Cast B in Europe - Milano, Italiano!!!

Ciao! I apologize for how late this update is, but I have quickly realized that the Internet is not as accessible some places in Europe as it is in the States. That being said, for those of you who don’t already know, my Up With People tour has left the US and I spent the last week in the North of Italy. Here is our travel summary from Las Vegas, Nevada to Milan, Italy:

• 28 hour bus ride (including stops) from Las Vegas to Seattle, WA
• 12 hour wait for our flight, spent by the cast in the airport…although I was picked up by my brother Chris and spent the day with him. Shout out to you brother!• 10 hour flight direct to London
• 5 hour layover in the airport
• 3 hour flight to Milan, Italy
• 1 hour bus ride to our cast drop-off

All together, our total travel time was clocked at 61 hours. We spent the night in a gym because we had arrived so late. By the time we were up and going, it was Wednesday morning…remember, we left Vegas Saturday at midnight. No bed for 4 nights! But enough whining about our travels…we were in Italy!
On Wednesday, we went to downtown Milan and did some sightseeing and a scavenger hunt. We had to take pictures of our home team doing different things around the city. Downtown Milan is so beautiful with amazing old architecture. We visited one of the most famous churches in Italy. I met my host family on Wednesday night. My roommate was Sayuri from Japan, and we stayed with an amazing Italian family. Our host Mom and her husband lived in one part of the house with their 3 young children and in another part of the house lived her brother and his wife whom had 2 young children. They didn’t speak any English except for Mateo who spoke just a bit. It was a tough task to try and communicate even the simplest topics. I remember one night spending 15 minutes trying figure out when were leaving the house in the morning. That being said, I felt that we were able to bond with one another on a different level than other host families whom I could have a normal conversation with.
We ate the best Italian food you could ever experience. Here is what my lunch consisted of on Sunday; hand made pasta with fresh tomato sauce, octopus, salad, homemade bread, fresh caught tuna cooked over coals, tiramisu, and cake with fruit…of course lots of vino (wine), and bubbly water. It took 3 hours to eat lunch, and I was so tired afterwards that I feel asleep until it was time for dinner! That’s my idea of a good day!

Thursday was our CI day in Italy. Our cast worked in some elementary age schools and a school for the mentally disabled. I went with our admissions team to do promotions at the main University campus in Milan. It was a daunting task to talk with students about our program and the show. I learned a few phrases to explain UWP, but if they started asking questions I had no idea what to say…quite an adventure. Our show day came earlier than usual in the week, being on Friday. I rode the train, then subway, and finally walked to find the show site in a nearby city. We had to ask for directions about 8 times, but I was with Lesley and Clara who both speak Spanish, so they were able to communicate in some broken Italian. Our show on Friday night started at 9:00, which I guess in Italian means start showing up around 9:15. We had a sold out crowd with some people even standing against the walls. Our cast performed 3 songs in Italian and I even delivered my MC in Italian…although I forgot my lines and had to pull a note card out of my jacket. Someone later told me after the show that it was all right I spoke poor Italian because, “bad Italian sounds sexy.” Good thing! The Italian audience was great and chanted for our first Encore, which we had been preparing for in Europe.
Saturday was an internal education day with also a culture presentation on Switzerland. We had letters returned to us that we wrote 3 months ago in Denver staging. They were “letters to ourselves” talking about where we hoped we would be at this point in the tour. It was a great moment of reflection for our cast. That evening was going to be a free BTS (backing track show) for people in the small town we were staying…although we had such a huge response for the show that we decided to do another full performance. It was an exhausting day, but I’m glad we had the opportunity to give back to the community with this full performance. The highlight for me was singing, “What Color is God’s Skin” in Italian with the entire audience singing along. It was a really cool moment.

European Comments:
1. So seriously, Italian Gelato is just as good as it’s hyped up to be. I’m pretty sure I could eat that stuff every day of the week.
2. Beware of European breakfast. People told me it was pretty scarce…but seriously? I had these little mini toast things that were the size of small cracker each morning…tough situation for an avid breakfast eater like myself. What I would do for an Ego waffle right now!
3. One Italian espresso = the strength of 3 Starbucks espresso’s! Size can be deceiving…
4. Europeans try to play tricks on foreigners by hiding every toilet flush button in a different place. I’ve seen them on the toilet, on the floor, on the wall, hanging from the ceiling, some I just stopped searching for after a while…beware, and be smart!

That’s all for now…On to Switzerland we go!