a big few days
Where did I leave you? Ah yes, the Super Bowl.
A fun night. I had dinner with Dan and his friend Max (who's studying here on another program), then we went to a bar for the game. Dan was a bigger fan of the place where Max's program was watching (across the street from where all 2834723 people in my program were), so I just hung out with them. Interestingly enough, I ran into a girl who was on my Birthright trip to Israel! Small world...
At half time, I was ready to go home and watch the rest of the carnage on my computer, so Dan and I left to head to the tram. He had to pee, so we went down into the metro station looking for the WC. Now, allow me to describe the creepiness of a metro station when the metro is closed. What is normally a bustling area, filled with Czechs going about their days, is an eerily quiet hall of marble, lit by oppressive fluorescent lights. It's like every horror film you've ever seen. We found the WC in one corner of the place, and found two guys sitting in front of it, one of whom had a paper towel pressed to his eye and looked like he was seriously injured. Sketchy. Dan attempted to go around him and the guy looked up and asked him something, I think in Czech.
The guy had no eyes. He was offering Dan cocaine. We decided to turn around. (I'll hear from Mom about that one!)
So yesterday, audition day and the first day of classes, was as eventful as it sounds. It was the kinda day I like having, where there's always something to do. I had Czech language in the morning (only for an hour), then went home for lunch, a nap, a shower, and some photo editing before I came back to class.
I should go back a bit. This audition does seem like it was some sort of providence. They asked for a headshot and resume, if you had one, so I printed my resume but needed a photo. Lightbulb! At the Museum of Cubism on Sunday, my friend Elena had snapped some pictures of me (using her outstanding Canon DSLR camera) that had looked really good! I had her email them to me.
So after my classes, I met Dan and we went to a photo place near Wenceslas Sq (damn I spend a lot of time near there) and had our photos printed. He went to dinner with his program, and I decided to walk around for a bit rather than go alllllll the way home, only to come alllllll the way back. I dined in a too-expensive restaurant showing MTV Europe (I watched Pimp My Ride!). I'll make a long story short: what Dan had said would be an hour-long dinner with his program turned into a two-hour-extravaganza. My legs still hurt this morning from all the walking I did waiting for him.
The audition went surprisingly well. There was only one part I was really good for, in a play called Stewie the Stoic, where the main character, Stewie, was described as a "shorter than average 25-35 year old" who was preferably thin and WASPy. Well, 1.5 out of 3 ain't bad. It's a comedy, and Dan auditioned for the role opposite me, so we had a damn good time acting together again.
Today has been great, I woke up late(r), since my only class is 10:30-12, and have since been doing homework, having lunch, and blogging. The class this morning was Contemporary Czech Culture: Alternative Music, Film, etc, and it's as cool as it sounds. An interesting sidenote: we all introduced ourselves, saying what our focus was in school, and I found it interesting how much more well-spoken and self-assured all the USC kids were. Where others said "Finance. Banking. Sociology." each USC kid had a specific area s/he was focusing on: interrelationships of art and finance, African-American poetry and society, interactive media (me). Interesting...
Got an email today from Jared about The Trojan Men, who are busily preparing for their big weekend of competitions. I am very jealous - I miss singing with them a lot.
Went to lunch and got a call from the director we auditioned for, who wants me and Dan to come for a call back tonight. Score! This could be like high school all over again!
