Where In The World Is Breton Shepherd

Wave Your Flag

2010-06-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

It's time for the World Cup!!! Check out K'naan's performance of Waving Flag at the opening ceremonies of the World Cup. This video gives me chills everytime I watch it, check it and enjoy!

Flowers

2010-05-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

Nothing But Flowers

Oceanside, CA

Post: May 19th

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I realized last week that I've accumulated quite a few pictures of flowers. Flowers are always solid subjects to take pictures of so I thought I would post some of the abundance I've accumulated over the last couple weeks. Most of these flower pictures come from the flower fields in Carlsbad, California that I visited a few weeks ago and there are a few that come from an Estuary on the border of Arizona and Mexico. Hope you enjoy!

Turns out flowers make some beautiful pictures, I'm sure that won't be the last post of flowers I put up. That's all for now, check back soon for some pictures from Mexico!!!

Adios!

Breton

2010-05-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

Beach Bum

Oceanside, California

April 27th - May 3rd

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While we were in the Oceanside/Vista/Carlsbad area we got to spend a day at the beach together. The cast participated in Home team Olympics on the beach. It was a fun afternoon of some friendly competition. Here are some pictures I took from that day, enjoy!

That is all for now, keep checking back for more soon!

Much love,

Breton

Up with People Goes To Camp

2010-05-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

Forest Home Summer Camp
Forest Falls, CA
April 21 - 25th
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When we camp back from the Philippines we spent our first week back in the United States at a summer camp about and hour and a half Northeast of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Mountains. It was absolutely beautiful up there and we had a blast! Here are a few pictures I took from the week we were there! Enjoy

(Camp counselors hosting 80's dance night, Karl Kindness and Freddie Friendly)

Let me preface this picture a bit... During the week at camp, we had what we like to call "Man Week." It's a week dedicated to the real "man" in all of us hah! We give each other "man names", for example, I was known at Grizzly Shep for the week. Each man is also not allowed to shave and to try and grow a nice man beard. I let my beard grow for about 5 weeks and the result was the picture on the top left.... On the very last night of camp, all the men decided we were going to shave off all our facial hair at the big camp fire that night. We collected everyones beards in a bag and sealed it and are saving it for our 5 year reunion when we will bring it out and laugh and be grossed out that we did that hah! When it was time to shave mine, they left me with a mustache, which is the result of the middle picture. From there we shaved off my best friend and ended up looking like the top right picture.... So that's the story of man week!

Hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! That is all from camp and the mountains, next stop, the beach in Oceanside, California!!!

Much Love,
Breton

2010 WORLD CUP

2010-05-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

ESPN Commercial
World Cup
May 5th
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Today I was told about a commercial playing on ESPN for the 2010 World Cup matches in South Africa taking place this coming month. I was told to check it out because the idea behind the commercial is comparable to what we do here in Up with People. I think the commercial is awesome wanted to post it on here for you to see because it really is a cool message. Check it out:

We talked about the video a little and it really is what we do in Up with People. 85 people from 20 different countries all over the world come together for not just one month every 4 years, but for 5 months, 2 times a year. Just the same as the commercial, we put aside our differences and come together for one cause, to connect the world through cultural understanding. Whether or not you dig soccer/futbol or whatever you call it, the commercial sends a powerful message!

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Now you know where to find me June 11th-July 11th!

Breton

Manila Life

2010-05-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Manila
May 1, 2010
Week 4
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Here is my last update from Manila, Philippines. A few random pictures but most of them are from a mural that my CI site helped paint on a wall in the slums we worked in. The idea behind the mural is it is the tree of hope. The leaves are made of hand prints from us, the UWP members, and children in the communities we worked in. Down the truck of the tree is the word, "HOPE" It was an amazing day and the mural came out more beautiful than we could've planned on. We turned a street in the slums into a bright and beautiful piece of artwork! Enjoy these last pictures from Manila!

As the sun went down the last night in Manila, we packed our bags and hoped on a plane early the next morning to head to Los Angeles, California! Next stop, a summer camp in the beautiful mountains of Southern California! I hope you've enjoyed all the pictures from Manila. It is truely an incredible place to visit and see. An absolute life changing experience for me and the rest of Cast A! More to come soon!

Much love,

Breton

Manila Life

2010-04-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

April 11th

Manila, Philippines

Week 3

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Last week I worked with an organization called Gawad Kalinga here in Manila. I visited a slum area that is located right on Manila Bay. When you think you've seen the worst of the worst all you have to do is turn your head in the other direction and there's more where that came from. At this site I was visiting there were enormous stretches of shoreline completely colored with trash. It made it look like you could walk halfway out into the ocean on the trash that was laying there. The following pictures were taken this day at that slum area. You'll get the idea of the picture I was trying to paint after you see them.

So just when I say "this is my favorite picture" I end up with a new favorite... As of now this is my favorite picture. In my last post I posted a picture of the slum area with the skyline in the background and mentioned how visible the gap between poor and wealthy is here. Well this picture gives a better depiction of that. On the left side past the t-shirts are stretches of poorly assembled homes that look over a bay area filled with trash and gives off a terrible smell. On the right side is a ship yard where large boats come in to dock and unload huge crates of various goods. Just a small strip of water separates the two.

Here is a small piece of the stretch of shoreline that is just covered in trash. It's hard to tell but the majority of that trash is sitting on top of the water. To the right of this picture are homes that line the shore as well... This is where they live.

A little kid wanders along the shore. This is his playground.

Searching through the trash.

Whatever works to get out of the hot sun!

One of my favorite things to take pictures of here are basketball hoops. Everyone loves basketball in the Philippines and there are basketball hoops everywhere no matter where you go. I've played countless games of basketball with kids while spending my days in the slum communities. I love taking pictures of them because they are all unique. Maybe I will post a blog of all the pictures I've taken of just basketball hoops.

I've posted a lot of pictures of the not so happy life here in the Philippines but I was reminded by this picture that we are still surrounded by amazing beauty everywhere you go, you just have to pay attention to it so you don't miss it.

Only one more week left here in the Philippines then it's back to the United States in California! It's been an incredible tour so far and I am only looking forward to the rest of it! Hope you enjoyed the update, more to come soon!

Breton

Manila Life

2010-04-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

April 9th
Manila, Philippines
Week 3
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"Teamwork" One night after our community service project day was over, we went out in the street and did a trust fall activity off of a jeep. Everyone lines up with their arms stretched out in front of them. One person climbs up the jeep and falls backwards. The whole idea is they have to trust the people with their arms out to catch them when they fall. We have a great team of people working together at our C.I. site.

Watching the sun go down over the ocean of Manila Bay on Easter. One of the most incredible sunsets after a great day performing at the biggest mall in Asia and one of the biggest in the world, The Mall of Asia. Great performances for huge audiences. Couldn't think of a better way to end the day, fireworks soon followed.

While wandering the streets for over an hour and a half trying to find a taxi, I came across this cool fountain that lit up the night with vibrant color.

I really wanted to see what the slum area we've been working in looked like from the top. I found the tallest building in the area, happened to be 4 or 5 stories. We got an amazing 360 degree view of the area we've been working in as well as the city skyline in the back. I love this picture because it shows perfectly how visible the gap between the wealthy and poor is. In the foreground you have homes built out of nothing more than boards and sheets of scrap metal and in the background you can see huge corporate business. It's visible around every corner.

Again, while wandering the streets, I walked by this cool building. I think it was part of a mall, but thought it was a cool lit building and loved the reflections it made on the pavement.

Clear day, beautiful blue sky.

While hanging out at the Mall of Asia on Easter. I came across a restaurant called Cafe Breton. Off all the places to find a cafe that is named after me, it is in the Philippines. Of course I had to go in a get something. It was a French style restaurant with lots of Crepes and stuff like that. When the waitress came up to take our order I pulled out my drivers license I.D. to show her my name was Breton. She looked at me and gave me a sarcastic Whoa... Then she told me that because my name was Breton she would give me a FREE water... Apparently she wasn't as excited as I was that my name was the same as the restaurant.

Hope you enjoyed the most recent pictures from the Philippines. I've got so many great pictures, I'm working on another update that I'll hopefully post by the end of the weekend. For now, have a great weekend.

Much love,

Breton

Update from Manila

2010-03-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

March 31st
Manila, Philippines
Week 2
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This is what we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner... Rice. It's at every meal and even though it might get old, it's always a safe bet if you aren't sure what the rest of the meal is. Nontheless, most of the food has been enjoyable!

One of my favorite pictures. A cute little boy lays his head on the windowsill of the second floor of his shanty in the slum where I spend most everyday hanging out at.

Me and my small army of kids. I thought I fit in pretty well with the Filipinos... apparently I stick out like a soar thumb and attract a crowd wherever we go.

The market, specifically meat section, where all of the people living in the community I work at buy their foods/clothes etc... Check out the pig head towards the bottom of the picture... Yum.

Children playing tag in the ally ways of the slum area. I've come to find out that children will be children no matter where they live or where they are from. You can't wipe the smiles of the faces of these children no matter how hard you try.

Mini Show at a mall in the Philippines.

Hans cruising on his longboard in style.

Update: Manila

2010-03-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

Manila, Philippines

March 25, 2010___________________________________

On Saturday, March 20th we had the opportunity to explore Manila a little closer. The first place we went that morning was one of our community impact sites called Gawad Kalinga-Baseco. It's a slum area this is being cleaned up by this organization. They are building new living spaces for these people so they have a decent place to live along with much much more. We had the opportunity to get our first look into what we will be dealing with at our community impact sites for the next month.

Don't mistake these beautifully colored photo's with the fact that this is a slum area, and these happy children are the ones who wonder where their next meal is coming from each day.

This is just the beginning, there is much more where these came from. I will continue posting throughout my time here.

Much love,
Breton

Introducing: The Philippines

2010-03-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well, I made it to the Philippines after a long day of traveling and have been here for about a week now. It's been a great experience so far with many more great times and challenges on the way. So far I've had the opportunity to visit a slum area, ride in a Jeepney (you'll find out about Jeepney's soon!), ride a motorcycle tricycle (again, I'll explain soon), start an UWP basketball team and take on the local Filipino's, play music in the streets and try some interesting foods! I've got lots of great pictures on the way but first I wanted to give you a link so you can check out what Manila, which is where I am for the next month, is like. Click on the WIKI picture below to go to the Manila, Philippines Wikipedia site.

Wikipedia: Manila, Philippines

Here are some pictures from the internet of what Manila looks like...

Enjoy reading up and learning about Manila and the Philippines. I'll be posting pictures soon, so check back!

Much love,

Breton

Big Update!

2010-03-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

My mom was given a Snuggie and I thought it looked like a choir robe so we got her a hymnal. I also love the colors in this picture!

UWP traveled to my hometown, North Platte, at the end of February. My friend Caitlin stayed with my family and I at the house. We took my parents tandem bike out for a spin around town. No crashes = successful adventure!

The one and only, GRAMPS!!!

I lived with my Uncle Greg and family in Sioux Falls, SD when the cast was in Vermillion. I got to watch my little buddy Coulter's soccer practice one evening!

Soccer stud Coulter practicing soccer drills!

Emma Claire, the cutest and most adorable girl and probably my favorite picture ever!

UWP cast performing in a mini show on the campus of the University of South Dakota

Cast A experiences the hunger banquet...

Middle class eating rice and beans, discussing the issue of poverty

Lower class eating rice, navigating through the trash and pizza boxes they sat on.

Thats all for now, hope you enjoyed seeing some pictures from the tour. More to come soon!

Next stop: Philippines! Expect lots of incredible pictures!

Much love,

Breton

Update coming soon!

2010-03-07T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I apologize for lagging behind on my posts lately, it's been a busy last few weeks! We are in Minneapolis, MN right now and will be heading to Montevideo, MN tomorrow. Can't believe in less than two weeks we will be in the Philippines! I will be posting a new blog tonight so keep checking for that!

Cya soon,
Breton

Music Monday

2010-02-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

Monday, Feb. 22

For today I wanted to post a song that is a part of the Up with People show this semester. If you see the show you'll hear this song by Daughtry called What About Now. The song is good but the video is better and you'll understand the reason that this song is in the show when you see the video. Enjoy!

Music Monday

2010-02-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

It's Monday again and I wanted to share the song that's been in my head for the last few weeks now. It's called She Is Love by Parachute. I really dig the acoustic version but the full band version is cool too. Love this song right now!

Have a great monday

Much love,
Breton

Staging - Week 4

2010-02-14T12:27:00.000-08:00

The final weeks of staging.

Time to hit the road.

Game Time

I went to the Denver Nuggets pro basketball game with my best friends Michael, who flew up to Denver from Arizona to surprise me, and Jessica!

Empty Streets

Headed home from a night out in downtown Denver

Under the lights

Walking in downtown Denver

Silhouettes

Rehearsing for the premier Up with People show!

Tradition

Super Bowl party with some of the most important people to the Up with People program. Lynn Morris and Ralph Colwell pass the candle from the staging staff to the road staff as we get ready to finish up staging with our premier show and head out on tour for the next 5 months.

It takes passion, teamwork and motivation

Who's the best, who's the best, CAST A. One final breakdown before the start of the premier Up with People show. 4 weeks of hard work later.

Music Monday

2010-02-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

So just for fun I decided that every Monday I am going to post a music video of my favorite song for the week. I know it's Wednesday now but I just thought of the idea and wanted to post so here's the song I've had stuck in my head since the album came out. It's 30 Seconds To Mars - Kings and Queens. ENJOY!

Staging - Week 3

2010-01-27T20:35:00.001-08:00

Staging - Week 3

Denver, Colorado

The Denver Road home is the City of Denver's project to end homelessness within 10 years. The project is in it's 5th year and on Saturday the UWP cast went out in Denver to do community impact on the theme of homelessness. My group worked with the Denver Road Home where we went out and surveyed and interacted with panhandlers on the street to find out how many homeless people are on the streets in Denver as of now. We also asked questions about how much money they make a day and what they spend it on. It was a very powerful C.I. day and o

ne that will stick with me through the semester. To learn more about the Denver Road Home

check out http://www.denversroadhome.org/

After our community impact day was finished I had a chance to wander the 16th street mall for a while. I was really curious and interested in the lives of the homeless people that we had come across so I spent some time talking with this guy and listening to his story. He was a super cool guy and had no problem sharing his life with me. He spends his days out on the mall playing his flute for money. The theme song for that day was Mission Impossible.

This weekend I went up to Copper Mountain on Saturday and Winter Park on Sunday to do some snowboarding. The weather was great and the scenery beautiful. I love being up in the mountains where the air is clean and it's so peaceful and quiet. Wherever I end up down the road, It'll have to be within driving range of the mountains.

Saturday night I went to watch Colorado's professional lacrosse team, The Mammoths, play. I'd never seen a live lacrosse match, and we were up close next to the action. Turns out lacrosse is a pretty intense contact sport! It's basically like hockey only without the ice and the puck becomes a ball flung through the air. Definitely a good time!

This last weekend was the biggest and brightest moon of 2010. This picture was taken that night as I was driving through downtown Denver on my way home from the lacrosse game. One of my favorite pictures.

That's all for last week, look forward to some more pics coming up this week! I'm headed to the Denver Nuggets basketball game Wed. night, hopefully I come back with some good stuff! Have a great week!

Breton

Week 2 - Staging

2010-01-22T21:14:00.001-08:00

Staging - Week 2

Denver, Colorado

Welcome to Denver.

We are in Denver, CO for staging for 4 weeks before heading out on our world tour through the Midwest U.S., Philippines, and Mexico.

The Rockies.

Representing America as I travel the world with 90+ other people from around 20 different countries.

The cash register.

The cash register building in downtown Denver on my way home.

City at sundown.

My view of the city as I leave UWP staging every evening as the sun goes down behind the skyline.

The Drew.

Enough said.

Martin Luther King Jr. Marade (March/Parade)

(MLK Jr. Statue in the background)

UWP Cast A 2010 participated in the MLK Jr. Marade on Monday. We marched down the street with tens of thousands of people from all different backgrounds with one common goal.

Hope you enjoyed my first post of pictures from the last week! Look forward to more coming your way soon!

Breton

Hi my name is...

2010-01-22T20:27:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to my travel blog!!! I'm at it again as I start my newest adventures with Up With People. For those who are new to my blog, let me introduce myself. My name is Breton Shepherd. I am 22 and come from the great state of Nebraska! For the next five months I will be traveling with the international cultural immersion and leadership program Up With People.

I was offered a job at the end of last semester and decided I couldn't pass up such an incredible opportunity and took it. I am back on staff as Band Leader/Technical Assistant for Cast A 2010! We are two weeks into staging with the new cast and I couldn't be more excited for the next 5 months! I thank you for joining me throughout my journeys for the next five months!

I've decided to do things a little differently this semester. Since I will have my hands busy with my new job, I won't be able to post and keep my blog updated on a regular basis. However I still want to post as often as I can, so instead, this semester I've decided to do a photo blog. I recently purchased a Nikon D90 camera and have been reading up trying to learn how to use it. I'm definitely brand new to the photography thing but am really inspired by the idea of capturing some of the amazing things we see on tour in a more personalized way! Hopefully you will get to watch my photography skills improve throughout the semester as I post new pictures.

For now I hope you enjoy the pictures that I post while I am here in Denver for the next two weeks during staging!

That's all for now! Thank you for checking back!

Much love,

Breton

2009-11-29T06:07:00.000-08:00

Warsaw Highlights
Oct. 30th - Nov. 4th

Saturday Oct. 31st - HALLOWEEN!

One of the highlights of the week was definitely the Halloween party that we had. Everyone got creative and found/made some cool costumes. We had home team competitions where all the home teams competed against each other in different events/games through the evening. It was a great time and awesome to just have a night with everyone outside of the UWP normal routine! I was living with my buddy Tim Lewis for the week:

We were trying to get creative and think of costumes the night we arrived at dinner but didn't get to far. The next morning we were getting ready to head out our host family pulls out two surfing wet suits complete with goggles and those wet suit shoes! It was perfect so we went to the Halloween party that night as surf dudes.

Check out some pics throughout the night:

My two fav. parts of the night were competing the home team events. I participated in tippy cup or flip cup, a game where you have to chug a drink (of applejuice) then put the cup on the edge of the table and try to flip it over on the other side and it has to land perfectly upright. Here's a video from the game!

Then my other fav. event was bobbing for apples. Tim and I competed against each other in the first round and it was perfect because we were wearing wet suits. The competition was pretty intense with water flying everywhere so it was a good thing we had goggles... even though they ended up not working too well... It was so much fun non the less, check out the video:

Sunday Nov. 1st

Sunday was a special holiday in Poland called Day of All Saints, it also happened to be our host family day in Warsaw. It's a special day in Poland because it is the day that everyone goes to the cemeteries to remember their loved ones who have died. Tim and I went to one of the cemeteries with our host mom that afternoon. It's an incredible sight to see... The people come to the cemetery and put flowers and lit candles all over these MASSIVE graves. I have never seen anything like this before, it was really amazing! Check out the pics:

Later that day Tim and I's host family took us to see some a fort and some of the buildings that were important back in WWII in Poland. It was really cool to get to see these things because normally it's something you only read about and see pictures of in history books in school. Tim and I went into an underground Bunker that was used to hide in when bombings were going on. Here some pictures of the fort and bunker:

Those were my favortite parts of Warsaw, hope you enjoyed it! Warsaw was a really cool city and I def. loved being in Poland! It was so much different than I thought it would be. I had no idea Warsaw was such a hugeeeeeee city! It was a whole new experience because Poland was so much different than the other parts of Europe we had been to previously. The language is also so much different than anything I've ever heard! In most of the countries we have been to so far I was able to function and at least figure out which bathroom I was suppose to go into but here in Poland it was a complete guess because the language was completely different! It was a great week and a great experience! I was looking forward to the next Polish city, Zabrze!

Much love,
Breton

Cottbus, Germany

2009-11-13T13:15:00.001-08:00

Cottbus, Germany
October 24th - 30th

Monday, Oct 24th

Welcome to Germany everyone! We arrived in Cottbus, Germany on Saturday the 24th! I wasn't sure what to expect coming to Germany as I have obviously never been! We had a really long travel day to Germany from Sweden that consisted of a bus drive through Denmark then getting on a big car ferry for an hour and then driving down through Germany to Cottbus.

Everyone sleepin on the ferry

On the ferry leaving Denmark coming up on Germany

A preview of Danish food in a few weeks!

We ended up arriving in Cottbus really early so we had some time to hang out and relax before our allocation meetings and host pick-up. I have a pretty good story from host pick-up that night. On the way out the door with all my bags my host dad and I walked up to his car which was an awesome little Audi coupe. I lived about 30 minutes away from the city of Cottbus so we had to take the Autobahn home. We pulled onto the Autobanh and he hits the gas! I looked over and saw the spedometer was at 180 kilometers per hour. I quickly pulled out my phone to convert it into miles per hour and realized we were going about 120 mph!!!

Sunday, Oct 25th

On Sunday was our host family day in Cottbus. We woke up and had an awesome breakfast then headed down the road about 30 minutes to a place called Spreewald (pronounced Shpray-vald). Spree means river and wald means forests I think... So this region is made up of all rivers and forests and is absolutely beautiful. This place looks like the Venice of Germany. They have gondola boats that can take you up and down the system of rivers. We walked around for a while around the area then my family decided to take me on the boat! We took an hour trip down the river to a small village where we got out and walked around looking at what old Germany looked like. Then got back on the boat for an hour trip back up the river. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and it was such a relaxing morning/afternoon! Take a look:

After the boat trip we headed back home for a delicious German lunch! P.s. I love the food in Germany! Later that afternoon my host dad and I took a walk through his small town.

That night we headed to a family members house for a birthday party! It was pretty cool, there were about 20 family members there all of whom spoke no English! It was really cool and lots of fun to just hang out with a bunch of German family members! The best part about the party was that they were roasting a whole pig! Before the pig we had some vegetable stew, which was awesome! Then came the pig, again delicious, and of course saurkruat.

After dinner we all headed inside because it was a little cold. The rest of the night was spent just hanging out and talking... Oh and drinking German beer!!!!!

Monday, Oct 26th

Monday was a C.I and Friends and Family show day! For C.I. I went to a home for mentally disabled people. It was a really cool facility where the people who lived there actually worked there during the day. There were about 15 different jobs that they would do during the week. We went to hang out and do a drum circle with the people that lived there. This was cool for me since I am a drummer! We got to play along with them and then we did a little jamming of our own!

After we did the drum circle we hung out and got to make pottery!

I made a disc candle holder.

Tuesday Oct. 26th

The next day we had regional learning and I got to take a walk through a really beautiful park and tour a huge castle. (they called it a castle but it was more like a mansion or a huge house). It was really relaxing to walk through the park and see the leaves changing colors, check it out!

The last night we were in Cottbus my family went out to a cool bar/restaurant with some of our other cast mates who were staying with friends of my families! It was an awesome night with some great people! And a great send off from Cottbus and an awesome week!

My family was so awesome in Cottbus, I had such an amazing time! I hope you enjoyed reading about my first experience in Germany! more to come soon!

Much love,
Breton

Trollhattan/Vanersborg, Sweden

2009-11-13T12:28:00.000-08:00

Trollhattan/Vanersborg, Sweden
October 20th - October 23rd

Tuesday Oct. 20th

Tuesday we departed Sundsvall and arrived in Vanersborg, Sweden! Instead of driving North to South we drove East to West and got to see some of the other side of scenery. Unfortunately our stay in Vanersborg was short and we didn't have a host family day. Nonetheless we made the most out of it and had a great time, check it out!

I was excited to head to Vanersborg because I found out the week before that I was going to be living with a friend of my families who is an alumni of UWP! She traveled with my parents back in 1973 and with my Uncle Greg Fritz. I really enjoy talking with alumni and people who know my family because they always have great stories and they can obviously relate to the UWP experience so we are able to share and compare the experiences and what an impact it has.

I was living by myself again, and was picked up that night and headed home for a nice dinner! After getting all settled in, I found out that my two host sisters who were 11 and 16 were very musically talented! The younger played the piano, cello, and sang and the other could play the piano, guitar and sing very well also! After dinner we sat down at the piano and they played some songs for me and then I played a few tunes for them! I was really excited to live in a musically talented family!

Wed. Oct 21st

On Wednesday we had C.I. in the morning and then a tour of Vattenfalls hydropower plant in the afternoon! Our C.I. for the day was going to a school and teaching/interacting with the students. Once again I had a great morning in the class room with the students. I believe these students were younger high schoolers and it was really cool to hear how opinionated they were about certain issues! This school was also really unique in that it was a school for immigrants and refugees. It was incredible to look aorund the classroom and count so many different ethnicities and find out that these kids came from 10 different countries just alone in the classroom.

After a great morning in the schools we took a drive down to the hydropower plant. This was really cool because this is where Vattenfall first got its start. Vattenfall means "waterfall" and right outside Vanersborg were the small waterfalls created by the damns of the hyrdopoewr plant where the company got its' name! We got to take a big tour of the facility and learn all about how it works and what it means for the city/Sweden and the future of energy in general. Check out some pictures from the plant:

It was such a cool opportunity to see the hydro plant. Most of the machines inside were original machines from back in the early 1900's! The scenery outside was beautiful too, notice the tree leaves changing colors!!

Thurs. Oct 22nd

Thursday was our friends and family show in Vanersborg. While the rest of the cast was setting up the stage and equipment, I had the opportunity to do an admissions presentation in a high school with Matt Erley. I was really excited because like I've said before I really enjoy talking and teaching students. Our presentation was an hour and a half long which is pretty long to keep students attention. We had some really good stuff planned and brought a guitar and bongo drum to play some songs to them. Once again, this class was really cool because there were a number of students who were originally from other countries. We did some really cool activities to get the students to voice their opinions about certain issues and we were able to have some really great discussions. One thing that Matt and I nocited was that they take for granted the fact that they have kids from 5 to 10 other countries in their class. It's just normal to know that this person comes from somewhere else but they don't take advantage of that and learn from each other. We said, In the United States, you walk into a classroom and ask, how many of you come from other countries and guaranteed 98% of the time no one raises their hand. Here in Sweden, it's almost guaranteed that there will be at least a few if not half the class who raises their hand from another country. Take advantage of the oppotunity to ask eachother quetsions about each others cultures, religions, backgrounds and all that stuff because it's not common to have so many countries represented in a learning environment! Hopefully they caught on and are taking advantage of it. We had a great friends and family show again, and it was especially exciting for me for my alumni host mom, Georgia to get to see the show again since she hadn't seen an UWP show for quite sometime.

Friday, Oct. 23rd

Friday was our Vattenfall event day as well as our travel day to Germany. Our day started at 8:00 a.m. with host-drop off and lasted till 3:00 a.m. when we departed for Cottbus. It was an incredibly long day and was nice to get on the bus and pass out from exhaustion and sleep through the night/morning.

That's all for now, can't wait to see you in Cottbus, Germany!

Much love,
Breton

Sundsvall, Sweden

2009-11-07T15:48:00.000-08:00

Sundsvall, Sweden
October 15th-20th

October 15th
Our next stop in Sweden was Sundsvall! Just like every city before we arrived that evening and had our hosting meeting and then headed home with our new awesome host families! Welcome to my new home for the week:

And once again I had another great host family! How do I get so lucky!?

(Yes, I'm holding up a box of Breton crackers that my family ironically had at their house hah!)

October 16th
The next morning we went out and did school projects at different schools in Sundsvall. I love being in the classroom talking to students. I am always amazed at how interested these students are at different cultures and what we do in general. I love hearing their opinions on certain things and it definitely makes me look at these topics in new ways and gives me new perspectives on issues. It's definitely one of the coolest experiences! We spent the morning going into classrooms and playing games with the students and starting discussions and just having a great time in general!

After the school projects we went back into the town and had a fun activity for the afternoon. A woman came and spoke to us that afternoon about tourism in Sundsvall and the culture there. She was actually originally from New York and got married and moved to Sweden. She was an incredibly passionate woman who really wanted to bring the community of Sundsvall together and create a more community oriented city. One of the awesome ideas she has come up with is on Christmas, everyone will gather in the town square and they will turn off all the lights in the city and everyone will be holding a candle. It's called Light Up Sundsvall (I think). We got to see some pictures from last years celebration and it looked like an incredible event. So what we did that afternoon was, we walked around with baskets of candles and passed them out to everyone in the town to get them aware of the event that is coming up in the nexts months. It was also to promote the event because its still new and not everyone knows about it! It was cool to help her out because when she spoke to us, you could see how inspired she was by what we do and the passion she has for people and what she does.

October 17th

The next morning we had a host family day. We woke up early and went and played squash with my host dad and two host brothers, who are 21 and 22! I had a great time playing squash for the first time! If you dont know what squash is, it's like racketball only played with a smaller ball, similiar in size to a golf ball. I got destroyed by my host brother and then again by another kid who was there. None the less it was a lot of fun!

We came back home and had some lunch in the afternoon and then went on a drive around the island. Sundsvall is located in the valley between two small mountains (hills) and is right on the sea. There is an island located right off the mainland and my family lived there. There was only one bridge in and out of the town and we had to take that every morning and evening.

That night we had some of my host brothers friends come over along with Caitlin my friend from the cast who lived close by. We hung out at the house for a while then went down to a Kareoke bar. I'd never been to a kareoke bar before but it was lots of fun. Caitlin and I got up on stage and amazed the crowd with our performance of ...(Backstreet boys song). Definitely had a good night off and it was awesome to get to spent time with my host brothers!

October 18th

Sunday was a friends and family show in Sundsvall. I really love these shows because it's so nice for our host families to come and have to opportunity to see what we do especially if they have no appfiliation with Vattenfall. The best part is that alll the families absolutely love it and they usually talk about it nonstop till the end of the week when we leave!

Monday, October 19th

Monday was our actual Vattenfall event day. Once again another good show and another long but good day! My good buddy Tim Lewis and I helped with Green Room again before the show. Green room is the time when we get ourselves pumped for the show and talk about any last minute things before we go on. It was business team green room again so we were helping out Matt and Sofie. The four of us have a great time and I'm really glad for the opportunities I've had being an intern.

Tuesday, October 20th

Tuesday we had to depart the great city and great host families of Sundsvall and head to Vanersborg! It was a long trip to the opposite side of Sweden! That's all for now, more to come soon from the last stop in Sweden before he head to our next country, GERMANY!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!!!

Big appologies coming your way on my lack of posts in recent weeks! I have been without an internet connection on my laptop for quite some time and therefore havent been able to update and post anything. I'm writing them in word documents for now and will post them along with all the pictures the next change I get. Thanks for being patient and I hope to have LOTS and LOTS of new stuff coming your way soon! I am in Warsaw, Poland right now and having a great time! We had a Halloween party with the cast tonight, which was lots of fun! Can't believe I'm actually in Poland right now, never thought I'd be here! Thanks again for reading and can't wait to tell you all about what I've been up to the last few weeks!

Much love,

Breton

Happy Halloween from Breton and Tim in Warsaw, Poland!

Stockholm/ Vesteros, Sweden

2009-10-20T06:33:00.000-07:00

Stockholm, Sweden

We had a long travel day to Stockholm but got to see some more amazing views of Sweden!

We arrived in the evening for host family pick-up.

When we got there my buddy, Emil, from Sweden came up and told me that I would be living with him and his real family in Vesteros, a city about an hour away from Stockholm. I was pretty excited because I love meeeting the families of my cast members because you get to see where they come from, and in this case, why Emil is sooooo crazy hah! We arrived and headed home with the Wallners to walk into a house with a bunch of guys yelling and cheering and dancing around Emil. They were all Emils friends, which was really cool to meet them. We hung out and talked with them and the famly for a while then headed into the kitchen to eat dinner. Check out what was on the menu....

We had hugeeee lobsters for dinner! It was my first time eating lobster and they were amazing! After dinner Coy (my other roommate), Emil and I stayed up late talking and having a good time!

The day was a host family day! We woke up and went out and played some soccer with Emil's two brothers and all their friends. Definitely an awesome time! I love soccer and it's been real cool to get to play soccer in different countries with really good players!

After we got home from soccer we hung out for a while and then took a nice long sauna! It was my first Swedish sauna. Super nice and relaxing!

Later in the afternoon we took a tour of Vesteros, the city we were living in. Here are some pictures of the 3rd largest city in Sweden:

That night we had an incredible dinner! Some raw hering, raw salmon, cooked salmon and reindeer! All incredibly delicious! One of my favorites things about Sweden besides the tradition is they turn all the lights off for dinner and light candles and it's so nice and relaxing!

I want to share a cool little experiment that I participated in on of the mornings at the show venue. We had some free time in the morning so our cast manager Jen gathered about 15 of us to participate in an experiment called "Trade Up." The idea of the game is to start out with an object that is small and not very valuable and by the end of the game you want to have the biggest, best and most valuable object. To get to that object, you have to continually trade your worthless objects untill you get something you think is valuable. So in our experiment we all started out with 1 Swedish Krohner and headed out to a mall that was close by. We worked individually and attempted to trade our objects. It took me quite a while to figure out my tactic and what I was going to do because it was really awkward to just approach someone and ask them if they wanted to trade something. Also Swedish people are more reserved in general so it would just be weird to come up and ask that to someone. I decided I was going to go up to people and say this "Hello, my name is Breton Shepherd and I'm from a large research institute in the United States and I am here in Stockholm doing research about the ways in which different cultures communicate and I'm here today playing a game as an experiement." Then i would explain the rules and tell them I had one Krohner and wanted them to trade me something more valuable. The first place I went into was a show repair store and the man looked up and I said my little bit about the research and he asked me "How much do you want?" I looked at my buddy Michael and looked back at the guy and asked if a 20 Krohners was enough and I said "Heck yeah" and walked out a happy man. I traded one krohner for 20! I put it in my pocket and saved it for a delicious lunch hah! Then I took another Krohner and walked into a cell phone store asking if they had anything to give me. The guy went in the back and was in there for quite a while and eventually came back out with this:

He brought out a GIGANTIC phone charger!!!!! Michael, Drew and I died laughing because this thing was hugeeee! It was one of those nice displays that they put out when a new phone comes out. The best part was that it actually worked!! I definitely had the biggest item and I thought it was the coolest. Practicality is a different story however.

Finally, on the morning when we were leaving Emil, Coy and I woke up early and took a train into Gammle Stan (old town) in Stockholm! We actually spent the last 2 nights in Stockholm living in a flat (apartment) that Emil's family owns right in downtown Stockholm! We didn't have to be on the bus till noon so we had a great morning getting to see the beautiful city of Stockholm and a lot of beautiful old buildings! Take a look for yourself:

We ended the morning having some coffee/tea and muffins at a cool coffee shop down there. Afterwards we walked and took the train back to the flat and took a taxi to drop off and headed on to Sundsvall!

Hope you enjoyed reading all about my great time in Stockholm! I absolutely love Sweden and the awesome people and families I've gotten to live and spend time with! Can't wait to share all about Sundvall with you,

Check back soon
Breton

Lulea, Sweden

2009-10-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

Lulea, Sweden
October 5th-10th

Our first day in Lulea was a really nice relaxing day. We spent the morning helping to set up our new stage. It was our first time to see the set up and what our new show would look like. We are working with a professional sound and light company and they have some amazing equipment and cool toys! Since we arrived in Sweden the night before, I was experiencing some major jet lag that day. It was a strange feeling and I couldn't figure out whether I should be tired if I was awake or what was going on. Also, the cast was separated into two different flights. I was on the first flight and the second left the next day so we only had half the cast there. It was strange not having everyone there but nice for us to get a day to recover from the travel.

Day 2
Wed. Oct. 7th

Our second day was again a day of setting up and rehearsal time in the afternoon. I was excited to get to see the rest of our cast after we hadn't seen them for a few days!

I also had a really great host family in Lulea! I lived by myself with a couple, Martti and Bergitta! They were soooo nice and awesome! I quickly realized when I got to Sweden/Lulea that I loved Sweden and was really excited to be there!

Right off the bat I noticed the food is absolutely amazing!! Some of the best food I've ever had! The people are sooo friendly and great and the landscape and scenery is beautiful.

Day 3
Thurs. Oct 8th

Thursday was our first show day! It was a long day because the Vattenfall events start at 1 p.m. and last till 10 p.m. or so. And we are performing on and off through the whole afternoon. We had rehearsals all through the morning though to get prepared for the big event!! It went really well though and we heard shortly after that the Vattenfall employees loved it!

Day 4
Fri. Oct 9th

On Friday we had a great day of regional learning around Lulea! We spent the morning at a movie theater hearing presentations from a Vattenfall employee as well as two women from the Chamber or Commerce. They spoke to us about Lulea and gave a presentation called "The Colours of Swedish Lapland." It was really cool, we got to see some amazing pictures of Northern Sweden and learn about the Swedish culture and about the Swedish people!

After lunch at the Kulturens Hus (Culture House) where we hung out during our stay we headed on a tour of the city and of Gammelstad and the Historic Center! It was an awesome day with friends and getting to see some amazing Swedish culture!! Check out the pics from the day!

Jason, Me and Michael at lunch!

Beautiful view at lunch looking out to the ocean!

Jason and I bringing our American style to European fashion with 3-D glasses

Crazy cool leather hats with the softest mittens ever!

Red small cottages in Gammelstad

Proud new home owner!

Annie and I in our new really tiny bunk beds

Me and my family enjoying the view out our cottage window in the morning and saying Hey to the neighbors.

Hope I don't get lost in Sweden... might never get home..

The Culture House lit up in the evening! Beautiful!

We had such a great time touring the city!! I absolutely love Sweden!

Day 5
Sat. Oct 10th

We head to Stockholm on Saturday! I had an amazing time in Lulea and loved every bit of it. I had an amazing host family that made my first time in Europe and Sweden an awesome experience!!! I was def. really bummed when I had to say goodbye the that morning. Here are some pics of my host family from my last night there and my first Swedish home!

Most comfortable bed ever!

Beer and appetizer!!

My first Reindeer!!!! My family cool some amazing food while I was there!!!

My family was so great and the night before I left they had a gift for me!

A nice t-shirt from Lulea!! One of my favs.!

This was an amazing hosting experience for me! I just want to share a few stories with you because they are def. some of the stories I'll never forget. On my way home one evening from UWP stuff my host dad looks at me while he's driving and in English with a Swedish accent (sounds awesome, just use your imagination) he say's... You.. you.. you.. you warm my heart! You are like a son to me! It was one of those things where I think you had to be in the car with me to get the full effect but it was so cool to hear and to know that I meant that much to him!!!

Then a few nights before that at dinner, we were having a conversation about technology and all that stuff. So I brought up Facebook and immediatly I could see both of my host mom and dads faces like up because they could understand what I was talking about. (p.s. Both my host parents spoke English but it was broken and sometimes difficult to understand but so cool that they wanted to practice with me) Anyways, I said, "Oh, do you have a Facebook page?" and my host mom replied "Martti does!" and all of a sudden my host dad looks up from his dinner. It was like slow motion and something that could only be replicated in a comedy movie. He looks up and goes.... (again in the awesome Swedish accent) "Do you want to be my friend!?" It was soo awesome and hilarious and I smiled and laughed and said, "absolutely!!" Those are a few of my memorable host stories from Lulea. My host parents were so great and made my first experiences in Europe very enjoyable!!! I will def. go back and visit them one day!!

That's all from Lulea everyone, hope you enjoyed reading!!! Next it's off to Stockholm!!! Cya soon
Much Love,
Breton

Are you ready for Europe!? Well first we gotta travel there.... for 30 hours...

2009-10-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

Europe Travel Day!

Sunday,

On Sunday we were heading over the pond to Europe! My day a.m... No wait, the previous day never ended for me... We got home from the show the night before at 10 a.m. and I was hanging out and packing till about 2... At that time my parents were getting up to head to the airport so I was up for another hour helping them and by that point it seemed pointless to fall asleep for less than an hour so I just hung out listening to music till 4 a.m. when I hoped in the shower and began my day... We headed to drop off at 5 a.m...

We arrived at the airport and checked in as a huge group and headed to our terminal for some time to hang out and rest before getting on the 4 hour flight to Newark, NJ!

We had to get some early morning french fries at the airport for breakfast!

It was finally time to take off! I was really excited because on our way to Europe we were making a pit stop in the U.S.!!!!! I don't know why I was so excited about that but after being out of the country for 5 weeks it was kinda nice to see/hear/taste things that were familiar... At least for a few hours...

Michael and I ran outside the airport so we could put our feet on American soil, hah!

We were just across the river from New York City at the NJ airport so we got a great view of the city after taking off!

We literally flew through the night. I was sooo messed up on time and couldn't figure out which day it was or what the time was. I eventually figured it out but man, it was a weird feeling.

Here were my airplane buddies for the 8 hour flight...

They had screens on the back of the headrest with TONS of movies and games. And you could play the games with other people on the airplane! You could also see where we were on the trip and how far we had to go on the map!

We were flying over Sweden as the sun began to rise and got our first look at the landscape which was absolutely beautiful!

Def. one of the prettiest views I've seen!

After we landed in the airport in Stockholm, Sweden right around 7 a.m. we immediately headed for the bus to travel another 12 hours up to Lulea, Sweden! The best part about this crazy European busses is that they have their own wireless connection!

We made it to Lulea later that night and got picked up by our host families and went home for our very first night in Sweden!!! There's all about our crazy long travel day! And now the fun begins! Be on the look out for my first week in Sweden, it was def. an amazing week!

Much love,
Breton

2009-10-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Mexico City....

Did I mention that Mexico City was awesome in my last post, because if not, Mexico City was AWESOME!!! Of course one of the highlights of my week is always the show and this week was no acception. This weeks show was going to be bigger than we had ever performed before... The sponsor Xochitla was going all out to make this a huge event for us as well as them since it was in their park. They set up this massive tent with a huge stage at the front. The tent had room for 5000 people and I believe the chair count turned out to be right at 4,500. With two days before the show the ticket sale count was 2,000 which was already the biggest show we've performed. Not only was this an exciting day because of the number of people who were there but also because it was our last show in Mexico and the last time we would perform the full show. In Europe we are performing at an event for Vattenfall (Europe's biggest energy company) and celebratin their 100th anniversary so our show would be changed a little. Everybody was really excited for the show and I know a lot of us were pumped because our families were there to watch us! Enjoy some pictures from show day!

My awesome mom and I hanging out during some free time in the afternoon!

Show rehearsal in the afternoon!

Brotherly love

SHOWTIMEEEE!!!

Last green room in Mexico!

Playing for a packed house! I don't know the exact total yet, but there were somewhere between 3,500 and 4000 people there all going nuts!!!

Intermission....

During intermission, I went up on stage with Coy and Michael and I launched free t-shirts out into the crowd with a water balloon sling shot! Someone has pictures but I dont have them right now so maybe I'll post them later. It was so awesome because people were going nuts and we really got people pumped up for the second half of the show! That was def. a highlight from the night!

One of my fav. pics of the band!

The whole North Platte crew came to Mex. City!!! Emilie Gladbeck and her famly, Laura Lynn and her family, and my family!!

Grand Finale in Mexico!!!!

Mexico was such an amazing experience!! It was def. tough during times but I've learned that those are the times when you learn the most about yourself. I was a little bit bummed to leave because after 5 weeks I had become accustomed to the culture and everything just felt natural. But I have to admit I was soooo excited to head to Europe. It'll be my first trip to Europe and after getting to know all of the Europeans in my cast and how awesome they are, I was really excited to get over there so they could teach me all about their culture! And the best part is we're there for 10 weeks!! Hope you enjoyed hearing about my experiences in Mexico! I am so thankful to have had this opportunity!!! We are on the final 1/3rd of our adventure. Seem's pretty crazy that we're this close to the end when it just seems like we started last week or something! There's lots more of awesome posts to come in Europe so stay tuned!

Adios!
Breton

Mexico City Continued....

2009-10-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

MEXICO CITY!

Like I said before, Mexico City was just an amazing experience and so much fun! Michael, Jessica and I went out to eat every night with our families! We had great food and it was so nice to spend time with them! Here are some family pictures :)

While we were in Mex. City we put on the biggest culture fair we've done this semester and I think the biggest that UWP has ever done!!!! I think there were around 1,500 students there from a bunch of different colleges and school in the city! It was soo awesome to walk around and see these students so excited to learn about a new culture! I spent the afternoon doing marketing work and taking pictures which I'll tell you about later, but here are some of the photos!

Only Viva La Gente till the end of the week!

So many people!!

The Norway booth!

The two pretend Norwegians Kelsey and Caitlin on the outside and the real Norwegian, Kristine in the middle!

Also in Mexico City we got to have an incredible regional learning day! We spend the morning in the city getting to walk around and see some of the amazing buildings and history!

Me and the fam. outside of the art museum

Outside a HUGEEEEE cathedral in the town square

Inside of the church

Visiting the presidential palace, the place where the president of Mexico works!

Jessica and I on the subway!

The square in Mex. City, it's the 3rd largest city square in the world! Counting down to the Bicentennial next year!

Amazing fish lunch with the fellas!

After that great day of regional learning around the city we headed a few hours away to see the Pyramids!!! This was incredible because most people had never seen actual pyramids and you could see them off in the distance as we were driving there and as we got closer the actual size of these enormous creations became clear... Enjoy these pictures from another amazing experience:

This is the Pyramid of the Sun, there was also the pyramid of the moon below and another one off to the side which was smaller... These pyramids are either the 2nd or 3rd biggest pyramids in the world!

Pyramid of the moon from halfway up the sun pyramid

Annie and I causing trouble wherever we go.. (Prohibited to pass)!!!!

Pretty sure it doesn't get any better than sitting on a pyramid with your amazing friends enjoying the beautiful views... Me, Kristine, Caitlin and Ronja!

What an awesome day we all had! And exhausting after walking the city and climbing huge pyramids! That's all for now, next, the biggest UWP show yet!

Much love,

Breton

VIVA LA GENTE'S LAST WEEK IN MEXICO!!

2009-10-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

MEXICO CITY
September 28- October 4

Mexico City was the last Mexican city on the tour and it was by far our biggest week so far! It was such an exciting week also. We had a lot going on and the week was packed from beginning to end! The best part of the week however was that my family came to spend the whole week with me! And on top of that, my best friends Michael and Jessica's parents came to see them, which are like second families to me! I had such an amazing time and I'm very thankful I got to spend it with my family and all my cast friends could meet my family as well!

Mexico City was sponsored by Xochilta Ecological Park so our whole week was spent in this incredible park! It was soo relaxing and nice to just walk around and enjoy this quite peaceful park in the middle of one of the most crowded and overpopulated cities in the world.

We arrived on the 28th and when we headed into town we drove straight to the home of the President of Mexico! We got to take a tour of the properties of the "white house"!! It was really cool and def. a once in a lifetime experience. When we arrived my parents were waiting inside the gates to surprise me! I knew they were in Mex. city but didn't know they would be taking the tour with us!

Here's a family picture of us at the house!! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take camera's in but my parents were able to so they have more good pictures that I will upload later.

Here is a picture with my good friends in the cast and Eduardo! We have known Eduardo through family and UWP since we were little babies and it's awesome for him to be able to join us and see us traveling now that we are grown up!!! Anyways, that was such a great experience!

I moved into a hotel for the week with my parents and my brother who arrived on Wednesday! That was a nice little break from the host family life and it was great because we could go out and see more things and do more fun stuff in the evenings after we got done for the day! Not to mention that Michael and Jessica were in the same hotel as us too!

Our second day in Mexico City I went out and did some community service work at a school nearby the park. I basically cut the grass in the back garden with some hand sheers... check it out... not what i expected to do but it was a good day non the less!

We spent about half the time doing work and the other half the time there signing autographs and taking pictures with hundreds of little kids!! It was nuts, there was no hiding from these kids!! They were awesome though and i made about 60 new pen pals that day. It was cool when we had to leave because you could tell they didn't want us to have to go... One little boy even followed us down to the end of the street till he had to go home.

The park we were in was very beautiful and I want to show you some of the pictures from the park. This was the perfect place for our last Mexican tour date because it was nice to take nature walks around the park and be able to clear your head and reflect on how far we've all come since our arrival to UWP on July 10th... The tour's almost half over and we've had lots of time to think about the things we've done and experienced and about the things that we still want to accomplish! No better place to do that than here:

That's all for tonight! Hope you enjoyed reading about one of my favorite cities on the tour so far! More to come tomorrow! G'night

2009-10-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

So I want to share a little more with you about the amazing hosting experience I had in Puebla!!! Like I mentioned before, I lived in a type of orphanage/boarding home with 50+ host brothers! They kids were soo awesome and they all wanted to get to know us more!

Every night when we would have dinner with them they would all beg us to sit at their table. I sat at a new table each night and tried to tell the kids as much about me as I could get out in the short amount of time for dinner we had. Most of the nights I didn't even get to finish my dinner because the kids talked our ears off the whole time! But it was really cool non the less. And even cooler that I was talking with them in Spanish all night!

Check out these pics of dinner!

I got to know the older boys in the house the best because they were able to stay up later and go out at night. We played soccer and football with them a few nights that week. It was so much fun, check it out!

We went out one night to a shopping area close by and handed out fliers for our upcoming show in Puebla, and a few of the fellas wanted to come along and help!

And finally on the last night in the house we all got together for the biggest host family picture so far this semester!!!

Everyone was soo great to us and I miss all the kids! It was such an awesome experience, and one that I couldn't have been so lucky to have anywhere but here in UWP!!!

That's all from Publa, next stop Mexico City!!!
Much love,
Breton

Puebla, Mexico Continued...

2009-10-05T00:37:00.000-07:00

So as the new marketing intern, I get to have the opportunity to do some extra cool things while on the road. Puebla was my first city as the new intern and I jumped into everything right off the bat. Through out the week we went to a few different TV stations to do interviews and mini performances.

One of the stations we went to was called Televisa, which is one of the biggest TV stations in Latin America. It would be the equivalent of NBC in the United States. The Televisa station we went to was the local Puebla station. We went to perform Viva La Gente, our theme song, on a live TV morning show! Check out some pictures from the day!

After the Televisa performance we headed over to another local station and did the same performance for them!

It was such a great opportunity to get to perform on these shows and get to speak and introduce ourselves in Spanish! Definitely a highlight of the Mexican tour!

Later on in the day we headed to a school to do some promotion for the program and the show that week. This was also an awesome experience because we were getting up in front of classrooms of kids all afternoon speaking and interacting and telling them about the program! We went to so many class rooms and interacted with so many kids that day! Check it out:

I am very thankful to have these opportunities in UWP. I'm definitely looking forward to getting to work on more projects as the marketing intern!

Thanks for reading!
Breton

Puebla, Mexico

2009-10-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

September 21-27 -- Puebla, Mexico

On the 21st we departed Veracruz and headed to Puebla! It was a bummer to leave Veracruz because it was such a fun city but I was excited to arrive in Puebla to see what this city had to offer! When we arrived we went to the downtown and had a welcoming ceremony!

It was a very nice welcome to the city and after the welcoming it was off to the host pick-up meeting place to head home with our new host families!

I was rooming with Scott (AZ), Tienchang (China), Anthony (Navjo Nation), and Gifford (Idaho). We were picked up by a younger looking guy and we weren't sure if this was our host dad or host brother or who he was. About halfway home he goes, "we will be living at a school with some kids"... We all looked at each other and were thinking, I guesssss that will be cool but I wonder what kind of school and with how many people... Well as we arrived at the school we realized it wasn't really a school at all, it was more of an orphanage... The building looked like a big dorm room... I'm still not really too sure how to describe the place but the guy told us that 15 boys lived here and in the mornings they were bussed out to different schools. Then he also said that the boys went home on the weekends which was strange because that would mean they weren't really orphans... I guess they all had parents but most of them only had one parent or they came from poor families so they were given the opportunity to come to this boarding house and attend good schools.

When we arrived we were taken down to the dining room to meet the boys that lived there. We stood in front of them and introduced ourselves and then said a few words about how we were excited to be there. As excited as I was about getting to have this experience I was also looking around the room counting people and there were WAYYY more than 15 boys in there. I came up with a final count of 50. Sure enough there were 50+ boys that lived in the house. We sat down to dinner with them and they split us all up at different tables. It was awesome to speak with the boys who were ages 10 or 11 all the way to 19. They were so eager to learn about where we were from and all kinds of different stuff about us!

I was so worn out after dinner from talking with the boys. We headed upstairs to our new room.

We unpacked and headed to sleep to get ready for an awesome week coming up!
More to come,
Breton

UWP on The Best Week Ever!

2009-09-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

You may have heard of the TV show on VH1 called “The Best Week Ever” that interviews celebrities who are having “good weeks” according to the tabloids. Well, for the past week UWP Cast B’09 has been in Veracruz, Mexico and it turns out the producers of the show caught wind that I was having the best week ever down in Mexico and selected to showcase my week! We were able to get the transcripts and screen shots of the show before it airs so enjoy!

VH1: Welcome to “The Best Week Ever”, the TV program that showcases the rich and famous having THE BEST WEEKS EVER. On this weeks episode we have a unique story. Breton Shepherd, a 21-year-old student from Nebraska, is traveling around the world with the international educational program, Up With People. We caught up with him down in Mexico, where we heard that he was having the best week ever!

Breton: Hey everyone, welcome to Veracruz, Mexico. I’m having the best week ever down here and I want you all to be a part of it! So sit back and I hope you enjoy hearing some stories that make my week, the best week ever!

VH1: What are the top five highlights that make up your best week ever!?

Breton: Here are my top five highlights from the week in Veracruz counting down to number 1!

HIGHLIGHT #5 – Show Day!

Sunday was our show day in Veracruz, and ended up being a busy and exciting day for me. I spent the whole morning rehearsing for a project that the show interns were working on. They are putting on a show for their final project and was really excited when they asked me to be a part of it.

I’m usually always stuck behind the drum kit, so this will be a new experience for me, as well as those getting to watch hah!

I was also really excited on show day because I was selected as the new marketing intern. This will be a great opportunity for me and my communication studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University. I really love show days in general because I am most comfortable behind a drum kit doing what I love to do! No matter what I’ve been feeling that week it all goes away when I take a seat behind the drum kit and count off “1…2…3…4…” to start the show. Did I mention that the Governor of Veracruz stopped by to say a few words to our cast?

A jam-packed and eventful show day comes in at highlight #5.

HIGHLIGHT #4 – Mexican Independence Day

September 15^th was the Mexican Independence Day. I had the opportunity to go with my host family to the town center to watch the celebrations take place! We saw performances by traditional Mexican dancers, got to hear the Mayor of Veracruz speak and chant Viva Mexico and then watch some awesome fireworks to finish off the night! Mexican Independence Day is one of the biggest holidays here in Mexico, so you can be sure they do it big!

HIGHTLIGHT #3 – Host Family Day

Saturday was a free day to spend with our host families. My family took Kristine, my roommate, and I to see some ancient pyramids about an hour and a half away from Veracruz. It’s so cool to have the opportunity to go and see things like this that I normally wouldn’t have the chance to see!

After we returned home, we headed down to the beach in the evening to night swim and just enjoy the ocean one last time. There’s something awesome about sprinting full speed down the beach and crashing into the water when it’s pitch black out. Then you lift your head out of the water and end up taking one big wave smack in the face because it was so dark you couldn’t see it coming. Then topping if off with a big glass of salt water hah!

Ancient pyramids and night swimming on host family day take highlight #3.

HIGHLIGHT #2 -- Cucumber massages and host family experiences

After spending a whole morning and the better part of an afternoon out in the intense Veracruz sun, I got pretty sun burnt. Upon our arrival home from UWP activities the next day, Kristine and I found our host mom standing in the kitchen holding a sliced cucumber. We were confused as to why she would be carrying cucumber slices but we didn’t know enough Spanish to ask. Apparently cucumbers sooth burnt skin so she wanted to rub the cucumbers over our sunburns. She patted down Kristine’s neck and when she was done she moved to mine. Then she proceeded to pat down my burnt back as well… Was it

awkward having a cucumber rubbed on my back by my host mother who didn’t speak any English? Yes. Was it hilarious and something I could only imagine happening to me in UWP? Definitely. I said gracias and went into the bedroom to work on my computer with Kristine. No longer had I sat down on the bed and our host mom comes back in with more cucumber slices! She flipped me over and patted me down again all the while our host sister was doing the same to Kristine’s neck! I just love the host family experience, especially when language becomes a barrier because you just never know what to expect! My host family was so kind and welcoming and it was hard to say goodbye.

Cucumber massages and the host family experience comes in at highlight #2 for sure!

HIGHLIGHT #1 – Sailing the open ocean, homemade raft style

On our regional learning day we had the opportunity to spend the morning and afternoon

at the beach hanging out with everyone! Some of the guys and I noticed a bunch of big logs washed up on the shore. We decided we were going to build a raft! We walked along the shore picking up the huge logs and collecting scrap string to tie them together to build the frame. We summoned our inner Man vs. Wild skills and Survivorman instincts to build one of the greatest floating devices known to mankind. After lots of hard work and dedication we finished the raft and took it on its’ maiden voyage. My fellow crewmates trusted me to captain the vessel. I decided I would set sail for Sweden and meet the rest of my cast there in two weeks when we depart for the European tour. It turned out that I washed up on shore and found myself looking up at a Chinese man… for a second I thought the winds had shifted and I had blown off course, accidentally arriving in China. As my eyes adjusted to the blinding sun, I quickly re

alized it was only my friend, Tiancheng. Unfortunately I wasn’t anywhere near Sweden, the waves had just pushed me back up on the shore I just set sail from. So, unfortunately I won’t be arriving in Europe Tom Hanks style like in the movie Castaway. I’ll just be flying like everyone else. Nonetheless, survivor raft building makes highlight #1 of the best week ever!

VH1: Thanks for watching VH1’s “The Best Week Ever”! Don’t forget to check out next week’s episode, where someone else in UWP Cast B ’09 is definitely going to be having the BEST WEEK EVER!

Host Family Day in Queretaro!

2009-09-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

Sunday, September 13th
Sunday was our host family day in Queretaro! It started off by sleeping in till about 11 a.m. which was amazing after the double show day and our arrival at home at about 2 a.m. or so. Always nice to get a little extra sleep!

We then woke up and took a little 30 min. drive to a town (which I don't know the name of) but it was an old town that had tons of abandoned homes. It was a ghost town now but the place we were headed to was an old abandoned mine.

This mine definitely wasn't a tourist attraction! A guy from the town brought his wind up flash lights down the hill and took us in. I was a little nervous because last time I checked old abandoned mines weren't the safest places to just walk in and hang out... for multiple reasons which I'll explain in a bit...

Nontheless we went in and it turned out to be pretty cool! The walls of the cave were all quartz rock. We went deep in the cave, as far as we could go until the cave ended.

We eventually came upon a whole in the cave that dropped straight down hundreds of feet. It was pretty freaky because there were no railings or anything just loose rock.

The best part of the adventure came as we were heading out of the mine. We were walking out and all of a sudden bats started swooping down and flying in and out of us right by everyone's heads. Therese was hilarious, she was freaking out and screaming and it was echoing along the walls of the cave!

Then as we we were walking outside the cave Therese spotted a snake in front of the entrance... We were stuck... Bats dive bombing us from behind and a snake blocking the only way out in front. The guy who took us into the cave walked out and got a stick off the ground and had to kill it...

Check out the videos:

We took the snake back up the hill and had to take pictures with it hah! After that we walked around the abandoned buildings.

Queretaro turned out to be really enjoyable and my host family was great!!! Hope you enjoyed the week in Queretaro, next it's off to the beach in Veracruz!!!

Much love,
Breton

2009-09-15T17:51:00.001-07:00

Saturday, September 12th

Saturday was show day in Queretaro, not just any show day but a double show day... We had a show at 3:00 and another at 8:30 that night... It was definitely going to be a long day especially with strike after the show...

The venue was a pretty huge theater and unfortunately the crowds didn't seem all that large since they were split between two shows, but combind it was a great turnout! The first show went alright, I think a lot of people thought we could've stepped it up. It did seem like a weird show since it was our first afternoon performance. Our second show went awesome though, I thought the energy was amazing and people we're loving it!!

Again, sorry for the lame post, I think I was just too exhausted to take pictures that day!
Sunday was our off day, and I have some great pics from that so enjoy!
Breton

Friday, Sept 11

2009-09-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

Friday, September 11th

So this post is going to be a little boring because I don't have any pictures from the day but I just wanted to share the experience with you... Friday we had another mini show at a elementary - high school... This time I was actually going to be dancing in the show hah! I was pretty excited because I never get to sing or dance just sit behind my drums so this would be new for me! I learned two of the dances right before the show and got up there and danced them!! It was so fun and even better that it was in front of hundreds and hundreds of screaming kids hah! After the show we walked out to go to the dressing rooms and all the kids wanted high fives and pictures! It was a good feeling!

We headed back to home base for a cast meeting. The meeting was about the identity of the cast and how we want to be remembered and things like that... It was good to talk about things like frustrations and also things we've been enjoying. The point was to hopefully bring us up to the next level as a cast!

We finished the day with a scavenger hunt around the town square of Queretaro! It was nice to get out and see some new sights and do some fun things with fun people!!

It was a pretty easy day which was great because Saturday was going to be a killer with two full shows in one day plus a late night with strike!

Goodnight, Breton

2009-09-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 9th

On Wednesday I was signed out from C.I. for band rehearsal so we went to a University for rehearsals. The best part of that day was the amazing lunch we had at this fancy restaurant! We headed back to the home base for some more educational stuff then we loaded the buses and headed down to the government building to be welcomed to Queretaro by the municipal president, which I'm pretty sure means mayor of the city!

The mayor spoke, someone translated, we clapped, we sang Viva La Gente, they clapped and then we took a big cast picture with the city officials! It was very cool to have a welcome from the city officials!

Thursday, September 10th

On Thursday I decided to take a sick day... I hadn't been feeling very well since we arrived in the city and we had two shows coming up on Saturday so I needed a day to pick myself back up and get going again. It was nice to sleep in and just get some personal stuff done and catch back up on life!

Cast B in Queretaro!

2009-09-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 7th

On Monday we traveled to Queretaro, Mexico! On the way there we had a nice stop in San Miguel to have lunch and walk around for 3 hours...

It was a beautiful city and so nice to just have to free time to do whatever!

We arrived in Queretaro about 4 and had our hosting meeting then had a welcome ceremony! A group of percussionists performed on old mexican instruments. It was pretty cool, they were playing handmade flutes and drums. Then a group of blind students sang and performed for us. They were incredible! They sang and played instruments and the cast got up and danced and sang along! A very nice welcome to the new city! After all the fun it was time to head home with our new host family! I've been living with 3 other students, Therese from Sweden, Shelsea from California and Bernward again from Germany.

Tuesday , September 8th
On Tuesday we had Community Impact all day... I was suppose to be heading to a food bank to sort food, but it turned out instead that they took Me, Michael, Dillon, and Drew to a huge market to pick up food. We weren't just picking up any food however....

The food we were picking up at this market was the rotten, damaged and unsellable food. It was donated to this food bank and our job was to walk around all day and collect it. It was definitely something I never thought I would be doing...

You can see some of the produce just laying on ground... The smells were absolutely horrible and it was almost sickening to walk around collecting it knowing that someone was going to eat this...

We basically walked around this huge market all day doing what Drew is doing above... Collecting the produce, loading it on the cart and pushing the cart back to where the truck was located and loaded it on the truck to take to the food bank...

Neither Drew or I were dressed appropriately really... By the end of it, we had rotten fruit juice on us and were all sweaty from walking in the hot sun all day... It was definitely an experience, but I definitely don't want to have to experience that again...

We headed back to our "home base" for the rest of the afternoon for some educational learning...

The highlight of the day came when we took a little field trip to what we thought was a beautiful theater to tour... Turns out it was soooooooooooooooo much cooler than that... check it out!

Yeah... we went to a real lucho libre match in the middle of Mexico!!!! This was seriously one of the most rediculous and hilarious things I've ever seen!

I'm the one with the yellow mask...

The masked Viva La Gente crew!

Drew and I destroying Michael...

Show day and Day Off

2009-09-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sept. 5th

The show in Leon was absolutely crazy! It was such a cool venue too! The stage was out on the water and the dressing rooms were underneath the stage! The venue held about 3000 people and we performed for around 1300, our biggest crowd yet! Enjoy some pictures:

The sun was so hot during afternoon rehearsals the day of the show. We were outside all day and it was sooo draining, especially for the band because we were just sitting in it baking all day. We got a tent and put it over us, which was great because I don't think I would've made it sitting in the direct sun that long.

Here's a little more about the show... It was so much fun because the people were really into it and loving the show... Afterwards we signed so many autographs and took sooo many pictures with people, it was real cool. This group of people were waiting for me outside of the dressing room and when I walked out they completely surrounded me and wanted to take a bunch of pictures hah! I decided this was too funny and had to have a picture of it myself so I pulled out my camera and said "uno mas!" haha. They started screaming again, I guess they liked the fact that I wanted a picture with them too haha! The Mexican shows are so much fun, can't wait to show you more from the next city!

Sunday, Sept. 6th

On Sunday (host family day) my family took me to Guanajuato, MX. It was a nice relaxing day and we got to see some pretty cool things! Check out the pictures!

We went to the Christo Rey... It's a church with a huge Jesus statue on top and it's on the top of a big mountain! Pretty neat to see...

I picked out some DELICIOUS breads at the bread store for breakfast in the morning!

Then we went to see mummies in the town... It turns out the mummies were in a torture museum... They had the mummies in the old torture devices... It was pretty weird but I guess interesting haha... I'll just show you this one picture from outside and save you the nightmares of seeing the others...

Had to get a picture in front of all the Mex flags in honor of the Mexican independence day coming up on the 16th I believe!

Last we went in to a hugeeeee market! They had tons of vendors selling everything you can think of and more... After that we headed home so I could start packing because the next day we headed out to Queretero!

That's all from Leon, hope you enjoyed hearing about it, more soon!
Much love
Breton

Leon -- Thursday, Sept. 3rd

2009-09-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 2nd

I forgot to tell you about Wednesday evening... After the C.I. we went to the big mall in Leon because some of the cast was performing in the backing track show. The backing track show (BTS) is a small mini show that is used as a kind of promotional tool for our big feature show! We go to malls or schools or other places and perform a short show to attract people in hopes they come to the big shows... I had to tell you about this BTS show because there where SOOO many people there I couldn't believe it...

By the end of the show the whole area in the mall was packed! People were crowding up the upper balconies and the floor was complete full, so cool! And I was also super proud of my cast mates in the show, they did an awesome job! I didn't participate in the BTS show because I haven't had the opportunity to learn the dances yet since I'm always sitting behind the drums... Hopefully I will get to soon though!

Thursday, Sept. 3rd

On Thursday I had my second day of C.I. I was heading to a place in the city to do some reforestation! The place that we were going was in a poor area of the city and when we got there I realized that they weren't kidding when they told us that...

This place was in a run down section of town and you had to drive through a bumpy, rocky alley to get there...

I was working on C.I. that day with my two other North Platte friends, Emilie Gladbeck and Laura Lynn Horst!!!

It was a pretty awesome experience... I think we all felt a little unsure about where we were and how safe it was to be there but people from the neighborhood started showing up to help out and the people were very nice and kind. They brought us food from their homes for us to eat, which was amazing!

Sorry for the quick post's but I'm still trying to get all caught up from last week!
More soon, much love!

Leon, Mexico - Continued

2009-09-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, September 1st

On Tuesday, our first day out in Leon we got to take a tour of the city... It was really cool and got to see some awesome things... Unfortunately my camera was out of battery so I don't have any pictures and am in the process of getting them from someone... We were able to go to a few massive historical temples, see the arches to the city, meet with representatives of the city as well as have the opportunity to take in the Mexican culture. Here is a picture from the day of all our cast at the arches:

Wednesday, September 2nd

The next day was my community impact day in Leon. It was huge change from doing C.I. in the U.S. We went to a school called Padre Jacobo which was for students who were mentally disabled. We got to go into their classes and see how they learned.

Then after we got to go to a recreational park and play sports with the students. We all had a great time:

Before we left, they made us line up in a line and a student lined up in front of us. They gave us t-shirts that the students had made from their school. It was so nice and very cool!

After we hung out with the students it was time to head to our next community impact project for the day... We were going to a drug rehabilitation center... This C.I. was a little more difficult because all the people here were or had been addicted to drugs or alcohol and were there getting help. Some of these people were teens and younger. It was hard to imagine such people there because they were addicted to drugs.... Overall it was a great experience. We played some games with the people and got to talk with them one on one for a while.

This is Jesus, he was in my group at the drug center. He was a very nice guy and was so happy to be able to talk to us. He thought we were very humble and caring people, which was pretty cool to hear!

More coming from Thursday!

Leon, Mexico - Day 1

2009-09-10T10:03:00.001-07:00

Hey friends,

I apologize for getting so behind on my blog this last week or so. Our schedules here in Mexico are very different from the U.S. We get home much later, eat dinner later and I've been so exhausted that I try and get sleep when I can...

Anyways I think to catch up, I'm going to post a bunch of pictures from our first city in Mexico and give a few details on some of them... Enjoy

The afternoon that we arrived in Leon, there was a celebration for us at the college we were being hosted at. There were so many people there, and the director of the university welcomed us on to their campus... They also had some of the dance teams perform for us, then we returned the favor by singing Viva La Gente for everyone!

After the celebration we were served our first Mexican lunch... and the celebration didn't stop there!

During lunch, a Mariachi band strolled up and started playing for us while we were eating! It was really cool, and I think this was the point where I really realized I was in Mexico.

Everyone got up and was dancing and singing and having a great time....

After all the fun and celebrating it was time to head home with our first Mexican host family!

My family was great! I had a host mom (pictured above) and host dad and also three host siblings. My host siblings were grown though, I think they were 28, 30, and 31 or so. It was very different from any host family so far but was very cool because you could tell how family was so important to this culture.

That's all from the first day!
Much love,
Breton

Bienvenidos a la Mexico!!

2009-09-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

August 30th - VIVA LA MEXICO!

So on Sunday, August 30th, I woke up at 5:30 because we had to be on the buses by 6:30 to drive to Phoenix where we would depart from the Sky Harbor International Airport and fly to MEXICO!!!! The drive was about 3 hours or so and once again I was too excited to sleep! We arrived at the airport and unloaded our bags and headed to the line to pick up our tickets! It was quite a sight to see...

Michael and I probably stood in line for about two hours waiting to get our tickets... good thing we got there really early!

After we went through security we had probably another hour and a half to wait and hang out till we boarded! I sat there for a while and couldn't believe that within the next few hours I would be in Mexico! I was really excited but had no idea what to expect! Guess I'd find out soon!

We were on the plane for about an hour and a half or something like that and had a connecting flight in Hermosillo on our way to Mexico City!

We boarded the plane for another two hour flight and before I knew it, I was looking out the window at:

MEXICO CITY!!!!

The lights went on and on and on as far as you could see! I still can't imagine 20 million people down there though.

We pulled up at the gate in Mexico City at around 9:00 p.m. or so and got off the plane to find:

It was unlike anything we'd experienced in America! There were people taking pictures everywhere and people with video cameras filming us. It was crazy how much Viva La Gente (Up With People in Spanish) is recognized down here! It's been like that ever since also!

So after a bunch of cast pictures, we loaded up on buses and headed out for an 8 to 9 hour bus ride... We drove all through the night and finally made it into Leon where we would be staying for the next week! Unfortunately I only slept for about the last hour on the bus because it was such a bumpy trip. When we arrived at around 6 a.m. we went into the University that we were being hosted at and went into the auditorium and fell asleep. The best part about this is people started grabbing seat covers and using them as blankets and pillows... Only in UWP HAH!!!

We got to sleep from about 6:3o till 9:30 or so... It was absolutely needed, we were all SO exhausted from traveling! We all eventually started to get up and got to take showers at the school! I'm pretty sure this was one of the best showers I've ever taken! Our first day in Mexico had started and it was packed full with welcomes and celebrations!!!!

Be on the look out tomorrow to read all about our first days in Mexico!! I'm having a blast and loving every minute of it so far!

Much love,
Breton

Culture Fair - Lake Havasu City

2009-08-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

CULTURE FAIR!

While we were in Lake Havasu City, AZ we put on a culture fair at the aquatic center for the whole town. I think we had around 500 or so kids show up through the day as well as a number of adults and other people from the community! It was such a cool thing and we all had lots of fun putting it on. The idea is that every country makes a booth of their culture. You have to be really creative because we don't have that many supplies with us so it was really cool to see all the creativity come out! You can decorate your table/booth anyway you want and play games or cook food or show them stuff from your country! Check out some of the awesome booths people put together!

Here's the American booth, they had an awesome idea and layed out a bunch of the different driver's license from all different states so kids could compare what they look like! And honestly who doesn't like to look at the pictures on the I.D.'s and get a little laugh!

This is Nao from Japan at the Japanese booth! She had lots of cool visual stuff and was also writing out kids names in Japanese on name tags for them to hang around their necks and walk around with.

The Germans showing some country pride!

And the Mexicans with an awesome booth complete with music, food and plenty of culture to go around!

So while everyone was putting together their booths, I was working on the opposite end of the gym putting together a little something that every kid wishes they had in the backyard.... Drew, Matt and Michael and I were working on the biggest cardboard box fort EVER hah!

We found like 10 huge refridgerater boxes in the backroom along with some other small boxes and came up with this massive structure for the kids to play in:

We ended up turning it into the coloring castle. We had some UWP coloring sheets and put them in the castle so kids could go in and color! We also told them to draw pictures on the walls of the castle and decorate it!

And in case any foreign countries tried to come over and comondier our American fort, we had a peep hole and could counter attack quickly hah!

One of my favorite parts to the culture fair was this "Sing Your Song Tree" that they put up. As students came in the gym they were given a leaf and were told to write something they like to do or share with other people, their gift to the world of sorts, just like the theme of our show! It was so cool to see the things these little kids wrote. Some of them, "I like to play soccer",others "I like to share my snacks with other people". How cool is that!?

It was an awesome day, and the fair was a huge success! We will be doing one in Leon, Mexico for college students coming up! Lake Havasu City was also an awesome stop on the tour!

We had two shows in Havasu also! Both shows went great and I thought it was a great finish to our American tour!!!

That's all from me from Lake Havasu! Thank you everyone, I had an amazing time! The morning we left I had to say goodbye to an awesome host family that I will be sure to stay in touch with....

As well as some of the most amazing sunsets and sunrises I've seen!

Next post is coming to you from Leon, Mexico! Are you excited!?

Much Love,
Breton

Breton + Emil + Mark + Party Boat = Best time ever!

2009-08-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 26th

This post I think is going to be one of my favorites just because what we got to do this day was one of the most fun things I've done so far on the tour!

We spent the morning and afternoon doing mostly rehearsals for the Mexican shows coming up, but when we were done for the day our host family picked us up and took us about 30 minutes up the river, across the border to California and went to a place called Pirate Cove... Pirate Cove is this little cove area on the river that is owned by a friend of our host families. They have a big bar and restaurant and beach, some time shares and a docks for people's boats. We knew we were going out on the river in a boat but we had no idea that the boat was going to look like this...

Yeah, that HUGE double decker boat at the end of the dock is what we took out on the river!! This thing was the ultimate party boat... The owner told us that it's used as a party promo boat that they take up and down the river to bring people back to the bar/restaurant. The boat had two stories with a bar on the top deck, two stripper poles :-/ (which were not in use for this boat ride hah!) and room for 20-30 people.

It was one of the most fun times on my trip so far, not to mention the scenery was absolutely amazing! Check it out these pictures heading down the river as the sun was setting:

The water was crystal clear and you could see straight to the bottom pretty much!

After boating down the river a ways, we came through this gorge, the rock walls jetted straight out of the water.

We beached the boat on a little strip of sand and jumped off the boat and went for a swim!

I couldn't have asked for better roommates to get to do this with either!! We had so much fun with each other and our host family too!

The water was sooooooo nice, especially when it's that insanely hot outside!

So we got back in the boat and headed back up river, back to the Pirate Cove to have dinner!

Emil and I cranked the tunes on the boat and had some fun on the upper deck!

So we pulled up toward the cove and beached the boat by the restaurant and got out and had some amazing pizzas and beer courtesy of Craig the owner!! It was delicious, and when we were done we went to walk back out to the beach to hop back on the boat. It was at this point where I heard Craig, the owner, say "Oh crap!" We turned to him and said what wrong? He then pointed out to where the boat had been and we realized that the tide came in and had unbeached the boat. The boat was now sitting about 60ft out in the middle of the cove!

Craig said he would walk a little ways back to the docks and get his other boat and go pick it up. I was thinking about it and realized this was something that would only happen UWP so I told Emil that we should just go out and swim and save the day hah! So we took off our shoes and shirts and dove in and swam out to the boat in the pitch black water now. We hopped onto the boat and I turned it on, gave it a little gas and drove it back up to the beach!

WE MADE IT!!!!
(p.s. the boat was sitting up next to an old prop airplane that could land on the water)

Capitan of the ship!

We saved the day!

It was hilarious because I really think it's only a story we could've come back with here at UWP! It was an awesome time and I'm thankful for my host family taking us out to experience a little more of Lake Havasu and the Colorado River!!

Have to finish this post with the last picture from the night HAH!

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post as much as I enjoyed writing it! We'll be heading to Mexico in a few days so be on the look out for my adventures through Mexico for 5 weeks!

Much love,
Breton

Lake Havasu City, AZ!

2009-08-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 25th

On Tuesday we pulled into the beautiful and incredible hot Lake Havasu City, Arizona. We got off the bus and about started sweating immediately. It was right around 110 degrees F. I love Arizona though and was super excited to be here. We were dropped off right next to the London Bridge right on the water!

The first thing we all wanted to do was just jump right in. The water was incredibly clear, so much you could see right down to the bottom! Lake Havasu isn't actually a lake, it's just a wide spot in the Colorado River, so the water actually has a current.

We all walked in the water as far as we could go without getting completely wet, but it was really hard to resist and stay dry. Like I said, the water was so clear Nina and Kristine could watch the fish swim through their feet hah!

It was the perfect arrival place for a city, beautiful views and right on the water!

After a Mexico culture presentation and an educational session it was host pick up time! Once again it was super exciting to get to meet a new host family and move in with new roommates! Our host family code was "boats" which I was pumped about because I was hoping that meant they had a boat and we could get out on the lake!!! We found our host family, our dad was wearing a hat with boats on it!

(sorry the pictures blurry, our dad is the tall guy right in the middle with the hat on)

I was also going to be roommates with two of my friends from the cast, Emil from Sweden and Mark from England! They are awesome awesome guys and I knew that we were going to have a great time with our new family!

We made it home and settled in, then cracked open a beer and checked out the awesome view from the backyard! Our family is amazing and cool! So cool that they both went skydiving for our host moms 60th birthday, now that's pretty sweet!

My favorite part about the backyards in Arizona especially this one is the little 10ft x 50ft strip of grass they have in their backyard! It's too hot to try and maintain a full yard but they wanted to have at least a little grass so they put in this long strip running the length of the yard hah!

We had an amazing pork roast dinner that night and to top it off got to watch one of the most amazing sunsets I've seen! Although it was still like 100 degrees F when the sun went down it was a beautiful night and you could see every star in the sky!

I've had an amazing time here in Havasu so far, can't wait to show you my next post too!!
Goodnight for now!

Much love,
Breton

Welcome to... Chino Valley, AZ

2009-08-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 23rd
We have arrived in Chino Valley, Arizona on Saturday, the 22nd! On Sunday we had a free day with our new host families in Chino Valley! Check out some pics of what we did!

We took a little drive down the road to the city of Prescott, Arizona! Very nice town with a town square in the middle. We walked around the town square and down one of the streets called Whiskey Row where they have a bunch of shops/bars and restaurants. We went into an old western saloon for a beer! When I say old western saloon, I'm not kidding... This thing was the real deal!

They said this was a stop for a lot of the old outlaws from the wild west...

Complete with the swinging doors at the entrance....

An the old time bar...

And this guy, actually playing the old time piano!

After walking around Prescott, we headed to a town on the side of a mountain called Jerome, which was about 30 mins away. The whole small town was sitting on the side of a mountain, it was really cool to see and fun to walk around. We had lunch at an awesome restaurant called The Haunted Hamburger! There was an awesome view of the valley from the window...

After an awesome host family day we had to get ready for the show day on Monday! We had rehearsals in the morning at the high school where the show would be....

It was our first time performing in a high school... After school was out the whole high school packed the gym to watch rehearsals in hopes we could get a few of the kids interested in the program and come to the show!!

When show time came around we had a packed house (gym)... I think this was my favorite show so far because you could tell the audience was loving it and you could feel the energy coming from the crowd, which made it a lot of fun and I think everyone was at the top of their game that night!!

After a great show, it was time to head out the next morning for Lake Havasu City, Arizona!!! We got up nice and early and had an awesome breakfast courtesy of our amazing host family and headed to host drop off. This host drop off was a little different than most for my roommate Bernward and I because that morning, we rolled up on style....

In a baby blue '56 Thunderbird Roadster with the top down!!

A huge thanks to my Chino Valley host family!! They were amazing people and we had an awesome time with them!! Even though the stay was short and had less time to spend with them, they were so welcoming and it was truly an awesome experience in Chino Valley!!

Hope you enjoyed reading about my awesome time in Chino!!! Next stop is Lake Havasu City, and it's already been an amazing time, so be on the look out for great pictures and great stories!!

Much love and miss you all!
Breton

Grand Canyon Here We Come!!

2009-08-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 22nd

On Saturday we had the opportunity make a stop on our way down to Chino Valley to see the Grand Canyon! I had never been there before and was really excited to get to see it! We had a blast walking around taking pictures for two hours!

Check out some of the amazing pictures from the canyon (pictures courtesy of photograph extraordinaire Kristine!)

Amazing views!

Part of the crew at the Grand Canyon

Probablyyyyyyy the best picture everrrrr!

There's something relaxing about hanging your feet off the edge of a cliff with friends while admiring the beautiful scenery....

It rained off and on while we were at the canyon, you can see the rain coming off in the distance...

Cool picture of Emil, Brandon, and Coy!

We had a blast and it was an incredible place to see. If you are thinking about going to the Grand Canyon or ever have the chance to see it, I definitely suggest you do!

I will be posting video pretty soon of something cool that we did at the Grand Canyon. I forget what they called it but a bunch of us walked around by other tourists and all stopped and froze at the exact same time for a few minutes. It was hilarious because you could see people walking by and just staring trying to figure out what was going on. Then again at the exact same moment we all unfroze and walked away like nothing happened. People were super confused, definitely a good time!!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures from the Grand Canyon!
Pictures from Chino Valley, AZ soon!
Much love,
Breton

Durango

2009-08-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

My host family was so awesome in Durango! We definitely had some good times with the whole 10 of us! Lots of delicious family dinners outside watching the wildlife run through the backyard!

Petros and I played some games of hockey on the Xbox....

I was definitely bummed about having to leave... but the cool part about UWP is that I'm sure we will meet up again down the road!

Miss you Johnson Family!!!!

We had two shows in Durango that went really well! The show venue was a very nice theater also!

That's all from Durango! Next stop: Chino Valley, AZ! Cya soon!

Much Love, Breton

Durango Community Impact

2009-08-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

On August 18th we did our full cast community impact project for Durango. We were headed up a mountain on a 45 min hike to build some new trails for future hikers. Turns out this was probably one of the hardest things I've ever worked on!

We hiked about 1000 vertical feet, and the mountain was a steep one.

The hike was tough but the payoff was worth it... Check out the view:

After checking out the beautiful view we went to work. We split up in three groups based on the tools that we brought up. I had some kinda axe tool (don't ask me what it was called) and my job was to start cutting the path where the trail would be...

I got fulfill my dream of being a lumberjack that day but getting to cut down some small trees in the way of our new trail, HAH!

Trail building is one of the toughest jobs I've ever done! It was so hot, and dusty and really tough work but I had an awesome time doing it! One of my favorite parts of UWP is getting to do things like this that I would most likely never have gotten to do on any given day back home. It's only been stop number two on our tour and we've had some amazing experiences! Can't wait for more to come soon!

Destination: Durango!

2009-08-23T22:00:00.001-07:00

On August 17th we once again packed the buses and said goodbye to Carbondale/Aspen and hit the road for stop number 3, beautiful Durango, Colorado!

Bus rides = good times with friends!

We stopped for lunch in a cool town in the mountains called Ourea (I have no idea how to spell it) but it was a beautiful old town that just kinda popped up out of nowhere!

After lunch it was back on the bus for Durango. We arrived in Durango and headed to the host pick up site and got to meet our new host family for the 5 days we were there!

My host family was an awesome family! They had two kids that they adopted from Ethiopia who were probably two of the nicest kids I've ever met. Petros was 10 and Lulita was 11 and I'm looking forward to watching them grow up into awesome people!

I also lived with 5 other students! They had a beautiful home up in the mountains surrounded by forest! When we arrived at home we unpacked and went out and played some basketball! There were 10 people in the house so we had enough for a game of 5 on 5!

After dinner, we went out in the backyard and hopped in the hot tub! When it got dark and you looked up at the sky you could see every single star in the sky. I had never seen a sky like that before. It was so clear! We saw a number of shooting stars and you could see the milky way too, very cool!

After a long day of travel it was time to call it a night! The next morning we went out and did community impact, stay tuned for that!

Host Family Day in Aspen!

2009-08-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 16th
On Sunday we had a free day with our host family in Aspen! We got to do some pretty cool stuff! Check it out!

We woke up that morning and headed about an hour down the road through the mountains. It was a beautiful drive.

We were headed to a place called Delicious Orchards (located in a town that I can't remember the name of). We were going to spend the afternoon picking peaches!! Our host mom buys a bunch of peaches every year and then freezes them. I was really pumped to pick peaches because I had never done it before and it was in the beautiful mountains!

We headed out into the orchards to pick 60 pounds of peaches!! There were so many peaches on the branches some of the limbs were breaking because of the weight!

Here we are with my host family! They were soo awesome and I had an amazing time in Carbondale with them! (Me, Nilo from Sweden, Lindsay, Hadley, and Emily)

I think we picked around 56 or 57 pounds all together. Here was the end result of a day at the orchard!

After we got home from picking peaches we rested for the rest of the afternoon but then decided to do a little hiking! I really enjoy hiking and it was definitely a beautiful hike! Check it out:

On our way up, up, up, up!

Halfway up there was a scenic lookout that looked over the whole town of Carbondale! In the background you can see Mount Sopris. Had to stop for a picture moment:

Then once we climbed about 500 feet we climbed along side the cliffs of the mountain. Almost a straight drop down....

The views from up here were amazing! I've never seen anything like it before!

Here are two out of the three North Platter's from the cast!

My host family was so great in Carbondale! We had so much fun getting to spend time with them and learning about their little town tucked away in the mountains! I definitely have Carbondale on my list of places to go back to one day!

Well that's all from Carbondale/Aspen! Next stop Durango, Colorado!
Much Love,
Breton

Aspen, CO -- City #1

2009-08-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

ASPEN, COLORADO
August 13th - 17th

We arrived in Aspen, CO on Thursday, August 16th. Like I mentioned in the last post, we arrived in Apsen and went straight up to snowmass village.

We were actually housed in a few different cities but they were all pretty close and the show was in Aspen up at the Aspen/Snowmass Resort. I lived in Carbondale, CO. Here is a little about Carbondale:

The picturesque town of Carbondale is located 170 miles west of Denver, 12 miles from Glenwood Springs, and 30 miles from Aspen in the heart of Colorado's central Rocky Mountains. At an altitude of 6,181 feet, and resting in the magnificent shadow of 12,953-foot Mount Sopris, the Carbondale area is characterized by an average of 295 days of sunshine, low humidity, cold but mild winters and comfortable summers. The population of Carbondale is about 6,000 people.

This area was an amazing and beautiful place. It was a small town tucked in amongst the mountains and forests.

After our meetings and stuff on Thursday after we arrived we headed into Carbondale for host family pick up! My host family was out of town for the evening so I was picked up by a real cool guy named Chris who rented out the basement of the house we were staying in.

I was looking for a guy with a rafting paddle. Oh there he is!

Friday, August 14th

Friday was suppose to be a CI day but I was signed out and had band rehearsal all afternoon. I was pretty bummed that I couldn't do the CI. I guess it was good to get some extra rehearsals in though. The rest of the day was spent doing "internal time." Our internal time for the afternoon consisted of practicing our public speaking... We had to prepare a 1:30 minute story or something about ourselves to give to groups in our cast. I was pretty comfortable with it considering I am a Communication major at school. It was definitely good to get some practice since it's a lifelong skill and something we will be doing quite a bit of in UWP!

Saturday, August 15th

Saturday was show day in Aspen! We spent the morning doing stage set up. This stage was a lot different than the last one... mainly because it was....

OUTSIDE!!!!

It rained on an off during the morning but it was a good thing that there was a big roof over the stage so we didn't get too off track.

And when the roof was raised...

We had...

A really cool stage to perform on!

Can you see that the backdrop of our set was the mountains? That was really cool and it was an amazing view from up their! The show went really well once again. It was a lot different though for a few reasons. Number one, the crowd was a distance back and it was hard to feel their energy and feed off them and number two, it was really around 40 degrees F that night. The cast was freezing throughout the night and I don't know how they managed to continue but they did and it was definitely a memorable show!

Sunday was our host family free day and we did some really cool stuff that I will be sharing with you soon! Thanks for reading!

Much love,
Breton

First Travel Day

2009-08-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

Departing: Denver, CO
Arriving: Aspen, CO!

Thursday, August 13th

Thursday was our first travel day! We left Denver at 8:30 a.m. and headed to the mountains for Aspen, CO!

Wednesday night was a late night because we had to strike the stage. We got home around 1 a.m. and then I had a good 2 1/2 hours of packing a head of me... I got a bit of sleep then it was time to get up and finally hit the road!!

I loved my host Denver host family and left them a little something behind to say thank you!

We arrived in the morning and packed our bags underneath and hopped on the bus!

Here was my bus date for the first trip: Jason from Bermuda!

Look out the window and wave to our host families!! It was kinda a sad morning. Lots of tears, both from the host families and students.

We made a pit stop for lunch in a town and Coy, Michael and I ate on the big crane, then we realized the window was left open, so naturally I had to get inside and get a picture looking awesome HAH.

As we got further up into the mountains we got a little big of a scenery change!

For sleeping for about 3 hours I was pretty excited and wired and didn't end up sleeping on the bus. Next thing I knew 5 hours had passed and we were arriving in Aspen as I pointed out to my little stuffed pillow buddy!

Our first stop was up the mountain to the Aspen/Snowmass Village ski resort where our show would be. We had a meeting and briefing about where we would be living and all that stuff. We walked up to the resort and they told us we would be riding the Gondola up the mountain!

It was definitely a very cool welcome to our first city on the road!

Me, Kristine, and Jimena from Mexico going up in the gondola!

Be on the lookout for my next post all about my amazing stay in Aspen, CO! Cya Soon!
Much love,
Breton