Bitte? Bitte! Bitte? Bitte!

I. Am. So. Excited. The closer that we get to the end of the quarter, the closer I get to a nervous breakdown AND the closer we get to being in Berlin. This is both thrilling and mildly terrifying, especially because I am leaving on June 20th for Italy and going straight from there to Berlin. The exercises in class and the way that time in class is spent is getting increasingly more meaningful, although i still get confused about why we spend so much time with guest lecturers versus actually being in our groups. And, I'm just going to put this out there, I miss Heidi and the big funky looking B.

The composition exercises gave me a lovely little window from which to peer into what future compositions might look like. It was interesting to see the different ways that the groups approached the exercise and that even though we didn't necessarily have to incorporate our topics into the composition that nearly all of the groups did. They didn't seem so much like "drama" to me as a collaborative get-together and make something fun exercise. A creature of drama school, the Viewpoints method has been challenging because I am so used to spending hours upon hours with a text, getting my actions and objectives the way that I want them, playing with dialogue (and occasionally weapons), and this whole 'here are the elements that need to be included, pick your text, and be ready in 2 minutes' thing doesn't jive well with my internal dramatist. BUT, I am enjoying them thoroughly and I am always open to new experiences and methods. Maybe not always. Most of the time. As long as they are "ohne Fleisch". And kudos to Tanya for being such a good sport.

My research has been progressing almost painfully slowly because I feel like most of the work is going to be done through interviews with young people in Berlin. The second lecture, however, made me think about how exactly I am going to video blog my research, especially considering that most of it is going to be through Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous which is inherently...anonymous. I have concluded, therefore, that I will have to talk to people in meetings and then get their consent to talk to them after the meeting, maybe video recorded or audio recorded or maybe not. Another concern of mine is that when I have traveled and gone to meetings in other countries before, most of the English speaking meetings have been full of either Americans or other foreigners, which defeats the entire purpose of my research. I am well aware of how drug addicts and alcoholics cope with their addiction in the States and so am going to need to figure out a way to either go to German speaking meetings and see if there are any English speaking people there, or have a German speaker come with me. Any takers? Bitte?

One final note, something that I can hardly wait for is the Berlin Salsa Congress. One of my best friends, John, is flying to Berlin to be my partner and it is going to be the best experience EVER. Counting down the days...