So much to be thankful for

I have been contemplating making a Thanksgiving Day post all day, and have come to the conclusion, that this is actually a perfect way for me, to tell each of you, how much you mean to me (well, unless you're a stranger, than you might not mean that much to me, maybe some day if we meet you will find yourself among my thank you list...but not right now, ok, this is awkward, I'm going to stop before I dig myself into a deeper hole).

It is times like this when I feel so very far away from home.  It is times like this where I yearn to be safe in my mama's arms, and in the comfort of the home that I grew up in.  To wake up early and sit in my living room with the fire going.  To tell stories of where I've been and the places I want to go.  To recognize the missing place of my grandfather at the head of the table.  To honor together, with my family, how he is missed, but how we are thankful to be together.  I will miss my dad's welcome speech and the way he tears up when he speaks, the way he invites us all to take a moment to go around the table and reflect on what we are thankful for.  I will miss getting to spend quality time with my brothers, and my hilariously sassy grandmother.  I will miss family friends coming over late for dessert, the margaritas and the other mystery substances.  This is the first time in my 23 years of living, that I have not been home on Thanksgiving, and while I am aware that on the large scale of challenges that I (we) go through in this lifetime, I will get through this, and this is not so terrible.  But, I want to honor this missing part of what this holiday means to me.  A holiday where families across the country come together and break bread and share in this tradition.  And it is times like this, when I realize that I am so fortunate to have a place called "home" to miss, and it is a day like Thanksgiving, when I do not take for granted the incredibly loving family and friends that I have.  I am blessed to have this "heartache" and equally blessed to be able to create community and family, just where I am.  Like I have written before, home is where the heart is, and wherever we go, there we are.  So I am here.  In Italy.  And have much to be thankful for.  And so...here it goes.

I am thankful for my family,
who love me unconditionally
and who I love with every ounce of my being.
For my grandparents,
and my papa who I so miss.
For the house that I grew up in,
for the comfort of a comfortable bed,
and having a place to sleep.
For vacations
and chocolate.
I am thankful for my girls,
my posse from high school.
The incredible place where I grew up.
For Piven,
where I discovered the theatre artist within me.
 For my incredible teachers at BU,
and my second family there, my friends,
who will always, always remain so close to my heart.
To my people in Chicago.
I love you.
No, no..I LOVE YOU!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this last year.
For entering my life and bringing me so much joy.
For making my nose bleed on a slip and slide trampoline,
for sweaty dance parties,
and cocktails at The Whistler.
For laughing and crying and watching SVU.
And creating beautiful theatre with me,
and for letting me witness your work and growth.
To my collaborative sister (you know who you is).
Thank you.
Friends and family,
For giving me the courage to take this journey to Italy,
for supporting me in making the decision to jump into the unknown,
and take this big and scary leap.
I am thankful for this opportunity. 
For the people I have met so far,
who have already
shifted something in me.
I am thankful for this fresh air and my beautiful surroundings.
For the music in the language
For cabaret's and wine.
For the kick-ass students.
But most of all, today I am thankful for all of the love in my life,
what a blessing it is to be touched by each of you who are in it.

 

Procrastination is my best friend.

I decided to title this blog post "procrastination is my best friend" because the two of us do know each other very well.  And I have procrastinated making a new post, along with many other things.  The internet in my room has been a little shotty so it has been hard to find a time when I can sit down and commit to really giving you the low-down on what has been happening here in Arezzo.  But now the internet is working (at the moment) and it is pouring outside on a Sunday afternoon, so it seems like a Perfect time to check-in, say hello, and tell you WHAT HAS BEEN UP!

Oh my, so much to share with you, it is hard to even know where to begin.  Since my last posting, a ton of stuff has changed.  I was in a bit of a rough spot if you couldn't tell, but have no fear, I'm alive.   It's funny, because in my ongoing dialogue with friends and mentors at home, many people have used the word "classroom" as a way for me to relate to what is going on here.  Italy is my classroom.  And I am a student.   And I have been like, oh yeah yeah, whatever, so resistant to the idea that if I allow myself to truly experience whatever it is that is happening around me, and allow the space for things to take their course, maybe, maybe the lesson will come to light in time.  And dare I even say it, things might shift!  Endless possibility!  Whodathunk? 

Aha! Anywho, I have had some pretty awesome adventures recently.  I will rewind to last weekend and catch you up to this one (I know, I have now skipped Fall Break and loads of other stuff, but OH WELL).  So, one of the things I was struggling with in the beginning was going out.  For you Chicago friends, you know how much I love to partay and DANCE on the weekend.  I actually need to dance.  No, no, I'm not kidding, I'm quite serious.  Dancing is one of my BIGGEST forms of release.  Once I start, there ain't no stoppin me.  So last thursday (not this past one, but the one before that) I had African dance in town.  It was amazing.  We explored movement in connection to the Earth and did all of this work on the ground and with the rest of the group to really get in touch with it (the ground).  It can be challenging at times to be in an Italian dance class because if I can't see the teacher talking (and using all kinds of gestures while she speaks), and my eyes are closed, and there is music in the background, it sounds like garble garble in my ears.  But, when all else fails, I just move :)  Afterwards, I went to a party at the University of Siena (which is here in Arezzo) which was supposed to have a hip-hop reggae dj.  SCORE! I thought.  It was probably the worst dj I have ever heard, I mean, it was like a song would start and they would jolt you into a new song with no kind of artful transition, it was actually kind of hilarious.  It was like a dj on crack, but the bad kind.  But when a song was on long enough to dance to, oooooeeeee, I got down.  There weren't many people at this party.  Also kind of hilarious.  But, if you know me, that has never stopped me from dancing before.  The other funny part was the reactions of the Italian students to my dancing.  I by no means felt judged or looked down upon it was more like, "what the heck is she doing with her butt and how on God's green earth does one shake it like that" oh girl.  I don't think they were prepared for the Kira dance face either.  I meant business.

Friday and Saturday night were equally as entertaining.  I went to Aurora (bar) with some people.  It was nice to be out.  There was a man there that had been helping out the bartender, whom many of the Accademia folks are friends with (the bartender, not said friend).  This friend is a middle aged man, very funny.  He kind of reminded me of a penguin.  So, part of the reason it is hard for me to go out is because I dread the walk home at the end of the night.  You may think I'm lazy, but you have no idea.  It blows.  Seriously blows.  So this friend of the bartender offered to give me a ride home, with my friend.  He seemed nice enough, and I figured he was a good guy considering he was a friend of the bartender.  So we thought, what the hell.  Now, I feel like I would NEVER do this in the States.  A ride home from a stranger?  Two women?  Maybe I watch too much SVU, but I like to air on the side of safety.  Nevertheless, we accepted the ride home, it seemed safer than getting killed by wild boars on our walk home.  No, that wouldn't happen, but really there are wild boars here, and we eat them. 

So we left the bar, and started walking with this man, to what we thought was the car.  And he stopped at a door in the middle of the street and opened it and motioned for us to come in.  My friend and I looked at each other and had the silent exchange of "is he sketchy or friendly."  We decided to go in.  He turned on the lights, and it was his restaurant!  Thank goodness! He showed us the assortment of desserts and said, "Have any one you would like!" So we each had a ginormous slice of tiramisu at 3 in the morning and he opened up a bottle of champagne, which we finished, and he drove us back home.  It was amazing!  And my Italian was flowing!  I should drink champagne more often!  The next night was a repeat.  I went back to Aurora, and this time there were more people, and more people went back to the restaurant, and there were more desserts and more bottles of champagne.  Amazing.

This past week was also pretty interesting.  Wednesday there was a manifestazione (a protest) in Arezzo.  It was a student run protest.   It was to protest the many recent cuts in funding that have been made and will continue to be made in schools throughout Italy.  It was to protest that education is not a privelage, but a right, for all students, those with money and without.   The University of Siena (in Arezzo) is at serious risk of being shut down.  An entire University closed?!  We (at the Accademia) were asked to create a performance in response to this issue.  And so we created four short clown pieces that dealt with different aspects of what this protest was intended for.  One thing that we focused on was the idea of "the man" and what happens when "the man" starts to strip away the tools, funding and resources that make up a decent education, basic rights as students that we should have.  We wanted to create scenes that felt universal.  The Italian students could interpret "the man" as whomever they felt "he" was representing.  And because we are stranieri, foreigners in this country, we wanted to create something that made a statement but was not commenting on the specifics of Italian politics, create something that could connect our experience with theirs (and many other students and young adults throughout the world).

 

 

me after the protest teaching some clown ballet in the streets

 

 Although I wish for the students who ran this protest had a bigger turnout, it was awesome.  It felt really good to be a part of on so many levels.  I was supporting something that I beleived in and could relate to.  I was able to support my fellow peers in Italy.  I felt integrated into the community in a much deeper way than before.  And they were so appreciative to have our support, and we both learned from one another.  

I decided to take this weekend to catch up on rest.  I have been pretty exhausted, from last weekend and also the protest Wednesday turned into an all day event.  Friday night I started True Blood from the very beginning.  I'm still not sure how I feel about it.  I feel like there is something addictive about it, but I'm not sure that I actually like it...only time will tell.  Yesterday I had a GLORIOUS Saturday. It was perfection.  I feel like whatever you would imagine to be a typical Italian day, yesterday was it, in its glorified version.  So I woke up around 10am (two hours later than I usually sleep until) and met my friend Meredith in town.  We first went to the market together.  We were both in the mood to do a little shopping.  I bought 2 dresses that were super cheap and splurged on a pair of fantastic, quite practical, Italian leather boots.  They're tope..is that how you spell that color?  Anyway, I was also determined to buy some food to bring back to my apartment.  I have been pretty bad about grocery shopping lately, and cooking for myself, and I needed to buy a couple of things.  I bought the MOST AMAZING CHEESE I HAVE EVER HAD EVER IN MY LIFE! holy balls.  i mean, whoa.  pecorino.  which comes from a sheep.  ahhh.  or shall i say bahhhhh. oh god, I can't beleive i just made that terrible of a joke, well actually I can.  Then I proceeded to buy some of the best damn prosciutto I have had since I have been here from a little bottega that I had never been to before.  Yesterday was also a day of friendly people.  Like any day, or any place, it can be hit or miss.  But everyone smiled at us and sang "buon giorno."  Then we went to a small chocolate festival that was in town in Piazza Grande.  Heaven.  And they were giving away free samples at every stand.  And the guy who was giving out hot chocolate was super attractive.  Meredith and I were actually blushing the entire walk home talking about how attractive he was.  We think he liked us :)  Too bad I had shit on my face from lunch which Meredith told me AFTER.  My luck. Blows.

We then continued on our way home to Merediths to grab some ingredients to take to my apartment to make dinner.  We needed to buy pasta so we decided to go to a bottega down the street.  I saw that there were all types gluten-free noodles.  I thought to myself "wow, I've never seen so many types of gluten-free pasta noodles in my life!" and then i saw gluten-free bread and I thought "wow I've never seen so many types of gluten free bread" and then i saw the word "senza glutine" EVERYWHERE! It was a completely gluten-free store with cookies, bread, cakes, cereal, EVERYTHING.  They even made fresh, home-made bread which you can barely ever find gluten-free.  I actually said to the owner, Como se dice, heaven. I was in heaven.  We went back to my apartment eventually and watched Glee and one episode of True Blood and went to bed.  It was an awesome day.  Truly, truly amazing.  And here I am Sunday night at 11:54.  And am ready for bed.  So I go. Peace motherfuckers.