Ice Breakers, Americans, and Juggling

Today was my first day meeting the entire cast. Wouter and I were out the door at 7:30am with Thora to Tivoli Campus in Denver, CO. After I showed my skills at reading maps (Thanks Kevin for drawing out the directions, I had everyone quite impressed that I was able to guide Wouter and Thora to the parking lot without ever having been there in my life) and a bit of walking (“I meant to take you this way”J) we found a large crowd of international students. Must be UWP.

Inside the performance arena, UWP staff had a presentation for us. The CEO greeted us and told us a moving story of his experience with the program and how it effected his life afterwards. He had become, over time, the “American son” of a man who had lost many family and friends in Pearl Harbor.

We were also shown brief samples of our show and community service projects. Very exciting, but very difficult to convey online. Hopefully I’ll be able to offer you all some pictures soon as it develops and we go on tour. Tomorrow we all get tested, in a way, on our dancing and singing skills.

The bulk of the day was spent in getting to know each other, creating our supervision groups (called “Home Teams”….Go Team 4), brief cultural education, and developing our personal goals for the program. I really enjoyed the ice breakers, like a Japanese version of “rocks, paper, scissors” and an entirely new game “Bears, Salmon, and Mosquitoes”. I think these will be fun to use with children.

The cultural education piece was a tad bit surreal for me and the other Americans. First, we all were given a chance to create drawings that we feel represent the United States. Many of us drew pictures of the American flag, Lady Liberty, and cars. I was surprised at how many non-Americans associated us with fast food, especially hamburgers. It’s interesting, I’ve been asked several times what I like to eat and many have been surprised that I did not eat fast food, like McDonald’s every day!

Next we were asked to take a written description of US history and culture and create presentations for each other. How strange to talk about how we will eat with both our hands and with utensils…or how we often throw items to each other….how we wink at each other to indicate that we are joking, or have a connection of sorts… or how males sit with legs open or with an ankle to the opposite legs knee. All things we do automatically, but do not think about.

Back home, David, Wouter (fyi....pronounced "Vow-Ter"), and Kevin attempted to teach me how to juggle. I’ve always wanted to learn. Right now, I’m working on mastering two balls (careful with the snickering friends). Once I get that down, I’ll go for three.

Fading fast and really need sleep for the “tryouts” (of sorts). Will write soon.