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On Tuesday I gave my workshop @ the university. This is the workshop that Maja's father arranged. It's for students that are focused on working with children... with what we'd call 'at risk youth' in the US. There are 14 or so students, mostly women. They're really into the work... I talk a little about improv and different uses of the work, then we play some basic games. They work in English mostly, but I encourage Slovene as well as some of them are more comfortable. It's pretty fun. I feel a little guilty, because I suggested an hour and a half, because I had no idea what I was getting into, and if it was going to be a nightmare I wanted as short as possible. Plus, I originally was told it was on Thursday (star wars day) so I didn't want a long day of other committments.
Wednesday we have a long music rehearsal for the improvisjia show. The cast is good. Some of the non-Narobov people that are joining us are great, particularly Ana and Ana-Marija, who are doing an R&B number. Ana-Marija also does "turbo-folk" which is a specific Serbian genre... traditional serb folk songs, but pop-ified. I can't do justice in a livejournal entry, but it's so fucking funny, and I don't even understand the lyrics. It's just this bursting of energy through song. The music is great for it. The grunge is crappy, and the musicians aren't happy with it. Drazen is not at the rehearsal, busy with work for his television shows. I am getting nervous for the show, mainly because I'm not sure what to expect.
We order pizza at the rehearsal (delivered, and sliced like american pizza). It's good, thin-crusted and floppy. Maja says to me, as everyone grabs their slices, "see Brian, we can eat pizza like americans!" Most everyone then proceeds to roll up their slices, from pointy end to crust, before eating.
Thursday 5/19
I check email then get picked up to go to TRTA ("grapevine") for lunch, the best pizza in Slovenia, according to my friends. It is good. Maja takes me to the post office, where I mail my postcards (there are freebie postcards of SW:III all around, I decided earlier in the week to mail some to myself then Gregor suggested getting them postmarked on opening day). Maja and I go to Tivoli park to find ice cream, but the place is closed, so we go to the castle and have milkshakes. She drops me off back downtown and I hang until it's time for Star Wars. I walk to base (what Drazen and I have now called Bi-Ko-Fe, the cafe where we usually meet before going out for the evening). I have no star wars music on my iPod, sadly, but the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" comes on and I make it my walking-across-town, gonna-see-Star-Wars theme music. I feel badass. Cutting across town, I run into Gerhardt, an Austrian I met after the Narobov show the other night. It's my first "this is a small town" experience. I have a bela kava at Bi-Ko-Fe (base) before Star Wars. I'm excited. Neil Young's song "Winterlong" plays on the coffehouse stereo. It makes me happy - I haven't heard that song in 12 years or so. Before the prequels were announced.
I waited for you, winterlong
seems to be where I belong
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...