Wibaux, Montaner

Hi Friends!
After a fun week with the Savages we were headed to Wibaux, Montana. Population: 480. Well thats more than what we're used to these days haha! We thankfully didn't have very far to drive from Savage, Mt to Wibaux, Mt so that was nice. We also met a nice dinosaur on the way. We later met up with our Contact and she showed us where we would be staying.

My room that week was cute. It had this country kind of style to it and LOTS of dolls. Ok it really wasn't that many but they were still kind of creepy. I picked one up and this evil laugh came out of it and I couldn't tell if I had accidently pressed a button or if it was truly laughing at me. . . . . . . Haha! I was actually stoked because I got to cross that off my list: "Stayed in a room filled with dolls". Little did I know that this room would later be challenged as my official "Doll room" later on. We were so inspired by all these dolls that we wrote a script for a scary movie we wanted to make with them while we were there. Unfortnately we ran out of time and only filmed like one scene of our movie. :(

Our Contact in Wibaux REALLY hooked us up. We got all our meals/snacks for FREE at all the restaurants in Wibaux. It was awesome! If we wanted a milkshake or an omelet, we got it. No questions asked. We REALLY took advantage of this. The Tastee hut had excellent burgers and shakes and The Palace which was an Elvis themed restaurant had yummy meals too. We were spoiled. When we weren't eating or working Loretta and I tried to find things to do. We didn't need to go any further than our own front yard. The lady we were staying with had so much stuff in her yard. It was like a playground of odd things to climb on and take pictures of. Cool but kind odd too.

Loretta also really wanted to get her inner Katness on by climbing a tree. She loves The Hunger Games. So we found the best/only tree in town (in our own backyard) and climbed it. It was very exciting. That was a big tree and we were proud of how high we climbed. Plus it was nice to be outside and enjoy the weather. It was definitely spring. YEA!!!! Fellow readers I think you will also be proud of me. I sang my first ever solo karaokee song that week. I was beating myself up over the fact that I didn't sing one on Ladies Night in Colorado with Kelly, Nicole, and Loretta but I feel I finally redeemed myself. What did I sing? A classic. . . Man I feel like a Woman. :D I also sang a Sara Evans song and taught an old man how to properly do a "box step". Haha! I'm working on my next song. It's bound to be a show stopper. . .

The kids did a great job that week. Our performance was on Friday and I love weeks like that. One because the week goes by fast because we have a lot to do in a short amount of time. Reason number two is because with it it being a short week, memorizing lines is always a struggle and they ALWAYS pull it out at the end. I love that. They were definitely a fun group of kids and I had a blast working with them. Yes this job isn't always easy but when you have kids come up to you who aren't even in the show but were at the workshop you did earlier that week and they STILL remember who you are, it makes this job easier. Thats always a cool feeling for me because I see first hand what an impact someone can make on just one life. This job has allowed me to experience so many things that I never thought I would be able to do but as tour winds down, I think thats what I'm truly going to miss. The opportunity to let a kid shine, even for just a moment and feel important. The moments when a cast member looks at me glowing with pride because they remembered that one line that they REALLY struggled with or that look of admiration because I remembered their name. . . I'm gonna miss that.

Since our show was on Saturday that meant we had Saturday off which worked for us because the following week was our Spring Break! YEA! By this point Loretta had yet to see The Hunger Games movie and I feel that by that point she was about to bust! Dickenson was only 45 minutes away and it was the closest movie theatre/town, so we went. It wasn't a very big town but hey it was bigger than Wibaux. We drove through the "bad lands" which was pretty cool. When we perused the mall which consisted of a few shops, Kmart and a small movie theatre. We still had some time to kill so what did we do? We wore our new shades and strutted around the mall singing Rolling in the Deep as loud as we wanted. Eh we'll never see these people again. Why not? IT'S SPRING BREAK!!!!!!

After our movie we grabbed some dinner and headed back to Wibaux. We had plans to go to Minneapolis, Mn for spring break and we were soooo excited!!!! We had to go home, pack and get a good night's rest before we hit the road the next day.
SPRING BREAK!!!!!!
-Jen

Savages, Savages, barely even HUMAN!

Hi Friends!
I woke up in my snug little hotel bed in Spokane and was ready to start this final leg of tour. What was nice was that I was already packed. I guess thats a bonus considering I had just got off a plane only a few hours before. HA! Beat the system. I ate a yummy breakfast while I waited for Loretta to come and meet me so we could ride off together. Our first destination? Starbucks. Gotta do this right. Then we were off to Savage, Montana. Now don't get caught up with yourself just yet, I already know what you're thinking.

"Oh driving through the state of Montana must be beautiful!"
Wrong.

Yea there's mountains but they're closer to Idaho. Once you pass Missoula, it's flat. So Loretta and I had a very long day ahead of us and the GPS said we would get there around supper time. Ok not bad. By this point a 12 hour drive is a piece of cake. Well except for one thing. On that day we just so happend to drive through a blizzard. Ugh! I was so mad! Here I was in Lynchburg, Va only 24 hours before in hot sunny weather and I come to Montana just to drive through a foot of snow?!?! Something is just wrong about that. Now I like snow but after getting a taste of warm weather, I did not like this one bit. Mainly because our truck (Ranger Rooney) needed new windshield wipers and was therefore rendered useless. Within a matter of moments the windshield was completely covered and I could only see out of about 6 inches of the window. Thankfully everyone was driving really slow so that wasn't a problem. We pulled over at a gas station to fill up, get some lunch, and wait out the storm. I think everyone else had the same idea because that was a hoppin little place. Unfortunately because of this delay we ended up getting to our homestay later than we would've liked. :(

Savage, Montana was another small town for us but it was fun. No there wasn't any cell service or internet but I'm quite fond of reading and we found fun things to do so it was ok. :) The high school was literally only a block away from our house and when we got there, we couldn't believe it. The Savage high school mascott was the "Savage Warriors" meaning a Native American. BWAHAHA! We both thought that was terrible but yet kind of funny. All week I kept singing the song from the Disney movie Pocahontas hence the title of my blog. haha! The school provided us with more free meals. Score! I love saving my money and not spending it on groceries. At the end of the week they also gave us some cool souvenirs: a Savage t-shirt, water bottle, and a cool bag.

The kids were awesome that week too. They are every week but this week the kids were really fun to hang out with at rehearsals. Our week in Augusta, the kids never laughed at our jokes and sometimes had this "too cool for school" attitude but our week in Savage was soooooo different. I always felt so cool when I would walk into the cafeteria. All the kids would fight over me sitting with them; I tried to change up who I sat with everyday. You know it's tough being popular. ha! I'll never forget these two little girls that were Minis. They were best friends and I swear they were "Gills" in the making. Oh my goodness! I sat with them one day for lunch and watched them say "undapants" back and forth in between giggles for 15 minutes straight. It was one of the funniest lunches of my LIFE! haha! Too cute! Another thing that was cool for us was this school (from K-5 to 12th grade) held 100 students and we LITERALLY cast half the school in our show. Missoula Children's Theatre is a big deal there.

There was something about that week too, maybe because we had a lot of time on our hands without the internet and our phones but Loretta and I had a lot of reminiscing moments from our childhoods. We went bike riding a lot. Two of the cast members actually had one of those two seater bikes (I've always wanted to ride one) and they brought it to the school just so Loretta and I could ride it. Man that was so awesome and fun. Then Loretta and I went and visited the creek to watch the beavers. It's apparently what all the cool kids do in Savage. The next day Loretta and I noticed like 5 bikes just in our homestays front yard. Well since all the kids were in school we stole them for the afternoon and rode around Savage. That took about 15 minutes on our bikes but it was still fun. It reminded me of when I was younger and I would go ask one of the kids that lived on my street to go for a bike ride, just because. Good times. On the day of the show Loretta and I even rode the bikes to the school. Yep. We're THAT cool.

One of the highlights during our week in Savage was that we introduced the kids to Nsync. No one knew who they were. Kids. >:( All I have to say is they do NOW! Haha! During one of our breaks we played their first album and danced around (because Loretta and I remember their choreography). We also played it as background music while we sorted costumes with some of the cast members that week. Oh Justin Timberlake, you will always excite my little tween heart beat. haha!

After the show on Friday our homestay took us out to this bar/restaurant which was the only one in town and told us everything was on them. They really encouraged us to take advantage of this. OOOOOK! The lady who was our Contact and homestay that week reminded me so much of my cousin Lesley. She was cool, spunky and fun. All week I did everything I could not to hug her. Her husband was a cool guy too. He fell under the silent and mellow category. Loretta and I stayed in their two son's bedrooms while the boys slept in the guest room. I had Logan's room which was decked out in hunting stuff like camouflage and throwing stars. Loretta stayed in Owen aka Owskiski and he was a big basketball fan. This was one of the coolest families we stayed with. We've stayed with a lot of cool families but they're definitely in the top 5.

TAD date!

Later that week Loretta and I met up with our TAD friends Hannah and Laura. We got to hang out with them way back when we first hit the road when we were in Texas with our trainers. (Full circle)That night we all went out to eat and then headed back to their hotel, the whole time filling each other in on all our tour stories. It was a fun night for sure. A good way to end a fun week.
-Jen

Lynchburg in a blur

Hi Friends!
After our whirlwind of a week in Augusta, I think it was safe to say that Loretta and I needed a bit of a break. Thankfully we had an unbooked week the following week and we both had plans to go home. I've actually been catching up with my "old friend" Jeremi these days and he told me that he now lived in Spokane, Wa. Seriously? I fly out of there all the time! So we planned on hanging out before I left to fly home. On the way to Spokane, I finally got to cross one of my goals off my tour list. I finally saw a REAL teepee. We've been on or drove threw a few Indian Reservations and no they don't have teepees but it got me thinking that I really wanted to see a REAL one. Public art displays don't count. Well I finally saw one in someone's yard. I didn't go in it because it was the home of a bunch of great danes, no thanks.  I saw it, that's all I needed. :)

I met up with Jeremi in Spokane and it was the weirdest thing. When we hung out it was like no time had passed between us, no awkwardness, no nothing. Just good friends. It had been years and it was nice to see a friendly face. We spent most of the day at P.F. Changs just catching up on life. Like I said it had been years so we had a lot of catching up to do. Jeremi being the kind boy he is was nice enough to drop me off at the airport. Now it was time to get on the long flight home. Well it wasn't too bad, I slept throught it all. Ha!

When I woke up I was in Roanoke, ready to get off the plane and give my Dad the biggest hug ever! (Sigh) It's nice to be home even for just a couple days. There are no words sometimes. My Dad knows my heart so well that he took me to Chic-fila. Oh, how I've missed you! (Thaaaat could be directed at my Dad or Chic-fila, you choose. :) haha!) As we drove home, my Dad caught me up on everything that had been going on with him while my Grandma pretended to be listening. She can't hear. Haha! Old age. . .

That night my Laura friend held a little slumber party at her house and it was so much fun. Laura and her husband are in Lynchburg for a little while doing a show and I hadn't seen her since last spring!!!! Oh Gill, a slumber party was long overdue. Laura, Sarah and I ate yummy salads, watched a chic-flick and caught up on any and everything. We even got a surprise visit from a Micah Gill who said she wouldn't be able to come over. Oh my goodness. We were three scared little birds upstairs when we heard her bangin on the door. Laura and I creeped down and I was waiting to see Laura go all "New Yorker" on whomever was at the door. Hahah!

I actually didn't want to spend the night because I missed sleeping in MY bed. My bed at home is the comfiest, most softest cloud that has a little angel dog named Gretel who will curl up in my arms which makes it the closest thing to heaven these days. Micah couldn't stay either because she had to work early the next morning so we left together. Micah then invited me to come over to her new place real quick. She had just moved in the house that her and Josh were going to live in after they get married in a few weeks and she wanted to give me a tour. She also had my bridesmaid dress and wanted me to try it on. EEEE!!!!!

I was only home for about 5 days (if that) and I spent the majority of it just hanging out with my Dad. Words can't express how much I miss seeing him every day. Sometimes a girl just needs a hug from her Dad.

When I wasn't at home with Dad and Gretel, I was picnicking with Lindsay at the park, hanging out with Micah, Josh, Laura and Lindsay at the soon to be DeVries abode, eating lunch with Shaun, or having one on one "Gill Time" with Micah at our favorite place The Ploughcraft Tea Room. (Sigh) I had a busy week but it was a good week. This trip by too fast and before I knew it I was headed back to work. I stayed at a very nice hotel room that night but it still wasn't as nice as being home. The good news is, my next trip home won't be as short. :)
-Jen

Tea for Two

Woooweee! AUGUSTA!

Hi Friends!
Well we made it to Augusta. I'd like to say we arrived "Safe and Sound," but that wasn't exactly true for Whoopie. ha! None-the-less we made it. Augusta was a very small town. In fact I think its safe to say that it was one of the smallest we had been too. The population in Augusta was barely 200. We were in the middle of nowhere in Montana and when you are stranded in the middle of nowhere without internet or cell service what do you do?

Hunt.

Well that's what the locals do anyway. Something happend with our living situation but it all worked out fine. I got to stay with this very nice family who did nothing but hunt. Our Contact's family also did nothing but hunt. I guess its what all the cool kids do there. When we first arrived in Augusta, our Contact invited us over for dinner. All she told us was that it was stew. It wasn't until afterwards I found out that the "beef" was actually Elk. I don't know why they thought they had to hide that from us. I mean c'mon, I ate buffalo testies! They also had all kinds of pets not for eating of course but they had a pet ferret and a Sugar Glider which were fun to play with. Scott (the husband) showed us some of his artwork. He designs these intricate pictures for ceilings. He showed us the one in the den and told us about other places he's left his mark like in Canada and Alaska. Augusta is apparently crawling with Big Horn Sheep and he showed us some of his carvings that he did on some of the horns he had. Very cool.

One thing I've decided that I like about small towns is you get free food. Well probably not everyone but WE DID! All of our meals were provided for us in the school cafeteria which was nice since they were all good meals and not mystery meat type stuff. I guess the reason is because they're aren't any stores near Augusta. Hey I'm not complaining! What was even more nice was when I would come home, still full from dinner, my homestay would have something waiting for me on the stove. "Why, yes I would LOVE a sloppy Joe! Sloppy Joes are good anytime, it doesn't matter if its 9pm." -I didn't REALLY say that . . . . but I thought it.

My homestay bought groceries in bulk and told me to feel free to cook or bake anything I wanted. "OK!" I took advantage of this and baked Loretta and my homestay cupcakes one day. Good decision. :) Another good decision I made was to feed the chickens. Yep. I had never done it before and I thought it might be fun so I did! It's the little things. :) This was the day Steven Thomas came and we switched out the trucks. Steven hung around for a few minutes and we all went in this gift shop. In this gift shop I bought quite possibly the coolest souvenir since I've been on the road, a racoon hat.

Man that hat is so redneck it's cool! I feel like a little Davy Crockett. Haha! That whole day of rehearsal I wore my hat and spoke in a TERRIBLE southern accent. The kids thought I was weird but I had fun....and that's all that matters. :)

The next day Loretta and I really wanted to fit in so we went a huntin'. We was on the look out for some BIG HORN SHEEP! We kept seeing signs about how we should be careful and watch out for them but we didn't see any. Welp. Guess that means we gotta go find 'em. We drove down this dirt road and had a whole photo session day. We took so many pictures and videos that day of the beautiful scenery and playing in the wind. That's right the wind. It was soooo windy that day! My racoon hat kept getting blown off my head. Teyyible. All day we kept making cheesy jokes about "Agusta wind!" (Get it?) Maybe the wind blew away all the sheep because we drove all around looking for them but we didn't find them. I guess we're not very good huntsmen.

That night we meet up with our TAD besties Nicole and Kelly for a night out. They were only about an hour away from us so we met in the middle. We had so much fun catching up we even made some new friends and one of them looked like our TAD friend Jordan. It was uncanny how much they looked alike. It was a fun night indeed but we couldn't stay long because we had a show the next day! I always get excited for show day but this show was a little more exciting for me.

The day before the show we had to unfortunately tell the girl playing Merlin that she could no longer be in the show. That has never happend to us before. We would have loved for her to do the show but SHE made the bad decisions. Anyways, after talking with the home office and our Contact it was then decided that I would be playing Merlin! I wish the circumstances weren't what they were but at the same time I was excited to perform with Loretta and the rest of the kids as a different character. It was magical. After the show the kids gave us flowers which was a very nice gesture and helped us pack up the truck. We said our "Goodbyes" and then the next day we were headed home for a week off. Woot Woot! Lynchburg here I come!
-Jen

Poor Whoppie :(

Hi Friends,
Question. Do you have a name for your car? Most people do. If you haven't given your wonderful automobile a name then you should. Your car gets you safely from destination A to destination B and I think the best way to "thank" your car for not breaking down on Wards Road, infront of Wal-Mart, during Christmas Eve (totally hypothetical here ha!) is by giving it a name. It has to fit the car though, you can't just name it something dumb. My Grand Pre at home is called Rosalie. OH I MISS HER!

Loretta and I have named our little red truck (Ford F150) Whoopie. The reason for that is because one day while Loretta was talking to her Dad, he asked how Whoopie was? Loretta confusingly asked who Whoopie was to which he answered "The truck.". We thought that was funny so it just kind of stuck. Whoopie has been real good to Loretta and I. She drove us all over from Montana to Texas, all over Washington and Colorado. We even had her decked out in some awesome decorations. These decorations are a combination of items we've recieved from kids and souvenirs from places we've been. Also while on the road, some of our tour actor friends have run into some issues with their trucks getting broke into. Not us. Whoopie is a tank. We loved her.

Did you catch that? Loved as in the PAST tense.

Loretta and I had just had an interesting week in Moscow, Idaho and were headed to our next location in Augusta, Mt. I was driving and Loretta and I were having a bit of a heart to heart. Something about Loretta and I is that we like to compare ourselves to other tour teams on the road. Admit it TADs, you do it too. We've come to the conclusion that I'm tour actor Nicole, Loretta is tour actor Kelly for example. They're both really cool and fun. However, Loretta and I always hear about TAD drama/horror stories about other teams on the road and we always end our heart to hearts with "I'm SO glad that you're not like SO and SO." Thats terrible sounding but when you hear about how other teams work or don't work, you start to appreciate your tour partner so much more because they're awesome. Thanks Loretta for not being SO and SO. haha 

Anyway, Loretta and I we're making good time that day. We were meeting our contact in an hour for dinner but we were only about 20 minutes away so I was just taking my time. Loretta is my witness, I was driving 10 miles under the speed limit when we hit a pot hole. This pot hole came out of nowhere! Seriously. When I see a pot hole I try to swerve around it but this one was hidden because of the bridge that connected into it. This was a monster pot hole. Even going as slow as I was, Whoopie took a big hit. After yelling our "HOLY COWS!" and our hear rates/laughter started to subside, Loretta screamed, "THE POLES!!!". I thought, "Huh?" I look out the window and I see that the poles on the passenger side were being dragged down the road. I quickly pulled over and sure enough, the pot hole had knocked our rack on top of the truck loose. Great. Thankfully it was a warm sunny day outside so we didn't have to mess in the rain or snow. However, it had rained and snowed all that week so the ground was really muddy. Oh well.

The weight poles were hanging on by the hinge of a very bent bungee cord. These are the poles that hold the set in place and weigh a lot. Okkkk.... so as we use our womenly strength to get the poles on top of the rack again and out of the mud, the bungee SNAPS and the poles come tumbling down. I have never run so fast in my life! Haha! With my luck the poles would've hit me in the head, made me go into a coma and Loretta would be stuck with poles as well as my almost lifeless body in the mudd. haha! We had a good chuckle and then Loretta goes, "OH MY GOSH! Look at the window!!!!". On the way down the poles took out two of the hinges for the side window and this made the entire window shatter.

Crap.

We were in shock. We looked at the window, then each other, then the window and after several more of these we then we just started laughing. WHAT DO WE DO?!?!? We are in the middle of nowhere, no cell service, no internet, no cars driving by, the town we're going to has barely a population of 200. Laughter seemed to be the best solution at the time. Thank goodness we don't hjave to pay for this! We then took lots of photos to send to the home office for Gordon (the truck guy) and then we moved the poles and truck so we weren't on the shoulder of the road. By this time, the sheriff came out of nowehere and helped us fix the rack on the truck, rebungee the poles and helped with our shattered window. When I say help I mean we had to push all the glass inside the truck and all over our sets, costumes, luggage, and groceries. No fun. :(

We then were back on the raod headed to Augusta. When we got there and explained what happend to our Contact. Her husband was nice enough to tape up the window with cardboard for us before we all sat down to dinner which was very nice of him. :) Later that week we got a visit from Steven Thomas, a tour actor who spent his unbooked week helping the home office in Missoula. Since Missoula was only two hours away, he drove out to Augusta and we swapped trucks. This meant we had to say "Goodbye" to Whoopie.

As we were putting up our decorations in our new truck we found a name tag behind one of the seats. It said "Ranger Rooney". Well since this truck came with a name tag, I guess we HAVE to call it that.
Hello Ranger Rooney.
Watch out for Grand Canyon sized pot holes please.

-Jen

Interesting Moscow

Hi Friends!
After driving through a snow storm on our way to Moscow, Idaho our week wasn't looking to shall I say bright? The home office has been telling us TAD's that there is something about the month of February that just brings people down. I thought that was a silly notion and refused to believe it. Well, the home office was right. Sometimes life on the road can be kind of a downer. You're in a strange place, in a strange bed and sometimes feel completely alone. For me I don't know if it was the fact that I had just gotten back from an amazing time in Italy or possibly something else but that week seemed a little dreary.

Please don't get me wrong, I know I sound like a Debbie Downer but I really do love my job. I feel truly blessed to have had as many experiences as I have had all the while making new friends and influencing kids to pursue theatre. All of these factors make my job so much fun and I can't believe my contract is about to run up. I definitely want to come back on tour at some point but note to self listen to the home office and don't come during the month of February. Check.

Loretta wasn't feeling well that week so I spent a lot of time by myself exploring. We were in the basement of our Contact's mother's house. Our Contact was/is the owner of the only dance studio in Moscow. One day in my exploring I found in one of the closets in my room a bunch of dance costumes from the 80's. SCORE! It then occured to me that there were a bunch of mirrors in my room. Well that makes sense, when she lived there she had to practice and check her lines. I suddenly felt inspired and that I TOO needed to practice and check my lines. Dancing is always fun esp when you can do it like no one is watching but then again thats fun too. :)

This "theatre" was the coffee place.

One day I just kind of drove around town and stopped at this coffee shop. This was no ordinary coffee shop, this was a Christian coffee shop. How do you know Jen? Was it all the Bibles sitting on the book shelves that covered the walls or was it the Bible verses written one every surface in the room? No friends, I'm much too unobservant to make such an assumption. Haha! I asked the guy what the answer was on the whiteboard on the wall. It was a question about one of Jesus' disciples. I knew the true answer but I didn't think he would tell it to me. No I thought he would say some snide comment or a punchline to some joke but he actually told me the answer which was "faith". Caught off guard by this, I asked if this was a Christian coffee shop and while pointing out the Bibles everywhere he said, "What gave it away?".
(insert slap to forehead)
After a few minutes of talking with this guy I received a free yes FREE chia latte. YUM! February was starting to look better. :)

The school we were actually at was pretty cool but it was HUGE! The community had done some add-ons to the school and I think its one of the biggest schools we'd ever been too. I've never seen so many flights of stairs just to get to the theatre. I did notice a pretty cool painting of a dragon on one of the walls that one of the students had painted. They must've known that there was a dragon in King Arthur's Quest. haha! The picture kind of reminded me of the dragon in Sleeping Beauty. What do you think?

One day I went for a long walk around the neighborhood which was really nice but when I got back, I found out that Loretta was feeling worse. We talked to the home office and they said for Loretta to stay home from rehearsal which meant I was on my own. This is gonna sound like I'm lying but this didn't scare me one bit. I actaully looked forward to this challenge, run a 4 hour rehearsal with 60 kids all by myself? Piece of cake. I even had to run the next day's rehearsal by myself  as well as put up the set and sort costumes by myself. Not a problem.

This might sound a little arrogant but Loretta and I are soo used to this show we can do it with our eyes closed. Granted my eyes weren't closed but this challenge was actually a lot of fun for me. I can honestly say that those two rehearsals were my favorite rehearsals since I started this job. The show was MINE to run. I had so much freedom while running these rehearsals, it was like a breath of fresh air. We had found out earlier in the week that our King Arthur was really good at Celtic dancing and we talked about adding it in the show somehow. Well I did and it was hilarious I must say. The girl even brought in sheet music so the piano player could play it whenever she danced. It was so random but yet so funny! This was also Loretta's week to perform but since she still wasn't feeling well the day of the show I had to do it at the last second. See this was MY show.

If all of that didn't make Moscow interesting then this next thing did. Moscow, Idaho is the city of doppelgangers. No I'm serious. Everyone always says that you have a twin somewhere out in the world, well I'm telling you that they are all in Moscow! I started making a list of how many kids or people there reminded me of someone I knew. I think I got up to about 9. The girl playing King Arthur looked like my friend Courtney who I wrote about earlier in the Fall that was getting married. It was ridiculous how much this girl reminded me of Courtney! She even held herself and spoke like Courtney. Weird.

Our Contact (the dance lady) reminded me of two people. At the time she reminded me of this girl I went to school and did colorguard with named Brittany. However, her personality and the pictures of her (which were all over the house) in the 80's where her hair was teased and big reminded me of my other friend Courtney L. who I did shows with in college! Now Courtney L. actually has brown hair but she's worn so many blonde wigs that I don't count that minor detail. There was a bunch more but those were the two that really blew me away with their similarities.

Moscow started off a little blah but by the end it was a very interesting week. Maybe our next week in Augusta, Mt will be an interesting week too. :)
-Jen

Travelling Free-Spirit

Hi Friends!
First off I would just like to say that I have been blessed with the greatest group of friends, ever. Before tour, back in our college days, we distinguished that I was "The Planner" out of our group of friends but since I started this job back in May that has changed drastically. I've now been told that I'm the a "Free-spirit". Well I think I like the sound of that better. One thing this job has taught me is to NOT plan but to be flexible when certain circumstances are thrown your way. In other words be ready for the worst, expect the unexpected.

This isn't just a motto but more like a way of life for us TAD's. I mean you gotta plan for some things like plane tickets home and calling two weeks out about where we'll be staying the following week but thats different. Honestly you get used to it and now I feel adventurous and brave. I however did not feel that way once Allison left me alone at the train station in Italy to try figure out my way to the airport. This idea scared me senseless. Here I was in a foreign country, surrounded by NO ONE who spoke english and somehow I had to get from point A to point B using public transportation. EEEEEE!

Thankfully Allison had showed me earlier in the week where to purchase my tickets and was even sweet enough to write out for me questions in Italian. Questions like: "Is this the bus to the airport?" and "What's you phone number handsome Italian Man?" -Just kidding on that last one. :) So I had that going for me but I know how I am. I can get lost in a paperbag. What scared me the most was that I risked getting on the wrong train/bus, getting off at the wrong stop, and somehow ending up in Switzerland. Oh believe me friends, it can happen. . . . . I somehow managed to get to the actual airport! Sidenote: When I asked the man, in Italian, "How much is a ticket for the bus to the airport?" I had another "movie moment" where everyone in the store stopped what they were doing and stared/smirked at me. SCUZA! I don't speak Itaiano. :)

Now that I was at the airport I had to sit tight. My flight didn't leave until 7:00am the NEXT morning and the airport people told me I couldn't go through security and wait in the actual airport. Why? Well come to find out the airport closes at midnight and reopens at 6:00am. Great. I thought all I had to worry about was getting to the airport noooow I had to worry about getting thrown out of the airport that I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to get to. What's a Gill to do?

I ended up finishing my Harry Potter book which took up a total of 30 minutes. Now what? Well in this very big but deserted lobby there was only one outlet (I had an Italian plug in thing) and where was it you ask? By the smelly bathrooms. :( So to take up time I edited my Italian pictures that I had taken and looked through Allison's that she gave me. (This is where I realized that hers were all funny and not how they should be.) There was also no internet which meant no facebook. Too bad I was kind of counting on that.

I couldn't sleep because I was afraid that someone (a hobo from outside) would come along and steal my stuff or that I'd sleep through my flight. UGH! Terrible. Then I remembered that I had some DVD's in my luggage. My Dad had got me for Christmas the entire series of The Lucy Show (not I Love Lucy this is different) so I started watching that. I already had watched a few of these while on the road and was on the 2nd disc. Guess what the 1st episode on this disc was about? Lucy on an airplane. BWAHAHA! I think that proves that God has a sense of humor. If you can't tell, by this point I was a little frazzled and needed a good laugh. Thanks Lucy. :)

After watching a couple episodes and the movie The Holiday it was about time for the airport to reopen. Thankfully while I was in my little corner near the bathrooms no security man saw me and tried to kick me out. YEA! Tom Hanks ain't got nothing on me! It had been a long night and I can honestly say I have never been so thankful to get on a plane so I could get all squished up in an awkward position to take a nap. This made the flights go by fast. Friends I do advise you to get plenty of rest before you fly to a foreign country, the airports are nuts, a lack of sleep doesn't help. Thank goodness this time around I knew what to expect and coming back to America wasn't nearly as bad. The flight was long and nice because I caught up on my sleep. The food this time was something I recognized and it was actually pretty good. Yea! Thank you Delta for my yummy chicken salad and water. Haha!

Now everyone who has ever travelled out of the US has told me that ". . . its not the leaving America thats so bad but it's the getting back in". I don't know if I agree with that. All they did was check my passport and ask me a few questions like if I had any chocolate or any type of alcohol in my bags. "uhhh No friendly security man, I do not."

Clear.

What did stink was that I had a total of 15 minutes to get to my connecting flight to Denver from where I was in Chicago. Did I mention that my flight was on the other side of the airport and I had to pick up my luggage, get on a shuttle bus, go through security again (where my watch shattered for some reason) and then run to my gate? Oh. . . I didn't mention that? Well thats what happend. Thankfully after pulling a Home Alone scene of running like a mad person to my gate (I'll admit I even had that Christmas song that they play for that scene in my head.) I got to my gate and they said that I was at the  wrong one that they had changed gates. What! Well since I was already late for my flight, it looks like I would be spending another night at the airport. Great. I went to this new gate that wasn't up on the screens at the airport and to my delightful surprise the plane was running late and would be there in about 30 minutes!!! YEA!!!!!

This gave me time to go use the bathroom, I was about to BURST and get some Starbucks. Oh Starbucks how I have missed you. Don't get me wrong, Italian coffee is simply the best but it ain't cheap. Starbucks is nice esp when a lot of the kids each week give you a bunch of giftcards so free coffee is ALWAYS better.

So I flew into Denver and man was I thankful to be back in Arvada, Co. A place that was familar. Now you may be asking "...but Jen I thought your next residency was in Moscow, Idaho. Why are you back in Colorado?" Welp the reason for that is simple. It was just cheaper for me to do the round trip to and from Arvada, stay for free at my old homestay's house for the night and then head for Spokane, Wa where I would meet up with Loretta to go down to Moscow. Sounds complicated, I know but it made sense at the time and was cheaper. Plain and simple. . .sorta. Ha!

After sleeping in a familair, WARM, comfy bed I had to wake up and go to the airport once again. If you've been doing the math, this would be my second full day, not including the time difference, at the airport. >:( There was some "miscommunication" about where I would be staying that night before Loretta and I headed to Moscow. Needless to say, I learned my lesson.

The next day Loretta and I met up in Coeur d'alene and drove down to Moscow, Idaho. It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive but it ended up taking longer because we drove through a blizzard. See, expect the unexpected. We pulled into the drive of this very sweet lady and got settled into our new home for the week. I thought, "It's gonna be weird getting back to work after such an adventure as Italy." It wasn't actually tooooooo weird but I will say that after this trip to and from Italy, I have never been so tahnkful to have my own bed and car waiting for me at home in Lynchburg, Va.
-Jen

I miss you Rosalie!