Coos Bay, Oregon

So, as I said before, I left the cast for a few weeks to come help a CRC (Community Relations Coordinator- which is the job I did last year) with preparing a city. I was really sad to leave the students and staff, it brought back bad memories of when I had to do that every few weeks last year. I almost cried, but kept it together (as far as everyone knew- thank goodness for big sunglasses). It’s just 2 ½ weeks, hopefully they won’t miss me too much ;) Raine, a student from Canada, and I flew first to Portland than to Eugene, where Ryan the CRC and my host mom, an alumna named MJ, picked us up from the airport. We drove to the town of Florence for an Oregon seafood dinner and then made it into Coos Bay around 10pm. I was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep in super comfortable bed.

Woke up to the braying of a donkey, yep a donkey- which lives next door. Awesome. Coos Bay/North Bend is a cute little town, where Steve Prefonataine (Pre), the runner grew up. Pretty much their claim to fame. The weather is cool here and it smells amazing- like wood and trees and apples and the sea. I love it. Its nice to unpack my suitcase for once since I get to stay a whole 3 weeks.

Super tired now, but I should be able to write more since my schedule won’t be quite so hectic. Love to everyone out there and thanks for reading. As soon as I get a new camera I’ll have pictures for you all. Love, Sam

San Diego

We had a busy week, so I’ll break it down by day to make sure I don’t forget anything

Monday- We had a long travel day from Sierra Vista. I drove the van with Peppe, Christine, Jared, Jeff and Patrick. We had a good time and arrived in San Diego at our Host pick up spot which was Balboa Park. I stayed in the hotel this week, so I went out to dinner with the hotel crowd, plus Kerri Ann and Louise, for Louise’s birthday. Good Mexican food in Old Town San Diego.

Tuesday- Tuesday was our regional learning/promotions day. We met downtown and had some great guest speakers and then headed to Sea Port Village to promote for our show. A mostly tourist crowd, but a cute little “town” on the water. We performed a mini show and handed out flyers. After lunch we headed to the US/Mexico border just south of San Diego. I wasn’t that excited about it, but oh man, was it an experience! It was just crazy to be standing on the edge of a country and look at a fence that separates another country. In Europe, you hardly know when you cross a border, but here there is a huge divide and a huge, visible difference. We listened to a border patrol guy speak (by the way, I HATE the way he called illegal immigrants “aliens”- it sounds so inhuman) and then walked around a bit. We went down on the beach where the fence was falling a part and there were huge gaps. I slid between the gaps and “visited” Mexico for the first time. Make that my 14^th country I’ve been to! It was a crazy experience.

Wednesday- I was signed out to work this day, so nothing too exciting happened. In the evening, we had a bonfire party on the beach with the cast and the host families. It was very nice. The water was super-warm, but I didn’t get in (although a couple guys threatened to throw me in!) because it was windy and a little chilly outside. After the party we switched into a much nicer hotel (I fondly call the hotel we spend our first two nights in the “smoketel”) and took a quick, chilly dip in the pool.

Thursday- I got to go on CI (Community Impact) for the first time since Denver. I went with about 10 other students to the Habitat Restore, which is a place to buy building supplies and furniture, much of which is gently used and donated, and all the money goes to the area Habitat for Humanity. I moved and stacked tile and laminate flooring, rearranged the furniture on the showroom and hauled some other stuff around. Good, hard, sweaty work, which I love. I then had to take my sweaty self and pick up my intern, Sophie from China, and go to the Albertson’s in Escondido where our show would take place later in the week (in Escondido, not Albertson’s….) We did a bit of promotion, we had a table outside the store where we handed out flyers, balloons and candy and (tried to) talk to people about our show. Thursday night I got my hair done at the Paul Mitchell School and it cost me less than half of what it normally does. Hooray for student stylists!

Friday- Friday was another regional learning day for the casts, but the promotion team had another schedule. We woke up early to go to Fox in San Diego and performed on the morning show. I was interviewed for about 2 minutes and then about 10 students danced part of Keep the Beat. I felt good about everything and I think it went very well. Click on the link in the previous post to check it out. After that, we went to La Jolla to do a bit more promotion and then had lunch at the La Jolla Brewhouse. I then took a promotions crew back up to Escondido to give Grand Ave a little Up with People flavor. I don’t think anyone in that town could not know about UWP. Later that evening we worked an event called ‘Crusin’ Grand’ where they put all these old cars on the street and people walk around. We decided to ‘cruise’ the UWP van up and down the street while blaring UWP music. If I suffer from premature hearing loss you’ll know why. Long day of work, but fun times.

Saturday- Typical show day. Promo and set up in the morning. Got a lot of work done. Cast did an amazing show, although I only saw bits of it since I was setting up the alumni reception. Big turnout for the reception, which was great. Beyonce’s uncle, Willy Knowles, even came- as he is an UWP alumni. Too bad we couldn’t of have a guest performance of ‘Bootylicious’… I’m sure we could have squeezed it in between “Sound of Peace” and “Power With”.

Sunday- a “true” free day as I was in the hotel. I slept in until 11 which was amazing and got brunch with the boys (Gabe and Hector). We picked up Christine and hit the beach. Went to Pacific Beach and had a great time enjoying the amazing weather, warm sand, cool water and great views (not just talking about the ocean here J ). Went out for some super-yummy sushi and packed up to hit the road for another week in the life…

click on this. Cast B on TV in San Diego!

http://www.fox6.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=350164@video.fox6.com&navCatId=164/

Sierra Vista

So, another week on the road complete. We spent the past 4 days in Sierra Vista, Arizona- just 40 miles from the Mexican border. I stayed with a wonderful host family- mom, Michelle and 2 daughters- Sierra and Samantha. I got to stay in Sam's room- complete with pink walls and a giant 'Samantha' sign- it was awesome! My roommates were Luis from Panama and Johan from Sweden. Gotta love roomies who can sing and play guitar! I worked a lot in this city- training the advance teams, doing promotion for show and preparing for a busy week ahead promoting in San Diego. I didn't perform in the show last night, but it was fun to watch- the cast is getting better and better and it is fun to see people in new roles. We had a great host family day today. We went to Kartchner Caverns, which is basically a huge underground cave which was discovered in the 70's. It was absolutely amazing to see all the underground formations that have been there for 200,000 years. We had a nice lunch and continued our geology theme with a trip to Bisbee to see the Queen's Mine. We donned yellow coats, hard hats and lights and hopped on a mini train that took us deep into the mine. I wish my camera wasn't broken- we all looked pretty cool. The mine was interesting, I was a bit claustrophobic, but not too bad. And of course, we ran into tons of 'Up with People' people. We got some ice cream after the tour and walked around the cute little hippie town of Bisbee a bit before heading home where we all promptly fell asleep in the van. Tonight has been nice, just laundry, hanging out and packing a bit after a nice dinner. Currently we are giving Luis a real American experience by watching 'Risky Business'.

Off to San Diego tomorrow. I can't wait!!

On the road again...

Here we go, we are officially on the road. We spent last week in Tucson, Arizona and had an amazing time. Both Casts B and C traveled to Tucson to do community service and perform in conjunction with the alumni reunion that is held every year. This year, 1200 alumni came to Tucson to have their 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 year reunions and also came to our show. The casts did a phenomenal job coming together for the show and really blew everyone away. Our stay in Tucson was sponsored by Jim Click Automotive Team. I had a lot of fun in Tucson, spending as much time with my awesome host "mom", Ali, as I could and also trying to soak in some last moments with the Cast C people as well. It was really hard to say goodbye to them, as they left for Thailand, while we are staying in the US for 7 more weeks. Some of them I will see in Denver in just 4 months, but others I'm not sure when I will see again.

The past few days we spent in Globe, Arizona which is next to the Apache San Carlos Indian Reservation. We were sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank here in Globe. We performed our show at the Apache Gold Casino and did community service with a bunch of great organizations in the Globe area. Tomorrow we head to Sierra Vista Arizona for a 3 day stay. I'll try to write more later, but my computer is running out of battery now...