Roomie Blog: San Luis Potosi

For our last week on tour, 4 of us had the privilege of staying together with a wonderful, fun family in San Luis Potosi! We had so much fun together and had SO many great conversations day in and day out. I absolutely loved my time with Brekken, Brenda, and Marion!

Brekken:
From: Sheridan, Wyoming
Age: 19
Favorite Color: Pink!
Speaks: English and some Spanish!
Brekken's favorite thing we did as roomates this week: Eating homemade hamburgers and fries and talking around the table all night!

Fun Facts about Brekken:
- She's SUPER sarcastic...like all the time!
- She's a phenomenal singer (and quite the poster child for UWP! =D)
- She'll be working as a staff member for UWP next year! Hooray!
- She's afraid of moths
- She HATES condiments
- She's obsessed with Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.

Brekken (WY), Brenda (Mexico), me, Marion (Belgium)

Brenda:
From: Aguascalientes, Mexico
Age: 24
Favorite Color: Blue and purple
Speaks: Spanish and English
Brenda's favorite thing we did as roomates this week: Late night conversations and being caught (and getting in trouble) eating late night snacks in the kitchen...oops! Sorry Yaya! haha

Fun Facts about Brenda:
- She's one of five girls
- She likes gymnastics and volleyball
- She's also a fantastic singer and can do a great impression of an 80s Mexican popstar!
- You'd never guess because she's quiet 99.9% of the time, but she loves to talk!
- She's being hosted by the coolest people ever when staging in Denver next semester (in case you didn't guess, that's ME and my family!)

With our Host Mom, Alejandra

Marion:
From: Brussels, Belgium
Age: 21
Favorite Color: Blue
Speaks: French, English, and Dutch
Marion's favorite thing we did as roomates this week: (She agreed with Brenda's answer) Late night conversations and being caught (and getting in trouble) eating late night snacks in the kitchen.

Fun Facts about Marion:
- We wanted to room together ALL semester, and FINALLY in our last city, our wish was granted! We did a happy dance! =)
- She loves all sports, but she's done flying trapeze for 5 years!
- She loves camping
- Before UWP, she had never been on stage, but now she loves it!
- Her nose always runs when she eats...now how's THAT for a fun fact?!?
 

Loved hanging out in the park with these ladies on our very last Host Family Day!

Thanks for an incredible week, girls. I wouldn't change it for the world!

Roomie Blog: Bettina

My wonderful roomie this week in Tielt was the gorgeous Bettina from Norway! Fun fact - Bettina was one of the FIRST people of my cast I ever met! I bought my Voices CD from her at the merch table in Denver when I went to see the show last August! I asked if she was going to be a second semester and she said yes, so I told her to remember me because we'd be cast mates the following semester!

We had a great time together this week and got to share bunkbeds! =) So, without further ado, Miss Bettina:

From: Oslo, Norway
Age: 19
Favorite Color: Blue (you'd never guess looking at all of her belongings...note the sarcasm)
Bettina's Favorite thing we did together as roomies: The night we enjoyed ice cream from the ice cream truck with An and Robrecht!

Fun Facts about Bettina:
- She loves fishing and running- this girl runs like a machine!
- She thought she was a boy when she was younger! haha. I suppose that'll happen when you grow up with 3 brothers and are the only girl!
- She talks in her sleep - I witnessed this!

hahaha- we took this picture back in Ft. Myers- our first city on the road!

Roomie Blog: Lis (Cooooooba!)

My roommate in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw this week was Lis from Cuba....or Coooooooba as she always says during Country Introductions in our show! She's so cute and energetic. It's great that Up with People was able to select Cuban students to travel for the first time, and we love having Lis around! Unfortunately because I was so sick this week, because she came home with a bad headache one day (so she slept all night), and because she visited other friends on host family day, we didn't spend much time together as roommates, but we still had a great week.

About Lis:
From: Havana, Cuba
Age: 24 (almost 25)
Favorite Color: Purple
Lis' favorite thing we did together as roommates: dinner together when we ate fries and had our host family's friends over.

Fun facts about Lis:
- She teaches children ages 6-12 salsa dancing at home. She's SO good at it!
- She has a 2-year-old son named Diego whom she misses dearly!
- Her best friend of 10 years, Pedro, is also traveling with us!
- Her favorite things to say in English are "AWESOME!" and "OhmyGod!" (all slurred together!)

Roomie Blog: Jessica S.

I had another American roomie this week...the youngest person in our cast, in fact! I was roomed with Jessica S. from California! We had a great week, despite some being on time issues (Jessica REALLY likes to sleep and ignore alarm clocks! =P). We had an absolutely fantastic host family, host neighbors, bike riding adventures, conversations with the Princess of the Netherlands, and a day trip to Amsterdam!

So, a little about Jessica...

From: La Cañada Flintridge (a suburb of Los Angeles), California

Age: 17

Jessica's favorite thing we did together as roomates: late night pillow talk our first night! We finally got to talk for more than a short while!

Fun Facts:
- She'll be going to UC Berkley this fall to start her college career! Hooray!
- She is a great little singer who has quite a few star moments in the show!
- She has really funny sleeping habits...even though she's little, she's mighty! She nearly kicked me out of the bed a few times!

Roomie Blog: Liz

Liz and I were roomed together in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, but we really lived right across the border in Sevelen, Switzerland with our sweet host mom, Heda. We had one hell of a week - both of us were HORRENDOUSLY sick. Poor Heda had her hands full with two sick host daughters, but we managed to pull through and still have a great week together!

So, a bit about Liz:

Age: 19
From: Hereford, AZ
Favorite Color: Well, colors in her case...black, purple, and green
Liz's favorite activity we did together as roommates: Eating dinner at the castle in Austria and making the dancing video in the castle!

Roomie Blog: La Chaux-de-Fonds

For the first time, I was roomed with more than one person! Hooray! I lived with Giselle for a second week in a row, Amilee, one of my besties from the FSC study abroad group, and ITALY...ok...really Anna. But I was so excited because all three were girls I knew would be an absolute blast spending time with them. We stayed in a restaurant...no joke...attached to the family's house. We had a nice big room with four beds, our own bathroom(s), and a big open space for our luggage. It was an ideal set up and we had a blast this week with 4 girls!

At our restaurant! This is where we stayed for the week!

Giselle was my roommate last week in Frauenfeld, and right before our allocation meeting in Neuchatel, we hugged and said, "Awe...we'll never be roomed together again..." and then BAM! We were roomed together immediately again! =)

Giselle!
From: Toluca, Mexico and studies in Mexico City. 

Age: 19 (She turned 19 the day my Wheel of Fortune episode aired...January 18th!)

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite activity we did together as roommates:
From Frauenfeld: Getting to laugh for hours with our host family screaming my name and baking bread together for the first time!
From La Chaux-de-Fonds: I would say the assassin curves on the way up to the house and Laura driving like a maniac!

Baking bread for the first time!

Amilee!
From: Clinton, New Jersey, USA

Age: 19

Favorite Color: Yellow

Favorite activity we did together as roommates: Snuggle while watching Les Choristes!

Anna!
From: Muggia, Trieste, Italy

Age: 19

Favorite Color: Red or Orange

Favorite activity we did together as roommates: having so much fun at dinner laughing at the hanging dog and trying that disgusting liquor!

The nasty, nasty homemade liquor from their village. I smelled it, but respectfully declined tasting it. The other girls, however, tried a bit and hated every second of it!

This is what happens when your roommates steal your phone

I should also note that on our last night in town, my lovely roommates decided to play a joke on me while I was in the shower. I lent Anna my computer, and before I knew it, they were on Facebook changing my birthday to the next day. The entire cast thought it was my birthday the next travel day, so I constantly had to explain that it wasn't my birthday because Facebook prevents you from immediately changing your birthday once it's been changed. So frustrating, but really funny all at the same time. It was a fun week with these girls!

Roomie Blog: Molly C.

It's quite uncommon in our US tour for UWP to host two American students together, so Molly and I realized we might never be roommates. We wanted to change that, so since I knew who my hosts were going to be, I requested to have Molly as my roommate for the week! =)

So, some info about Miss Molly!
From: Northfield, Vermont, USA

Age:19

Favorite color: purple

Molly's favorite activity we did as roomies: All of our late night pillow talk and chit-chat. There was ALWAYS something to talk about...so much so that we rarely got to bed before 1am...oops!

Some other fun facts about Molly:
- She's a ridiculously good singer and dancer
- She participated in the first summer of Camp Up with People 
- She, too, has a big brother Michael (and a brother Benjamin)
- She is going to school in the fall to study Music Education (hooray!)

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Roomie Blog: Wenfei

A short while into our arrival at Vero Beach, Wen ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug saying, "HI ROOMIE!" I was so excited to room with this amazing gal! And to think, within one month I've had both our Chinese girls as roommates! Awesome!

From: Ginan, China

Age: 24

Favorite color: Green

Favorite activity we did as roomies: "So many things! I really liked the party tonight [with Lis, Bailey, and Sifan], the air boat ride, and making dishes together!"

Some other fun facts about Wen:
- She speaks Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, and a little bit of Japanese
- She is terrified of sharp things! I learned that the wrong way by accidentally waving a knife too close in her general direction! haha
- She LOVES to cuddle! =)
- She is easily excited about many things. It's adorable.
- Our host mom, Millie, and I introduced her to the joys of Kettle Corn and brownie batter. YUM!
- She loves seafood of any kind
- After UWP, she's going to finish her master's program in SPAIN. Yeah...this girl is awesome!

Time for our first air boat ride!

Wen enjoying brownie batter for the first time!

Roomie Blog: Myriam

I was so excited to see that I'd have a roommate this week, AND to see that it would be Myriam! She's such a sweetheart and I've loved getting to know her more! We've had a blast getting closer this week and spending more time together!

From: Walhail, Belgium (the exact MIDDLE point of Belgium, she says!)

Age: 18

Favorite color: Dark Red

Her favorite activity we did as roomies: Ice cream out at Kilwins after our Friday night show. Myriam got Turtle Cheesecake flavor and I got Raspberry Sorbetto. Yum! =)

Some other fun facts about Myriam:
- She's an AWESOME dancer! I love watching the huge smile on this girl's face when she's rocking out in our show!
- Her English has improved SO much since she's been in UWP...she amazes me!
- She LOVES caramel...and Belgian chocolate, of course!
- She speaks French, English, and a little bit of Flemmish (she learned it for 12 years...but claims to not remember it! haha)
- She LOVES Oreos (she first learned about these in America)
- She has a hilarious laugh...it reminds me of a very cute Woody Woodpecker (but it's not annoying)

Roomie Blog: Sifan

Even though I stayed with the same wonderful family the whole time I was in Lakeland, some folks were shifted around 2 weeks into Cast A's staging. Because my first roommate, Jolien, left about a week in to staging to go set up our first city on the road, Ft. Myers, I was an only child for a little while. At the end of the week, I found out my new roommate would be Sifan Liu from China! I was SOOOOOO excited to spend more time with this lovely lady!

So, fun facts about Sifan:

From: Shanghai, China

Age: 21

Favorite color: Red

Favorite activity we did as roomies: "Um...lots of things! But...maybe...cookie dough?!?" haha. For those of you who don't know, I introduced Miss Sifan to the goodness that is cookie dough. We actually made an egg-free "just to eat" cookie dough, and I didn't think it was as good as the real deal, but this girl was in heaven! =)

Some other fun facts about Sifan:
- She can sleep anywhere, anytime! It's amazing the talent this girl has! I've watched her sleep standing up on a bus before! haha
- She is learning Spanish...she even has a Spanish book in Chinese...how's that for confusion?
- She is an AMAZING artist. She sketches in her journal and her work is stunning
- She has now been fully introduced to how messed up "Chinese food" is in America...sorry Sifan!
- For the first 6 weeks of tour, she is a Stage Assistant and helps operate many of the "behind the scenes" things for our show!
- She is very patient in explaining her culture...especially the language and its MANY characters! (We had way too much fun with this at dinner tonight trying to read our fortune cookies! =P)

Roomie Blog: Jolien!

So, I wanted a fun way to document all of my roomie experiences on Up With People, so I figured I'd do Roomie posts every time I change roommates. That's another wonderful thing about homestays in Up With People. We not only meet new families around the world, but we get to room with different members in our cast with every new city. It's a great way to spend more quality time with cast mates and learn more about them and from them!

My VERY FIRST roommate of UWP is Jolien (Betty Daisy) Roelandt from Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium (but she just says Brussels to make things easier). How great is it that her other two names are Betty and Daisy? haha. My host mom and I LOVED that when we learned that about her. Jolien is working for UWP as a PR (Promotions Representative) and is leaving Lakeland sooner than I am so she can go to future cities on our tour and set them up for the cast's arrival! Unlike most of the staff, Jolien is new to UWP and never traveled as a student herself. UWP likes to call these staff members "Rookies," but only two weeks into her new job, she's already a pro.
So, fun facts about Jolien:

Age: 22

Favorite color: Red

Favorite activity we did as roomies: In Jolien's words: "Do you even have to ask? Dis-nehhhhhhhhh" ... That's Disneyworld for those of you who can't sound that one out.

Other fun memories:
- Jolien is fluent in French, Dutch, Portuguese and English, and speaks some German. What a pro.
- Our host family always had fun giggling at Jolien's "Jolien-isms." She is known for always saying, "It's guuuuuuuud" (It's good) about food or plans for the day. Pretty much anything, Jolien answers with her traditional (hilarious) response.
- Come the end of the day, Jolien's brain is usually tired from having to constantly think and speak in English, so she'd say some pretty hilarious things like, "Oh great...now I'm gonna be the 5th wheel on the wagon?!" And we also loved learning from Jolien little differences between our cultures. Instead of packing her suitcase, Jolien "makes" her suitcase. Love it!

Have fun in Ft. Myers, Jolien! See you soon! =)

 

 This was Jolien's first time making home-made pizzas!