A Journey of a Lifetime: Los Mochis, Mexico

This week was another great one in Mexico. We went on a long hot bus ride to Los Mochis and I had two bus dates with Darlene our sound tech and we shared awesome music and then with Miguel to work on intern stuff. When we arrived we had to say goodbye to Jordan (WA) and Carlos (Mex) because they are off to be PRIs in Europe. I’m rooming with our Vocal instructor Diane from TX. Our host family was great! We had 3 host sisters, Andrea (17), Dani (14) and Dana (8) and one little brother Jose augstine (4). Our sisters and dad Jose all speak amazing English and our mom Pati understands a lot but doesn’t speak much. Right away I could tell it was going to be a great week. I love having host siblings close to my age.

Host Code: Disney!

Dani, Dana, Pati, Andrea and Diane

Tuesday was an internal day that was great. We started with a Q and A with the Business team which was good to learn new stuff about how and why things happened within the program. After lunch we did a “save the world” workshop which was about that Earth was no longer habitable, so we had to create a spaceship for 100 humans to live on. We had to decide what types of humans would be there and how the space ship would be laid out. One of my favorite decisions is that we decided right off the bat that there was to be a myth passed around that if you were bad, you got shot out into space (but it wasn't true). It was so easy to do and everyone in my group agreed and we had all our spaceship planned out.

Wednesday was a normal SA day and in the afternoon I was with Miguel and Erin while they held dance workshops and I sat and worked on my intern stuff. That evening Diane and I went out to sushi with Andrea, our oldest host sister. It was fun and her friends were nice, but it got hard when they would all start speaking Spanish to each other. One of Andrea's friend’s grandparents live in CO in Fort Collins which is the city neighboring mine which was really cool and we talked about that. I really like Andrea, she’s totally a person I would have a friend myself. She picked us up every night so we three would talk a lot and sing a lot in the car.

Sushi with new friends!

Thursday I was signed out with the staff all day and we went to Starbucks. For the first 3 hours I sat with Miguel at what is called a planning session where they plan all the open time for the next 3 weeks. It was mind blowing how much went into it and I walked out of it not being able to keep any of my weeks straight. For the afternoon I was just doing computer work while Miguel and Erin worked on the Danish medley dance. In the afternoon three students did a workshop on Human Trafficking which was super interesting and full of important information for everyone to know. Did you know that the Super Bowl is the day with the highest trafficking in the world?

Saturday was our show day in our first outdoor facility! It was a long, hot day. I got to give my first show notes (notes for the cast to improve upon) as well as watch the first half of rehearsal which was exciting. The show went great and we had a pretty full audience, but after a lot of people, especially our band people, we going out like flies from heat exhaustion and dehydration. For strike I was with costumes trying to teach them everything and they actually did okay and I was proud of them for how much they want to know.

Sunday we went to the beach, but first we took a little boat to a secluded place where we got to pet a wild dolphin! It was so cool to be so close to something natural. Then we had amazing sea food right on the beach and then hung out in the water for a bit. When we came home the 2 oldest girls and one friend and Diane and I hung out just talking about everything for quite a while. This has been a fantastic family and I am not looking forward to leaving.

Getting ready to get on the boat