Culican, Mexico

Now we have reached past our half way point in Mexico.  For this week it was more of a challenge, but a really good one.  When we got there we got there we got a tour of our facility which was an addiction museum.  It was super interesting and really interactive, but all in Spanish, so it didn’t quite have the impact it should have on some, but I got a lot of it.  Then we got a mini concert from this local pair from a performing arts school.  It was drum-based party music and was really cool.  After that we got to see traditional dances and even learn a little bit which was super fun! Then we had to go sit through a bunch of people who sponsored us talk in Spanish which was really hard to pay attention to, but it was still really nice what they were doing for us.  We even had the President.  I lived with Iris from The Netherlands.  Our host family didn't come to get us at host pick up so we got switched with other students into a family.  This family was a mother, daughter and grandmother who none spoke English so I was the translator for the week.  My Spanish is not the best, let alone translating level.   For the week we had a new experience of taking a public bus for an hr each way to get to our facilities.

Tuesday I was in Planning session with the staff which was not at all interesting, but I did get to hear about what the rest of the tour will look like.  After we had a BTS which I ran the whole thing with Emelie and Erin because it’s our intern week.   It went super well.

Wednesday was SA and a BTS but I stayed behind at the beginning of class to run rehearsal for the BTS.  The BTS went well with a full audience.

Thursday I was in classrooms at an all-girls private school.  We had a 3rd grade and they were wonderful and creative and an 8th grade.  The 8th grade class was harder because they were less confident with their English but we still got awesome answers.  Then we had our 3rd BTS which went great and the girls went wild over any boy.  In the afternoon we had our final intern meeting where we shared stories and gave Leslie feedback on the program.  Erin and I felt almost exactly the same that  we loved our internship but the split staff member was a small challenge.

In the afternoon we had cast universities and I went to one about sharks by Dani from Mexico where I learned a ton and then learned a Dutch song with the three Dutchies.  Lastly we had the Ed interns’ final project which was about having an attitude of gratitude.  While I don’t think the cast really needed it, it was still a great refresher and felt really good.  For wrap up we announced the last round interns in super hero fashion.  My replacement is Kanami from Japan which I am super excited about.

Saturday we were back at the addiction museum because it was our show facility.  In the morning we were surprised we Cast appreciation by the staff that was super great.  The we had an hr long rehearsal that I ran and then a double show day! I got to watch the first show which was great, and then I started watching the second show but got called backstage because quite a few people were beginning to be stuck in the bathroom due to explosive stomachs by what we think was caused by food poisoning from the pizza we had for dinner.  By intermission we had around 10 people who had to sit out of the rest of the show so we were in a huge rush to fill all the now missing spots.  But we still managed to put on a solid full show!

Sunday we didn't do much.  We went to church, but we didn't really understand anything then we took the bus into town to go to the pharmacy and see our host mom at work.

This week was definitely a challenge, but a good one and I improved my Spanish a lot.