Thursday, March 25, 2010

Stylin' in Sioux City, IA...

Sioux City Sign
 Marquee at night
Beautiful Orpheum Theatre
The house of the lovely Orpheum Theatre
Big BTB Ad on the streets of Sioux City
Terry, me and some awesome statues
more copper statues
Julia goes on as Mrs. Potts!!
Heather and me playing Wii Tennis
Jeremiah and me playing Wii baseball
Robyn and me playing checkers
Pool time fun with Julia, Jen, Eric, and Matt

The weekend we spent in Sioux City was wonderful!  It took a 2 day bus ride to get there from Canada.  We arrived just in time to unload our luggage and hurry to the theatre for our first show.  Unfortunetly, Sabina (who plays Mrs. Potts) wasn't feeling too well, so her understudy, Julia, got to try out her version of Mrs. Potts!  She was nervous, but she did SO WELL! I kept her laughing backstage by telling her some jokes.  I was happy she got to go on, but also happy that Sabina was feeling better the next day!
Sioux City has a bunch of neat, colorful statues of animals and other objects all around town. I had fun looking around to try and find them!  The green room of the theatre had a big TV and we were able to hook up our Wii and play some games before the show and during intermission.  Heather is a Wii Tennis expert, Jeremiah is awesome at Wii Baseball, Ellen is great at Bowling, and my mom and I love to play New Super Mario Bros.!  After spelling it wrong a bunch of times, I found an easy way to remember how to spell "Sioux"...the vowels are in alphabetical order!  Thanks, Iowa, for a great time!  Next up.... 2 weeks in CHICAGO!! 

Friday, March 19, 2010

Kitchner, Ontario....CANADA!!

The sign says it all!
Beautiful Niagara Falls
Breathtaking!
Sabina trying to save me...or push me in?!?
Beauty and the Beast does Niagara Falls
Perfectly clear day to take in the sights
Tommy and me....my first sushi experience

Bedhead! Preparing for PSSA testing
Centre in the Square                  Baxter and me
Drawer Graffiti                   Raisin Soda?!?
Casting Call for our Chicago Cabaret!

Waterloo Children's Museum
Learning about gravity
Our solar system                     laying on nails!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
        My pin mold                learning about electricity
Zzzzzz....sleeping on the floor of the green room!

This week our tour went international! We made our first Canadian stop. I've never been to Canada before so it was really interesting! Our awesome tour manager, Deb, surprised us with a stop at Niagara Falls on the way to Kitchener. Seeing the waterfalls was so amazing. I'm glad I got to experience it with my BTB family! We were also spoiled with a second tour bus to get us to and from Canada. Everyone now got their own row of seats and the new bus is fully loaded! It has a microwave, refrigerator, flat screen TV's, WI-FI, tray tables, windows along the entire roof, and tons of space! I LOVE it on the bus. Usually I sleep in the morning until we stop for lunch. Then we usually watch a movie, play games, or do school work. We stop every few hours for bathroom and snack breaks. I like to play football with the guys during our quick stops. When we stop for lunch, we usually stop at a mall so that there are plenty of food choices and we don't overwhelm one restaurant with 50 people! Plus it gives us a chance to shop.
Did you know that Kitchener is the home of the first ever "blue box" recycling program? Now those blue recycling boxes are everywhere! During our first night in Kitchener, we went with a bunch of the cast and musicians to a sushi restaurant. I never tried sushi before but I was up for the challenge! I can't say it's my favorite but I did enjoy the fried rice, edemame, salad, soup, and teriyaki chicken. Another night, we went to a Thai restaurant, which was another first for me. I really liked the Chicken Pad Thai and sticky rice!
For this week and next week, I have to sign on to my online school's PSSA test preparation classes. It's like a learning chat room for the students and teachers. Although it requires me to get up much earlier than I've gotten used to, it's been really fun to interact with my teacher and other students. Plus, we get to watch some pretty fun video clips!
The theatre in Kitchener, Center in the Square, has a mascot that I made friends with very quickly. Baxter, who is a mixed breed rescue dog, stays in the office unless his dad tells him he's allowed out. He's such a good listener! He loves to have his belly rubbed and he DID NOT like the BEAST! The theatre made sure to have lots of fresh fruit and drinks for us at every show. Did you know that in Canada they have raisin soda? Canada also has different currency than the US, so I was sure to collect some Canadian coins for a souvenir.
Robyn and I have teamed up and will be performing at a cabaret when we go to Chicago. We've started planning our act, but we're need of a couple back up beat boxers. We made an audition sign and hung it on the call board. We held auditions and found the best 2 people! I can't tell you too much more, because it's a surprise. Stay tuned....
On the last day in Canada, we went to the Waterloo Children's Museum which was hosting a human body exhibit. It was really neat. The human body exhibit had REAL cadavers, which kind of grossed me out but it was also very interesting. We couldn't take pictures in that part of the museum, but we were sure to get a bunch of pictures with all the other cool things there. After such a long week, I am exhausted and looking forward to our two day bus ride to....Sioux City, IA!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Waterbury, Connecticut

The Palace Theatre..seats 2,500+ people!
Lots of gold!                     Me and Emma
Glen, Tony the Dog, Me, and Jeremiah
My new buddy Cole and me.....in the hot tub
...swimming                     ....attacking Tyler
......and racing cars down the ramp
Matt, Tony, and me               Princess Annie
Playing Pool with the Schmeltzle family
Dinner with the Schmeltzle Clan
Ethan, Gabe, Me, Austin, Annie, Caleb, and Cody
GM's beautifully handmade mural
My signature on the mural...I'm getting great at it!
Look closely, it's a Yocco puddle!

We had a terrific time in Waterbury, CT. Did you know that Waterbury is nicknamed the "Brass City" because it was the leading brass manufacturer of the early 20th century?  Since it is so close to NYC, a few people from the creative team came to see how everything is going so far... Matt, Glen, Rob, Koz, Sam, Connor, and Tony the Dog were among them and it was great to see them again. Koz brought his son, Cole, along too and we spent most of the weekend together! I had a blast with my new friend! Also, a bunch of people from the Disney Theatrical Group came to see the show as well. We got 2 thumbs up because they loved the show! Erin (Babette) had some special visitors too!  Her friends came to see her and brought along her two dogs, Jack and Emma. I loved playing with them and snuggling with Emma.  They made me miss my dog so much that I began seeing things!  After taking a shower, I thought I saw a puddle on the floor in the shape of my dog! 
We had some visitors of our own as well! The Schmeltzle/Conklin family came from PA just to see the show. They even brought my mom a yummy birthday cake.  It was great to spend time with them. Unfortunately, it was rainy and windy all weekend but we had fun at the hotel pool and eating dinner at different restaurants. All ten of them LOVED the show! I wish we had more time to spend with them, but with 5 shows in 3 days, it was a busy weekend!