Third Week of Classes (Sept. 28 - Oct. 4)

1. Laura Linney
Laura Linney went to Juilliard last Tuesday (September 29) afternoon during the Community Meeting of all Drama Students. She shared her experiences as a Drama Student in Juilliard (Group 19) and as a working actress. We were all enthralled by her and I was amazed at how someone of her stature can feel so human and yet someone to aspire to at the same time. In the past, when I met someone relatively "famous," I I found it difficult to "access" that person. It was as if there was a wall which divided me and that someone who was more "well-known." Coming across Laura Linney was the first time in which I felt that someone of her "size" can be accessible with such ease. It was as if she has always been one of us. What a great kind of human being to aspire to.

2. Taught "Bahay Kubo" to Group 48
A couple of weeks ago Richard Feldman (Associate Director, Drama Division) asked me if there was any Tagalog song that I would like to teach to the class. After a few days I got a sheet music of "Bahay Kubo" online and went over it with Henry Jenkinson (Group 48) who had a music degree in Cambridge to see if it was feasible and simple enough to teach to people who had no background in Tagalog whatsoever. So last Thursday we eventually did! I was a bit nervous about it but Group 48 is such a special and generous set of human beings that they did learn it quickly and quite decently! I do not have a recording of us singing it (electronic devices are not allowed in classrooms) but you wouldn't think that a bunch of people from all over the world were singing it if not for a few pronunciations.

3. LOEWS Lincoln Square 13: "99 Homes"
I won a free movie ticket during Orientation and decided to use it to cut myself some slack and watch a movie last Saturday night. I wanted to see "The Intern" but it got sold out on the time schedule I wanted so I chose to watch "99 Homes" instead. I had no idea what the story was about or who was in it but I was eventually blown away by Andrew Garfield's performance as a man torn between his drive to feed his family and to be able to live with himself in a profession that drives families out of their homes in a system that propagates greed and corruption.

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4. Central Park Zoo
On Sunday, (October 4) I went over to the Central Park Zoo after cleaning three bathrooms in my suite (yup). This was for a homework in acting class. It was a pretty small zoo which had penguins in it! It's hard to believe that there would be penguins in a zoo within New York City. I also saw a squirrel for the first time too, and it wasn't even part of the attractions. I entered through the zoo entrance, and there it came squirming across the pathway in front of me with its tail like a large broom.

Since it took me not too long to walk through the entire zoo, I had time to sit and enjoy the view. The weather was beautiful in the sense that it was sunny but with the wind of fall in it. My favorite part of Sunday was sitting on a bench and taking in the view of Central Park with the cool breeze and the sounds of water gushing through stones and the random chirping of animals.

So we did survive the third week quite decently and we're on to our fourth week. By then, we would have been in classes for an entire month! What a feat it is to realize that I have been living in New York City for over a month now, and I'm doing quite well in terms of adjusting.
After this week expect my blog posts to come more randomly instead of the neat weekly posts. School work is beginning to pile up as we delve deeper into our training.