Presentation training for the Family

Hollllla!! So its week two of LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) and we are having a fabulous time. Things have been very exciting around the office, apartment and the busses : where we will soon call home. Everybody is starting to get adjusted to their new lives and friendships. There are lots of changes being made, not many of us can say that we have lived in a house with five other girls before or lived on a bus for  the matter. Both teams have been running through the shows non-stop and learning a new set of skills like, sound, lighting, set up and tear down stage gear as well as public speaking. It has been very interesting learning all about the complications of technology, kind of a heart attack waiting to happen for some of us. I guess we could say that hectic is a pretty good word to describe the last few days. As nerve racking as all of it can be we are adjusting as quick as possible and becoming more and more comfortable each day. Which is probably   a good thing considering we are packing up to live on a bus pretty soon. What makes everything a bit easier is how quickly friendships between the students, staff and bands are forming, it seems like we are becoming our own funny sort of family.Nikki – A student attending the School of Leadership

A word from ALL LEFT OUT

Yo!!!!!! whats up! thanks for taking the time to check out our blog!In case you didn’t already know we are a band from New Zealand called All Left Out and this is our second term touring with LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute). We are so stoked to be coming to the east side of Canada this time, were looking forward to meeting a whole lot of new people and learning about your beautiful country!Since we were here last we have been busy going around the USA (and Canada) on Warped Tour!! We had tons of fun playing and introducing people to our music.This week we have been hanging out in the beautiful city of Hamilton, ON practicing up our new show for you guys! getting ready to come to your schools and rock your faces!We are going to do the best we can to keep you up to date with what we are doing along the way, so keep checking back here!If you want to know more about our band and the music we make or even become online friends, you can check us out on facebook, myspace or our website!Hope to see you soon!Dave, Nathan, Ken and Hionaallleftout.commyspace.com/allleftoutnzyoutube.com/allleftout

Beauti

Beauti has joined the LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) road team! Wondering what Beauti is? Beauti is our band: Colin, James, Tim, Matt and myself Jordan. Beauti have come from Kelowna, BC all the way to Hamilton, ON to tour on the LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) Road team as the feature band during their “Think Fast”, motivational experience in high schools. Beauti has just recently come together in this past year and have just finished their debut full length album. In the months of July and August we worked really hard in the studio striving to get the CD done before our deadline to leave for Ontario. With some of us taking the greyhound bus across the country and some of us driving we were all glad to finally arrive at our destination in Hamilton. For the past 2 weeks we have been hard at it with rehearsing and setting up the stage for tour. We have been consistent with a steady diet of KD and peanut butter and jam sandwhiches. All the food groups you need to play in a band :). We look forward to a bright future with LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) and hope to play a school near you on our Western Canada tour this upcoming Fall!For more information on Beauti, visit www.myspace.com/beautirock-Jordan, lead guitar

School of Leadership Begins…

 A Note from Kristi: a student in our SOL program,

 All of us students arrived between Tuesday and Wednesday, eager and excited as to what was about to handed over to us, and not really knowing what was to be expected in the least. The girls; Nikki, Tara, Teijna, Adele and myself; settled in with our awesome resident supervisor Gem Tuesday night, taking quickly to the idea of having a place of our own. Josh was set to arrive on Wednesday, and get settled in with the bands over at the boy’s dorm. Getting settled and comfortable in our new place was amazingly easy as everyone at LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) is so great, and continually tries so hard to make us feel at home here.

Nettie and Meghan showed all of us girls around Hamilton on Wednesday, helped us to get our footing in the city, and told us a little bit about what was about to become our lives. And on Thursday, the festivities began.

Thursday morning was our first “class” if you could call it that. It started out with us meeting Josh, the one boy to join our awesome little group and he defiantly added to our dynamic. Now fully equipped with an amazing group of students, we started to our days work. Sometime tedious but always fun, we did our paperwork and started on the basics of what our program really expects. While drudging through papers, we got to know each other a little better and found ourselves pretty intrigued as to what our next class would bring.That night we found ourselves amongst almost every LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) employee and friend, at a BBQ. We spend the evening eating and chatting it up with what seemed like a million different amazing people, each one just as equally shocking and welcoming as the last. We returned home pumped up and looking forward to seeing all these people on a day to day basis, slightly nervous as to all the interesting moments to come.

Friday morning [this morning] was a fresh day, and off we went to the office building to start the rough task of sharing our stories together and working on putting the show together. We learned a lot about ourselves, and our teams. It was a long day, filled with raw emotion and complete closeness within our little group turned family.

Tomorrow morning it has been planned to take us all to Toronto, which seems to have some pretty interesting prospects. That being said I think it’s time for us all to crawl into bed, and get ready for another busy day.

-Kristi

Important News about School of Leadership

Our School of Leadership has an exciting new development for 2008, and we would like to share it with you!

Due to popular demand, we are planning two start dates for 2008!

The first school of the year will be an 8 month program running from January 10th-August 13th, 2008. The school year will be an exciting mix of 20 weeks in Canada, 13 weeks in Dominican Republic, and an amazing social justice curriculum that will change the way you think and change your world view! While in Canada, our students tour the high schools of our nation with one of our road teams. While in Dominican Republic, our students will be involved with an innovative Social Justice Curriculum, working in the local communities, and helping to host our July Hero Holidays.

We will also be running our regular 9 month program from August 20th, 2008-May 31, 2009, with our students traveling to Mexico for thirteen weeks.

This means that you have two options if you are interested in joining LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) in the coming year! We are accepting a maximum of 20 students for each term, so if you’re interested, please get your applications in as soon as possible, as we cannot accept any more applications once a semester is full.

During both programs, you will experience a wide range of opportunities and possibilities. (more…)