chilly

Straight to you from weather.com!

Moscow, Russia: -8℃. Feels like: -24℃.

That has been my day. I'm now officially taking the metro to school every morning, because the half hour walk is just not going to happen.

Had a good good day. Started with Movement, which went really well today, as he gave us two new exercises using handstands. We presented some Lion King etudes, which was fun. Josh and I did an etude to "Be Prepared," which was super fun, as I got to be a hyena and Josh was Scar. Everyone in the class got the logic of it, because we worked off of the lyrics and Scar's relationship with the hyenas, etc. (Sounds silly, doesn't it?) But it kind of missed the mark with Vlad, because he's not hearing the lyrics as we're performing. So we're going to work on making our relationship a little clearer, and perhaps adding more hyenas will help.

Went on to Russian (I got her a cappuccino from the machine downstairs, as an apology because we were late and we all stop at the coffee machine on the way to class...). I can understand what someone's saying in context, but I often can't catch phrases out of the blue when addressed to me. Tell me a story, and I'll understand it. Ask me a question, and I'll just stare at you. Very inconvenient when in a classroom setting... But she tolerates me, and I can sort of speak it at this point. I don't start speaking in Spanish anymore, so that's progress?

Sasha and Oleg weren't at school today, so they told us that we're responsible for rehearsing as though in a classroom setting. Darren and I rehearsed right after we'd eaten lunch, around 2ish, and we got a lot of work done. We've been doing a lot of messing around with the scene, playing with it, taking it out of context, doing some improv and such, and have found a lot of stuff through that. Ivanov and Sarah as a relationship is starting to take shape. We're starting to create people who speak to each other, instead of being actors who say lines. The difference is pretty crazy... And you can tell exactly when it happens. (Sidenote: When rehearsing with Darren in class yesterday, and Sasha was working with us, he called me "Marisishinka." As I've mentioned before, it's a term of endearment to be called a nickname, so I'm doing something right in that class! Hooray!)

Worked for a while, came home, went to the Red Cafe across Tverskaya and used some free Internet. (Although ours is actually working!) Went over so that I wouldn't have some excuse to not write my Russian Cinema paper. I punched out those five pages like nobody's business. Then I came back across the street and Kelley filmed my main stage audition stuff, which was possibly one of the strangest things I've ever done. How do you communicate theatre via video? It felt awkward, but turned out pretty well, I think. Then I went to the grocery (I seem to be forever going to the grocery...), came home, polished my boots. Made pasta and some awesome pasta sauce with enough for leftovers. Then rehearsed with Darren again. Got everything ready for tomorrow, including putting my ballet shoes in my backpack, which I forget to do remarkably often and then have to book it back to get them. It feels good to be prepared for the morning. I hope I feel this prepared when tomorrow morning rolls around, because we have ballet and that class can be terrifying.

What else, what else... Not much, other than that I have Phantom of the Opera stuck in my head 40% of the time, because I listen to the soundtrack on the way to school- I'm singing Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again for Voice class. Phantom has some cool music, but it's catchy, which can be frustrating when trying to tango with the music during Ballet.

And now, to sleep.

Peace.

M