Week 1 Update!

Wow. This has been the longest week of my life. But at the same time, it has been a blast. There are so many great people here, and I'm learning so much! So here's a day-by-day update:

Monday was generally a "get to know each other" day, and we went over the program handbook. Later we talked about staying in our "Challenge" Zone, as opposed to comfort or panic, and then began work on the show.

Tuesday was "Module Day". We went from station to station showing our abilities at speaking, dancing, singing, as well as learning about the tech side of the show, and showing the show staff our costumes.

Wednesday began with a workshop about defining culture. The staff used an iceberg as a culture metaphor; Most of the culture is under the surface and not instantly recognizable. After that, I went to the band auditions. I was surprised to learn that out of the 120 minutes of the show, the band plays for about 110. So if i get in (I play bass), I'll have a lot of practicing to do. The band auditions are a multi-day process, and consist of the band staff giving us some music and seeing how fast we learn it, as well as how good we are at performing, aka rocking out.

Thursday was our first Community Impact Day. My group went to the St. Francis Center, which is a day shelter for the homeless. We did a lot of work in the back, including folding laundry, organizing donated clothes, cutting big bars of soap into smaller, hotel sized pieces, and scraping ice out of the back alley. Even though we didn't interact with the people who were at the shelter. It still felt really good to give back. After spending most of the day at the shelter, we did a scavenger hunt through Denver, primarily the 16th street mall area. Since I knew this area well, my team finished first :-)

Friday began with a workshop on the experimental learning cycle. This was really just a fancy way of explaining how humans learn and apply what they learn to their lives. I spent the rest of the day with the other potential band people playing more songs. I find out on Tuesday if I'm in, and I have a really good feeling about it....

Also, an update on my host family: they're awesome. They have 4 kids (one in college, who is back for the week) so the house is always full. They're incredibly nice, and make fantastic meals; we had Ethiopian food last night! My roommate is from Belgium, and he's kind of crazy, but in a fun way. Sharing a room with him is pretty interesting...

So even though I come home every night dead tired, I'm still having a fantastic time. This weekend we're watching the Broncos game with another host family (Go Pats!) and possibly going to the Denver Stock Show/Rodeo. I can't wait for next week and the rest of the tour.
 I'll do another update on Friday/Saturday depending on how tired I am Friday night. Till then, stay cool yo.
--Spencer