Last Week: San Luis Potosi

It was hard to believe that we were pulling into our last city on the road when we arrived in San Luis Potosi. We loaded up the buses earlier that morning leaving Queretaro and had quite the amusing time when a good 20 suitcases just didn't fit on the bus. How that happened, we don't know. So we loaded up the bus itself with suitcases and we were smooshed in like sardines in a can! I had a repeat bus date with Andrew, since both of us were without, and we had a great time chatting more as we cruised down the highway.

We pulled into an Oxxo just outside of San Luis Potosi to have lunch and because we thought were were going to have to transfer luggage and walk into the city, but before we knew it, we were being told to get back on the bus and we drove into the city. We unloaded and walked to a huge welcoming event! We were announced one by one to everyone in the crowd and were handed a sparkly dove made by elementary-aged kiddos. It was SUPER hot, and we were on this crazy sloped platform that made it super hard to stand on! haha. At the end of the presentation, fireworks went off and we weren't warned about it. For a split second, I'm pretty sure we were all convinced someone was opening fire on us and we had a mild panic attack, but then we realized they were just celebratory! 

We had Regional Learning with bus tours and free time in the city before our Allocation meeting. I found out I would be roomed with Brekken, Brenda, and Marion with a family of a mom (Alejandra), Yaya, Yayo (Grandma and Grandpa), and two little girls, Azul and Natalie. Did I mention there were also two Argentinian dudes couch surfing? Yup...we had a full house! We were in for a great week! We spent the first night doing some fun crafts with the girls before turning in!

On Tuesday, we had an internal day with the cast. We spent the morning doing workshops and team building activities, but then at lunch time, the girls put on a Casino guy’s appreciation lunch and had a great time. It was fun dressing up and serving the guys as they played Black Jack and Poker. We cleaned up and packed up and headed to a new location on buses to a workshop called "Gallery." None of us (besides 2nd semester students) knew what to expect. 

During Gallery, we broke up into our home teams and had time to rotate through different stations. We had questions in a bag, a video from our Director of Cast Operations, Dave Penny, a challenge room where we picked an envelope and completed the task, a team meeting room, a sound bit room from the whole semester (which was awesome), letters from our staff members, and then a warm and fuzzy bomb room (where you write nice things to other people to make them feel "warm and fuzzy.") 

Finally, we made our way downstairs to the Gallery which was FULL of memories from all semester. Pictures, quotes, etc. It turned into a completely emotional and cathartic experience. We sat and watched a video our cast mate Tori made about what we missed from home this semester by being here (things like losing pets, sibling graduations or pregnancies, family birthdays, etc.), but also what we’ll miss about UWP when we go home. Then we watched Brekken act out going home and going through her suitcase, reliving all the memories. We finished by picked up our last allocation card and schedule- which was our own family, address, and all that information. The fake schedule was hilarious. We had more hugs, more tears, and then went into wrap-up and clean-up.

Lugging those 50lb. suitcases around is EXHAUSTING!

Wednesday and Thursday were both devoted to Study Abroad. Our professors Pete and Theresa were in town and we had fun working on things, talking through the semester, and generally, having a blast! On Thursday, our final activity was building an ice cream castle and devouring the entire thing. EPIC! We had an absolute blast that day, but really, the entire semester. What an amazing group the Study Abroad team turned out to be! Love you guys!

Trips to the Oxxo were quite frequent in Mexico. It's a "cultural experience!" haha

Thursday we also had our final Community Impact debrief workshop. The Education team gave us numbers from the semester about how much community service our cast did! As a cast, we performed over 17,200 hours of community service in 5 months! I personally completed 112 hours this semester, which I think is pretty darn cool!

Friday, I spent the day doing PRI training, which is a Promotions Representative Internship, for when I will help out in Denver. It was a good day, just full of a LOT of information. I'm excited to work with UWP more when I get back to Denver, though. That afternoon, we got together as a cast and had one final cast meeting. We recreated our first cast photo, and then had time to talk with our best friend of the cast about how we'd changed and grown throughout our semester. It was great getting to sit and talk with Sage for a good long while.

That night at home, we had an awesome girls night. We grilled hamburgers and made french fries. We sat around the kitchen table talking non-stop for quite a few hours. It was such a good way to unwind and end the day. 

The next day was our final show day, which was an absolutely incredible experience worthy of its own post. Sunday was our host family day. We slept in, ate breakfast, packed, and then headed to San Luis Potosi's biggest park to have a picnic and enjoy the weather. We sat our and ate Barbacoa (which is a type of cooked lamb) sandwiches while talking about everything under the sun. We were especially reflective of our semester and what our thoughts were about going home. It was a really peaceful, relaxing day. We headed home and spent our evening baking brownies, talking, and writing notes to our cast mates for our final day the next day.

 

Little Azul passed out in the car

Our final day together is another day worthy of a post all its own. San Luis Potosi was an amazing way to end our tour. I am so thankful for an amazing host family, great roommates, and lots of time to reflect and appreciate all we did this semester.

Monday was our "travel day" and our last day together as a cast. That morning, we woke up, packed up, and took some last minute pictures. In our house that week, the easiest way to get from the top floor to the main level was by using a ladder outside, so of course we had to document our week by taking ladder pictures!

San Luis Potosi was an excellent end to our semester abroad. I am so thankful I had the incredible roommates and host family that I did!

Queretaro, Mexico...Oh Mexico!

Our cast arrived in Queretaro, Mexico on May 27th after a bit of a mishap with our bus company! We were supposed to load the buses at 6am and leave by 6:30, but when we all showed up for drop off, only one of our three buses was present! Our Operations Manager tried calling the bus company and the bus drivers, but no one picked up. So, rolling with the punches as we do here in UWP, she quickly ordered 2 new buses from another bus company, and, better late than never, we were on the road to Queretaro by 7:30am. Not bad for a last minute fiasco! Oh Mexico!

I had a great bus date with Miss Conny from Germany. It was a short ride, but we had a nice conversation! 

Upon arriving in Queretaro, we met with the Governor and his wife in a welcome ceremony, and then we took some pictures with him before heading out in groups on a walking tour!

We all got some pretty sweet "swag" from the Governor's office. Red backpacks, red baseball caps, and red thermal mugs. In addition, our other sponsor's requested we wear these BRIGHT yellow t-shirts, so we were QUITE the fashionable tourist group walking around town!

Unfortunately, IMMEDIATELY after this photo was taken, my camera was knocked to the ground and broke. So the rest of my pictures this tour will have to come from the cameras of others (namely Ambrea!)

Here's how my camera takes pictures now. Lovely, isn't it?!?

 

We had our allocation meeting and host pick-up. I learned I'd be rooming with sweet Myriam again (we were together previously in Orlando, FL). Our host mom and sister showed up mighty late, so we just snapped a quick picture before loading up the car and leaving. Oh Mexico!

Our host family this week was a family of Mom, Dad, and 4 kids (20, 18, 14, and 7). I'll be honest, between the occasional language barrier and the gaggle of people around the house, I never did learn everyone's names. Allana was our 18 year old host sister who was an amazing translator. We had a great week with her, and Myriam and I definitely tried to exercise our Spanish as much as possible with our host mom and other siblings.

Tuesday, the sweet men of the cast threw us a "Gentlemen's Breakfast" where they treated us ladies to a morning of fun and pampering! We were escorted in, served breakfast, given sweet appreciations written by the guys, were able to ask the guys any questions we wanted in a "group panel" setting, and even had our nails painted and backs massaged! Watching grown boys try and paint fingernails for the first time (while wearing suits, mind you) is a hilarious sight indeed!

 

Our "entertainment." Oshizu's sheet reads, "You're Welcome!" haha

They clean up so well! We LOVE our men in suits! =)

Sweet Hughy painted my nails. I was his first ever client and he did a damn good job! =)

Manicure stations! =)

Joshy gave me a wonderful backrub! Thanks!

 The gentlemen really spoiled us. We couldn't stop smiling, and it was a wonderful way to start our day! Thanks boys!

That afternoon we got to have lunch outside and interact with all the students of the school. It was great meeting so many different kids of all different ages. We had a fun lunch period!

Wednesday we had Study Abroad time and we got a lot of work done (mainly because my blog site and Facebook weren't allowed on the network. Psh!) I took a nap in the afternoon once I got my work turned in! That afternoon we also did a reflective-type education workshop concerning our semester, and it was nice to reflect back a bit and remember some distant memories!

Did I mention we had to wear our yellow shirts EVERY. SINGLE. DAY? Oh Mexico!

Thursday and Friday we had fantastic Community Impact days. I'll write a separate post about my favorite one that took place on Thursday!

Saturday was Host Family Day. We'd talked the night before that our family would get up EARLY (we're talking leaving the house at 7am) so that we could drive to San Miguel and spend the day at a thermal hotspring. Well, I woke up at 6:30 so I would be ready to go, but alas...we're in Mexico, and "Mexican Time" is not normal people time. Needless to say, our family didn't leave for the springs until 11:30. Oh Mexico! haha. The good news is, once we were there, we thoroughly enjoyed the warmth of the natural hot springs, the refreshing cool of the normal pool, and the relaxing rays of the sunshine!

Myriam and I relaxing and enjoying the sunshine!

Sunday we had our show day in a fantastically HUGE facility! We had a fun day jam packed of rehearsal, a mock rehearsal (where people got to try new, silly parts that they would NEVER do normally!), and then a staff appreciation presentation! We quickly got ready for our show and had a great performance. Unfortunately my host family wasn't able to come because of other commitments at church, but we still had a great crowd!

On Monday we packed up and headed to our last city on tour, San Lois Potosi. It's amazing how quickly time flies in this program!

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!