I apologize for my unexplained lapse in in blogging... apparently I took a week off from having thoughts worth sharing!
Really the phenomenon that is taking place here is I've become so acquainted with the city and the lifestyle and the language by now that the novelty of everything has kinda worn off. My discoveries are less daily and more profound. Regardless, I've had an eventful week and now will have to recount it in a ridiculously long entry that will make me regret ever letting laziness overtake my locquasiousness.
I mentioned breifly that I wanted to find a volunteer outlet somewhere in the city where I could constuctively invest my newfound free time. I went researching and por casualidad found an organization called Food For Life that operates all around the world and has a branch here in Buenos Aires. They are a free food distribution group that hands out all vegan/vegetarian/organic food. Now I know what you're thinking! Why would poor hungry people needing to be fed care about the ethical quality of food that is put on their plate?? Well, let me tell you about the adventure that led me to the answer!
I emailed the group and they said "Sure! Of course! Just come by and meet us so we can get to know you and then you can help out however you want!" AWESOME! So on Monday I venture out to the address they gave me and find myself at the door of a Hindu temple! Intrigued, but obviously wary, I proceeded by the help of a shoeless devotee who led me to a multipurpose room where I joined him in his shoelessness and bore whitness to some kind of song and dance ritual that was being enacted by three young men before the statue of a deity in the corner of the room. (Shout out to Dr. Gill and his Global Religions class!! I was able to pretend I knew what was going on!) I was introduced to Veda Vidya, an extremely kind man who asked how I heard about Food For Life and where I'm from and yada yada yada. Then he told me all about their mission. Obviously, Food For Life was founded from a Hindu tradition, although it is not affiliated with a specific church or religion. Now, Hindus choose not to eat meat, not only because they believe in reincarnation and don't want to risk consuming their grandmother, but as Veda explained they believe the food you put into your body is what you offer up to God. Literally like your body is a temple. Therefore they choose to offer up only the purest, freshest, most love-filled foods through the vessel of their bodies. And they take the utmost care and pour the utmost love into all the foods that they prepare to distribute so that the people receiving those offerings will in turn be filled with purity and love that they can radiate out to those in their own world. Like it or not, I found it to be a beautiful philosophy. Veda was the nicest guy too, and gave me so much of his time and attention that I even felt comfortable enough to ask him about the ritual the men were practicing and a little bit about their faith. He ended up talking to me for over an hour! It wasn't until my long walk home that I realized I'd just had an hour and a half conversation about the nature of the soul TOTALMENTE EN CASTILLANO!
Some days are exhausting... and I feel like I'll never learn this language and all I'm doing is making myself look like a fool... but Monday was not one of those days!!
I also mentioned briefly that I was looking for acting/singing lessons to experiment with. Well, Teatro Colon was a bust, but thanks to some savvy websearching I found a couple of really interesting workshops through a little studio called Centro de Integracion Teatral. It seeks to integrate oriental theatrical practices with art and entertainment in the Americas. Now, I love world theatre.... that's kinda why I came down here in the first place! So encountering another theatrical/cultural tradition while exploring Argentina??
"Yes, I'll have South American special please with a side of Indonesia and South Asia!"
The first is Respiracion Emocional/Emotional Breathing, which is about utilizing the breath the fully connect one's thoughts and feelings to the body and being entirely present in the moment. It sounded to me like a fusion of Alexander Technique and the Alba Emoting Breath Technique that I'd studied and heard about at home.... with a little bit of an oriental twist!
The second is Mascaras/Masks!!! We'll be using authentic wood-carved Balanese masks... from Bali! And experimenting with the physical and vocal embodiment of the myriad of characters one face can create! Now in case you couldn't tell by the exclamation points, THIS is something I've just barely been exposed to and have always wanted to learn, so I couldn't be more thrilled!
I had my first class on Thursday, and I'll admit I was nervous! I mean I didn't know what to expect! Would I be handed a script in Spanish on day one under the scrutiny of judging actors' eyes and have to act through the translation?? What if they make me improv when I can't even form a sentence without rehearsing it my head first?? So many disasterous possibilities... I did not want to be THAT foreign girl who no one wants as a scene partner cuz she's so dumb! Luckily, the classes are no larger than 6 people, all of mixed levels of experience, so it was like we were all on even footing and came to the table as equals from the start.
Geraldine, the instructor, is fantastic! So supportive and welcoming, she made it clear that she would make sure I understoof everything... which surprisingly I did! There were a couple times when I didn't fully get the excerise I 'd just copy the guy next to me and pray she didn't ask me to go first! But overall, I loved the friendly open environment, the chance to be surrounded by locals with similar interests as me (as opposed to being known as "that actor girl" by all the ISA people), and the sense of having made a really brave, proactive decision to invest in some more invaluable life skills.
http://www.respiracionemocionyexpresion.blogspot.com/
http://www.teatrodemascarass.blogspot.com/
And for the sake of my parents who are the most frequent readers of this public verisimilitous journal of mine, the classes are ridiculously cheap!!! Less than US$10 a class whereas in Hollywood, they'd be anywhere from $60-$100 or more!!!
Me encanto Latinoamerica.
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