eNORmous trees

What better way to finish off a fun-filled week in Southern Cali than a trip to see the shockingly huge trees in Sequoia National Park? We were invited, along with the other two staff members (Jared and Joern) who were host-family-less with us in the Budget Inn, to come hang out at Corcoran Mayor Dick Haile's cabin. It was a two-hour drive from Corcoran, and worth every minute, as the cabin sits on a small community of private land right between Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The community is called Wilsonia, which legend says it got its name because that small community's votes in a long-ago presidential election swung a very tight race and helped elect Woodrow Wilson.

Today, after a delicious brunch in the sunshine, we had a three Jeep caravan that allowed us to see areas of the park that most tourists don't venture to, and it was a lovely 78 degrees, which was a huge relief after our week in the 110s in Corcoran. We felt so lucky to be included in this fun excursion!

Tomorrow we have a quick overnight in Redding, CA, before arriving in Winston, OR for a Melon Festival extravaganza. We've been warned that our internet service in Winston may be few and far between, so we will post again as soon as we can! Have a good week. -ee

Synchonized Craziness!

What would you do to win a trophy consisting of a dinosaur wearing a blondish wig?

This was what we asked ourselves at a friendly competition called the "Home Team Olympics - Atlantis Edition". [Home Teams are smaller groups of about 10 cast members that help facilitate the running of each city.] While in Corcoran, we had access to the YMCA pool and decided to facilitate some friendly competition between the home teams. Most events were water-based, which was absolutely perfect because the temperature for the day was about 108 degrees.


By far the most popular of the events was the synchronized swimming. As you can see in the pictures, the creativity of the teams really came through.









There were several other events:
* See which team can get down the water slide with the best possible averaged time.
* Dive for rings in the deep end of the pool and see who can gather them all the quickest (12 feet deep water can sure give you a headache)
* And the culminating event was the "Chubby Bunny" contest, which was dominated by one of our Japanese girls. She managed to fit 14 marshmallows into her mouth and still utter those magical words..."Chubby Bunny"

It was a truly wonderful day that gave people a chance to rejuvenate after a fun-filled and busy city. Home team 4 dominated the competition, but they are currently being investigated for using performance enhancing substances like Monster energy drinks and Airborne. Stay tuned for more details as they unfold.

Wedded Bliss

How wonderful it is to be us!!! As some of you probably know, Ellen and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on Thursday. We worked the whole day in the Corcoran, CA schools with 100s of junior high students and then had a fantastic time with the kids at the YMCA after school programs in town. As if the day could not get any more romantic ;-), we then went and washed the Up with People van before heading to nearby Vasalia, CA for a nice meal at an Italian restaurant called Rosa's.

The truth be told, we really do feel lucky that we are able to share this experience together. Our cast was very sweet to us on our anniversary and we woke up to a bottle of champagne on our doorstep in the morning as you can see in the picture. We could not be happier to share the love we have for one another through this amazing program and still can't believe at times that we are being paid to do what we love.

cotton-tastic

All you farmers out there would not have believed the size of the JG Boswell ranches that we visited on Wednesday. 120,000 acres-- mostly cotton (they grow 65% of California's Pima cotton, and CA grows 95% of the world's Pima cotton-- get your brain around that!) They also produce huge volumes of processing tomatoes - Romas with a tough skin that they make into tomato paste, which is sold to Heinz, Hunts, and Del Monte, among others to be the base for ketchup, sauces, etc.
We watched tomatoes being harvested, and frolicked in cotton fields... did you know that cotton blossoms look like roses? They are beautiful! The Boswell ranches in Corcoran have over 500 miles of irrigation canals, which we learned about by meeting the Water Master. (his real title- no joke!) Boswell also has one of the largest cotton gins in the world, and we went on a tour, of course. How much do I love "regional learning?!"

crazy Corcoran CA

We've now been in the fabulous, friendly little town of Corcoran, CA, for the past four days. Corcoran is south of Fresno, and is the farming capital of California. It is a town with a population of 12,000, which doubles if you count the CA State Prison that houses a few celebrity inmates, including Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan.
They have rolled out the red carpet for us here: we had a police and fire department escort "parade" when we arrived, the local Assemblywoman presented every cast member with a certificate of appreciation from the CA State Legislature for our service to the community, and everywhere we go people stop and ask us where we're from and welcome us to town. There are even three guys from our cast staying at the local firestation! They get such a kick out of being dropped off in firetrucks every morning. We have visited every school classroom from 4th-12th grade. The school district is one of our main sponsors, so we have led the "Stand for Peace" project for all the 4th-8th graders, and played and led games at the YMCA after-school programs at four different schools for three days this week. Tuesday and Thursday were crazy busy: we had two separate "SFP" sessions in the morning (two hours each), then two mini-shows in the afternoon for the students, and then off to the YMCAs to play with kids for two more hours. Count that up-- it is eight SOLID hours of being "on" in front of kids each day. CRAZY! Needless to say, we were wiped out by the end of the week. But its so fun and totally worth it when you are stopped on the street by a group of teens who are so interested in where you're from and what you're doing while you're here.
The other thing that makes it rewarding is to hear about all the problems with gangs and violence between groups, which seems almost unbelievable in a town this size, and feeling like the message of up with people is what they need to be exposed to. We were asked not to wear red or blue because students aren't allowed to. Also, no bandanas, and nothing with "old English" lettering. Some of our cast members were shocked by the strictness and sheer length of the dress code policies they had to adhere to in order to go to the "Back to School" dance at the high school tonight... which is a cultural experience in itself!

girls' night in San Diego!

Scott & I were hosted separately in San Diego. I was with a wonderful uwp alumna named Jennifer, her roommate Claudia, and Linn from Sweden. Jen has a cute two-bedroom condo in the Scripps Ranch neighborhood, and she gave up her room for the week and camped out on the couch so Linn and I would have a place to stay. We were also "co-hosted" by a friend of Jennifer's, another alumna named Marjorie, who hung out with us throughout the week. We had such a relaxing and fun time-- going down to the cove in La Jolla, chilling with the sea lions, learning to belly dance, and pampering ourselves with chick movies and foot baths. The week went so quickly! Though I missed staying with Scottie, it was nice to get to know another cast member a little better, and to have a great week with the girls.

back to Sierra Vista

On our free day in Sierra Vista (which was, yes, now two weeks ago... sorry- we are such slackers!), our host family, Alma & Pablo Xibille, took us to Bisbee, which is about 20 minutes from Sierra Vista, and spitting distance from the Mexican border. Bisbee is an old copper mining town -- check out the open mine pit! The mine has been closed for about 50 years, so the community is now, as my host mom says, a "hippie" community full of local artists and artisans.