Final Shows of the Semester

{press play, then read}

Over the course of this semester, Cast A rehearsed for hundreds of hours and performed over 36 shows (and mini shows!). What's amazing is even though we did the same show over and over again, it never got boring. I LOVED doing the show, and even though there were definite moments of frustration (like being sick and not being able to sing, or not being a part of a particular part of the show as a dancer or soloist), I still always looked forward to performing for our audiences world wide.

On June 8th, Cast A arrived at Centro Cultural Universitario Bicentenario in San Luis Potosi for our last show day - which also happened to be a double show day! Phew! We had a ton of emotions built up, and I knew it was going to be an emotional day from start to finish. Let's just say I started crying during our WARM-UPS at 10am! haha. Oh well...sometimes it's a good thing to cry...it means the whole experience was worth it!

We had a fun warm-up with all the past round interns in both vocals and dance. Brekken, Molly, and Sage warmed us up vocally, and then Collin, Hector, and Sarah led us in a dance warm-up. Good times and lots of great memories! We sang lots of songs that our vocal instructor, John, has taught us over the semester including "In Your Arms a While" which means a lot to us all. 

We headed into rehearsal, which was VERY brief and very fast. We got through what we needed to before breaking for a quick lunch, and when we returned for what we THOUGHT was more rehearsal, the band started playing all of our country songs from the International Medley. Let me explain...for nearly every country we visited {Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, and Mexico}, we had a song (or a few) from the country to show our thanks to that country. We had so much fun revisiting all of those songs since they brought back so many memories. Our cast stood on stage, held each other, and had a blast singing!

We took some time to appreciate and honor two of our Production staff members who are leaving UWP after this semester, John (vocals) and Wouter (band). Afterwards, our staff took time to get us pumped up and ready for our last show by telling us why and how they are proud of our cast. It was an emotional experience to see our entire cast wrapped up in arms and hugs around the stage listening to our staff. We were ready!

We got ready for our final Green Room, which we also knew would be emotional, and headed down to our meeting space. The staff ended it like they started it- with a big dance party to "Die Young" by Ke$sha, and then we had more "Right Now" moments where the staff walked by with ideas like "Right now your final audiences are waiting to see Voices," "Right now your real families are waiting for you to come home," "Right now all of your host families are missing you," "Right now, we are PROUD of you," etc. Made us cry, of course! Nicole finished reading us "Oh the Places You Will Go" by Dr. Seuss (which we started reading in Orlando, FL), and we had more time to just soak it all in. Then, it was show time!

Our first show was great, and our host family came that afternoon. It was great having everyone in the audience! We took some pictures after the show with our sweet little girls!

If our 1st show was great, our 2nd show was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Everyone was so passionate and so energized to just give it all to this audience one last time. No words can describe how alive our cast was - the energy was radiating off the stage. We gave it our all because we knew this was the last time Cast A 2013 would perform together on one stage. It was so incredible.

During our finale, the entire audience began waving white tissues that the staff had distributed without us knowing. The staff lined the aisles and nearly everyone on stage was crying. What a release. We ended SO strongly.

Mozart's Requiem from Austria - International Medley

Temba, Tumba, Timba from Cuba - International Medley

Backwards from USA - International Medley

Corre Boulevard from Mexico - International Medley

Shosholoza from South Africa - International Medley

Jai Ho from India - International Medley

End of the Mexican medley - International Medley

HOME

90s Medley pictures - the dance I got to dance!

Our Finale of Voices! AMAZING!

We had our finale strike song which was so much fun, and then we got to work doing our strike tasks. At the end of the night, we were shuffled outside (in the rain, mind you), and the staff showered us with champagne. Oh good grief. Going home wet, cold, and smelling like alcohol. We obviously made a good impression on our host mom! haha. We explained the smell. =P

I will NEVER forget our final show and what an amazing experience it was. It's a memory I will always cherish in my heart.

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!