It's still kind of light outside...it's 11:30pm.

Well, today was a crazy busy day. Meeting with group 10:30-11, singing 11-12:30, acting 12:30-3. Lunch. Movement 5-6:30, Show at 7.

For singing, the 22 people are seperated into two groups. Four of the boys in my group, including myself, were given four pieces of music because Marina couldn't decide which one to give us each individually. So, for Tuesday we need to memorize one of the songs (which I have never heard of) and know the rest of them. She's so cool and funny. She's already making so many improvements with everyone, including myself, and there's only been two classes.

Acting was cool. Our etude today was of a roller coaster. We improv-ed getting on the roller coaster, going up the climb, and the event was getting stuck and the atmosphere changed from jovial and exciting to panic and fright. It was then fixed and we continued on the rollercoaster crouched down to indicate the lows and went up on our tip toes to indicate the heights, and even tilted one way to indicate a turn. It was great and Sergei - the teacher - absolutely loved it, as did the restof class. It was "inspiring" because all of our characters were alive, we were excited, believeable, and it could've gone on all day and they would have never been bored. awesome. Individually we had to be animals today. I was a fly. So, I had to take on the persona and physicality of a fly. I flew in a window and got stuck in there, freaked out, was buzzing and flying all around looking for the window again bumping into walls etc and finally I found the window and got out and the atmosphere and my emotion changed. It was really cool. Monday we finally get to be a person. I have some real good ideas. I'll tell you how they went on Monday. :)

In Movement we had a sub for Natasha, his name was Vladimir. He was so cool. It was such an amazing class. He worked on us getting acquainted with every inch, even centimeter of our body and working every single muscle - not leaving a single one out. It wasn't strenuous, but it definitely brought out a sweat. It was so awesome. He was more process oriented - meaning he wanted us to understand what we were doing and make sure we're stretching that out to the max. Natasha is more result oriented, she pushes you and pushes you to make sure you're feeling the most pain (or so it seems ha ha) or the most stretch without spending specific focus on getting acquainted with the body. However, I'm not bashing her, she's absolutely brilliant and has done amazming things for me. P.S. For whoever knows ballet, I've never been able to do this gracefully, but now I can: When stretching at the barre, when one leg is straight and you're in releve and you develope one leg up into passe (foot at knee) and then develope onto the bar (bring foot to bar), I've never been able to do this gracefully, I usually shift around. Today, I was able to bring it up with NO PROBLEM!! I was schocked. AND on both sides!! It was such a cool feeling. I'm already making huge strides and it's only the first week. Amazing.

We saw a show tonight. It was a in a small proscenium studio theatre at the MXAT (Moscow Art Theatre). It was the first year students' final presentation/final exam which was a performance of a play. Absolutely brilliant. They were so talented and brought out every emotion. The Cossacks was the name. The set was simple with bamboo looking fences that folded out and in to make different rooms and stuff. So good. So glad I was able to see this piece of theatre, and I
loved it even more that it was their final exam. AND Mischa, our Chekhov teacher, was the director for the show and he was so excited to see us all there. He's this short little spunky energetic white haired 80 year old man. He's someone that knows exactly how to get what he needs out of you for the stage. Brilliant.

Tonight I'm going out to my first Russian club. That should be exciting! Tomorrow we have a boat tour through Moscow and then we're seeing Richard III, which is supposed to be the best show here right now. Christyna and I have been craving pizza (I know, we're so American, right?) so we're going to get pizza for dinner too. :)

Well, I'm out. Have an amazing evening!

P.S. I almost forgot! While waiting in line to get into the show tonight, a few of us starting talking this other patron. Turns out he's been living in Vegas for the past 17 years, but is Russian. His son was in the show and goes to school at MXAT. Turns out, he was the director for Cirque do Soleil in Vegas for 11 years!!!!! Insane, but so freakin cool!!!! I met someone famous and don't even know who he is! Whoo!