Oh, New York.

A lot has happened between my last post and this one, I'll try to summarize.

I started working as a lifeguard at the senior residence home. So far, so good. I love those old people. They're so funny. Everyday, the issue is the pool temperature and whether it's too cold or whatever. In actuality, the heater is never touched and is consistently at the same setting, so really, it's all in their heads. haha. Oh well. If you didn't have something to complain about, you wouldn't be human I guess.

Class went well this week. We, the students, realized that we're progressing fine individually, but it's sort of hard because the ensemble feeling isn't necessarily there anymore. Last semester we spent so much time building up an ensemble and making it comfortable. Coming into this new term, we've all changed and transformed and so now we have to get re-used to these new selves. It's a process, but it will work out fine eventually. I know I've definitely changed. I've definitely transformed into a more grounded individual that allows the creativity and imagination to flow a lot more freely...which is what I wanted.

It's funny when you meet people and you never know if you'll ever see them again. That's how I felt when I left Moscow, but I was proven wrong twice - once when Mariana came to New York and this weekend when my friend, Polina, is here. She is a fourth year student at the Moscow Art Theatre. She, along with her class, came to do performances over at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. So, of course I went. Before that, I had the opportunity to walk around with Polina and talk and showed her Rockefellar Center and stuff. It was so nice to talk to her and hang out again. Then I went to the show, and brought my friend Valerie. Konstantin Reikin was also in the show. He was the actor that played King Lear, Richard III, and MacBet over in Moscow at the Satiricon theatre. I'm sure you remember my writings on him and how brilliant of an actor he is and his amazing transformations with each character in my Moscow Blog. Anyway, this was a terrific show. The detail and specificity each actor represented within their characters and what these characters were doing was exceptional. It was so nice to see a piece of Russian Theatre again. When it was over, my friend Valerie turned to me and was like "I want to study at the Moscow Art Theatre. That was some of the best acting I have ever seen, and I've sat in at casting calls, gone to Broadway, but they were amazing." I was like, uh, yeah. So, then I briefly told her about their insane schedule of classes, rehearsals, etc. She was amazed. So good. I'm so glad I was able to go. I'm supposed to meet up with Polina today because she leaves for Moscow tomorrow.

Last night, Julie got me in to see the sold out show at her theatre company. It was called Synesthesia. It was a very creative and imaginitive show and the idea was really cool. There were ten sequences with ten different artists. It started off with a poet who opened a fortune cookie. (The audience doesn't know the fortune until the very end of the show.) Based on that fortune, she makes up a poem. Based on that poem, an artist does a painting, based on that painting, a theatre group does a scene. Based on that scene, a comedian does a piece. Based off that, a dancer choreographs a dance. After that a comic. Then a composer writes music. Then a baker made a chocolate. So, it's kind of like the game of telephone. Then at the very end, the fortune is read and we get to think back on how everything correlated. It was very interesting and very cool to watch. Each section had two weeks to come up with their piece. I love creative and totally different theatre like this, combining all art forms to create art.

Danielle is coming this weekend, so that should be fun/cool. She's staying Friday-Wednesday. So, I'll be able to hang out with her Friday-Sunday, and then she's on her own til Wednesday because I will be working. The following weekend, Leah is coming to visit Friday-Sunday. That should be fun too. It's great to have visitors. I'm excited to come home over Easter; it will be nice to see the family and get a little break from the city life.

Ok. Well, I'm off to attempt to be productive. :)