Purple Pinatas and Pumpkin Pies

Happy Friends and Footy PJS!


First of all, Thanksgiving was incredible. On Wednesday night, my friends Molly and Erin from Up with people picked me up and we drove to Plymouth NH, where our friend Beth lives. We arrived at two in the morning to a wonderful house that Beth had rented for the weekend, called the Blue Moon. The house was, you guessed it, very blue, with a distinct moon motif. We spend Thanksgiving at Beth's family's house. Her mom made a great meal, and we all enjoyed talking, eating and relaxing. As everyone was finishing their turkey, there was a knock on the front door and Beth nearly jumped over Molly shouting "Swede!!!" Our friend Sophie had arrived with her father and grandfather. They are on a trip through the US right now, and New Hampshire was their first stop. They joined us at the table and we told them about the tradition of Thanksgiving. Sophie's father speaks fairly good English, but her grandfather knows none. Despite this, he managed to have the table laughing uproariously as he joked with Sophie and she translated. As we passed around the food and told them what was what, Beth's grandmother turned to Beth and asked, "Do they eat bread?" It became the joke of the weekend and we were constantly teasing Sophie about eating bread.

On my birthday, I lounged around the house in dinasaur footy pjs that Beth gave to all of us. Later we all drove to see the lake where the movie Walden Pond was shot. I've never seen the movie, but I've heard (from Beth, who is a tad biased I suppose) that it's a fabulous film.

When we returned home, a wonderful aroma warmed our frozen faces. Our Swedish grandpa, as we started calling Sophie's grandfather, was nearly done cooking a Swedish meal. Beth's family came over and we dug into really great roast, potatoes, bread and salad. It was a great birthday dinner.

After we ate, Beth told everyone to go outside. We all stood in the front yard for a few minutes before I saw something descending from the front porch--a purple, guitar shaped Pinata. I was handed a long stick and started whacking the pinata. I realized that it was the first time I'd ever had a pinata at my birthday party, and what a perfect first pinata it was!

Once back inside, Beth's mom brought in a cake covered in drawings in purple icing. I blew out the candles with my friends gathered round me and felt so grateful for the amazing people in my life.

The rest of the night we played Apples to Apples and goofed off. Sophie and her family were going to leave at four AM the next morning, so Erin and I stayed up all night talking with her. It was so nice to spend time with people I'm normally so distanced from but am so close to emotionally.

On Saturday, after three hours of sleep, we headed locked up the Blue Moon and headed down to Pennsylvania to visit our friend Jessica. It was an eight hour drive through rain and crazy traffic, but we finally arrived at 9 PM to a cheery house full of Jessi's family and friends all eating and drinking wine. We enjoyed a night of more Apples to Apples, pumpkin pie and laughter. We fell asleep around 2 AM and woke up the next morning at 8. Erin and Molly had to leave early to go back to Indiana. Beth and I stayed for breakfast with Jessi's family, which was delicious bacon and french toast.

Beth and I hit the road and drove four hours back to Bard. We listened to music and talked, thoroughly catching up. I arrived back at Bard late Sunday afternoon feeling grateful for delicious pie, silly birthday gifts and most of all, my friends.

This week I've been feeling stressed about upcoming finals and papers that are due. I'm so ready to come home! I can't wait, but I keep reminding myself to be here and experience Bard as fully as possible, which is hard when I have so much work to do and break looms so close.

I'm in the process of signing up for classes, and am definitely taking two acting courses next semester, possibly three, and a course where I get to learn how to use the studio here on campus. We'll learn how to use Pro Tools and learn how to mic people and instruments properly. I'm so excited!

Can't wait to see everyone! I come home Sunday, December 21st, early afternoon.

See you all soon!

Love,
Marina

I think I've decided.

After much thought and horrendously traumatic contemplation, I've decided to double major in music and theater. It may sound crazy, but in actuality, the workload is not so bad. I've mapped out my schedule for next semester, and it's mostly really fun classes that I'm sure I'll grow and learn a ton from and won't have too much work outside class time. I'll be taking Intro to Acting, Voice for Majors (Theater majors that is), Production and Reproduction (a class where I'll learn to use Pro-tools and how to mic concerts and recording sessions properly), First Year Seminar and two dance classes. I'm soooo excited!!! I'll have so much outside class time to be creative and I'll only have one class that I'll have to write papers for. By majoring in both, I can get free private music lessons, and I'll have a much better chance of being cast in plays. The theater department is really high-quality and a tad competitive, which is a good thing, I think. All of the actors (excluding one...) I've seen in plays here at Bard have been excellent. Yay!

Love,
Marina

Kock Fight Club

Stairs to the pit
Hippolyta, Egeus and Theseus chillin' on the couch "backstage"

The "stage." The sign reads "Select Your Firmness"
Our Fab band rockin' out.

I forgot to write about the play! Midsummer Night's Dream turned into a crazy adaptation called Kock Fight Club. The entire play took place in the orchestra pit of the blackbox theather in the Performing Arts Center. A huge screen was built and lowered over the pit at various points in the play. At certain moments video bits were projected onto the screen. All the musicians were on the stage. The audience had to wear chicken costumes. I was involved in writing pieces of the music. Some songs were writen fom scratch with Shakespeare's dialogue as lyrics, and some, such as Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics and the David Bowie song Oh You Pretty Things we adapted for violin, trombone, viberaphone, drums and upright bass. By the end of all our hours of rehearsing, the band was soooo tight. It felt like a real band instead of a thrown together group of musicans intended only to work on the show. One weekend we rehearsed for ten hours a day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we reahearsed for four hours every night for two weeks leading up to the show. Everyone loved it and the entire experience was absolutely incredible. I made so many new friends from being in the play and am anxious to work with Daniel Fish (the director) again someday. He's brilliant. Sorry this is so rambly, I have to get back to studying but I wanted to share this and some pictures from the play. Love to all!

Loving every second...

I am sitting in the library studying Russian, listening to John Danley and feeling incredibly content. I've had many of these moments, especially in the past month or so. I keep noticing how amazing it is here, and how amazing my everyday experiences are. I'm surrounded by people who are intensely interested in what they're studying and passionate about learning. I make music with brilliant people, go on long walks through the woods, drink coffee in Red Hook, a tiny picturesque town... When I was dreaming of coming to Bard, I never dreamt it would be this great. I spend hours in this library, wandering through the stacks, reading bits on Linguistics, Economics, and anything else that catches my fancy. All for the pure pleasure of enriching my life. Last night a few friends and I went to see Casablanca and then had an hour long discussion about gender roles in society. Every day I am immersed in a culture of intense inquiry.

On Wednesday I got paid to record some violin parts for a friend's album! It was really nerve wracking knowing I was getting paid though, because I felt horrible every time I played a wrong note and had to start over. It was great to get experience recording in a real studio, especially on violin.

I decided I'm taking Russian again next semester, which means I'll have class for two hours four days a week and a tutorial the other day. I'm not set on my other classes yet, though I know I want to take four dance classes.

This is the first year I won't be with any of my family for Thanksgiving, which is a little strange, but I suppose it had to happen sometime. I'm going to have an Up with People Thanksgiving, which is exciting! Two of my very close friends, Molly and Erin are driving up from Indianapolis, picking me up and then we're all spending the break at our friend Beths's house in New Hampshire. Our friends Sophie from Sweden and Jessie who goes to Cornell are also joining us. It should be a fabulous time. :)

I miss everyone in Georgia so much, and I miss Georgia in general. It is fabulous, however, that I will be home for an entire month from Dec 21st through Jan 26th! I'm very happy about that :).

I hope all is well with everyone, love to all!

Love,
Marina