Well guys, i know that all 9 of my readers are really dissapointed that i didn't blog last night but i didn't get home till 1 AM!!!! so at least i have an excuse. Both yesterday and today have been stellar and full of excitement! yesterday we decided to sleep in reallllyyyyyy late! me and jake didn't get up until like noon! once that happened my mom had a very luxurious breakfast planned out for us including eggs, bacon, french toast and yogurt! (YUM!) after being fueled we decided to head for central park where we all took some of the beautiful pictures you see below :) we then, being in a walking mood decided to simply walk down to 49th street. -__-..... my mother calculated later we walked a minimum of 60 short blocks and 11 long blocks....my feet hurt. we entered the Book Of Mormon lottery and after our bitter defeat , me and jake decided to see the dark knight rises and momma and leyse just headed home. Jake and I arrived at the theatre at 6:30 expecting we would find a 7:20 or a 7:40 showing.....the only available showing was 9:10 so we sat and waited for almost three hours to see this movie. so , alas. that is why yesterday i did not blog upon returning home. Today! we woke up at a bright and early 8:45 to get into the student rush line for Jersey Boys for jake and Aleyse and One Man , Two Guvnors for me and mom. we met up with Sami, Taylor and Natasha(Sammatha's friend) for lunch and the matinee'. One man, Two Guvnors was RIDICULOUSLY funny. An all around hysterical day at the theatre. after the 2 and 1/2 hour show we headed back to the apartment ( after grabbing some signatures ;) ay!) and are now just relaxing before our 3rd (WOAH) week of class resumes. and ! momma goes to Julliard. :)

Conqueror

all that wilderness jont.

Blue jay.

Babbling Brooke

The lake

such a cute couple

What up great lawn

The bard.

Aitchell and Mleyse

Rebellious Subjects!

For real...

You just got PUNKED

All rights reserved

Ditto

Trio

Goofy ..

Well, this is what i live with.

Unfortunately i don't have a TON of pictures from today but i have two pretty solid ones. :) but anyway! so today was ensemble day as Friday's always are and we split off into different groups depending on which play we were participating in and stuff. My group discussed in depth scene analysis for about 45 minutes and then we decided. the hell with it. Lets read the WHOLE PLAY that our piece is from! turns out that if we were to do the whole play, i'm the narrator and the main character! holla!! haha my character is a troubled high school senior who finds himself facing being a homosexual in 1967 :/ the piece is about him and his group of "Less than human" friends that make up the "Less than human club". its a very awesome play and i highly suggest reading it! after that we headed home to just drop our stuff off and chill out for a little bit before heading off with some friends! We met up with Hannah (you guys remember her from a previous blog post ) and Kyra! (shoutout!) Kyra is pictured below. Ay! after mulling about times square and going to chipotle just for funsies we headed back to the house. We ate dinner, hung out, went to Subway (Eat Fresh)! and came back to watch the Dark Knight on TNT. i know! what an EXCITING DAY!!! love you all and goodnight everybody! TGIF!

A Traffic light for BIKES!!!!

The fabulous Kyra

Hey guys! unfortunately i have a terrible headache today so I don't think ill be getting QUITE as specific as i was yesterday but ill try to sum up the day. First up we had 3 hours of scene analysis which, even though we learn a lot, it takes a ton out of us. But basically we just went through everybody's analysis and then did As-if's into our scene..... (basically) that's when you make up an imaginary situation in your mind with a similar stakes and action and then you go from saying your as if straight into your scene so you keep the desired emotion you're trying to get across. then we had games and improv which is honestly one of my favorite classes. its just so much fun. today was our first big improv day where we actually did improv scenes! he made us get up with a partner and he gave us something to do ( putting in floor, building a birdhouse, knitting a quilt etc.) and then we just built on the scene by ourselves. it was really fun! finally we had shakespeare. we talked alot about Henry V! i guess we are doing the prologues from it for our showcase as well as the other pieces.

Shout out to brian and riley and alissa....this is crazy.

this was in the subway!!!

a shoe on a roof??? 

Student lounge!

Our studio

We go hard. 

AY!

Memorizing lines! holla!

Day two....7-18-12....Dear journal...its been two days since my last cup. I thought I could avoid the brunt of the side effects. Thought I was different. MY withdrawal symptoms wouldn't be severe.....I was wrong. My skin burns for hours on end. my tongue dry and desperate for its succulent taste.... I honestly doubt ill be able to survive through the night....what am I talking about? SOFT SERVE FRUIT!!!! Hahahahha me and Leysey are trying to cut back and it SUCKSS. well. Hey guys! its day ten now! can u believe it? we are almost at the end of week two! so I kind of realized that id been talking about my classes but haven't been going into a lot of depth about what happens in the class so today i have some specific examples of fun stuff that happened today :) First off we had movement! yet again. It was pretty fun! she made us stretch out of limbs and really open up our torso's and stuff like that then we had to do this thing with a partner where we picked up a quick dance routine and then had to do the routine in relationship with our partner.(Shout out to Jenna Wisch! She and I CLUTCHED THE DANCE ROUTINE) Then we did it like very quickly with a bunch of extra steps involved for funsies. We also did this interesting thing where we lied down on the ground and connected just ever so slightly with someone and she started a pulse by touching one of us and we had to continue to pass it along throughout the web of people which was nice. After that she made us scrunch up in a ball with each other. like we all got into the center of the room and just kinda sat back to back and then she had us relax to the point where we were all just kind of laying on each other. Next we had Repetition. at first i didn't see the point of it. but now we are getting to the advanced stages of it and I'm really learning a lot! Today he made us all do this thing where we had to stand up in front of the class for a whole minute and the class just looked at us and we looked back at the class. it was really interesting and taught you kind of how to be "In the moment".also, for some reason, EVERYBODY told Andy(the teacher) that I had a smug smile on my face and that i made them laugh for some reason. (IDK, was not doing it on purpose...but Since the point of Repetition is to figure out how the other person works and how they react Andy (the teacher) told me today that I hide....he said (in front of the whole class) that I tend to hide behind my facial expressions. I do a smug little smile or something funny to hide from people really wanting to SEE me. which I thought was interesting. Next we had Voice/ Speech....which...lets get real is my least favorite class.. it was basically all about proper breathing and stretching out your mouth and your articulators. And then we studied how we make vowel sounds with our tongue being in different places in our mouth and stuff and even played this game where we just kinda made up sounds and the phrases and passed them around a big circle to each other. like teaching your neighbor to properly pronounce your made up word or phrase. Finally, we had on camera. Basically for the duration of the class I was the DP (director of photography) NBD! I ran the camera and filmed everybody :) AY! When we got out of class it was POURING DOWN RAIN. my hair deflated :( as seen below) and we were going to Lottery for Book Of Mormon. But we didn't realize till too late that the show was at 7, not 8. so the Lottery was earlier than expected :/ so we missed it! but that's okay :) we will try another night! After that we headed home, ate dinner and have just been talking, relaxing and studying lines. NBD! miss and love you all!

Shoutout to Abbie Paone and Julie Brownstone who stole my phone and took this :)

Hair deflation....-___-

People hiding from the rain in the subway!

Lunch for both my mother and Jake!

Hey everybody! OMG!!! today on the way to class aleyse almost DIED. we were a little bit late leaving today and so we were rushing to get to one of our subway trains and aleyse tripped and fell down about ten stairs but SOMEHOW. she landed at the bottom of the stairs on her feet.....but yeah... okay so today was pretty alright for the most part! we had movement first which is a very interesting class. its not my favorite but it definitely has some interesting things to offer. Next we had Repetition which was really good for me today! I did very well today at it :). After lunch we  had Speech and voice.....which. lets get real is a little like yoga/ nap time. she basically just makes us get our yoga mats out and like lulls us to sleep. then we had shakespeare.....jeeeeeezzzzzz. he was rough on me today. he made me do my monologue like 8 times hahaha. it was really good though i got a lot of work done :) then we headed to harlem where we had some AMAZING soul food at amy ruth's :) next .....DRUMROLLLLLLLL 

GUEST BLOGGER DEB HANSEN!!!!

from Mama H-

Hello everyone! I am really enjoying my time here in NYC--Jake, Aleyse, and Mitchell are DEFINITELY keeping me entertained and I love hearing their stories about the day of learning firsthand. I'll share what I did today so you have a different perspective. :-)

This morning, I left the house a little after the kids did (8:45 am) so that I could go jogging. (I'm trying to be fit, ok?) It's about 4 long blocks to the East River Esplanade, which is a nice walk/run/bike path along the East River. Well, Ok, so there's a highway on the other side in some places, but there's also a beautiful park, tennis and basketball courts, and the official residence of the Mayor of New York! Today I went all the way from 80th street to the Tri-borough Bridge....then I mostly walked back. (yeah, I'm working on it. ) 

When I eventually left the apartment again (after cleaning up myself and the place and a little Juilliard homework), I took off on the uptown 6 train to 103rd Street, and walked over to 5th Avenue, to find the Museum of the City of New York. It's a really pretty building and it has some cool exhibits. Most of the pictures immediately below are from the museum. I completely enjoyed it. Then I strolled up the edge of Central Park on the 5th Avenue side of it to the very northern edge, and then crossed over to the west side of Manhattan. If you've never been to NYC before, you know you do a LOT of walking, but it's fun...and allows you to eat more of all the delicious food! Tonight, I was trying to save room for a LOT of soul food, so I worked up an appetite with those walks. We then met at Amy Ruth's ...a delectable soul food restaurant that has so many delicious sides.....which two to choose?? I ordered the President Obama- fried chicken and I chose string beans and mac & cheese. YUMMMMMMMMMMMM. Aleyse chose the Ludacris....4 chicken wings and 2 sides. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM. did I mention that? Mitch and Jake took care of some honey smothered chicken and fried catfish. Below, see the remnants of those chicken wings on Aleyse's plate. :-)  We then walked back through lower Harlem to the subway and caught the good ol' 6 train back to the 77th and Lex station. Surprisingly, the kids managed to bypass the soft serve fruit shop today, and we just headed home to relax. You may be surprised to know we haven't turned on the tv at all since we've been here. The Xbox remains unused. We talk and laugh and the kids run lines or do scene analysis and discuss plays. It's been great so far. The views from our borrowed apartment (thanks Suzanne and Kyle) are gorgeous.And we're excited we still have a bunch of time left in the city! 

The museum had a gallery devoted to activism in NYC- abolitionists, suffragettes, 

and even the recent Wall Street protests. 

 There was another gallery of rooms and furnishings that were typical of NYC living rooms at various time                                      periods. I really enjoyed that part of the museum quite a bit.

                                     This is a stained glass window from 1835 that someone was
                                           fortunate enough to have in their home garden conservatory.

                                           As mentioned, here are the wing bones. RIP Luda.

week 2

Hey guys! Well, admittedly today was kind of a tough, tiring Monday. We had scene analysis today and it took FOREVER. mostly due to the wonderful, Aleyse who took 2 hours of the 3 hour time allotted for scene analysis. ill give it to the girl though. she got stuff DONE today :) then we went off to do our lunch thannnngggg . got back for Games with the guy that's directing my piece in the showcase (he's super coooooolllll). we played this really cool game called Mafia. basically you all sit in a circle and everyone closes their eyes and he taps 4 people to be mafia members. then they figure out who they are and they close their eyes. then he taps one person twice to be the investigator. these roles dont change. then every round the lights get turned off and its "Night time" and the mafia members choose a person to kill. then they close their eyes and the investigator gets to ask the teacher if any one person is a mafia member. then during the "Day time" the society as a whole votes on who to kill. no one knows who the mafia members are or who the investigator is. its simply the job of the investigator and the mafia members to try and lead the conversation during the day time towards desired results. it's SUPERFUNNNNN. then we had on camera to finish the day  and thats always fun because the teacher is really quirky and fun :). then we took our new friend ( S/O to Hannah Ades!) to Soft Serve Fruit only to discover that  Rasberry flavor we love so much has been stripped from the menu.....NOOOOOO once we got home we relaxed and chilled, mom had a WONDERFUL dinner laid our for us that included pasta, broccoli and some focaccio bread and oil. as well as some homemade pastries! aleyse had a breakdown, as is present in the video below. I called Amber (S/O!!) to relax a bit :) and then we all studied our Shakespeare monologues for tomorrow! PHEW! long day. :) miss you all!

Well hey guys! today was definitely a fun one. We had to get up kind of on the early side in order to get in line for Clybourne Park student rush tickets but it was WELL worth it. we sat around for a bit and studied our lines for our upcoming scenes in class and then headed to lunch at a little Vietnamese place. it was SUPER cheap and super delicious! I had chicken fried rice and it was delicious for only 10 bucks! Jake got full really quickly so Aleyse had to mom him a bit and say "just two more bites honey" a couple times. hahaha. then we decided to waste some time around times square before the matinee. we ended up chillen in Toys R Us for an hour. then we hit up the Disney store and then we headed over to the M&M store to waste more time. after all that we headed over to see Clybourne Park which was AMAZING. its the "sequel " to "Raisin in the Sun". we got all settled in and ready to see the show....and who was to show up two rows back???? BUT MORGAN FREEMAN......can i get a woot woot? the show was fantastically acted and me and Jake got our programs signed! Perfect timing because for one of the cast members this was her last night! So we caught the last ever performance with the original cast! then we headed back uptown, picked up some soft serve fruit and are now quite peacefully trying to memorize our lines and gain some peace before our hectic week resumes. Here's some pictures of today's adventures!