This week we are featuring Artist o’the Week Torence B White.

Torence will play multiple roles in Bill Cain’s 9 Circles, which begins rehearsals next week.

Born in Pineville, Kentucky, Torence has called San Antonio home most of his life. He is having the experience of a lifetime right this very minute. Before we begin rehearsals, he is traveling to Madrid, Rome, and Puerto Rico. His Instagram is full of inspirational pics of nature, working out, dancing, and running, and this trip he is on right now? amazing!

He shared an update on his solo adventure abroad while on a layover in Lisbon. Would you be brave enough to take a trip overseas all by yourself?

Here’s Torence:

I have been enjoying myself overseas. Right now I have a layover in Lisbon as I’m going to San Juan, Puerto Rico. PR will be my third and final destination in this trip I started on April 20^th.

Last year I wanted to do the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in Madrid, but I was afraid to go by myself. So in December, after getting back from Disney World for the first time I decided that I wanted to go to Madrid – alone or with a group. I had time to plan and save. I told friends, but of course no one could make it. So I was going to Madrid to run the half marathon.

I’ve also always wanted to go to Italy – mainly to see the Colosseum and Sistine Chapel. So I decided to add Rome to my trip. And, I also always wanted to go to Puerto Rico, just because (maybe I wanted to see if they really do have the most beautiful women in the world lol)

I didn’t have aspirations to go overseas until a couple of years ago. There wasn’t a defining moment, I just knew I wanted to go. I speak a little bit of Spanish, but not enough to carry a conversation fluently. I definitely want to get it down fluently after this experience.

First, Madrid:

…running the Madrid half marathon was so much fun. It wasn’t running with the bulls (thank God), but it was exciting to be running in the streets of another continent. I checked out the salsa dance scene and was able to see a flamenco show. It didn’t dawn on me that I was a foreigner until a Spanish person told me that they couldn’t understand me. I was experiencing what it is like for some people who come to the USA from overseas. Felt like an outsider. That is fine for me since it would [only] last for a few days, but for others it is experienced for a lifetime.

Next up was Rome:

While being driven to my Airbnb, I couldn’t get over how cluttered it feels there –and I don’t think I saw one pickup truck. I knew I wanted to go to the Colosseum. I just didn’t know how I would get there. I didn’t know the city, the language, and also the data on my phone wasn’t working so I had to go back to the 80s when you either looked at a map or you asked people how to get to your destination. Since I didn’t have a map I had to rely on the latter.

And I was stubborn in doing that. I don’t know why we at times feel embarrassed to ask a question. I was walking and getting frustrated that I wasn’t finding it. So I stopped in a market to get a drink to hydrate and I did the unthinkable. I actually asked the clerk how to get there. When she pretty much told me to take a right at the next traffic light and it would be ten minutes away I was kicking myself. I met some elderly women from Ireland that were walking there too. All I needed to do was ask. I believe in prayer and sometimes God may not give us the answer we want, but instead the answer we need. I needed to learn I can’t do everything on my own. I am stubborn in that area and am learning little by little to ask for help. Sometimes that’s all it takes in order to get to where we want to be in life.

Seeing all of the historic places…the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Vatican Square, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter Basilica, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps, there is so much history. Every place has a story. Just looking at the Sistine Chapel it looked like it was telling a story with pictures instead of words. From what a tour guide said a lot of Romans at the time were illiterate so perhaps pictures were how stories got told.

A moment I wish I knew Spanish fluently:

…while going to one of the exhibits in the wax museum in Madrid, the usher lady was grabbing my ticket, but she accidently got shocked.

We laughed it off, but I can’t help but wonder what could have been if I said in Spanish “you see that, there’s a spark between us and the chemistry is electrifying”

See Torence in The Surround Project’s production of 9 Circles June 15 – 25 at Classic Theatre of San Antonio. Check http://www.classictheatre.org for tickets!