Post-trip Blogging Begins

Well, my pictures aren't loading well, so I don't have enough on Photobucket to post them yet.  Plus videos always take a ton of time to upload, so the videos I took won't be on for another week, probably (because I have to go the the library to upload them).  But a friend posted a video of the last time our team did the drama, so I'll link that in.  Enjoy!

Team 6 - Spellbound - Never the Same, Panam, 2012 - performed at boys' orphanage

That's a 20-minute video, by the way, so watch it only when you have plenty of time...and internet.

I've been spending the last few days sorting the trip out in my mind and trying to get over how much I miss my team.  Neither are working very well.  Last year in Ecuador, I bonded very deeply with a few of my teammates, but never felt a deep connection with the full group.  This year, I feel far more connected to the whole team.  I miss Maisy getting dogpiled, Andi making weird facial expressions, and Hannah dancing awkwardly.  I miss Alyssa's sense of humor, Mariah's laughter, and Annie's smile.  I miss Bethany sneaking pictures, Robin saying epic quotes, and Lisa dancing.  I miss the stupidly adorable voices Myles is so good at, the energy Beth puts into everything, and the way Cameron and Madison love each other like I've never seen siblings before (Heather and Spenser are amazing that way, too).  And as much as I would love to go through everyone, I have to stop now or I'm gonna cry.
The last day in Ecuador, my team leaders made a deal with the whole group that everyone who came back would ask to be on the same team again.  I didn't when I filled out my application, for two reasons.  One, I figured that if God wanted me on the same team, He'd put me on the same team.  Two, the main reason, I couldn't figure out where to write the request.  (Not kidding.)
When I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, it was harder than I realized it would be to see so many people from last year all together and having fun - without me.  I missed, and still miss, my Ecuador family deeply.  But then I met an amazing woman named Lisa Hughes, and new that no matter how much I missed my old team, working with Lisa would be worth it.  I really can't describe her well, but I'll try.
Lisa has a kinda goofy sense of humor (rather like mine, actually) that she isn't embarrassed of.  She cares for everyone she meets and tries to make them feel welcome wherever she is and whatever she's doing.  Her heart is open to God and sensitive to when He moves.  Lisa has compassion for the lost and turns that compassion into a drive to reach as many of them as possible.  She is an encourager, a leader, and a mom to everyone.
Then I met my roomies (for anyone who didn't catch my implications earlier, Cassie was one of my roomies), and for the first few days I seriously considered asking to switch rooms.   (Again, not kidding.)  Then I fell in love with them.
Andi, Maisy, Hannah, and Alyssa are all probably certifiably insane, and I love it.  I had more fun between 10 and 12 in our room each night than I did in the rest of the trip combined.  And I'd say more, but then they'd kill me for breaking the privacy pact, so sorry.
(Yeah, today is team analysis.  I haven't quite gotten everything else sorted out yet.)
"Cry Night" was a major turning point for the whole team as we got to know ourselves and each other better.  Once again, just what happened is private, but I can tell you something that I learned, or rather had conformation on.  The devil does whatever he can to limit our impact, and he does that by making people feel the opposite of what they are.  It is the beautiful who feel ugly, the loved who feel alone, and the shining stars who feel invisible.  So as long as I can remember the devil tells me I'm opposite of what I am, I have a pretty good picture of how God sees me (teammates, remember this!).
And now I'm getting exhausted, not from the introspection, but from the homesickness.  I miss the beautiful Panama family God let me have for two weeks.  I love you guys, and God bless!

Hugs to you all!

To my leaders and LITs: God knew who I needed to have guiding and helping me.  Thank you so much for being there.
To my roomies: My room's too quiet.  Come visit!  I love you guys. :)
To my Kitties: Rawr rawr *five*  Maybe you couldn't not smile at first, but man, you got good!  God bless you. :)
To the people with the hardest part (mimes, duh):  Thank you guys so much for doing your part.  You made the rest of our jobs easier by doing the hardest work, and whether you believe it or not, that ministered to people (me included).  God bless.
To the toys:  So much of a range of emotional expression!  Haha, you guys did great.  It was a blast working with you.
To Cameron and Myles, Toymaker and Son:  I'm pretty sure the drama wouldn't work without you guys.  Think about it...okay, that's enough thinking.  Cameron, you brought something to the Toymaker that I've never seen done before: God as protector.  Myles, as you grew more comfortable with your part, you started adding bits that made it all yours and really added to the drama; great job.  (And I'll miss the epic little voices you do.)
To Jake:  You came with a smile even though things weren't going how you had hoped, and you stepped up as a leader.  Thank you for blessing our team.
To all the guys:  Thanks for raising the bar.
To my little sis:  Thank you so much for going with me.  It was a joy to experience it with you and watch you do things out of your comfort zone that you probably would have never done at home.  I love you so much, and I wouldn't trade you for anyone else. :) *hugs*

Last Two Days

Augh!  It´s my last day in Panama!  *sobfest*
We went back to the tribe yesterday, but to a different village.  Before going there, though, the natives took us to a waterfall where most of our team went swimming.  (Most people complained about the water being cold, but it sure felt warm to me!)  Then we went to the village and were given the cultural presentation that we didn´t get at the last village because of the rain.  This time, it was sunny the whole day!  (But I sweated off my new tattoos - the tattoos I got just because the old ones had sweated off!)  It was beautiful, and I got some cool music and dance videos (including a video of Cassie dancing with a nearly-naked tribal man who is half her hight).  I also got tons of scenery pictures.
(And speaking of pictures, one of my team leaders is one of the trip photographers, and he gives out all his team photos to his team members for free, so I don´t have to buy the whole photo package this year - a great thing, because they raised the price from $20 to $30.)
Today was a free day.  First, we went to the Panama canal (and saw a ship go through the locks!), then we went to a market.  I´ll tell people what I got after I´ve given out the gifts. :)  Although I will mention, for Beth, that I didn´t quite get matching dresses, because one is pink and one is blue, but they´re the same style.  I also got them big so the girls can wear them for longer. :)
And I got Snickers ice cream.  Just a random and totally awesome fact.
Another random and totally awesome fact is that half the guys on my team have been wearing ponchos around because they bought them and love them.  It´s awesome, and it´s funny how good they look in them.
So yeah.  Not much happened today or yesterday that I have time to go into detail on right now (the business center computers aren´t working right now, so I was told to use the guest services computer and I don´t want to take it for too long).  I´ll post details and photos when I get back.  I fly back to Miami tomorrow and home the day after that.  For anyone interested, I´m due in around 6:30 on the l6th.  See you soon!

Da Da Dum

Yeah, that was the only title I could think of.
Yesterday´s expeditions weren´t quite what we expected, but they were still fun.  Monkey Island really isn´t an island because someone built a land bridge to it and most of the monkeys moved to the mountains.  The reason the bridge was built was that two kids were killed by monkeys because they had become so aggressive.  But we still saw several monkeys and a sloth, and the group Cassie was with (we were in two separate boats) saw a baby crocodile.  The tram was a lot of fun; I got some great shots aiming straight down.  We weren´t that high, though, because it goes up the slope of a mountain.  At the top, we got off and walked up to an observatory that had a great view.  (But on the way up I was stung by a wasp; my first time being stung.  It hurt!)
The rest of the day was pretty laid back.  I tried to get my hair to stand straight up for wacky hair night, but I didn´t have enough patience.  It still looked pretty freaky, though!  (People kept asking if I´d put soap in my hair.)
Today we went back to the Catholic school and to an orphanage.  At the school, we almost weren´t let in because something got screwed up with the paperwork, but we were let in.  The drama went really well, and at the end, I got to "bring in the net" (explain the drama and lead people a prayer for salvation).  We couldn´t count them all, but there was somewhere around 100 kids who got saved!  And afterwords, there was a little boy who was going around hugging people, and he hugged me twice.  The second time, he said, "Te llama," which means, "I love you."  I melted!  I told him, "Te llama," back, and a LIT took a picture of the two of us together.
At the orphanage, the drama went well.  About 15 kids there gave their lives to the Lord.  Afterwords, we got to play with the kids for about half an hour.  There was a little boy who had broken his finger a few days ago, and they hadn´t taken him to a doctor.  One of our LITs, Laura, is on the trip´s medical staff, so she set his finger and bandaged it as best she could.  It broke our hearts to have to leave the kids, especially him.
Tonight after FUAGNEM I´m going to the showing of the movie, "We Bought a Zoo."  And now I´m out of time.  Catch you later!

Bad and Good

Bad: Monday morning we found out that all of Cassie´s clothes that she washed, and everything else of our roomies´and our stuff that got wet (from tribe day and from washing) mildewed because the humidity wouldn´t let it dry.  Oh, except for my sandals (whew - I´d hate to have to mess with those).
Good: Last night´s total salvation count for this trip so far was 950 exactly. :D *party*
Hmmm, what did we do yesterday?  Oh, yeah!

Random quote:  "This is why I have abs of pudding cups." - Kennedy (Evil Magician)

Monday, team 6 went to a school in the morning to perform the drama.  The area was pretty sketch, so we had a police escort and weren´t allowed to leave the big group.  Apparently, several gangs tote guns around that area and rob people, but we didn´t have any trouble, thank God.
The first drama went well.  I don´t know how many people accepted Christ.  Then we walked (yes, we were walking through this area) back to the bus for lunch.  Four of the people on the team are allergic to nuts, and one guy, Cameron (Toymaker), is so allergic that if he´s near someone eating our standard PB&J fare, his throat starts to close on him.  He really has a problem when we eat in the bus, so one of the translators and one of the leaders were going to take him outside to a relatively sheltered stairway while the rest of us ate, but his sister freaked out because he started talking about how "cool" it would be to get caught in a gang war.  She made such a fuss he ended up staying on the bus.
After lunch, we walked back to the school (with the police escort, and all the guys watching out) and did the drama for the afternoon crowd.  (Apparently, the school has a morning session and an afternoon session with totally different students.)  I went around with a girl named Megan (Mime) and a translator named Luis.  Megan did most of the talking, for everyone we talked to, but I did some for the second.  The first person was all ready a Christian.  The second group (four) hadn´t understood the drama, and Megan explained it to them, with me explaining the parts she couldn´t figure out how to phrase.  After the drama was explained, the girls were so excited to ask Jesus into their hearts!  Megan couldn´t figure out how to start leading them in the sinner´s prayer, so I started and Megan jumped in when she figured out what came next.  After that, I played "don´t let the beach ball touch the ground" with a group of very rowdy boys and a couple teammates.  It was a blast!  Games like that totally cross the language barrier, so that´s always fun. :)
After walking back to the bus (again without incident) we decided to find some place for ice cream, and after finding a Dairy Queen (it´s amazing how many US restaurants are down here) the guys announced they wanted to pay for the ladies´ ice cream.  :)  It was so sweet!  I got a Crunch Blizzard.  I had no idea how much I´d been craving ice cream until I had some!
Today we were supposed to go to a Catholic school, and then to a market (both for doing the drama), but the Catholic school wouldn´t let us in because some people (a lot, actually) were wearing shorts.  So instead of going straight to the market, we went to a park and did the drama there for a large group of kids.  Almost all of them got saved! :D
We ate lunch at the park, then went to the market.  We were only allowed 30 minutes at the market, so we went in and set up quickly, and started the drama right away.  After performing the drama on a very dirty brick street, I - by default of being the only one there - was assigned to watch our water bottles (we had left our backpacks on the bus with the bus driver).  Apparently, this area was pretty sketch too, because our leaders had the guys keep a close eye on us, and one of the translators had to rescue a LIT who got caught in a brawl two drunks got into.
Don´t worry too much, Mom and Dad.  We´ve got Cameron on our team.  He is by far the most protective guy I have ever met.  This drunk/high/something-not-right guy was walking in my direction, and Cameron´s face got his "guardian look".  He stood next to me and watched the guy until he knew I was safe, then moved off to protect some of the other girls, while still keeping an eye on me.  If I had an older brother, I´d want him to be just like that.  All the girls agree that having Cameron there makes us feel much safer.
So now we´re back early.  There really wasn´t any place else for us to go.  I´m gonna go to the bathroom and get my stuff ready for tomorrow.  Monkey Island and Arial Tram Ride, here I come!  I can´t wait for the break day tomorrow.  It´ll be a blast!
Catch you guys later!

Sunday

Hello all!  Let´s see if today´s post is any smoother than the last one...
Okay, my last post was on...Friday.  Let´s catch you up.
After FUAGNEM on Friday night, my friend Michael (a girl) and I decided to check out the new hangout, Club Susie.  It´s in a "cave" down on the bottom level of the hotel.  They have a snack bar and tables, and one of the guys from one of the teams is the DJ.  They play entirely clean dance music.  It´s a blast!

Random quote: "Hey, Mom, I joined a gang!  It´s called 'Team 6'." - Robin (Mime)

Saturday morning we woke up and were getting ready for the drama.  We had been told that we were just going to do food distribution, but that fell through, so we were going to do the drama again instead.  But as we were getting ready, we were visited by Lisa (co-head leader and wife of our other head leader, Greg), who told us that the drama was canceled and we were going to go meet one of the native tribes!
We took an hour-long bus ride to a river, and then we canoed up the river for an hour before we reached the village.  There was ceremonial music playing as we went up the steps that had been cut into the hillside, and when we reached the top we saw young boys (the youngest looked about 2) were playing.  I couldn´t have kept rhythm that well at their ages!  It was pretty impressive.
The tribe cooked lunch for us: fried fish and fried plantains.  The plantains tasted like french fries, and the fish was sooooo good. :)

Random quote: "Stop!  Don´t touch me there!  This is my no-no square." - Miles (Toymaker´s Son)

After lunch, they did some dancing for us; first, the women showed traditional dances, then the men joined them for a couples dance based off of Spanish dances.  After the men and women had danced together, the village men pulled some of the girls on our team out to the "dance floor" for a dance.  The last dance was two locals with the two birthday girls on our team (Madison from the plane, and one of our translators).
After the dancing, some of the men got out their paint and started giving us tatoos.  I got a large traditional pattern on my right fore arm, a six inside a heart on my right hand, and our team logo (the super six) on my left upper arm.  (BTW, Mom, they told us through the translators that the tattoos last 10 to 12 days on them, and longer the more fair the skin is, so expect to see them when I get home.)
Right after the dancing, a Panamanian downpour (softer and warmer than a Dutch downpour, but just as thick) started.  It rained the whole time we headed back, and we were soaked when we arrived back at the bus.  The rain had mostly stopped by the time we were back at the hotel, but it was still sprinkling.  Since our balcony is covered, my roomies and I left our stuff hanging out there to dry.
After FUAGNEM, I talked with Lisa for about an hour.  It was an amazing time of encouragement and getting to know eachother.
While I was talking with Lisa, I realized what an awkward stage I´m at.  I´m old enough I can´t really be considered a kid anymore, and I certainly don´t see myself as a kid even though I still have a lot to learn, but most everyone who has known me for even a year still can´t see me as a full adult.  It´s a confusing place to be, but with God´s grace I´ll make it through.

Random quote: "No I´m not confused.  I really like your skirt." - Robin (Mime)

This morning breakfast was at 8 instead of the usual 7.  Team time was at 9 (we talked about the healing of Jairus´ daugher) and morning FUAGNEM was at 10.  It was a powerful message by Susie on being willing to get out of the boat into the storm to follow Jesus.  I was sobbing by the end, as were most people in the room.  Susie is such a gifted speaker, and I am so blessed to be able to hear her.
After FUAGNEM I swam in the (GIGANTIC) pool and showered.  Now I´m typing this update as I wait for it to reach the time for our first EIEIOK (Everything I Ever Intended On Knowing) seminar a little after 4.  The first one I´m going to is led by one of team 6´s LITs, Heather, and it´s on sibling relationships.  Not that I´m about to kill Cassie or anything, I just don´t think it would hurt at all. ;)  The second one I want to go to (which will be after dinner) is led by Marti Pieper, and it is on prayer walking.  I´ve heard it spoken of in various women´s groups at church, but I´ve never really known much about it, so I´m looking forward to that seminar.  And Dana Gresh (a fantastic speaker) is speaking for the evening FUAGNEM, so I´m looking forward to that.  (And for anyone who´s wondering, we only have two FUAGNEMs on Sunday; every other day is just an evening FUAGNEM.)
So, I´m almost out of time here, and that´s all that´s happened here so far.  Catch up with you later!

Random quote: "Dogpile!" - Andi (Spanish Dancer), Alyssa (Kat), and Hannah (Mime); they shout this approximately five times every night (all around 11) as they dogpile on Maisy (Princess).  (They´re all my roomies; that´s how I know this.)

Hello again!

Hi everyone!  Here I sit, after my first ministry day, trying not to fall asleep before FUAGNEM.  It was a long day *searches for semicolon*(insert semicolon - sorry, this is a Spanish keyboard) we did the drama three times.  But I should probably just pick up where I left off last time.
Training finished fairly well (insert semicolon) a couple of people don´t know their parts very confidently (unfortunately, it´s the Toymaker and his son) but I´m sure they´ll have it down in a couple of days.  The two full days in Miami felt kind of like two weeks, we packed so much into a day.  I kind wish we had more training time, but at the same time, I´m glad we´re finally here.
Man, this keyboard is confusing.  I don´t remember having this much trouble in Ecuador.
Oh, I just found the semicolon; I think I´ll leave in those other things, though, ´cause they´re kinda funny even though they are confusing.
The flight down was pretty good.  I think I slept part of the time, because my neck just suddenly really hurt after I´d been sitting there with my eyes closed. (:P)
Panama is actually cooler than Miami was, and the humidity is made more than bearable by a nice breeze that blows constantly.  It´s actually really nice, because the heat isn´t too strong and it penatrates one´s whole body...if it weren´t for the bugs, I would sleep outside on the hammock my roomies and I have on our balcony (we have a hammock...IS THAT COOL OR WHAT?*now can´t find the right-side-up exclaimation point*).  I still have to drink quite a bit of water, though, because I do so much dancing and running for my part.
Last night, after all but the last flight of kids had gotten in (our flight was nice because we had a 7:45 lobby time and arrived around 6 pm), we had an ALL WORSHIP FUAGNEM*finally finds correct exclaimation point*!!!!!  IT. WAS. EPIC!!!!!  I´ve got to learn some of our songs for UCF or UCFY; they are so powerful, I dance nearly every song.  I think most of the one´s I´ve only heard on Susie trips are our worship leader´s originals, so if you want to hear some amazing worship, look up Tommy Bailey.  The only song I know the name of that he plays for our worship is called Breathe.
So anyway, for today...
Breakfast was at...I don´t remember. *facepalm*  I´m thinking it was at 7...oh, yeah, ´cause that gave us an hour to eat breakfast, finish packing our backpacks for the day, and get to team time.  (Although my roomies and I thought team time was 8:15 because I´d told someone that it was at 8 and a leader "corrected" me and said it was at 8:15.)  For team time, we do devotionals.  These next several days we will be discussing miracles, but we didn´t do too much today because it took so long for people to gather (my roomies and I were´nt last, and in defense of the people who were, I´m not sure they knew about team time or where it was).
Our first drama performance was at a Christian school.  Before we performed I stood up and gave a short testimony (which I won´t be typing because don´t have enough internet time left).  I was glad that I told the kids during my testimony that I had a mean part, because one of my LITs (Leader in Training) told me afterwords, "You scare the crap out of me."  I basically told the kids that I had a mean part and that I would be a lot like my character if I didn´t have Christ in my life (which I totally belive is true, and I´m so glad I have Christ).  After the drama, I talked to a few of the kids (through one of our amazing translators) and blew up almost all of the balloons Cassie and I had brought.  The kids loved them!  I wish we had brought more.
Our second location was in an upper, out-of-the-way corner of a local mall.  There were a surprising number of people there by the end.  I got to talk to four business school students who were Christians.  During the drama, our sound kept fading in and out, so it was really confusing (plus we had a prop malfuntion when the Evil Magician dropped the princess´s mirror and it shattered *sigh*, but we actually did an amazing job of staying on time anyway.  God´s grace is sufficient!
Then we had lunch.  I had two sandwiches, but I should have only had one.  I didn´t even have room for dinner an hour ago because of it.  (With how little I´m eating and how much I´m dancing and sweating, I´m gonna lose a lot of weight down here. XD)
Our last location was out in the middle of a public basketball court.  The leaders and LITs figured out the sound problem and we performed.  It was a little hard to hear because the area was so open and the speaker was pointing towards the audience, but once again we did pretty well.  My sunglasses keep losing a lense when I have to throw them down in the play, and this time one of the whatever-they´re-called earpiece thingys broke, but I checked and they still stay on really well.  Plus one of my leaders has duct tape, so no problem.
And now I´m waiting for FUAGNEM.  My time is almost up, so I´ve gotta go.  Later!

It's My First Full Day in Ft. Lauderdale!

Hello, everyone!  As the title suggests, I am on my first full day here for drama training in Ft. Lauderdale.  But let me catch you up with what happened on the trip down here.
(All times are that are given are the times it was in the location we were.)
Cassie and I flew out of Anchorage at 3:35 PM on the first of July.  We arrived in Seattle around 6:30 and had lunch at a Burger King there.  Then we meandered back to our gate and took off at 10:10 for Miami.  We arrived at Miami at 6:45 AM.
Read that again.  SIX FORTY FIVE AM.  Yeah.
We didn't see anyone else wearing the green Panama shirts we were wearing before we got on the plane, which disappointed Cassie more than it disappointed me.  But when we got to our seats, two people sitting in front of Cassie saw our shirts and told us they were going too!  They were going to put their shirts on in the Miami airport.  (A brilliant idea, now that I think of it, because that would mean many hours less body oder on the shirt by the end of the trip.)  Madison and her brother Cameron also told us that they are on team 6, the same team as Cassie and I!  So yeah, it was cool.
It was a 45-minute drive from the Miami airport to the Ft. Lauderdale hotel we are staying at.  Once we arrived there (around 8 AM), Cassie and I waited for SEVEN HOURS for our room.  (Oh, and I forgot to mention that while Cassie maybe got three hours of off-and-on sleep, I had gotten maybe forty-five minutes of the same.)  So that was SEVEN HOURS where we couldn't crash, SEVEN HOURS where we couldn't shower, and SEVEN - count 'em - SEVEN HOURS where we had absolutely nothing to do.  We finally found someone with a deck of cards and played gin rummy with a teammate.
Dinner was at 6 PM, and our first FUAGNEM (Fired Up And Going Nuts Every Minute; remember that definition) was at 7.  We started with worship (lead by Tommy Bailey - LOOK HIM UP), and I was surprised to find how many of the songs I hadn't sang since last year I still remembered.  WORSHIP.  WAS.  EPIC.  This is where I learned to worship last year.  The same room, the purpose, the same leader.  This is where I learned to not care what people thought, abandon my fear of man, and just worship.  'Cause, after all, He's totally worth it.
(Side note: after worship, one of my old teammates from Ecuador tapped me on the shoulder.  She had been right behind me, but because my hair is different, she didn't recognize me until worship.  In her words, "I knew it was you, because no one else worships like that."  Shall we change that and start abandoning all to worship Him together? :) )
At 9:30, after FUAGNEM, we had drama auditions.  But before I tell you about those, I want to explain the drama.
The drama is Spellbound, a 20-minute street drama version of a Broadway-style show (I think it was called The Toymaker's Son, or something like that).  It tells the story of Christ through parallellism.  (No idea if I spelled that right or not; sorry.)
Characters: Toymaker (Father God), Toymaker's Son (Jesus), Evil Magician (Satan), Prince(Adam), Princess (Eve), Soldier (Apostle John), Spanish Dancer (Mary, mother of Jesus),  Nurse, China Doll, Clown, Baseball Player (Judas), Photographer, Kats (Roman soldiers), and Mimes (the set; if I reference something like a garden or wall, it's them).
Basic plot:  The Toymaker and his son create Toyland, a magical world where their special toys can live.  They create a toy garden, and then create two special toys, the Prince and Princess, to live in it.  But the Evil Magician who once helped them but rebelled casts a spell on the toys so that a wall is between the Toymaker and his son, and the toys.  The Toymaker's Son goes down to Toyland as a toy to break the barrier, and is killed by the Kats when the Baseball Player is charmed by the Evil Magician into betraying the Toymaker's Son.  But when the Evil Magician tries to cast his final spell on the toys, the Toymaker's Son comes back to life, banished the Evil Magician, and led all toys who loved him (including a reformed King Kat) through the break in the wall to the Toymaker.
(I'll see if I can get a video of our team doing the drama sometime, and post it after I get back.)
Casting was fun; we had to do quite a bit more of different things than I thought we would.  I was cast as the King Kat, and Cassie was cast as one of my sidekicks.
Then we went back to our room and crashed.
This morning we had the latest breakfast at 7:30, then team time (team-building games here; devos once we're in Panama) at 8:15.  Drama training started shortly afterwords.  We have spent most of the day so far learning our first scene.  It's fun but tiring; there is far more dancing in the version I'm doing this year than in the version I did last year.
Anyway, it's almost time for language training so I gotta go.  That's about everything so far.  Post later!

PS  Comments and questions welcome via the comment section or email (katiehuling@gmail.com).  Last year I had trouble getting emails, so if I haven't replied within four days, try my other email address (ilostmykeys@rocketmail.com).  Later!