All over the place

Tuesday August 15^th 2006: We were all over the place today. This morning we had our first Cast Meeting. This was a doosey. Cori encouraged us to hash out our issues. After a little hesitation, the truth came out. Cast began venting frustrations about the lack of free time, roles in the show, mixed messages from staff, lack of “real” emotion from the cast members (I was notified prior to entering into the program that historically the European members found American’s to be fake and unreasonably happy), and fears of losing individuality. For the most part, I kept my mouth shut and listened as most were expressing concerns that I would have mentioned. However, I did pipe up in staff’s defense when a particular issue of confidentiality came into question.

I’m impressed. Cori and the staff took a huge risk in holding this venting session, but it was very necessary. It’s about time for us to get down to the nitty gritty and start hashing out our issues with each other. If we can’t do it here on the micro scale, then how can we expect entire countries to do this on a macro scale?

After some serious processing we were able to regroup and prep for a bit of sight seeing. Today we were to tour KCTV5. We were able to go in and see the news room, play around with the green screen, see the grand control centers, and spend a few moments in the offices where the stories were written. This was a new experience for me. I decided to strike up a conversation with the camera guy. He appeared pleasantly surprised to have someone show interest in his work. I figure, it’s all well and good to meet the person who stands in front of the camera…but where would that person be without the camera man?

The remainder of the day was spent in “Sports Time”. A considerable amount of us decided to go to the local outdoor pool. It was then that I realized how much I missed the ocean. I was so thrilled to be swimming in the water and to have a chance to lie down and soak in some sun. Everybody’s got their poison. Some smoke. Some drink. I get high on sunlight.