April 2012
3 posts
Huset Folman Nielsen
I could hardly believe it when I got off that plane alone. I was in Scandinavia…in Copenhagen Airport…in DENMARK! Little me on a mission to set up a city with my team and impact a community who’s culture I knew very little about besides fairy tales of someone very long dead. Things must have moved on since Hans Christian Andersen’s time. I must say though…that the...
Ruidoso, New Mexico
Ruidoso, New Mexico… This little quiet town is a wonder of nature in New Mexico. A state that’s known for it’s desserts and heat, Ruidoso stumped me. It had pine trees, mountains and a a lot of deer. It was an organic town with people from all walks of life. There was art and color everywhere. Even an Irish pub! One hour away from White Sands National Monument and with an...
Back in Denver
Hello friends! So in January I started yet another semester with Up with People! It was refreshing to see new faces and of course see old ones and share stories. I finally got to visit my first Host Family, the Thompsons and we had an awesome dinner with the Up with People family and friends.
I had a new hsot family, Jaquie Hall and I had a lovely host sister from Mexico named...
December 2011
1 post
Home: UWP Philippine tour 2011
My hands trembled the moment I stepped off the plane and felt the warm humid air of home. I was that excited to be here. Finally, after 9 months of travel, I was back home. I wasn’t afraid of what people would think or say or how I would relate after traveling, because my journey wasn’t over. I was simply ready to hug my little brothers and sisters as tight as possible. And I was just...
October 2011
1 post
Minnes"0"ta
That plane ride to Minneapolis was nerve wrecking for me. I was nervous. There was no staff members to run to if I was confused and there was me reminding myself that I was the staff member now. This was my first city set up as a PR.
I was excited and afraid. The same feelings anyone would have on their first day on the job. But the moment I heard the voice of Mr. Witte, the husband of the vice...
August 2011
2 posts
Back in Denver Colorado A New Adventure
HI EVERYONE!! So here I am back in Denver, Colorado, where the magic all started, But this time I’m not touring as a part of the international cast. This time around I am traveling as a full time International Promotions Representative of Up With People! I got the job 3 days before I needed to be in Denver for training, so naturally I jumped at the opportunity. Since it was such short...
California how I've missed you!
So the first day I got back to California after 10 or so years I traveled via train to Sacramento and stayed with Holly A girl who I’d met on the Up with People tour. She hosted me for 3 weeks and showed me around her family Dairy farm. I had no idea this part of California existed. I had grown up on the northern bay area and hardly saw farm land. It was a nice change from urban living and...
June 2011
3 posts
Viva Mexico! La Laguna
This has to be one of the warmest cities I visited on tour. The Family I stayed with made it the experience it was. They were everything and more than what I’ve heard of a good mexican family. They had a modest home but were so accommodating and generous with everything they had.
There was always as much food as we wanted whenever we wanted. Because, of course, as custom would have it,...
Viva Mexico! Queretaro
Hola! And welcome to the first city I visited in Mexico.
Queretaro was beautiful! It had an old down town part that played an important role the liberation of Mexico during the revolution. It was shocking to see how similar this city was to some parts of the Philippines. We do share some similarities in history, as both our countries were colonized by the Spanish.
There were lots of old gothic...
Weinfelden, Switzerland
It’s always exciting to enter a new country. I’ve heard so much about Switzerland from my mother, who has traveled here before. But nothing could have prepared for the Swiss experience I was going to have on this tour.
We arrived by bus at Weinfelfen from Prague. The drive was very scenic; field upon field of green and mountains and a great deal of houses with pointed roofs and...
May 2011
2 posts
The Golden City
Prague, Czech Republic… where “Ahoy” means “hello” and “aNO” means “yes”.
It’s the golden city at night and the city of castles and peeks by day. The people are warm and the language is incomprehensible to non-Czech speakers. They love their dogs and often walk them without their leashes. Public transportation is wonderfully efficient and one ticket works for everything: busses, metros and...
The Netherlands
The Netherlands…Land of bicycles, tulips, Holland cheese, clogs, the color orange and Amsterdam.
After living in the Netherlands for 2 weeks, I wished I could get around as easily on a bike in Manila the way people get around with bikes here.
I also have to say that the Dutch that I’ve encountered (including my host families) have very warm and open personalities. The people here are warm and...
April 2011
2 posts
Of Peace and War
Up With People has exposed me to a number of experiences that I thought would never be possible. One of which was hearing about World War II from a European perspective by visiting Kamp Amersfoort: The Amersfoort Concentration Camp and listening Karl Michael Schliesser recant his story from his days in Westerbork Transit Concentration Camp and his life after the war.
Kamp Amersfoort was a transit...
Waffles, Chocolate, and Fries...oh my!
Belgium, what do we all know about this place? It’s capital in the center of Europe and is it’s capital. There’s sure to be chocolate and beer. In some cases Chocolate beer is also available and it’s very good.
What most people don’t know is that this small country is one of the largest beer producers in the world and locally makes more than 1000 types of beer....
March 2011
4 posts
Lakeland Florida: Last City on the American Tour
Lakeland…the last stop on our American tour. A city who got it’s name for it’s many lakes and english swans. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got here, but I was definitely not expecting to be as lucky as I’ve been all this week.
I stayed with a lovely woman named Nancy and roomed with fellow cast member Deidra. Nancy’s home, alone, was amazing, It was like...
Filipino Pride?
While I was in the Bahamas I was hosted by a Filipino-Bahamian family and experienced the extent of the Bahamian-Filipino Community. There is a big Filipino community on the islands and in Freeport Bahamas I was able to see the extent of the community in the International Bazar.
I talked to several filipinos there and was able to help them with their booth that had goods and food from the...
Fort Lauderdale
It’s known as the Venice of the Americas and is home to some of the world’s rich and famous.
I was hosted in Boca Raton, but did most of my work in Fort Lauderdale. I was hosted by the most amazing family so far: Fernando, Victoria and their two lovely daughters Natalie and Jackie. Fernando is an Alumni to the program so my roomate and I were very fortunate to have such an...
Grand Bahama Dream
So much to do and so little time…sometimes we live on the edge, always on the go and on such a fast paced lifestyle that we forget to live in the present. Being on the road on this adventure, I sometimes find myself overwhelmed by the people, the surroundings and the constant change. Everything is a new distraction and blissfully interesting or just so overwhelming that I’m numb to...
February 2011
9 posts
Palm Beach
After our trip to the orange groves we headed out to catch our cruise ship to the Grand Bahamas. On the way we had lunch and spent a few hours at Palm Beach.
All I have to say is that when I got there I had a hard time remembering I was in the United States. There’s a lot to do there: Shopping, Good eats and lots of water sports. We ran into a Skim Boarder named Chris...
The Orange Farm
So Florida is the Orange State. It’s combination of cool and humid warm weather provides the perfect environment for citrus fruits like oranges, nectarines, tangerines and grape fruit to grow.
On Friday the 18th of February we left Vero Beach for Boga Raton and visited the Citrus Belt of Florida on the way, while there we got to look around the Orange and grape Fruit orchards and the...
Food-tripping in Vero Beach
Vero Beach is a place I have never heard of before it was introduced to me as one of the cities we were going to travel to.
We arrived a day before Valentines day and are here until Friday February 18. So far my stay has been one fo the most pleasant yet. My host mother reminds me so much of my “tita-lola” who makes wonderful tomato based spanish dishes. She also makes good hearty...
Orlando Florida
One of the great things about being in America is that we’re in the hub of dreams, where people are not afraid to think out of the box and make those dreams reality.
Walt Disney was one of those all too American Dreamers and Orlando Florida is now the home to his biggest theme parks. My host family have their dream home here and have raised such a beautiful family. People come from miles...
Community Impact at UCP
Monday 19 other castmates went to UCP for our community impact. UWP does more than perform the show and do workshops for young leaders, a huge part of it is doing community service. UCP was my first day doing it in Orlando Florida.
UCP is a non-profit organization for children of ages as young as 12 to 18 months to high school and it’s main focus was on children with disabilities. The...
My First Super Bowl
So American Football is a huge deal over here, especially the Super Bowl. It’s a family affair and also a time for parties. They’ve taken a sports event and made it a sort of traditional holiday like the 4th of July. Also 111,000,000 people are tuned in or watching it. it’s no wonder it costs 2.5 Million dollars for a 30 second commercial in-between plays. The Halftime show is...
My first show, a feature in the Denver Post and...
Hello world! 8 hours of good sleep later and I am finally sane enough to write you all again.
You will never believe what has happened in the last 48 hours. But then again that’s the point of blogging about it…so that you will know:
As most of you know Friday was our cast’s first show. It went by so fast but the energy level was amazing! We performed in front of 1,000 denver...
Burp!
Hi guys! Last sunday I cooked Filipino food for my host family. It had been a bit of a hard week for me so being able to share something like food that’s familiar to me got me in a good mood.
My host dad drove me to an asian market where, amazingly, they had a filipino section where basic things like Lumpia wrappers could be found.
For those who don’t know Lumpia is a sort of...
Casting Blocking and other jazz...
It’s a snow day today and too cold for anyone in Denver to go out to school so i have a day off and time to write.
So i’ve been busy learning dances, songs and speaking pieces for the show. It’s a little stressful, because the way things run here is that no one really knows for sure what they’re going to really do for the sow. There are a lot of talented students in my...
January 2011
12 posts
Culture Jam
Up With People has a rich tapestry of countries that it represents, Each of us with a unique history and culture to share with the world.
Culture Jam is a 5 year old tradition that started to help the cast share with everyone their talents that are unique to their countries. It’s also a way for the directors of the Up With People show to see what they have and what they might be able to add...
The Marade
So last monday was Martin Luther King Day and in his memory there was a Parade and March. The combo of the two is called a Marade. Mostly anyone can join if you want to honor the great man’s memory or support something that also represents the kind of freedom and equality and world peace that Martin Luther King tried to promote to America.
The cast and staff of Up With People joined the...
My Host Family...
Hello all, sorry for not updating this sooner. I’ve been really caught up with rehearsal, hanging out with my awesome host family and trying to get enough sleep.
A big part of the Up with People program are the Host Families. without them there would be no tour, no beds to sleep in, roof over my head and no food. We’re taught to value them a lot but it really comes naturally because...
Updates...
back tracking…
The past week has been amazing, challenging and fun. It has been exactly a week since I arrived here in denver and we have done so much in a short amount of time. To better explain that allow me to give you all a run down of activities starting on Tuesday:
So Tuesday January the 11th was our Regional Learning day. Which basically means a day where we spend time in the city we are...
Summary of the last 3 days
A 2011 (Tentative - Subject to Change)
DENVER, CO - ORIENTATION AND STAGING
January 7 - February 6
February 4 - 7:30pm Dress Rehearsal performance, Colorado Heights University
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
February 7 - 13
VERO BEACH, FLORIDA
February 14 - 19
GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND (FREEPORT)
February 20 - 26
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA
February 27 - March 6
TBD, FLORIDA
March 7 - 13
BRUSSELS,...
My First Day In Denver
Wow….that’s basically summing everything up in a word. Just “WOW”!
So the moment I arrived in the Denver terminal Hans, Dave Penny and a platoon of other Cast a 2011 students were there waiting for me to help me get my bags and help get all of us to the Pinnacle Studio where the orientation and registration would be.
It was so cold that I could see my breath as I talked...
Getting Ready
So it’s 12:40am on January 7, 2011 and I’m just about finished with the last double check on my things for the 6 month trip I’m about to embark on.
I can’t quite describe what I’m feeling right now: A mixture of excitement, anticipation nervousness and stomach somersaults and a little bit of everything someone might feel after waking up from a daydream.
6 Months...