Third week of Staging in Denver, Colorado

This past week has been absolutely AMAZING!! My Up With People experience thus far has been even better than I had imagined. Last Saturday my Host Father Bob took us White Water Rafting. He plans a trip every year for the Up With People Cast and their host families…this year, about 100 people signed up to go. Birgit and I were in charge of informing the cast about the event and collecting all of the money. So bright and early Saturday morning around 6am we headed off. White water rafting is on my list of things to do at least once in my life…it’s amazing that three weeks into my Up With People journey I had the opportunity to do it! I had an absolute blast white water rafting and I would most definitely go again if I had the chance! We were even allowed to get out of the raft on the last rapid called “last chance” and float down on our backs. The following pictures are from the rafting trip.

This is where we went white water rafting:

Posing with Up With People friends before and after rafting…

My host dad was in the back right of my boat and I am on the left 2nd from the back!

After rafting, Bob took Birgit, Kirk and I on a scenic journey home. He used to teach Colorado history at Colorado University and he knows soo much about its history. Below are a few interesting facts and pictures from our journey!!!

We stopped at turquoise lake…

The water that comes out of this spout is carbonated…it was awful L Bob told us that some people in the area will only drink this water!!

We stopped to see some rapids and the scenery at several locations.

This week we had the opportunity to take part in our first CI (community impact) day. We were helping to restore an area in Colorado that was destroyed by the Great Colorado Fire. The cast and staff were split up into three different groups. My group was in charge of moving fallen trees and branches into ditches to help with the erosion. It was amazing how my group had such great teamwork and could work together to move large grown trees. Below are some pictures from the day.

This is a picture of the damage caused by the fire.

Teamwork…

Other pictures...

Up With People “boot camp” has been going really well. At this point in the game we know most of the show and are now working on putting everything together. We have been having a lot of “run throughs” and “blocking” to help us do this! This week we were also introduced to specialty costumes. The dance lines and soloists have special costumes to wear during the show and have many quick changes. It’s definitely a lot of fun learning the show! We have also been busy preparing ourselves to travel on the road. This past week we have had educational sessions that have prepared us to work with students in classrooms, learned about the cities that we will be visiting and have been given other important information that we will need to know!
Tomorrow my host father is bringing a few of us cliff jumping. I am looking forward to it!!! After we go cliff jumping we are going to a place in Denver called the Grizzly Rose. They have line dancing!!! I miss line dancing and I haven’t been since the week I left home.

This is a picture of my "me page!" Each cast member made one and they are being placed into a book that is put on display at our shows.

I can’t believe that we only have one more week in Denver, Colorado before our tour officially begins!!! Our first show that we are putting on for our host families and friends is next Saturday!!!!