PREFACE
"A week," he decided, "A week is plenty of time to give myself before I start my blog. And when I'm all settled in, I shall update this blog every week."
"Yes," he affirmed, "This is a good plan, a foolproof plan."
"Besides," he continued, "I'm a new man, a college graduate. A world traveller, with a fellowship to boot. I do grown up things like networking and grocery shopping and buy my own toilet paper. I have no excuse for procrastinating. And so I won't. Nope. God as my witness, I shall be vigilant in my blogging!"
To give him credit, the following month or so was sprinkled with some progress, just enough to keep him guilt-free: he designed the blog's layout, thought of a punny title, snapped some artsy photos, and uploaded them to Shutterfly. He even has the apps to prove it. Yet somewhere down the Google-search-rabbit-hole of "Top Ten Best Free Blog Servers" and "Best Bang-For-Your-Buck Photo Storage Apps" and "proper grammatical usage of the word 'bumble,'" Teddy Hoffman -- Grinnell College Graduate, Class of 2014; 2014-2015 Watson Fellow; new man; toilet-paper-buyer -- lost his well-intentioned way and forwent his duties to the blogosphere. But he knew that someday he would triumph over his (admittedly self-imposed) challenges and keep those promises to the folks back home. He would write that blog, come hell or high water.
So ends my roundabout apology; and so begins my belated blog's maiden voyage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER ONE: IN WHICH TEDDY ADDRESSES THE CONSEQUENCES OF PROCRASTINATION
"But how," Teddy asked himself a week after finishing his preface, "can I catch my readers up on my month or so of (mis)adventures while staying terse and pithy?" And so, dear reader, we face the Balrog of this blog, a demon of rambling recounts and dull details born from my procrastination, which must be conquered in the name of concision. In lieu of a staff and sword I will do my best to chronicle my trip thus far in a way that is short, sweet, and to the point:
After long flights and short layovers, I was settled in and connected to my contact (A Different Light Theatre) through the generosity of my cousin's cousin and her husband, despite the fact that they were weeks away from and preparing for their immigration to the US (the first of many examples of Kiwi hospitality that I would experience). I was also introduced to another performance group (Jolt Dance) through A Different Light. Since then I have been kept busy by my work with both companies, spending my free time hanging out at Urban Utopia, the Beat Street Cafe, and the Botanic Gardens, or having (mis)adventures in Akaroa, Mt. Cook, or Lake Tekapo.
Don't recognize any names, places, or things in the synopsis above? Worry not, dear Internet-peruser! Here is a handy-dandy key of terms, with elaborations for your convenience:
THE CITY:
Christchurch - Devastated by some earthquakes a few years back and slow to rebuild, much of Christchurch's City Centre is peppered with the remains of once-popular stomping grounds, creating a quiet, abandoned, haunted feeling that permeates certain areas of the city. Despite this, great street art blooms from the rubble and seems to illustrate the resilience of the residents and their support of the arts.
THE PERFORMANCE GROUPS:
A Different Light Theatre - The first thing that the company of A Different Light Theatre did when I walked into their studio was interview me: Where was I from? Why was I here? Was I in a relationship? Did I know what it meant to be polyamorous? What kinds of music did I like? Was I familiar with Guns 'n Roses? ACDC? What were my first impressions of Christchurch? What did I hope to gain from my year abroad? The questions were more invitinng than interrogative, and I was immediately impressed by the company's repartee and warmth. They are currently devising several pieces, including works exploring the subjects of "Ecology," "Mobility," and "Thoughts & Feelings," as well as the third part of a theatrical soap opera (in which Yours Truly may make a cameo appearance). The process so far has included acapella sound-effects for the ocean, mask-based guerrilla theater, and improvised filming in the back room of a coffee shop; each rehearsal is thought-provoking, challenging, and rewarding, and has a healthy dose of bantering to top it off.
Photo courtesy of the company's website: http://www.differentlight.co.nz
Jolt Dance - Because A Different Light only meets once a week, I was recommended to shoot the folks at Jolt an email, and was promptly invited to sit in on a class. After that, my following weeks were filled with Junior, Intermediate, Youth, Teenagers, Young Adult, and Adult classes, with a Creative Movement workshop, a series of community classes that double as teacher training for some of the veteran participants, and rehearsals for the company's upcoming production ("Shorelines" premiering on Oct. 2nd in the 2014 Body Festival). Finding the whole "sitting and observing" thing intimidating and boring, I decided to join the groups in their dancing and have since been proven time and time again that they are far better dancers than I am. Besides creating an environment that encourages creative agency, the instructors are prime examples of Kiwi hospitality and general friendliness: over the past few weeks I have been loaned a bike, treated to a sushi sandwich, and invited to a birthday party (after which I was given two bags of leftover food, two bottles of wine, and a jug of cranberry juice to disperse among/force-feed to the hungry, thirsty masses of Urban Utopia).
Photo courtesy of the company's website: http://www.joltdance.co.nz
THE HANGOUTS:
Urban Utopia - One in a neighborhood of houses belonging to Urban Rooms, a long-term backpacker's chain in Christchurch. France, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, England, Northern Ireland, Chile, and Minnesota send their travelers here to eat, drink, sleep, wash their dishes, not wash their dishes, try to figure out who isn't washing their dishes, curse quietly when the water pressure in the shower is low or the Internet is slow, host BBQs and birthday parties, plan weekend excursions to Akaroa/Mt. Cook/Pak 'n Save/Lake Tekapo/Franz Josef Glacier/That-Little-Place-With-Five-Dollar-Fish-And-Chips, etc. Home-away-from-home sweet home.
Beat Street Cafe - A little cafe a few blocks north of Urban Utopia where you can buy a stranger a cup of coffee and get impromptu discounts on your drinks. The place maintains a delicate balance between intimately cozy and endearingly grungy, with a hipster-punk vibe and baristas who notice when you've started a new book. Tom Waits and Bob Dylan rasp and mumble respectively over the speakers while a certain Recovering English Major sips his Soy Flat White, eats dark chocolate, and reads until dinner-time.
The Botanic Gardens - A little under a 10-minute bike ride west of Urban Utopia and part of the massive Hagley Park, where I meander, meditate, and get my Thoreau on. And watch the duckies.
THE (MIS)ADVENTURES:
Akaroa - Three liters of water, Ibuprofen, Band-Aids, hand sanitizer, Pepto-Bismol, and copious amounts of dried vittles accompanied me up and around the mountainous hiking trails, a day-trip braved by my international cohorts and me. The day was cold, grey, windy, and damp, but the lambs we saw along the way were adorable and the views we had from the top were amazing.
Mt. Cook and Lake Tekapo - The first day belonged to the mountain: perfect weather, burning-cold and milky rivers, and the sobering remains of once-majestic glaciers made up the day, with overpriced Pad Thai, conversations on cannibalism, and bonding-time with wine in the evening.
The second day belonged to the lake: sun-bathing in a pile of sleepy hikers, skipping white stones across the impossibly clear water, streams of shadows through mossy mountain woods, and scatological puns on the name of the crystal-blue lake finished off our two-day trip.
So concludes my first entry of (mis)adventures up to now; and so begins my journey into the wonderful world of blogging. Hopefully you are feeling all caught up (if not exhausted by my needlessly wordy prose and penchant for alliteration), but if you have lingering questions, feel free to shoot an iMessage/email/Facebook Message/carrier pigeon my way. Or just use your imagination; that would probably be more interesting (and fun). Also, check out the little "Photos by Yours Truly" box in the top-right section of this page for a link to Out and About, my more-convenient-than-uploading-them-all-to-Facebook photo-sharing website!
Tune in next time for Chapter Two, where I'll flail my way through an Indian visa application, fly to Auckland (in a plane, smarty-pants), stumble across a glacier, buy more toilet paper, and generally bumble through the whole "living independently and making your own decisions" thing.
When will this entry be posted, you ask?
"A week," he decided, "A week is plenty of time to give myself before I update my blog..."
~ To Be Procrastinued ~
No comments:
Post a Comment