Atlanta, GA

We are wrapping up our US leg of the tour! What a week to end it too! We were actually in Roswell, GA, a suburb right outside of Atlanta, but we just said Atlanta.  We took a short drive over from Statesboro and had quite a few hours of free time, so we explored the little downtown, but got sent inside because it started pouring rain! We hung out some more at the facility until it was time for host pick up! I was hosted with Tori from Los Angeles, CA and we lived with a woman Dennise who traveled in '97 and her husband Shane and their three kids, Grace(7), Max(5) and Henry(19mo).  Tori and I knew from the start we were going to have a fun week with the kids!

Our host code was Botanical Gardens

Tori(CA)

The week felt like it flew by! It didn't help that I was feeling sick for most of the week.  But I got to do my first gardening of the semester at Chattahoochee Nature Center on Tuesday.  It was freezing cold outside, but we still turned the beds, harvested some scallions and lettuce.  It was a great learning experience, and it was in a mountain-type area, so it felt much more familiar than palm trees and beaches.

Wednesday was an AWESOME class day! We were at the local YMCA in their "teen room" so it was a huge gym with funky chairs.  Our professors were in town too! Pete and Theresa really make the class amazing and we feel so connected to them.  Once we were back with the whole cast, Pete and Theresa led a group discussion about being a "bad apple" or a negative person in a group.  To demonstrate, they split up the cast into small groups with one Study Abroad student (SA) in each one.  We had a question that Earth was inducted into the league of planets and we had to choose 2 occupations (Doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc.) to send to be on a council.  The secret of the activity was that the rest of the cast didn't know that the SA students were acting either as a jerk, a slacker, or a depressant.  Once we got back into a large group, Pete began to explain what was going on, and the whole group was so surprised because many of them noticed a change in behavior, but didn't think much of it. the whole point of the exercise was to explain how one negative "bad apple" can really change the dynamic of the whole group and how aware we need to be of it.

One of Pete's crazy exercises 

Our awesome classroom!

On Thursday I was sick, but it was still a really interesting Regional learning day for the cast, so here's a bit from Amy Polete's blog about the day:  we had a regional learning day at the state capitol and Roswell City Hall. We had a sponsored lunch at the Shriners’ temple that afternoon. I had no idea who or what Shriners were before our lunch, and their fez hats kind of weirded me out, but they really do have a great mission and have helped millions worldwide with their hospitals. After that, we headed back to Roswell and had a meet and greet with the Mayor and some council members from Roswell. Mom joined us for that and we had a good afternoon. We had also had some internal time where Nirite, Sarah, and Leslie presented a “Health on the Road” workshop. We learned tips and tricks to staying healthy while maintaining our crazy UWP lifestyle! I find it funny that now our whole cast sings (to the tune of Row Your Boat), “Wash, wash, wash your hands, make them nice and clean! Scrub the bottoms and the tops and fingers in between” two times through as we wash our hands! Have to love good hygiene!
That evening was one of the only evenings in the week that Tori and I were actually home early enough to hang out with the kids before bed, so we all played the video game Just Dance, and Tori and I even stayed up after the kids went to bed to play! I really wish we would have had more time that week to spend with the kids, but we had some fun nights of staying up and talking to Dennise as well.  

The cast at City Hall

We had 3 shows in Roswell, and they all went great! On Saturday before the shows we had a potluck that was put on by our host families and we also got to eat with them too! I got to know some other families and it was great to meet even more people from the city. For our matinee show we had 112 students from a local middle school come because one of the teachers is an UWP alumnus.  She raised all of the money for the buses and tickets to bring the kids there, and all of them had to write an essay explaining why they should get to go to the show, so they all wanted to be there as well.  During the last song of the show, they held up signs saying "THANK YOU" and we all felt the little pricks in the back of our eyes.  After we had some great cake that they brought as well!

Sunday we just hung out at home and our family is really into St Patrick's day, so they had a party with some other families from the neighborhood.  It was full of giggles and green.

Statesboro, GA

That right there was my home for our first week in Georgia in Statesboro.  It was a fantastic week! The bus ride took around 7.5 hrs with a break down at one point, but we still got there and were ready to meet our families! But not before an awesome welcoming from the city by little kids from an after school performing program and an Elvis impersonator.  My host mom was an amazing and sweet woman named Alice.  I was roomed with Anna from Italy and Katy from Wyoming.  Alice's home was huge and beautiful! The home reminded me of camping in a cabin with my family and the landscape even felt like home! The first night we also had dinner with an elderly woman and the two girls she was hosting (Ambrea from Minnesota and Simone from Denmark) and it was just some good traditional southern cooking.  Anna, Katy and I felt right at home and were so excited to be living together.

Anna, Alice & Katy

Tuesday wasn't a CI like most weeks, but a performance at Georgia Southern University for the students.  That was different because they get their tickets for free.  But they were still a pretty good crowd once they warmed up to us.  It was a 90 minute show, so some things were left out so that tehy would still come to our full show that weekend.  Then Wednesday was class then we did a culture fair on the campus for the students to drum up interest.  We did about 10 interviews that day which is great! I interviewed 2 students myself, and I always think it's pretty fun.  That night we had a girls night with our host mom who spoiled us with way to much ice cream and "You've Got Mail".

Thursday was CI and I went to an assisted living home with 3 other students and we had a grand old time! We stuffed pillows with some of the residents that would then be sent to children's homes and hospitals and such to give comfort.  It was so fascinating to hear their stories, especially the ones of where they came from.  I met several men and women who served in WWII.  I also got to spend time in the Alzheimer's unit, which was interesting.  One woman was 104 years old! That just amazes me.  I felt very lucky to spend my day there and bring in some youth to that place.

Friday we performed a 45 minute show for the student body of Statesboro high school and they had great energy, almost a little too much.  That night we also had a show, and my family came out! So they finally got to see what an awesome show I'm doing.  I then got to spend the weekend them at their hotel.  It was great to spend time with them.

Sunday we went to Savannah, GA as a family.  We took a trolley tour all around the city and learned just how old and historic the city was.  We had some great sweets and quite the walk! We also ran into many other uppies, which wasn't surprising.  Next week is our last week in the US then it's off the Switzerland to begin our European tour!

Family in Savannah

Vero Beach, FL

Our last city in Florida was Vero Beach.  It's a beautiful city with a more... seasoned age range.  My family was Woody and Suzanne and my roommate was Tone (pronounced Tony) from Sweeden.  The first night we got there, we were taken over to a big block party where we discovered about 15 other students were living on the same street as us, and we also were told that that was the "party block".  The food was great and we met and got to know many other hosting couples as well.

 The family clues were Superheroes

 Tuesday was our first CI day and I went to Dasie Hope Center.  It is a low-income after school program for kids to go and get help on homework and play until their parents come get them.  But it's for grades k-12.  Our jobs were to clean the grounds and I got to be one of 3 to design and create a mural for the center.  It was a "tree of hope" and we were so proud because only one of us was an artist, Mckenzie (UT) so Jessica(Mex) and I were very proud of what we accomplished.  I was only there for one of the three CI days though, so someone else finished the mural.  That night we went over to a neighbor's house again to have a dinner/hot tub party with a few families.  It was great to just hang out with some cast members in a casual setting, and our parents were happy to hang out as well! They are all very good friends, and that was obvious to see.

Mckenzie (UT) and Jessica (Mex) on the first day

The final product!

Wednesday was class but that evening we had the second culture fair! This time I didn't have to work a booth because it was all Europe and Asia.  It was very fascinating and I learned so much! I learned how to write thank you in Arabic from Morocco, how to pick up Italian guys,  some Aussie lingo, and even had a quest in China! It just made me even more excited to leave the US and really get into some new cultures.

Thursday I went to another after-school program called Gifford Youth Center.  They were much more like an extra learning center where kids took classes and worked on homework from their actual schools.  We did some cleaning of more indoor rooms, got some chill time by the pool, and then when the kids started arriving, we assisted with homework.  I was helping a girl with 4th grade math, and for a while I did okay, then after a little bit, I started struggling too! But we all know math was never my strong point.

Friday and Saturday were both fantastic shows and I had a ton of fun doing those.  I would say those were some of our best so far and the audience just loved having us.  I wouldn't be surprised if UWP goes back there again soon!

For host family day on Sunday we had a neighborhood brunch which was fantastic!  I've missed breakfast foods, because we don't have them that often.  It was also just fun to hang out with uppies again.  Then after that, we went to, can you guess? The beach! (That's #4 for those of you keeping track) But it was very cold out, so we more just stopped by.  Then we went to an Eco festival that was more for teaching kids about the environment, but it was still interesting.  We ran into several girls from that cast, but that's no surprise.  After a great dinner by Suzanne, we hung out as a neighborhood group one more time bowling! There were so many giggles and cheers, and I even got a strike! I still don't care for bowling, but doing it with uppies sure does make it more fun!

Eco Fest

The neighborhood group at bowling

Haley(AZ) Hugh(MN) and Larissa(NH) at brunch

Next week we move on to Georgia!

Home of the Happiest Place on Earth: Orlando!

We spent last week in the home of Disney, Orlando FL.  But we quickly realized that Orlando is so much more than Disney.  The first day, right off the bus from Ft Meyers to meet the Mayor of Orlando.  It was an interesting experience and we learned more about Orlando and what they are doing to improve it.  We also got to sit in the board of Orlando's chairs, so that was pretty cool! After the mayor had to leave, we headed over to the building that our host families would pick us up and just got to hang out or explore the city (the study abroad students and I studied for a test, nothing too exciting).  We got a quick pep talk from our sponsor for the week, UWP alumni Angel Cortes, and then we were off to meet our new families.

^Simone and Liz

My family was a single woman Louise and her 23 year old son Matt.  I roomed with Simone from Denmark again and also Liz from Arizona. We are holding soap cause that was our host code which got donated to Ronald McDonald house.  We all hit it off right away and all three of us felt very comfortable.  This was also my first week sharing a bed with someone, and that doesn't bother me, I'm just afraid I will bother them with talking or moving.  But it went fine, and she talked more than me anyways!

Tuesday we were off to our CI sites and mine was Clean the World.  They are an organization that takes in used hotel soaps and such and then sanitizes them and packages them into care packages that go to homeless people in both the states and other countries.  They also take the used bars and grind those down and create new bars.  They have distributed them to many villages in third world countries.  Our group split up into two teams.  My team packaged sanitized bottles of conditioner and lotion so that people could put them into actual packages easier.  The other group had the not so glamorous job of scraping used soap bars so that they could be sanitized better.  They we confronted with some mysterious stains and hair.  But overall, it was a really cool thing to do, and a great cause and made us more aware of how many soaps were being thrown out every day when they could be reused.

Wednesday was another school day and we had a couple tests, and also had a great bonding time over mutual stresses.  This program is amazing, but every once in a while it can get a little overwhelming.  Then that night we had what is called a Culture fair.  We get to present about our countries to the rest of the cast.  Our presenters were Mexico, Bermuda, Canada and the US.  The US split up into 5 regions: East, Mid west, south, west and Mountain Range.  In the mountain range, we decided to do a "day in the life of a mountaineer" so we had people put on a back pack and "hike" up a mountain (a ladder) then snowboard around (on hand made cardboard boards) and then sat around the fire and ate s'mores while the camp guides taught some fun facts about the range.  Did you know that Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote? Or that the 13th step on Colorado's capitol building is exactly one mile above sea level? Yup we learned that! We also had an Old Faithful demonstration.  (Mentos in a diet coke)  It was a blast, and everyone pulled out all the stops.  We even had to smuggle people in and out of Mexico who "lost" their passport.                                                        
East Coast                                                          The Rocky Mtn range (day in the life of a mountaineer)

                                               West Coast bus tour>





Thursday we had a regional learning day at NASCAR! It was the race right before the Daytona 500, so it was a big deal.  While it would not have been one of my choices, it was very interesting because it's a very American thing that I have never experienced.  It was so loud and was fascinating for about 5 minutes, but after that, it was just a good time to hang out with friends in a casual setting.

Friday and Saturday were both show days, and boy were they hot! We were at Edgewater High school.  The audiences weren't that big, but they had a ton of energy! I even had some great aunts and uncle to come see the show that lived around there, and it was great to "meet" them because I don't even remember the last time I've seen them!

Sunday was our day off, so we went to my host mom's time share at a resort where we hung out in the pool and then played mini golf right as it started to rain.  I'm still not any better than I ever have been, but we all had fun so that's what counts! Then we had an amazing fish dinner at a place on the ocean.

Monday we picked up and left for Vero Beach, but we made a little pit stop at..... EPCOT! yay Disney! It was perfect weather, and we got an introduction from students who are working for Epcot from all around the world.  Epcot is the international part of disney where people from all over the wi=orld work in their native country's part of the park.  It was so much fun! It was good to just have free time with friends and explore.  I was also kind of sad about leaving Louise and Matt, because we had all gotten so close, but I know now that I have a family in Orlando.

Jumping with Misa(WI), Larissa(NH) and Molly(VT) in front of the Epcot ball!

The one princess we got to meet was Belle, and she was lovely! I wish I could have met more

Trying on all the mouse ears!

Next city, Vero Beach! I'll leave you with a Walt Disney quote, "The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique." And also a promise to write again soon! I didn't have wifi in Vero, so I'm play catch up now!

Much love