In a nutshell

Okay, so I have barely the time or the energy to blog in all the glorious detail I would like, so here's the latest in a nutshell:

- Caught my first improv show in the States the other night, by the brilliant Improv Asylum. This was amazing because it was tight, the format sparked off some interesting ideas, and just the fact that a city can support an actual professional venue dedicated solely to improv was enough to make me slobber. In fact I'm still slobbering. So much that I just swim to training every day. It's embarrassing. After a chat with the manager, it looks like I might be able to nail down the couple who started the whole company for an on-camera interview. I won't nail them hard, just little taps...enough to draw blood maybe.

- Training with Daena is as unbelievably productive as it is exhausting. How to sum her up? She is half therapist and half 'improvisational trailblazer'. (I got that expression from one of her reviews, isn't it cool?) The thing is I was expecting the mental and physical exhaustion, but not the emotional exhaustion. It's like the most intensive acting class I've ever done in my life, but already I am seeing the benefits of these little break-throughs. It's hard to describe in writing, but...ummm.....it's......really great'n'stuff. Moving along.

- Have discovered the best sandwiches in the entire world at Darwins Ltd (which I hunted down at the suggestion of Rachel Hills) and where, you might be interested to know, I am typing this blog entry. How very Harvard of me.

- Am calming down a little from the initial shock of being in a foreign culture i.e. am no longer in the "oh my goodness look at that!" "Now look at that!" "Wow did you hear that!" frame of mind and am actually able to have a little bit of headspace to focus more on the creative stuff of what I'm doing.

- I'm chilling around Harvard Square this afternoon (and I mean, literally chilling: Americans seem to like their air-conditioning to be able to freeze meat, in some attempt to compensate for the heatwave outside...I believe it's near 40 degrees outside, though I'd hardly know as I'm busy trying to battle the chillblanes.)

- Am missing the kids, but less than I thought. I think now the creative stuff is getting more meaty it's taking my mind off it - plus I've been having pretty regular conversations with Tim and Ella (who continually cracks me up with her "BURP!" proclamations...now that I think about it perhaps this could be ringing a bell as an early sign of Tourettes) The hardest thing is not being able to connect with Caleb, seeing as the phone is kinda weird to him and his verbal capacity is pretty limited. If only I had a web-cam damn it. Still, the other day when I called he was mid serious tantrum, which was a pleasant reality check.

So yeah, that's it thus far. Two more days with Daena, then three days with Liz's family in New London, then will be bracing myself for two weeks in two of the most buzzing and sensory-assaulting places in the world: New York and Las Vegas. AAGH!