A Journey of a Lifetime: 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