days 12-19 (feb 18-24)
First off, we're sorry this is being posted waaaay after the fact. We had a little confusion as to who was supposed to write and (more importantly) we've been busy meeting more incredible people. :) So please excuse our tardiness, once again.
So here's a recap of week numero tres.
This particular leg of tour found us in beautiful Santa Barbara, staying with the lovely Jessica Fairchild Conrad and her family. For those of you who don't know JFC, she's an amazing photographer and will be working for Invisible Children IN UGANDA this summer. We're super stoked for her and love her alot. She took us all around SB and gave us an amazing photo shoot since we missed ours back at the office. A BIG thanks to Jessica and her family for being so hospitable!
(more to come)
On Monday, we visited Cate School, which is a very outdoor-centered boarding school. We showed a short preview during the morning assembly and came back later that night to show the 30-minute version of Sunday. Linzy and Lexi put the event and did an incredible job. They're only sophomores, but their passion for IC is HUGE. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hang out with them as much as we wanted so here's where we invite them to come stalk us on tour. Pretty please? We love you girls. We know you're going to conquer Cate. And maybe the world, too. :)
(team socal with linzy and lexi)
On Tuesday, we headed up to Westmont for another sweet photo shoot in a graffitied tunnel and a screening of Grace. Although small, we had some great conversations and met some amazing individuals.
The next day was a bit busier than the previous days and much needed as Team SoCal was going stir-crazy from all the rain and clouds. The morning took us to Providence Hall, a brand new private school of only 30 kids. We experienced a good amount of enthusiasm and support, especially from the teachers. The excitement sky-rocketed when Paige met a fellow Longhorn, who promptly ran around the table and gave her quite the bear hug and a "Hook 'em!" She was quite thrilled as none of us meet many people from our home states, let alone our fellow alum.
Later that afternoon, we parted ways as John and Ben went to Dos Pueblos High School and Paige and Andrea drove up to Pismo Beach for a screening at New Life Community Church's youth group. The Dos Pueblos screening was enormously successful as it was a non-mandatory, night screening of 800 people! Paige and Andrea's screening also went really well and they were very encouraged when some kids in the youth group prayed from them and for IC at the end of the screening. New Life Community was also one of our first screenings where kids were actually angry that they didn't know what was going on in Uganda.
We were blessed to stay with Dre, the leader of the youth group, who has quite an exciting story to tell. For any of you who ever meet this girl, ask her about her life b/c it's pretty incredible. Because it was raining again the next day, we spent a lot of tie with her back up at the church, just hanging out and catching up on work. Thanks again, Dre, for taking care of us. :)
That night, we drove farther north to San Luis Obispo. Because the day had been fairly slow and lazy and our screening at the SLO Farmers' Market had been cancelled due to the weather (huuuuge freaking bummer... we had really been looking forward to that), Paige felt the need to pull of the highway and search for something exciting. We ended up next to these enormous and beautiful cliffs on the beach. It was freezing cold and raining, but it was still a fun and reenergizing experience for Team SoCal. Oh, the simple things in life. :)
On Friday, we headed to Arroyo Grande (more commonly referred to as AG) to stay with John's friend Peter Cunninham... Who is now our friend too. :) Hands down, Pete and his family win the award for most hospitable. We were very well taken care of and we felt incredible blessed to spend the weekend there. Peter took us all around the area, showing us incredible sites, feeding us incredible food, and despite the lame weather, we had a super duper time.
On that Friday night, we had a screening at Nautical Bean. To be honest, we thought it would be semi-lame, but it ended up being one of our best screenings in terms of who we met afterwards. Seriously, I fell in love with these people. First off, we met a few guys (Taylor, Matt, and Andrew) who we ended up staying with on Sunday and Monday thanks to Paige's blunt self-invitation. We also met Megan and Natalie (who we, in turn, fell in love with) as well as Caitlin (sp??) and Laura from Cal Poly who were also freaking amazing. We got the privilege to hang out with all of these amazing people during Week 4 which you'll get to read more about later. :)
On Saturday, Pete took us to Guadalupe (where Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was filmed) as well as Shell Beach where he, John, and Paige went on a little adventure into the caves and alcoves along the coast. We ended the day with a legendary dinner of shattered tacos (is that right, P?) and some good quality hang out time.
On Sunday, we went to Calvary Chapel SLO with Megan, Natalie, and Andrea's friend Stephanie who had come in town to visit (thanks again for the food, Steph, we love you!). After church, we hit up Firestone (for the second time.. they have amazing fries), Urban Outfitters, and then an insane asylum. Now, for those of you who have made fun of us for going during the day, we did it because we wanted to take pictures, NOT for the thrill. We just happened to make a movie out of it for kicks, So quit hating. :)
So there's week number three. It's just the bare minimum, but we hope you got a decent taste of the ins and outs of Team SoCal's journey.Until next time...
Sunday, February 24, 2008
