The Netherlands

Howdy from the Netherlands! I have been here over a week now and so much has happened! I have so much in my head I need to dump in a disorganized fashion. Nobody ever said I was a writer:

• 10 shows down, 7 to go (no days off this whole time!)
  
• The show isn't as hard as I remember it being. All I want is to feel exhausted beyond belief again. Never thought I would long for that feeling. I think it's because they took out some old dances and put in some new ones, and they just aren't as strenuous.
  
• We are staying in Ede, Holland for the whole time. It is the most central town in Holland so we can drive to our venue each day (anywhere from 15 min- 2 and half hours) without having to move all of our stuff.
  
• I should be working on my last finals paper which is due today! Thus, the blog post.
• We went into Amsterdam today, to the Van Gogh museum, the Hard Rock Cafe, and a (prayer) walk through the Red Light district. It was actually heart-breaking...
• Anyhow, the audiences have been fantastic here! Full houses and standing ovations, and signing afterward. The new show is great. My favorite new number is the Swing. Yup, there is a swing number in the show now! Blue polka dot skirts and everything. It's so much fun!
  
• Although the new numbers have been great, I am learning a bit everyday, getting back into it is harder than I thought. I have made so many mistakes and has been a little bit frustrating. I missed my entrance for Lenister's Lord even though I had been standing there for like 10 min. I got distracted for a second and then watched my opposite walk on the other side. And then another night, I tripped over a light backwards and had a legs up in the air, most ungraceful fall you have ever seen. Bumping into people, faking steps, trying not to give it away with my face...Fortunately, these things happen more often than you would think, so it wasn't such a big deal. I guess things just arent going as smoothly as I would have hoped.
• As if dancing a show every night wasn't enough, I am hoping to busk (street preform) at the end of the week with some others for the craic :) Paris, Venice, then San Francisco.....Amsterdam just seems like a good additon to the experience.
• One day we were at breakfast in our hotel just doing what you do at breakfast, and our Dutch promoter overheard some other people around our age speaking in Dutch, like why arent those guys noticing us, asking for our autographs etc...they must be foriegn etc. because apparently they were the final few in the Dutch version of American Idol.
  
• Another day, somebody pulled over in a van to the side of the road and started talking (in Dutch of course) to Jack and I as we were taking a wander about the town. And then we asked him to repeat in English he said to Jack, "Are those really Uggs? (Jack was wearing uggs) For Real? Oh my God..." and then drove away. We giggled.
  
• Sean and I purchased sleds like the second day we were here only to realize shortly thereafter (which is common knowledge) that holland is very flat and there is no where to sled. Whoops.
  
• I never want to see a Ham and Kaas (cheese) sandwhich ever again. Just saying.

Alright alright, enough procrastinating. Time to kill this paper. And sorry for the fragmented nature of my thoughts. 10 days till Christmas!
Love,
Laura

Tour, Round #2

I didn't get my fill of it the first time I spose. Back I go, 2 weeks in Holland and 2 weeks in China. And I am done with finals 2 weeks early!
Dublin tomorrow! :D
(I still cant believe this is real!)

Greece: A Farewell to the Stage?

Greece. was. awesome.

France & Italy (one month late....)

Right, so how did this happen? One day on tour, Kristen and I were discussing our plans for when tour ended in Germany. I told her I'd always wanted to go to Italy. She said she had too! We figured we had a good opportunity because who knows the next time you will be in Europe, with an income, time, and willing friends? And so it was! We later recruited the third and last American, Nicole to come along with us, as well as Gillian, our Irish belle.

We spent 3 days in Paris and nearly two weeks on a tour of Italy. We street preformed along the way to defer costs. We met some fabulous people and stayed in some really fun hostels! The trip was definitley on the cheap! Hostels averaged about 17 euro a night each. Unfortunately, Nicole's camera, the only legitimate video camera we had broke our second day in Italy, so the montage is lacking a good portion of our trip. :(

As far as future tours, I head to Dublin on the 13th of May, a couple days before rehearsals begin, to kick it in Waterford with Gillian. We then have about two weeks in Athens, Greece. Unfortunately, our summer season in Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Caledonia, Azores Islands, and Spain got canceled due to the lovely economy. It's the first time in 10 years the show has not had a summer season. :( On the bright side , I guess, there is a full tour lined up for next year, starting in September (which includes a month-long American tour that stops in SAN FRANCISCO). Alas, I will be in school. :( :( :( :) ?

Is it bad that I forgot I had a blog?

Yeah, about that. I'm so neglectful!! My only excuse is that the adventures just keep getting crazier!


So, after Switzerland, we headed back to Germany. Our first two nights in Germany, we lucked out and stayed in resort apartments on this massive frozen over lake, because our other hotel was overbooked. Best place we have stayed yet. (Well, maybe a tie with the golf course in Denmark...can't decide). Anyhow, we even had a day off there so we had tons of time to explore and play in the snow! We went sledding both nights in the national park right next door. We attempted to star gaze on the lake and made snow angels too. The best part about the apartments was that we had full kitchens!! One night we were there was Gillian's birthday so Nicola and I made her and the cast dinner as well as a cake! I missed cooking and baking so much!

Our makeshift freezer. We had a freezer, but this was just way cooler.

Sitting on the lake. It spells ROTD! Quite a contrast to the beach in China.



Nicola and I on the lake. There were people skating too! Natalie, my roomate is building up a profile for hair and make-up school right now. So, she does awesome hair do's and makeup like this on all the girls.

She did a bow with my hair. I wish I had photos of her other work. We had to do pictures the last day in Munich for the new posters. This is Natalie and I waiting backstage. Because of this, I couldn't meet up with Kenneth who came to see the show until two hours later at the Hard Rock. By the time I got there, he had to go. :(
The boys posing for photos.


The last day of tour, Barry got me Mister Duck Man in the airport. He keeps giving me stuffed animals because he feels bad for losing George, the stuffed elephant I got him, in China. I also have Potato, the panda bear from China as well as Jerry, an stuffed Olympic mascot from Beijing.

Anyhow, my next post will entail the adventures of Laura, Kirsten, Nicole, and Gillian in France and Italy. :o)

So, for now, I'm home!

To prove that it actually happened

Raphael, my first ever fan, came to see the show in Bern! After the show, he took us to his house and back to Zurich to meet the cast. The next day, our day off, he took us around Zurich in his car and showed us the sights, as well as translating for us. Thanks so much Raph!! This picture is in Zurich.


ps. For those of you who don't know, Raph was an exhange student last year at Harker, and lives in Fribourg, Switzerland.

Germany

So, we've been in Germany for about a week now, and I am quite enjoying it! It's not as exciting nor as foreign as China, but it certainly has it charms. For one thing though, the show is way harder on this tour then on the last one because we are down five dancers thus eliminating most rotations, and there are two new dances! We moan about it a lot, but I guess it's not all that bad. My shin splints tell me otherwise though.

One of the highlights so far has been Kirsten's birthday bash. All the towns so far, bar Hamburg, have been rather small with not much to do, so we all got really excited at the prospect at going out. So a week before hand, Kirsten announced the theme on the bus. It was a party where you had to dress up as something that started with a K or S (for her initials). Everybody put a lot of effort and thought into their costumes, which is admirable considering the limited clothes we have on tour.

Oli as a Sheep!
Kirsten the birthday girl as a Scuba diver, and myself as a Southern belle.

Barry being absolutely disgusting as "Supersize Me" or my Southern beau. He acted his part the whole entire night. It was hilarious and disturbing to say the least.

Morgan as Ken, Michael as a Sheriff, and Kelly as a Sunflower!
Lauren and Dave as sailors.

So yeah, that was great craic.

Anyhow, today, we had our first day off. We are in this tiny town called Hirschaid, about a 40 minute train ride outside of Nurenberg, the coolest city evar! So after going to bed at 4 am last night, we rose early to go into town. (cause wer'e crazy!). We took the train into town and headed straight for the Nuremberg Rallies, or as Gillian calls it, Nazi World. It's on the outskirts of the town and was where all the Nazi rallies and annual conventions were held. The complex is absolute giant! 11 square km I believe. We spent about three hours there, mostly in the old Congress that had all the great historical information. It was so interesting hearing the story from the heart of where everything happened.




We were rather surprised by the state of the place. It was not really well kept at all. All the grandstands were overgrown and there was junk lying around everywhere. Now they use this field as a huge soccer pitch. Well, lots of soccer pitches. We stood right where Hitler is in that picture. Pretty surreal.



Back in the town, we walked through the medieval section enclosed by the walls. I was excited to see Albrecht Durer's house right across the street from the castle. He was probably the artist of the Northern Renaissance. If only I had got to see his artwork! Next time I s'pose?


Also in the old town, my personal favorite, was this beast of a High Gothic cathedral, St. Lawrence. I nearly cried when I walked inside, it was such a defining moment in my life. Wow, that sounds so cheesy. But, ever since AP art history last year, I've been dying to see a High Gothic cathedral in the flesh. Yeah, and what's better, is this wasn't the only one. But, it was definitely my favorite.

Afterwards, we made a trip out to the Nuremberg Courts, which was incredible too. It's where they tried the war criminals in a sort of international trial and a bunch of them got executed.

While we were running around like mad seeing the city, we missed the presidential innaguration, which I'm pretty sad about. I would have loved to seen that. Ironically, everybody else, like all the Irish kids were sitting back at the hotel watching it, and here we are, the crazy Americans missing it!

Anyhow, 1 30 am now, and I swore I would be in bed by 10 pm. (Which I was by the way, just couldn't sleep!

Peace.