In France
Finally. Well, actually we've been here for a few days, but this is my first chance to use internet. I need to be getting our posters and leaflets finalized and sent off to Edinburgh, but this computer's really slow for graphics apps, so while it's loading and saving stuff, I can do this.
So things are finally a little calmer. Last I wrote I think was a note from Japan... Well, we had a good time there. I took a bunch of people from the company into Nagoya to meet up with a friend who lives not too far from there, we went out for dinner, it was nice.
Funnily enough, while in the train station we ran into a Korean couple who were on their way back to Seoul from Paris. I gave them 50 yen more to get the train back to the airport. Then we saw them again the next morning, turns out they were in the same hotel as us. I even ended up going over to the airport and getting in line with them. We chatted some more, the guy gave me a roll of film, turns out he's an artist, painting, and then found out that there was another line for us to get in as a big group, on the other side of the counter.
Long flight. Not unpleasant for that, but long. And cloudy below us, the whole way, which is always disappointing flying over places you've never seen before. Like Russia, or the Baltic Sea. Of course, the windows are closed most of the way too, so people can sleep. Let's see, watched a couple movies. What? "Breach". Something else. Oh, right, "Chinatown". That was good. JAL has been showing that for a while, it seems like. It was nice, because we had the MAGIC-III systems, which have more movies and games and you can play the movies on demand, unlike the MAGIC-I and -II systems, which was what was on American on my flight back from the US. Man, how geeky is that, comparing in-flight entertainment systems. Still, it's nice to be able to start movies when you want, when you wake up from a nap instead of planning your sleep around the movie schedule.
Anyway, we got to France Thursday afternoon, got all our baggage, managed to get through customs without too much trouble (we had 20 pieces of luggage for the show. And for Korean food and other supplies, but that was grouped with show stuff. More on that later.) Then we got to the car rental counter and discovered that the vehicles we'd rented, a 5-seater small car, and 7-seater that was sort of a cross between a station wagon and a mini-van, without much extra cargo space, were way too small. After checking with everyone else and discovering that no other cars were available anywhere, we decided to cram in as much as we could fit and maybe send the rest with people on the train. As it was, we unpacked all the boxes and actually managed to squeeze in everything except some of the cardboard. It was pretty impressive, and required everyone who wasn't driving to carry something on their lap, but it worked. So we (Chung-euy and I ended up doing all the driving) set off. I was following and Chung-euy got lost. He also accidentally ran several red lights, which after a couple hours meant that we lost him entirely and went on on our own. We ended up crashing in a couple cheap hotels near Auxerre, getting there just in the nick of time for one. The others had automatic key dispensers, which was nice, except our cards didn't work for whatever reason. Anyway, we got sleep, which was very important. And the other car managed to find us there, so we were all together again in the morning.
Then we continued to Avignon, arriving in the early afternoon. Our theater was closed, so we couldn't drop stuff off there right away, then it took a long time to get into our apartment, which was on a pedestrian street, so we had to pull the cars up in an illegal spot and quickly pull everything out, leaving some people to take stuff upstairs while others went back to the theater, where we dropped everything else off on the side of the road, then waited. While waiting we managed to get in touch with the theater people who came and opened it up for us, we moved it all in, and got the cars dropped off just before it was too late.
The next day was tech, which went fairly well, although we used an hour and a half more than our scheduled 8 hours, and could have used more. A big part of the problem with this was that we had to design and practice a new way of doing our shadows, that involves the actors moving some screens and some lights. It was supposed to be worked on while I was away, but since I wasn't there, and didn't send reminders about it... oh well. It'll work out, although our dress rehearsal will probably be kind of rough.
We've also been putting up posters. Which isn't quite so bad once you start doing it, but which I still have no interest in. I think we've got enough up now that more can wait until it rains really hard. Besides which, there's no space left anywhere.
Home life is okay, interesting. We're in a very stylish, spacious apartment that seems to be designed for a couple, with a guest/child room up in the loft. It works for nine people, but is not perfect. And very impractical. The washing machine kind of sums it up, because it looks nice, but is small, hard to figure out, and takes 2 1/2 hours to do a load of laundry. The stove is flat surface, including the buttons (not dials) which control the heat, and aren't very sensitive. The walls are all white, and some are covered with expensive wall paper, including just inside the entryway, so you can't lean on the wall while taking off your shoes. The toilets are separate from the bathrooms. The balcony railing is made of non-stainless steel bars, which looks cool, but means you can't hang laundry on it. As you can imagine, we have lots of laundry. Still it works.
As for food and cleaning, we've got shifts set up. And as mentioned before, we have a massive supply of Korean food. It was my turn to cook last night, and it was the first time we had a meal other than breakfast in which rice and kimchee had no role. Not that I mind Korean food... in Korea. We're in France! Wine! Good bread! Good cheese! AAAA! Although we are keeping way under our food budget, by buying cheap stuff in bulk once or twice a week. Anyway, I think it's lunchtime. Will write more soon, I think.
So things are finally a little calmer. Last I wrote I think was a note from Japan... Well, we had a good time there. I took a bunch of people from the company into Nagoya to meet up with a friend who lives not too far from there, we went out for dinner, it was nice.
Funnily enough, while in the train station we ran into a Korean couple who were on their way back to Seoul from Paris. I gave them 50 yen more to get the train back to the airport. Then we saw them again the next morning, turns out they were in the same hotel as us. I even ended up going over to the airport and getting in line with them. We chatted some more, the guy gave me a roll of film, turns out he's an artist, painting, and then found out that there was another line for us to get in as a big group, on the other side of the counter.
Long flight. Not unpleasant for that, but long. And cloudy below us, the whole way, which is always disappointing flying over places you've never seen before. Like Russia, or the Baltic Sea. Of course, the windows are closed most of the way too, so people can sleep. Let's see, watched a couple movies. What? "Breach". Something else. Oh, right, "Chinatown". That was good. JAL has been showing that for a while, it seems like. It was nice, because we had the MAGIC-III systems, which have more movies and games and you can play the movies on demand, unlike the MAGIC-I and -II systems, which was what was on American on my flight back from the US. Man, how geeky is that, comparing in-flight entertainment systems. Still, it's nice to be able to start movies when you want, when you wake up from a nap instead of planning your sleep around the movie schedule.
Anyway, we got to France Thursday afternoon, got all our baggage, managed to get through customs without too much trouble (we had 20 pieces of luggage for the show. And for Korean food and other supplies, but that was grouped with show stuff. More on that later.) Then we got to the car rental counter and discovered that the vehicles we'd rented, a 5-seater small car, and 7-seater that was sort of a cross between a station wagon and a mini-van, without much extra cargo space, were way too small. After checking with everyone else and discovering that no other cars were available anywhere, we decided to cram in as much as we could fit and maybe send the rest with people on the train. As it was, we unpacked all the boxes and actually managed to squeeze in everything except some of the cardboard. It was pretty impressive, and required everyone who wasn't driving to carry something on their lap, but it worked. So we (Chung-euy and I ended up doing all the driving) set off. I was following and Chung-euy got lost. He also accidentally ran several red lights, which after a couple hours meant that we lost him entirely and went on on our own. We ended up crashing in a couple cheap hotels near Auxerre, getting there just in the nick of time for one. The others had automatic key dispensers, which was nice, except our cards didn't work for whatever reason. Anyway, we got sleep, which was very important. And the other car managed to find us there, so we were all together again in the morning.
Then we continued to Avignon, arriving in the early afternoon. Our theater was closed, so we couldn't drop stuff off there right away, then it took a long time to get into our apartment, which was on a pedestrian street, so we had to pull the cars up in an illegal spot and quickly pull everything out, leaving some people to take stuff upstairs while others went back to the theater, where we dropped everything else off on the side of the road, then waited. While waiting we managed to get in touch with the theater people who came and opened it up for us, we moved it all in, and got the cars dropped off just before it was too late.
The next day was tech, which went fairly well, although we used an hour and a half more than our scheduled 8 hours, and could have used more. A big part of the problem with this was that we had to design and practice a new way of doing our shadows, that involves the actors moving some screens and some lights. It was supposed to be worked on while I was away, but since I wasn't there, and didn't send reminders about it... oh well. It'll work out, although our dress rehearsal will probably be kind of rough.
We've also been putting up posters. Which isn't quite so bad once you start doing it, but which I still have no interest in. I think we've got enough up now that more can wait until it rains really hard. Besides which, there's no space left anywhere.
Home life is okay, interesting. We're in a very stylish, spacious apartment that seems to be designed for a couple, with a guest/child room up in the loft. It works for nine people, but is not perfect. And very impractical. The washing machine kind of sums it up, because it looks nice, but is small, hard to figure out, and takes 2 1/2 hours to do a load of laundry. The stove is flat surface, including the buttons (not dials) which control the heat, and aren't very sensitive. The walls are all white, and some are covered with expensive wall paper, including just inside the entryway, so you can't lean on the wall while taking off your shoes. The toilets are separate from the bathrooms. The balcony railing is made of non-stainless steel bars, which looks cool, but means you can't hang laundry on it. As you can imagine, we have lots of laundry. Still it works.
As for food and cleaning, we've got shifts set up. And as mentioned before, we have a massive supply of Korean food. It was my turn to cook last night, and it was the first time we had a meal other than breakfast in which rice and kimchee had no role. Not that I mind Korean food... in Korea. We're in France! Wine! Good bread! Good cheese! AAAA! Although we are keeping way under our food budget, by buying cheap stuff in bulk once or twice a week. Anyway, I think it's lunchtime. Will write more soon, I think.
posted by Colin at 10:28 AM
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