Accounting for Time -part 1

---

I’ve felt badly that I haven’t been writing. I don’t only keep this blog for myself but also for those of my friends and family who would like a way of keeping up with my life. Several things have been motivating me not to write: my camera breaking and wanting to get other peoples photo’s of the past weeks to accompany this entry, the growing amount of writing I have to catch up on, the cold I am battling and the general winter hibernation, resting instinct, and just a general lack of mood to write. I find that when any kind of journaling begins to feel like a chore, is a marker of a time when I am feeling settled. I don’t often have the erg to write and record the day to day events of life if it feels normal. I have noticed with my personal journal as well that my entries are less frequent and less detailed. Quite a bit has happened since my first week out of rehearsals. I think that in order to get back on track with this blog I cannot ask myself to account for each week day by day. You as a reader may appreciate this as well. The hardest part is always getting started but now that I’ve done that here is what you haven’t heard about yet….

Week 2
Jan 26-Feb 1 ~ Group B with Helen, Eughan, and Sophie
Monday show in Brescia. Nice city. Stayed in a very international part of town (as said in the last entry). Retuned to Palazzolo Monday afternoon, stayed in the flat until Wednesday afternoon. Greatful to be able to go to the boxing gym in the evenings. Got to satisfy my burrito craving on Wednesday, at lunch with my Israeli friend Yuval. Returned to Torrino Wednesday evening, stayed in a B&B. Very nice owner but it was on the 5th floor with no elevator. Went to the Egyptian museum with Eughan. Some of the kids we preformed for in Milano were there on a field trip. One little girl ran up to me shouting “you were the dog”. Great, I happen to think my Captain Hook is pretty freaking increasable, and all I’m remembered for is my combined half minuet on stage in a huge stupid Dalmatian suit - they ego boosting perks of being a children’s entertainer. Watched Borat (finally) with Eughan our first night in Torino and Fargo the second. Started to do weight watchers. Went for some a few jogs. Spent the weekend with everyone. Went out for drinks on Saturday night. Lazy Sunday, now for some reason the grocery stores, even the HUGE Walmart equivalent, Carrefour, is closed on Sunday. Swapped groups with Laura for the week so she can do long workshops and be in a group with Helen and see Jake when he comes up to teach.

Week 3
Feb 1- Feb 8 ~Group A with Xander and Vix
Felt quite sick all week. Bad cold. Started off the week in a school near Padova. Did three Indiana Jones for 16-19 year olds. Tough crowds, they had copies of the script in the show, which always makes me nervious, as the shows are so interactive and thusly can be improvised and not always too book. Lots of “too cool for school”ness. Got to play Irene which was LOTS of fun, and after we left we knew our toughest crowd was out of the way for the week. Drove to Oderzo, which Vic and I had already been to, stayed at the same lovely hotel Gallo. Eat dinner with Xander and got to know him a little better, was nice to have wireless internet and cable TV for a night. Though the biggest highlight was starting to watch Prison Break with X and V. Xander has season 1, 2, 3, and what has been aired of 4 on his computer. Gallo also has killer chocolate cake for breakfast but weight watchers helped me not consume my weeks caloric intake over breakfast that day - hurray for tiny victories! After returning to the school we had such a crap time at last year, and they didn’t even feed us lunch this time, though the kids were better, we drove to anther town in Treviso called Vittorio Veneto. Stayed in a little B&B literally next to the school. Had a dance class with Xander and had a nice walk around the town. Spent the rest of the dark cold evening cuddled up watching Prison Break. We had two schools to go to Wednesday and the shows went well despite our stressful morning as we were told to go to the wrong school first - luckily they were close by. One of the schools had a sweetest teachers who cracked us all up with their teachers lounge which they decorated with posters of beautiful male actors and celebrities, which I had been more chatty and fun to be around but was feeling really sickly that day. We had Thursday off and got to choose if we wanted to stay in Vittorio Veneto or go to Termeno sulla strada del vino. We decided we didn’t want to spend our day off doing any driving so we packed up and headed north. This is the Austrian/Italian area that Laura and Jack and I went on our Halloween tour week. We drove though the most gorgeous mountains, I felt like we were in Narnia, expected to see Mr. Tumnas and his lamp post any minuet. On the way there and decided to spend our day off snowboarding, I didn’t care how sick I felt, I want to go back on those mountains. We stayed at B&B Perglhof (yup defiantly out of Italy culturally though not geographically). Got soup with Xander for dinner and watched Prison Break with X and V. The next day we woke up, went down to an AMAZING German breakfast with butter and bread and cheese and yogurt and meat and Butter and cake and boiled eggs and butter. The women even made me my own pot of hot water for my tharaflu drink. After spending a little time bumming around, the mountain was an hour away and we waited to get half day rental and lift prices. We decided to get a group lesson as well and around 12:30 headed up the mountain in the Vigo-Pera Catinaccio ski area. I can not tell you how beautiful and amazing the Italian Austrian alps are, and how much more beautiful they are when your racing down them on a snowboard. Didn’t do any blacks that day and I didn’t care that I was in my long pea coat, that my rented boots were too tight, that I was cold and wet (as I did not have appropriate clothes, and you can’t rent ski pants here or anywhere that I know of) , that I spent way too much on extra socks and tights, that I had a stomac bug, or that we even looked stupid as we all decided to layer up extra with our Three Little Brothers costumes, yes these are the one’s with the letters on the front of the overalls. Vic brought along with wolf hat/head and wore it down the a few slopes so he wouldn’t feel lift out. I bruised my knees, took a few good spills, and my boots were really too tight. Later both my second toe’s were bright read and the toe nails on both of them split, so now my second toes only have half as thick as they should be toe nails with huge ugly bumps/waves in them. It was an AMAZING day. Vic and I agreed it was the best day since we got back by far. I wish I could describe more the positive things, just being there with the snow and the view and doing something fun and physical was just just what I needed. We ended the big day with Vic and I sharing a spicy pizza. Spent quite a bit of money, but would defiantly do it all over again, and hope to get a few more snowboarding or skiing trips in before the season is over. Not a weight watchers day either but totally worth it. Because Jake was staying in the flat we were short one bed (there are actually eight beds, we have a little army cot, but even Lingue who puts seven of us in here regularly doesn’t expect us sleep eight in this flat) so we were asked to spend Friday night in the hotel. We didn’t mind, another tasty breakfast, big beds and nothing to do but watch more prison break. Saturday started off well enough. Breakfast kicked ass, there was an entire platoon of beautiful Italian army men at the service station we stopped at on our way back to the flat, though the car was running a little funny. About 40min away from Palazzolo I felt a thud and suddenly none of the gears worked. The car had been a bit revy earlier, and then I really started getting worried after I had to take it up to 6 on the RPM scale to get it to climb the hill next to the service station and it wouldn’t drive in a gear higher then second. We pulled over in a break down area, which was luckily close by. It a great deal of northern Italy the break down lane is seen as an extra traffic lane for impatient drivers and those in the real right hand lane don’t seem too bothered to drive cm’s away from your car should you been on the “shoulder”. We spent the entire afternoon dealing with the car. Christian, our boss and the others were at a conference, so we couldn’t just get a pick up until 5pm/17:00. Our auto insurance wasn’t working/ was on break for the weekend/ couldn’t be reached. We finally got a tow truck from the SOS box on the side of the road. We were driven to a Fiat repair garage and told that we had to take the train home. So Xander, Vic, and I sour from snowboarding and sick carried all our things and the costumes and props for the Addams family (as we knew that was the 3 groups show on Monday) to the train station. This town didn’t have taxi’s, or later bathrooms at the train station. Trained to Bergamo then from Bergamo to Milano central, from which we took a cab to Palazzolo which is so obscure that the taxi driver and the taxi drivers GPS didn’t know. It was a long day. Went out for Karioki that night and ended up spending a very long night out. Karioki was fun at our local bar, Bar Centrale. But in hindsight going to the club in Milano was not a good idea. Vic, Sophie and I went. Helen had slipped earlier that night and chipped her teeth (it was not a good day for any of us) and didn’t want a lot of people fussing over her. Did not have fun at the club, which I had to pay 20euro’s to get in. We followed our friends there and decided to leave before they did, so we didn’t have our TomTom with us. Got horribly horribly lost in Milan. We got on the highway, off the highway, drove past the club at least three times, and then started following a police officer to the highway where we now knew what exit to take to get to Paderno (which is next to Palazzolo, as no one actually knows where Palazzolo is). Suddenly we noticed the cops car smoking, his car broke down and as the second tow truck of the day showed up, and after the police officer had offered to drive our car, we set off again. I didn’t have the Italian to explain that it was probably our bad luck that had broken his car. We made it to Paderno and then spent another 40minuets driving around Italian suburbia where everything looks the same in the dark trying to get home. Finally finally at 6:30am, two hours after we left the club, and no we didn’t have any of Palazzolo boys numbers to call for directions, we finally made it home. Sunday Helen left with Jake to go back to San Remo and get her teeth looked at, felt even worse for her as only the week before she was in the Hospital getting her ears medicated, they were so clogged she wasn’t able to hear. Sunday, was a quiet day and around 4pm Sophie, Eughan, and I, the new three group set off for our week in the mountains near lake Como in the other Lingue car, the Mercadies space mover, which is a little like driving a fisher price submarine that doesn’t like to be in a high gear too quickly. Finished the first season of prison break, Vic, Xander and I all agreed to press play at exactly 9pm/21:00. Very exciting, if you haven’t watched and are looking to lose a little time of your life a series, Prison Break, I highly recommend. Also started getting organized about applying to other TIE companies. Sophie helped me sort out my resume into a more European/TIE friendly format.

Week 4 -
Feb 9 - Feb 15 ~Group A with Sophie and Eughan
So now I have come to realize that I haven’t been in the same group for more then one week, and this week was no different. I seem to be the floater between groups. It’s okay, keeps me on my toes. Not a terribly eventful week. Had to drive back to Milan to get the rest of the costumes out of the white car which wasn’t fixed yet. Ugh. Felt badly for Eughan and Sophie as they really really had nothing to do with the car problems. I hadn’t driven Moby until the week it broke but, that’s how it worked out. Did take some nice long walks with Sophie, and once with Eughan too, around different parts of Lake Como. We worked in Lecco Monday-Wednesday (Oggiiono, Olgiate Milanese, and Calolziocorte) and then in Sondrio (Delebio and Morbegbo)Thursday-Friday. On Monday night stayed at a B&B with GREAT food and really really nice staff called La Locanda di Sauniere in Calco. Went out for a big fancy dinner, tired goose liver for the first time, in Calolziocorte. Went on a great great jog for the first time in a while on Thursday night in Morbegbo, which has amazing amazing scenary. Beautiful mountain, though the roads are a bit scary to drive on, wisehd I had the white car instead of the sub so I could enjoy the switchback driving a little more. WEEEEE. Continued to watch season two of Prison Break. Started listening to “Born Standing Up” Steve Martins memoires, and part of my holiday gift from Jon -thanks dude, good choice. Downloaded some more books and some Italian tracks for my iPod. Talked to my Dad on his birthday. Getting more and more frustrated with my snails pace language learning. I understand very very basic stuff but my conversation is still childish at best and my grammar is non existent. Since about mid November, Laura, Vic and Helen have been planning to see one of their favorite band, The Kings of Leon, in Barcelona on V-Day. So on Friday we said some quick hello’s, how was your week, OMG I’m so excited for you, and Bon Voyages! As Lingue knew that the Bum Chums and Vic were not going to be around for V-Day weekend they were in the flat. Jake was also there, he drove up to swap cars. The French are a group of three and seem nice enough. Older then all of us (except Eughan). The French are Sophia 30, a guy (who’s name escapes me) 28, and Anita (though that may be wrong too) 25. Jake, the French, Eughan and I all went for a quick drink but as if not going to Barcelona was bad enough we had to work….on Valentines day, and not a conference for teachers but at a school. Three shows with workshops. YUCK. The kids were just about as happy to be there as we were, everyone was tired, and the ONE time we forgot to ring a teacher the one time we didn’t remember to call and confirm, the teacher worried and called the company, who assured her that we would call her and we didn’t and she met us that morning slightly historical and tired herself from apparently worrying all night. Oy! The teachers were nice though. One weird one got up and started dancing on stage at the end of a show…not sure what that was all about. It was a crap day at work but at the end of the day the teachers gave us a bottle of bubbly. After we were meant to go to IKEA as I have been sleeping on a fancy excuse for an army cot since I got here and last week five of us watching a movie on Vic’s bed was too much weight and broke the bed frame. IKEA is an hour away, we looked at the shops close but couldn’t find a replacement in our price range. We ended up “fixing” the bed to a sleepalbe standard, essentially instead of a tilted mattress it was two matrices, one on top of another, with a bed frame (held together by tape)around it. This, along with grocery shopping for the week, took us several more hours. Originally, we had all planned to cook dinner together: me, Sophie, Xander, and Eughan. Sophie and I went to do laundry and to use the internet at the café next door. Time and everyone’s different eating habbits led us to reduce this down to lets make our own dinner and everyone will eat Xanders chocolate cake and drink our bubbily from the school together. The French, Jake, and Laura (who was feeling awful on Friday and decided not to go to Barcelona) had gone to San Remo for the festival. Not sure of the name, but it’s HUGE. Hugh Heffner and Angelina Jolie both made appearances. Can’t tell you how sexy I felt doing my laundry on Valentine’s day. Thought of everyone at NIU and thought to myself, well this is still better than last year. Went home, eat some of Xander’s lovely lovely cake. Went to Karioki for a little bit and then left around 11 to go to a couch surfing (from now on written as CS) party. For those who don’t know CS is an online network for people who like to travel. Basicly it’s a pay it forward way of meeting people as well as finding free places to stay while traveling. Check it out. It’s amazing. Never once met any weirdo’s, just interesting people who are interested in traveling and knowing others. The Milan CS group, which seems particularly lovely, was saying goodbye to several members and was having a big get together at a club/bar called Gorgana. Was a cool place, got to meet some really nice people, Yuval met up with me there and we got to catch up a little bit, he had a football match the next morning with the Italian prison team in his league. Having spent the last two weeks watching prison break you can imagine how truly bad ass I found him. Drove Yuval home and then went to an CS after party gathering. Jakob, a CS ambassador, had a few people over to his flat. Jakob is a large guy who not only talked me though directions (in perfect English) to the club, greeted me at the door with a huge hug and Milano style cheek kissing and within five minuet’s had me a full on swing dancing partner, complete with flips. Now I may have lost about 10lbs since I started weight watchers but I’m still no pixi, and yes, I also happened to be wearing a baby doll dress, with tights but still…. Spent the early hours of the morning chatting Jakob, Ivan , Silvia (a CS from Rome) and Vlad (originally from Russia). It was so nice to meet and chat with new people. It turned into a much much better valentines day then last year. Drove Ivan and Vlad home around 6am and made my way back to meet Sophie as I had promised to drive with her to Bergamo to pick up Helen and Vic. Met the girls around 8am. They had loved Barcelona and were having an amazing time until the concert had been cancelled about 30minuets before it was suppose to begin. Got a few hours sleep on Sunday. Had to be up again by noon to pack and get ready to go to Padova with Xander and Sophie. At times here I have felt a little like the odd man out, only American, and sometimes I don’t feel particularly close with the girls, especially Helen and Laura. It was so nice to feel more like myself, going out and make friends with strangers. I didn’t do my voice any favors by staying out all night but my mood was defiantly lifted.

Umm…..so odiously I’m not able to be very concise. Figured I’d post this much now. Weeks five and six on their way shortly.

---

Photos

My House (most of the week)
this is what I wake up to most mornings, strange rooms with familiar belongings

Bresia
me and Eoghan

Bresia
old church

Sophie and Helen
back in Torinno

The Tower
went up this in the first week with my students

Torino Egypt Museum
where the kids found us and remembered me as the dog

Torino
central piatza

Helen
in Torino

me with the lake and mountains
Sophie, Eoghan, and my week of mountains

Sondrio
me walking next to Lk. Como

Swan
in Lake Como

Sondrio
drove up these roads, went jogging in the valley

Me in the Mountains
cold and high up

Milano
the castle