And on the seventh day...

1984 is over, so over. Cast party was good, everyone got absolutely wasted. I've spent today completely resting, left the house exactly once, otherwise layed and lounged and watched the entire 4th season of Weeds, to my intense amusement. It really is a good show.

It's the detox I needed...time to step things up again, socially, academically, and planning for the future-wise. Socially, I have quite a few dinners and coffees I'd like to have with people from last year, as well as talking to people in the states more and perhaps organizing weekly or fortnightly parties/dinners at our house. Much as I hate entertaining, it's a great way to get people together. Academically, I've got my Wednesday essay and a fair bit of catch-up reading. I also want to figure out what the deal with Sustainable Development is to see what I can do as far as combining it with Philosophy for a degree. Looking further to the future, I want to start looking at options for this summer and maybe some abroad stuff next year. I have very vague designs on Asia that let me visit Cheolseung, see some of China, and live in China or Korea teaching english or ideally ideally ideally doing some sort of development work that I'd be able to get credit for. Very tentative goals. I've got a month to hopefully get a more solid idea.

And the whole not majoring in Theatre thing? Yeah, I'm Banquo in a production of Macbeth going up in 2 weeks, Saturninus in Titus in the second week of second semester, and I've been coerced into co-directing Sarah Cane's "4:48 Psychosis" for the first week of next semester. Thinking about the internet for a show next semester...I'll keep busy.

Numero Dos

Went well, and I videotaped it, so there's a record of tonight (and I'll get one of tomorrow night). Wondering what to do with the odd £500 this production should leave me for future ones...it's a wee bit daunting, actually, especially thinking, as I do, that simplicity and minimalism are the way to go.

Went through my SD presentation with my partner today (we give it tomorrow) and it's twice as long as it should be. To be expected, I suppose, so I'm off to his to work on that again after I post this. Therefore, my shopping list for tomorrow is as follows:

1. 10AM, give presentation on war and the environment.
2. Enter story into short story competition at school of English.
3. Complete my risk assessment form for the files.
4. Get food? There's not much in the house. Dinner was potatoes, herbs, corn, and egg, which tasted oddly like hash browns. Then, for desert, milk, peanut butter, honey, oats, chocolate glop.
5. Have the last performance, obviously. Think of something to say to each cast member.
6. Cast party at my house...clean?
7. Present production proposal for JustSo, the musical theatre people...I'll propose Jekyll and Hyde, if I have the energy.
8. Work on Philosophy? I've got an essay in this coming Wednesday that I've just started, on Aristotle.
9. Watch Weeds! I've finished this season of Heroes so far pre-bed (and when I should've been sleeping) and started on the latest season of Weeds. I'd forgotten how much fun it is.

So, that's life.

First show

Skipped Philosophy to print programs...Sustainable Development continues to make me wish I'd done biology, though I know all the species/ecosystems stuff is only 1/4 of the subject. First show went well, about 30 people. Sort of our peer presentation more than a real show--that's Thursday and Friday (where hopefully we'll sell out 200 tickets). Still, payed for all the costs of the show, its all $$ or rather ££ from now on in my production company. Odd feeling. Not sure what I would, or rather will, do with expendable money for theatre. The show itself went well, not perfectly, but it was good seeing an audience's reactions. As with anything like this, I feel there's a "what the fuck?" period before acceptance of the style, then really getting into the story and actions. Robbie and his girlfriend came over after and had good things to say, which was really nice. Actors felt good, I think. I really want to start a full-on movement toward experimental theatre. Alternative Mermaids, of some sort. Tomorrow should be a day of rest and finishing my SD presentation. But hopefully, I will mostly play The Witcher and sit on my ass.

Feel very much like writing again. I think I need to read more fiction. Even in my spare time, I've been reading non-fiction for fun. And knowing stuff is a lot of fun, but it doesn't give me impetus to create. Let's see what the library has...

These days have been a year

But a good year.

Sunday: went to a buddy's house and worked for 6 hours straight on a poster that was originally due next month and now is due this Tuesday (finished it! good think cause I've got 1984 and he's got track this mon/tues). Came home to find Sammy's rasin party well underway. I may have never seen so many types of alcohol. Drank an orgasmic mixture of coffee, hot chocolate, honey, sugar, milk, cinnamon and baileys, then switched to Long Island iced teas, the drink of the day. Stayed at ours for a while and then hit the resident drama party 10 minutes away. Re-connected with some new people from Narnia, talked 1984. Came back. Went to bed at 4 or 5 and...didn't fall asleep. I've never had insomnia like that before. Part nerves about setting up 1984 today (Monday) I'm sure. But only partly. Ended up sitting up from 6-9AM watching the Colbert Report and youtube videos and writing.

Today: 10AM-8PM 1984 lighting/set/makeup/dress-tech rehearsal. And it went well. Really well. I am feeling very pleased with it. I hope people come. Met my lighting person and 'minion' who helped make the set, will call cues, and probably take tickets. Aka stage manager on short notice, basically. Really cool people. Any my cast of course, who are getting in pre-show mode. It's amazing to watch..I'm sure I've seen it with every production, but each time it's beautiful. It's looking great, and we have literally a ton of newspapers. All audience risers are covered in them, as is most of the stage, stacked up. AND I recorded at least the first 40 minutes. I will have a record of this, goddammit.

Finished Laughable Loves by Kundera, a book of short stories. Some good stuff (particularly The Hitchhiker and Symposium), but I think I prefer the novels.

Made noodle/onion/cabbage/soysauce/mushroom soup for dinner. Very filling. I am tired now, but not extraordinarily so. It doesn't feel like I've been awake for 48 hours. Really looking forward to tomorrow. Feeling very calm, relaxed. Thinking about the future. Have a lot of thinking to do.

PS

First snow of the year last night/today!

So I guess I should post....

Stuff is hectic, always, as always, ah well. I'm feeling really good and on top of it, though, so that's cool. Had a really good 1984 rehearsal where we ran through it twice, am slightly terrified of Monday where we've got to put up lights, set, display stuff, and do our tech/dress. Will be fiiiiine. Also, got a presentation that Friday (due in Wednesday) which I think my partner is a lot more stressed about than I am. Put my slides together in 2 days and feel good about it: War and the Environment. Some interesting stuff, definitely in the scope of our SD program but not really talked about explicitly.

Watching Lawrence of Arabia again, now. It's funny how living in Britain and having visited the Middle East twice are changing my perspective on the movie...it makes it seem a little more Hollwood, as is probably only right.

Finished a book of Sarah Kane plays, as one of the guys here wants me to co-direct one of her plays with him next semester. Maybe choreograph is a better word than co-direct, as its poetry/physical theatre-y bits. She is a big emo. The play itself is about suicide. It's cool, though not something I'd want to do 24/7. Bit one dimensional. Still, might be fun.

Rasin Sunday is tomorrow, and Sammy (flatmate) has academic kids, so there should be slaughter going on there.

Just had a plate of pasta with butter--it's funny, its the most student meal, which I had all the time at home but haven't had once here until now. I am really just waiting until I get off the 1984 roller-coaster to pick up my life. I'm not sure how I feel, what I want to do. Want to look into abroad programs.

No comments!

Awww discouraging after a long post to have no comments. Ah well.

Things are moving full-speed-ahead here. Mostly frantically busy with 1984, but with lectures and ambassadoring and making sure my baby production company gets affiliated and oh dear when oh when can I research for my presentation? Things are ball-splittingly insane. On the other hand, its been a nice day and the sunset looked like the clouds were fire. I've got set stuff and lighting stuff sorted (conceptually, at least) so it's back to focusing on acting times. Oh dear. It's hard to believe this is going up now. The good news is loads of stuff is happening every day to bring us from 5% to 100%, and that's kinda cool to be orchestrating.

Talked to Cheolseung for a long time yesterday. Found his number in Korea in a book he gave me and called him up to set up Skype, Really, really, really good to talk to him again. It's been like 5 months. Soooo...Korea this summer?

Today was a slow day for ambassadoring and so I get pay for 2 hours without having done a single tour. So that's cool.

New thought: a production that 'tours' around the halls of residence for a pound or something in each. Could be good, and not done.

I got a Twitter, cause I don't have enough tech distractions. Check it out: https://twitter.com/home

Jordan

Quite a bit to say, and I didn't keep a detailed journal so this may be a bit scattered, but here we go:

Arrival: On the taxi ride into Amman, there was a crossroads with three signs. "To Amman", "To Saudi Arabia", and "To Iraq". Little bit freaky. Jordan is literally sandwiched between Iraq and the Gaza strip, and is as close as I'll come to either.

Day 1: Slept. I got in at 3 the morning before and had stayed up all night in St Andrews, so I slept until 5, when Shawn came home and we went out for dinner (fuul, or beans, and hummus) and chatted. Met his flatmate Sushi, a half-Jordanian half-Thai guy with limitless energy.

Day 2: Explored downtown Amman, wandered around the marketplace, saw some sights. Didn't have a spare key to the apartment so had to climb to and from the balcony to get in and out, which was kinda odd with lots of arab guys in the street. This night a few of Shawn's friends came over and there was some fascinating conversation. Dealt a lot with identity, as Jordanians are a mix of Palestinian refugees and Bedouins, Muslims and Christians. In this context, what does it mean to be Arab? Or even Muslim, as a lot of the traditions originate with the Bedouins and predate Islam. How can Palestinians integrate into the whole? Also a lot of talk of the inefficiency and stupidity of the monarchy (which is absolute and amusingly uncriticized in the press...apparently they found Shawn's blog and made him take down some posts about Jordan--ahhh, to be a politically repressed nation!). Also questions of how Jordan will fare in the financial crisis and how it can become more independent or self sufficient, as now something like 1/5 of the country's economy comes from foreign aid. This being said, Amman is 100 times more Western than Cairo, and although poverty and unemployment are high you can see the cultural assimilation very clearly.

Day 3: Shawn had the day semi-off, so hung out with him. Went to the passport office and he was told to come back in a week (the standard reply for everything). Went shopping for vests for his recycling project (his main employment, a scheme to get scavengers to bring in recyclable goods that can be shredded and exported, or used in gardening, etc). Had some shisha and used the internet, as well as printing out the text of the tattoo he wanted to get.

Day 4: Bussed to Jerash, an old Roman town with the most complete ruins I've ever seen. Pictures to come. Explored the Roman city and more of the current one, which was out of the way and so much more authentic-seeming than Amman. Read Plato's Republic a bit in a Roman theatre, which felt badass, and experienced major cognitive dissonance with a Bedouin playing the bagpipes and female Jordanian tourists in headscarves dancing and singing "We Will Rock You" in dubious English. Came back to Amman (after some difficulty with busses and "third circle" sounding a lot like "Zirca", another city) and went with Shawn and co to get his tattoo. In Arabic, a quote from Kahlil Gibran: "Of the two treasures of the world, truth and beauty, I found the first in the heart of a lover and the second in the hand of a laborer". Very Shawn. He says he wants to get a tattoo for every country he spends a lot of time in, and this seems to take care of both souvenir and having-a-tattoo-that-means-something, so I'm all for it. Tattoo's are haram in Islam and there is only one real (aka not out-of-a-basement) artist in Jordan.

Day 5: Bussed to Madaba, a more Southern town famous for Roman/Byzantine/Crusader/Islamic mosaics. They were alright, but the town itself was awesome. Running mainly along one street, you could imagine it being an oasis on a long road between cities and gradually growing up over the centuries. Spent some time in a shisha place reading and chatting with some locals, no easy feat in that I had 10 words or so of Arabic and they had just a bit more English. But people overall in Jordan were extremely friendly and inquisitive, and despite language barriers (which were slight--the fact that people in an out-of-the-way city spoke some English is indicative of the fact that EVERYONE did) it was fairly easy to communicate.

Day 6: Went olive picking at an orchard owned by one of Shawn's friend's family, and they fed us and we slept there in exchange. It was good--reminded me of Costa Rica, hard, mindless physical labour with visible results and the rewards that it entails. It was in the far North of Jordan, and while the South is the impressive Lawrence of Arabia-style deserts, the North is very much mediterranean and reminded me of California, Greece, and Spain all at once. Conversations in this circle tended to be extremely political. I felt like I learned a lot, especially about the reason, but have a nagging and growing suspicion that politics as they are bore me more than just a little bit. As a means for understanding culture and people's behavior or history, great, but not as an ends.

Day 7: Went rock climbing with the same group; the friend whose family owned the olive orchard does all sorts of nature tours, and we went along with him and a tourist group. It was fun, a bit of a thrill, although all in all not as scary as I thought it might be. I'd liken it to a roller coaster ride. Went out to dinner and hung out with people...it was the last night in Jordan.

So: All in all, nothing spectacular, but a welcome break. I spent a lot of time alone and that was incredible self-reflection time, though it's sent me into a bit of a loner mood. Shawn is extremely burnt out and worked most of the time, so it wasn't nearly the connection time that Egypt was. Made me step back and think about what I want to do in St Andrews and generally, seeing all the things people were doing and the connections between them.

Now I'm back, with priorities 1 and 2 being 1984, which goes up next Tuesday, and a presentation for next Thursday about the effects of war on the environment. Life back to just where it was before, which is bizarre. I feel like I'm starting to get a tiny bit jaded by all the travel...need to find a new approach. We shall see.

The story so far...

Lesson 1: Gateagents are clueless and absurdly helpful--despite dire warnings got to heathrow just fine, no fuss. Slept a bit on the bus and the flight, as I didn't the night before (packed mostly, showered, all that good stuff).

Lesson 2: Not being able to check flight fullness is a bitch. After some confusion because the flight to Amman is a BA/BMI codeshare (crossing Star and OneWorld...God, what hast thou done?) I went and waited at the gate as one of two standbys. Other guy got on, I didn't, but the gate agent was really cool and told me to try Royal Jordan (flight j122 if you want to track) in the other terminal. The flight that I tried to get today is tomorrow, of course, nearly empty. Worst comes to worst I sleep here and get it tomorrow.

Lesson 3: When buying rum as a gift to bring from duty free, make sure they actually seal the bag. Going between terminals I just managed to get them to let me keep the rum.

Lesson 4: Apparently, my passport sets off metal detectors. Or rather, one metal detactor and the handheld one. Wierd.

Lesson 5: Gate agents are very, very helpful. Royal Jordanian, who have no reason to help me, and for whatever reason are located at the Air Canada desk (?), are going to see what the flight looks like in 20 minutes and, if there are seats, the nice lady will spend some quality phone time with someone who knows how to work the wonderfully simple and intuitive system to get me on! So if it works out, it's just a couple hours setback. If not...well, I suspect I'll have another blog post.

fingers crossed

Alright, its 4.30AM and I've done my usual pre-flight all-nighter. Off to Edinburgh in a couple hours after a good shower and pack and breakfast. Hopefully by nightfall I'll be in Amman and Shawn will be at the airport (I have no details for where he is, etc) soooo I feel a bit nervous and risk-take-y, honestly. Either way, by tomorrow night I will sleep easy. We'll just see where I sleep.

Won't post for a day or so chances are, so wish me luck!

So done.

Handed in my SD essay...whipped the first half into respectable shape, then it falls apart a bit, but its in and I am officially not thinking about it any more. Won't be the best mark ever, but should be good enough. Meanwhile, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, otherwise known as "I'm offstage, quick, write an essay!" went really well, sold on all the nights which means around 600 people got to see me leap around, growl and die onstage. Good fun, and people are really complementary. I also find that I really like the cast, lots of cool people. It's a huge mix, massively bisexual drama my-life-is-a-musical standards along with fundie conservative Christians and just...randoms. Happens in such a big cast, I guess.

Now....well...now I'm having a beer (Okocim, 99p Polish lager from Aldi's, not bad at all) and am about to play video games and relax. Finally. I've really needed some downtime. Of course, in 3 hours I have a 1984 rehearsal and while I'm not worried I know we need to buckle down since we have 9 more rehearsable days and have never gotten through the whole thing (constant re-writes may be party at fault...) but I really do think my cast for that is fantastic.

Listening to iTunes U on writing fiction and storytelling in online games, which promises to be interesting. Wondering what I want to do with my life. A bit lately. It stuck me that I'm 20 next year. It scares me.

What a day

Bit tired. After an unexpectedly heavy night last night (chat in a friend's kitchen is defined as a 'quiet night' until the bottles of rum and vodka arrive) got up slightly before 8AM (unprecedented this year!) to go to the latest madness my actors in 1984 have inflicted on me: the breakfast rehearsal! 2 hours of bagels and Butoh...really good fun, and a fresh mindset. Feeling good about 1984, although the fact that we have 1.5 rehearsable weeks left and have yet to really block the show is a smidge worrying.

Then ran around for a bit, talking to loads of people and generally in a daze--got lots of stuff sorted on the forms for my production company, and should have an account by the week's end. Stubbornly went to my 1PM lecture rather than the start of dress rehearsal (didn't miss anything, as I expected...we weren't needed for a couple hours after call time) and had the first performance of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe! Went pretty well, packed house, and we made a little boy cry. So it's all good. It may be fiddling with my essay backstage (Thanks Mom! Mind if I send you another draft tomorrow?), but performing itself has become a little...less. A shift of priorities, perhaps, from acting to directing? Who knows. The aftershow rush was good as always.

Came home to dinner--hooray for flatmates! And I was planning on porridge...it's getting on in time and I'm stalling, wondering whether I have the energy to sit down for a serious crack at essaying or if I'll leave it to the morning. Morning, I think. Play a bit of The Witcher and get to bed. Sounds like a plan.

I was writing an essay and feeling so productive that I had to blog!

Instead of writing the essay...

Decent weekend. Lots of rehearsals for The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, which goes up Tuesday and Wednesday and marks the official end of my academic career as the dress rehearsal and matinee show both take place at the EXACT same time as my lectures. So long, philosophy and SD, I barely knew ye... But seriously, it's a bit annoying, but should be fun. Also, offstage is brilliant speed-reading and note-taking-for-essay time. Who'd have thunk?

Going backwards then: made a pork roast tonight. Reminded me of Christmas--I got the roast because it had a half-off sticker on it and I thought it cost less than it did, but for a massive boneless slab of meat it actually ended up being quite cheap pound-to-kilogram. And tasty, for a first effort, nice and juicy. Mmmm.

Last night went and saw Call of Cthulu, a student-written show based on and HP Lovecraft novel. Had a 'total immersion' thing going on which was cool--the whole thing was presented as a lecture from a guest which devolved into madness and ended in the lecturer being shot and all of us being rushed out the building by the fake security. Kinda cool, though the 'lecture' itself was not completely inspired.

Halloween was decent enough. Went out and to a house party, but nothing inspired.

Been feeling like I have a lot of creative juices flowing lately. Equally, been exhausted. Reading Week can't come soon enough. Also been a bit lonely in an odd way...I don't think I understand it myself. I'm not sure how much I like the *me* that I am at St Andrews. I can't define the difference, only to say that I loved the *me* of Costa Rica, am used to my home-self (who has issues with boredom and purpose but that's mostly it), but I don't know about this incarnation. We'll see. Again, Reading Week should be good time. Have also discovered Tesco's value mulled wine in my wine skin from Spain is a Good Plan. Also, that constant consumption of tea, however weak, has the same effect as diesel fuel. Finally, spent a day away from the internet and nothing changed. I REALLY need to get back into doing that.