What happened to Spring?
Six more weeks of school, it's in the eighties outside and all I want to do is lie in the sun. Terraces have been blooming around the town with the lilacs. There are more bars to sit and people watch then people. People are wearing practically nothing ( The fad in romania is to wear see-through tops and black bras) and everywhere you look people are eating ice cream. I have started running again. I found a nice little spot along the Olt river. I can literally run out of town. The thing about Romanian cities is that there is no urban sprawl. Once you reach the last bloc it literally turns to country and cows. I like running by the cows, they look up thoughtfully at you, chewing their cud. Ocasionally i get a moo.
I spent the last week of my spring break in Timisoara which is Romania's second largest city (at 300,000) near the serbian/ hungarian borders. I love Timisoara. The river banat runs through the center of towns and it is lined with parks and public swimming pools. i saw joggers and even more exciting was the fact that the trees in the park weren't painted white. Romanian's paint the trunks of all the trees white they say to protect them from bugs. I have mixed opiniions on that, but what do I know. There is a huge opera house and a german, romanian and hungarian national theatre. It is a mecca of theatre. i was there for a High school english theatre competition. I was invited to be a judge. There were two types of performances, orginal and published scripts. The performances ranged from good to hilarious. There is something about teenagers and tradgedy. All the original performances explored insanity, teenage angst and sex. That's all you think about at that age. I couldn't help but love the screaming in agony, and dramatic mental breakdown scenes. Dramatics is what makes theatre theatre. One group decided to do a stage version of the Marilyn Manson video "Tainted Love." it was awful. There was writhing and screaming, black makeup, a clown that went insane, prostitiutes, and one kid even walked on his hands. the entire time. In fact most of the original productions included prostitutes or slutty cheerleaders. This is not to say that there wasn't any quality theatre. One group performed Edward Albee's Zoo Story. It was fantastic and even more fantastic was thinking that English is all of these kids second language. The main character, a slightly self absorbed, obsessive, Jerry was Oscar worthy. The best part of the week though was the Eugene Ionesco play I got to see. Ionesco was a forerunner of the absurdist. He wrote Rhinoceros. He is one of the reasons i wanted to come to Romania. I saw Englezeste fara Profesorii ( English without professors) in Romanian by some students at the Timisoara University. It made me want to do theatre again. Although i understand about 50 percent of less of the words, I was still blown away by the acting. Ionesco wantd to point out the absurdity of language. In fact, he started writing absurdist theatre when he began learning english. Words, are so arbitrary. How true in a world where i live day to day using gesture. My language i call the "smile and nod" (s&n). You don't understand, smile and nod. It's a strange form of half living.
To change the subject slightly before my time runs out, I would like again to ask (s&n) for donations for my Leadership Camp this summer or the Drama Conference this fall. You can donate online...http://www.peacecorps.com/contribute/projects/index.cfm My projects are listed as Advanced Creative Writing and Drama Practicum (p. Jordan and N. Porzucki), and Summer Leadership Camp (B. Strahine. He is another volunteer in my group that submitted the grant). I hate asking for money, but it is for two very good causes. We met this weekend again to further plan the Camp and the kids are going to have such a good time. We have planned activites such as sessions on how to be a leader, and start community projects to reppelling, hiking and talking about environmental protection. The Drama Practicum will be held this sept, and our goal is teach English Teachers how to incorporate drama, creative writing and critical thinking exercises in their classroom. Right now the Romanian way of teaching is "I am the teacher, you listen to me and then regurgitate information." We are slowly trying to change that communist attitude. i assure you both are worthy topics. If you donate, please, please let me know. We don't forget our sponsors. Okay enough soliciting. Thank you. I love you all and I will write more soon. i promise.