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.

More China

The Great Hall of the People --Beijing. 10,000 people! probably my favorite part of the tour.

Da Great Wall. There's a Starbucks about a 5 minute walk from the wall. it's rather sad.

Gillian and I waiting at the airport. We traveled mostly by plane.

Imperial palace in Shenyang.



our christmas present from the promoter was these sweet sweet hats!

China

So, my three and a half weeks in China have come to an end. Yesterday, we flew from Shanghai to Paris, spent the night in Paris and then landed in Dublin, where we drove to Waterford. I'm spending our 4 day break here at Gillian's house with Jack and Kirsten as well. Today we are going to go see sheep and horses! Can't wait!

Anyhow, here are some pictures from China.



We spent Christmas in Urumqi. It was definitely the most unique Christmas ever. On Christmas eve, we had our show at 9pm, (usually it's 7 or 8pm). Then after that, we heard our promoter was throwing a part for us, with singing and dancing. So, naturally, we were very excited. Unfortunately, what he had in mind was different -- we were to preform at some corporate Christmas party, and there was in fact no festivities planned for us. So at around midnight Christmas Eve, things weren't looking up. However, after a couple of us dancing at the party and getting paid extra (a nice Christmas bonus!) we had our own party on the top floor of the hotel that looked over the city. We didn't sit down to dinner until about 3 am! We exchanged our secret santa gifts and listened to Christmas music. I had Dean for secret santa, the tenor from Clare, so I got him a Hollister tshirt and other little bits and bobs. It was quite funny seeing this guy, who couldn't be any more Irish if he tried, with Laguna Beach emblazoned across his chest. Anyhow, this picture is Gillian and I with Jack in a full kilt!! It's pretty amazing he pulled this off considering our 20 kg luggage weight limit. He surprised us all! It was amazing.



This picture says a lot about our show in Hangzhou. This was at about 1 am after filming the DVD. It was probably the worst show and day on tour.We got there super early to maybe film a few numbers before the show, which we didn't get to do. During the show, the microphones for the tenors did not even work! It was a hot hot mess. Hopefully the DVD will turn out okay. We stayed after to film some more, and we didn't get to fix all the things we needed to. All in all, we're quite glad it's over.
Much to our surprise, Christmas is actually kind of a big deal in China, at leas commercially it is. So we saw tons of Asian santas and it was fun!



The Shanghai skyline. We spent nearly a week in Shanghai. It was probably my favorite city. Well, besides the tropical island. I have lots of fabulous stories from Shanghai to tell you!

More later!
Love,
Laura

PS

The city we were in yesterday, Jönköping, had a sign with all its sister cities. It's sole American sister city is none other than Palo Alto! How cool!

Last Day In Sweden

Molly - you are going to LOVE love love Sweden. Stockholm is possibly the coolest city we've visited yet!

Anyhow, today was our last day of this tour! I can't believe it's already here! It has flown by. It was a fairly normal day until the actual show, plus a little more excitement in the air at the thought of going home. Although, I did wake up at 6am to web cam with the kiddos at Poker night at Rohit's house which was the coolest experience ever! There I was sitting at 6 am in central Sweden chatting away with like a room of my bestest friends thousands of miles away at 9m in the evening at the annual poker night. It made my day! I can't wait to go home on TUESDAY! ahhh!!

Anyhow, then I ate some breakfast and went back to sleep. And then the usual 2 hour bus ride, (so much better than Russia!! ) and we were in Gothenburg. A couple of us explored the city and all that and went to the venue which was extremely awesome because it was in this giant amusement park called Liseberg all decorated for Christmas. It was magical! There was an ice rink and so many lights!




We also finished our new dance for China during rehearsals before the show. It's a ceili which is refreshing, because we don't have anything quite like it in the show right now. And the costumes are really pretty! I'll post picture when we get them in China.

The actual show was one of the most fun yet! Everybody had such a good laugh and it meant so much. Tonight was both Paul, a tenor, and Jemma's, a dancer headed for Riverdance, last show with us. Everybody sort of stepped back in their own way to give them the limelight. We tried to step out of certain dances so Jemma could dance every dance. And during her session, the part where four girls get to do a step about, we screamed like crazy for her. The best part though, was at the end bows, four girls do a step in a line. So the four girls, including Jemma did the first half of the step, but then three of the girls stopped and started clapping for her half way though so she was the only one dancing in this line. She had no idea and was crying with joy. It was so special! She did look a bit confused at first though. Other shenanigans that went down were people drawing smiley faces in their armpits, rubbing hair wax all over our hands to spread it to other people on stage, tons of silly faces, tripping each other, dancing in the wings trying to make the people on stage laugh, added gestures such a flick of the hair, a new pose....everybody felt a bit more adventurous tonight which lent to tons of laughs.

Then after the show, at about midnight, everybody kinda started hanging out in the lobby, and Paul played the guitar for a couple of hours and we just sang on our last night before our two week break. Tomorrow we're going home! I can't believe it's happening! I can't wait!!

Tons of love!




Jack, my partner for the dance called Lenister's Lord.

Stockholm

So yesterday, we drove from Copenhagen to Stockholm, a 600 and some odd Km journey, taking about nine hours. It was our longest journey yet for this tour. Fortunately, we did not have a show last night for the first time in a week, which was nice. Instead we had a major snow fight. I was sopping wet by time I finally came inside. Anyhow, today, we had a ton of free time since we traveled yesterday, so we went on an awesome journey all around Stockholm. Bought a 24 hours bus/train/metro ticket and traipsed around the whole city. I'm pretty sure we walked up and down every single street in Stockholm, at least that's what it felt like.




The residential palace -- where the Royal family of Sweden lives.



After the show, we had the tough decision between hanging out backstage at the Black Label Society concert because somehow over the two days we were here, we became friends with this crazy heavy metal band (from California!) since they were staying in our hotel and we have the whole living on the road thing in common, or an ice bar. We chose the ice bar. Sounded a lot safer. So yeah, that's me and my fellow American - Kirsten!


And this is me and my adopted big bro - Barry, the tenor from Longford in Ireland.




A sweet medieval street in Stockholm with my lovely Lenister's Lord parter -- Jack from Scotland.

I love the snowwww!! ack!!

Love,
Laura

ps. I'm coming home Dec 2!! Cant wait to see the fam, the sun, and eat some In'n out burger!

Check It!

I'm in Denmark now and there's a sweet sweet hailstorm going on outside right now. I absolutely love Denmark. It's so beautiful and idyllic. I feel like I'm walking around a freaking tv set though, it's so perfect, it almost seems fake. Anyhow, for your viewing pleasures, I have a little video. It's a bit from the show. This was taken last week at a show in Malmo, Sweden.

Holland <3 <3 <3

I absolutely love Holland. Love love love it. Holland > Russia. We just got here yesterday and I am so excited for this tour!
Firstly, I am on the internet!! Our venue has free wifi! How amazing! So I don't have to disappear into nothingness for weeks like I did in Russia. Secondly, The stage is absolutely perfect. Flat, with some give and giant. The venue has working toilets that aren't holes in the ground, like one of our venues in Russia did. We're in a hotel with normal water that isn't rusty, yellow, and smell funny. We have HOT food -- salmon, pasta, veggies, rice, potatoes and a refrigerator full of cold drinks for catering. Everybody speaks english. And my favorite part, two physical therapists waiting to fix whatever ailment we might have. I had a gorgeous back massage before the matinée and I'm about to go get my shinsplints sorted out.
Ackk!! I LOVE Holland!!!!

Today was made even better by the fact that Damien's family surprised us by coming to the show! Nobody had any idea that they were coming, but then they showed up backstage after the show! It was so exciting to have someone you know watching the show. Their not even my parents, but I was elated! It's funny because I asked them at dinner when I was at their house if they were going to come see the show because Holland is so close, and they were like 'nah.' They're so tricky! I love it!

Also, the professional basketball team we met in Moscow is coming to tonight's show, fingers crossed.

Holland is the best! Off to Denmark tomorrow, which should be equally awesome.

Love,
Laura

More pictures

Boys being silly backstage.


Guys may get a lot of crap for being dancers, but maybe their lives aren't all that bad....
Enjoying a night out in the VIP room in Kazan.
Some of the boys waiting in the train station.

:)

So, I'm having a fabulous time in Omagh! Damien and his family have been so hospitable. Our first night home, on Tuesday, his mom made us a huge Irish roast. She got home around 1 from work and started cooking.Potatoes, gravy, yorkshire pudding, carrots, peas, and meat! It was so nice after living off this:




Anyhow, yesterday was so nice! Kirsten, Sean, and I took the bus up to Belfast. I quite enjoyed the ride because the countryside is so beautiful here! So many sheep! Natalie and Morgan picked us up and we had a good time shopping. Then they drove us out to their house, about 30 minutes out of Belfast in Larne. They showed us Kilwaughter Castle which is this sweet sweet castle round the corner from their house in ruins.



Then, we had another fabulous roast at their house. Their house is so cozy! It was built in the 1800's, maybe earlier. They have a lovely cat that made me miss Princess Peach so much! I haven't played with a pet in over two months. It was such a treat! We proceeded to have a wonderful night on the town in Belfast and crash at Nicola, the piper's house, who also came out with us as well as a bunch of other kids from the show. We can't stay away from each other, even on break!

Here are a few more pictures from Russia:






Gillian and I in front of Lenin's childhood home.



Fergus attempting to do Gillian's makeup on the train. I think this was the 25 hour train journey. We were very bored to say the least.


The girls in Ekaterinburg. This is the place where the czar and his family lived for a while and were eventually lined up and shot right where that church is now.




Warming up with Smithy for the last show of the tour in Belarus!



Inside the tour bus.







Anyhow, we leave for Holland tomorrow morning! I am so excited! Can't wait!

Love From Omagh

Oh! It's so nice to finally be back in Ireland! What an adventure Russia was. Now I'm in Omagh staying with Kirsten and Sean at Damien's house. I can't even explain how happy everybody is to be back in Ireland. When we got off the plane, Damien literally climbed down the stairs and kissed the Irish ground. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, but there's nothing like home, or in my case, "home." Anyhow, I definitely owe ya'll some pictures.



The bus! More like our home for five weeks. As well as the trans-siberan railway. Often times we would do a show, go back to the hotel, and then hop on the bus around midnight for an overnight bus journey, where we would arrive in the morning and sleep through the day. Apparently though, we only do that in Russia. I'm looking forward to our next tour in Holland, Denmark, and Sweden where we spend less time on the bus.



My roommate Natalie and I sightseeing in Kazan.



Enjoying cup of noodles, our typical catering at the venues. This picture is from early on in the tour though. I couldn't even look at a cup of noodles after about the first week. So, I mostly ate whatever else was provided like bread and cheese and fruit. Let's just say our eating habits in Russia were eradic. Breakfast usually was some sort of raw fish as well as yogurt, fruit, and cheese unless we were traveling or sleeping and then we didn't eat much after that. Whenever the bus passed a McDonalds though, everybody freaked out and demanded the bus to stop immediately.



Most of the girls during intermission.



Me and Natalie sightseeing in Moscow.




A typical venue. Most of the venues were actually pretty nice! The one in St. Petersburg was the best though. I don't have a picture of it, but it held 4000 people. We had two sold out shows that day. It was incredible! It also helped quite a bit that the Russian audiences were fabulous. They loved us! It was quite a nice feeling. After the show, they would wait for us at the stage door and want autographs and pictures. All in all, they made us feel very loved.

Anyhow, I have so much to fill you in on! It's getting late now though, so more updates tomorrow! I miss everybody so much!

Tons of love,
Laura