Helsingborg, Sweden

Helsingborg, Sweden

November 19th-November 26th

Theme of the week: Youth Development 

Eva

Yaz (Bermuda), Lieve (Switzerland)

11-19-18 Monday

Travel Day!! It was about an 8 hour drive from Stockholm to Sweden. This long relaxing bus ride was appreciated after a long week. I got sleep and just think for the first time in a while. While we stopped at a gas station, we encountered our first snowfall of the season. For many people in the cast, it was their first time seeing snow. Our facility this week is a Morman Church that has very strict rules. For example, there is no coffee or tea allowed on any church grounds. There is absolutely no cussing, smoking, or PDA. In normal everyday Up with People life, those rules are broken quite often and the cast will have a hard time adjusting. My host mom this week is the bomb! She traveled in 1981 and she lived with her boyfriend 20 minutes away. She gave us the keys to her apartment and let us do whatever we wanted. Every night she comes over for dinner to cook for us. It is the best set up because we can walk the church everyday and have complete freedom when we get home! I miss the feeling of being home alone. 

11-20-18 Tuesday

Today the acoustic promo squad went to a mall and did three performances by the food court. After our first set, Leah talked to the staff at a coffee shop and found out that a restaurant was having its grand opening with free food. We went to the restaurant and offered to perform for them to promote their restaurant, and also our show on Thanksgiving. Then we got a free buffet lunch with free drinks! We got really lucky and ate like royalty for the first time in a while. Then we hung out at the mall for about 4 hours and then went back to the church. Our host mom came home for dinner and shared her UWP scratbook with us. I am excited to start my own book to have in the future. 

11-21-18 Wednesday

Today was yet another acoustic promo day at yet another mall. Most of the day was free time, and our group spent the day jamming and making a medley for the final banquet. At lunch our group had a mini Thanksgiving at Mcdonald's and we shared what we were grateful for. I am learning a lot about how Europeans spend their days during this time of year... there is no thanksgiving, and no Jesus at Christmas. It's very sad actually. Also there was a very beneficial workshop done about skills that we have gained in UWP. The staff told us all the things that we can put on future job applications and resumes. There is so many things that this program offers that sets us apart from everyone else in the world. It was eye opening to see what an advantage I'll have in the professional world.  

11-22-18 Thursday (Thanksgiving)

Show Day!!!! I had an extremely stressful day today. In the morning, Ellen and I worked individually with soloists on various show spots. She gave me most of the responsibility to facilitate each workshop. I really got to dive in with the vocal techniques I have learned and then pass that on to others. Then during the vocal warm up with the entire cast, I taught them solfege. HAHA!! Most of the time we do meaningless warmups about cookies and M&Ms, but I am really taking the opportunity to experiment with different styles of teaching. It is a safe place for me to get comfortable because all these people are my family who want to see me succeed. I created chords in solfege and taught some more new warmups. Immediately after the warmup, I taught the Danish song to the entire cast. I had a new idea of teaching for Up with People that I got to try out with the cast. Instead of having the vocal intern teach the song for each part in big group, I thought we could try splitting up into smaller groups and then come back and put it together. In the past, teaching a 3 minute song took an hour and a half. I got two people to teach the soprano and alto parts and I taught the tenor part. We had the whole song learned in 15 minutes. We had so much extra time to polish and memorize the Danish words. It was rewarding to have so much responsibility and have it be such a success. Also, teaching a song in Danish while in Sweden to 100 people for a world famous show looks really good on any resume:) Immediately after I taught this song, we started "Fun Rehearsal." The production interns put this entire show together for the past week and kept it a secret from the cast. The Fun Rehearsal was a 45 minute run-down of any songs that we wanted. Then we could put any person in any random show spot. I got to choose all the singers and Yaz got to choose all the dancers. I put people who are completely tone deaf in really vocally challenging songs and it was hilarious. The whole point is to laugh and have a good time, but it was still a real rehearsal behind the scenes. I had the job of the vocal instructor so I needed to tell the soloist all the blocking and make sure that they had the correct microphones. Most of the people who were in these spots had never held a microphone before so I was running around back stage making sure they got their mic. It was sooooooo funny to see people do things they were so uncomfortable with, especially because they had no idea it was happening until five minutes before. After the Fun Rehearsal, we had our real rehearsal where I was allowed to watch from the audience and take vocal show notes. I had so many important things to do and I was so tired... Then we had to do a high energy two hour show in Helsingborg. But it was all okay because. Isa was there!! I have never met anyone who was so similar to me. She teared up when she saw me because she was so proud of how I had taken over the Hope character and it meant a lot coming from her. I also got to see Hanna who was a foreign exchange student in Minnesota last year. She came to the show to surprise me, and it was really nice to catch up with her again. After the show, Ellen and I worked individual with soloists again!! PHEWW! What a long and exhausting day with so much personal growth and happiness. I got experience with one-on-one voice lessons, public speaking, facilitating an entire show, and teaching a song in another language to 100 people. It was so awesome, but I wanted to fall over with exhaustion by the end of the day. I was pretty sad that I missed thanksgiving with my family though. I got truly homesick for the first time today.

11-23-18 Friday

SICK DAY!!!! I needed to rest! Yaz and Lieve also took a sick day so we just slept all day long and got better. I started to watch Stranger Things on Netflix again. I also continued applying for vocal instructor at camp.

11-24-18 Saturday

Today the cast had some free time to explore the city of Helsingborg. The acoustic promo group actually went across the canal and performed three sets in Denmark to promote the show that will occur in two weeks. This is one of the last acoustic promo days of the semester with the entire squad, so it was an emotional day. We have gotten so close as a group and it will be hard to say goodbye to an amazingly talented group of people from six different countries. We took a ferry across the water, and it felt like a cruise ship. After we sang for a while, we went back to Sweden to explore the city with the rest of the cast. Angelis, Ivy, Camryn, and I went to a cozy restaurant for lunch and had a deep conversation. It was a nice and relaxing day!

11-25-18 Sunday

Host family day! Today, Eva and Dan took us to Kullabergs. This is a Mountain that overlooks the Baltic Sea. The views were absolutely gorgeous, and the quality time with this host family was even better. We walked about a mile down the coast line, and when we turned back, it was all uphill. Yaz has asthma, and it was hilarious to see her reaction while going up a thousand stairs. After, we went to a cute restaurant named Mölle and Eva bought us mugs for souvenirs. It was such a fun host family day! Then we went back to the apartment for a goodbye dinner, and we had Glög. This is a traditional Swedish Christmas drink. Yay for Culture!!!