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

I had the most fortunate opportunity to spend four insightful days with my partner Mai in her hometown. Kien Giang and her family of 8 siblings and 2 hard-working parents welcomed me with open arms straight to their dinner table.

I arrived on Saturday evening after a smooth 8 hour ride to the southern province. The house was quiet for perhaps the first and last time of the holiday; her older brother Bay was wrapping the last of the Banh Tet with banana leaves as a nephew waited nearby, ready to cook them into the night. It was around 4 in the afternoon, which meant both of her parents were still working; her mother, feeding the pigs around the back of the house, and her father, out tending the field one last time before the rest of his children would arrive. I greeted them both with the “Xin chào bác” my partner had instructed me to use. With her brothers I would use “anh”, with her sisters “chị“, with the two 16-year-old nephews “em”, and finally, with the younger children, I would use “cháu“. Of course, these are all with the proper intonation.

Over the course of the afternoon and the following day, the remaining siblings arrived. I soon stopped asking which child belonged to which sister or brother; there were far too many to keep count of relations. I was put to work each day, which gave me a sense of purpose, but at the same time treated like a guest. I soon learned the meaning of the phrase “ăn đi” or “eat up” and heard the phrase “be like in your own home” multiple times. It seemed her parents’ sole concern was that I was properly fed (thankfully, there never has been a time when I wasn’t, and it shows) and treated like a guest.

I also learned what it felt like to be in someone else’s home for an important family-oriented holiday. At times, I felt like an intruder. During those times I would escape out to the front porch area to write in my journal and soak up the calm Mekong air. Other times, I would simply sit and witness an exchange of words still so foreign to me, met with a sharp retort or unbridled laughter. Here was a family who loved each member dearly, and through the trials and tribulations life may have thrown at them, they made it through each one with the assurance that family would always be there for them. It was a beautiful sight to see that made my own heart ache for the same warmth I find in my own family, but at the same time feeling blessed (yes, I said it, #blessed) to be able to be part of such a wonderful family if only for a brief time.

Thank you Kien Giang, thank you Mai, and thank you to your family. I will never forget them.

Following my first night in Rome, myself and the other JFRC students entered into a few weekends packed full of Orientation activities. Between crash courses in Italian, general meetings, and community meals, we had the opportunity to go out and do some sightseeing in and around Rome, as well as on the Amalfi Coast. You can see it for yourself in these videos!

Our first excursion was to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Following a brief lecture about the history of the two sites, all of JFRC got onto a couple of buses and went downtown to explore. We stopped first at the Colosseum, taking a few pictures before entering into the ancient and ominous ruins. If they seemed large and imposing on the outside, that view was nothing compared to the interior. It is then that I realized just how significant a feat of architecture the Colosseum was for its time, and still is today. The fact that people who lived in a time without advanced things that we take for granted today (such as electricity or extensive indoor plumbing) were able to create a structure that has literally stood the test of time is truly incredible.

Once we had taken a sufficient amount of pictures and ambled around the large stadium for long enough, we ventured off to the nearby Roman Forum. At the Forum, we spent several hours exploring the ruins of Ancient Rome’s city center. There were palaces, temples, senate buildings, gardens, and plenty of other bits and pieces of Ancient Roman gathering spaces to wander around in. My favorite aspects of this area were the triumphal arches. Their details and massive structures made for an absolutely beautiful view.

Following our time at the Forum, we were set free to explore Rome as we wished to. Myself and a few others made our way into a church near the exit of the forum, taking a few photos before we went off to meet some friends for a delicious Roman meal of pizza and vino. Then it was time to rest up for our upcoming day trip!

For our day trip, we took visited the Palazzo Farnese. This papal-built palace was imagined as a fortress for the family of a former pope. It sits at the top of a hill, overlooking the town below it so as to see anyone who may be threateningly approaching. It looks rather formidable from the outside, but the interior is full of gorgeous architecture and art. The rooms are smothered in biblical frescoes, and the gardens are a beautiful place to wander around in or reflect upon while sitting near the intricate grotto. We only spent a couple hours here, but there was enough to see to fill a whole day!

 

The next weekend of JFRC Orientation activities led us to the Amalfi coast. We left early on a Friday morning and traveled four hours to our first stop: a restaurant right on the beach. We ate, enjoyed the scenery, and passed a few hours of time before continuing on to our next destination.

Our next stop was the archaeological sites of Paestum. This area was formerly a major Greek port city and now contains its ruins. There are ruins of several temples dedicated to certain Greek gods and goddesses, arenas for gladiator fights and the like, theater spaces for performances of famous Greek plays, and everyday homes and social spaces. We explored with a tour guide, who led us through the site and its museum before letting us get some gelato and head back to our bus!

We spent the night at a hotel with beautiful views of the coast before we began our Saturday adventures. The JFRC group split up for the day, and the group I was in went to a winery and olive farm first. We walked around the groves, tasted the wine, and ate bread dipped in the delicious olive oil made fresh from the olives on the farm. It was a short but delicious stay that prepared us for our next food-related tour of a Buffalo farm.

While at the Buffalo farm, we were taken on a tour to see how the buffalo were raised and accommodated, as well as how Buffalo mozzarella is made. The farm was extremely conscious of the happiness of their animals and offered them freedom to decide when to be milked as well as space to roam in and consistent food, water, and relaxing activities (rolling massage brushes, for example). We got to interact with a few of the buffalo before we left their space and went to watch a few workers go through the process of creating mozzarella from milk. We finished our tour by tasting the product of their labor, which was, in truth, the best cheese we had ever tasted.

(Wine Reserves at the Winery)

Our final destination of the day was Agropoli. This quaint and charming town on the edge of the water is home to an old castle, which we briefly explored before wandering into town to shop and enjoy the joyful local atmosphere. We arrived just as the afternoon break was ending and stores began opening up for the local Italians who were emerging from their homes. The scene was casual but cheerful, creating a great space to enjoy the evening before we returned to our hotel for dinner.

Sunday, the last day of our weekend trip, took us to Monte Cassino. The site was the first home of St. Benedict’s monastery and also the location of a World War II attack that injured and ended the lives of many. The monastery itself was beautiful, but it was made more so by its long and illustrious history. We were lucky enough to catch the last few moments of a mass occurring in the main chapel, which was a beautiful feat of art in itself. Beyond that, we toured a large portion of the building, its courtyards, and its museum. All were equally impressive and gorgeous, serving as a suitable end for our exciting trip out of Rome.

Stay tuned for my next post, which will feature the end of our Orientation (Mass of the Holy Spirit), our visit to Papa Francesco, and some adventures from on-site classes! Ciao!

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.

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.

 

-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

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.

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

 

 

The troop successfully embarked on its first program trip this past weekend. We ventured into the Mekong River Delta, one of Vietnam’s two prominent river deltas. The Mekong is a fluid source of power and economy to the people of the southern region which we were able to witness during our trip.

Our cultural tour began at a Cao Dai temple. Caodaiism incorporates practices and beliefs from Taosim, Buddhism, and Christianity, to name a few.

Soon after leaving the temple, we arrived at our boat. Our tour guide was a wealth of knowledge, which he gladly shared with us all, teaching us the history and culture of the region. Our first stop along the river was at a river market, and what seemed to be a hub for tourists. We were able to see how coconut was used to make a variety of snacks. My favorite? Coconut taffy, specifically, freshly made coconut taffy. While the other, more adventurous students and friends on our trip tried snake wine, I stuck to the safer option of coconut taffy and pop rice, the Asian counterpart to popcorn. I did, however, hold a 25 kg python, a feat I am quite proud of accomplishing (never mind the snake was probably used to it). And speaking of snakes, they are quite the delicacy in the Mekong Delta region, so of course we had to try some. Shocked and awed, I couldn’t tear my eyes away as our tour guide killed the snakes and cleaned them to be prepared for dinner. The snake, wrapped in bitter banana leaves, was palatable and somewhat akin to the texture of a meatball, but I don’t think it is a dish I’ll be adding to my Top 10 list (although most of the positions are held by other Vietnamese dishes).

 

The next day our tour guide took us to a brick factory, which relies heavily on the Mekong Delta. The bricks are made up of a mixture of sand from the Mekong and clay, and the kilns are fired with rice husks transported along the river. This factory also exports pots, vases, and scaled-down replicas of the Easter Island statues, as well as provides impish students with a playroom, aka the storeroom for hundreds of millions of rice husks.

 

On the way back to Saigon, we stopped by a pagoda to visit and play with some 100 children. Prizes were distributed for games such as the potato sack race, gifts were given to each and every child in preparation for the new school term, and we also had the opportunity to hand out red envelopes containing “lucky money”. During the Tet holiday, children receive money from older relatives which they refer to as lucky money.

All in all, it was one sweaty, jam-packed, educational, entertaining weekend.