When last we spoke and what has passed in the meantime

Quite a bit.

Today: 11 hours of rehearsal from 8.30am (I am in a performance every night from this Monday to Sunday, for 3 different plays), then dinner and a quick social event. Knackered.

Previously: Went to Nethy Bridge, a tiny town in the Cleghorns (Highlands Scotland) for three days with the cast of Anne Frank. Really fun lot of people, and spending a few days solid with people you always get to know them better and in ways other than the standard mask-wearing competition. I think particularly because I had been asked the day before and knew that I would be with these people for the next week, tops, I was incredibly friendly and, moreover, open. Results were positive.

In the last leg of the bus ride we discovered that the bus from Aviemore (small town) to Nethy Bridge (town? several buildings...) hadn't run in years. We got a friend who had driven to pick some of us up, but there were too many for the car so I said 'Fine--which way is the town? I'll hitch. Who's in?!' and proceeded to on a hitchhiking adventure with a girl I just met. Got picked up by a digger in a minivan and found Nethy Bridge after getting only slightly lost. Good experience, all in all.

Then, in Nethy, that first night I was feeling brave etc, and somehow the little journal I've been carrying around came up. It started as a project like "A Treatise on the Wars, Sex & Thought of Men and Monsters" (see 'Little Brown Book of White Lies' on facebook albums) that I did in the Balkans, but in recent weeks has turned into a rant/poetry book of really quite personal (and occasionally depraved) stuff. On an impulse, I said "here"--and handed two complete strangers my most intimate thoughts of the last two weeks. Aside from being a great instigator to conversation, it was such a liberating experience, and I felt like it immediately erased any of my mental barriers or inhibitions. As an instigator to conversation, I think it made others open up a lot to relate, and definitely broke all the 'first meeting' rules.

As far as the general experience, it was great. My part is quite small, so I was able to use most of the time to memorize lines for other shows and do reading for tobacco crop substitution. It was definitely a theatre trip--most of our drinking games were warm-up games adapted for drinking when you messed up. It was refreshing, honestly, compared to say, card games where you just sort of play Russian Roulette with gin, no skill involved. 'Big Booty' is a personal favourite, and becomes more fun when you introduce comedy accents. It was cool to be in a place where people both felt comfortable and wanted to be moving and emoting and engaging.

Back in St Andrews, realised that the first draft of my review essay is due in this Thursday, so that's my major project this week...I have written about 4000 words in the last 3 days, so I'm feeling fairly good about it (surprisingly). I also have a history essay in for the Friday after next that I need to figure out...though I think that will come a bit later. I am looking forward to starting lectures again tomorrow (today). Academics...hmm...

I'll end with a poem, as I do.

Morning hoar

On the chilly breast of dawn

Mantles morning faces

As they approach, pass, and are gone

Seeping into morning silence

As its disturbed by cars and birds

Until the Memory of Silence

Is gone in deed, though spared in words

We sit in coffee shops

With drooping faces, tired hooded eyes

Crawl out from secret morning spaces

To find our places on the silent streets of dawn

Cold and overcaffinated

Shuddering into daytime occupations

Morning hoar

On the beating breast of dawn

Mysterious morning faces

Elude me as they approach, pass

And are gone.