Guess I should post this before I begin the Alaska Adventure saga…

Our next offing wasn’t for a couple days later in Rhodes, Greece.  I was beginning to get cabin fever and was too excited about being on solid ground…to remember my camera…  Rhodes was an awesome castle-city.  Greece may be one of my favorite places.  All the stops we made were so beautiful and had GREAT shopping (for clothing and jewelry…and sandals).  And probably the #1 place for beautiful men!!!  (Egypt is a close 2nd).  So of course being without my camera I come across the godliest of all Greek men…  Picture a Greek Alcide (Joe Manganiello), shoulder length hair, in all black, leather jacket riding a hybrid scooter/motorcycle.  LARGE scooter, small motorcycle.  He rode past me TWICE and I HAD NO CAMERA!!!!!!  I would have chased him down but I was soooo tired…instead I settled for cocktail.

Next stop Mykonos!

Paradise Beach, Mykonos, Greece

AGAIN with the great shopping!!  But today we had a mission to spend the day at the beach!  We had to walk through the little town/shops to get to the bus that would take us out the beach…stopping on the way to pick up a Gyro!!!  It was narrow, winding road that took us to the beach but it was so beautiful once we got there!  The sand was more like kitty-litter, but the water was so clear and blue and…COLD!

Paradise!

The beach resort.

So clear…yet sooooo cold!

Ilias…beautiful things you find on the beach…

Even in the cloud cover the sky is beautiful!

Mykonos, the town.

SO GREEK!

The sea wall.

The next day we “cruised the Dardanelles” and landed in Istanbul.

Istanbul from the bow.

Disembarkation.

And so the end draws near.  The work is done.  The shows are up.  All that’s left is to pack up the “precious-es” and head home.  But first, a couple days in Istanbul, not Constantinople.  Kristin and I stayed in Old Istanbul near the Blue Mosque.  It was actually a really great area.  Everything was nearby, the rate was good, and the room was fantastic and the Inn Keepers were GREAT!!!!  The first day was spent hanging with the ship production team a bit, and wandering through the Arasta Bazaar.  We were going to try to go into the Blue Mosque but the line was ridiculous…being Friday and a Super Prayer day(?) so we wandered the GRAND Bazaar.  We drank a lot of apple tea and haggled with vendors.  Well, Kristin haggled and I gave her “catcher signals” to bid lower, walk away, etc.  We had authentic Turkish food and delicious Mojitos, met up with Mekhell and some other ship people, listened to some Turkish music and watched a Turkish Sama dancer…spin for hours and hours!  They are traditionally male and wear circle skirts so when they spin the skirt makes a beautiful wave.  Eat your heart out Stevie Nicks!!!

Walking adventure in Istanbul.

If my apartment were bigger than 1 of the chairs…

Apparently the 2020 Olympics are in Istanbul.

Apparently, there is NOT prayer on Saturday mornings.  This was a good thing.  After saying good bye to half the wardrobe crew who would stay a bit longer on the ship, we ventured off to see stuff!  Somehow, Kristin and I looked like Australians to EVERYONE!  Ok, I’ll take it.  We went to the Tomb of the Sultan Mehmed(?) and the Hagia Sofia…sooooooooo amazing!  The marks left by the Christians, stained glass windows and giant urn/vases carved from 1 slab of marble and just awesome décor!  We saw a bunch of people coming out of a random door so we went to see what it was…the exit.  The entrance was around the corner.  Oh, and across the street…wait…what??!  Having NO IDEA what it was, we gave the guy $ and walked in…into the Basilica Cistern.  It was soo cool!  Temperature and just neat!  Drippy from condensation, awesomely lit, fish everywhere, random beautiful columns.  Worth the accidental find.

Hagia Sofia or “Holy Wisdom.” Built in 537.

Was an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral until mid 1400’s.

Architectural awesomeness!

The Islamic dome.

The LIGHT!!!

Christianity remnants.

A bit of the golden mosaic from before the Latin crusaders visited.

A ritual purification urn from the Pergamon. NO SEAMS! (SEE Photo Bomb!!! Sept. 6, 2012)

Sunday we got up early (not as early as the first call to prayer at 4:30a.  Even with earplugs I could hear it.), threw on or bathing suits and headed to the Turkish Baths!  (keep in mind that last part).  We chose a Bath House (Çemberlitaş Hamamı) that had been around since the 1500s.  It was architecturally incredible!  Males and Females bathe separately, so of course I only saw the women’s side.  It’s a large room lit by holes in the dome roof.  There is a large marble platform in the center that the bathers lay on.  There are small rooms around the edge with water faucets.  It was SOOOOO steamy in this room I thought I might pass out.  Where the steam came from, I’m not entirely sure.  And then there were the thoughts of…how many centuries has this place been here?  Is this marble I’m laying naked on original and how often does it get bleached?  What kind of cooties are here in this steamy, wet, old place??!  Then a little Turkish woman in bra and panties comes over to me, puts on a white mitt and starts scrubbing the crap out of…well OFF me.  It was train wrecky gross the amount of dead skin and muck she was scrubbing off my body.  Then she dumped a bowl of water over my head.  Next was the soap bubble massage.  Unusual and yet really nice!  The whole experience was a culturally odd situation.  Nevermind my face in her boobs while she washed my hair.  I’m not saying it was a horrible experience because it was NOT…it was just not “the norm” in my world.  And then I got a mud masque.  WOO!  50 Euros WELL spent!!!  Ok.  So remember when I said to pay attention to that sentence?  One would think that the idea of a BATH, Turkish or otherwise, would conjure the idea of WATER so if one were planning to wear say…a bathing suit into the BATH one might think a change of underbits would be needed.  I blame lack of caffeine.  I walked totally commando through the streets of Istanbul, in a skirt post bath!!!  WHO KNEW I would cross off 2 major bucket list items in about 6 months of each other (#1 being The Red Square Incident, of course!!)  DAMN!  My awesomeness amazes ME sometimes.  DOH!

Awesome Turkish Bath House!

We scheduled a Black Sea cruise for the afternoon.  It was very relaxing and beautiful.  An Istanbul football club had just won some big title so giant red and yellow flags were flying everywhere.  I hoped it was a Griffindor something but…no…real sports.  Most of the way we traveled between Asia and Europe.  It was interesting how even though the country was only divided by a bit of water, the 2 sides of the sea were incredibly different looking.  We got to a harbor in the Black Sea and stopped for about an hour.  THIS is when Kristin and I jumped in!!!  Because it was a harbor, the water wasn’t as clean as I would hope and it was COLD!!!!!  There were dark patches that could be just some moss or…maybe jellyfish hiding places.  I didn’t go very far.  This time, however, I *DID* have clean, dry underbits to put on!  Doesn’t take me 2x’s in one day to learn THAT lesson!  Once back in Istanbul, we tried one last time to see the Blue Mosque.  There was finally a short line.  I was less impressed by this than Hagia Sofia.  It was very plain.  There was plastic on the carpet.  The front section was for the men to pray and the back was for the women and children.  There were children running around all over and it was rather chaotic.  I was a little disappointed.  BUT, I can say I was there!  The rest of the evening was having our last supper and packing to go home.

Bosphorus Bridge.

DRAGON BOAT!!!!

10 points to…GRIFFINDOR!!!

…architecture…

Turkish lamps!

Up close globe from a lamp.

The Blue Mosque from Hagia Sofia.

Hippodrome of Constantinople.

The Blue Mosque.

…there’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware…its a small world after all!

protection from the evil eye…as it looks up my skirt? Hmmm…

And here ends this adventure.  Don’t think it was all fun and excitement.  I do try to have fun EVERYWHERE that I am but I also work(ed) my butt off (as did the whole production team)!!!  There really is no point in ranting about a ship inspection by a condescending jerkasshole of a desk monkey.  No one wants to hear about how I sliced my finger open on a clip hanger and bled all OVER but NOT on the costume!!!!  Or about how to MacGyver shoes back together 10 minutes before a show…in the middle of the sea.  THAT’S the work I do!  And it’s boring to most who are not IN IT.

WARNING!!!  -Photo heavy!!!

Our first Egyptian stop was Port Said.  I have to say I was not impressed and a bit frightened.  It wasn’t very pretty or very deserty just…odd.  I was most nervous about the ridiculous number of satellite dishes on the rooftops of some very poor looking buildings.  We only went off the ship to the small bizarre that was just inside the port.  As long as you were reasonably pleasant with the sales people, they weren’t too rude to you.  Most offered a “very good deal” or a marriage proposal.  We found a couple of cool things.  The guests that went out on excursions all said they did not feel safe traveling through this city.  Glad we were working!

Port Said

Alexandria was the following day and the day we were all waiting for.  THIS was our trip to Cairo!!!  It was also our first REAL day off the entire trip!  We didn’t make the list of crew tour to the pyramids.  We weren’t able to get on the passenger tours as a helper(?) so we decided to wing it.  In hindsight, this may not have been the best choice but we were EXTREMELY fortunate!!!!!  As we walked out of the port, we were immediately hounded by cab drivers.  The port guard at the gate asked if we indeed were looking for a cab, yes, and he scanned the crowd and picked Ali.  “THIS is a good man.  He will drive you!”  We negotiated a price for the 3 hour drive to Cairo ($40 American for each of us (4) round trip TOTAL!!!).  And we were off!

The road to Cairo.

The Nile River.

…

Isis’ house?

About a half hour away you can begin to see the pyramids.

It didn’t quite take 3 hours to get there, but pretty close.  Ali let us know that unfortunately, there are some bad people in Cairo and he was sorry.  There are plenty of good people, but there are enough bad people and many are near the pyramids.  They will try to sell us things for too much, they will offer to take our photo then take our camera or charge AFTER, the usual for large touristy places.  Ali was going to take us someplace we could ride camels to the pyramids.  He did.  $11 to get into the pyramid park(?)…an ancient wonder of the world is less expensive to see than a movie in LA?  Or a trip to LACMA?  WTF?  We negociated $35/person to ride 2 camels and a horse into the pyramids for 1.5 hours.  We saddled up on Mickey Mouse, Michael Jackson (camels), a horse, our tour guide Hakim(?) and our 10 year old bodyguard Mohammed were on our way.  We were again told that we were not to talk to people, give them money, Hakim was the ONLY one to take pictures for us and basically, stay together.

Mohammed with the map of our tour.

Our transportation.

Then we were there.  The pyramids are more enormous than I imagined.  And they are just…there!  But if you look to the right there is the city sitting right next to them.  So in a way, it is exactly like Las Vegas.  Mohammed found pieces of Alabaster for us.  We climbed ON the pyramid!  Then we continued our camel-back trek to the Sphinx.  As giant as the pyramids are, the Sphinx is not.  Luxor may be life size…

Godzaimie! Raaaaaaaaar!

Looking up the pyramid.

Me, Melissa, Mekhell and Kristin.

Kristin and I riding Michael Jackson together. Not many people can say THAT!

The ancient city.

The Sphinx!

At the Sphinx we ran into our friends on the crew tour.  CLEARLY we were having WAAAAAAAAAAAY more fun than them!  PROOF…wardrobe may not get out much but when we do, we do it RIGHT!

We finished our camel tour and made it back to our cab driver Ali.  We were interested in buying Kartush’s and Ali found a great place for us to get them.  It was a bazaar type of store that sold all things Egyptian for decent prices.  AND the owner spoke English…cuz he had lived in…umm…one of those middle states near Indiana where Melissa is from.  They hit it off famously!  We got our kartush’s and had a 3 hour trip back to the boat.

PULL TOP CANS!!!!

If I coulda fit this in my suitcase…

The shop owner. He gave us a good deal and treated us well…while we waited for our Kartush to be made.

I think Shadow could rock this look pretty well.

Back to the boat!

It’s odd that there are other countries with similar traffic patterns to Los Angeles and yet there is NOT the stress, anger or rudeness!  For the most part, there were no lane lines but everyone just merges or stays on their side of the road.  They honk at each other but it’s not angry get-the-F-out-of-my-way honking, it’s usually a hey-guy or good-morning honk!  And everyone gets where they are going in a timely manner…weird…

Bird houses.

The drive back to port.

Egyptian carpool?

Ali our cab driver.

Egypt from port.

So now I’ve been to one of the places I’ve “always wanted to go to” so if I never get back, I’m ok but I would go back to Cairo if the opportunity arose.  There are still the Egyptian museum to see (I mean, I’ve been to the 2nd largest Egyptian museum shouldn’t I see the 1st??), Khan el-Khalili market place, Islamic Cairo, and the Coptic Museum…or just hanging out it THE desert of all deserts!

Work got crazy again so we didn’t get off the ship until Santorini. And what a good choice! Sure we were on the very tourist side of the island, but it was SO incredibly beautiful!!  We had to tinder over to the island again (take the lifeboat over while docked way out in deep water).  We rode donkeys up the mountain? Hill? They smelled great and were very charming…not so much. It was more like roller-derby donkey ride. They liked to run into each other as well as the people walking up or down the steps. We passed  some of our officers in their white uniforms along the way I am certain I kicked one of them in the nuts and left a dirty streak mark of donkey hair on him. The shopping was spectacular! The cocktails were divine!!!  There is something magnificent about the Grecian sun.  I don’t know if it’s the brightness of the water or the lack of pollution it’s just different.  Not brave enough to take the donkey trail back down the hill, we took the tram…at a ridiculous angle down the hill and post cocktails.  It was new kind of adventure ride.

Santorini from the tinder.

A hhh…elpful Greek to get us off the tinder.

The view from a donkey’s back.

Up the mountain side.

Santorini

🙂

A ride in the tram back to the water.

Athens!!!!! We went to the Acropolis. The lines were too long to IN unfortunately, but we walked around the outside. It’s grander than in my head but not as big. It’s up on the top of a hill and you have to walk through a garden/park area to get there. OF COURSE you would!!  It’s a beautiful walk!  We sat on broken ancient Greek marble columns.  Why is this weird because in the US, old stuff is put in a glass box for us to just look at.  Here’s this piece of stone that has more zeros to it’s age than I can imagine and I can just SIT ON IT???  How many have sat here before me?  Is that gross?  Is that cool?  I can’t wrap my head around it.   We visited Athens on Orthodox Easter so a lot of odd places were closed.  I had been told that there is just a pile of “ruins” randomly all over Athens.  I don’t really know what I thought this meant, but it was definitely NOT what I saw!  A street of stores, a cafe…then a massive hole in the ground with columns and alter looking things possibly covered in moss and plant life and on the far end of it?  H&M.

Acropolis

The Theater of Dionysus

Sitting on really old pillar piece!

Random ruins #1.

Random ruins #2.

and NEXT to the ruins…

Soooo…I’M ON A BOAT!!!!  It has been super hectic!  We have now put up 3 of the 6 shows.  The first one was easy, #2 & #3…not so much…  It sounds good when “the show is ready except for hooks, snaps and Velcro” but it’s not usually THAT simple…we worked a LOT of hours in a small space while the crew painted things right outside our door.  Good times…  The shows have been well received so far we’ve all just been too tired to be happy about that.  We were able to take long lunches in order to go into Corsica and Naples.  It was nice to get off the boat but we really only had time to venture around the port area.  I’m not complaining.  It’s more of those cities than I had seen before!  HOWEVER…I was playing with my camera…in manual mode…at night…and I forgot so all my pics of both cities are overexposed.  I might be able to do some Photoshop magic but it’s going to take more time than I have at the moment.  My sinus infection cleared up.  My ears still haven’t really popped but my balance is mostly normal…until I had to wear heels 3 nights in a row on a moving ship.  There are a LOT of stairs to climb on a ship!!  I was ALMOST willing to sacrifice some fabulous for easier mobility…but I didn’t and obviously, I survived (reminds me of a song…).

The production team had dinner one night at the schmancy restaurant, The Pinnacle Grill.  It was to celebrate John’s (the director/choreographer) bday on April 6 and mine.  We got all fancy…and forgot to take pics of ourselves…

We passed through the Straights of Messina on the 25^th but it wasn’t until my birthday in Split, Croatia that we were able to go ashore.  Split is AMAZING!!!  There was really only time to walk around the Palace of Diocletian but it was just spectacular!  I walked through the farmers market first thing and was convinced to buy a container of strawberry’s that were soooooooo dark red and tasty!  It’s such a gorgeous mishmash of architecture…Roman, Byzantine, and Venetian.  I took SOO many pictures!  Since my great grandfather was originally from Split there was some added interest.  The weird part was that being there sorta clarified things for me about me?  Maybe I was just homesick and was looking for anything to connect to but being in such an ancestral place made me go, Oh(!!!) a good amount.  AND it was just a beautiful day anyway so.  It was a good birthday.  I bought some good stuff…including a towel from Split.  It’s a tea-towel, but I felt it was important to get a little nerdy.  (wiki-Douglas Adams).  After the trek we had to do some quick fittings for show #4 then I was taken to dinner by my co-workers to Canaletto, the Italian restaurant on the ship.  Delish!  Finishing off the night in the lounge with the HALcats (on ship band) who at the end of their set sang a mash up of Happy Bday and Oh What a Night.  And yes it was!  We had set sail already but the weather was still really nice so we moved the party to the Officers Bar and hung out on the bow.  SO incredible.  Stars are BRIGHT!!  I did not miss the orange glow of LA one bit!

4/29 we pulled into port in Venice!!  THIS show we are actually in REALLY good shape so we were able to spend yesterday evening and this morning in the city.  Still not long enough but now I have officially been to both canal cities!  The water is as disgusting as you hear…yet it’s still beautiful.  Some of the band and a couple dancers jumped into the canal.  SO disgusting!  The food is better than you can imagine and the house wine???  I would drink a lot of it every night if I lived here!!  I would definitely like to visit again.

Now we are off to Greece.  Where there are Starbucks in Athens.  Many.  I checked.  Go ahead Becky, speculate on what I’m bringing back for you!

I have a TON of photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But due to the slow & expensive internet, I have to adjust the size of the photos I post so they upload quicker which means I can’t post ALL of them but I hope the ones I do put up express the vibe!  I also can’t figure out how to put the pics in *MY* order!!

I got cake!

The girl gang with the boy band.

Dubrovnik port.

Kerkira port

Split market place

Split-Mosque

Split-Amazing bell tower!!! I got to hear them ring!

This little old nun just patiently crossed the square in the mess of all the tourists. It was AWESOME.

Split

Split

Split- this is where I had lunch. A chicken club…with a fried egg in it…

Split

Strait of Messina

Strait of Messina

Venice!!!

Venice

Venice- I only bought 2 masks. Mostly because I could not figure out a way to get a gold lace unicorn head home without breaking off the horn. 😦

Venice- …angels and demons?

Venice

Venice

Venice

VENICE!!!!!!

…not a commentary title, I’ve been catching up on Nerdist podcasts and I almost died when I heard this was a magnet on CM Punk’s refrigerator.  And who KNEW that Tom Morello may be *THE* coolest guy EVER??!  I less than 3 you Chris Hardwick!!!!!

Wednesday, our boxes finally were offloaded onto the ship where we could access them.  Funny thing?  There are words printed ON the boxes that don’t necessarily say THIS END UP but imply such and often, a giant arrow is the universal sign for up, yet…at first all the WARDROBE boxes were on their sides and then when we said, stand these upright…some were turned upside down.  Lost in translation or it’s just that sea thing…13 miles out anything goes?  HOWEVER, in typical awesomeness…we unpacked the 53 boxes in about 6 hours.  Currently, about 97% of the alterations are completed for what we’ve got and we’re just waiting for the rest of the stuff to arrive from CA.  …yes…there is still more to come.

Our luggage FINALLY arrived on Thursday evening.  What craziness THAT was!!  Once the bags got to Rome the port agent there was working to arrange transport with the port agent here.  Each gave us different information…which was also completely different from what the airline said…and all THAT was different depending on whether WE called, an Italian speaking ship person called and which Joe was on the other end.  45 different stories from 11 people.  AMAZING!  But it arrived and it was JUST as it was when we closed the bags in LA!

We went back into the city on Friday afternoon.  There is this store called KIKO that we seem to always pass.  It’s a makeup store (?)…there is an advertisement for mascara 3,54 Euro on the window but EVERY time we go past, there is a line down the block to get in!  It’s bizarre!  We had dinner at a pizzeria.  Soooooo good!  Better than the pizza was the cappuccino.  Holy crap!  Why doesn’t coffee THAT good come in a Venti?!?

I had to go back to the ship’s doctor and was given a Z-pak (?) for my sinus infection.  It’s starting to clear up but the “sea sickness” thing is still happening.  It’s getting a little better but I still feel like I’m going to fall over most of the time.  Seriously, this is NOT normal.  Odd, but true.  There really is only so much water I can drink and since the water is shut off most days…it REALLY makes me NOT want to drink ALL the water so…I suffer…sigh…

Now about this dry dock thing…they are working on the ship, obviously.  The big thing is they have added a bunch of fancy new cabins on the top of the ship.  They craned in this giant hunk of metal and have been welding it on all week.  The carpets are being replaced in various parts of the ship and general maintenance is happening.  Which means…there are all sorts of crazy stinks EVERYwhere!  Glue, varnish, metal paneling, sanded wood, welding, etc.  The water is shut off from about 7a-8p supposedly on varying floors but it always seems to be 1…where all the people are.  The electricity goes out periodically for however long it’s out.  They try to give a heads up but…  However, the most useful thing in all this chaos has become my new workout regime.  The fire/watertight door workout.  When the magnets get turned off, the doors close.  ALL of them.  There are 7 doors between my cabin and the theater.  I think they weigh close to 8 tons and the only way to get anywhere on the ship is through them.  There are a couple doors that have air blowing around them in kind of a back draft effect and THOSE are the BEST!!!  I have to put both feet on the wall for leverage to the get the door open.  Never mind going the other way when I have to push.  The hardest part is remembering which shoulder I used last time to throw myself into the door.  Gotta keep it even!!

But it’s really not so bad.  The food is decent, beer and wine is a dollar and while the internet is slow (263 mins to d/l Doctor Who from iTunes GAH!) it’s still faster than most days in Russia and there are 2-3 movie channels that rotate 2 movies/day/channel.  They are even pretty good movies!  Last night was Avengers and some Sean Connery movie (w Nick Cage?) on 1 channel and Hunger Games on another.

We are going to take another day to be a tourist and check out the city…just gotta get the shows ready to go up first.

An odd rainbow over the Opera house.

Ray and Kristin…and their beers.

City center.

Our menu…and part of Mekhell.

Looking down the street

Random cafe…Guido served me the BEST fresh OJ!!! (seriously, his name is Guido.)

Palermo Opera House

The city off the water side of the dry dock.

I really wanted to get a pic of these boys “Parker Lewis” dos…and they provided.

We sailed from a port outside Rome to Palermo.  It was fine!!  And then we dry docked…we have been out of water for over 24 hours and *I’m* still moving.  The turbulence is CRAZY!  We finally got some information on our luggage.  They found it!!  And were waiting for the “other 2 bags.”  Mine…because they had no record of them transferring and making it to Rome with me.  Alitalia…DON’T EVER FLY WITH THEM!!!

The costumes that were sent ahead are still not off the container.  So…we went shopping yesterday.  We probably would have anyway since we are all tired of wearing the same thing everyday.  It was good.  We may go back into town today, this time to check out the city.

The luggage update is…if the bags arrived here at 9:15p yesterday as they were “supposed” to, we will have them later this morning.

dry dock

Sunset at sea

Arriving in Palermo

Sunrise in Rome

So, after much excitement at LAX, being told, “no, you get *1* carry on item!” on a Trans Atlantic red eye, much rearranging of things and bags, the 3 peeps of wardrobe arrive in Rome with a total of… 2 personal bags (of the typical carry on nature), and 2 of the 5 costume suitcases. Everything else is still in Paris. 2 flights to Rome have passed after the one the bags originally missed and some how they missed both of those. WORST airline ever!!! I won’t even mention the overage that was paid to get the bags on the flight in the first place. I am one WITH one of my bags so I do have pj’s, 1 change of clothes and my toothbrush, because I’m a paranoid packer like that, but UGH!!!! Extreme thanks to whichever of the 3300 Indian gods, I sent the peanut butter ahead in the pack out!!!

It was a full flight and I got put right in the middle of South High’s band!!! And in front of a VERY popular other-Jamie! And me, w/o my ear plugs!! A little crushed Valium in there dinners and they were all out pretty quickly. Mwahahahahaha! The plane had a camera on the tail so you could watch the plane take off and land. Maybe not the best idea at LAX where the planes have a freakishly close choreography! I kept thinking about how this could be a new Eli Roth movie that’s kind of a Clockwork Orange/Final Destination mash up. Actually, THAT would have made a better ending to LOST!!!! Guy trapped on a plane with body & eye restraints as the plane plummets into the ocean all the while some amazing classical piece (performed by the high school band) plays in the background…just like in his nightmare! Freddy & Jason play in-flight hosts, or whatever they’re called and wait! Is that Robert Hays passed out in the cockpit? Omigawd, THIS could be GOOD! Now where can we stick Sam Jackson…

There is no sleep til Brooklyn and we weren’t going there, so I watched 5 movies!!!! Hitchcock, HOW did I miss this????????? A…HITCHCOCK!!! B…remarkable cast!!! Dare I say Scarlet was good? Of course, she was playing an ACTUAL someone else in an iconic role, but I liked her!! It was so how it should be! Wreck It Ralph was cute. Silver Linings Playbook…I napped and don’t think I missed much, but it was funny in a neurotic kind of way. Bachelorette…catch it ONLY if its free. Fun cast (Rebel Wilson, Kirsten Dunst, Cyclops…umm…James Marsden) but was just weird, mean and not really funny! #5…Life of Pi. WOW! I wish I’d seen that in the theater!!!!!!

Today we go to the ship in a weird named city about an hour away and cruise to Palermo for dry dock. It’s 3 am and I’m wide awake probably because its only 6p in CA…or cuz i just don’t sleep well much of the time. But, here’s to hoping I don’t get seasick! Cuz all my extra decongestants, migraine meds & B vits are in Paris! Meh…always an adventure!

It’s a bittersweet morning.  This city is really amazing!!  It’s soooo beautiful ALL the time and there are soooo many neat little nuancey places to go and see and yet…I can’t phuqing WAIT to get home!  To call my family and friends at whatever time I want (basically).  To be trapped on the couch by a sleeping feline that refuses to get off my lap.  To be awoken by the sun at 6:30AM instead of waiting for it around 10:30-10:45…

My bags are packed.  There are more than I came with, they are heavier than anticipated and I just don’t care anymore.  It’s going to be a good Christmas and I can’t wait!

Berlin tonight, London at noon tomorrow and LAX tomorrow evening!!!!

Had something else EVERY home hockey game. 😦 But note…it’s for ages 6+

Hallway into Theater Pokoleniy

REAL-REAL snowflakes!!! Freaking AWESOME!

The rivers starting to freeze. This is by our apartment.

The Nava River.

Escalator to the Metro.

The Golden Griffins.

YES!!! The 1st Starbucks in St.P opened 12-7! Sojin and I were THERE!!!!

…and then there was a crazy snow storm…

And now the RE-packing begins. We went from having just less than the longest month ever to having single digit days.  During that time, we closed the main show we’d come to work on and put on our own “show.”  It was based on The Adventures of Baron Muchausen.  NOT the movie, the BOOK!  9 designers with minimal to no acting or writing skill putting together and “also starring” IN a show.  Actors?  Of course!  There were 2 who spoke in Russian.  WHAT could go wrong???!  Lol.  It was an adventure to say the least.  We even had a packed audience!!  Predominantly, it was the actors from the theater but whatever! This last week is honestly just winding down, packing, last minute souvenir shopping, and trying to see those last few things we haven’t seen yet.  There are Waaaaaay too many things to see here, even if I saw a different place or museum EVERY DAY, it’s not likely I would have seen everything.  I’m most bummed about not making it to Finland.  It’s SOOOOOOOO CLOSE but it’s just too much stress to go there for 1 day THIS week and pack and clean and, sniff, sniff.  So… must leave things to do the NEXT time I come here.  And I do imagine I will come back.  Maybe to work, maybe just to visit.  I would like to come in the summer for White Nights and/or Scarlet Sails. Brittany and I went to the Zoological Museum yesterday.  It has one of the largest displays of butterflies in the world(?).  The butterfly display WAS impressive!!  There are equally as many creepy bugs.  The whole museum was taxidermy animals.  On the one hand, it was REALLY interesting to see some of these animals up-close and personal, NOT in a picture book and on the other hand it was a little scary to see some of these animals up-close and personal!  I was looking at/taking pictures of some small wild cats and crossing between a couple of cases when I turned my head enough to catch a glimpse of a cheetah head in my peripheral and it SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!  Yes, I screamed, then looked and scared myself again.  Awesome! So, what does this all mean?  It means I’m done with undergrad!!  As of December 14, 2013 I should be an official college graduate…pending the arrival of a silly piece of paper.  And the next???  Frantically scanning in transcripts, finishing up a “personal statement,” editing and re-editing my resume and completing my NYU application, submitting it (probably Yale also for the heck of it) and then creating the most magnificent portfolio ever!  …stopping only to design an Absolutely Filthy show at Sacred Fools.  Oh, and there’s a DLand trip with my cuz, (maybe I can make him cry just like the old days…), Forbidden Zone, the Ice Show at Knott’s a trip up North to Mom’s for Xmas, an evening with Kim & Sha-Khan, The Psychedelic Furs & The Fixx and hopefully once all THAT slows down a “PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE come to our school!  Here’s a shit-ton of $$$$$ to be HERE” letter from NYU. Over the last 3 months many unexpected things happened.  Many expected things DIDN’T happen but it was worth every minute, every ruble to be here.

…photos to upload later due to annoyingly slow internet…grrrrrrrr…

It is unusual to NOT plan the soiree weeks in advance.  We did, sort of, but we didn’t start shopping until Wed…Tues night a little.  Olga (who is wonderfully magical!!) found a 12 kilo (26ish lbs) turkey for us.  There was going to be 11 of us FOR SURE eating and another 12-15 guests.  Pretty much all the turkey except for the legs (wtf??) were GONE in about an hour.  There were all the traditional fixin’s…not necessarily in their traditional form…cauliflower was served just not with a cheese sauce because…there is no cheddar cheese here.  There is also no cream of mushroom soup or delicious crunchy french onions for green bean casserole.  But we still had green beans!!!  We also had some amazing Korean sushi and a fabulous Chinese mushroom dish that were good before we found the sesame seeds and UH-MAZING once sesame seeds were added!

The day was spent preparing and cooking all the stuff.  Everything was ready at about the same time.  I’m not quite sure how that happened we really didn’t PLAN it…but it was great!  And then our guests started to arrive.  Svetelana and Roushlan brought their kids, Diana and Arthur (clones of their parents, and sooo cute).  Tatiana, Sergey, Loesha and Nikita.

Once the turkey was decimated, what turned out to be the “first wave” headed home.  Stopa came by to learn about “this turkey thing.”  He was very confused because he thought that the English word for a country was Turkey.  “It is.”  “So why THIS is turkey also?”

And so the “second wave” began!

There was much theater in the past weekish.  La Boheme at the Mikailovsky Theater.  The production design was beautiful but the lead voices were weak.  The Marriage of Figaro at the Mariinsky concert hall.  BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING voices!!!  Nice, simple set design and beautiful costumes in really odd color choices.  The countess had a lovely asymmetrical dress in the most heinous shade of coral.  When she sang her solo in the garden with a blue light on her, it went a gross fluorescent color.  Then the count wore a dark mustard suit.  Together it was very strange.

Last night was The Nutcracker at the Hermitage Theater.  Mary (aka Clara) has a magical dream!  A dream with NO Sugar Plum Fairy…wait…WHAT??!  There’s a Pas de trois where there should be the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy!  Of course there were also bats in this version?  Don’t get me wrong, it was very lovely!  Just unusual.  AND it ended with Mary waking up, hugging the Nutcracker doll and holding it up ala Phantom of the Opera ending.

There are 2 weeks left.  We have our OWN performance next weekend.  Our Baron Muchausen exploration.  9 scenes, 9 writers, 9 directors…1 actor.  I’m optimistic but it’s been a unique creating process.  Pretty much all of the 9 are designers…the support people.  It’s incredibly difficult to think complete, TOTAL world AAAAAAAND make it mesh with at least the bit before yours and after yours.  Ow!  My HEAD!

I’m hoping to get to Finland but time is getting really tight.  I still have to figure out how to get all these Christmas presents home!! There are some REALLY GOOD ONES!  I’m gonna be SO PISSED if the Mayans are right and I don’t get to give these presents!

But that most important part!!!!  The thankfulness…the appreciation.  I am DAILY thankful for my friends and family, my incredible neighbors Dan & Ginger, my experience(s) here in Russia, the adventures I’ve been afforded and even the crappy shit that has happened and the people who have removed themselves or have gone from my life.  Without all those things, I would not be who I am or where I am at this very moment.  I am thankful!

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