BIG Changes! Hello Florida!

UP WITH PEOPLE staging is moving to FLORIDA...but only for my cast! haha. My heavens...what are the odds of that?!? We received the news a couple of weeks back, and I'm torn between being really excited, and really disappointed!


One of the big draws of doing Up With People was that it is based out of DENVER! Hooray - that would mean I could be home during the staging month, still in the comfort of my room, my bed, my closet (no living out of a suitcase just yet!), seeing my friends, family, pets, and getting to host other international students at my house! Not to mention, I was so looking forward to having a home-based fan base when it came time to present the shows! I wanted so badly for all of my friends and family to be able to see the show in our own backyard (ok, well like 40 min. away, but still!) But now...now I'm moving to Florida.


Here is the letter I received explaining the move:

Hi Amy,

One of the most exciting opportunities that has arisen as a result of our partnership with Florida Southern College (FSC) is the chance to hold our January 2013 Staging and Orientation on their beautiful campus.  This opportunity has been reviewed by the Up with People management team, and it  has been confirmed that this will indeed occur.

So when you come to the USA to begin your Up with People (UWP) experience in January 2013, you will be traveling to the Orlando, Florida area, not to Denver, Colorado.

You will, of course, be receiving many more details about your arrival to UWP over the course of the next several months, but we wanted you to know this exciting change.  It will not affect any of the arrangements you will be making – except, of course, that you will be flying into the sunny state of Florida.

The reasons include:

• The North American portion of the tour is scheduled to begin in the Southeast region next February, including Florida.
• The FSC campus and faculty have been flexible and gracious in accommodating our facility requests.
• This “next step” in our partnership with FSC makes good sense both from an educational context as well as the professional facilities they will have at our disposal.

So! Florida it is. Here is my list of "PROS" about moving to Florida in Jan. 2013. I'm trying to look on the "sunny" side of things (ha- Florida, sunny...get it?) and not dwell on the major disappointment of not staging in Denver!

• Warmer weather in the winter months! I'll get to move from sometimes cold, snowy, wintery Colorado to the perfect temperatures of Florida in the winter! =) Hey, old people live here for a reason, right?

• I'll get the "complete" UWP experience - staying with a host family and living away from home. It'll be a challenge, but it's kind of neat that I'll get to participate in the real deal, not a pseudo tour where I live at home for the first month!

• I'll get to add another state to my list of states that I've lived in! Hey- I'm living there for a month! That's no short term vacation!

• Maybe a tan...in January? The school is right along the water...granted it's a lake! But hey - I love lakes! And Lakeland isn't too far from Tampa and Tampa Bay!

• I'm hoping the FSC facilities will be awesome for our staging. It is a college campus...not the high school we'd normally stage in here in Denver!

• And best of all...DISNEY WORLD AND ORLANDO STUDIOS! HECK YES! We'll be staging in Lakeland, FL, which is a mere hour drive to Orlando! I'm praying that my host family has season passes and the desire to go...a lot! =)