Would you believe that, for a couple of days there, I was beginning to regret booking a trip to Italy for break? Would you believe that, after six weeks of not caring a lick about home, one package of spiders could imbed a thorn of longing in my heart? Well, guess what, it can. I opened a package from my aunt to find a Halloween greeting card with three comical paper spiders linked by a chain enclosed. If that wasn't bad (or great) enough, I got another package from my mother with a small assortment of Halloween themed treats such as ghost-shaped marshmallows and candy-corn. I hung the spiders from my window the moment everything was unwrapped and tore through the goodies like a withdrawing addict goes through cocaine.
I should tell you that, due to my whirlwind trip to Italy, I will be missing my favorite holiday of the year. Surmounting even Thanksgiving, with all of my aunt's exemplary cooking, Halloween stands as my all-time favorite holiday and the English don't celebrate it properly!!! These morons let the really little kids have all of the fun and refuse to dress up or to even put out decorations in many cases! No place here seems to celebrate that ghoulish, romantic night as we Americans do. I mean, how can you go a whole year without dressing up in some amazing costume and pretending to be someone or something else for a while? How deprived these students are, that they can't even put on a costume during the last school day before the big night! I suppose that I'm spoiled and have taken for granted all of my years of masquerading as anything from an elf to an executioner during this time, but this just feels all wrong! Alas, that this whole nation must be so damnably serious! Okay, they can be crazy too, but they are totally missing out! The only thing that's preserving my sanity is that I got to dress up as Gandalf for a play at school last winter. At least some of the guys in the dorm are getting into the spirit. Two of them bought a pumpkin each to carve a few days ago and I couldn't help commandeering one poor guy's gourd to satisfy my craving. I didn't have my customary set of tools, but we made do. Hopefully the housemaster will let us leave them on a windowsill. I had everyone save the seeds for me to cook and share later, as they are delicious when cooked in the oven with olive oil and salt, and put them in the fridge until I could get the supplies. Today, however, I discovered that some idiot threw them all out! I don't know who did it, but why would you waste good seeds!? Actually, why would you look in the fridge, see something that is not yours and that you can't eat yet, and then throw it out? To put it delicately, that did not make me very happy.
I was beginning to regret passing up Halloween, but honestly, how many chances will I have to go to Italy? Not many! I can still have Halloween next year and go all out to make up for this year's deficiency. I got over the homesickness thing in a matter of hours and then realized that it was actually much cheaper to take a week-long trip to Italy than it was to go home. I plan to visit Rome and Venice while I'm there. The person I'm traveling with wants to go to Florence, and I normally would too, but we would only have a day to look at it if we went, part of which would be spent on a train, while also cutting into our time in Venice. I've heard amazing things about Florence, but I want to see as much of each city as possible before leaving so that I don't have to backtrack if and when I return some day. I've heard repeatedly that you can see everything really great in Venice during two or three days, so I'm hoping that I can convince her to spend two days there instead of just one. Did I mention that I'll be traveling with just a girl and myself? No? Well, I haven't actually met her yet, so I couldn't tell you a thing about her. She's come over from America on the same scholarship that I have. I'll keep you posted on that little adventure. Oh, and I'm trying this networking system for travelers called "Couchsurfing" for the first time. It's a really cool way of getting to spend the nights for free somewhere while also getting to know your host and everything that they can tell you about themselves and the area. However, one of the people that we were scheduled to stay with had to cancel on us on Tuesday. I only discovered this after going to watch the competitive house plays until 9pm and thus had to send out a slew of new couch requests that night. I was up until about 3am typing them all out, as they needed to be personal and polite to catch the hosts' attentions and give them some idea of why they would enjoy my company. I forfeited any attempts at homework an hour after that and crawled into bed around four o'clock. The next day was much the same, except that I had to perform in one of those plays and then go to my room to make up for all of the work I'd fallen behind on, including university applications, and walk about like a zombie. I feel sorry for the guy who had to sleep in my room that night, as I was up until 3am typing again. To make matters worse for him, I started sleep talking. I forgot to tell you guys that I have a tendency to do that. I have been known to talk, walk, dress, sing, and even whistle in my sleep. Don't ask me why or how. I've been like that for my whole life. This night, however, I was vaguely aware of my mutterings as I started tossing and turning. I can't remember what or why, but something startled me. I sat bolt upright in bed and rammed my forehead into the bulletin board that hangs on the wall beside me! Even that didn't wake me up though! I touched my forehead, felt something sticky and warm, muttered "Is that blood?" and then fell back to sleep. Pain can't keep me down! However, I was walking around for a couple of days with this cut on my forehead that made me think of Indians every time I saw it.
Speaking of house plays, bravo to those involved. I saw some good stuff, some *ahem* not so good stuff, and almost everything was funny, be it for the wrong or right reasons. Also, props to those guys who had the bravery to cross-dress for their plays; you really milked the parts. One shemale in particular deserves recognition as one of the best drag queens I have ever seen. I'm not sure if this is a complement Peter, but you could have strutted your stuff at any gay pride rally. One thing I am sure of, though, is that I never want to meet this guy/girl/thing in a dark alley while he/she/it is wearing such a getup!
Performing is fun and all, even if you're not very good, but I think that I get the most enjoyment from the rehearsals and especially the mistakes. There was one night where we were going through tech and lighting cues and the lead girl had to recite a monologue. While she's doing her thing on stage, pouring her heart into her words, the stage goes black and a spotlight opposite of where she is standing appears. She dashes for it and starts saying her lines again, but before she can get three words out, the regular lights come on again, except for where she's standing! In the dress rehearsal, during a mad scramble to get offstage, particularly to get off of the sinfully comfy couch that was onstage, one of our guy's flip-flops broke and went flying through the air to land near the back of the stage, far behind him in full view of the phantom audience. Rather than risk the wrath of our director, he slunk away. As I watched the rehearsal, though, a movement caught my eye. I turned and saw a hand peeking out from underneath the rear curtain. It crept forward, inching toward the flip-flop as a tentative fox might when approaching food while people are watching. His hand felt around a bit, sliding about like a cat's paw does when it's searching for mice. The hand bumped the flip-flop and froze. Its fingers wrapped around the shoe, slowly withdrew, and disappeared again. I think that only a couple of the others saw this, but we that did all cracked up. I swear, half of the mistakes that occur in rehearsals could easily go into a sketch show!
Now the plays are over, the troupe has disbanded, our lives go on, and I've got a whole mess of work to do for university applications before I leave for Italy. I have no idea when I'll have internet access again, so I should get this all done ASAP. I hope that you enjoyed the entry and that you might send me some comments and, even better, criticisms. Have a good night y'all!
No comments:
Post a Comment