Naucalpan, Mexico!

What a great first week in MEXICO!!! We arrived supremely late on Monday evening after traveling for more than 24 hours, and we met our host families. I stayed with a great mom, Silvia, and her two daughters, Paulina and Mariana. On our first night, I'll admit I was a poor house guest and requested to go to sleep IMMEDIATELY upon arriving home. I was simply too exhausted from traveling for such a long time!

Host code was Ceviche. I had to laugh at the irony...I HATE seafood! Bleh!

Our first day in Naucalpan, half the cast hosted a Culture Fair for elementary-aged students while the other half of us stayed at Academia Maddox to do school projects with classes grades K-12. I worked with Beyah, Sage, and Alicia in a 3rd grade, 6th grade, middle school, and high school classroom that day. We also got our first taste of 'Viva la Gente' stardom. All of the littler kids followed us around asking for autographs and photos! It was crazy! Brian was one of my favorite examples. The kids were rushing him, so he took a minute and told them to please organize themselves in a civilized line...haha

Photo credit: Misa

Photo credit: Misa

I loved how welcoming the students were- it was truly amazing (and laughable, at times! Why did they think WE were so famous? haha)

That night, Paulina and Silvia picked me up and we went to the mall so Paulina could by Mariana a present for her birthday on Friday. While at the mall, we ate Tacos al Pastor which everyone has been raving about! I think I'll need to try them again - they were good, but nothing to write home about. Maybe another sampling will change my mind! =) I also tried frijoles charros and Agua de Jamaica (hibiscus water). I liked both of those a lot! =) Note to my fellow spice-avoidant eaters - Pico de Gallo in Mexico is NOT the same as the U.S. Normally the U.S. pico is mild and not hot. Here? They put raw jalapenos in there - my mouth and throat were on FIRE!

The next day the study abroad students traveled by taxi to our study location. We were spoiled with a great facility and lots of snacks from our sponsor!

That afternoon, our cast engaged in a really amazing education workshop about world hunger. To read my blog about our Hunger Banquet, CLICK HERE

The next day was a day out of the ordinary for our usual UWP schedule. Typically we only rehearse the show on show days, but due to our crazy schedule this week, we rehearsed a day before our show...and a good thing we did (you'll find out why later!). We did some crazy workouts and practicing in the courtyard outside in the morning before moving our rehearsal inside to the stage in the afternoon. Needless to say, we had quite the audience of little ones staring at us the whole morning!

If you look closely, you can see some of the kids staring at us from the windows. They were only a small percentage of the audience we had all morning! Photo credit: Ambrea

Photo credit: Ambrea

I went to see Star Trek later that night and enjoyed popcorn for dinner (OH how I've missed popcorn!). I might have nodded off a little, but it had nothing to do with the movie and everything to do with my exhaustion level! =P

Show day was on Friday, and what a show day it was! Our tech team discovered our dimmer (which controls all the lights) wasn't working and that most all of our lighting wires were fuzed on Thursday, so they spent all day and all night attempting to fix the problem, but to no avail. When it came time for our first show of the day, our lighting technician and tech manager both worked some incredible magic to cover the fact that our normal lighting wasn't working! I honestly didn't notice that much of a difference from our regular lighting design...they did a fabulous job! We were performing for a huge audience of children and my favorite moment of the show was at the end when we sang "De Que Color es la Piel de Dios?" (What Color is God's Skin?) and they ALL SANG ALONG! I was crying on stage I was so happy! (Yes, I'm a nerdy music teacher who can get emotional over kiddos singing, get over it!)

Signing more autographs!

We had our second show later that night and it was another great success. Paulina and Silvia came that night, and so did every boy-obsessed middle school girl, for that matter! haha. Those girls LOVED to talk to, get autographs from, and take pictures with the boys of our cast! =)

Saturday was our host family day - which I'll write another post about - and then Sunday we did yet ANOTHER double show day. One of my best friends, Brian, announced to the cast that he was going to be leaving to go home the next day and I was in shock and completely saddened. I set out to enjoy my last day with him! We warmed up and got right to work to do the quickest rehearsal of our lives before our first show at noon. Unfortunately, many cast members were getting overheated, tired, and sick backstage, so we lost quite a few folks before and during our first show. It made for quite the adventure, but we pulled together and supported one another in every way we could to still produce a great show! Mariana, Pepe (her boyfriend), Paulina, and Silvia all came to see the show!

We went to the Police Station to have lunch that day, and then before we knew it, it was time to head back to the show facility to get ready for our second show. I've never been so hot in my life during the shows here, and I've heard it'll only get worse...yeesh! Our second show that day was a private show for one of our sponsor's, but not many folks showed up. That's ok - we still perform our hearts out for the audience, regardless of the small group! =)

Oh, that night I ate a cricket! That was fun! Yay Mexico!

 

That night I came home, ate some quesadillas, and packed before going to bed! Paulina and Silvia dropped me off the next morning to head to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids before traveling to Toluca, Mexico!