-Genie, Aladdin (1992)

I  type this as I rock out to my Disney Jams playlist with my roommates, feeling like I could take on the world because I’m in LONDON. (Okay, maybe I’m the only one rocking out, but we all do feel pretty awesome.)

The reason I’m in such high spirits may have a small bit to do with Saturday’s class trip to Brighton, United Kingdom. It’s this charming, bustling, hip beach town in southern England. Picture the setting for a British Nicholas Sparks novel. Pebbled beach, colorful lanes of cafes on a cobblestone road, an entertainment pier…BOOM. That’s Brighton! It started as this little fishing town back before the US was even an idea, and King George III (Y’kn

ow, Mad King George? The one who wouldn’t let Washington’s dreams come true?) had a son who didn’t know what to do with his time. So, he decided to take over an apartment complex in the middle of town and make it into a fabulous beach getaway palace. George, Prince of Wales, sort of built the world’s first Epcot, with a palace inspired by Chinese culture and stables inspired by Indian culture! The inside of the Royal Pavilion was floor to ceiling dragons, gold, and Chinese porcelain. George was great at hosting parties and even better at eating; he once had his French chef prepare a feast with 100 courses! He had the kitchens built close to the Great Hall so he could take his guests on tours of the huge facilities. Kitchens were commonly in separate buildings in case of fires, but George was a glutton for gluttony and wanted his friends and guests to know! It’s assumed his obsession with being a sort of “emperor of the world” at this time of Britain’s great power may explain his desire to create a Chinese/Indian-style summer home. Unfortunately, he was such a restless designer and architect that he only visited the finished product three times before his death. Some say it’s the journey and not the destination, anyways, am I right?

OKAY, there’s my informative section, now on to the fun stuff: My evening in Brighton. So, after our teacher set us loose on the beaches, we intelligent adults took off our shoes and socks and sprinted across the ice-cold pebbles into the waves. Of course, the waves came up to meet us (VERY QUICKLY) and we all were soaked to the knees in frozen sea-water…but it was SO worth it! We all became instantly giddy; running, jumping, splashing, spinning, singing, and looking generally like Disney Princesses. Don’t worry. A lot of it has been documented in photo AND video form so others can enjoy our little episode. After about a half an hour, most of us realized we couldn’t feel our feet and figured the pebbles and shells could be tearing into them, so we dried off, warmed up, and basked in the sunset for a while. Then, we went to the entertainment pier where some of my fellow classmates were crazy enough to go on huge roller coasters. It was amazing, they were being suspended 100-feet in the air above the ocean! I didn’t have the guts to spend four pounds on getting my guts thrown around, but they seemed to have fun! The class split up and took over Brighton’s nightlife after that, invading dive bars, themed bars, Australian bars with pantsless Rugby Teams (from whom we learned a number of interesting drinking games), and dance clubs. Everyone we met was so interested to hear about where we came from, they were helpful, excited, and generally cheerful. I REALLY loved the Brighton vibe. I’ll DEFINITELY be going back, (maybe when Mom comes to visit?)

Well, ANYWAY, I had a KILLER time in Brighton. Touring the Royal Pavilion was AMAZING and really showed off the insane wealth and influence of historical England. I really got close to my friends here, and we all got a chance to just unwind and act like little kids after a very stressful week . (Which is a favorite pastime of mine: acting like a kid.) Next week, I’ll go into detail about all the interesting theatre I’ve been seeing here, just so you don’t think I’m spending all my time frolicking about. 😉

Cheers!

Taylor

After about three and a half weeks of a 3 hour a day class, I am on summer vacation in Chile! Our program essentially had us take an intensive (J-term) Spanish class, but now we are free to travel around South America for a month and then we start the real semester the 2nd of March.

Tomorrow morning to start, I will be flying to Punta Arenas, the most southern point you can get to in Chile by plane. There with two classmates, we will be touring Torres del Paine national park. We will then be meeting a third classmate to explore Chiloe an island with very distinct culture and food. And of course taking a penguin tour! Lastly, we will be heading to Pucon, where we plan to zip line, white water raft and I may even sky dive over a volcano!

But, back to the things that I have experienced. Last weekend, the program took our whole group to Isla Negra, Chile. It’s about a two hour drive west of Santiago, that goes through the countryside. We went to visit one of Pablo Neruda’s three houses, and enjoy some time on the beach. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, and was the second Chilean to be awarded it yet. Neruda, a lover of the sea and all things maritime, built the home to resemble a ship with low ceilings, creaking wood floors, and narrow passageways. A passionate collector, every room has a different collection of bottles, ship figureheads, maps, ships in bottles, and an impressive array of shells. Following this beautiful tour, we headed to the beach and enjoyed getting soaked by waves and climbing on the rocks.

This weekend a small group of us went to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolumbiano ~Precolumbian Art Museum in Santiago. This museum in particular is said to have the best collection of artwork in Santiago, and I would agree. Items in the museum’s collections are drawn from the major pre-Columbian culture areas of Mesoamerica, Intermediate / Isthmo-Colombian, Pan-Caribbean, Amazonia and the Andean. The museum has over 3,000 pieces representing almost 100 different groups of people. The collection ranges from about 10,000 years ago. And more importantly for me, the majority of the collection was incredible examples of ceramic work.

Well, I better finish packing for tomorrow!

~Ciao

This past weekend I had the incredible opportunity to go to Venice with three great friends of mine. It was the first trip we had all planned and executed all by ourselves. And it was nothing short of an experience.

When you’ve always travelled with your family you are so used to relying on them for the directions, them for the daily plan and them to keep you safe. I never realized how much I relied on them until taking this trip by myself.

Getting lost happened countless times on this trip (although Venice is probably one of the most confusing cities ever) and while sometimes it’s frustrating when you just want to get somewhere, I think it was really a blessing in disguise. One instance was when we were trying to find a gondola ride and decided to follow this big group of people. After following them for awhile they stopped outside an elementary school when the bell rang and hundreds of children ran outside.

We had followed all the locals to watch them pick up their children…

But, it was so cool and put into perspective that this beautiful tourist area include’s people’s homes.

On this trip we had to learn how to use public transportation all on our own. Asking our receptionist (twice) and then getting lost and asking countless locals, is always an experience. However, everyone was incredibly nice and almost excited to tell us how to get where we wanted to go. The language has never been too much of a barrier. Italian’s know a lot of English and once you know the base Italian words, you can make it work.

We got to meet this incredibly nice man named Marco in his mask shop. We knew we had to get a mask in Venice and we knew it had to be authentic. He was excited to show us how he makes his masks and so passionate when telling us he’s been doing this since he was a little boy. It’s people like that who help return you to the culture you are living in.

This trip was full of culture, full of new experiences and full of first’s. But, we made it through. We did it. I can’t wait to do it again.

-Dory, “Finding Nemo” (2003)

Picture this: You’re sitting in a well-lit, white room. It is large, about the size of a high school classroom. The windows are large bay windows that open inward and let in a lot of light, but there are also florescent lights on the ceiling. the floor is a grey, smooth, plastic dance floor. Backpacks, coats, shoes, and chairs are stacked to one corner near the door. You’re a college drama student, and you’re sitting crosslegged on the floor. In front of you, eight of  your fellow students strut about, pretending to be various zoo animals (complete with sound effects). You think…

This.

Is.

Amazing.

SO, there you go! That’s what I did yesterday, how about you? … Okay, before my parents catch on and stop funding my education, let me explain WHY we were acting like animals. I mentioned in earlier posts how PHYSICAL this program at LDA is: how we have Movement, Physical Theatre, Acting, Stage Combat, and Stretch Yoga on top of all our other classes. It turns out, performance is a pretty PHYSICAL, bodily endeavor. It’s not just about voices and facial expression; every move you make and your relation to space and others in the space tells a story. A line of men at the front of the room staring at the audience means something completely different than that same line at the back of the room facing away. How are you able to tell a young woman’s walk from an old man’s? Or a timid person versus a relaxed, comfortable person? Ursula said it best, people- “Body language!!!”

So, in Physical Theatre, I learned about the neutral mask and how the body has eight stages of tension. Each stage of tension communicates a different emotion and state of being for the character, and it also has the ability to affect the audience. When you’re watching a really suspenseful film and a woman is hiding, breathing shallowly, and has her eyes wide and darting, don’t you get a little anxious yourself? These stages of tension range from utter relaxation (amoeba) all the way to complete anxiety (catatonic). One can’t stay in catatonic long, or the terror is hard to break out of. (That’s how powerful body language can be!)

In Movement, which is my favorite and least favorite class all at once, my body is literally pushed to the limit. We find our body’s momentum and weight and learn to use it to move in and around space creatively in this class. I’m making it sound like a dance class, but in reality, we don’t learn routines, we MAKE them in the moment. One exercise we did today were these rolls across the floor that resembled somersaults, but we had to straighten our legs as they swung over our head so we could catch our momentum on our toes and slide back onto our tummies. It’s really hard to explain, but we do things like that-weird cartwheels, frogjumps, starfish rolls, handstands, and lots of creative jumps and turns across space. It’s really fun, but really frustrating at times when you want to keep working and just nail a move, but your body is just exhausted.

That brings us to the animal exercise! OKAY, so in Acting, we were broken into groups and assigned plays and characters that we’ll be playing for the midterm presentation. I got Top Girls, by Caryl Churchill, and my character’s name is Patient Griselda. (I’m not going to bother trying to explain Churchill’s complicated structure, but it’s quite a read so I recommend it!) Anyway, we learned that each character has a specific plane and pattern of movement that endures through the scene. The specific term for what we did was Laban Movement Analysis; it’s this way of annotating and recording dances and ballets, but it works for actors as we try to understand our characters! My character has a sort of gliding movement pattern, she’s light, flexible and sustained in her personality and her actions. Our teacher, Kathryn Pogson, told us that a great way to see exaggerated examples of these Movement forms was to head over to the London Zoo and find an animal that exhibited these traits. And YES, OF COURSE we all acted out the animal movements right in front of the enclosures so that EVERYONE around knew how crazy acting students are. But it really did help!! It’s amazing! I found a White-Naped Mangabey Monkey who reminded me so much of Griselda, and upon acting like the monkey in class, I feel like I got a better sense of the way Griselda carries herself! (And let’s be real, it was super fun to crouch and flit about like a monkey all day.)

So, before you go make any assumptions about how weird acting school is, remember that all this insanity is for a purpose! My sore biceps and hyper-awareness of posture will lend to character building and performance. It’s only week four, but I can already see how each of these classes are lending important tools to my actor toolbelt. I’m dead-tired and incredibly sore, but I see and feel myself getting stronger and stronger each class.  I’m confident that by the end of this, I’ll be eager to get onstage and show you all what I’ve learned…right after I’ve taken a four month nap!

Cheers!

Taylor

7am, you descend and all you see is stillness. Water simply sits, waiting for the passage of life and lights are rising, not quite awake yet. Enveloped in the shadow of dawn we arrived; enveloped by the cloak of night we left.

Venezia, the strong woman we fell in love with. She loves us back, but has let us go. Sometime, we will hopefully return to her.

She welcomed us with a three day feast, the carnival. A masquerade on every street corner, confetti popping, colors bursting, people hiding behind masks, cloaks, and large dresses.

Venezia, the city where we joined the feast and all our tourist inhibitions. Whom we bid adieu, riding away in a gondola in the light of the sunset.

This past weekend I visited the coastal town of Cadiz to participate in the Carnaval of Cadiz. Thanks to I Love Spain, a student travel agency, and 22 euros I got to sit on a coach bus for one-and-a-half hours each way with other students from Loyola and University of Sevilla. I looked at this opportunity as a way to see a new city and finally see the ocean. As it turned out, I was indeed able to see the ocean but didn’t really get to know the city itself. For one, there were hundreds of belligerent kids in costume running around yelling and trashing the poor city, impaired my impression of it. Also, I was expecting some performances by the chirigotas, which are satirical groups but I saw non of this because I was too preoccupied with finding the ocean. This I was able to accomplish but no thanks to the poor guidance of what I thought were local residents. But alas the ocean! The great open sea, that I so longed to see. I walked down to the edge of the water and simply sat there enjoying the sounds of the waves crashing nearby. The good life had finally arrived but was unfortunately interrupted by the loud sounds of rambunctious children in the city. As I returned to the center of Cadiz, I tried to locate myself on a map and realized Cadiz was in fact a peninsula sticking out from southwest Spain! But the streets very much reminded me of a medieval Andalusian city with the charm of a coastal town and the wind is something to note – constant and powerful.

As I rode the bus back to Sevilla at 2 am,  back to civilized law and order, I thought to myself this can’t be the Cadiz that people had referred to as the “little Havana” of Spain. Was this Carnaval a real tradition or simply an excuse to get drunk and pass out in the streets? There must be more to this city that people traveling here are missing out on.

Ciao!

Week three already??

As I mentioned before on my last blog post, I don’t have any classes on Mondays, so I took advantage of this and explored downtown Rome with my friend Alanna. We started our day in a great shopping district doing some window-shopping and looking at all of the deals. (No mom, I didn’t cave in and buy anything. I hope you are proud of me.) After strolling for a bit, we sat at the bar of a café and ordered ourselves a cappuccino. The cappuccinos here are incredible and at €1-€2, you can’t go wrong. Not sure how I’m supposed to return to Starbucks and their prices after this… Following our cappuccinos and some more walking, we went to my favorite geloterria yet, Giolitti. I got fragola (strawberry), caramel, and Oreo cookie. Each flavor was soooo good. We took the gelato to go and ate it outside of the Pantheon while people watching and listening to some street performers. After walking through the Pantheon, we made our way to another café and each picked ourselves up a panino to eat outside in the sun by the Spanish steps.

Tuesday was another day of classes and another night at Scholars for some karaoke. I sang some killer renditions of “Party in the U.S.A.” and “Ignition (Remix)” with friends. Both were a smashing success.

LILY UPDATE: For anyone who tuned into the blog last week, you might remember the girl Lily who I had met at Scholars last time and who bought me shots because she thought I was Jack, a son of one of her mom’s co-workers. Well, the night was going great and just as we were walking out the door I hear a, “Hey! You told me your name Jack!” Uh-oh… With the help of my friends, we were able to convince her that my name was ALSO Jack Moorev (convenient, right?) and I also knew a Lillian that was in Rome. Her and all three of her friends bought it. Hopefully this will be the end of Lily updates for a while.

On Wednesday, I attended the mass of the Holy Spirit at one of the most beautiful churches in Rome with numerous classmates. This is a JFRC tradition that sort of signifies the end of orientation and the official beginning of our semester. This church was beautiful. I truly wish there was a way I could even begin to describe it. Following mass we went out for an Italian meal. The four-course meal had two standout parts for me. The first would be the pear pasta that we were served. Pear pasta you say? Yes, you read that correctly. It was these noodles stuffed with some sort of pear puree and doused in a pear infused alfredo sauce. It was incredible. My other favorite part of the meal was the gelato we were served for dessert. They described it as a sort of truffle gelato. The outside was covered with espresso bean powder, and then a chocolate layer and inside of that was a vanilla layer. So so good.

Thursday was my first on-site class. The JFRC offers several partially on-site classes, meaning we go to various sites within Rome or even further away in order to compliment our in-class lectures. On this particular morning, I traveled to Ara Coeli, another one of the many beautiful churches in Rome, for my Writing Fiction in Rome class. This particular church hosted the Santo Bambino, a wood carving of the baby Jesus all dressed in jewels. People from all over the world will write letters to the Santo Bambino. He is especially prayed to for healthy pregnancies. After this we walked around the neighborhood we were in. That night I booked another trip. I will be Barcelona bound in April! I am so excited for the opportunity to explore yet another beautiful city and country while abroad.

This particular weekend was everybody’s first real chance to travel. However, some friends and myself were the minority that remained on campus. This gave us a great opportunity to catch up on sleep, get ahead on homework and explore the beautiful city of Rome even more. We went downtown, had some McDonalds (the menus here are different and SO much better… America needs to step up its game), ate gelato and finally made it to the Trevi Fountain. Throwing a coin in your right hand over your left shoulder and into the fountain ensures that you will return to Rome again in the future. Let’s hope! We also booked two more trips over the weekend. I will be heading to Dublin this weekend and Amsterdam later in the month.

Until next time,

Nick

-Grandmother Willow, Pocahontas

Hello family and friends!!

I know it’s been a while, but time moves differently when you’ve got 9AM-6PM classes every day and a strong affiliation for napping.

I’m here to fill you in on some of my adventures that I’ve painstakingly wedged in around all the hard schoolwork we’ve been up to here at LDA. But, Grandmother Willow said it right up there- the right path…ain’t always easy, folks. (Is anyone else catching on that all my titles are Disney quotes? I thought that was super clever…)

So, last Thursday I saw the most INTERESTING piece of theatre I’ve seen in my entire life. Okay, so the audience is seated on steep bleachers and the stage is on the floor in front of them. The ENTIRE place is pitch black the whole show…EXCEPT what handheld lighting equipment the actors used to tell the story. It kind of reminded me of Tron. Like, lasers and beams of light showing hallways and doors. Oh, did I mention there was no dialogue? No SPOKEN dialogue. It was sort of comic-booky because there was a monitor that scrolled one line of text at a time on the wall behind the performers. The dialogue wasn’t even that important, though, because the story was being told through meticulous, nuanced movement and LIGHT. Gosh, it was clever. It was about a future where the entire population is equipped with chips in their brains that allows for constant communication, but constant surveillance by the government. There’s a resistance movement to it, and the main character is charged with crushing the uprising, but he finds out that he may empathize more with their cause. He’s given the choice, then, to betray the government and take them down from the inside, or to crush the rebellion like he’s told. It was inspired, apparently, by the Edward Snowden scandal. (The lead’s name is literally Dearden.) It was called “Light” and it won some stuff at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.  It underlined the importance all the LaCoq movement work we’ve been doing.

What else…I went to the Vaults (a spooky underground music/party venue) for a Valentine’s Day Ball! My roommates and I dressed up and danced all night to weird folk and jazz bands. Everyone was decked out in “fancy dress” which is what the English call costumes. Some people went ALL out and had fur and masks and feathers, they looked fantastic! I felt like I was conjuring demons with like wiccan as we spun around throwing glitter and feathers. Wait, no! I know what it was like! It was like the nightlife of the Renaissance Faire back home! Like, if those people had a club, it would be like this. Gosh, it was cool. Alexa even did a love potion spell with this lady dressed as an owl!

I ALSO went to the worlds GREATEST outdoor marketplace. It’s called the Borough Market and it’s in the heart of London, but it’s full of foreign cheeses, wines, fruits, veggies, pates, fish, meats, pastries, breads, oils, sweets, candies, and anything else you could possibly imagine. Now, when I picture heaven, that’s what I think it’s gonna be like. Food everywhere. And everyone wants you to try their food! They just leave little trays of it out on the counter and you can walk up and eat as much as you want! and the SMELLS. Oh my GOODNESS. You’re hit with warm cider brewing, then you turn and get sharp smell of cheese, then crisp baked bread… then garlicky oils…then meat pies! I can’t emphasize my love for this place enough! I’m taking my mom and friends when they visit for spring break for SURE.

WELL, I had quite a few adventures this week, but they weren’t easy to cram in to my busy schedule. Sitting here reminiscing has reminded me how important it is to push through the exhaustion and hit these fun and exciting experiences. Sometimes I just have to stop and remember WHERE I am! LONDON. How could I possibly nap in a place like this? With all these experiences and places open for me?! Oh, I’m just getting started. A week from tomorrow marks my mother’s arrival and the beginning of mid-semester break. Let the adventure continue!!

Cheers!

Taylor