colorado springs, colorado!

so this was the only city we went to that i had visited multiple times before.

overall i really liked this week. first of all, i had the best room mates ever! veronika from sweden, humberto from mexico, and josh from arizona. we had a cool host family and absolutely loveddddd out host mom deena. she was amazing. :) our house was really close to sonic, so we ended up walking there a few times that week haha. 

we got to go to the olympic training center, and also garden of the gods. we even got to go bowling that week! it was a lottttt of fun. i got to see my dad, too! which was really fun. :) 

all of our community service this week was in schools. we taught and played games with elementary school and middle school level kids. it was on base too, so it was really interesting. 80% of the kids at these schools have a parent who is deployed to iraq or afghanistan. so it was a lot different than the normal kids that we work with. 

humberto, me, veronika, and josh at sonic one night!

yordi (ethiopia), me, danielle (wisconsin), and veronika (sweden). bowling at fort carson!

caleb, veronika, seth, deena, me, humberto, scott, and josh!! our whole host family. :)

me and my dad at our show!

albuquerque, new mexico

albuquerque was really one of my best weeks. i got to stay with amador and his family. he traveled in cast A 08, and i met him in staging earlier in our tour. my room mate was julie from arizona. we hadn't talked much before this week, but we got along really well. we were actually living in his grandparents house, but our host family also consisted of amador, his two sisters, and his parents. they were all soooo great!

during the week, my community service work consisted of working mainly at the main food bank in albuquerque. i actually had a lot of fun working there. i mainly helped put together flyers that mailman deliver to every person in the albuquerque area, making them aware of the annual food drive. all they have to do is leave food outside by their mailbox on a certain day, and the mailman will come pick it up for them! it helps to feed the hungry, especially during the thanksgiving season. 

our show was at the rio grande zoo! it was so cool to perform at a zoo. :) especially cause i love zoos and animals so much. so we were originally told that we had to stay the night after the show and go do another community service in a land fill the next morning. lucky they lied!!! we did do community service, BUT it was at the annual albuquerque balloon fiesta!!! oh my gosh it was soooo amazing. :) we sold calendars and programs but we got to see the balloons go up right next to us. it's an amazing event, if you ever get the chance, you should go someday! so we watched the hundreds of balloons go up that morning. then we went home and went to a huge family bbq! so i ended up not sleeping for 40 hours!! my personal record. :) overall a realllyyy fun week though.

me and zach at the balloon fiesta!

our whole host family! marcy, reina, grandpa, eddee, julie, amador, samantha, me, and grandma (holding my hand :) )

me, amador, and jules! we had such a fun time together. 

i had SO much fun this week because of matt and karen bolton. thank you both so much!! :)

sahuarita, arizona

being back in the US was fabulousss. haha and sahuarita was a really nice area! not a huge city or anything, but the desert sunsets and the mountains and everything were just so amazing. :) 

for our regional learning day we went to an organic farm mostly run by man power. we went on a tractor ride, pet some goats, and learned about the farm. it was really interesting.

my room mates (yes!!! i finally had room mates!) were nathalie from sweden and mayke from the netherlands. on our host family day, we went with our host mom, sabrina, to go to the biosphere 2. it was sooooo cool! there was a desert, an ocean, and a rainforest inside. afterwards, we went to an up with people bbq with SO many host families and students, and even exchange students from other programs. it was a prettyyyy fun city. :)

kady (canada), me, zach (colorado), and danielle (wisconsin) at the organic farm!

petting goats in the farm's petting zoo. :)

nathalie (sweden), mayke (the netherlands), me, and sabrina in the rainforest of the biosphere 2!

everyone who went to the up with people bbq! it was pouring rain during this picture!

this week was all thanks to my aunt delma! thank you for helping me make this amazing trip possible. :)

hermosillo, mexico

okay i have internet againnn! so hermosillo was exciting! the second we got there, we started celebrating the mexican new year (which is on september 15th, not may 5th! haha). we went to the city hall and met the governor of the state of sonora and saw the whole celebration and watched the longest fireworks show i've ever seen. we got picked up that night at about 11:30. and i againnn had no room mate. it was frustrating to be alone so much, but also a good learning experience at the same time. in hermosillo, it was the hardest to communicate with my host family. they were so great, and we could mostly get across what we needed to stay, but only my host sister, analy, spoke english. and she spoke as much english as i spoke spanish. haha so that was very interesting. one day we went to a beach city called guaymas, which was gorgeousss. another day i ended up having to stay home sick. it was so sweet, my host mom made me chicken noodle soup. completely american (except for the lime :) ). we worked in hospitals, worked with youth groups and a lot of other really cool things. hermosillo lived up to it's amazinglyyyyy HOT reputation. it wasn't too humid though so that helped! we had a pretty good show, aside from the hundredddds of locusts flying on our clothes and stage. blegh! and one girl was gone, so i had to sing a short solo. hahaha it was kinda embarrassing. just look at the picture below and check out my costume! it was fun though, that's for sure. it was our last city in mexico! and it was an amaaaazing experience to live there for five weeks, but i was definitely ready to come back to my country. :)

the beach in guaymas.

the girls who bought these mexican dresses!

my host sister only sent me this picture so far! so i don't have the rest of the host family. but this is analy! she's 18. :) and extremely sweet. she snuck a letter and a necklace into my bag before i left. it was a great surprise to find later. :) 

so this is my very attractive costume in hermosillo! "duele, duele, dueleeeee"

this week was made possible by andrea temel! thank you again soooo very much for supporting my tour in up with people. i appreciate it so much. :) 

cuilacan, mexico

i haven't had internet for awhile, but i can finally blog again! i have a lot of catching up to do so i'll do my best.

well, first of all we were told that culiacan was a really dangerous city. but luckily while i was there i definitely felt really safe wherever i was. and again i didn't have a room mate. my family only spoke spanish, except for my host dad. i was able to communicate with my host mom though, which was really cool. i know more spanish than i realize! haha. i was sick one day, so i only did community service one day. but it was really neat; we painted some murals on a wall in a local food bank. it was sooooo hot there! but i had a really good time. we had two shows and they were indoors! except the gym we were in had a leaky ceiling and it rained a lot... haha so that floor got really wet and we had buckets set up everywhere. but i can't complain because we finally had air conditioning in mexico during our show! yayyyy. :)

at the food bank with matt, caitlin, zach, and mariana. 

my host sister sibely and my host dad ricardo at lunch one day.

my slightly psychotic host brother diego...

me and the host family above the city of culiacan!

this week was made possible all thanks to lisa giraudi! thank you so much, i had an amazing week in mexico!

tepic, mexico.

so we were told for some reason that tepic is a desert. but it isn't at all! tepic is in a valley, and it's so green there! it almost looked like a rainforest, it was gorgeous and it rained every single day. our week there was pretty laid back and i had a lot of time to spend with my host family. there were two girls, diana (16) and paola (11) who both spoke fluent english. my parents however, elvia and horacio, spoke no english. haha, so their daughters translated the whole time. but i tried to use some of my spanish skills, too. to get to tepic, we had to take a six hour ferry ride from baja california to the mainland. then we took an 8 hour bus ride south to tepic. it was a long travel day, but a lot of fun too. during the week, we went to a place where they help baby sea turtles have a better chance of survival so that they don't become extinct. we all got to hold baby sea turtles, which was really neat. one night we went out to a place called the mandala for dancing and it was awesome because my host sister went, but so did everyone else from up with people! it was sooooo fun. then on our free host family day they took me to this amazingggg lake and we went swimming in a pool nearby all day. overall, i really reallyyyy loved tepic and i hope one day i'll be able to go back there. :) 

sunset on the ferry ride!

the baby sea turtles!

my host sisters and their friends before our night out at the mandala.

me and my host parents after our show in tepic!

diana, me, and paola at la laguna!

this week is all thanks to the generosity of marvin and ruth farber. thank you both sooooo very much!! :) :)

los cabos

i've been having some internet issues, but now i can finally update on my stay in cabo san lucas! it was probably one of the busiest weeks i've ever had. my room mate was marion from switzerland, but our host mom's sister was also hosting. so lexi from maine and eriko from japan were also kind of like my room mates. :) it was a lot of fun. the house was very... cozy! haha, it was an interesting experience to share one bathroom with three others. 

luckily we got a day at the beach, which was really fun. but we had one not so great day. we all went to the mall, and we were walking back to the car. our little host sister sophie was running and didn't see the table that was above her eyes. she ran right into the edge, and stood up with blood everyyyywhere. we ran to a car outside that drove us to a hospital, which was luckily only a few blocks away. i felt so bad for her, you could see right through to her skull. :( we stayed at the hospital for two hours while they put three layers of stitches in her head. it was pretty scary, actually. anyways, here's the pictures!

my friend zach and i in cabo at the waterfall at the mango farm!

on a boat in cabo!

all our little host siblings.

this weeks is thanks to pat and laurie holland! thank you guys so much, i love you. :)