I haven't been able to shake that everybody-get-away-from-me morning feeling. It's almost 2:30 and we have to present these scenes for acting class... I feel so boring and incapable! I don't know how Susie puts up with me when I'm like this ( Read more... )

A large sign clearly marked the entrance to the Strowis Budget Hostel, and when we rang the bell, the door seemed to open by itself. With a system of ropes and pulleys stretching from behind the counter to the lock on the door, the man sitting at the front desk let us in, and asked us to take a seat. He gave us paperwork to fill out, and offered ( Read more... )

Our World Drama professor, Emile Schra is a fifty year-old dramaturge with silver hair and a thinking forehead who lives outside of Utrecht. On the first day of class last Wednesday, he had us sit in a circle and talk about our plans after graduation. He seemed genuinely interested in us, and Susie and I stayed after class to chat with him. ( Read more... )

Earlier, when we were standing in the hall outside the dormitory, I had met an Englishman who was battling the washing machine with curses and armloads of sheets. He'd been working at the hostel for about two and a half weeks, and before that he had been learning German while working as a bartender in Vienna for a couple of years ( Read more... )

[drawling english accent] "You lookin for the 'ostel ( Read more... )

acting class was intense. My muscles were shaky for at least an hour afterward. On Monday, Marcella asked us, "What is the biggest dilemma in your life right now, in one word?" People said "control" or "indecisiveness" or "truth" or "fear", and we were put into pairs depending on our answers. Haley and I were in the "desire" pair, and so our ( Read more... )

i had my first renaissance art history class monday. Dulcia is one of the teachers. She is also the director of the castle program. When she first welcomed us to the program, it was like a scene from a movie when the headmistress of a boarding school warns the students of the school's standards and expectations, while the students melt with ( Read more... )

no, no fire. But the fire alarm woke us all up at five am. It was more dramatic in some parts of the castle than others. Apparently Peter woke up from a nightmare at 5 am screaming, just the moment before the alarm sounded. That caused some panic on his floor... but in general the whole thing was pretty calm. we gathered outside the barn ( Read more... )

On saturday morning I woke up just after nine. I had slept for almost 14 hours, so I felt human again. Susie and I rented bikes for the semester, and took a little ride around town. Along the streets we rode, the houses are lined up very close together. Everything felt very planned and compact. Something about the houses reminded me of the ( Read more... )

We arrived in Amsterdam early Friday morning and took a half asleep bus ride to Well, our tiny village in the Netherlands. The buses pulled up to Kasteel Well, the castle where all 82 of us Emerson students will be living for the next three and a half months. We crossed the moat and they led us into the courtyard, and later to our rooms. I'm in ( Read more... )