Birthday And Theatre

Yesterday, we had yet another birthday in our little family of exchange students. It was the birthday of our best Mexican friend, Eduardo! He turned 19. He's old. So even though we already had his surprise party, we decided to celebrate a bit yesterday as well :) Since the exchange students have two hours of study hall after lunch on Tuesdays, and our teachers were absent yesterday, we were able to leave at noon and went to get some food for our friend's birthday. We went to the bar and got a free drink for him, followed by more free ness at a different bar. Also, Mikayla and I went to get a piece of bakery for him. We chose a nice yellow cake with chocolate cream inside and covered in more chocolate. I have to admit, it was difficult to hand it over. But we sang to him and everything and it was a good time.

Also, last night I had my second dance exam. This time, it was for jazz. It was really just like a normal class, except that the director was there and like at the ballet one, another woman who was "grading" us. Except that this time, the woman grading us was a woman who is normally in the class. So she knows us all and she knows all the combinations and such by heart. Overall, I did very well, although I'm consistently discouraged when I realize how much I'm losing this year in my dancing skills...

Today, however, was excellent. Today, everyone who is involved in the school theater was excused from classes for a full day of rehearsal. That means that when we got there, at 8 30am, we were right away getting ready to run our show. I got there with my huge bag full of costumes and make up, ready to work. The first thing we did was have me teach the finale to the whole cast. The finale is to "Bad Romance", as you know if you keep up with the blog. And I did the choreography for it, with the intentions of having the entire cast join us 13 dancers at the end to do the last chorus together to end the show. So this morning I taught the choreography and despite all the doubt that I was getting from the teachers, everyone learned it in less than twenty minutes!! We went over it a few times, and it. Looks. FANTASTIC. I couldn't be happier!

After that, we went through the show once really quickly for technical reasons, so they could figure out the sound and lights and such. Then we had our lunch break, and afterwards went through a real run of the show. It was rocky, it's true, but I had a lot of fun. I had almost forgotten how much I missed doing shows and theater and spending hours upon hours in a theater with a cast, bonding over the common goal of putting on a wonderful show. And I have to say, after today, I do feel like I really did a lot more bonding with the cast. Remember after the Cent Jours party when I felt like I really opened up and was better recognized by everyone? I had another one of those days. Every time something like this happens, I feel so much more energized to be here and to be at school and make friends. I get closer to people all the time, and you have no idea how fulfilling it is to see people practicing MY choreography in the halls with each other and be so excited about it, sometimes even stopping me to say "Look! I know what I'm doing!" or "Can you help me? I forgot what comes next." It just makes me feel so good about everything. I find it really difficult to put what I want to say into words, but I think you all understand what I'm getting at.

Anyways, we finished up the run through around 5 30pm, and the finale was INCREDIBLE. Dear Belgians, if you're reading this, I'm so proud of you. Thank you so much for everything. You made the image in my head become a reality.

Afterwards, I went home on the bus, got some weird looks from people, because of the fact that I was all made up with red lips outlined in black and my hair teased up to the heavens (the Belgians thought that was AWESOME). I ate dinner with my host family, and I have every intention of making it a pretty early night, considering tomorrow is opening night!!!!! I'm so excited.

So, goodnight everyone!!