience can change everything.
Your actions can spread.
Where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and the love you give can expand, coloring everything in your life that came before it. Love expanding.
Now there’s a concept that could change the world.
So keep your eyes on your heart and nothing else.
You’ll find, with this, that your heart will lead you to the truth.
The truth, which is not your emotions, or attractions, or excitements.
The truth is strength where you were once weak, compassion where you were once ignorant, and kindness where you were once cruel.
You must give these gifts to yourself before you can give them to others.
Because love is a choice, not a feeling, and it’s only the brave who ever really make it.
Be kind when no one is watching, and treat those you grow to love always with compassion first. But don’t be so hard on yourself when you don’t.
Always ask – what is it from this that I am meant to understand?
What is it the world is really teaching me?
Because the world has taught us lies.
That we can live a full life alone, but that we need others.
That we should put ourselves first.
That we should take instead of give.
That to love and have joy should be easy.
And that our words need not have meaning behind them.
It’s not the world’s fault it’s lied to us – it can’t help itself.
But it’s our fault for believing the lies, and we don’t have to any longer.
So – appreciate humanity.
Appreciate this earth and everything in it.
It needs you now, and it’s every atom, if you allow it, can inspire you to grow and change.
Have fun, close your eyes, spread your arms and forget yourself and how to breathe.
Everything you know is over-rated, everything you’ll ever learn will someday be forgotten.
And to be lost is to be free.
This experience is not about the moment that came before, or the moment that comes next, it’s about the truth you open your heart to in every moment that you are in.
It’s a gift to close your eyes, raise your head to the sky, and see light where there should be darkness.
The world is waiting for you, right now, to teach it something new.
So teach it loudly.
Life begins today, just as it began yesterday, filled with possibility.
Have faith. Do not be afraid. That which is true will never leave your side.
It is never to late to turn what’s wrong around.
You are about to build a family around yourself.
So Welcome Home. Build your life with pride, and kindness.
Beginnings do not last, it’s what you do with what you’ve started that will determine the worth not only of this experience, but of your very life.

CAST C 2007!!!

2007-07-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the cast announcement for our group of UWP, fall 2007. I was so nervous all day! We had some lectures in the morning about leadership, and had an early lunch so the staff could show us a couple more songs from our show. We then had vocal and movement practice. Our last dance as the Red Group!!! It was really sad.
The staff wouldn't let us into the ballroom for a while after dancing so they could set up all the lists. We all ran in when they let us and searched the many different boards around the room to see if we were going to Base 2 or the Auditorium for our cast meeting. It was really really emotional. i didn't really care which cast i was on... I was just wondering who I was with!! It turns out most of my really close friends here that I've been hanging out with are on the other cast! It was a really emotional time with laughter, hugs, and some tears.
I do realize however that everything happens for a reason, and those people that I've gotten close to will always be my friends. I am confident that 10 years from now I can still see any of them and reunite as true and faithful friends, people that will always support, and be there for me.
We then split up and went to our seperate rooms to find out whether we were cast b or c. I walked into a scene of complete joy! There were people screaming and yelling, hugging and taking pictures everywhere. I was really dissapointed that I wouldn't be traveling the world with the friends I had already, but i know I'll make new friends, and have a fabulous time regardless of my initial feelings of dissapointment.
We were in one room, but eventually heard very loud music and saw flashing lights coming from the next room over. We all rushed in and we saw the staff members lining up so we could run through them, They were waving flashlights around giving high fives and cheering for us as we ran through the midst of them. "Ain't no Mountain" was playing loudly, and when we got through the staff we all danced around like crazy, full of exuberance and joy.
Once we were all fairly settled down they kept the lights off and and Andrew, a staff member read a long poem/inspirational story about our upcoming adventure. it was SO moving! we were all crying and hugging and beaming with excitement! we cheered as each of our castmates were named, and then for each of the staff members who would be traveling with us on the road. it was incredibly moving.
Then we got to see a presentation on where we were going and some info on some of the cities we would be traveling to. one of the cities i'll be going to in thailand is the capital of king cobras in that region. they even train and perform w/ them! we will be going to thailand during the rainy season. also... the one thing i am the MOST excited about is that my cast rides a cruise ship from Finland to Sweden.... and while we're aboard we get to PERFORM!!! you can be jealous. :) i understand. haha
One of our shows in Germany is actually already sold out!!!!! While the itinerary for the US isn't quite set yet, we know for sure that we'll be in New York, and we'll be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!!! over 44 million people will be watching via TV. freakin' SWEET!!! so make sure you watch for me.
Yesterday was also my roomate, Maria's, birthday! She turned 23. so the beals made us dinner and smothies, then we went out for dessert at Red Robin.we had HUGE desserts, and Maria got tons of balloons we had to take home in the van. we had to pack them in, it was SO funny! :) so overall yesterday was a good day. :)
I'll let you all know the exact locations I'm going soon... but i'm quite sleepy now. i love you and miss you all. HUGS

xoxo
--callie

day 3: culture jam: stereotypes

2007-07-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

today was so great!

well not at first i suppose. i lost my wallet. not good... it had my driver's liscence, bus pass (i use it every morning), my calling cards, and my AAA Visa check card in it. i kind of freaked out. oh well i guess. can't do anything now...

but besides that! we did some fun educational activities this morning. the main message was not to rush through your experience here, but to sit back and reflect on what has happened and what you can learn from it or how you can change it. we played the human knot game where you get in a circle and grab someone else's hand across the circle and then try to straighten yourself into one circle. it was super fun. my group was actually the only one not to get untangled, but we had 12 people in it!! it was a little smooshed, so we got to know each other very quickly.

we then went on to an educational session where we learned etiquette and what to expect when it comes to our host families. after this lesson was a very interesting activity. we wrote down different stereotypes we had for all the different countries we had represented and then discussed what was writen down. this was very deep and informational! i learned quite a bit about my castmate's cultures from this activity. not so much about mine, other than everything is so polarized in this country that a stereotype could be 100% true in one area but unheard of in another.

after this was vocal work. we learned Ayiko!!! one of my favorite UWP songs!!! :) it was amazing how a group with some who had never taken a choir class ended up with such a rich, amazing sound. we worked step-by-step from Sopranos to Altos to the men, and when we all sang together for the first time i got goosebumps! it's amazing.

after this was the culture jam!! what an amazing time i had! we have some very talented people among us on this tour! we had traditional cambodian dancers, a breakdancer, ABBA, some poems, a harmonica player, some world cup statistics, a drum circle, a piano player, a mariachi band, and much much more!!! I can't wait for tomorrow night!!

first official day of training...

2007-07-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

hola!!

okay, not gonna lie. today is kind of a blur!! i hope i remember the highlights.

we woke up and drove to denver w/ the fam'. we did end up being like 2 minutes late to the opening session, but it was still phenomenal. that show is so in your face at times...and others it's entirely moving. i got goosebumps i don't know how many times! i'm SOOO psyched! my mom, grandma, and friends paula and hilary from boulder came down from their camping trip in Red Feather up in the mountains to see the show. i looked back and my mom was crying. a lot. but that's how we are i suppose. emotional. so after the show they all came down and met my host mom and siblings. then i met tommy spaulding! he's the head of the UWP program now. he's great.

following the show we all went downstairs to the ballroom to do some ice-breakers. that was a blast. K time out. this building is so beautiful! it's really old, and has hand-painted ceilings and walls. its classic. it almost seems arabic. it's also surrounded by skyscrapers! so that just adds to the classic beauty it has.

after icebreakers we went into what i will call family groups, cuz that's what they are. we got to know each other and are currently coming up w/ a group theme song and name and "gang" sign! (we're a peaceful gang. promise) that was a good time. we then went inside for lunch; turkey sloppy joes and salad w/ beets in it! strange i thought...

after lunch was a really interesting activity. we tried to define USA's culture. people from other countries had many different perspectives of us. some of which are: we are all always happy, we like things big (starbucks coffee, big portions), we're selfish, we like to consume, and such. that debate went on for quite a while.

then we sat and talked about what we'll be doing for the next couple days for a while...

after stephanie picked me up our host family went out to eat to celebrate stephanie getting a high profile client! go her. at the restaurant at the flatirons mall i got this spaghetti squash and zucchini thing, which actually ended up just being a big pile of vegetables, but hey. it was yummy. then we sat on some "love sacs" it was a good time.

after my LONG day... especially since i stayed up so late last night (3 a.m. :S) i was exhausted. so here i am. ready for bed. hope all is well w/ you all. miss ya. luv ya. HUGS!

xoxo
--callie

day 2: denver: free day

2007-07-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

dia dos!

rock on!! today was pretty sweet! megan and I woke up around 10 when the host family, jeremy, and johan left to go to church. we went downstairs and ate a breakfast that Steph set out for us. I had lucky charms and some strawberries. Megan made some egg salad and had strawberries and coooooookie crisp! yummy, right? :D Stephanie had left us a note saying we were going on a picnic and asked if we had time to make some PB&J sammiches.

the family got home around 12:30 and we packed up a bunch of food and headed to meet one of Steph's old castmates who was also hosting a current UWP member at boulder creek. We got there and passed a really gorgeous building called " The Tea House." It was given to the city of Boulder from the country of Tajikstan in 1987. Everything is hand-painted and absolutely beautiful!!!

so we got to where Yuki and her husband Pete were camping with their three kids and chilled for a while before taking the leap into the freezing cold water!! All of boulder creek is actually the melted snow from the mountains... so our legs were pretty much numb in two minutes flat. there were tubers floating down the creek in bikinis!!! it was crazy. although, i did eventually emerse myself in the ice water... and it wasn't that bad. I was just numb.

after swimming around, sunbathing, and taking lots of pics, we all went our seperate ways and our group decided to walk down to pearl street (sort of like the 16th? street mall in denver). the first thing we saw was a contorsionist from jamaica! He folded himself in half and pulled a bottomless bucket completely around him! it was nuts... then he got himself into a tiny box! curAzy!

we walked a bit farther and went into a sweet candy shoppe! there were walls and walls of candy i'd never heard of. it was great. my faves were the gummy fried eggs and gummy army men! rock my face! there was a crazy lady who was talking to herself in there too! :) good times. when we walked out of that shoppe we heard a man playing piano and singing "american pie." we looked closer and it was a sing-along type of a thing. jeremy went up and requested an elton john song i'd never heard and sang it for us ladies.

Us ladies then left the boys and looked into some cute dress shoppes and stuff. it was pretty darn sweet. we all met up in a random store and tried on crazy hats! we also played a game that literally shocked you, and found a marshmellow gun!

we left pearl street and went up to the flat-irons. it was so beautiful up in the mountains! and all the old houses took your breath away. some had ivy creeping up the sides, and some where made of stone. it was amazing. we took some pictures on the side of a cliff. the view was absolutely magnificent! : ) i love colorado.

on the way home we decided to stop at cost-co (sort of like Sam's Club) to show johan the beauty of American excess. we lounged in the leather couches and went around sampling most of the food as well. we got some pizza for supper and went home.

supper was yummy, as usual. the pizzas we got were ginormous! they barely fit in the ovens! they tasted wonderful though. we also had melon and peaches. one of my new-found favorite drinks is Arizona Green Tea now. Oh my goodness it is heaven! I'm gonna have to find some back home when i get back!

Jeremy and Johan's new host family came to eat supper with us, converse and pick them up tonight as well. the Collins' will be going to Arizona for an Up With People reunion, so won't be able to host us for the rest of the month! This family is absolutely darling and I don't want to leave them on Thursday! The boys left this evening, and Megan leaves tomorrow morning! It is quite sad. But at least I'll have Spencer (who i keep calling nathan!!! eek), and Delaney. :)

anyway... after dinner jeremy and megan began to practice and memorize "summer nights" for our culture jam, and all the adults came inside and listened to them sing, with johan accompanying on piano, and it turned into a house concert! we sang the national anthem, complete with attempted harmony (hehe), and "seasons of love" from rent!! it was sweet. both megan and jeremy have amazing voices! i was really really impressed.

after our concert jeremy and johan left, but not after riding spencer's motor scooter! fun stuff. the rest of us decided to go for a walk around the spectacular neighborhood!!! on the way we played the alphabet game. it was super fun. we got home and relaxed and watched some more UWP videos. We had chips and guacamole as well! i tried lime chips for the first time here, and I must say they are really good! :)

so for the rest of the evening i caught up with some friends and talked to megan and steph about all sorts of things :) i have to wake up around 6:45 to be ready to leave by 7:30. our opening session doesn't start until 8:30, but we have to beat the traffic. so tomorrow is our first official day of Up With People, and I cant wait!! so i should get some sleep... I love and miss you all.
have a great day! hugs

xoxo
--callie

my first night in UWP

2007-07-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

First night in Denver (okay, Superior). Wow am I lucky! I just finished a day with some of the most interesting, amazing people EVER! Be jealous. Seriously. I got to the rec center in Denver around 1:30 mountain time and registered and got all of my host family information. I then proceded to mingle and chat with most of my fellow castmates. Most of whom I won't remember the names of by Monday, but you know how it goes. Thank goodness for nametags!! By the way, I got my own official Up with People nametag this afternoon! :)

The people I met come from Montana, to Hawaii, to Sweden, Uganda and Japan! Of course there are many many many more sprinkled in between. I played pool with Rafael from Brazil, and Guido from Italy. I listened to Johan from Sweden and Manuel from Mexico play guitar! Flippin' SWEET! Tell you what! And a whole gaggle of us have already decided that we're going to get tattoos before we're done w/ UWP, or piercings. Sorry Mom and Dad! :)

My host family is absolutely amazing! Their names are Stephanie and Dave Collins from Superior, a suburb of Denver, which is actually closer to Boulder. They have two children. Spencer, who is going into high school next year, and Delaney. I didn't ask how old she was. I'll have to ask tomorrow. Also rooming with the Collins' are Megan from Minnesota (complete w/ the accent), Jeremy from Montana, and Johan from Sweden! I love. We spent an amazing night swapping stories and customs over a delicious dinner! Stephanie made tossed salad, cranberry chicken (YUM), San Francisco Sourdough, and this pasta-like stuff that none of us could really give a name for. We discussed after-dinner rituals and Stephanie (who is also a cast alumni) and Johan told us all about Finnish saunas and german spas, quite a unique experience from the sounds of it.

After dinner we all went outside and snapped some pics. We jumped on the trampoline with the kids and Johan and the 'rents enjoyed some white wine. We all sat around their back porch and talked about what the UWP experience would be like and what we were expecting to get out of it. We talked about our performance experience and "special talents," such as singing, playing guitar, or dancing. We compared school systems and discussed our favorite musicals. Following our chat we all went back inside for dessert. Stephanie made peppermint brownies with ice cream. I am spoiled I tell you! She also brought out these scrumptious chocolates from San Francisco, where she is originally from.

We then went downstairs and watched an old Up with People show from 1987! It was SO funny! Entertaining anyway. So tomorrow is a free day, as are all Sundays. If I wake up by 10 a.m. I'll go to church w/ my host family, but who knows. We will be driving into Boulder sometime that afternoon to do some sightseeing. I am super excited. I miss you all dearly, but I'm having a wonderful time! :) Love and hugs!
xoxo --callie

driving to denver...

2007-07-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I am currently driving, on my way to Denver. What a lucky day! 7/7/07! Could it get any better? Honestly... yes. I didn't realize how emotional I would get about leaving! I was a total mess leaving North Platte! Shocker, right? I felt so sick, sort of like I was leaving everyone behind. As surreal as this is (I still can't believe I'll meet all my future castmates in a few short hours), I feel like I'm leaving forever! As I was saying my goodbyes I couldn't help but thinking if I'd ever see these people i call my friends again, although I'm sure I will.

I must say,however, that I am so incredibly blessed by all the support and friendship I've recieved throughout the years, and especially now, before leaving for an adventure of a lifetime! Who could have asked for better friends to be there for me, to listen to me, and to make me laugh. :) Some of you I've known for most of my life, and others (just as precious) have very recently become extremely important in my life. I'm going to be completely honest. I was considering backing out of this program, thinking the timing was off, and it would be simpler to just do it later! Luckily some great friends of mine reminded me of the spark I got when I was accepted, and the jubilance I had while talking about Up With People. Thank you.

This is a fantastic opportunity, and I have decided I'm going to make the most of it! As cheesy as this sounds, this is a dream come true. There's never been that one lingering dream I've had forever. Some people know from shildhood what they want to do in life. Up With People has always been there, in my mind. I didn't think it was a plausible idea until the cast came to North Platte last year! Since I have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I've decided I'm going to try as many new things as I can grasp, and put myself out there so I can meet new people. Although you may not believe it, I get very shy around people I don't know. However, I owe it to myself to break through my silly little shell and LIVE. It will be a great challenge to interact with people from such opposite backgrounds, but I cannot wait! I'm also rather worried about communicating with my host families later on in foreign countries. Some of them may not know a speck of English! Scary!

Now I'm blabbering, so I'll leave you all back to your lives. :) Keep in touch! Love and hugs to you all!
xoxo --callie

Admission

2007-06-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

Here's the beginning of my tale.

I was accepted into Up With People. OMGosh!!! I know, right? I've been wanting to travel with this group since they performed here in N.P. when I was in elementary school! I seriously started crying when I found out I was accepted! This is SO great. I got this e-mail on August 26th. I know I'm a little late, especially since i leave in 23 days!!! But I had to start this whole blog thing out somehow. And what's better than the beginning?! =)

So I was planning on trying my very very best to keep everyone informed about what I was up to, and where I was, and all that jazz via internet. It will be pretty difficult to get out letters and such all the time (minus those FEW people who have been telling me since i got accepted that they want postcards ;) ). The internet will hopefully be cooperative and kind to me wherever I go!!

I will be having at least one more fund raiser before I leave. There will be a concert at Da Buzz coffee shop towards the end of June to hopefully gather together the last bit of money I need to go on this amazing adventure! The date isn't 100% yet, but I'll let you know.

God Bless you all!! Take care.

--callie

p.s. I'll keep track of my myspace and facebook accounts while I'm gone as well, but if you do want the scoop on what's going on w/ Up With People, this is where you'll find it! love!

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Dear Callie:
Congratulations!
It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted into the July 2007 program of Up with People.

We are thrilled that you will be joining us for this unique experience. In one semester our traveling classroom will take you to 19 cities in three regions of the world where you will live with local families, connect to each community through arts and music, serve as a volunteer, learn and practice leadership, and emerge, eyes open to the vast opportunities and challenges facing you and the world we live in.

Nearly 20,000 alumni from more than 79 countries who traveled before you have shown that as a result of your Up with People experience you will take your place as a global citizen ready to take action in meeting the needs of your community, country, and the world.

You will soon receive your official acceptance letter by post. This letter will outline what you will need to do to complete your enrollment in Up with People.

If you have any questions please contact the Admissions Office in Denver, CO USA via e-mail: apply@upwithpeople.org or by phone: +1 303 460.7100 x106.
Again, congratulations and welcome to Up with People. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
The Up with People Admissions Team
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