… we are still alive! And we are becoming happier in our lives in the UK as we started moving into our new house today!! Its actually IN Totnes so it is close to Jarrod’s school and I just have to walk up the very steep hill to the college instead of taking the bus and then walking up the steep hill to college.
Our new place is smaller, but a lot brighter and has DOUBLE GLAZED WINDOWS! I know, I know, I’m a little too excited about the double glazed windows, but after living in a 200 year old cottage that breeds slugs, fleas, lice, and rats as well as being drafty and quite dark, the double glazed windows are a blessing. Also, no sightings of slugs, fleas, lice or rats. We’re hoping to not bring the few remaining fleas and lice with us.
Aside from the new house, I have finished Part 1 of my MA, which culminated in 3 weeks of deadlines a week apart. Within the month of February I completed a 103–page portfolio with attached DVD of video and audio clips, a 5000-word essay on “The Liminal Body in Performance” and my proposal for Part 2 (i.e. my dissertation and project).
Now I mostly have my own schedule and just need to work on my dissertation (the connection between ritual and theatre, especially music theatre) and project (a series of short “sung physical theatre” experiments/pieces). I’ve been doing a 2nd year “Vocal Production” course which means I get to move around in interesting ways while making strange noises. O so happy!!! Yay!!!! Within it we are also writing a short “opera” based on Gertrude Stein’s “Four Saints in Three Acts.” I’m also working on a 10-minute solo piece titled “instauration” and have started devising a duet with my friend Marina that involves movement and breath sounds.
Becuase the first part of the MA was so intensely theory based I am finding it very fulfilling to focus on project work at the moment. However, I do need to get into research for my dissertation as well. I have found at least 2 very useful books and need to start reading. Once we’re settled into our new place that will be a lot easier. We’ll also have no TV so there will be fewer distrationcs.
Jarrod and Ed are also doing fairly well. Both are very happy with our move, and Ed is especially happy to have bought a heavy-duty mixer for £10 recently. Jarrod and I are enjoying the outcomes of the £10 mixer. mmmmm. Ed has almost 40 digital pieces in a series but I’ll let him write about that on his own blog once he has some time to do so. Jarrod still likes school, though he is quite tired of learning about the water cycle in English (he learnt about it in Japanese last year). He’s doing very well with his guitar lessons.
Some of you are probably wondering our plans for after I’m done my MA. Well, there are things in progress that I can’t really blog about yet, but lets say that we are planning to end up somewhere in Canada at the end of all this.
Until the next time I get a little bit of time to blog….