Day 0 - 1

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Originally uploaded by Rance Rizzutto Photography

Today actually started yesterday, so they blend. Jen, Larrance, Mike, Brett, Deanna, and I all arrived at the airport by 2:45pm on the 25th. As did our director TJ and our producer Beth.

After a 6 hour flight and a 6 hour time difference we landed in Madrid around 7:00am and later landed in Barcelona around 11:00am. While we were in the Madrid airport a girl came running out of a store she worked in and came up to Brett asking if he had an extra Obama button. We were all wearing Obama buttons. She was really excited about Obama and said they were really hard to get “over here.” Jen had gone out and bought us each a button and had an extra, so Brett gave his away. We were told by our friend Wes, who just came back from a week in Italy, that Europeans are paying really close attention to the election and are pretty pro-Obama. For a few days on his trip he was getting negative reactions once people realized he was American…that was before he wore his Obama t-shirt. When he wore the shirt everyone was giving him the thumbs up or saying “yeah! Obama!” or something positive. This election is going to make or break the US in regards to it’s standing with the world. Vote Obama!

A quick shuttle to the pier and we were on the ship. I only really had a couple of hours of sleep on the plane so I was pretty tired. I managed to squeeze in about three little naps throughout the day. We had a safety meeting, rehearsal, etc. The worst part was the safety announcements. They happen every first day of a cruise, and happened right during prime nap time…and they happened loudly. Add to that each announcement got repeated three more times in other languages.

Really tough to stay awake. We had a quick music rehearsal and then all me for dinner for Mike’s birthday.

I think we got back to the room around 10:00pm…and I woke up at 10:00am the next morning. I think I’m pretty caught up on jet-lag.