That's Right; I'm in PARIS!!

Ben and I just got into Paris and go figure, it costs money to use the internet. But I think I’ve figured out how to use their 15 minutes free offer. So, we’ve typed out all that we want to say before we accept the terms and conditions and hopefully everything will work out.

Right now, we’re planning our day/evening trip into the city. We were going to purchase Hop-On, Hop-Off Tours and go around to everything, but we realize how unrealistic that is, considering we’re only going to be here until 10:40am tomorrow morning, and a lot of things close by 6 or 7pm. So, we’ve decided we’re going to purchase day passes for the City Metro and ride around for one fixed price of 16 euro to the three main places of interest and really take our time at those. First stop, St. Michel Notre Dame; second, La Louvre (since it closes at 6pm and there’s probably a long wait to get in. And finally, to top it off, Tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower)!

And of course, lunch, dinner, maybe some frogs legs and a side-walk café later, sleeping in the terminal back at Charles de Gaulle until our morning flight.  J  This will be an adventure. Neither of us knows the language. Ha.

My Last Days...

Today, I leave for Florence to stay in a Hostel with Rebecca, Ben and Torey that way we are nearby for our morning flights from the Firenze Airport. Ben and I will be on a plane at 10am headed for Paris until our Sunday flight from Charles de Gaulle at 10:40am. It will be exciting.

For now, I'm struggling to pack. I'm used to only bringing Carry-On luggage where ever I go when I travel, but I had never traveled internationally before. The program people told us before we left for Italy that the majority of people regret bringing as much stuff as they did. Well, I'm regretting not having brought more! Much of my time was spent in my work out clothes for class - and I had only brought one pair of blacks (blacks are just black shirt, black pants, etc.) so I was wearing the same thing pretty much all the time and all the fancy stuff I brought... ? Yeah, it sat in my closet. That could have been room for the vino I'm bringing back.

Yesterday, Torey, Eric and I went to a lovely wine shop called Charleston and I bought some of Italy's finest vino. Chianti Classico - YUM! Crognolo - YUM! and Brunello - Delicious! I also bought some Grappa, which is also made of grapes but is more like for shots. But the tricky part is, I only have carry-on luggage and you can't bring alcohol OR more than 3 oz of liquid ON the plane; it must be checked. So, I'm frantically trying to figure out what can fit in my bigger carry-on and what needs to stay with me, and what I need to leave behind and donate to the Accademia's costume closet. Ben has agreed to let me put two of my bottles in his checked baggage and I will put too in mine. I'm just afraid that my extremely effective way of packing will be foiled the minute TSA opens my bag to check it and they don't put anything back properly and everything breaks by time it gets home. AND since I've never checked baggage before, I've also ridden through life losing-my-luggage-horror-story-free. But I suppose everyone should have one of those stories, so I'm going to check my baggage, reluctantly.


Soon I will write about our amazing Commedia dell'arte show from last night. Until then, I need to keep packing and we gotta catch our train to Firenze so we can check into our hostel!


See you soon, America!
But first, PARIS!

When In Rome...

August 22, 2011

This weekend I went to Rome with the Accademia and they had a hotel waiting for us! Yay! So, after we took a bus there, we dropped off our belongings in a luggage storage closet – yes, it gets used by everyone and anyone in the hotel, so ‘safety’… eh. Then we headed out to our day activities.

A few days beforehand, we all had a meeting to make sure everyone knew what it was we were doing and the route we’d be taking once in Rome. There was a powerpoint presentation and everything. I wish they had done that for the other trips too; they’re still learning; it’s a fairly young program. Well, there was an issue some people had with the fact that we never seem to have the time to actually go inside the amazing structures we visit. In Florence, we didn’t go into the Duomo; in another city, they didn’t plan on tickets so we didn’t get to go inside; In Florence, to see Michelangelo’s David, they had planned on a certain price to go into the Accademia (this is also called the Accademia, but it’s not the program I’ve been studying with), then the Accademia – David’s Accademia – decided it would be more that day because they had a new exhibit, so we had to pay our own way in. So being able to see where we were planning on going and seeing that we wouldn’t even be able to go into the Coliseum, many people spoke up.

There were some hot tempers. Many people tried to lobby for 1) Going inside the Colosseum and only walking to the Trevi Fountain (it really would’ve taken up all day) OR 2) Doing a walking tour – but not really going into things – with the Art History teacher through the Accademia program who actually lives in Rome and knows local gems that even tour books don’t know. Obviously, it was split half and half; one half wanted to see the things that people don’t normally get to see – and NOT have to wait in a super long line for three hours doing nothing to see the inside of the Colosseum – and the other half wanted to see the inside of the Colosseum and were just fine with not seeing other cultural treasures. After all, that was only Friday. Then we would spend the night, and have Saturday all to ourselves to do whatever we wanted and with whomever we wanted, and find our own way back to Arezzo.

Well, since so many people were split on the decision and the room was very loud and our coordinator was getting a little short tempered, I quietly walked up to our coordinator and asked gently that since both she and the art history teacher would be going and they both wanted to do separate walking tours, as did the students, if it would be possible we split the group and whomever wanted to see inside the Colosseum could go with her and whomever wanted to see the hidden treasures of Rome but not see the Colosseum, they could go with the art history teacher. Her face lit up and she quickly went to tell the art history teacher. They loved the idea. And I had a very proud moment of, ‘That’s right; I rock.’

Everyone else also loved the idea. Apparently someone else had mentioned it, and the coordinator shot it down, but I really think it’s very important in the approach to things like this. If you’re going to shout out your suggestion, 1) it might be too loud to hear your full suggestion anyway, or 2) it might be taken as aggressive and refused right out. But if you are calm and approach it with ease and respect… You catch more flies with honey, dears.

I chose to do the walking tour. I knew it would be a four hour tour, but no one had any idea it would be as hot as it was! And there is practically NO shade in Rome. So, I told my body, you can do this, and I pushed through it. It was tough, but we saw so many beautiful things and went so many places. Everyone tells you that there are ruins in Rome, but they really are everywhere. Even in really random places where there is nothing now, there are at least ruins. I guess it would be a shame to tear them down, but so many of them are just kind of for looks. And Rome has been rebuilt so often – or buildings were partially burnt down and rebuilt – that most of the structures don’t even match their own bricks and stones, let alone the structures surrounding them. It’s very interesting.

That night, I went with Torey, Rebecca, Jenny, Ben and Isabel to a small pizzeria just down the street from our hotel. We were supposed to have gone out to a bar or something – I had still never been out, for drinks or dancing (even at home). But dinner was nice. I got a steak. Sounds normal, right? But I hadn’t had beef in so long. Even before I left for Italy, I don’t really eat that much red meat, even though it’s glorious!

On Saturday, Torey and I visited the Vatican Museums. We were trying to visit the Vatican church, but we couldn’t figure out how to get there. And apparently, you are supposed to pay for the buses there. People told us they were free. Thankfully, we were not stopped, but some other girls on the trip were fined 50 euro! The tickets are normally 1 euro per bus ride. Wow! So, we were fine, except that we couldn’t figure out where the Vatican was. We had two maps, but we couldn’t apply it to the real streets in front of us. So, when we saw one of those hop-on, hop-off bus tours come through, they looked like they knew where they were going, so we attached ourselves to that group and followed them to the Vatican Museums.

It cost 15 euro to get in, and we only went to two of the buildings, but it was definitely worth it. We visited the Egyptian Museum and the Sistine Chapel. In the Egyptian Museum, they had, can you believe it, tons of Egyptian stuff. They had mummies, busts of gods and goddesses and rulers. They had hieroglyphics and scrolls and stone tablets. It was amazing. Even if that was all we had seen, I was happy. On the way to the Sistene Chapel, we saw tons of ceiling paintings and wall art and whatnot. Then we got the Sistene Chapel and it was not as big as I expected. Nor was the singular painting of God and Man with their hands about to touch. It was the same size as all the other paintings shoved into the tiny ceiling. ‘Tiny’ a chapel, and for what I was expecting. And for that, Torey happened to miss the “Creation of Man’ painting. We were standing directly below it. And wouldn’t you know, there are no pictures allowed. I don’t really understand that. Flash I get cause it ruins art, but no cameras at all? Really?

And that was it. We took a train back home and Torey, Joey and I ate some of the best pizza of this whole trip – and I’ve had a lot of pizza – at a small Arezzo pizzeria called O’Scungizzi. Now, when people tell you they went to Italy and the pizza was amazing, they can’t possibly be telling the truth. Pizza here is very different than pizza in the states. I still stand by my comment that ‘New York really invented pizza.’ Because it’s too amazing. Pizza in Italy in a lot of places is like red sauce and maybe cheese on matzoh. A lot of places only do sauce on the crust; that’s ‘pizza.’ BUT this place we went to was legit! And delicious. And they had probably a hundred different types of beer. We had Delirium, which was quite nice, and I don’t usually like beer.

Rome for me, overall, was pleasant, but I really don’t ever plan on returning. Italy, YES; Rome, not so much. I don’t care to say how it happened, but somehow I ended up in tears during this trip to Rome as well. If you read my previous post from last weekend, Rebecca and were on our way to Venezia and ended up in Rome. I don’t know if you know the geography of Italy, but to give you a hint: If we were starting out in San Luis Obispo and were trying to get to Sacramento, we ended up in Goleta. Not as far as San Diego, but far enough that there were no more trains until morning – which we found out was only the tickets that weren’t available, cause we were on the Venezia-bound train upon our return to Arezzo. And the whole time, it was very difficult for me not to be crying. This time was similar. Some stuff happened in our group and I got emotional, again. It’s not important why, but the point is it keeps happening in Rome, so the most logical plan for that is to stay away from Rome.

After we returned from Rome and ate in Arezzo, we took a taxi home around 11pm and my body said, “Oh no you don’t. You’ve got energy; let’s do it!” So I worked out in the teatrino (little theatre) with only my music and the light from my laptop until about 2am. It was very nice. For me, I rarely get a huge burst of energy, especially when I’ve been late for my medicine this long (I’m supposed to get an infusion once every four weeks; it’s been a little over.), but when I do have energy, I’d be an idiot to just sleep it off.

And that’s been my weekend. I worked out a lot yesterday too. I was home almost by myself and I was starting to get bored, so when I got bored, I would go to the teatrino and work out. I hope I can keep this up all week and while I’m visiting home in Oceano, and still be able to keep it up when I go back to school in two weeks, September 4^th. Phew, it’s coming really soon. But I will enjoy all that I can while I can.

This week, the Commedia class is finally putting our finishing touches on our Commedia performance for Thursday evening for the rest of the students and staff. For the passed two weeks, we’ve been working on Commedia improv with our masks so we can learn how to move and speak and improvise with the different stock characters. Our initial assignment was for each of the fifteen of us to create a scenario and cast and direct others from the class to create a complete scene. With fifteen of those full scenes, complete with characters and conflict, last Thursday Michele (mi-kay-lay) led a full rehearsal from 4pm until 11pm (with a dinner break) to put all the scenes together into one big show. Even though some of the scenes had nothing to do with each other, because there are so many students and characters, there was a common theme to many of the scenes. Most of the scenes took place in a restaurant or at a party, or getting the restaurant ready or party preparations. So, naturally, the show takes place in a Romeo and Juliet type story about two feuding families who own two feuding restaurants, but they are located directly next to each other. The show will be located behind the Accademia, in its ‘backyard’ if you would. It will be amazing. I will post pictures and perhaps some video footage soon. For now, I’m off to lunch and rest before another full day of rehearsals.

All trains lead to Rome... but apparently NONE go to Venice! >:(

You probably read my previous post and thought, "Wow! Lizz is going to Venice! That's amazing! She'll have a wonderful time and have incredible stories." Well, the stories part is right at least.

Initially, I mentioned going to Venice for a gondola trip to my roomie Jessica and new bestie Torey. So we planned on visiting for the day this passed Saturday; just for the day. Then more and more people joined the cause and it turned into about ten people, so Rebecca and I decided we would go just the two of us from our program's day trip in Florence, spend the night in a hostel and meet up with everyone else the day after in Venice. Then it grew into, well, why don't we just stay two nights in Venice!

So, the plan was: Day trip in Florence (Firenze) with the Accademia on Friday, train to Venice Friday evening, hostel, Venice for all of Saturday, hostel, train back to Arezzo Sunday afternoon.

Well, I had no idea that there are different train stations within the same towns. So, in Venice (Venezia) there is Venezia Porto Marghera, Venezia Mestre, Venezia Mestre Ospedale, Venezia Santa Lucia (which is ON the actual island of Venezia; the others are on the mainland), among others, just like there is apparently Firenze Rifredi and Firenze Santa Maria Novella (which is apparently where the Accademia took us). So when I got tickets online from Firenze to Venezia for both Rebecca and I, I got them from the Rifredi station.

We figured, well, since Rifredi was only one stop back, it must go through Santa Maria Novella, right? So we got on the train knowing it might be the wrong train. Even the digital signs that say where trains are going said this train was going to Venezia Santa Lucia, and our hostel was in Marghera. So we took a chance. Pretty soon, the conductor came by to punch our tickets and he told us we were on the wrong train and we feigned surprise but he charged us extra because it wasn't the train we initially paid for. BUt we made sure to ask, "But this train DOES go to Venezia, right?" "Si, si, si." Okay.

Two hours later, we were in Rome!!


------


It's been about a week since I typed what you see above and I've been too tired to explain fully, so I'll just briefly summarize what happened to me last weekend, because now I really am supposed to go to Rome. We're leaving on the Rome overnight trip in about ten minutes, so let me get it out quickly.


I've been taking lots of pictures, but I just got really beaten up this week. So I haven't posted any. I will soon.

Mostly from the sheer exhaustion of what happened trying to get to Venice... which you still haven't heard that story because I've been too tired to finish my blog. Basically, Rebecca and I spent 109 euro on train tickets and 75 euro on a hostel for two nights and went on the Florence day trip with everyone. We were supposed to catch the train to Venice from a different station in Florence (neither of us realized it mattered) and we found out it was the wrong train. Not a problem except that the conductor checking tickets charged us extra, we continually made sure the train was going to Venice... it even said so on the little screens all over, but it took us to Rome and that was the last stop with no more until morning. The train had BEEN to Venice but it was going the wrong way. Needless to say we were tired very hungry and had no way of getting home. We tried to use some people's phones because the ones in the terminal kept eating our money and terminating the call at one minute. Finally found someone who spoke enough English to understand that we were only calling Arezzo, not USA, and we called the Accademia dell'arte Emergency Phone and no one answered. So we were stuck as stuck can be.

We talked to Customer Care for about twenty minutes while she told us there was nothing she could do as she gradually got more and more upset that we weren't understanding why.

So, she cursed a little to get out the frustration, I cried a lot. That kind of crying like in the movie "Something's Gotta Give." Diane Keaton's character is writing a play about the good and tough times she'd had in the passed two weeks and cries every other ten minutes or so. She appears to be fine one minute, and the next it's, "WHY ARE WE IN ROME??" and "Can we just go to Venezia??" and "Let's just go back home."

Eventually, out of desperation, we bought MORE tickets back to Arezzo, and decided to buy MORE tickets to Venezia when we got there. We got back around 2:30am and looked up prices for tickets in  the morning and there were none. It was too late to buy tickets for that morning. On the train, if you buy a cheap ticket for a closeby place but decide to stay on the train to go further, you can, you just have to pay a little extra (sometimes less than you would have paid at the self kiosk or online). While we were on our way home, I prayed that the train we were on would go to Venice. It did! I asked how much and it was only 28 euro each if we stayed on the train and kept sleeping. Rebecca hadn't been sleeping well lately though, and she wanted to go home even if it was only to sleep in her own bed. (Arezzo really does feel like home to both of us, but that night I just wanted to be in Venice and not think about it anymore.) So, we got off at Arezzo.

The next morning, Torey, Vanessa and Teresa missed their train because Teresa's flip flop broke, so we caught the next train with them (it was extremely difficult to get those tickets also) We had to buy tickets for a later time but get onto the one we needed and then we would have paid more when they came around to ckeck our tickets. They didn't, thank you God.

Eventually we got to Venezia and everything was great. I write more about that later. The fun we had together and even when the others had to leave was worth the excruciating desperation of Friday evening.

And now I have not much money left because I couldn't get back the first night's stay in the hostel or the first set of train tickets in addition to the rest of the train tickets we had to purchase. I owe Rebecca some money too cause I only brought what I thought I would need. I would have been right if every thing had gone according to the plan... but we know how that rarely happens.

Off to Rome now.... FOR REAL!

Florence and a sip of Venice!

This week has been jam packed with classes so much so that I haven't even left the villa since my last post. Classes have been amazing and super difficult and I'll explain what we're working on on Monday, but for now, this morning... we leave for a day trip in Florence!

It will be great! We will all meet at the train station at 9:30am and the train leaves at 9:40am. Then we'll get to Florence around 10:40am and do a prepared walking tour they have for us of Santa Maria Novella, the Duomo, Baptistery, the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the Piazza della Signoria with the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi. Then Sam, one of the staff will show us an awesome juggling store in Florence. We've all been practicing juggling - and I've been trying to get back my pin juggling skills.


After that, Rebecca and I will travel to Venice, stay the night in a hostel on the outskirts and meet some friends on the island in the morning! Spend the whole day and evening there - and be SURE to take a gondola trip at sunset! and Rebecca and I will stay one more night, leave at 1pm the next day and I make lasagna when we get back!

It will be one super busy but fun weekend. I'll tell you all about it soon!

Antique Fair and the Opera

Saturday:

Slept in. Started heading downstairs for some food and was stopped by people leaving for the antique fair, so I got better shoes on and went with them. It was amazing. So many antiques! Mom, you’d LOVE it! Took as many pictures as I could, without being rude.

These are puppets.

There was at one point one of those human street statues just standing in one spot, frozen, and a little boy about 3 or 4 just staring at him unsure of what to think. It was so adorable. And the mom let him stay and ponder as long as he wanted, every now and then nudging him to continue down the road, but he wanted to continue watching. Very cute. I bought three old Italian magazines from 1956, 1957, 1958. One has Liz Taylor on it!

Joey and I got pizza at a little pizzeria downtown. It wasn’t that great. It was runny, like milky, watery pizza, instead of cheesy and delicious, but we were HUNGRY! And I got a coca cola! So it was worth it!

We split up and he walked back to the villa but I needed stamps so I could finally send my postcards! So I got some stamps at the tabbaci and mailed my postcards. Then went to the grocery store. I had remembered having a sip or two of Danielle’s amazing dark ale in Castiglione del Lago and wanted to buy some, so I got a three-pack of beer while at the grocery store. Turns out it was the wrong beer. I was even going to bring one home to my sister because I thought it was so good. I’ll just give it away now. It’s really light; Rachel doesn’t like pale ale. I also finally got some disposable razors and shaved my legs!! If you know me well, you know this is a big deal. So, I shaved my legs when I got home and was amazed that it only took one razor for each leg! That’s been my problem at home! I’ve been using the cheapy razors, so I’ve had to use two or three if I’ve let mah leg hair go! Now I know.   :)

That evening, I met up with Joey, Ben, Alex, Anna, Jeremy, Doreen and Scott (a staff member who drove us) and we went to the Opera. Don’t get too excited; it wasn’t amazing. It was more like community opera, so only one or two of the singers had actually been trained but I enjoyed it. We drove there and if you’ve ever driven in Italy, you know the streets are extremely narrow and Italians drive like mad-men, so it is a good thing Scott is originally American.

The Opera was Cosí Fan Tutte by Mozart, not one of his better ones, in my opinion, not only because it’s about two men who make a bet with an old man that their fiancés would never cheat on them, so they dress up as foreigners to seduce them and they end up cheating. Lame. But it was entertaining. It was put on by the Shoestring Opera company outside an old convent, in the woods. So, my feet and legs were eaten alive by terrible biting ants and sucking mosquitoes, but it was okay.

On the way home, there were amazing fireworks! There were tons of people from all over parked on the sides of streets and even people who came into our villa and atop our teatrino where you can see everything! The fireworkds were unlike I’ve ever seen! They were huge! I wish I had taken a picture or two. Maybe I can find one on Facebook for you. If you think of the fireworks we have in America, that you’ve seen on say July 4^th, imagine them to be about 500% bigger! I’m not even exaggerating. They were huge! They lit up the sky like a splash of paint that’s too large for the canvas! It was the highlight of my evening!

Sunday:

Torey and I decided that we would finally start the WebSeries Italy Blog that we initially discussed sometime last week. We would taste vino and inform how to choose the best from Italy and with what to pair it. So, after a long morning of doing nothing, we ventured out to the closest grocery store for some vino. (We had just been to lazy to get the wine in the last couple of places we had been to.) But we forgot it was Sunday, so the store was closed. Since we were going to film this blog in the park on the way back from the store, we just decided to continue our picnic but video blog about the crackers and cheese we had in our backpacks. Plan B. So, this is our MiniWebSeries on the Tastes of Italy – Webisode 1.

After this, we were very beat and walked home, but we didn’t have food. So we decided to go to the Mexican food place again, seeing as how everything would be closed again, like last weekend. Some others wanted to come with us, but Torey and I got to the breaking point of being too tired and they said they could pick up the food for us and bring it back when they were done eating. We waited for them. We started Finding Nemo, and continued waiting. Some other people returned to the villa whom I had noticed left after the MexCal group, so we could wait no longer and decided to see if the Chinese food place was open. It was! Turns out, last weekend was a holiday, so we called for some delivery and after I ordered I asked if they deliver. She kept saying in her thick Chinese accent (that’s a good sign that it’s authentic Chinese food, right?) that it would be better if we picked it up. So we did of course. We couldn’t wait for the others, since we had again heard that they were walking into town from MexCal, not back to the villa. So, we got our Chinese food and ate it on the steps of the piazza and got some gelato. It was all very good. And although I was tired of walking at that point, I’m still glad I got out at some point.

Today: Now for today. No class in the morning, which is what is enabling me writing this blog post, thank goodness. It might not have happened. I’ll do my best to continue writing everyday, like I was before. No promises though, kay?

Sunny Siena!

Friday, Aug 5: Day trip to Siena.

Stopped to buy sunglasses and lost the group. Walked around with two others for a little bit. They had been to Siena earlier last week so they knew how to get to the duomo. 

And there was a couple paying music outside the duomo! One playing accordion and one playing the dulcimer! 

Got to the duomo, the instructors forgot they had to purchase tickets for entrance, so if we wanted to go in, we bought our own for 3 euro. The duomo was beautiful. Definitely my favourite one so far, probably because of the stripes on pretty much every inch of it. 

Gelato!

Me and my roommate, Jessica!

In the gift shop, I bought a commedia calendar and two postcards. I had taken so long that I think everyone had pretty much left, but I found Joey, so we walked around town a little. Got gelato and espresso and walked around some more. Met everyone else at the Piazza del Campo and went into the Palazzo Pubblico with all the art history students including my new friend Torey.

A little history about the Palazzo Pubblico they gave us in a hand-out:

‘Its construction began in 1297 and its original purpose was to house the republican government, consisting of the Podesta and the Council of Nine. The most famous of the secular frescoes painted in the palace are three panels in the series on government in the Hall of the Nine by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the Maesta by Simone Martini.’

It was pretty in there too. There was even a couple getting married in one room. Not a big ceremony, but more like if you were to go to city hall to get married in a cute little room with lovely decorations and a harpist. Before we left town, I bought an Italia pin and an ‘I heart Italy’ shirt. 

On the way back to the bus, it started raining! We got back to the bus and rode home just in time, all the while I entertained the sickly and ill-feeling with my wonderful humour. The bus rides have been a little car-sick-encouraging, so it helped everyone, I think. At least, the people who weren’t sleeping.

Mah week... Last post with lots of days in one.

8 August 2011

So sorry! It’s been exactly a week since I last blogged! For shame!

It’s been an interesting week, and the reason I haven’t been blogging is because I haven’t really been online in awhile. Every now and then I check my facebook, but it’s on someone else’s computer because they want me to add them as friends, or something obscure and quick like that.

So, to sum up this week in a few words…

Nope, can’t do it. So I will just tell you flat out what happened this week in a few different posts.

Monday: Had an amazing Commedia class in the afternoon after pretty much sleeping in and doing things like my laundry (which is actually the last time I did it… ew!... Yuck for wearing the same sweaty clothes almost everyday!). In class we talked about action vs. tactics and intention vs. goal. Many of the terms were the same as when I had learned them at PCPA, but the actual name of the terms were a little switched. I’ll get it eventually.

I love that Michele (our instructor) (pronounced Mi-keh-leh) is so passionate about Commedia. He does each of the characters so well when he’s explaining them and giving us examples of how they are supposed to walk and how they talk and from where they originate (meaning region of Italy). To him – and I agree – an action is how I change the world around me to achieve my goals. Waving my hand is not an action; it becomes an action when I have a purpose to my waving. I can be waving my hand to shoe a fly, or trying to capture the attention of someone across the room. But it’s the intention behind the wave that makes it a true action. There must always be an intention behind every action on stage. We always have one in real life, so why should on stage be any different.

When your intention is not present in your action, for whatever reason and for however long – even if an instant – your intention is unexpressed. This is a waste of energy basically.

Tuesday: Class again. All day. Michele says that the voice is like our 5^th limb. It’s so true. Our voice can fill voids on stage and in life that many of our physical limbs cannot. When you are trying to fill an entire space, but your arms don’t reach, what do you do? Give a little shout in every direction to fill that space with something. Even your voice can change rhythm, tone and volume, just as the body can in our exercises.

Wednesday: Class all day. Much of what we’ve done this day is work on space and power in the space. For Commedia, the most powerful spot on stage is center center. If two characters have equal power, the best way to show this is to split the stage in the center. If one has slightly more power than the other, that more powerful character might step a tiny bit further down stage (closer to the audience) or the weaker of the two characters might turn slightly on the diagonal. The character who is directed at the audience always has more power than the slightly turned character.

There are also many levels on stage. Someone who is in the back of the stage (up stage) has less power than someone standing directly in front of them, or even on the same plane but closer to the audience.

There are vertical, horizontal and diagonal levels on the stage; any of these implies power. However, if you are standing just off any of these imaginary lines or planes and are in the no man’s land of inside one of the triangles these lines create, your power is suddenly lost. A simple inch or two to the left could mean the world to the audience’s interpretation of what is going on and who is the more powerful character in the scene.

Thursday: Class in the morning. Working with others can sometimes be difficult. I’m not speaking of class of course, because it’s amazing. I’m talking about working with directors and other actors in shows or rehearsals. Michele brought up an excellent point regarding this. So often, directors think it’s their job to tell the actor what to do. This is so incorrect and it usually pisses someone off. This is why:

“I’m not a puppet; I’m an actor.”

As a director, you can make suggestions for the actor to do, and usually if you are a good director, you can see what will make the scene better or worse, but telling the actor how to act or what actions (see the previous class discussion about ‘actions’) is not the director’s job. Directors have specific ideas of how a show should go and what it should be like; that’s fantastic. It helps shape the show, but if you expect the show to be exactly what you pictured in your dreams, you’re going to be very sad.

As an actor, it’s essentially what my character and my body bring out in the character. My ‘animal.’ We can work on closing the distance as much as possible between what the director would like to see and what my animal is actually informing me of, but it is up to me and how my animal interpret the character’s animal. Otherwise, you just expect me to be a puppet. I’m not.

What I mean by ‘animal’ is the core of the character or my core or even your core. What is essentially and basically you. There are three portions of the body that make up any person. In the head, you have reason. In the chest, you have the soul. In the pelvis area, you have the sex drive; this is your core. In Commedia dell’Arte, everything is led by the pelvis.

For example, if I’m talking to you, and you have my full attention, my reason, my soul and my core will be directly aimed toward you. You have my full attention. However, if we are in a scene where I’m telling you I love you, but I really love this other man, my head will be toward you as I tell you I love you, but my soul will be facing this other person. This means that my reason knows I should love you, or even thinks it’s best or that I want it to be this way, but my soul belongs to another and you can’t have it.

Isn’t that interesting??

We also worked on a new game to me regarding stage space. There are four people to share the space. Person A starts in the space by making a triangle. Each segment of the triangle is whatever rhythm, tone and volume they chose, but at one point of their triangle, Person B must meet them for a second, fully present with them. This means both reasons, both souls, both pelvis’s must face each other. Then A continues with the same triangle and B creates their own, but each time they come to this meeting point, they must arrive and leave at the same time. This gets very difficult as you add Person C. Person C must meet both A and B at one of their triangle points and then finish their own triangle at a separate point. Person D comes in to make a triangle, but they have only the points still available in each of A, B, and C’s triangles. So, once you’ve spent awhile trying to make all the meetings work and everyone is arriving on time (without changing your initial speed once you’ve started that segment of your triangle), you’ve got four people in the space, meeting each other on time and fully present each time and helping each other all the while. It is a difficult but a fun game.

How does this relate to acting? Other than the obvious learning how to use the space properly and be fully present with the others on stage, all characters have a dialogue, goals, meetings. So learning how to keep those rhythms (speed) on each segment and working with each other to achieve those goals and meetings, it all becomes the dialogue.

Also, a play can have a run of anywhere from one night’s performance to years of performances, six days a week. So it must always stay fresh and the actors must still be able to be present with everyone else on stage even if they’ve done this part 128 times. It’s the same meetings, same shows, but it needs to be new/different every time or you will get bored. And if you are bored, the audience picks up on it and they get bored.

The simplest change as changing rhythm can change everything. If the scene is a woman wants to leave her boyfriend and she is about to leave, the man can choose to run at her to stop her or walk slowly toward her to stop her. It doesn’t seem like it, but either one could be a good choice, depending upon the man’s intentions, but they are both completely different stories and convey those completely different stories to the audience.

The man chooses to run at the leaving woman because he intends to stop her and tell her he loves her more than life. Running makes sense. He chose a high rhythm.

The man chooses to walk slowly to her as she leaves because he doesn’t really want her to stay but he feels obligated to make her think he does. He chose a low rhythm.

Neither are incorrect, but both are completely different. It depends on the reason, the purpose, the intention. These decisions are what create actions.

Others went on a day trip to Assisi for their Art History class. In the afternoon, I don’t remember.

Somber Sunday

When I went to Castiglione del lago on Saturday, the three of us probably spent the least amount of euro of anyone on our entire trip. However, I still wanted to pace myself - I hadn't learned from the day before.

I was going to go to the cathedral with some of the other people and check out mass, but I decided to sleep in. Sunday was actually the first day since I've been here that my body really did not feel like it wanted to do anything, including go downstairs to eat. But I forced myself to at least get up. With Arthritis, its never really predictable when I will and won't be able or have the energy to do things. I'm grateful, however, that it was Sunday that this misfortune struck. (During class would not be fun.)

So, I vegged some more. But this time, I had people at the villa to keep me company. Internet was working downstairs, so I was down there with some others.

We played a little Apples to Apples, ate a little, watched Ever After and Tangled, and then we got hungry. I had some pizza left over, so I ate that and some cantaloupe, but others hadn't bought food for the weekend. Apparently, many stores in town were closed too, because it was Sunday.

But, Kevin (one of the main guys; staff) told us about some take out Chinese food. So we looked at the menú. After awhile, more people started wanted Chinese delivered. So after about half an hour of figuring out what everyone's getting, getting their money out and I got my card out to pay with my card and take the cash, we finally called. No answer. We call again. Still no answer. There is a mexican food place nearby, so we try that number and it works. So, that means the Chinese place also wasn't open on Sunday. Sheesh!

So, we all put our money away, get dressed and walked to the mexican restaurant. It was nice to get out, I have to admit. I was starting to get really bad cabin fever! I will try very hard not to stay home as long anymore.

At MexCal - the name of the restaurant - I got a margarita and tostada and Torey and I shared some churros for dessert. It was a little pricey for the amount of food we got, but it was all very good. Except for the margarita; not a huge fan.   :)

This is the view from the top of the teatrino (our little theatre).

Some History for the Casentino Day Trip

Friday, July 29th

This is the little bit of history they wrote down for us. I'm just going to copy it down for you because I didn't remember this when they were telling us on the bus ride there.  :)
Enjoy.


La Verna is an isolated mountain hallowed by association with St. Francis of Assisi. It is situated in the centre of the Tuscan Appenines, and rises about 4000 feet above the valley of the Casentino Its name (Latin, Alverna) is said to come from the Italian verb vernare, cold or freeze.

On My 8, 1213 Count Orlando of Chiusi gave La Verna to Francis of Assisi (1181- October 3, 1226) so he could use it as a retreat especially favourable for contemplation. In 1218 he built Francis the chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli. In August 1224, Francis withdrew to La Verna to keep a 40 days fast and while praying on the mountain-side he received the stigmata. Thus La Verna became sacred ground. Pope Alexander IV took it under his protection. In the late 1260s the Chapel of the Stigmata was erected, near the spot where the miracle took place.

The sanctuary of the Verna was built between 1213 and 1459.

For more info on Saint Francis, patron saint of Italy and Assisi:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

Castiglione del Lago

I will write the meat of this blog later. It's much too late here.  ;)  2am, eck!

This week I had decided not to go anywhere or do anything because I wanted to pace myself, monetarily. Many people wanted to go to Milano, some wanted to see Florence before we go as a big group, others just wanted to go into town. I decided I would stay at the Villa.

This was a terrible idea.

When we got home from the day trip in Casentino, I was so beat that I took a nap. We got home around 4pm, I tried to Skype with my Mom a little after Jessica, my roommie, and I bonded a little more, then because Skype wasn't really working in our room, I took a nap. Dinner was at 7:30pm, and I missed it. I slept right through dinner and woke up the next morning at 6:45am! I mean, I woke up at various times in the night, because that's just how my body works nowadays (fantastico, no?) but I didn't get out of bed until the morning. 

There wasn't really breakfast out, except the usual cereal, so I was glad I had bought yogurt ahead of time. Then I went back to my room after walking around the very serene and beautiful villa. Around 10:30am, I heard people say there was breakfast! So, I ate a little more. (Turns out, on the weekends, breakfast is later ... woot!)

Then I came back to my room, watched a movie on my laptop cause there was no internet, and slept. Many people were planning on going to the Hot Springs. I also wanted to go. I remember going to the natural hot springs in California or Oregon or somewhere with my family two or three times on Summer Vacations to visit my grandparents, and I remember how hot but how fun it was! But these weren't really in nature. They're natural hot springs, but they built a spa around the springs. So it's more like a spa and I decided not to go to the spa until maybe the last weekend, if at all. So, while people were leaving for the springs, I was sleeping. And I finally woke at 1:30pm, started heading downstairs for ... what else, more food ... when Julie asked if I wanted to go to the lake with her and Danielle.

I DID NOT HESITATE!

This was ridiculous! Sure, I have a limited budget, but if the only thing I'm going to do is sit in my room watching movies, or eating, or sleeping, I'm going to go stark raving MAD!

Hence, my next day trip with Danielle and Julie to:

~Castiglione del Lago~

(From left to right)

Julie and Danielle on the bus to the lake in Castiglione!

Can you believe it, it only took 3,80 euro to get to the lake and .55 to ride the bus the rest of the way.

There isn't even a shore, really. It's just sand and crab grass, then a little drop off of sand and some rocks and you are in the water!

The bottom of the lake was really slimy! And it was so muddy that we thought just maybe it would relieve our thousands of mosquito bites! So we slapped some on and probably looked completely ridiculous!

We even had some real Italian pizza! It was delicious!

This beer is huge! This is actual size; the size of your face! And it tasted quite good! I'm not a fan of beer, but this was good.

Green olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and cheese!

Proscuitto, tomatoes and cheese with white sauce!

Artichoke hearts, mushrooms and cheese!

On the way up to the ... wait for it ... CASTLE! ... they have hundreds of olive trees!

They even had an out-door theatre in side the castle! WHAT??!!?!?!

However, this show was being set up only for that night, and we had already bought tickets for the train ride home, so we couldn't stay and watch it. But I'm trying to figure out a time we can come back and see a show!

 

From the top of Castiglione's little shopping area, with lovely wines, pasta, salami and grapa, you can see all the way down this street! Since the bus ride in was the last of the evening, we walked this street all the way down to get back to the train station.

Mommy! They had an old-time gramophone and I thought of you!

Waiting for the train to arrive, we stopped at the caffé across the street for some cappuccino. I'm glad I've never really had one in America, cause I would probably think the ones in the states are crap! This cappuccino was hand-made with love and care and TIME! She artistically put the cioccolate on the cappuccino and it tasted so delicious!

"Alisé" is the name of the caffé.

Needless to say, I am sooo coming back!

Next weekend maybe!