My Oh My, How so much can change in so little time

Washington D.C. was amazing...a city I have been to only once and already know I love. It is such an empowering feeling knowing that you are standing in the hub of your countries decision making city. As we SOUL members have become professional crammers...we saw as many possible landmarks in DC in 8 hours as humanly possible. The Smithsonian, The Capitol Building, The FBI building, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, THE WHITE HOUSE....which I would like to take a moment to talk about. You can't fly to another country from a US airport without being subjected to thorough security checks, including but not limited to questioning, metal detectors, confiscation of personal hygiene products, and the occasional strip search - yet do you know how close you can get to the White House without any security checks at all?! The freaking house where the President of United States of America LIVES?? Yes Barack, Michelle, Sasha, Malia, and even Bo...you can practically stand right in their back yard separated only by a wimpy wrought iron fence that stands about six feet high and has 5 inch spaces between each bar....makes zero sense if you ask me. As I was standing...in the back yard...taking pictures of the White House, there was a guy with a strong accent standing next to me doing the same thing and commenting to his travel mate "I have traveled a lot...and I don't know ANY other country where you can get this close to where the President lives..." And as Teele mentioned for example: The US Embassy in Estonia is more protected than that!! Oh! And don't forget that since 9/11 you can no longer take tours of the inside of the White House....but you can take a lovely frolicking tour of the gardens on the grounds with massively large groups of people at a time and take pictures on the front porch. Well I guess it is helpful that they had one security guy dressed in all black standing on the roof in broad daylight...he really blended in with the WHITE house...Oh dear.

This is just something I found to be ironic...but overall I LOVE WASHINGTON D.C. Teele and I also visited the "Newseum" which was the most interesting and amazing museum I have ever visited...I wonder why it was so interesting to me? hehe They had everything from a memorial to journalists who have lost their lives reporting the news and a 9/11 news coverage memorial...to an interactive news room where people could experience things like the ethical dilemmas journalists face on a daily basis and what it is truly like to read breaking news from a teleprompter. My favorite part about this is seeing how difficult it is for some people...right after they say something like "Well how hard can it be?"...uh huh! It was really cool to me too, that the Newseum staff updates these shadow boxes EVERY day with a copy of the front page of nearly every major newspaper...in the WORLD. We also saw a "4D" movie about the history of journalism...what is 4D pray tell? Well it is 3D along with moving seats, puffs of air, vibrating floor, etc. It was really cool!

Also in DC....I think the biggest challenge SOUL 2010 has had to face....As many of you may have heard, SOUL has said goodbye to it's 4th singer, Makly Prophete from Haiti. Many people automatically think tragedy when they hear this news - so I just want to clarify that indeed Makly and his family are okay and his departure from the SOUL tour was unrelated to the earthquake.

Being in a management position, this is one of the most difficult situations I have ever had to deal with. This is a job where it quickly becomes difficult to separate the personal from the professional...when you spend practically 24 hours a day with people for five months you develop unique relationships that I have come to realize are equivalent to relationships you share with members of your own family. To lose one of our members...a part of our family...has completely changed our group dynamic and quite frankly changed our job quite a bit. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately the best one I think for the success of SOUL 2010. Although we miss Makly I am happy to say all things considered, the remaining members of our team are adjusting quite well and have been delivering outstanding presentations and performances as a trio.

Next Stop: New York City...talk about making the most of your time! Although I have been to the city many many times before...it never ceases to amaze me...and there is ALWAYS something new to see! Cramming for the group included: The Statue of Liberty, SoHo, Greenwich Village, Grand Central Station, Times Square, The Empire State Building, Central Park....WOW. I am glad for the singers that they were able to see most of the key landmarks...however, this type of sightseeing in a city like NYC is exhausting! What else? I did some minor shopping I couldn't afford, but also that I couldn't help. Teele and I received free tickets to an Owl City concert in which we attended and didn't actually see Owl City perform because they took too damn long to take the stage and they were wasting our precious opportunity to experience NYC nightlife...so we left. hehe The concert venue was really cool and the opening band wasn't too shabby, but it was going to take too long and there were too many pre-teens with their moms there. We are young and we felt old...that's how you know it's time to change the plan! We went to Adrian's Manhattan apartment (World Youth Choir friend of Teele's and now random acquaintance friend of mine!) I did see an opera for the first time, with Teele, that Adrian performed in at Juilliard..and I have to say it was above and beyond my expectations. It was Dialogues of the Carmelites and it was an amazing performance!! And Adrian still did a great job even though we kept him out until 5am Latin dancing at a Cuban bar and eating street meet on the Subway with some random kid whose friends drew a penis on his arm and then left him to sleep on the the train all night. haha fun times! I also saw a GIRL, who looked younger than I do on the subway with her husband and their little boy and she had the largest most obnoxious yet gorgeous diamond wedding ring I have ever seen in my life and a I took a picture of it, but the picture is on my cell phone - so unless you have access to my cell phone at some point...I won't be able to show you.

Now we are in New Jersey. We worked all day today at a private boarding school called the Pennington School...It was really nice...reminded me of the Cranbrook School in Michigan. We had a really good day and joined the host teacher after school for some delicious Gelatto. After work Teele and I returned to our hotel room and we were so tired we decided to take a nap before going out tonight. We laid down around 5...now it is 2:35am...we just woke up about an hour ago...and now we are starving because we slept through dinner so we are out to venture off and find a lovely greasy American midnight snack.

Countdown to The Netherlands!: 42 days :-D


Love, Jackie

What does Mother Nature have against us?

We left Florida yesterday and now we are in Washington D.C. and IT IS COLD! grrrr. But! We did have a great week in Clermont, FL. I took Teele on her first jet ski ride and she learned how to drive it as well...and I took Makly on his first REAL jet ski ride...their sound effects were enough to brighten my day for a week :-P hehe

We met several teachers at Clermont Elementary school that I think define what education should be. Dedicated and truly determined to do everything in the student's best interest...teachers that genuinely care about their students and their lives and their experiences...so thank you for that, and you all know who you are!

Many of the kids this past week had us laughing out loud...

*Zuly's instrument is called a "Cuatro". She is counting out loud in Spanish with the kids up to the number four so they can learn the name. Then she holds up the maracas and asks them "And how do you call these?" and a kindergarten student yells "CINCO!" as confident as ever....

*Zuly is trying to teach the kids how to roll their "r"'s by telling them to imitate the sound of a motorcycle engine...we just keep getting voom voom voom instead rrrrrrr!? (Other singers: "They don't have the rolling "r" sound in English...")

*I am selling t-shirts at an evening concert and a kid comes running up to the table (he's probably 7 or 8) and grabs an adult extra large t-shirt and starts screaming at me about how he wants it. I reach out to grab the t-shirt and tell him he will have to wait and come back with his parents...he proceeds to play tug of war with me and literally hangs from the t-shirt.....my face I'm sure was priceless (Something along the lines of expressing "Where are your parents and why on Earth did they let you out of the house today?!")...and Steve and Teele had the privilege of witnessing the whole scene...thank you guys for the back up...haha.

Through our wonderful connections at Clermont Elementary we also got to visit Walt Disney World! We went to magic Kingdom first and watched a parade of pretty princesses and handsome princes and then road some rides. Then we split up and Teele and I visited Epcot...Ya know, we created our future in a time machine and traveled around the whole world in just three hours...SOUL tours can do amazing things for you I tell ya....Talk about using your time wisely ;) Annnnnd Zuly, Makly and Steve liked Disney so much they went back again later in the week! I think they literally saw everything.....I'm glad they had the opportunity and had a great time!! :)

Friday after school we embarked on the longest SOUL drive in history I think...a total of 15 hours between two days...Being in the car for that long together can make you goofy... And I think some of the best people watching and random life experiences can happen at rest stops...officially. For the SECOND time on this tour, Teele and I found a ladies bathroom...a single ladies bathroom....one door....no stalls.....with two toilets set right beside each other. And (this is probably too much information but I will give it to you anyway because it makes the story  better...) we had to go so bad, we used them! So we are laughing and when we exit the bathroom Makly and Steve are still in line for the men's room. We explain why we are laughing and Steve walks towards the women's bathroom because he wants to see this - and I say "oh but Steve, you can't go in there!"...annnnd the guy working behind the counter proceeds to make the "psht" noise as in, uh it doesn't matter! and says "Oh yeah he can...it's probably better anyways". Turns out some kid had a volatile accident in the men's bathroom and it was inhumane to force anyone else to use it. So after Teele and I used the double toilet...so did the boys! It's kind of a weird and gross story, but I can just picture this being a great scene for a movie.

We stayed at a hotel in Savannah, GA last night...which makes me kind of sad because we heard so much about what a nice and pretty city it is...and we were only there basically to sleep :( Oh well...we did have a lovely continental breakfast that provided us with a great laugh to start off the day. Zuly see's a waffle machine but doesn't know how it works and so she calls me over and says "Okay Jackie you are the American here...show me." The hotel employee over-hears her say this and proceeds to pretty much make the waffle for her...and he says "When it's done it will beep at you." Zuly looks confused and says "what? beep?" and he looks her right in the face and says "Yes, it will go 'BE BA BEEE BEEEE BEEEEEEEP'" when it's done. It was the best impression of a waffle machine beep I have ever heard! It kind of reminded me of a scene from the most recent Alvin and the Chipmunks movie...which I saw with Miss Kristen Henderson and I think she is the only person who it will understand why, hehe.

Now we are in Washington D.C. and we get to be tourists all day tomorrow!! I think this is the thing I have been most excited for on the entire tour...I am really looking forward to it!! I am just bummed that I lost my camera charger, so i won't be able to take any pictures on my own camera :(

Countdown: 56 days till The Netherlands!!!

Peace, Love, Capitol Building! ~Jackie

p.s. I spent 5ish hours thoroughly cleaning the SOUL train inside and out this past week during my time off because I am officially a workaholic and now it is covered in bug guts. wahm wahm wahmmmmmm.

Caught in my own silly game

A lovely day off today was...slept until noon, when was the last time I did that?!!! ahhh the singers and I were also joined by our hosts at a lovely and crowded beach on the Gulf of Mexico :) Yeah life is goooood. Did you ever play the game of attaching money to fishing line and waiting for random people to grab it before yanking it away? My friends and I used to do that when we were younger. Today Teele and I were walking along the shoreline when I interrupted our conversation to say "Hey! There's a dollar!" and I went skipping over to pick it up...Just as I was bending down to grab it I saw it start to move and immediately heard a group of teenage boys start laughing. Yeah, I got served. But it pleasantly provided us with a good laugh as well! haha

One of our hosts here is the proud owner of a certified service dog named Lady, a beautiful and delightful Tebettan (sp?) Spaniel. She's a small little dog with a huge personality and I am totally in love with her! Also, the singers performed at a senior living center yesterday evening and we were joined at dinner by a couple who met each other there...Neill (yes with two "L's") is 91 and Jan is 85...neither of them look a day over 65...and they are more in love than a pair of giddy high school sweethearts! Seeing those kind of fairy tale-ish stories in real life is so refreshing to me!

My annoyance of the day: Makly, Teele, Steve and I are lying on the beach - our hosts (who mind you are all retired women) literally just left us to take a walk by the water, when a police officer comes up to ask us what is in our coolers, implying that we were trying to sneak alcohol onto an alcohol-free beach. He continued to explain that they check very thoroughly and blah blah blah. He asks if we are sure there is no alcohol in the cups - Teele says "Yeah, do you want to try it?" He say's flatly "no." Meanwhile there are at least 20 other groups of people around with coolers and cups that he paid no attention to. Yes we are young, and an odd looking bunch together, but c'mon people. Either check EVERYONE upon entry to the beach or don't check ANYONE. Singling people out is just a big-headed way to exercise your desire for power and prove your lack of self confidence if you ask me. And by the way...we were drinking V8 juice and Pomegranate juice.

I suddenly feel a little better about my job search overnight! I talked to my cousin (fav cuzzo em, love youuuuu) today and she gave me a great new website to check for job listings and I found nearly 20 listings throughout the country that I am more than qualified for! woo hoo! Looks like I have a lot of paperwork to work on here in the near future.

Tomorrow we have a program at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bradenton and then it's off to Disney World to find our inner child!!

Peace, Love, and Magic <3 Jackie

I know, I know

Things have gotten hectic once again - and not to mention now, during our time off we are constantly tempted by the beautiful spring weather and Florida sunshine....it always seems to sound much better than computering. Last time I wrote I was sitting in a library and now I am sitting in the Freedom Villiage senior living center in Bradenton, FL. Since my last post we have hit two college towns - Florida State University and University of Florida, rivals! That by the way remind me  very much of the rivalry between MSU and U of M...interestinggggg. I only experienced FSU nightlife though which I can attest to being great. You cannot beat a $10 wrist band that covers your drinks all night long. This was also the night that Teele and I ate McDonalds...TWICE - enough said. We also visited Waculla Springs with our hosts in Tallahassee....A beautiful natural spring and nature preserve where you can take a boat tour and observe incredible animals in their natural habitats including alligators, a variety of tropical birds, BIG turtles, and the famous gentle giants: Manatees.

We then stayed in Micanopy, Florida in the most amazing house I've ever been in. All five of us got to stay together with our awesome host Jeff. We fell in love with the home and grounds which they also use sometimes to host events such as retreats and weddings - you can see pictures at www.baylaurel.biz. CHECK IT OUT! It is unbelievable. Although we had a crazy busy schedule during our stay there - our time we could be at home felt like we were in a relaxation oasis. Also while there, Zuly and I attended a lecture with Jeff given by a journalism professor at U of F. The title of the lecture was along the lines of  "Living in a world of anti-social social media". It was very interesting to me to notice the difference in opinions in generations in regards to the benefits and disadvantages of the internet and social media. I'm sure you can tell by the title of the lecture what the main idea was - very interesting indeed.

After Micanopy we had a short journey to Gainesville where I met my future self in my host. I stayed with Jean and Tony, and Jean my host mother is absolutely gorgeous in her 70's, she and Tony were full of life and personality, they had a beautiful home and two rightfully spoiled mancoon cats...I couldn't have enjoyed myself more with them and  I can only hope in my future I am as much like Jean as possible - if you read this, you are my new real-life idol!! :)

The singers and I have visited many more high school's than usual, recently it seems - which has been a refreshing change. That was a random insert, but I wasn't quite sure where to mention it although I know I needed to.

So now we are two days back at work - before this the singers and I enjoyed 7 exquisite days off on beautiful and historic St. Augustine....Am I making it sound too good to be true?...it was!!!! We spent a lot of time on the beach...yes I am tan! One of our hosts was a marine biologist at Marine Land and she was able to get us passes to go visit and meet the dolphins there...magnificent animals, they truly are...and so cute! We took a trolley tour of St. Augustine and saw Fort Matanzas, and we also received special passes for a Freedom Trail tour that focused on the history of The Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine which was extremely interesting! We saw many homes where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed for example, and one of the places he was arrested as well as the homes of many other key name in American Black History. We also enjoyed a few fun nights out with a variety of live music and dancing - and the gorgeous weather just tied it all together perfectly, like a bright pink bow!

Now we are trying to get back into the working swing - oy vey. It is 8:00p.m. now and I left the house this morning to begin pick ups at 6:30a.m.and it started out as a rough morning...with the wrong address and a slightly unexpected 3 hour program...but throughout the day...aside from being utterly exhausted, things have gotten better and tomorrow, we have another day off! Woo hoo!

My parents are in the process of moving out of their house back at home and thankfully moving my stuff along with them for now for me...I know they are feeling the stress and pressure of moving and organizing and I wish I could be there to help! Love you guys...keep your chins up! I am really missing my parents, and my dog :( And also job hunting for after the tour has had me stressed in recent weeks....but other than that life is good :)

Also I just found out that after the tour I will be able to go and visit The Netherlands and a few other places in Europe thanks to Mr. Kevin Groothuizen!!! I will be overseas in 57 days folks, and I am completely ECSTATIC!! Thank you Kevin!!!!! :-D Can't wait!

Well that is the best recap I can do for now on the past few weeks in which I have totally slacked on my updates here...we will be enjoying the Florida sunshine for about another week and a half and visit Disney World on Sunday! Yay! After Florida we will head to the nations capitol, Washington D.C. which I am also really looking forward too!

Tata for now! Love, Jackie

Spelling correction: Thibodaux - and moving right along with 'the spring breakers'!

In my last post, turns out I was spelling 'Thibodaux' incorrectly - so my apologies for that :) And our busy week in Thibodaux ended swimmingly with a dinner for international students at my host Raj and Leena's house. Good food, good people and fun times. We played "Big Booty" for the longest period of time in the history of the game I think...we played so much that I had a bruise on my thigh from keeping the beat...oops! And Saturday morning on our way out to Florida I stopped by New Orleans to pick up my two hooligan children Makly and Teele before continuing on the journey. hehe

We are at that point in our journey - the point where homesickness creeps up on you. If you think about it...for six months, we sleep in a different bed every 2 or 3 nights, every time we want to take a shower or get dressed we must dig through a suitcase, you never know how long it will take to rinse your hair in the shower because of the differences in water pressure, each house has it's own noises at night wether it's the water heater or air conditioner or the ghosts of previous residents...There are just so many things you never think about at home, but become very noticeable when you are away from home for long enough. We discussed this as a group and realized we need to be there for each other more now than ever...

One helpful thing! We are now in Valparaiso, FL where the sun is shining, it's warm, and our week here is relatively free! We get to go to the beach and to a nature conservancy tomorrow...and we've been invited to go out on a boat to celebrate St. Patricks Day on Wednesday so that should be fun!

I find it amusing that the residents here in Florida use the term "spring breakers" to describe college kids here on vacation from other states. I have heard the phrase "They come in droves" or "the spring breakers are crazy" and it's just funny to hear kids basically my age described as a sort of different species. This is actually something working in our favor though because since we have almost the whole week off, we are looking for fun things to do, and because it is spring break for many universities, there is a lot going on down here in the sunshine state!

Boo on you American Health Care system. I am currently uninsured because I am no longer a student, I am not employed sull time, and I don't make nearly enough money to purchase insurance. I went to fill a perscription today and 28 pills cost me $44.00. If that isn't rediciulous, then I must be the only person out there who isn't a millionaire...and I know that is not true, therefore I have come to the justified conclusion that it is indeed rediculous. There were also two people in front of me in line who left their perscription at the counter because they were shocked by a price they just couldn't afford. Yes Obama, it is time for a change...so where is the change??, we have seen nothing yet. I know that the President is no where near soley responsible for dealing with our corrupted health care system - that is just something else that has been on my mind a lot lately...politicians who make promises they can't keep! ANYWAY....

As I mentioned before my friend Kareem (Kirky's boyfriend!) is safely home from being overseas with the Army Reserves! I am very happy and thankful for that...Welcome home Kareem!

I have another interesting story...that I'm afraid must remain an inside joke...but let's just say that I had an experience with the team the other day on our way to Florida that as Zuly would say, has proven angel's do exist...haha! Good for me!

Sunday was awesome here in Valparaiso...We perfomed at the Unitarian Church and then had a beautiful lunch at our new friend Elaina's house which is right on a bayou of the Gulf of Mexico!! It was gorgeous...and after that we went to a marina where there is restaraunt/bar. We spent the evening there...watched the sunset on the Gulf...ate good food...I tasted raw oysters, and they were gross (to me)...and we listened to some great, live rock and oldies music and we also performed including myself! I played drums and even sung a little bit :) As my momma would say "Go on with your bad self!". It was a great tropical night off complete with Landshark...Thank you Makly for driving! :) I would also like to thank my mom and dad. When the band was taking a break a woman came up to me and said "Young lady, I have been watching you and wondering, how do you know the words to every single one of these songs? I know some of them are 40 or more years old..." My musical knowledge can be attributed largely in part to the exposure to music my parents have given me from a very young age!! Plus, I LOVE oldies...let the good times roll!

The singers are performing right now...as I type...at the Mary Esther Library in Florida and I must go now because they are almost finished and we are going for dinner after this at Chilli's!

Best! Jackie

ps. I love the fact that my dad can text now - and the other day he sent me a text that said "love you JJ". I love this for a couple reasons...JJ are my initials and a nickname my Grandpa Dolan gave to me which I loved being called! That text just made me smile :-D

<3 JJ

Cajun Country

Life does exist south of New Orleans in Louisiana for those who thought otherwise - and a life rich with southern hospitality and history if I do say so myself. I did enjoy my two days off getting some personal stuff done - still didn't manage to get everything done though...like laundry, dun dun dunnnn - I'm afraid I may 'tomorrow' my way to no clean underwear. Eh, I'll do it tomorrow.

During Marcus' visit the singers and I had the pleasure of going on a tour of an old creole plantation here in Thibedoux, "The Laura Plantation". It is one of the oldest and best preserved creole plantations still standing and the tour was amazing! It is so eerie and interesting at the same time to know that you are standing in the bedroom for example of someone who lived such a such different life a couple hundred years ago. It makes me wonder "Is Laura herself listening right now and critiquing the way the tour guide describes her life?" The experience was extremely worthwhile and interesting! And being as many of these old plantations are right along the Mississippi River we also went on top of one of the levy's to take some photos of the river and watch some of the ships go by :) Each day it gets warmer and warmer for us...tomorrow the high is supposed to be 78, woo hoo!! It's really nice to be able to do these touristy, outdoor activities...makes me smile!

Today the singers did a performance at a music club meeting in a church and I took some time while I was waiting for them to look around at some of the old graves in a cemetery next door. I know what you're thinking..."depressing" - but in  Louisiana the cemeteries are above ground and I find them intriguing and quite frankly absolutely gorgeous. As I was walking around in there today I felt a wave of emotions. It's kind of comforting to see that families planned for their burial sites to be together and some grave sites have such inspirational quotes on them I love to read. This particular cemetery was especially interesting - some of the graves dated back to the 17 and 18 hundreds and we are in Thibedoux, LA and today I stumbled upon the resting place of THE Thibedoux family. For some reason this gave me chills - I am amazed and in love with preservation of history...I think that's why.  I also saw many graves of children who died in the 1800's...3, 6,7,12,16...very young children and it made me really sad. I saw one headstone of a 3 year old girl who died in 1980 whose parents are still alive and still visit her grave...how do I know? There were fresh flowers with a note card from them... Is it weird that I am completely intrigued by this cemetery? I don't know why, I was just drawn to it for some reason. I love the random things like this I get to experience and see because of having this job - these moments and experiences are irreplaceable and unforgettable and I am truly thankful for them!!

My favorite quote this week (so far) was from one of our hosts Angela. After the singers performed at a Rotary Club luncheon she commented after that she "loved the way Makly was keepin' the beat on his booty." Haha shake it boy, shake it like a Polaroid picture!!

I also ate real Indian food with my hosts Raj and Leena tonight, and it was delicious! I have been so good on the tour about trying foods I've never had before and I am glad because I have tried a lot of new things that I really like :) Yay...and we call that expansion of horizons...always a plus.

Another looong day for my team tomorrow so time for some shut eye now.

Peace, Love, and warm weather in March for the Michigan girl! ~Jackie

Jumpin' Jesus, hustlin' hunnies everywhere!

As our time in New Orleans has come to an end, we now have yet another experience under our belts we will never forget. We had such a busy schedule for the week, in the beginning we were worried we may not have a chance to see any of the city, but by the end of this last weekend, all was well ;)

The SOUL singers worked with the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans all week as well as area schools and a retirement home. Due I think partially to a packed schedule and partially to horrendous traffic and bad roads we were gone everyday of the week from 8am or earlier until 9pm or later aside from a couple breaks where we walked around town for a little while. The weather is now officially warmer for us!! Aside from one night where there was a huge rain storm with hurricane force winds....we had days in the 60's or higher and sun!! My point there is that although we didn't have a lot of time, it was nice to walk around outside a couple of times :) One of the days we had a break Teele and I were walking down the famed Bourbon Street when a guy from the doorway of a club shouted across the street "Ladies! Come on in, you know we love the hustlin' hunnies here..." WHAT does that even mean?! We found out later that apparently auditions for gentlemen's clubs take place in the afternoon and club employees try to recruit random people off the streets....oh dear. Aside from random outbursts downtown New Orleans is a beautiful place to walk around. The architecture is rich with history and detail, there are people everywhere out and about, everything is colorful, there are street performers and artists everywhere, and it seems there is a beautiful church or cathedral on every corner! I think this is one of those places you could visit 30 times and still find something new and unique every time you go. I personally am amazed the most I think by the street performers who are human statues...I could never be completely still in those contorted positions for hours at a time...hats off to you human statues!

There is a store in Jackson Square (basically the center of downtown) called Jackie's! I have a business card from there because it was all I could afford. I can't say I saw a single item in the store I did not like or wouldn't buy, and I can say that I also could not afford a single thing...$85 for a t-shirt is a little out of my recent graduate budget. Oh well. By Thursday night the whole team was ready to have a chance to go out on the town! I think this was partly the case because we discovered there are a lot of good people in New Orleans. Hence our new slogan: "We are Singles of United Lands developing international and cultural relationships through vOcal music from around the world!" Don't panic people - it's just an inside joke...that's not an inside joke anymore because I just told you.

SOUL had a concert Friday night with the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans and area school choirs that went really really well! The audience enjoyed themselves, SOUL received a standing ovation, the choirs sounded amazing together and I sold out of CD's! Woo Hoo...afterward was party time!! Let's just keep it at, we danced the night away...live music everywhere!! Salsa, reggae, jazz, rock, hip hop, anything you want!! We experienced people watching from the balcony's and the freedom of no such thing as open intox and no bar closing time :) (Ahem ahem attention Michigan law enforcement, please take note people can have fun without causing trouble even without ridiculous restrictions :)) We went out Friday night and didn't get home to our new friend Rehema's house until 6am on Saturday! We slept, woke up around 11, went home to eat and shower, and then headed back downtown for round two!! We saw some awesome street performers in Jackson Square and then ate dinner at Hard Rock Cafe...because well, how can you not? And as we spent most of Friday night on Frenchmen Street we decided to spend Saturday night on the Bourbon Street that everyone talks about, and I'm so glad we did!! We got to see a traditional New Orleans parade complete with TONS of people partying in the street, beads and flowers flying everywhere, loud music and lot's of dancing!! We then spent the rest of the night at a bar where a band was playing 80's rock which everyone loved being as we were all mostly children of the 80's :) we called it an early night at about 3am since we had to pack and drive the next day.

So in short, New Orleans was amazing however I have been a little frustrated lately. It amazes me that no matter how much you go above and beyond the call of duty people still don't appreciate you. My BIGGEST pet peeve throughout this tour has become people referring to me as "the driver". Driving is about one millionth of what I do as a Manager for this organization. When I hear those words it makes me want to bust out a spiel about how I graduated from two intense programs with a degree in two fields, with honors, in just 3 1/2 years and if I wanted to be "a driver" I wouldn't have busted my ass with two or three jobs at a time and more than a full course load at all times to put myself through college...I would just go work for a taxi company. My second pet peeve is people assuming that this job is easy, or that they could easily do it themselves...I would love to see anyone try. It's times like this where I have to keep one of my favorite quotes in mind:

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered..LOVE THEM ANYWAY, If you do good people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives..DO GOOD ANYWAY, If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies..SUCCEED ANYWAY, The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow..DO GOOD ANYWAY, Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable..BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY, What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight..BUILD ANYWAY, People really need help but may attack you if you help them..HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY, Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth..GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT!"
+Mother Teresa+

SO on that note it's time for another "Kudos to Jackie session". The Michigan Association of Broadcasters award ceremony was held last week in Michigan and although I could not attend to receive my radio journalism award I am still happy, because I was informed that Moore Hall Television (the station where I was a news anchor this past year) was awarded Television Station of the Year! I now have two prestigious awards to be proud of and add to my resume! It's this kind of recognition that keeps me going in life and reminds me that hard work does pay off.

On a lighter note! I have been using the expression "Jumpin' Jesus!" a lot lately...especially in heavy traffic and one day Makly said "Mom, you should never use his name that way!" and I said "Even if he's jumping?!" *Uncontrollable Laughter*. So I decided I should share the story of where this expression comes from: I was in Las Vegas with my Grandpa and my parents...Dad is driving 70mph on the highway when Grandpa yells "JUMPIN' JESUS!! Pull over! Stop the car!" Dad swerves to the side of the road like a stunt man and everyone turns towards Grandpa to see whats wrong as he leaps out of the car...when he says "Get the camera!! LOOK at THAT moon!!! It's beautiful!". Oh dear. This was my Grandpa, and my very best friend, who passed away in August who I miss and think about every single day and I think using some of his famous expressions helps remind me of how happy he made me with his craziness! 

Speaking of family, I found out my cousin Emmy got a job as a packaging engineer at the Kellogg Company in K-Zoo, MI so congrats to you cuzzo!! So proud and happy for you! :) Annnnnd to my very dear friend Kristen whose boyfriend Kareem has been overseas with the Army Reserves for the past year...the wait is over girlie!!! I'm happy to announce that Kareem is scheduled to be coming home sometime this week - so happy for you Kirky, you did it and now your wait that seemed like it would be forever is almost over!!

As for me, I am feeling a lot better about things today because our boss Marcus showed up this morning in Thibedoux, LA to meet us and offer me two days off! He also thanked me and told me he knows I am doing an outstanding job with the team this year, so that made me feel good and I plan to spend my time off job searching for after the tour!

Peace, love, Chavista.   ~Jackie