Thanksgiving, Bremen & Scheveningen thus far.

After we finished all our shows in Basel, it was time to head home for the week to spend Thanksgiving with our family and friends. It was a nice trip and it was great to be able to go home even for a week. I got to see my parents, my aunts and uncles, my grandma, my cousins and my friends from college. We had a fantastic time and it gave me a taste of what it will be like to go home again January 11th for about 2 months.

When the week home was over, we flew back to our next location: Bremen, Germany. The town was very cute and it had a HUGE CHRISTMAS MARKET!! It was at this market that we spent most of our time. During our time in Bremen I celebrated my 19th birthday. The cast made my birthday so incredibly amazing and I am so thankful to have them in my life! After Bremen, we began a 6 hour bus ride to our final location with the original cast on this first leg of the tour: Scheveningen, Netherlands.

Upon arrival we learned that since it was a beach town it would be FREEZING COLD and to tell the truth... IT IS!! The shows here have been sold out and the theatre is amazing. Last night (December 19th) we shared our last show with the original cast because a few people decided to go home to spend the holidays with their families. It was bittersweet to say goodbye but as we say it's not a goodbye it's a see ya later!

Today is now the 20th of December with Christmas Eve approaching in 4 days and 21 days till we get to go back to NYC. Today is also the day Scheveningen had SNOW!!! When walking to the theatre today it was blizzarding and the ground was deep in snow. We enjoyed our morning in the snow, building a snowman and throwing snowballs!!! We are hoping that after our first show that it will still be snowing so we can play some more and take some photos.

HOPEFULLY WE WILL HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS!!! FINGER'S CROSSED!

Till next time : )

xo

Belgium/Holland Update & Basel, Switzerland so far

The 3 cities in Belgium and Holland can best be described as follows:

1. Leige: Leige was my favorite out of the 3 cities. It had a carnival and a little shopping area outside of our theatre with cute little cafes....etc. The shows were great and I must say the audiences were pretty full as well! It was here in Leige that we celebrated our 100th show!

2. Heerlen: This is a city in the Netherlands. There was nothing too exciting about it. Just daily trips to work and then back home. Pretty uneventful!

3. Charleroi: Our final city in Belgium and by far the WORST city on the planet. It is known for its heroine problems and crimes so it was interesting that they even took us there! We were all scared to walk around and go anywhere....etc so all we did was go to work and go straight home! We were so relieved to get out of there but the audiences there were suprisingly awesome and the theatre was beautiful...... SHOCKER!

BASEL, SWITZERLAND SO FAR:

This is our last stop before heading home for Thanksgiving week! We are here for a month and so far it has been incredible. Basel is a beautiful city and the weather has been off and on! We will be finishing up week 3 of ours shows tomorrow with one week remaining!! On Halloween, we used the conference room in our hotel to have our party. Our producer was very generous and gave us 1200$ for it!!!! It was fun to see how creative everyone got! Costumes varied from individual costumes to a group coordination such as The Jolie-Pitt family, Seasame Street, Spiderman & Batman, Liza Minelli, A sexy nerd (me), A lifeguard and much more!!! Everyone was there and had a wonderful time!! While in Basel I also saw the Michael Jackson Movie: This is it! It was incredible and very inspiring.

As of right now the countdown is at 10 shows, 9 days!!! I can't wait. We have one more 2 show day tomorrow before our final day off in Basel. I should probably use that time to take some photos!! Hopefully it will stop raining and clear up so that taking photos would be possible!

Till next time! : )

Nicole

A VERY LATE UPDATE!

As you can tell I am pretty bad at updating this thing, so here is another long needed update!

Let's start where I left off, Israel: One of the places I have been dying to go to my whole life! To have the chance to go here while doing what you love, and getting paid to do so is such a blessing. Coming here made me realize how lucky I am to have what I have and how lucky I am to be living the life I am living. Enjoy my journey’s below!

Jerusalem: Seeing Jerusalem was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had in my life. We walked through the Muslim, Jewish and Christian Quarters, walked the Via Dolorosa, visited the Wailing Wall where I was lucky enough to go in and leave a note in the wall (see above). I also got to see a panoramic view of the city of Jerusalem (both the old and new city). It was a breathtaking experience that I will hold in my heart forever.

Masada& The Dead Sea: What a cool day!! The story of Masada goes as the Romans versus the Jews and all the men had to kill their families (wives and children) until there were ten men left. They knew the Romans were coming so they drew who would kill the nine men then themselves. By the time the Romans got there, everyone on Masada was dead. Their choice was either death or slavery: as you can tell by the story, they chose death. When going to The Dead Sea all I have to say is this: It was very cool to float on the water and be able to have a natural mud bath and exfoliate but it is a once in a lifetime thing which I will probably never do again.

Ceasarea, Haifa, Acre, Rosh Hanikra: These are 4 different cities in Israel, each of their own beauty but Rosh Hanikra was by far the most incredible place for one reason: it was the border between Lebanon and Israel. All you see are watch towers looking over to the Lebanese side and gates with security points where no Israeli citizen is to pass and no person with an Israel stamp on their passport was to be allowed access to. It was crazy to see the actual tensions between countries become visible to the point where you yourself were hesitant in as to why you were standing there because you could be placing your life at risk.

Tel Aviv/Jaffa: This is where we stayed in Israel. Just down the beach was the city of Jaffa: one of the oldest cities in Israel with one of the oldest ports in the world!! We got to enjoy the Mediterranean Sea, the sun, the sand, the shopping and the beautiful sunsets while we were there!

Bethlehem: The city of Bethlehem was one of the scariest yet coolest experiences I was able to have. When going into this city it is on Palestinian land so signs are everywhere stating: “No Israeli Citizens.” I know I am not a citizen but the fact that I am Jewish scared me. Thankfully we were fine! We got to see the Church of Nativity (where Jesus himself was born). It was a really cool experience and we learned about the Jerusalem Cross which is a cross with 5 points on it.

The Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Memorial was something I have always wanted to do. It is one of the two things relating to the Holocaust, the other being to visit a concentration camp. It was very touching and emotional to hear stories first hand of one’s experiences. Just walking through there made me realize how lucky I truly am!

The City of David: The Jews true homeland. It consisted of many underground tunnels where they fought in the Jewish War. It was an awesome experience and we got the chance to walk through these tunnels and learn the stories as if we were living it ourselves!

Being in Israel for 3 weeks gave us the chance to really explore and take in Israel for what it is and what this country has gone through to get where they are now.

As you can tell, I have been blessed to be able to see a lot of Israel! It was such an incredible experience! In addition to being able to see everything, we performed at the famous Tel Aviv Opera House to SOLD OUT audiences EVERY NIGHT!!

After Israel we continued on to Amsterdam and below is my Amsterdam update!!

What an incredibly beautiful city to be able to visit for a period of 3 weeks. When we left I did not want to leave! This was the place my mom and dad came to visit me for about a week.

In Amsterdam we went to the Van Gogh Museum, took a canal cruise, shopped, went to an ice bar and went to the Anne Frank House. Everything we did was incredible but the Anne Frank House was the most amazing thing I did while I was in Amsterdam!

To be able to walk through the Secret Annex, hear the stories, read pieces from her diary was breathtaking. It gave you the chance to piece together each part of her story. I had never read her diary and upon leaving her father’s office (where they hid), I went to purchase her diary and I am currently reading it. Everything I had seen when I went to the Anne Frank House I was able to put together as I read her diary page by page. It gave me the ability to fully understand what a person her age was experiencing in a great time of danger. I am very thankful her father survived the war allowing for her story to be shared with the world!! The one thing about Amsterdam that is insane is the amount of bikers they have........ Basically, THEY RULE THE ROAD!!

I can't post any because it takes hours to post the few pictures I do put up. To see pictures you can check out my facebook page!

We are now in Leige, Belgium for the week and we will be going to one more city in Belgium and another in Holland before heading off to Basel, Switzerland.

After Basel, we get to go home for thanksgiving week! I wish we had more time than a week because I will not be able to get down to Florida. Hopefully we will get our 2010 schedule soon so I can plan a trip then!!

Till next time!!

- Nicole

A long needed update!!!!!

1. The 2 week vacation: My close friend from home, Ashley, came and stayed that week! She got to see 2 of the shows and then we toured around Spain and then went to Paris for 3 nights!! After Ashley left I went to a bullfight!!!! Ah!! Basically what happens is this...........................

Every Sunday night at Plaza de Toros a bullfight takes place.... Since we were off a few of us decided that it would be a great cultural experience to go and see what a bullfight was actually like. It was an experience I was glad to have but it was a once in a lifetime thing and I would not go back due to the brutality of it. there are 3 matadors and 6 bulls which means each matador takes on 2 bulls. The event began at 8:30pm and lasted till around 11:30pm. At the beginning a march through is done where the matadors, the crew and the trainees walk around the stadium initiating that the bullfight is about to begin. After they exit: the bull is let out into the stadium and the fight has begun. The same thing happens with each bull: the trainee matadors are brought out into the ring with the bull and they are carrying capes that are pink and yellow. Their job is to irritate the bull and wound the bull prior to the entrance of the matador and the traditional red cape.It is very sad and brutal but a cultural experience I was glad to have went to. After the trainees are done, the matador then comes out and begins the traditional bullfight. There is a whistle at the end which the matador then gets the sword (very disturbing to see!) and tradition says he should kill the bull with one stab that would hit it directly in the heart. :( Only one of the three matadors succeeded in doing so and because he had success he got to keep the bulls ears. Because the other 2 matadors did not we had to watch them stab the bull over and over till it died. I had to cover my eyes because of how brutal it was. Our quote for the night was: “IT’S CULTURAL!!!” At the end of each fight the ending is always the same, the matador survives and the bulls are sacrificed. There was only one time in which the bull was spared: 1982 because the matador asked that it’s life be spared because he felt as if the bull fought like an actual human being. That has been the one and ONLY case! CRAZY!! This is a very dangerous event to even witness, let alone participate in so I must say that these matadors are very brave!

On my 2nd week of the tour layoff I spent a few days in Spain relaxing by the pool and then I took a trip to London to visit 2 of my friends: 1 from home and 1 from college. While I was there I met a lot of people and 2 of those people I met happened to go to Fordham!!!! :) Anyways, we did a lot of sightseeing and it was a beautiful place which I want to go back to and spend a lot more time at.

2. Japan: Our first stop was Nagoya for 1 week and now we are in Tokyo moving into our 2nd and final week before we head off to Osaka.......... Japan is such a cool place!!!! It's indescribable and can only be explained through pictures. All I can say is this: the people are very friendly and willing to help with anything and of course, there is tons to do and there are tons of sights to see!!!! Our opening party in Tokyo was incredible: chocolate fountains and everything......... sooooo nice!!! They also gave us each a program and a t-shirt :) Upon our arrival in Tokyo I went to the electronic town and I got a camera : the Nikon P90 and it is INCREDIBLE!!! I'm slowly learning the about the cool things it does and every new thing I figure out makes my camera seem even cooler! ha! Also, the hotel we are staying at in Shibuya (in Tokyo) looks over the world's most famous/busiest crosswalk in the WORLD!!!!!! Anyways, yesterday: august 3rd, 2009 i climbed Mount Fuji! It was hard and something I will only do once in my life but it was so worth it and it was such an incredible experience. Throughout are some pictures from this post to best explain everything i have written (or attempted to write) above....... As they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Will be updated tomorrow!

Sorry I have taken so long to update..........

There will be a new post tomorrow morning, PROMISE!!!! :)

Update from Spain & Vacation!

Hey all! Sorry I haven't updated in what feels like FOREVER! We just began our 2 week vacation (well lay off) this past Monday and my friend Ashley is here visiting! Right now we are in Paris, France till saturday morning and we then fly back to Madrid and Ashley leaves Sunday morning. Anyways, Paris has been really nice! I got to go inside the louvre, see more of the eiffel tower and go the Notre Dame and a few other places...... Luckily, a few of the places I had not seen the last time I was here a month ago so it was really nice to feel like I saw all of Paris. I wish there was more time here because I would of loved to do a few tours such as go to the Versailles but there is always next time!!! Anyways, once Ashley leaves I am going to spend a few days in Madrid: probably just hang around by the pool and relax because on thursday night I am headed to LONDON!!! I am so excited and cannot wait to experience what London is like!! That is all for now...... I don't have my camera cord so I can't post any pictures from Paris so far till I get back but here are a few so far from Ashley's visit and the start of my 2 week vacation (lay off)!

Till next time!

xo

Spain Blog Entry Update!

We got to Madrid on Saturday night and began our first show that thursday. Before hand, the shark ladies had a few TV appearances which we will hopefully get videos from and the Tony's and Maria's had interviews with local spanish papers.......etc. Anyways, we did find this link from opening night of our jet boys performing the "Jet Song"! http://www.todomusicales.com/multimedia/video5.php?id=VmtaYVUxVnJNVzVRVkRBOStQ

Our days have been consisting of laying by the pool and sleeping and doing a little bit of exploring and then going to work for class at 8pm! But yesterday I went to Plaza de Toros where the bull fighting takes place and it is crazy what they do to these bulls!! I must say though, the venue is beautiful!!!! There will me many more exciting things to document soon......... Ashley is coming on saturday and we are going to go to London for a few days! Any suggestions as to what to do?

Talk soon <3

Update!

This week was opening week in Lyon, France.... the venue we are at is absolutely stunning: outdoors, ancient ruins, 3,000 seats and 2,000 years old!! At this theatre they sit on seat cushions and it is a custom that if they like the show they throw the seat cushions towards the stage! It is such an experience and really funny as we are bowing and trying to dodge flying seat cushions!! HAHAHA! Anyways, once we arrived in Lyon I hopped right onto a train and headed to Paris for the weekend to meet up with my mom and grandma. Paris is beautiful! We took a bus tour, walked around for a little bit, ate dinner in the eiffel tower and saw the MOULIN ROUGE!!! This past week we have been pretty busy with shows but now that we are on show schedule we will have a lot more free time to explore. Lyon has a lot of shopping and beautiful things to see and of course.... INCREDIBLE PASTRIES! That's all for now! We go to SPAIN on monday and after performing for about 2 weeks there we have a week and a half off so I have to start figuring out where I want to go and what I want to do!! Comment on my post if you have any suggestions and know of any inexpensive ways to travel while seeing everything you need to see!!!! Till next time! xoxo

New Update :)

From Sunday to Tuesday the shark ladies, Tony, Maria and one of the dance captains went to Holland to perform at the 10^th Annual Dutch Musical Awards. This awards ceremony is basically the European version of the US TONY Awards held in NYC yearly. The hotel we stayed at was very nice but very creepy at night because we each had such large rooms to ourselves! On Sunday night around 1230am a car was driving on the road right alongside our hotel and it hit a pole and burst into flames and pretty much exploded. We all could see it but I think Oneika and I had the best view of it, which made it creepy! I did not sleep in my room that night because there was a window in my room with no curtain so I had police lights flashing into my room, which drove me nuts. Overall though, it was a lot of fun and an experience that I was glad to have!! You can view the video on youtube.com by clicking this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21r7cXSt9L0

Tuesday early morning we all took a bus home because last night was our first preview!! After the preview we had a little party to celebrate our preview opening with a SOLD OUT audience!!! Tonight is preview number 2 and Thursday we have 2 more previews followed by our final preview on Friday because Saturday we go to Lyon, France for our OPENING!!! Once that happens, the tour will have officially begun!! That’s probably all till now, I will probably update it again once we open in Lyon. J

Sunday to Tuesday

Sunday was our last day in Donaueschingen and it was an amazing last day as well! We went to rehearsal as usual but we got out early because we all went to dinner as a cast at a local italian restaurant which was INCREDIBLE! Anyway, we then came back to our hotel and partied and hung out all together for a while which was fun! Monday was our day off and our travel day: we sat on a bus for 5 hours to Saar Louis and just went out to dinner when we arrived. It was Maya's birthday so we celebrated with a cake and we also celebrated the night before! She plays Rosalia in the show. Today was our first day of tech rehearsal which was actually not bad at all! We got through all of act 1 and the top of act 2 which is a great start. We were all fitted for our microphones and had some more costume fittings which was fun! We also found out that the shark ladies and Tony and Maria get to go to Holland on Sunday and come back on Tuesday because we are performing at the European version of the TONY awards!!! We are all very excited and our rehearsal for that is being held tomorrow!

That's all for now! Night! xo

Monday to Saturday

It is getting harder to update this every day because if I do, it would consist of NOTHING. HAHA! Anyways, this week is our last week of rehearsals before we travel to Saar Louis, Germany for tech, dress, and previews! On Monday Kendall (one of the Maria's) and I walked around town and had tons of cheese and chocolate from a local shop! It was nice to be able to get out and do something but not do too much!

Tuesday and wednesday were normal rehearsals, a lot of cleaning and inserting the adults into the scenes. On wednesday we also finally got our other Tony and our Chino so we have a full cast which is very exciting!!!! Also, the hair and makeup people arrived and Joey lined us all up and told them what he wanted done. A lot of the jets had their hair dyed and cut and just us sharks got haircuts.... Joey decided that my hair would be to my shoulders and as wished and wanted: it is!

On thursday, we started full run throughs of the show in our LA DUCAS! It was exciting to see it really come together as a whole. We are doing another run through today and Sunday and sunday night we are having a company dinner at an italian place to celebrate finishing rehearsals and of course, our last night in Donaueschingen, Germany before going to Saar Louis. Till next time xo

Tuesday to Sunday

So I haven't updated in a while...WOOPS!! Anyways, we have just been having the normal rehearsals but we have learned everything in the show so a lot of our time is spent cleaning each scene and dance and running entire acts. Today (sunday) is the day we run the whole show!! so exciting! We have tomorrow off so that will be nice to be able to relax and maybe go out and explore some more german places :)

Because we have this afternoon/night schedule now our days are pretty funny! The minute we get back from rehearsal we all go to the front desk and order pizzas and then go to the bar and get a drink and sit in the lobby all night because we don't have to be awake till 1230pm the next day. I like the night schedule because I am not a morning person, so I actually get to sleep in and take my time in the morning. Anyways, I gotta go get ready for the last day of week 3 of rehearsals!!!!!! Only one more week to go till we go to Saar Louis for tech, dress and previews on June 1st :)

xoxoxo

Thursday-Monday :)

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had normal rehearsals, nothing too exciting. Sunday we put together act 1 and ran it which was very exciting!! Sunday night we went to Club Insomnia just the Sharks and the Jets joined us later. It was a lot of fun! Today we have the day off but a lot of us are probably staying in. Nothing too exciting going on, oh well! :)

xo

End of Weekend/Resuming Rehearsals

Monday: We ended up going to Freiburg which was a lot of fun! We found a starbucks and there were a lot of cute little shops to look in and tons of historic churches and buildings that were so beautiful!!

Tuesday: Rehearsal was pretty easy; Dance review (where we run through all the pieces we learned) and then in the afternoon we had a script read through which was absolutely AMAZING!! We have such an amazing cast, this show is gonna be phenomenal.

Wednesday (today): Nothing too exciting, the regular rehearsal but Joey finally saw "America." He had not seen it since we first learned it because we had been working with the dance captains so the pressure was on. In the end, he loved it and he was pleased. :) Tomorrow we have "Dance at the Gym" all day.

Night

xo

Weekend Update

Saturday- We had a pretty easy day. We learned the Pas and then we sang and worked on "Scherzo." After rehearsal we all showered and got ready and went to dinner. The hotel then opened up their club for us... Club Insomnia. It was a lot of fun and a great ice breaker for us!!

Sunday- Matt, Kelsey and I went into town to get lunch because we slept through breakfast and we went to this really cute cafe! It was so good. Since it was nice out... I was actually able to look around the city much more. We went to the Palace and to the wishing well and just to the local park around town. It was so nice. After that, the cast met at 5pm and we took a bus to Stuttgart, Germany to see the show "We Will Rock You." It was much better than we all anticipated it to be, which was nice! After the show we went backstage and had some drinks and headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Monday- Today a bunch of us are heading out towards the Black Forest and a town close by- I'm not sure what it's called but we all heard there are cute little shops around there so we figured it'd be nice to get out and explore some more before another long week! :)

Rehearsal Days 4 & 5

Thursday- We had regular rehearsal, nothing too exciting... Joey wore us down doing "America" but we had an easy day friday which was nice to look forward to.

Friday (today)- We had the usual rehearsal in the morning but it was only the cleaning of "Blues" and "Mambo" and then the shark girls were done for the day. We showered and got ready and finally had the chance to head out and explore town! The town is really cute and small but it started to rain so we ran into a cafe and when we sat down it began to HAIL!!! Anyways, we finally got to eat and have a drink or too and then continued exploring. A bunch of people went exploring yesterday when it was GORGEOUS out and they went to the palace, wishing well....etc, so hopefully when it's nicer out we will be able to do that.

That's all for now.

Night xo

Rehearsal Day 3!

Today was a long day yet again and tomorrow will be as well. We learned "Blues" today and then did "Mambo" and then worked on "America." Probably the 3 most tiring dances in the show!!!

Anyways, we were given complimentary tickets to a show here called "We will rock you", it's in german but the singing is in english so that should be interesting!!!!

Ummm, nothing else is new...just exhaustion and soreness.

Night xo

Rehearsal Day 2!

Okay so, last night there was a 4.5 earthquake here and of course me being me, I was one of the only ones who did not wake up or realize what was happening. :)

Today in rehearsal we cleaned "Mambo" and did vocals for "America" and learned that dance as well. I'm super sore and tired but it's so much fun.

Tomorrow I have a busy day ahead of me: "Blues", then "Mambo", and "America".

My guess is after tomorrow it should get easier. We have been in rehearsals from 10am-6pm. This is the picture from one of the newspapers. :)

K off to bed, night xo

Day 2 in Germany: 1st Rehearsal Day

Today was day 2 in Germany and day 1 of rehearsals here. We had a long day: from 930-6pm. We had a ballet warm up and then we worked on "Dance at the gym." It was fun yet tiring and tomorrow we begin "America." There's nothing really exciting to say yet. Everyone in the cast is super sweet. The time change though, def. affected me and a bunch of others. Hopefully, I will be able to get some sleep tonight.

We got a copy today of the newspaper we were in which is cool but I don't understand a WORD! I'm curious to know.

Anyways, as new things come in I will try my best to post and there is nothing too exciting yet! Night xo

Day One in Germany

Day one in Germany was pretty cool. I don't have too much to say but it was fun and very exhausting. We got off the plane at around 11am (Frankfurt time) and headed over to our hotel. Little did we know it was a 3.5 hour bus ride!!!! We finally got to the hotel at around 330pm. We ran up to our rooms unpacked and had to be back downstairs for 530pm for a meeting and a welcome dinner with press....etc

Anyways, drinks were served, dinner was served, dessert was served and now I'm going to bed. Rehearsals begin tomorrow!

Night! xo

Departing US for World Tour

On May 2nd, I will be departing the US for Germany. There I will be rehearsing for approximately 6 weeks until West Side Story opens. I will try to keep you posted of all the happenings throughout this journey.