Erin and Melissa take on the East Coast accent!

After our much needed Thanksgiving break we were off to Rome! Unfortunately this Rome wasn't in Italy, but rather in upstate NY! The next couple of weeks would prove to be interesting with our travel schedule taking us from NY to MA and back again. During this time we found it oddly comforting to be going back to places that seemed familiar to us. We spent several nights in hotels that we had stayed in before, and we got a kick out of the hotel clerks recognizing us from previous stays. It's weird to think that we've become so aquainted with some of these towns that we can give out directions and recommend places to eat and things to do as if we've lived there!
While on our tour of Rome:) We saw many students connect with our video. One school in particular stands out to us...after the show we had a discussion time with the student body about things that stood out to them in the video. The students were giving great responses. The final student to speak stood up and encouraged his peers to begin to take the time reach out to each others, in the hallways, in the classrooms, in the cafeteria, during sporting events, and everywhere that they could. He encouraged his classmates to simply get rid of the negativity and to look beyond their social status and popularity in order to see people for who they really are. This earned him a huge applause from the school, and a beaming smile from the principal! We were encouraged to see a school unified and ready to make a difference in each others lives as well as in their community. We were proud to play a small part in that.
We were also able to meet up with two of our fellow techs Dottie and Sandi. We briefly had lunch and chatted for hours on Sunday afternoon before we headed off for our next set of shows. Again our travel schedule was taking us all over the Eastern Seaboard traveling back and forth from RI to CT to MA back to CT back to MA, and finally back to RI. Again we found ourselves staying in the same hotels and more importantly thankful to be near a CHIPOTLE! We took advantage of this crazy schedule by stopping at Mystic Pizza in Mystic CT. Some of you may recall that this was the inspiration for a 1980's Classic Movie starring a young Julia Roberts! The Pizza was a "slice of heaven!" We both began realize that not only were we becoming aquainted with some of these east coast towns, but with the geography of the states as well. When you begin to drive back and forth as many times as we have you really begin to appreciate/recognize the scenery and it's beauty, especially along the coast lines. We may have felt like we were beginning to fit in, but our accent would say otherwise, and in one particular case it was a dead give away! One morning we were at a school bright and early, and glad to find that the janitors would be helping us set up for the show. The auditorium stage was extremely small, and as most of you know we don't exactly run on all cylinders at six in the morning! So with the help of the janitors we made it work! One of the janitors began chatting with us, asking questions about the job as usual, and in mid conversation said, "hey are you from Michigan?" We both laughed and said, "YES! How did you know?" He began laughing himself, and said, "I can tell by the way you pronounce your vowels, and I once worked with a guy from Michigan and he sounded just like you two!" So as we set up our screens we got a lesson in the art of the East Coast accent, which we've found to be more pronounced in states like RI and MA. For example the title of our show goes from "Charting Your Course" to "Chahting Your Couhrse." Overall the school was great and we had a fun day at work!