Cruising through the USA

Since 4 cities have passed since my last post, I'll do a quick sprint through them. Our big return to the USA, a 8-week tour from Nord to South. Again the one amazing event after another. A meeting with the history of Up with People, closer look at the presidential events, experiencing the most photographed event in the world, my first radio spot ever, performing as a singing solist for the first time ever and being at the world center of the mormon religion.

Sahuarita
The first city after Mexico had some sentimental value. It was right next to Phoenix, the origin of Up with People. We even got the chance to stay with an alumni, perfect for such an Up with People-tinted week. Exceptional chances we got were meeting the founder of Up with People, the original music-writers and getting a last performance from Jessica (she is an amazing singer that joined us thoughout Mexico till this city).



An interesting part of getting to the USA is the start of the presidential debates. It is really exciting to experience it with an inside perspective. Clearly Obama is a better speaker and however most do not agree with the last 8 years, still more Americans than you would expect are McCainn minded.



Albuquerque
A larger city situated in New Mexico close to Acoma Pueblo, a native american reservation. So one of the cast visits was to this beautiful area filled with gigantic rock-formations.

During this week our volunteer work was with Adelante, a center for people with disabilities. It is unbelieveable how much patience the staff of this center has. At the end all of the Up with People volunteers did a talent show with music from our own countries, poems, dance-acts, etc. After us the persons with disablities got the chance to show there talents, especially jokes and dancing seemed to be popular. One even sang a song for us :)

At the end of the week we had the awesome opportunity to go to the Balloon Fiesta, the largest hot air balloon race in the world. Over 650 ballons were up in the air, an unbelieveable sight, it is not suprising it is one of the most photographed events in the world. Everyone of our cast was spread over the ballons and we could help these balloons out. I got to help with the launch, then chase the ballon and eventually help with the landing. A nice experience.


Colorado Springs
Back into Colorado, it was since staging Denver ago that I had been here. This time we were in the mountains, but expectionally was the chance that we could stay at a military base: Fort Carson. Our volunteer work was in schools on the military base and the show was in honor of the military. The idea behind it is to break barriers.

A cool thing was the chance I got to do a radio-spot, one that was aired the whole week of our stay. A unique experience. Other fun things were a visit to a mountain city park called Garden of the Gods, a hike in the mountains with my hostdad Vernon and Zach (roommate for the week) and a visit to one of the 3 olympic centers in the US and getting a tour by a olympic boxing athlete.

Probably the most memorable moment the week was show day. Since we've been touring for quite a while know you can imagine that the show becomes a habit. More and more you get used to certain show parts and when I looked at the show list I saw it was gonna be a pretty regular day. Some rehearsals in the morning and some random singing of pieces I had practiced earlier on the tour. During the pre-show rehearsal suddenly one of the main singers fell sick. And who did they think of maybe replacing him? The non-experienced guy from Belgium, it made them feel kind of nervous but apparantly no one else even knew the song. A fast course training for the difficult parts (I tought I would never be able) , but I did the rehearsal... and even got a big applause. So, this week for the first time ever a Spanish passionate solo called Oye El Boom by Joris Van Doorslaer :)



Salt Lake City
One of the few cities that we are visiting on our tour that I actually knew something about before the tour began. It is famous for it's winter olympics. But aside from this it is also known for it's mormon community. The original founder of the mormon community based it's first church in this city. A visit to this historic place was something we definitely could not miss.



This week I got to use my previous experience in youth organisations, because we got to work with the Boys and Girls Club. Aside from that there were some exciting experience with my host family. For the first time ever I went to a haunted house, drag queen bingo (for charity, what gives it an excuse) and oatmeal launching (something you do while driving, just ask if you wanna know the details). Again an interesting week, I had loads of fun.