A - a - eh?

The other day I was walking to the bus stop with Raine and Justin, and we passed a homeless guy who was shivering with a cardboard sign. Then, to my surprise, Justin stopped and said something along the lines of "You look pretty cold, man", and then proceeded to take off his own jacket (which definitely did not look cheap - Justin is very fashionable) and gave it to the homeless guy! I was immensely impressed by his generosity, especially since I'd been unsure what to think of Justin before then (I mean, earlier that day he was showing off a photo of his penis on his camera phone), but this incident definitely sent him up a few notches in my book.
This week we had two nights of "culture jams", which were sort of like talent shows, except that we weren't judged on our performances, and our acts were supposed to represent our cultures. I played a medley on my harmonica ("Angry Anymore", "Storage Unit Empire", and "Hand in my Pocket"), and the audience seemed to really enjoy it; to the point that everyone was clapping along, and later I think I was congratulated at least 27 times. I suppose the harmonica could be a good representation of Wyoming culture. I've determined that there are only four places in Wyoming that people tend to know - Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie, and Yellowstone.
There were lots of spectacular acts in the culture jam - Faith wrote an AMAZING poem earlier that day and recited it during the show; it was about getting past our differences and whatnot, and there is no way I could do it justice by summarizing it here. Perhaps I'll talk her into getting me a copy of it. Another noteworthy act was the group of Japanese students who did several different acts to represent their culture, the first of which being a highly entertaining performance of air guitar, which was particularly funny because earlier that day we had been lectured on the proper uses of microphones, and during their air guitar bit, they set their mics on the floor and accidentally stomped on them a few times because they were getting into it so much. Another act that really stood out was when Brodie and this other guy did a cover of the Umbrella song by Rihanna on acoustic guitar and beat-boxing. They even whipped out an actual umbrella toward the end of their song. I had always thought that song was rather horrid until I heard their version of it, which really kicked ass. Anyways, there were countless other great acts, and it felt like the culture jam really brought a sense of solidarity to the group.
One thing that still sticks out to me from Faith's poem was when she talked about how whenever we introduce ourselves, the first things we say are our names, and which countries we are from; therefore focusing on our differences. She said that we should just think of each other as people and not as stereotypes of where we come from. Hopefully that will be the case by the end of the semester.
So this week we started singing and dancing. I hope to really improve my singing abilities this semester. So far I really like several of the songs, although some of them are rather cheesy. The dancing bits have been particularly interesting since I've never really taken any sort of formal dance lessons before (my spastic seizure-ish dance moves just wont cut it here). It's been really exciting to learn something completely new though.
It's funny because last night I talked to Kayla on the phone, which was the first time I'd talked to anyone back home besides my mom, and I surprisingly couldn't really think of much to say about my trip so far (which is really strange if you've been reading this blog, since I've been blabbing on and on about every little detail). I think I told her a total of maybe three things that had happened so far (and we talked for almost 45 minutes), but it was more just talking about things from back home in Douglas. I suppose it was reassuring to see that some things are [comparatively] steadfast.
The only thing I've been somewhat nervous about is the revealing of the casts, which will happen tomorrow. It won't matter to me which countries I end up visiting, because either way I'll be visiting several remarkable places, but the thing I'm anxious about is parting with some of the friends I've started to make. Right now we're split up into the "red" and "green" groups, which will become the two different casts tomorrow, but might get switched around before they are finalized. The tough part is that there are such amazing people in both groups. Oh well, I guess that whoever I get put in a group with is who I'm meant to be with, and I'm sure that I'll make some great connections either way.