ISTA

For the past six days, I was in Shanghai, China for an ISTA festival. ISTA stands for The International School’s Theatre Association. We all had to audition for a spot on the trip. The first audition was easy. There were about 60 middle school students in the multipurpose room. We had to sing the ABC’s while acting out the situation on the card. I thought that everyone was amazing, but there was only room for 16 of us.

 Three months later we started to practice for our school show. I was cast as the ram. The ram’s characteristics were shy, mothering, gentle, complainer, and pessimistic. The day before we left, I was so excited. That night I couldn’t sleep. It didn’t help that we had to get up super early for the bus to the airport. The flight was about 5 hours and it wasn’t very fun, but I survived. As soon as we landed most of us went straight to McDonald’s, others chose KFC. I HATE McDonald’s and KFC but I had no other choice.

   When we got to our host families house, Tiare and I went upstairs and took showers. It was so refreshing. That night, we went for a walk, and took a look at the nice compound we were staying in. Our host mom was such a nice woman. I told her what food I liked, so she made it every night.

 The next day, Tiare and I walked to school for the first day of the festival.  The butterflies in my stomach were doing summersaults. My heart congealed as we met all of our ensemble teachers. Mine was named, Josefine. She was the nicest teacher by far. The day passed and I met a lot of nice people. The Yuan Gardens was crowded and exciting. I bought the coolest wig there. That night we did our show. I forgot to take off my shirt. I was so embarrassed. The campus was HUGE. It looked like three Universities put together! I was in complete awe!

 My ensemble leader taught us a game called Cabbady. Cabbady was an Indian game. The objective was to cross over to the other team’s side of the area. You had to try to touch as many people as you can without being caught by the other people. But, the other team cannot go behind you to stop you from escaping. So, if you get pulled back to the other side after you touch someone, you become part of their team. All you had to do to be safe was to touch your teammate’s hand.  You had even numbered teams and you had to come up together as a line and someone had to take initiative and touch the ground. Then they had to enter the apposing team’s side of the playing area. They couldn’t breathe so they had to chant “Cabbady Cabbady Cabbady…” until they ran out of breath. If they did run out of breath, they would have to stay on the apposing team’s side. 

 Then that night we had our ‘social’. It was like another MS party. I LOVED it. I danced the night away! I wore a shiny, pink top and jeans. 

The next day we mostly worked on our show for the Parents. I thought we did great. That night we went out for dinner with our host families. It was the first time Tiare and I had been out in public with our family. I had a delicious burger and after we joined another family. They were hosting a boy. I forgot his name… We watched Jurassic Park. For once, I wasn’t scared! We woke up in the early morning. It was tour day. Tiare and I had decided that we would wear our funky wigs. Halfway through the tour, Je Hoo, Zach, Emiro, Riley, Tiare, Carmen and I couldn’t find the group. 2 hours later, Ms.Fulcher and the rest of the students ascended the ancient bridge. Je Hoo looked like he could murder someone, he was so angry!

 That night, we went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We went to an awesome Karaoke place. It was so funny to see everyone singin’ away.  The next morning, we went on a short cruise on the lake.

 We drove to the airport and got on the plane. Riley and I both contributed 10 ringgit, so we could watch Grease. It was SOO cheesy!! I still liked it though. Riley and I shared junk food too. When I got back to KL I was really tired. I will always treasure my once in a lifetime experience, at ITSA!