The first autumn day

My day always starts with a cup of tea!
This morning I brought my own tea to the dining room, because I was enjoying it while Susan enjoyed her morning coffee.

On my way to the DR in the elevator

I had an awesome breakfast today! I love it when they have croissants, because toasting croissants is the most delicious thing I know. I was aware that the fat would be danced away in no time, so I never feel bad taking one every once in a while!

This is what my breakfast tray looks like from the dining room. Of course with a small difference every day.
Fruit, cereal/non-fat greek yoghurt with muesli, bread/pancake with blueberries, eggs/omelette, a glass of orange juice, a glass of passion fruit juice, a glass of water, tea and sometimes half a cup of coffee..!

*

When I went outside this morning, the weather was true autumn.
You could feel how the temperatures had fallen and the breeze wasn't a mild kiss on your cheek but a cool blow in your face, up your sleeves, and up your ankles.

The trees are beginning to change color. The phenomenal brown, orange and red colors of the autumn are not completely there yet, - but I am certain that in no time they will all transform at once.

Sometimes these days, you will see drops of rain.. but most of those times I have been indoor. Last time was in a Shakespeare class, and then it was actually pouring with cats and dogs. .. I am trying to figure out how you would have expressed that in Shakespeare's time. I might think of it later!

I can't wait to show the streets of New York my fancy umbrella, but I haven't had the opportunity for that yet!

Other than that, I feel the air changing, which I've felt as a drying out of my throat. Our showcase practicum teacher has advised us to get a humidifier, so we don't get sick from the extreme changes in the air.
And our vocal lab teacher has instructed us to damp our faces 15 minutes a day - by that we place our faces slightly above boiled water, with a towel around our heads. This clears any knots or coughs in our throats and vocal chords.

And our speech teacher talked a lot about being ready for the winter, by keeping our faces warm and not let them dry, being warmly dressed and staying hydrated. The degrees change to winter in no time, and because our school is just by the sea - where there's a much cooler wind blowing, it's going to feel REALLY cold.

I'm a bit scared of this, because I know how easily I have gotten sick the past winters. And besides there's nothing I hate more than freezing!!
Winter time is dark and depressing, unless you find something that uplifts that mood. Some people like - or even love the cold - but for me cold is like knifes that sting in your body and all the way through to the inner parts of your bones, and no matter how many layers you wear, you can't escape it.
... So, it's always a fight for me getting through the winter, but I doubt it will be as difficult, being in New York at Christmas time! The streets will be lid up with Christmas lights, probably x 100 of what I've seen before, the power and exhaltation of American Christmas songs playing from shops and market places reach every corner of the buildings, and almost the same amount of people as Denmark's total population are present in just this one city, spreading their Christmas joy.
And most importantly, I know for sure that no matter where I choose to celebrate my Christmas Eve, it won't be alone.

*

Today was a very intensive day at school and I learnt a lot.

Meisner class was AMAZING.
Our teacher started off by saying that our class, out of the 4-5 different ones he's teaching, are the one's who are furthest into the process - the one's he sees growing the most with the biggest potential.

So today, he took the exercise to the next level.
- The repetition exercise was now not only about paying attention to the other person, noticing their behavior and repeating every word exactly as they said it - but now we had a 'mindblowingly' challenging test to think about at the same time.

We were given a broomstick in our hands, and the test was to balance that broomstick on our fingers, switching between the fingers one at a time and over to the other hand, without helping/dropping it/cheating. We had to do that 5 times back and forth both hands.
And this was not an impossible exercise, but something so physically difficult, that it needed your full concentration.
Of course no one was able to do it! - why he gave us the task....

So one person went outside the door, and the other stayed in the room, doing the broomstick test. The first person knocked on the door, wanting to be let in and talk.
The difficulty for the other person was to pay attention to someone else, while having to focus on another thing.
To have another person in the room distracting you and saying, "you look like a dancing monkey" or "you messed it up" does NOT help, and only frustrates and infuriates!

Our teacher even made it clear that if we dropped the broom our grade for the day would fall one letter, if we dropped it on him our grade would be an F- for the day, and if we did the whole exercise our grade would be A+ for the rest of the semester!
So it wasn't just a stupid test, it was like fighting for your life!

BUT in the midst of all this fuss, the magic of acting truthfully happened. Being so focused on something important, made everyone act on their impulses, without thinking about what they were saying.
And those fresh impulses - without being transformed to a feeling we think more appropriate in the circumstances or being compressed to a tinier form because we are scared to show them to the fullest - are gold. The gold is us; just being ourselves truthfully.

It's my favorite class! The most nerve-wrecking, but somehow the one class I feel completely comfortable in.

In vocal lab, we are still singing ligid (the technique you hear in the old musicals - that has a more classical sound). In the last couple of classes we have been through 'My favorite things' from The Sound of Music and 'Goodbye, little dream goodbye' from Anything goes. After the group singing and lots of breathing exercises where we focus on finding the right placement and using your support in the right way, each one of us goes up to sing a song in front of the class.

Today I sang 'Something wonderful', to get the technical advise before performing it in Kristy Cates' Song interpretation class on Friday.
My teacher thought I did a fantastic job, and she was really surprised because she thinks it's a very difficult song. A+, she said ;-)

*

When I went back home, I spent a long time getting the technique to work:
Relaxed jaw, wide open mouth. Ribs out the whole time. Taking a deep breath that pushes your lower back and tummy out. Gently - almost like talking - most parts of the song, just letting the notes flow naturally. Pushing your belly out the more energy I need to sing the biggest parts and the high notes.

While damping my face above boiling water for 15 minutes, I sang through 'My favorite things' about 20 times, until the technique for it was thrillingly perfect, and came with ease.
Then I sang through 'Something wonderful' again. And oh wow! For the first time I sang the whole song through, like there were no difficult parts, - just because all the work was done with my support - not a forcement of the jaw, or a strained throat.
I'm telling you, after running through the song twice, with my hand on my belly and a relaxed jaw, the music was like a stream that just flooded out of me.

I'm not saying this is the first time in my life I've understood the support of singing - otherwise I would never have been able to sing 'On my own', especially being told I could sing it on West End now with that performance...
But, this was one of the first times I sang, without feeling like I had to work for it at all.
I've gotten the hang of it before, but I am much further down the road to understanding exactly how it's done in my body!

...And after that, I'm not kidding, I sang 'O Mio Babbino Caro'. Which I've sung a lot of times before - but never with total ease and perfection in all the high notes.
I am so glad MUM <3 Because I promised you to sing your favorite song one day - perhaps to an anniversary or 50th birthday. - And now I know, for sure, that I can nail that performance. ;) 

To every one: I put a link to the song, if you click on the name. It's such an unbelievably beautiful song. There is so much longing and pain in it, and the music and the text combined has an incredible soul.

The song is about a young girl, who is deeply in love with someone she is not permitted to be with. In the song she sings to her dad, admitting her love - one she can't live without. She tearfully begs her dad to allow her to be with the man she loves, and if she can't, she says, she will throw herself into the river.

I've heard the song hundreds of times, yet every time I sing it, it brings tears in my eyes, without having been through the character's journey.
I think this is one of the magic songs, that slips into your soul immediately, because the music just tells the story. - You don't have to create it yourself or imagine anything. And it's like that for me every time with this song, as if every time is the first time I've heard it.

Find your favorite song of the week. There's nothing better to inspire you.
And inspiration is so important!

X