I love your dimple!

Our short, but full visit to Hattiesburg, Mississippi was full of pleasant surprises. A small world it is indeed...For instance: I meet my host mother Joanna..she shows me her beautiful wood cabin-style house in the woods and introduces me to her adorable pets (two dogs Molly and Belle and a handsome cat Leo), we talk a little bit about where we are from, our families, what we do... all the usual stuff and then as I am from Mt. Clemens, MI - she asks me if I have ever heard of Shirley Muldowney? Why yes I have! As a matter of fact I have actually met her and been to her home when I was child - my Dad did the graphics on her race car and trailer. (For those who may not know, Muldowney is a well-known female drag racer) Turns out, Joanna knows Shirley - Joanna's husband, the late Al Dapozzo was also a  successful racer and happened to be very good friends with Muldowney. What are the odd's of having that kind of random connection with someone?! Crazy!

Saturday was a day off - I'm sure everyone has heard about the recent 8.8 earthquake in Chile. Some members of the SOUL team were worried on Saturday about repercussions of the quake in their home countries. Venezuela (Zuly) was in range to possibly be affected by after-shocks and Rapa iti, French Polynesia (Steve) as an island in the middle of the Pacific was threatened by a potentially serious Tsunami. I am happy to report though that after a day with a little worry, a lot of news monitoring, and successful contact to family members - everything is A-okay. :)

Aside from Steve the SOUL team attended a Dulcimer festival all day Saturday with some of our hosts - and you may wonder what a Dulcimer is. It is an old string instrument originating from the Appalachian mountains and people who still play get together all over the country at festivals to share stories, music, and a common love for the art of the Dulcimer. Who knew? The festival didn't quite turn out to be what we expected. I think we were expecting to hear more jamming and more music. It seems a lot of the time people were just together talking, but as we have no real knowledge of the Dulcimer we didn't have much to talk about. It was still interesting though to hear about the instrument and we also attended a little mini workshop on how to play the wooden spoons which was pretty cool. We also on Saturday visited a faculty art exhibit at the University of Southern Mississippi  (a name you might recognize from the recent Blockbuster hit "The Blind Side" and also as the Alma Mater of NFL player Brett Favre). One of our hosts Betty is a professor of photography there and had some beautiful photos on display at the exhibit that she captured in Sierra Leone. We also met another photographer at the exhibit who works for the university and who came up to me asking if he could photograph me because of my unique dimple on my chin. It was an odd request and one I had never heard before, but I figured why not...when in Rome, right? So he took some photos of me at the exhibit and some photos of  Teele, Zuly and I together which was kind of fun and flattering when I thought about it afterward! It was also a really beautiful day outside which was nice...the weather does slowly but surely continue to get better as we move further south...yay!!

The entire SOUL team and our hosts also gathered Saturday evening at Betty's house for dinner, music and visiting and we were THIS CLOSE to finally watching La Vita y Bella (Life is Beautiful)...a movie we've been trying to watch almost since the beginning of the tour. But, everyone got to visiting and it ended up being too late...we will get there one day, I just know it..."I can feel it in me bonessss!"

Church was awesome Sunday morning! SOUL was basically the entire service and many people told us it was one of the largest turn-outs they had ever had. And the most ironic thing happened! For the second time in just two days...I had another guy come up to me and tell me how great my dimple was. I know my dimple is very noticeable and people may think about it all the time - but people whom I don't really know don't often actually SAY anything about it. Not that I mind, I think it is a compliment? It was just an interesting chain of events. It was another gorgeous day out today. We all went to Susan's house (another one of our Hattiesburg hosts) for lunch before heading out of town and we ended up getting more than we bargained for! First a chance to play with her two really cute dogs. And also my host mom Joanna and her friend Jaimie joined which was a treat in and of itself...but! Joanna and Jaimie are also both professional massage therapists so we kind of got our own little SOUL massage session. It was amazing, they were awesome!

Speaking of Jaimie - she told me a story that I just have to share, because it's one of the craziest stories I think I've ever heard! So she had a regular gray house cat that unfortunately was chased underneath her dryer by dog, had a punctured lung and died. So they put the cat in a box and her husband at the time was supposed to bury the box in the backyard. A couple months later while Jaimie was in her garage a gray cat appeared and started meowing at her like it knew her. It was the same size, color, sex, stature, etc as her other cat and acted as if it knew her - and was also seemingly afraid of the dog from the dryer incident like he knew what the dog had done. The cat was so strikingly similar to her old cat that Jaimie did a little investigating. Come to find out, her husband at the time had never gotten around to burying the box and when they looked inside it, it was completely empty. No cat, no body parts, no bones, no fur, and the box had not forcibly opened at any point either. To this day Jaimie and her family swear that it is the same cat, reincarnate, and they call him Church. Is that not the creepiest/coolest/craziest story?! I love hearing stories like that though...in a way it helps to reinforce the idea that anything is possible - which is always a good thing to believe I think.

Anywho...after lunch we hit the highway, New Orleans bound! We arrived and ate dinner with our new host family where we will all be staying together for a full week, woo hoo :-D It's only our first night here and we have already eaten beignets at Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter, walked around Jackson square, found the greatest store on Earth (Coincidentally called "Jackie's" ;-)), and walked Bourbon Street. I have high hopes for this week and it is even warmer here than in Mississippi! And the best part is...we all learned about Dulcimer's and what they were just a day ago at a seemingly random festival in Hattiesburg and low and behold, what do we come across today? A guy, in Jackson Square, playing a Hammer Dulcimer like it was his job! (Oh wait...it is his job...) If that doesn't say small world, then I am Hawaiian and my name is Steve Angia.

Peace, love, New Orleans ~ Jackie

World's worst blogger...over...coming in for landing, over...Huntsville, AL

Since I last properly updated, SOUL has been to Chicago, IL and surrounding Suburbs, Avon and Berne, IN, Rogersville and Nashville, TN and we are now in Huntsville, AL. Needless to say, I have a lot to tell you all about! I won't make you you read a novel of every little event that has occurred in the past few weeks...but I will let you in on the major stuff!! There are also quite a few GREAT new jokes among the SOUL team I think you will enjoy ;)

FIRST before I update about SOUL stuff, it is kudos to Jackie time! A little background: Michigan is home to one of the top ten largest broadcast markets in the US (Detroit (also where I am from)), Central Michigan University is home of the best broadcasting program in the state (where I obtained my degree), And the Michigan Association of Broadcasters has recently awarded me with a third place award for "Best College News/Talk Radio Show" for a series of special interest stories I did for a show called Central Beat!! The good news is....THIS IS A HUGE HONOR!!! The bad news is...as I am on the road for work I will miss the award ceremony in which I was invited to accept the award :( But I can still add it to my resume, and it feels really, really good to be recognized by such a prestigious group of professionals!!

Okay now onto Chicago...first and foremost our Chicago host families were nothing short of absolutely amazing! We did not want to leave!! We visited several schools in Chicago including Whitney High School which is where Michael Jordan's children currently go to school and also First Lady Michelle Obama's Alma Mater!!! There was A TON of snow when we were in the windy city as well...Makly and Zuly both got to experience shoveling for the first time and driving without getting stuck every five seconds was....well challenging....

One thing we really wanted to do in Chicago was visit the SkyDeck at the former Sears Tower and we didn't get to because Mother Natures loves us, and it was just too cloudy :( But! We did visit the Chicago Institute of Science which was amazing! We got to do things like run in a human hamster wheel to experience just how hard hamsters work, do an analysis of our lifestyle to find out how old our organs are, see what we might look like in 50 years, learn how accurately we can read others based on body language, and much much more! ( I have photos I will add later, but right now my computer is failing to cooperate...oy, technology)

We also just happened to be staying in Chicago, very close to The Wild Hare (a famous reggae club) on February 6...the anniversary of the birthday of the late, the great, the one and only Bob Marley!! So we went to club to celebrates Bob's birthday and to make it even more spectacular miss Kristen Henderson was in town and she and her sister and friends met up with us!!! So great to see you girly...it was a blast!

I rode the subway with Carrot Top in Chicago as well which I will upload a picture of as soon as I can! hehe Just for that I will make this part of my entry orange!

On our way out of Chicago we stopped in a nearby suburb for a couple days and the SOUL team got to stay in a hotel for the first time! As much as we love our host families it was really nice to have a little change in the routine and be on our own for a couple nights! Makly and Steve shared a room, Teele and Zuly shared a room and for me it was the very first time I ever stayed in a hotel room by myself! I felt very grown up and official. :) Our hotel was really nice (freshly stocked with an abundance of Andes mints) and the staff was great too! hehe This was where we met Jose, who I think loved us because of just what a strange bunch we are. He worked at the front desk and seemed to be there every time we passed during our entire stay! He was the one who suggested TGI Fridays for dinner...so we went there and it was perfect! Why? Well Fridays was hosting a speed dating event and everyone was SINGLE, and ready to mingle! (SOULS new favorite phrase). Our waitress told us we were welcome to participate and Zuly promptly blurted "Well can we see the specimens first?" as if we were getting ready to conduct a science experiment to create the perfect man, which we all know is not possible, certainly not after meeting our beloved Jose ;) haha

Done with Illinois and now onto Indiana..."The Crossroads of America". Each time we get in the car for a drive we like to reflect on redundant things that make us laugh. For example every time we leave host families, they send us out of town with 1 million calories in the form of brownies, cookies, cakes, candy, etc. and Zuly always reminds us of the epic SOUL quote "Come May...I won't enter my pants!!". This quote actually stems from Rory (Chile), a 2009 SOUL singer who was trying to form a phrase in English about how he gained wait and came up with, "Oh no! I don't enter my pants". Another good one is us all imitating each others introductions for presentations since we hear them so much! "We are singers of united lands developing international and cultural awareness through vocal music.....I'm Jaaaaaaaaaackie Foisy, Aronga o Steve Angia toko, Buenos Dias me llama Zuleika, mis amigos llama Zuly, Bonjour toijsccnondownkjnemliufvhwuiorhtnglfnlcina Makly Benjamin Prophete, me llaman Teele eeestes.....and well I guess you'd have to be there. And did you also know that the number of motor vehicles on Rapa Iti island fluctuates depending on the day? Yessss, sometimes 25 cars, sometimes 27.

So, our experiences in both Avon and Berne Indiana were great! In Avon we were welcomed with a dinner raising money for Haiti relief and once again our host families were great! It was Valentines Day weekend and the boys and I all shared the same host home! We played pool with our host parents and Steve who was playing for the first time EVER was really freaking good at it....He got excellent grades in geometry I'm sure.

We braved a horrendous snow storm to drive to Berne and on the way we stopped downtown Indianapolis...we did a little shopping and SOUL 2010 discovered Noodles and Company...love at first taste. "Good for us" as Steve would say, and we would repeat. SOUL also had their first experience being haggled by a homeless guy in the US and as sad as it is...I told them this would be a good time to pretend they don't speak English.

Berne, IN: The US city with highest population of Amish people. As we pass a horse and buggy on the road Zuly gasps from the back seat as if she has just seen God. And Teele squeals "ooooo" like a kid in a candy store (no pun intended T) and by the time we arrive at our host families home, we are still talking in wonderment about the Amish when our host dad says, "well we've got an Amish neighbor down the way, Davey I who wouldn't mind answering some questions for you if you wanna pay him a visit..." So we went to visit Davey and his family and he showed us how they heat their homes and how they preserve their water supply and how to maintain a kerosene lamp and told us that one of the reasons the Amish cannot drive is because it is against their beliefs to have their picture taken and therefore they cannot have a driver's license....bet ya didn't know that, huh?!? It is evenings like this that I really appreciate my job...when else would I have the opportunity to sit with an Amish family in their living room and talk with them about their culture and hear them yodeler? Never!  Also a great joke came from this night...our new Amish friend Dave was practicing his Spanish with Zuly when I recognized the words "perro" and "caliente" and before I could put two and two together with my dog loving self, I became concerned and exclaimed "You eat hot, dogs in Venezuela?!?!" After laughing followed by a moment of silence I realized that we here in America also in fact eat...hotdogs....right.On our second day in Berne the SOUL train got a flat tire....no flat is an understatement...blown up tire would be more like it! Oh well...we got it fixed and the great concert with high school choirs that night made up for it!! And the host mother for the ladies the second night is a motivational speaker...the people I meet along the way never ceases to amaze me! :)

Next stop: Historic Rogersville, TN...Hello gorgeous mountains and natural beauty! All five SOUL members got to stay in one house with our host Guerry and her absolutely adorable dog Daisy in Rogersville! It was a great slumber party and we made a pact that everyone's secrets were safe, so, nananaaa boo boo! And Guerry is a folk singer, storyteller and performer so it was treat for SOUL to perform and be performed for! Rogersville is one of those hidden wonder kind of places. Every building and house has a history and IT WAS WARM enough outside to walk with just t-shirts and jeans to look at them...yay for southern weather :)


Music city USA, here we come! ( and that would be Nashville, woo!) First night there is a Friday and we have Saturday off!!! Let's just say this is a happenin' town and...what happens in Nashville stays in Nashville ;) Our workload in Nashville was lighter than usual so we really got a chance to relax and check out the city which was nice. One of our host fathers took us on a complete tour of Nashville including Centennial Park where there is a replica of The Parthenon and a walking tour inside the Opreyland Hotel, which when I put up pictures, you'll see, is the most amazing hotel ON EARTH!! Inside the hotel there is a jungle, an old fashioned village, a tropical paradise, flower gardens to die for and much much more! It was beautiful and incredible and I want to stay there and I also think I might not mind getting married there because it is sooooo pretty! hehe Oh and did I mention Marilyn Monroe was there? Yeah, she was.

Also in Nashville I was blessed to have a host father who is an IT guy and fixes people's computers on a daily basis. He worked throughout my entire stay there to clean off viruses and trojans from my computer that were partially preventing me from updating this blog!! Thank goodness for him and good riddance to computer nerds that have nothing better to do with their lives than infect other people's computers!(yes, this is my angry face)

AND now I again apologize for the lack of updating and I do believe I am nearly caught up! SOUL is now in Hunstville, AL...Sweet home Alabama!! We have had two evening concerts here, one of which was at the Boeing Company. As in Boeing 747, yes the airplane, yes the company that designs aircraft and defense machines such as missiles - one of the largest aerospace engineering companies in the world, what an honor! Speaking of engineers, here's a crazy fact...2 out of every 3 professionals living and working in Huntsville, AL are engineers of some sort. That is a lot of very smart people living in one area. There was a slam poet that also performed with us, and she was amazing...her name escapes me right now but I will find out and get back to you! Huntsville is also home to the US Rocket and Space Center (Alabama's #1 tourist attraction!) and Makly, Steve and I visited the museum today. We each picked the rocket we'd love to pilot and we rode a simulator of a mission to mars...it was radical dudes!

We also discovered our latest amusement. Our previous joke has been "I'm sorry officer...my GPS told me to." This comes from the fact that when you make a mistake she says "When possible make a legal u-turn", and Makly proposed one day "What if it said, make an illegal u-turn??" And keep in mind, that I always listen to my GPS. Except today when she said "You have arrived" and I yelled back "You are dumb! I'm not listening to you!" We were indeed not at our destination because we were in the middle of a field. Power to the humans! (Except...I did have the wrong address...) Anyhow, tomorrow morning we leave this astronaut town for Hattiesburg, Mississippi! And I promise...no more slacking on the updates :)

Hugs and a sunshine smile! ~Jackie

What Happens in Nashville stays in Nashville

Okay folks...better put your reading pants on for this one. I really apologize for the lack of updates here! Finding time to write with a lack of time and sometimes a lack of internet access is more difficult than I had imagined. Last time I wrote we were still in the windy city and now we are in Nashville, TN! I again have a lack of time but I will say that I have a notebook full of notes to let you all know about and I will write them all here as soon as I can! Stick with me, I promise the next entry will be well worth the read and the wait!

Love! Jackie

CRABBY PATTY

Oh. Em. Geee. I need sleep. On the road by 6am, presentations all day and evening, and another 4 hour drive tonight to Chicago...I love my job but man oh man am I tired : / I also know for sure that I am coming down with something. We have a lack of sleep, see hundreds of school age students every day, and my throat is killing me, dun dun dunnnnn.

Okay enough complaining. Our host families since my last post have been amazing as usual. I have lots of pictures of cute dogs to post here but it seems that every time I have the chance to update my blog I never have my camera cable accessible. Speaking of photos I will be sure to add a photo soon of how PACKED the SOUL train is...that will make it easier to understand why our stuff is not always the easiest to get to. So we have been in Clinton, MI, Custer, Saranac and today is our final day in Michigan!!!!

Finally on the road for REAL! We head to Chicago tonight and in just a little over two weeks we will be down south for the rest of the winter...yee haw!!

Just two days ago was my very best friend's birthday...Happy birthday Jen!! So sorry I couldn't be there to celebrate with you...but you know I will make it up in the summer when I am back at home :)

Feb 6 is the anniversary of the one and only Bob Marley's birthday and SOUL will be at a famous reggae club in Chicago celebrating!!! I'm sure I will have lot's to talk about here after our weekend in Chicago ;)

I have had several days of country living....which is responsible for the lack of wireless internet...but I should have it for a while now as we will be primarily staying in the city. Oh and ps, Makly is going to get me a job with Oprah while we are in Chicago, so be prepared for me to be famous the next time I write, mmkay? mmkay. sounds good :)

I bought cute Valentines day cards today just because they are funny...haha is that sad that I am buying Valentines for myself? I did buy a couple that aren't for me as well! Eh, oh well, makes me happy so deal with it!

OH! And SOUL is officially going to Canada this tour as well...soooo I officially applied for my first US passport and took a gorgeous mugshot! I am excited about it...now all I need is cold hard cash so I can travel the world and visit my new family once they have to return home :-P

The singers learned today that I am a phenominal rapper...I graced them with my own rendition of the 90's hit Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice.

AND Steve's new favorite song is Single Ladies by Beyonce. Yeah...we jam ;)

Thats all for now...I am too tired for details.

xoxo Jackie