From Belgium to Mexico!

Our cast ended our European tour in Tielt, Belgium and geared up for our country transition into Mexico!!! Because of the way our travel day was going to pan out, we gathered on Sunday night (our host family day) for a cast sleepover in our performance venue. We arrived at 9 and then had some internal time to make sure we were ready for our flight and to make sure we were prepared for our first day in Mexico when half the cast would host a culture fair and the other half would do school workshops with classes K-12.

Once the business side of things was done, we took some time as a cast to say goodbye to two of our castmates who would be leaving the tour upon arrival in Mexico - Diana and Caroline. We had a night full of laughter, tears, shared memories, and lots and lots of hugs. 

Being sung to...one of Diana's favorite songs from 'Pitch Perfect.' Photo credit: Ambrea

Photo credit: Ambrea

I recruited Hayley to give me a quick hair trim that night, which was quite humorous as we hunkered down in the bathroom - Hayley sitting on the toilet, me on the ground, and she trimmed my hair into the garage bag! Yay for hair care on the road!

Photo credit: Ambrea

It was optional to sleep, no staff member could force the cast to lay down and sleep like they try to do in Kindergarten. Many did, many did not, but I chose to join one of the 3 rooms FILLED with mattresses to get a few hours rest in before our long day of travel.

 3:30am rolled around and the staff was waking us up. We got ready, loaded the buses, and were on our way to Frankfurt, Germany to catch our direct flight to Mexico! Beyah was my bus date for the 6 hour bus ride. We slept the entire time! haha

 We got to Frankfurt, checked in, and waited for our flight. I grabbed some lunch at McDonald's with some of the others, and then before we knew it, we were boarding!

Photo credit: Ambrea

Photo credit: Ambrea

I'm not actually in this photo, but Ambrea was able to snap a picture of quite a bit of our cast

Photo credit: Ambrea

 Ironically, because our last names are next to each other in the cast, Beyah and I were also plane dates. Hooray for 17 continuous hours sitting next to each other! Good thing I really like the guy and can have great conversations with him! During the first part of the flight, I watched the new movie, "Oz, the Great and Powerful" and HATED it. I had to turn it off halfway through because I was so disappointed and bored. I eventually finished it, but it was a struggle, let me tell you! We had some lunch, lots of water and juice, etc., and I took another 1 hour nap. I attempted to watch "Les Miserable" since I knew I loved it, but I got about 45 min. in and couldn't focus anymore. Since the flight was 11 continuous hours, we took quite a few stretching breaks. I walked a bit and stood around talking to others before returning to my seat. Beyah and I had some great conversation for the last 3-4 hours on the plane, and then...FINALLY...we were landing!

Photo credit: Ambrea

Our welcome with our new name: Viva la Gente! Photo credit: Ambrea

Many of our Mexican student's families showed up at the airport to say hello and welcome us! Barby's parents even brought the family puppy! I was in love!

 Then it came time to load the buses to drive to Naucalpan for host family pick-up. The only problem? Diana and Caroline weren't coming with us! We had to say goodbye which I absolutely hated. Luckily for me, I'm going to stay with Diana in San Diego after tour for a week, and Caroline lives 20 min. away from me in CO, so it wasn't goodbye for either girl, it was simply "see you later." I love and miss both of those girls!

With one of my favorite ladies- Miss Di!

No doubt that much travel was EXHAUSTING, but luckily, the transition into Mexico has been an easy one. Yes, the cast is experiencing jet-lag, but we all feel it the same way. We have enough energy during the day, and we sleep through the night just fine, but we get SUPER tired early on, like around 8 or 9pm. I can't complain, though. This transition has been a million times easier than the transition over to Europe! Here's to an exciting, lively, amazing last 4 weeks of tour in MEXICO!!!