Sahuarita, Homebase of UWP,

So, let´s make another week update.

First: Hostfamily.

They were really great. The family exsisted of a boyfriend/girlfriend (Greg and Melissa), and they both had children from previous marriages, so I had 5 lill’ bro’s and sissies! Really cool! It’s so awesome to play with the kids!
It was just such an awesome family. I felt really welcome, and we did a lot of cool stuff. We went up the mountains one night, and had some good times hanging around and talking.
My roommate was Mitch McVicker, one of the staffmembers. He is such an amazing guy. He’s like this tree: always silent and strong.
Only exception is that he is an awesome dancer, which is not really treelike…

Anyways, I got my first assignment as “Crew Leader” this week. That means that when we go to CI’s, I’m the contact-person with the facility and the “leader” of the group. I make sure everyone is doing what they should do and arrange everything, like lunch and stuff. Also, I handle the press xD
My first CI was at the “Casa de Esperanza” (House of Hope), where volunteers help others from all ages, from little children to elderly people. They take care of everyone.
What we did there was helping out the “growth of the children”. We painted one of their water features, so they can play with it again. The old paint got off, and it was neither pretty, nor safe, nor colorfull.
The other thing we did there was building a gardenbox. With that box, the children could watch babyplants go to adulthood, without the plants being eaten by squirrels.

On the second day, I was not the crew leader, but we went to the same site. This time, we were supposed to clean all the windows of the complex. Was a tough job, but we managed to get it done fairly early, so we had some time to take a nap during naptime xD

Oh, one bad thing: I lost my camera-recharger… I don’t know what to do with it now…
Should I ask my hostfamilies to send it, or should I buy a new camera (I can’t buy a European recharger here…)

Oh well, showday was a bit bad for me… I was not in the Love Medley! Waaah! It’s because a few guys’ parents came over, and one of them took my spot. I felt really bad, since that was my favourite part of the whole show…
Oh well…

The good thing about showday was: IT WAS INSIDE! Oh my, I can’t believe it! It was so much better, than performing in a constant, dusty environment. Everything was so good xD

Other than that, we got a speech this week from the founder of UWP: mr. Blenton. It was such a touching speech… How he met world leaders, Martin Luther King (who he had dinner with the night after he made his “I have a dream…” speech.), Popes, Mahad Magandhy’s grandson, people who set foot on the moon, and who not!
It was just so cool!
I gave him my business-card. Hope he’ll someday mail me.

Someone else I gave my business card that day was a Dutch “prince”: Pieter van Vollenhoven. He’s like, married to the sister of our queen. I also took a picture with him. Hehe, I hope I’ll stay in contact with him ;)

And if that was not enough, on the same day I met both of these famous people, I also met the musical founders of UWP, the people who wrote the first songs of the UWP show, including a few songs we still play in the show! It was so amazing!

They even played a few songs with us on stage! They are such great musicians! The Colwell brothers!

If that was not enough: we also did our first lesson of “Stand for Peach”, which is a program us UWP students give to smaller kids. We go to their classroom, and give a 1,5-2 hour presentation about how they can improve peach in their own communities (school, class, home, family etc.). We have a program for grades 3-5 (9-11 years old, if I’m not confused now) and one for grades 6-8 (12-14 years old).

I really have some good memories from my first SFP-work. I loved the kids!

So, another awesome week!

What’s up next? Hmm… well, my busdate was Rina from Finland, but she was, like sleeping almost the whole ride, or talking with Riikka, so I started watching a movie (Death Note II) with Chihiro! Good times, pit stop on the Mc Donalds, which was good.

Oh well, now I go to sleep…

Love you guys!

Bubbayz!

Hermosillo, city of eternal heat

A week has passed since my last update. Even though I had internet at my previous hostfamily, I wasn´t able to upload stuff, so I´ll just do it retro-style again.

So, first day was travelday, man, was it hell! 12 hour busride, they said! My *censured* it was way longer! I don’t know how long it was, but we left at6 in the morning, passed a timezone (so, one hour longer) and arrived around 7 in the evening. Then we had workshops and introduction of the city until 10:30. At 11, we had a reception, since it was Mexican Independence Day! It took a few hours, and after that, I was so hungry, I could eat a rabbit, including cage, in one bite!

After that, we met our hostfamilies. I met my bigger hostbrother first: Angel. I slept in a bunk bed with him for the whole week.
The rest of the family existed of a mom and dad, younger brother (Edson, who is an awesome soccerplayer!) and Valeria (Cute, older girl).

So, let’s take it in subjects again, instead of a day-by-day story.

Community Impact:
What we did here was very diverse. I did the following things:
- I gave a speech about how sex is viewed in the Society of The Netherlands.
- I painted and cleaned basketball courts for 2 days
- I spent some time in a hospital as a “Funny docter” (like, clowns) and amused kids

Hehe, so, we did a lot of different things! They were all so fun to do!

Hmm… let’s see, oh yeah, the show!

The show was outside (like all Mexican shows) and there were so many krickets! Not normal! They were everywhere!
(8)Crawling in my skin(8)

Do you remember the girl I talked about the last message that I met in the bar. Well, on the day of the show she was driving all the way from Culiacan to Hermosillo (12 hour ride) to come to the show! And as if it was God’s wrath, her car broke down 15 minutes away from Hermosillo, and she spent the time she should have been at the show signing papers and talking to people to repair her car and stuff. Then, she had to go to a hotel, and couldn’t come to the show at all…
I felt so sad for her…

Another noteworthy thing to mention is that I bought some awesome black cowboy boots in Hermosillo! Why there? I hear you wondering, well, they are famous for it!

Also, my suitcase is crammed again, so I guess I have to send stuff home very soon…
Most of it will be presents. You know, for Christmas, and souvenirs and stuff!

Conclusion: Hermosillo is a good place to be. In fact, I don’t want to leave Mexico, but we are now in the bus towards the USA again. I’m watching AMV Hell 4 with Chihiro now, and I’m going to finish this message soon!

Bubbayz!
I love you guys!

Culiacan, the city of friends

So, it´s now Sunday, and tomorrow is the new travelday. Now, an update on the end of Tepic, and all of Culiacan:

So, indeed, we were going to the beach at Sunday (last week). We kind of experienced “Hurricane Season”. That meant, after some time in the sea and on the beach, it started storming and the sky started to burst lightning and stuff everywhere!

After some time, we left and we started packing.

The next day was another travel day. I had Riikka as my traveldate (after having her as my roommate, I know it’s strange), because we were late and both forgot to find someone to be our traveldate…

I just want to say that I will really miss my family in Tepic. They were awesome!

After a while, we arrived in Culiacan! Yeah! It is such a beautifull place!

Lately, it has been known for it’s drugsproblems and violence. I want to say: Culiacan is amazing.

Okay, we heard some gunshots once, and another day I saw some military people standing somewhere, but it is never as bad as they say. In fact, the people here are very open and friendly! They really suffer from the current name of Culiacan, and that’s sad…

So now I’m going to tell about what I did.

We skipped Regional Learning on Tuesday for once, so that meant that we started right away with Community Impact. I was signed up to play with kids with disabilities, but they put me in a food shelter instead. There, me and some other people were sorting beans. In total, the 8 of us sorted out about 50 kilograms of beans in a few hours.
It felt really boring to do it, and that lunch was 2,5 hours late wasn’t helping either. However, when we actually had lunch, I started to understand why we were doing it. We sorted beans for people who don’t have anything to eat, and we were making sure they had good food.

Oh well, learning process, anyone?

Wednesday was an amazing CI! Again, I wasn’t going where I was supposed to go (I was supposed to watch a movie with kids with disabilities that day). About 8 guys of the cast went to the “men’s shelter”. It is like a home for people who were addicted to drugs and are recovering. All of them were men (hey, it was the Men’s Shelter, remember), and at first, I think they didn’t know what to think of them.
So we got a tour around the grounds. The Teacher showed us what was where.

After a while, we took a “break”, where we got some soda and all sat around a table. The guys from the shelter were doing some other things still, and we hadn’t interacted at all. Not a good atmosphere then.

And all of a sudden, someone played some music. We were doing suggestions about who was going to dance, and after everyone of the UWP group, and the teacher had danced, the men were all coming outside, and the teacher called them to dance to.

That might have been the most awesome moment ever. Within minutes, they brought out a huge jukebox with I don’t know how many songs on there! Everyone was dancing for no good reason, and it was just awesome!

The best dance we had was “Noa Noa”. It’s in our Mexican Show too, and we taught them to dance it. Really cool! Best song ever!

After a while, we helped them with making cookies (since that is what they do for a living). I can say from the bottom of my heart: these were the best cookies I ever tasted. There was a lot of love in there!

When we were finished with the cookies, we got to the grounds, and played soccer. First UWP vs Men Shelter. Ended up in a 1-3 victory for the Men Shelter.

After that, a mixed game with 3 Uppies and 3 Shelter guys on each team. Again, my team lost (not because of me ;) ), but we had so much fun.

Then we all had lunch together in the church. I talked to some people about The Netherlands and Mexico. The differences and the things we share, you know.

After that, we left, but not after we danced another round of Noa Noa! Bwahaha, just thinking about it makes me grin and smile!

Those people are just the best guys ever!

So, Marten (our Cast Manager) was also there, and we just made sure they got some free tickets for our show. In the end, they got about 10 tickets for both of the shows (we did two shows).

It was so amazing! They really were the heart of the audience, standing up when someone they knew entered the stage, and when we did Noa Noa, they just exploded!

Backstage, we were just talking about how much we will miss these guys.

It was just 3 days that we know eachother, but it looked like we were all buddy’s for life forever.

From the bottom of my heart: I, and the rest of the group, will miss them.

So, we did two shows. Both of them in the same place: a basketball stadium. The audience was not as full as we’re getting used to. After audiences of 3000, 250 seems like not so much. However, I tried not to look down, and made the most of it. You know, especially since the men shelter men were there!

After two (long) showdays, we finally had our regional learning day. It was basically: Go to a famous garden (green), go to an awesome science museum (1,5 hour was too short), and take a ride on a zip-line.

Later on in the day, our hostfamily (And Stewart and Gijs’ family, since they are real family) went to the swimmingpool. We had a lot of fun.

At the end of the day, we went to a club. There were a lot of Uppies there (of course, they announced we would all go together), and I spent some quality time with a girl at the bar. She was Sueng- Beom’s host-sister, I think. You know, talking and drinking and stuff.

So, now it’s, ow dread, it’s already Monday (after midnight), but I will just say it’s Sunday. So, it’s Sunday, and we spent almost the entire day sleeping, swimming and drinking Tequila in the pool. We had some good times =D

Now, I will upload this whole bunch of stuff!

Enjoy!

Greetings from Freddy,

Bubbayz!

Longest Post ever! Viva La Gente!

Longest post in history!: Viva La Gente (Spanish for Up With People)

It´s been a while, I know! I just now realize how dependent I was on internet! I want to upload just so much, and want to send some emails, but that´s not possible without internet! Man, that blows, so I´m typing this in word at the moment, and put it on a USB-stick, so I don’t have to type everything in my precious internet-time, just to save some time. If the time-sense is wrong in this or other posts, it’s because of that exact same reason.

Anyways, today is Thursday, just so you know.

So, I forgot to mention something in my previous post, that I still want to read again when I get back home: during the pit-stop on the way to Breckenridge a few students (incl. Jenny, Josh, Mayke, me and more) all ate a living worm! Just to check how it would be. à Awesome, you should try it sometimes!

Ah, good times,

Well, back to Mexico. This week in La Paz is just awesome! Although the heat is just killing me like never before (average temp: 40 degrees Celsius, little over 100 Fahrenheit)!
We’ve been doing a lot of things voor CI here (CI= Community Impact, meaning leaving a mark where we’ve been). I’ve been doing:
- Painting a graffiti wall white that surrounds a baseball stadium (Where our first Mexican Show is!)
- Cleaning a park from garbage and also painted the walls there as the start of an Anti-Graffiti-Campaign.
- Cleaning 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) of road from trash, and sweeping it too

But, you know, being in the place that’s said to have the most beautiful beaches of the world (which I highly agree too, for so far I know), it just had to happen: BEACHTIME WITH THE WHOLE CAST!

Man, that was just plain good. We got to spend some hours on the beach with everyone. The water was exactly the right temperature (not cold, but nicely warm) and we swam, played water-rugby and what else! I even had my personal fish! (I got this 3 cm long fish swimming around me for half an hour or so)

We’ve also been at a museum and a local church during “regional learning”. I made some pictures. The museum told mostly the history of Mexico, and most of it involved the Spanish suppressors.

I met some really interesting people today. “Conscience” is the name of their organization, meaning both “consciousness” and “through science” in Spanish. They are, just like UWP, an organization that want to help others by keeping the environment clean. They work at the beach mostly.

So I talked to Emmanuel today a lot, who is a member of Conscience. He is also a tourist guide in La Paz and a biologist of the local nature. Because of that, he knows a lot about the history of La Paz and he told me the story of how the earth came to exist, as told by the original inhabitants of Mexico. (And believe it or not: there are a lot of similarities with other stories of other cultures that never met them).

I got his email-address, and I will ask him to maybe write down the story so I can post a (short) part of it here, if you all like that.

Also, I learned how to play “Shogi” yesterday, which is the Japanese form of Chess. It only has a bigger field (9x9 tiles), more units (9 different pieces, 20 starterpieces) and additional rules (like the rule that units upgrade into stronger versions or that you can place units you “defeated” on your side of the field). It’s really interesting, but Chihiro taught me well, and I think I got all the rules after one round of playing. I hope we’ll play again soon, but it takes a long time…

In case you were wondering: Yes, I won, big time

What else… hmm… oh yeah, we did a short version of the show yesterday to promote the “big show” for Saturday. I think we got a lot of attraction to new people, and I’m sure our sponsors got their attention too. My job was mainly: passing out flyers, and I think I got a hidden talent for street-vending: I gave away about 100 flyers , which almost doubled the #2.

=== Friday:

Little update on Friday. I hoped to be able to use internet today, but Murphy’s law prevents me from having it… My hostdads (Anthony and me live with 2 guys, (Peter and Victor?) that work at the same company) left yesterday, and they won’t be coming back today… Maybe Peter will come back tomorrow for the show, but I don’t know about Victor. Anthony is still setting up in the baseball stadium, so I’m kind of home alone, trusted with the key to guard the house.

My “hostmom”, which is Peter’s girlfriend You (at least, that’s how you pronounce it…) brings Anthony and me to our location every day, and she cooks for us too, every once in a while. Tonights dinner was good: scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese. The first non-taco –or-other-Mexican-food in a week!

Also, the filmcrew from North Carileina (Need Anthony to change that word) that traveled with us for 2 weeks now left today. It was a very emotional depart. You know, it’s strange how much you can attach to people in such a short period amount of time.

I feel like a lot of people I love are leaving all the time. Or maybe it’s me leaving…
whatever…

I hope they will join us in our facebook-group (dread, another thing I can’t do without Internet), so that we can all stay in touch.

What did I do today. I was on “Explorers team”, which practically meant you could explore the city without any objective at all. I used my time mostly staring at the sea, trying to find a bookstore (I found 3, one with only Spanish books, one without comics and one that just closed for holiday and moving and stuff…), eating ice-cream (mango-flavored) and I made another friend in La Paz: Rahoule, who is a street painter. I gave him my business-card and I hope he will send me an email someday. He was a really nice guy, that told me the store I met him (one of the bookstores) was the first shop in La Paz ever!
I’m learning every day!

Ooh, ooh, I almost forgot! I bought Christmas-presents today! Hahaha, maybe I’ll post a picture of it ASAP, because it’s real fun, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise yet… I don’t know what to do, but I’m really excited already!

=== Monday:

I’m currently on the travel bus right now. We have a 2,5 hour ride ahead of us, so I have some time to write down my thoughts now. Okay, no internet, but this word-thingie works great for me at the moment as a replacement!

So, let’s start where we left off: Saturday was a showday. We pretty much practiced parts of the show again, and since we’re in Mexico, we practiced the Spanish songs a lot. I mean, we need to perfect those.

It was the first outdoor show and the first show in Mexico, so it was very exciting. Bad thing was that it was raining all afternoon, so we were very late with preparing the stage (since the lights, beamer, screen and everything else was not allowed to get wet), and performing was hard on a slippery stage. It was dry during the actual show though, so we could do it anyhow. The atmosphere and conditions were just awful! For the 3000 people in the audience: it was still great! Thanks for coming!

Yesterday, Sunday, was the first time in 2 weeks we could actually sleep in. It was great, sleeping until 1 in the afternoon! A good earned rest, considered we got home at 3 AM, and the day before was a 20 hour day.

So after sleeping in, we just spent most of the day at home, relaxing. Good, Sunday is a restday!

Later on in the day, Victor, Peter, Anthony and me left with a few of Victor’s friends to some kind of house out of town. It was beautifull. It was a two story building with like no walls on the upper floor (so you could actually stand on the roof, which we did) and seeing the sunset above the see and the city was just good. Me and Anthony had some good and serious conversations. About life and our lives and that kind of stuff. Maybe a bit late, but I feel a lot closer to my roommate now.
Better late than never!

And now we left. Too bad, I really got to like La Paz, even though it’s hot as hell! It’s a place that’s good to live.
I want to come back here someday. I will really miss the people here!

Now, I’m out of inspiration, and I’m going to fool around with my busdates now!

==== Tuesday:

Okay, so today was the first day in Cabo Saint Lucas (If that’s how you spell it, I am a lucky person, since I don’t know how to spell it!) I know my host family has wireless internet, but since they don’t know the password, I still can’t upload this whole post! Dread!
Probably tomorrow =)

So, my hostfamily. I live with a mother and child. Lorenza and son Steven from 12 years old. Steven just got back from a “tour” through Europe, (last stop: Hamburg), so now he has a jetlag, like I had a month ago! He joined a “global village”, which is like UWP: children from around the world live together for a while, while taking care of each other. I really like that initiative!

Today: today was “regional learning day”, which means that we get to travel around town and that kind of stuff.
- we started with a few presentations. First: Venezuela, since two people in the cast/staff are from there, and they wanted to share stuff about their culture and country. Second: Philippines, since we will be getting there in a few months, and it would be stupid to go there unprepared.
- Afther that, we went on a trip to the outskirts of town. We went to the part where people literally live in huts! I felt so bad for them! Really, I even felt worse when we left, and we barely did anything to help these people.
However, they were smiling all the time, and a woman there told us that it means it was a good sign we came. It meant that the world hadn’t forget them!
So we played with the children there, and we actually had a lot of fun with them. I’ll definitely upload some pictures from that experience here!
- When we left there, we went to see a local waterfall. It is one of the few places in the whole state where there is fresh water every time of the year, and since this region is considered a “desert climate”, this waterfall is an oasis. It was really beautiful, but the battery of my camera went to heaven, so I don’t have any pictures…
On the way back, some of us were riding in the open back of a truck. We got a free mango, and it was truly delicious! It hasn’t been getting any chemicals or something, and the flavor was truly divine =)
- Last but not least, we went to on a cruise ship! This was just plain awesomeness! We got a live band, we could watch over the sea, and we could get as many drinks as we wanted for free! We even got dinner there, and I got 12 (!) rounds of sushi! Man, I love that stuff!
Something worth mentioning is that we saw the famous “arc” of Cabos while cruising. Only, on the moment I didn’t realize it was famous, but I still remember it, since there were some sea lions right next to it.
I also got some tequila there, but I think it was a little bit stronger than at my previous host family’s house. Oh well, I didn’t go over the limit, so I was fine =)

Now I’m tired, and I have to go to bed! Tomorrow will be an early day, and I hope I can (finally) upload this post (which has more than 5 word pages, size 11, right now).

==== Wednesday:

I don’t know what to think about today. My hostfamily couldn’t drop me off after 7, so I was an hour early for the normal “drop off” at 8. I read some Shonen Jump while waiting.
So what we did, was mainly waiting till our pick up trucks came to pick us up. After another hour of waiting, we finally drove to our destination, which happened to be “Casa San Juan Diego”, which is a place to help poor people, migrants and other people who have a poor change of living (like those in the slums I saw the day before).

What we did was mainly play with the kids. We played some fun games with them, and we sang for eachother. They were really cute and cool!

After they had left, we were kind of doubting what to do. We were supposed to go painting, but since the paint wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow, we were in a tight spot. Lucky for us, there was enough to do!
So in the end, we ended up gardening and making everything cleaner, so that these people have a decent place to live. Just to treat them some respect, you know?

In the break I decided to call my grandparents. I know they are going to move to Belgium for a while, and I thought I just had to call them. It was really good to hear their voices again.

I love you!

==== Thursday (again)

As you might have guessed, no internet yet. I hope I can use my hostmom’s internet this afternoon, since I’m getting behind on everything! I got a hell lot of pictures I still need to upload, and I can’t do that all at once, with one USB stick, so I’m sorry, but you have to wait for the pictures a little longer again…
I can’t help it…

So, today was again at the Casa San Juan Diego. This time, we were moving rubble, and painting a wall, basically. It was a tough job in the blazing sun, but it was to give the people that come there some respect, and a decent place to live.
Again, my wait in the morning was long and lonely…

Tomorrow will be like that again, so that’s going to be fun on the showday!
I am thinking about taking my music sheets with me and learn them by heart. That way, the performance point of view will be better!

I don’t have a lot to say… And I also don’t know what to say. I just want internet and upload this big-ass post!

==== Monday:

Okay, few rough days, and I’m on the bus again! Man, 2 weeks without internet is rough! I want to read my email, send some too! You know!

So, what happened the last few days?

Friday and Saturday were performing days! Both were outside, and again, they were in baseball stadiums, just like in La Paz! They like their baseball stadiums here, you know!
Well, about this place: They were actually 2 places, and the group got divided in 2. I stayed in Cabo San Lucas. So, we performed in both places and they were both just plain awesome!

When I was looking for my hostfamily the second night, I had to take around 10 pictures with people that were wild about the show (100% feminine) and a lot of autograph, most of them for little kids that bought a picture of the cast.

Yesterday, Sunday, my hostfamily took me out to the desert. I didn’t know what to expect, but when we arrived there I understood: We were going to ride on ATV’s! (Like little buggy’s without roofs, hmm… motorcycles with 4 wheels, that kind of stuff)
At first, it was a bit scary, me riding one of those machines, but after a minute or 2 I somehow felt a “click” or something, and all of a sudden I got really into it, knew how to change gears, knew when to add or loosen gas. You know, I got the feel of the machine!

We started on a mountain, and the first part of the tour existed entirely on gravel roads and hills. The second part, however, was on a beach, and we took a break there. So during the break (of around 1 hour) me and my hostbrother were driving across the beach and the dunes the whole time! We did some races and really got into it! I even raced my hostmom (and won big-time ;) ) and I had so much fun!

After that, we went up the mountain again, and with my new skills, all the rubble, gaps and hills were a piece of cake! Hahaha, new skills are the best!

When we were done on the ATV’s, we went to the beach! Our plan was to go waveriding, but me and Steven went in the water right away and when we met more people from UWP, we decided to stay where we were.

We had a good time there!

So now I’m on the bus again, sitting next to Colin Duket (we had to search a buss date with the first letter in you last name), and I’m going to fool around in a minute!

==== Thursday:

Wow, it’s been a while! Dread, in fact, this is the third Thursday without internet!

Oh well, let’s pick up where we left: after the busride we went on a ferry for about 8 hours. After that, we were (again) on a bus again for another 12 hours or something like that. Anyways, when we arrived at our destination, it was already Tuesday!

Tuesday was more a day to rest (and we needed it, traveldays are tiring!). We were at this hotel with swimmingpool, but since I forgot to pack my swimsuit in my backpack, I had to do other things (which was very easy).
So I slept for a bit, watched some Hunter-x-Hunter with Eriko (watching anime with a Japanese girl is way more fun =P) and slept some more. After lunch and more rest, we did some workshops. We tested our global IQ (which included drawing a map of the world and test if you got some countries. In fact, my map was very detailed, and I only forgot the philipines (of all countries in the world….)) and did a review of Culture Shock. It was very interesting.

After that we had some pictures made for the newspaper, and then we left to meet our hostfamilies!
So this time our “clue” to meet them was very original. They provided a costume for us that we had to wear. While walking on a catwalk with their clothes on, they could recognize us, and that way we could meet! It was very cool to do, and I now have my first female housemate: Riikka from Finland!

My hostfamily exists of one mother, a son and a daughter, all grown up. They are really amazing. Only sad thing is: no internet again… Oh well!

So, Wednesday, we had CI day. Our CI was located at the beach, so we started with a 3 hour busride! (for original reasons). We traveled with some Spanish students from a Technology University, and we had quite some fun on the bus.

So, on the beach, we arrived fairly quickly at our CI-site. It happened to be a turtle-protection-place. You know, where they put all the turtle-eggs, and let them all into the sea at once to increase the survival-rate!

Luckily, I was one of the people who got the opportunity to dig out some nest! Believe it or not, but I gave birth to around 53 baby-turtles! I feel like such a proud father. Their names? I can give you some:

King Leeroy

Iceburner

Sir Arthur James

Blazing Wind

Marie Antoinette

Rafael

Donatello

Michael

Leonardo

Hehe, I got more, but it would just increase the length of this post, so maybe later!

After the baby-birth-place, we got some time at a pool near a beach. We’ve been playing games near the pool, played water-polo (which was way more fun than you would imagine) and me, Arnab and Joris went Boogie-Boarding on the waves in the sea, which was amazing, since there were very high waves!

Well, that was everything until Thursday! It’s still morning, so this is where I stop!

==== Sunday:

Oooh, finally, my computer again!

Thursday and Friday, for my CI is was going to Casa Hogar, or Casa de Niño’s as it is also known. It was a house for abused children that still have parents, but can’t stay with them. All these kids have trauma’s and they were all under 12 years old.

So what we did was basically painting (again). The only difference with the other paint-CI’s was that this time we were painting the home of these kids. There were about 18 of us and we painted the entire outside, the hallway and about 9 rooms in two days. (total of 7 hours)

It was very hard work, but it was for a good cause.

Saturday was showday. My day existed of: teaching the “quartet”-choreography to Josh, Arnab and Humberto, then, set up the stage. After that lunch and run through of the show. Later, we had dinner and we did the full show.

This was in fact the first time that we did an encore! Yeah! It was so amazing! Bwahaha!

Something I’ve noticed in Mexico: we are celebrities here! Man, after the show, in the mall, in the burger king, everyone wants to get a picture with us in it. I think I’ve had about 50 pictures made in Tepic only! I also signed a hell lot of autographs!

But the best part is when an old man comes up to you, and tells you he really enjoyed the show, and you in particular. That really touches my heart, and is better than signing bra’s.
Okay, maybe the same level…

Anyways, it is really good like this. Only downside is that they don’t feed you… dread, I was so hungry last night, and I couldn’t go buy food, since I had to sign pictures and take pictures.

Oh well, as long as we enjoy the fame =D

So now it’s Sunday, and I think my family plans to go to the beach today! Yeah!

Well, gotta go!

I lost my sunglasses…

Bubbayz!

Miss you all,
I hope my sister had a wonderful birthday,
Your present will be awesome ;)

There be gold in them mines, Water in them Tubs, Snow in them Mountains! Mehico is just plain hot!

It´s been a while since I´ve written here. For that, I´m sorry, but my access to internet was very short, and was never enough to write down what I felt. Also, I had to regroup myself.

I found out today that my girlfriend left me for one of my best friends.
I feel like I´m a “stranger in paradise”.

Well, I could talk about how I feel forever, but I still need to think about it myself…
It just hurts, you know…

So, let me start where I left off.

I left the family Cearley last week. I want to thank them again. They were awesome.

After that was a travel day. (I had Russ as a bus-date) We went up to the mountains of Breckenridge and stopped in an old gold-mine. I took a lot of pictures there, that might be a visual aid in a Dungeons and Dragons adventure I’m currently thinking about writing and to play it in the future. It was a lot of fun up there, and the location was awesome. I took some pictures of Chipmunks too. (They are like land-squirrels), while they were eating out of my hand.

Well, after a day, we arrived in Breckenridge (Indeed, the place where they recorded "Dumb and Dumber". You're so good to know that!). I got paired up with Eduardo (from Venezuela) as my roommate, and 2 people from a cameracrew (John and Dan) as housemates. We were all placed in the house of the family "Anderson". The family was: Rae (mom), Parker (son) and Sutton (daughter). They were just awesome. They brought us to every location every day.
Every night was a “party”-night. I mean:
Day 1: we all stayed in the Jacuzzi with some other families (that also hosted UWP-students) for a few hours.
Day 2: It was Fenna’s birthday, so her hostfamily came over (the hostfamilies all seem to know eachoter) and we all had a big Barbeque. Then we went over to her family to have some party in they’re basement, where we played pool, and I learned poker. (I kind of 30-folded my starting money)
Day 3: Again, spent a few hours in the Jacuzzi.
Day 4: I decided to change the name “Breckenridge” to “Party-city”.

Well, on day 5, we already left, which was too bad. I really enjoyed being there. The family is just awesome. Parker is a student in animation-movie-making and wants to travel around the world. I invited him to come to the Netherlands someday.

It’s just too-bad that we couldn’t have a “host-family-day” there, since I would have loved it.

Now, these days from a more “work”-perspective.

We went to our first CI (Community Impact) location on day 2. Together with Paulina, Linda, Eduardo and Catherine we painted the local “conference-room”, which is used for almost every important person, or so they said. They were really happy with the result.

The next day, I went to another school (elementary) where we, together with Russ, Jenny, Annika and Mitch cleaned up the look of the school, which involved:
Plucking weeds, painting benches, painting playing-objects and that kind of stuff. We had a lot of fun there, which included fooling around.

The day after was a show-day (Day 4), and we spent the whole day preparing for the show. I really enjoyed it, but it was a lot of work.
We also practiced the “Mexican-medley” a lot there, since it would be a few days before we left to go there.

The second show was a huge success, and it was almost 2 times as good as the first one. The people really enjoyed it and I was really happy that it worked out just fine.

My host family gave the show a 9 out of 10, which is not bad, considered this is the second show ever.
I also met the parents of Jordan (another student). They were really nice people, but since it was short, I didn’t get their contact-address. This is the third family (after Ben’s parents, the Cearleys and Zach’s family, the Murphys).
I really like how they are asking their kids to meet me. I feel like a celeb, but hey, it doesn’t get to my head, does it?

Well, you know, after the show I got to sign 3 autographs which felt really cool. People asking for that, most of them little kids.
I also interviewed a potential future UWP student. I think she will make a good chance. She’s from Ukraine and is very independent. Personally, I would recommend her.

The day after the showday was in a big room in an hotel, where we spent the rest of the day and night together. We had a lot of fun there, but waking up at 3 in the morning was a big pain in the ***.
We made it though, and I fell asleep in the bus again, with Ai as my bus-date. We arrived at the airport later on around 6 in the morning, where we left to Mexico. We traveled around the whole day, and after a few-hour-flight, which I almost slept through completely, we arrived in Mexico! Dread, was it hot!
Again, another bus-date, Lexi, and sleeping a lot again. After a while, we made a short stop to eat lunch and I bought some Mexican burrito’s. Man, where they good!

After a while we arrived in our final destination, La Paz, which felt as hot as hell! You sweat, even when you’re doing nothing with the air-conditioning on! Ah well, it’s worth it!

Now, I have Anthony A. (Staff member; light technician) as my roommate.

Today, we had a “rest”-day. I really needed that, since I almost didn’t get any sleep the last week.
My host-family exists of 2 people, which are in love and let us stay in their house. The girl is a teacher in “Law”, and the guy is her student. They are good people =)

I just finished my first few tequila’s, and I love it. It’s supposed to be a strong liquor, but it’s not that heavy, and I think I could drink a whole lot of it. I would love to drink more, but since I’m with a staff-member, it wouldn’t be such a good idea. And drinking enough booze to get a whole island drunk wouldn’t be such a good remembrance for my host-family here.

Since today is the birthday of the girl, we are going to have a party with her family later this evening. I’m looking forward to playing “Super Smash Brothers Brawl” with her brothers. I also hope I will have internet, to post this whole message (I’m typing this in Word) on my blog. Well, you will know when I had ;)

Let me conclude this whole message, since I just started on the 3^rd page on letter-size 11. This will probably be the longest post I made, ever, so This will bore you.

I still need to learn the lyrics for the “Mexican-Medley” of the show, since it’s very hard.

I'm sorry, again no pictures, since this is I can't upload my pictures at the current location, somehow... Sorry!

Byebye,

I miss you, family and friends,

Bubbayz!

It's true, what they say
You can't always go home
You can't always be warm inside.
That in love we're like orphans,
Strangers in paradise

Show and depart

Yesterday was the day of our first show. We had a hell lot of fun!

The morning started with the dress-rehearsel, and there were quite some mistakes, but it doesn't matter! It was way fun!

Now, for the interesting part: the show was in the evening, and started at 3 o'clock. At 2 o'clock, the whole staff collected the cast, and we went to the "green room", which is the room where you chill out before and after the show as an artist.
There, we got to do some very intense things. For example; we got a speech, where we had to close our eyes. Our show manager, Gabe, started talking, and it got really emotional. It reminded you about the loved ones you left behind, and even though I got a good luck message from both my parents, I still felt a bit alone...
Matthew, a staff-member, started a tradition: He got a book, something like a diary, where you write a page in respect for another castmember. He wrote to Gwen from Switzerland, and now Gwen has the book, writing for someone else. (She really deserved it. She was the first person to open her heart to the complete cast, asking for help. That took some courage!)
But, there were good things too, it wasn't all emotional ;)
For example, we did some mood-setters. Yells. Fun games and stuff! Really cool, peeling potatoes and other things that were just good ice-breakers.

Well, the show:

The opening-song started, and I was playing the saxophone as expected. In fact, I got a solo, when a power-cable got unplugged, and the only sound in the whole room was the sax! It was so awkward and scary, but it got the dancers to finish their dance, and all was well in the end.
I don't want to brag, but I might have saved that moment...
Well, the rest of the show was just awesome. I got a feeling almost everything went well! The love medley was awesome to do (you know, the part with the comedy) and I got the feeling I was blazing fire from my sax during "Go-daddy-Oh".

In the song before the last song, our staffmembers came into the aisles of the audiance, carrying giant cardboards with texts like "Cast B, we love you", "You guys are great" and "Keep your eyes on the ball", almost the whole cast was ready to cry.
It was just so emotional... But it was a good emotional!

So, today was the last day with this host-family.
The Cearleys were awesome and I will never forget what they did for us. I had a good time here, and I certainly hope I will meet them again, later in my life. They are awesome!
Tomorrow is the day we are going to Breckonridge, west of Denver here. A 2 hour ride.

We will stay there for a week, before going to mexico.

Now I'm going to prepare myself.

Bubbayz!

too... much... to... tell...

So, just as the title says: I just have way to much to tell, so this whole post might be a bit messy. I apologize right now for everything you don't understand later on in this post.

So, let's see. We've been in the new building for 2 or 3 days now. Tomorrow we have one run-through of the show, and after that: OUR FIRST PERFORMANCE!
Today was the day the whole cast met eachother exactly 4 weeks ago. And also, on 08-08-08, when the Olympics are being held in China, our last student has finally arrived. FROM CHINA!
Her name is "Grace", and I hope she will fit in the cast soon.

Let's see. The show. I think it's pretty sure what I will be doing. Even though more people learn the same roles for the show (so that they can rotate), I think I will be doing the next things.

Saxophone in the opening-song
Saxophone in a "rap"-kind of song
Saxophone in "Go Daddy-Oh", which is a swing song and awesome to play on sax
Saxophone in the ending song (Themesong: Up With People)
I will be "frontline" on "I can believe", which is a song, pretty much coming from the heart and charisma.
And the best part: I will probably in the Quartet (in the love song medley), which is the only comedy-style part of the whole show! I'm so happy to be in there.

Also, tomorrow is saturday. On monday, we will leave for our next destination. I'm a bit sad. I really like my current host-family. They are good people, and I will really miss them...
I feel like I still have so much to do with them...
Time is short!

Oh, a fun thing between the lines. We're here in Denver, which is located in a climate that is almost classified as "Desert", and we had a lot of sunny days. In fact, it only rained for 2 days this month, and both were just 5 minutes of almost no rain.
Today was different. After dinner, all of a sudden, it started to rain, storm and hail. My host-family was shocked by it. Appearently, this was not normal here in Denver. So, after 2 or 3 seconds staring at it, Ben, Zach and I took off our shoes, socks and shirts and we ran into it. It was just awesome. The rain felt so good, and even though there was hail, you almost couldn't feel it. Pictures were made, but I don't have them on my laptop yet. Coming soon!

Ben and Zach both got a piercing today. Ben through his ear, Zach through his lip.
I'm secretly thinking about getting a tattoo. You know, on the back of my hand, a tri-force or something like that. Would be cool.
I'll sleep a few nights, considering it.


And just one clairification: I had contact with my girlfriend today. She said that at home, everyone thinks life here is great and awesome, with no worries at all. (She didn't say that, but that's how I think you guys think about it).
Let me tell you, nothing is perfect. In fact, I've been crying a lot here. Leaving all of your loved ones behind at the same time is harsh. Okay, most of the time here it's fun, amazing and I'm learning a lot, but I just wanted to share the other side of the coin with you. I really miss my girlfriend, my family, my friends...
They are all really precious to me, and being away from there where your heart is, almost unable to communicate due to a difference in time is hard.
It's a reason for a man to cry his heart out once in a while...

Hmm... I think that's it. Maybe I forgot something...
Ah well, if I remember, I'll tell you next time. It wouldn't be that important if I can't remember it. =D

Bubbayz,
Love from Frederik
to my family,
friends,
and my amazing girlfriend Esther

Oye el boom, boom, boom, de mi corazón

So, today was the last day in the Sherman Centre, the place where we've been going to for practice and where we've been all the time so far!
Tomorrow, we will be in a local highschool called "Teikyo Lerado Heights", where we will have our first show on saturday! Can you believe it? We haven't even been here for 3 weeks, and we're already getting ready for dress rehearsel!

So, on request: what is changing me?
This is a very interesting question, since the program is focused on teaching people and letting them grow. They want you to reflect on your own situation.
So far, I could name a few of the obvious things:
My dancing skills have inproved, my vocal skills have too. I have expanded my vocabulary of a lot of languages, including English and Spanish!

But there are a lot of "hidden" changes as well, which are less obvious, but are certainly there. They are, in my opinion, by far more interesting, for they are growth of the spirit and mind, not just of the brain:
- I understand why my mother always was talking about "comunication", and I am now getting used to do so more often then I used to.
- I am more confident and my self-esteem has grown.
- I realized just how much time can change. I get the feeling I know all the people here for years already. It also seems ages since I last saw my family and friends... On the other hand: it looks like I arrived here just yesterday. Everything still looks completely new and the in one or two weeks, I'll be in Mexico! Can you believe it? At that point, I'm already on 20% of my trip.
- These past few weeks in America helped me gain a few dreams: I want to make a movie or series someday. Also, I'm in love with the concept of "build-a-bear", and if I'm still when I get back home, I might take steps to make a dutch version.
- I respect hard work more then ever. I work her for 9 hours per day on 6 days a week (exception is Wednesday, which is 12 hours per day), and never before am I willing to do so. It's for a good cause, and that is good for personal growth.
- I have expanded my comfort zone very broadly! I don't know my limits at the moment, and everyday, I am growing.
- I started to respect things you don't like, for that is the main power of personal growth!


So, what about the title of this topic.

It is spanish for "my heart is going like 'boom, boom, boom'", which has 2 meanings for me:
1> I love my girlfriend. I truly do, and the thought about her does indeed let my heart beat a little faster than usual.
2> The excitement of the trip is truly an inspiring moment of the heart for me. I can't express it in words...

Sorry, no pictures today! I haven't made any interesting pictures the last few days, and they are not on my laptop either, so... maybe later!

I'm going to quit this long post now! I hope to hear from everyone soon!

Bubbayz,

love to Esther

day off

I know I haven't been on a lot lately, sorry for that,
well, let me talk about it:

1> These last few days were killing me! They are tiring me out, and today was the first day in 3 weeks I could actually sleep in.
2> You guys should not get used to a daily update: When I'll be in the Philipines, or maybe even in some places in Mexico: there will be times I can't update for weeks! Just get used to it.
3> Last few days weren't interesting, okay..

So, about number 3: we did a few run-throughs of our show, we practiced the songs we already know. The only thing interesting of the last few days was that we are learning a Spanish medley! That one's actually quite fun!

Today was interesting though: I slept in till 10:40 (for the first time I can sleep later then 6:00 in the 3 weeks I'm here), and just when I was finally talking to my family for the first time in a week, I realized that we were going to a picknick in the park. I felt really bad about that, since I really wanted to talk to my girlfriend... I haven't talked to her in 2 weeks now... I miss her so much... It's killing me...

Well, we got to our picknick which was fun, since a few other castmates showed up. (Euhm... Jenny, Ai, SuengBom, Josh, Anthony and Eduardo) We went to fish some crawfish in the creek and we played some volleyball. None of them lasted very long, but it was fun to do!

After that, we went to go shopping. First thing we did was going to "Build-a-bear", which I consider a "hole in the market". You can make your own bear there! I made 2: one for me, one for my girlfriend. I called them "Freddy and Ezzie". Ezzie has a "I love you" sound in it, and has a ribbon. Freddy just has a bandana. I stuffed the bears, and added a heart in both of them (Everyone needs a heart, right).
I had a lot of fun there. My hostsister made a "pirate"-bear, which is really cool too!

After that, we went to some gatches-stores. I almost bought some "christmas presents" for the family when I get back, but I don't know for who I have to make a "surprise", so I can't actually buy something...

Well, that's about it. I really miss my home, and my girlfriend the most of all...

Now, here you go! 2 pictures: one of me and me bears, the other one is Zach in one of the stores we went to!

Bubbayz!

First CI project

Okay, I haven't posted in a few days, since the last few days are very tiring, and even today is not a good moment, but I'm going to do it anyway...

So, 3 days, right?

Day 1: We talked a lot about stuff. Learning circles and Culture Shock stuff.
I think I'm in crisis-mode now, or maybe I'm just leaving it. Oh well, let's move to something more interesting:

Day 2: Yesterday, we had our first Community Impact Day! It was really awesome. Almost the whole cast went to the place where in 2002 was the biggest wildfire in all of Colorado's recorded history. Over there, we were doing a lot of stuff to restore the wild again, since it's still all to be restored. Of all the 1300 something acres that were destroyed, we managed to restore 5 acres, by planting trees, plucking threatening weeds and spreading grass all over the place. It's was so hard work, especially at this height (the altitude was killing me), but we managed to do it in a few hours. It felt so good after we finished!
When we got back, the president of UWP told us about his history with UWP and after that. Really interesting!

Day 3: today, not special. Okay, I was in a workshop today (I might be one of the singing quartet in the Love Medley) and the change is very big that I will be playing the saxophone in the show. But that's about all.
Ohyeah, we learned some Spanish today, in a spanish medley. That was cool though,

Ah well,

I'm tired, no special pictures anyway,

Okay, maybe a one:

Me looking like Chuck Norris!

I couldn't take my camera, but I got a few albums from other people,
enjoy!

Anika
Neele
Wichitra

Enjoy other people's pictures this time!
Bubbayz!

Borrorace in South Park =D

Okay, today was just awesome!

We woke up at 5 in the morning, to leave for the borrorace (A borro is a crossbreed between a donkey and a horse) in South Park, yes indeed, the one from the series! It just so happens that my hostdad, hostbrothers and me were supposed to be one of the "checkpoints" for the race. (checkpoint 8).

So we drove the 4runner up to the mountain, that high that not even trees could live there, only some moss! It was just so cool, there was still snow up there, and we were about 5 kilometers in the air, on the highest pass in the whole rocky mountains "Musquito Pass".
(It got it's name because there was a musquito smashed in the book where they record all names and stuff, and not because there were 1000000000 musquito's on the way)

So, anyways, our checkpoint was located near an old mine, and there was still some wreckage all over the place, which made some great pictures! (I'm thinking about using those as visual aid in RPG's like D&D)
Also, since we were that high in the mountains, I got some great pictures of the mountains. It's really cool, but I can't upload them all, since there will be around 300 of those...

Instead, I will post a picture of me in south park, and... well, you'll see =D

WILD WATER RAFTING!!!

Okay, first of all: a link to the pictures of yesterday (education, scavengerhunt and capital building)

So, over to other business:
Wild Water Rafting!

One word: Frigging Awesome!

We were waking up at 5 in the morning, which was bad, but after a 2,5 hour ride through the mountains (they were awesome! Beautifull!) we met with a few other UWP-people. After that, we got instructions about how to raft.

And then... on to the river!
We were dived in two groups!

This is my group,

See, I'm right behind Zach, and in front of Franziska and Birgit.
The other line was Gijs, Paulina, Jackie and the tour-guide!

Ohyeah, Ben actually fell out of the other boat!

In the end, most of us dove in the water for fun. It was very cool, the wahter was not cold or hot, just right!

Link to more pictures here

Tomorrow, pictures of the mountains, since we're going to see the burrow races, typical to Colorado!

Bubbayz!

About today

Today was completely different from normal.
We started with morning-meating as usual, which was followed by "Education Training #2". Me and Cheryssa gave a short "workshop" to the rest of the cast, and I think it was pretty educational to us too. We learned a lot about how to teach little kids. Very good.

After that: HomeTeaming! Yeah!
We are hometeam 7 (I might have said that before), and we are just the most awesome team ever. We did some fun games to tighten the bonds between our team, and we keep up with a name:
The Dark Sprinkles, where "Dark" is prounced very Dark. Sprinkles is the complete opposite of that, and is said in the most cute voice you have.
Well, we have some "Team 7 Insiders" now, which is cool.

After THAT: Pizza for lunch and then a stroll around Denver with some people. We were doing this game which I forget the name of, where you have a list of questions and objectives you need to fullfill and that is only possible by going around Denver. It has been very cool. I liked it.

Well, after that: HOME
Man, my blisters have blisters.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow: We're going wild-water-rafting!

Well, I need my sleep, so I'm off now!
Pictures will be on the hold, sorry,

Bubbayz!

Moderate day

Dread, today started soooo sloooow!
Before we had lunch, we had a 3 hour blocking-session, which took so much attention and patience, it seemed like 3 days!
Well, after that: just vocals and cast movement. (Singing and dancing)

So, next up: the interesting part of today.
Our host-family took us out to a stroll in Denver, which was really cool, since they took us out, and eventually, we went to see a movie: Mamma Mia, which I recommend to anyway who love "musical-movies". It was just awesome.

Here are some of the pictures we took on the stroll!

Oh, by the way: I just took out my strange-hair-thing. It just didn't feel right, but the Etheopian girls just kept pushing me. So, I did it, I'm done.

Bubbayz!