Mixed Company of Yale

What do you get when you mix yellow spray paint, Greek yogurt, sheet music, and a cold swimming pool?

Mixed Company Rush Retreat 2012!

Before going back to Yale, members of Mixed Company met in Bedford, New York to get ready for rush and a new year of a cappella hilarity.  We spent our days lounging poolside, breaking out board games on the porch, and playing sumo on the unbelievably green lawn.

Of course, there was also work to be done!  One wing of the house became our rehearsal loft, where we started polishing sets for Woolsey, Dwight, and our singing dessert!  A sneak peek of how the Rush Managers were preparing for the next few weeks…

Thanks to Sam and his wonderful family for making retreat a fun and relaxing way to end the summer.  We are excited to be back and even more excited to find our newest taps!  Rush, here we come!

(ya like dat alliteration?)

Hey world! 

Many apologies for the late post. I was waiting for something interesting to happen to me this summer. And it did!

I went to a bunch of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, which may just be my favorite place in the world. I saw the Producers (with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dane Cook, and Rebecca Romijn) and Frozen Planet (the next installation in the BBC Planet Earth series) and Norah Jones!

I was working at this e-commerce startup littleblackbag.com. It’s a really cool shopping website where you can trade items and get things that are really cute. This is my shameless plug: sign up!!

Besides working there, essentially online shopping all day (I know, right?) I took an improv class at the Groundlings!! It was super fun, and I learned a lot, and I got GREAT material for schticks… Look how funny we are!!

For my birthday (August 11 - mark dat shyt down. it’s imPORtant!), my family and I took a trip to ITALY!!! We went to FLORENCE,

(you know dat one??)

PISA,

(me being super touristy)

(this is literally a monumental screw up)

SIENA,

(we celebrated the PALIO with the PANTERA contrada and were invited to their dinner and blessings)

(this is the PALIO. it’s this crazy horse race. it’s one of the coolest things i’ve ever seen)

ROME,

(you know dis one too? i took SUPER stealthy/illicit photos)

AND TIVOLI.

(me at Hadrian’s villa. it has the coolest ruins and was incredibly beautiful)

(me at Villa D’Este. it’s a mid renaissance papal summer home with these incredible fountains. apparently the bellagio fountain show is based on these fountains!)

It was such an incredible trip and a great way to spend time with my family before coming to retreat!

Now, I’m sitting in a room with Mixed Co, playing Catan and listening to every kind of music under the sun. I have to say it was a pretty great summer, and I’m glad to be going back to school in a couple days!!

MUCHOS BESOS AMIGOS,

Sara 

¡Rimaykullayki!

¿Imaynallan kashankichis?  ¿Allillanchu?

Hope this post finds everyone well!  I find myself daydreaming about Peru, my home for most of the summer.

I was greeted by the peaks of the Andes Mountains, some capped with snow, others bubbling with hot springs, others carved with messages.  I hardly had time to absorb the view from above before I was racing and swerving between the cliffs, stuffed in the backseat of a colectivo with a broken speedometer and blaring huayno radio.

That first colectivo foreshadowed many transportation adventures.  I went to work in the trunk of a taxi, carried dark-eyed infants and fuzzy yellow chicks on my lap in an overstuffed bus, and drifted on one of the world’s largest lakes in a boat woven from reeds.  Every journey and destination was singularly beautiful.

Each morning, I walked to the bus terminal to catch a ride from Urubamba to Chinchero.  There, I taught English to 10 classes at Colegio Inka Tupaq Yupanqi.  Some of my students will grow up to farm or become artisans; others hope to live in a city like Cuzco or Lima.  Days were spent conjugating verbs and playing games to master vocabulary.  Sometimes, I sang.  Rihanna and Adele were favorites!

My friend Vicente hiked with me on a 12 hour pilgrimage up the peak Siqllakasa with thousands of Peruvians.  Mass was held on the mountaintop as morning mist rose from the valley.

The highest point on Amantaní Island is the temple of Pachatata, or Father Earth.  I climbed to the temple with Leigh of the United Kingdom, Erica of New York, and Britt of Denmark as sunset painted the still waters of Lake Titicaca.  The dark clouds rolling in started spewing hail!

Machu Picchu at dawn is idyllic.  Mist seems to emanate from the open temples, llamas peer through the fog on agricultural terraces, and the first rays of light slip between cracks in the mountains to illuminate a city that has stood remarkably intact for thousands of years.  Waking up at 4:15 am was well worth it!

Interestingly, it was a Yale professor, Hiram Bingham, who shared Machu Picchu with the wider world.  He first saw the site just over a hundred years ago, but now 2,500 people wander the paths each day.

I was lucky to spend time studying Quechua, the indigenous language of the Andes Mountains, and learning about the culture.  I danced in festivals and visited sites such as Pisac, las Salineras, and Ollantaytambo.

Food in Peru is unbelievable.  Would you like a leg of guinea pig?  Or a bowl of raw ceviche?  Or some alpaca steak?

Peru is full of flavor, full of color, full of history.

Love in many languages,

Carolina

Yes, this is the title of a song from the show Grey Gardens, perhaps one of the most heartbreaking shows ever. Thankfully my parents did not trap me in my house (like in the show) and my summer has been amazing traveling “Around the World”

My summer vacation started at school where I got to produce a little show called Hair!. It was a mega-hit and was the most successful Commencement Musical in the past 3 years! If you missed it DVDs will be arriving whenever I decide to come to school :D

After spending a week recovering from the commencement process I headed up to San Fran to spend a week with one of my besties from San Diego. We happened to be invited to go to a baseball game with Mary, my other best friend Catie (Mary’s sister), and her sister’s friend. (I ate half of that pizza)

Then from there I flew to Hong Kong! I’ve been here with my family before, but only for about 4 days and it was 7 years ago. This time I’m all on my own though. 

My apartment is on Hong Kong Island and I live on top of a mall and grocery store. Across the street is another mall. Life here is very convenient for me :D 

My birthday is the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre so I went to Victoria Park to see the service. There were hundreds of thousands of people in this one park. It was a sad, but a very memorable way to spend my 21st. 

I work for the Hong Kong Arts Festival doing interny things. It’s basically the best arts festival in Asia and they already have the programmes lined up for 2016 Festival. I’m able to learn a lot about the business even though I’m not handling super important stuff. 

I took a long weekend to go to Thailand with some of the other interns here. 1) Thailand is  dirt cheap. If your dinner costs more than 2 USD you’ve been scammed. 2) Their food is also really good. To be expected though. 3) Their massages are the craziest things ever. they massage every part of your body with every part of their body. Sounds weird? Well, the positions I was put in were weird. 

Here is a picture of an amazing temple. The person posing is not a stranger. Her name is Julia and she’s a rising Junior at Yale.

Here are some “ladies” I met after a show. Well, it was their show. Because it was a ladyboy show.

Here is a picture of me jumping off of where the king’s throne used to be with a giant temple/tower in the background.

After I landed there was blood running down my chin. I treated myself for two days and had to get 5 stitches when I got back to Hong Kong. That was the first time I’ve ever been to a hospital!

Having a giant flesh wound didn’t stop me from going to the ABSOLUTE Ice Bar though where it’s -5 degrees Celsius! It was a Sunday night and we needed to drink before going out. We paid roughly $15 USD for 20 mins in this bar and received unlimited shots! I think my friend said he and I were averaging 6 shots a minute?  

After the Ice Bar we went to something called a ping pong show. If you don’t know what that is…look it up online because I’m definitely not allowed to talk about it here.

Pictured below are the best things in the entire world. It’s one of the only things I actually know how to say in flawless Cantonese. They are “Egg Tarts” and the grocery store below my apartment makes them fresh all day long! 

This is one of many outdoor exercise machines that they have in Hong Kong parks for old people. One might ask, “How could a wheel be exercise?” Well you put two hands on the knob and then spin the wheel as fast as you can! <3 my ancestors. 

This is a picture of a secluded beach on Lamma Island, a 30 min. ferry ride from the Central Port on Hong Kong Island. The water was so clear and the water was super warm. I hiked with Andrew, my sister’s boyfriend from high school/Yale who was in Hong Kong on business, to the beach and even though it was super easy, it wasn’t as easy as the Hunter’s Beach hike we did up in Maine last year. There were also giant spiders every 10 feet. 

Most recently we encountered a signal 10 typhoon, which is the highest level of tropical cyclones here in Southeast Asia. They haven’t had a signal 10 since 1999 I believe. It reminded me of when I lived in Florida and had to evacuate my house for hurricanes. Luckily I was perfectly fine and seeing how other cultures react to natural disasters is actually a really intriguing process. 

ANYWAY, I’ll be back to the states in a week and I’m gonna stay with Steph for a couple of days and re-celebrate my birthday in New York style. Then I’m going up to Maine to hang with the fam. I’m planning on doing a 10 hour hike up the tallest mountain in Maine/end of the Appalachian Trail. I did it 10 years ago with my family in the rain so if I pick I good day I feel like it’ll be even better. I’m also planning to raft the Bay of Fundy with my Dad. The Bay of Fundy is in Canada and has the highest tides in the world. FUN TIMES.

Ggma’s 100th birthday is tomorrow. If you wanna email her just lemme know!

See ya soon!

Hi Gumpies!!!

I miss you all dearly and wish we were touching base much more frequently than we have been this summer, but I’m stopping by on the tumblr on my day off to touch base with y’all and talk a little bit about what’s been going on underneath these redwood trees!

The 5th session of camp just ended - my staff and I said goodbye to approximately 50 8-12 year olds and are taking a quick break before we start MY favorite week of the summer: Stanford Hospital Transplant Camp. I’ve been having an absolute blast getting to know all the new campers, seeing the returners, and working as the director this year. Here is a photo of about half the staff on Tropical Celebration Night (every final night of a camp session has a different theme… up next - OLYMPICS!)

Aren’t they beautiful?! I can’t help but smile when I look at this photo. Camp is hard to describe to people who’ve never worked at one - the energy is unbelievable, the warmth just radiates through everything! Gah. This is what I wake up to EVERY DAY!

HOW DID I GET SO LUCKY?! Anywho, back to the tale - Every week we do a 12 mile hike with the kids from camp to the Ocean. The Woods to Waves Hike is one of my favorite things about camp… It’s utterly exhausting, but the views and the company are unparalleled.

Here are some shots from along the way:

Our final destination!

The barn along the way where we regather and distribute canteen snacks. There are five new foals who are the absolute CUTEST creatures I’ve ever seen!

Matt’s another member of the leadership team - Gotta de-stress after that crazyyyy hike!

Life here has been busy (to say the least) and I can’t wait to hear more stories about your travels :) LOVE YOU ALL

Mary

Hey Gump,

Miss you all like crazy! 

I’ve been hard at work doing things for the Gump here in China: organizing rush, planning tours, and even working on a few arrangements! The internet where I live isn’t the greatest because I’m letting the people in my program use my wi-fi device, so I’ve been doing all Gump business during work (Shh! Don’t tell!). In fact, I’m writing this blog post at work! Don’t worry, I’m not slacking. I’m just extra efficient with work stuff so that I can have time to do fun stuff for Mixed Co! Gotta be sneaky though… I’ve been caught! But only once in the past 7 weeks. I’d say that’s pretty good. I think I’m getting better at it ;)

I’ve also been working to try and make China tour happen! Been stretching all of my connections to see what we can work out. But one there’s one thing that I definitely want to do with you guys if we do come here: camp on the Great Wall! This past weekend, I just went with the people on my program.

But even before we got up on the actual wall, we had to hike up to the wall. These old women started following us in an attempt to make us buy souvenirs. They would fan us and help us down the steeper parts to guilt trip us!

Despite what it may look like, she’s actually not fanning me! She’s fanning Rebecca (my roommate), and David (another member of the program). I’m too far away.

The first view of the Great Wall and the long hike ahead of us.

This was me trying to navigate the rubble on the Great Wall. We hike through the partially restored section, which had a lot of steep sections! You can see the fanning woman right behind me trying to help Rebecca down the slope (it was a lot steeper than it looked)! The woman in front of me makes it look way too easy. They do this every day. Can you believe they hike the Great Wall in long pants and shirts?!

After we reached our endpoint, we descended into a little village to have dinner. Then we did something completely un-Chinese in a very Chinese way: made s’mores.

Roasting marshmallows (which they don’t have in China), over a grill. Yes, the marshmallows are speared with chopsticks…. They also don’t have graham crackers, so we used tea biscuits! At least they have chocolate.

After dinner, we travelled by bus to the completely unrestored part of the wall to camp out in a watch tower.

This is the view from our campsite as the sun set. You can sort of see the path of the great wall on the right and the next watch tower over.

We decided not to sleep inside the tents they provided us or inside the tower. Instead we slept on the roof of the watch tower in just our sleeping bags, looking out for shooting stars (no light pollution! You can even see the Milky Way and orbiting satellites!). We got up at 4:30 in the morning so that we could see the sunrise.

Us looking like worms in our sleeping bags waiting for the sun to rise right after we woke up. We had to be careful not to roll off the tower or through the hole in the roof. It’s a long way down! I’m the one in the farthest corner!

The sun as it finally rose over the mountains. Breathtaking.

Breakfast on top of the tower with the wall behind us!

If we make it to China next summer, this is a MUST DO. Literally one of the most amazing experiences in my lifetime, and I have no doubt it would be even better with Mixed Co! Just one of the many things to look forward to.

I can’t wait to see you guys at rush retreat and back at school! Hope all your summers are amazing!

<3

Joyce

Dear GUMP!

Liz D, Yael, Chloe, and I have finished our world tour with Whim n’ Rhythm. Though it was amazing to be singing and traveling with the awesome class of 2012 Whim girls, we sure did miss Mixed Co like CRAZY. It seems like it was yesterday when we went to Greece and Italy with Mixed Co.

Whim tour ended a couple of weeks ago. Our stops included Laguna Beach, Japan, China, India, and France! 

Some pictures of Mixed Co girls on Whim World tour! 

The amazing Liz Dervan and me in Kobe, Japan after a concert in a mall! 

Chloe and Yael hipster it out at Humayun’s tomb in New Delhi, India! 

The hilarious Yael Zinkow and me in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India! Note our beautiful scarves bought at the market! 

The stunning Chloe Sarbib in front of a Japanese temple in Kyoto, Japan! 

The beautiful Liz Dervan at The Red Fort (? i don’t remember!) in India! Guys, Liz sang Skyscraper so many times on tour that I forget how Demi sings it originally. 

Whim n’ Rhythm 2012 in Paris! With Liz, me, Yaya and Chloe reppin the Gump!!!

Anyway, that’s us. I know we’re not part of the touring group anymore and that we graduated out of Yale (GAAAHH) but I just wanted to post a little about our summer tour and give you guys a holla. We missed the gump fo sho. 

I’m currently in LA, teaching 9th grade English in summer school as part of my training with Teach for America. My schedule is rough and I’m severely sleep deprived but my students like me and I’m excited to start my life! (I’m getting a car!) I’ve been hired in the Bay area as a 7th grade English teacher - and my principal wants me to develop and direct their performing arts program!!!! So when you come to the Bay area on tour, HIT ME UP!!! I will AT LEAST feed you, no matter how broke I am, and try to get you to come sing for my 7th graders! 

Oh, and here’s a picture from our commencement concert! 

Once a gumpling, always a gumpling. Have the best of summers everyone, wherever you are. So much gump love! 

Esther Hyun, Mixed Company ‘12

HAY GUMPIEZ.

Missin’ y’all like crazy! I hope all of your summers have been splendid so far. 

I’ve been doing a lot of thangs since the break has started! I spent two weeks with my family in Hawaii - one week on Maui and the other on Kauai. Both were absolutely beautiful and full of adventures! Maui is actually the Kite Surfing capital of the world, so I tried my hand at that while we were there (unfortunately, it didn’t go so well - I mostly just spent 4 hours swallowing buckets of ocean water - but it was worth a shot). The first day we were on Maui, we woke up at 3 am to go watch the sun rise from the top of Mt. Haleakala, the island’s main (extinct) volcano. It was a truly spiritual experience. Here’s a picture from that morning:

There was also some pretty amazing hiking opportunities on Maui as well. While hiking through the forest, we came across this beautiful natural swimming hole and waterfall:

On Kauai, we also took part in a lot of great outdoor activities, including river tubing, hiking, ziplining (it just WASN’T as good as ziplining in Ecaudor, but it was still fun), and kayaking. We also took a helicopter tour of the island as well as a boat tour of the coastline (which had some amazing sea caves). ALSO, fun fact, Kauai has been used as shooting location for a number of Hollywood films, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, and the film version of South Pacific. 

All in all, it was a pretty incredible vacation. And now, I’m at Brown doing weird theatre things! Yay! I’m currently taking theatre courses, working with a professional theatre company, and mentoring high schoolers in a theatre program that I did here two years ago. I’m having an amazing time here, and I’m learning so much about devised theatre (a.k.a weird, experimental theatre stuff). I’m here until August 4th, then I’ll be back in Nashville for less than two weeks before heading north for the school year. :]

Can’t wait to see you all and hear about everything!

So much love,

Tim

Hey all!  I’m in Spain this summer at a program where I can only speak Spanish(English for this is legal though, don’t worry)… The first week we travelled all throughout Spain and now we’re in León taking classes for the next few weeks! Here are some pictures of what I’ve been doing, to give you an idea…

On the beach in Nerja!

At El Alcazar de Sevilla!

Look familiar??  We went to La Mancha and saw the windmills that Don Quixote fought!

And here’s me and my roommate Dani with dem crazy Spaniards partying in the streets after winning the Eurocup against Italy.

Now I’m in León living with a homestay family (they are AWESOME. And their daughter speaks 4 languages…) and loving it.  Spaniards party hard and hardly ever sleep, Sangria is delicious, Flamenco is incredible, and I’m learning lots of Spanish!  :D  Hope your summers are going great.  <3

Besos,

Moriah

Hey Gump,

miss ur craziness, things are a bit too conservative here..

I landed in Johannesburg two weeks ago to intern with a business called Econet Group. They have a telecom, fiber optic, solar and other ventures which I have been learning about which is cool.

Here is one of their products so people can charge their cellphones and have light at night.

I got to go on some adventures like this one, I even got an elephant kiss

People are super friendly and almost everyone speaks english, it actually reminds me of California in the nicely develped parts. Joburg has a reputation as the most dangerous city in the world but that is unjustified like new haven is. Its really great to be here.

Its not only funning around though, most days im in an office from 8-4 

A cool thing about the company is that they have offices in a bunch of countries and I am going to visit Zimbabwe and Lesotho starting this weekend! 

hope y’all are havin a ballin time,

-gravy

Snow Job this year was a HUGE SUCCESS. 

Now in our 30th year, Mixed Co celebrated the big THREE-OH with over 80 alums. We saw schticks from all the way with the founding Gumplings, and had an incredible Jam and weekend of hilarity.

Thank you ALL so much for coming out and supporting. We would never have been here without you.

We also made some AWESOME shirts over at ooShirts.com for SJXXX. 

Make your own shirt at ooShirts.com!

Mixed Co is now on Google+! Check us out by clicking here.