So being on tour is a little like being on the ship as far as weekly-disorientation goes. AKA: I lose track of what day it is and base my schedule on if it's a day off, opening, closing, or travel day. Our schedules are also organized Monday-Sunday so that's confusing to look at.
But basically our busiest part of the week is Sunday/Monday. Sunday we can have 1-3 shows and then load out. Load out is pretty self-explanatory. All of the sets, props, costumes, lights, equipment, etc. have to be packed up into our trucks so they can be driven to our next city. It's a team effort for everyone in the cast and crew. As cast members, it's our responsibility to pack up our costumes and clear out the dressing room spaces. Oh, and it all has to be done as fast as possible because the show ends around 9 and we have to travel early the next morning...Since yesterday(now two days ago because it's 1:00am) was load out and I was out sick, I still have yet to experience this.
Side note: in case you were wondering, I am 4 hours ahead of California.
Anyway, Sundays are long nights and Mondays are long days. Fortunately (almost said luckily, Jill, but I refrained!) we haven't traveled any crazy long distances yet so the days haven't been too exhausting. Travel days usually pan out like this:
- Wake up around 8:00 or 9:00 depending when our bus call is so we can catch breakfast at the hotel before checking out.
- Check out of our rooms and pay off all of the room service/mini bar food we ordered.
- Load all of our luggage onto a bus.
- At least a 20 minute bus ride to the airport. (Today my buddy Lloyd and I watched the Season 3 premiere of Once Upon A Time!!!!)
- Arrive at the airport and unload all of the luggage.
- Walk as a very large group of mostly Americans to whatever airline check-in desks our business manager leads us to.
- Check our bags and receive our boarding passes.
- Go through the insanely painless and quick security. Can't even call it a line because there never is one.
- Find the gate and finish watching said episode of Once Upon A Time/eat a snack/fill out Argentina visa paperwork/get a massage-chair massage/(my personal favorite from Belo Horizonte) have a creepy old Brazilian man repeatedly speak to you in Portuguese and offer everyone in earshot a swig of his questionable flask liquid and card with business information...no thank you.
- Board. Fly for an hour or two next to an adorable little girl who you wish you could communicate with but, alas, Portuguese is still NOT Spanish so a creepy smile every now and then will have to do.
- Realize you're landing and your laptop is still open, tray table down, seat reclined and no one seemed to mind. Oh, and Brazilians don't like to wait; as soon as the plane lands, they stand up and start getting their bags out of the overhead compartment. Ha! Still makes me chuckle a little.
- Eventually get off the plane, find our bags, load our bus, make it to our hotel, get our room keys, find our rooms and drop our bags.
- CHECK TO SEE IF THE WIFI WORKS OR NOT.
- Facebook message other people in the cast to make dinner plans if it does work.
- Food.
- Internet.
- Think about what you might do on your day off tomorrow.
- Sleep.
It's hectic, but it's fun. And sometimes funny things happen and they make great stories.
I think tomorrow I might make a list of the Portuguese I've actually learned. Warning: it's not much.
Also, Porto Alegre is in Southern Brazil and according to one of our crew members (who used to be friends with Goofy with Disney on Ice - which is another branch of Feld Entertainment - so cool!) who is a resident of this area, says it's similar to The South in America and they like to eat a lot. So tonight I had a half portion of Spaghetti which will last me the next two days. Catching up for all of the emptiness my stomach has been suffering from the past couple of days!
Ciao!
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