Hello! I'm currently sitting on my bed, watching the sun go down, listening to an incredible oboe player practicing, and getting ready for dinner. Life has begun to develop a rhythm. Not fully, but I can sense one coming. It is the evening of day 2 of classes. And I'm still happy :) Here's what a typical day looks like so far:
8:15: Wake up to obnoxious alarm. Roll over a couple times and wish I had more than just a thin sheet because it gets COLD at night! Anna (my roommate) and I decide how many more times we can push snooze...
8:30-9: Breakfast. I haven't decided what to do about breakfast yet. The options are cornflakes or nutty granola, yogurt, and white or nutty wheat bread with butter and jam. So, my options are cornflakes, white bread, or bust. At least the coffee is amazing! (seriously!) oh and today we had hard-boiled eggs.
9-11: Italian. This is going to be a struggle. I'm in the second semester class, so the first few days have been a review. The teacher is a native Aretine, and my biggest problem with her is that she either speaks fluent Italian or very poor English. She needs to be able to dumb down her Italian to communicate with us, and she really should be able to explain grammar points in English. Also, our class has so many levels of student in it, since it's anyone whose taken Italian before. But even the most experienced students have no idea what she says when she starts rambling about grammar concepts. I hope the organization of the class improves. But I do like that theater, music, and MFA students are in the class together. It's basically my only opportunity to not be with only theater students.
11-1: Movement. I'm in looove with this class! it is going to WHIP us all in to shape! You can tell who the theater students are because we're all limping around the villa, complaining about stairs, and thinking loftily about thigh massages. In the first 2 days we've done yoga conditioning, examined the concept of space and the technicality of getting down to and up from the floor, done a lot of partner work and acrobatics prep. We're doing rolls over our partners backs. The coolest thing though is this balance trick where you stand back to back with your partner. Then one of you dips down below the other person's butt and picks them up and makes their back straight. So the other person's back is directly on top of yours, and their feet are in the the air. I realize this is almost impossible to picture. You'll see eventually... Just know its wonderful. And I love love love the teacher--Claudia. She's this gorgeous German acrobat with the most calming, graceful, and thoughtful manner. She's both stern and gentle at the same time.
1:30-2:30: lunch and break. Every dinner and lunch so far has been a sort of pasta and sauce, fresh salad with balsamic, tuscan salt-less bread, and fruit. Lunch has the added luxury of another kind of cooked veggie dish. The food is wonderful, but I'm wondering when I'll be ready for some variety.
2:30-4:30: Class. We've had both Philosophy and Voice. Both were very cool; I already know this sort of voice work will be MUCH more beneficial for me than Linklater technique. Voice was one of the best ways I could have spent 2 hours--we all joked around a lot, made fun of each other, relaxed on the floor, learned a Shakespeare speech, then learned a song and made up a dance to it. Yet I took away SO MUCH from the class! Incredible!
Dinner has been at 7:30--at night we all hang out in each others rooms, go outside, or walk into town. Last night I got my first gelato (chocolate and grapefruit) of the trip! Now it feels like we have a lot of free time, but I can already sense it getting filled up by homework, rehearsals, and more trips to town. The walk into town is so nice--its about a mile and its gorgeous. But its the walk back thats a killer--the entire thing is uphill! Despite this, I've still gone at least once a day so far. I don't think that will hold up for too much longer though. We'll see!
I still must explain the Joust and my first trip to the grocery store, but that can wait for another time! :)
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