Gnome at Home

Can you find the gnome?Dravograd, Slovenia
Wednesday July 1, 2009

This was a cute house in a a cute town where we did an evening performance during Festival Lent. Part of doing festivals is performing on the main stage and also going to neighboring cities for other shows. Dravograd was our first outreach show in Slovenia, and talk about a fabulous audience!

We headed off on the bus, leaving around 4pm for an 8pm show. Slovenia is rather hilly and the roads wind along-- it reminded of Pennsylvania a lot, actually. We followed the river most of the way down, and we passed some absolutely beautiful views of the countryside. The houses are lovely, not ostentatious or suburban at all, but very much a part of the landscape surrounding them. The forests are filled with trees, turning the hillsides vibrant green hues with the foliage. And of course the river nearby... every now and then you could see the reflection of the scene in the water and it really was beautiful.

After about 2 hours driving, maybe a little less, we arrived in Dravograd. The bus hardly fit on the small main street, and parking it was a near super-human feat. We hauled off our costume bags and instruments and set up in our stage area. Our performance area was an indoor soccer field, with bright green "grass" as our floor. I guess it was more like a very thin carpet, because it didn't really hinder our sounds at all during clogging. It was just very green. We had to jimmy rig some curtains to hide the changing areas behind the stage. We had three bathrooms to work with, and they were even smaller than most of the SPAC changing rooms, back in the day. Thank goodness for the extra curtains, so some people could change in the walkway behind the stage that led to the bathrooms.

We set costumes, did hair and make-up, then ran some tech rehearsals. We had a full show lined up and needed to go over a few things, particularly Crazy Foot Swing, since Skinny wasn't with us yet. I aboslutely love that dance-- it's probably my favorite, actually-- but the beginning lift always scares me now that my shoulder popped out once doing it. Thank goodness, Thomas is great, and we never had a hitch with it. We worked out some steps and formations, then headed down to dinner.

That's where we saw this house. Dinner turned out to be a nice 10-15 minute walk away down a small side street, along the river, past a WWII bombed-out bridge, past a random fish sign on a tree, and finally in a lovely restaurant that seemed quite remote from everything else, but well-frequented. The owner, or at least the lady making sure we had everything, was very friendly and so nice! We had some incredible food. Drinks started off with strawberry and peach juice, with the standards of Coke and Fanta nearby. SO GOOD!!! I loved the strawberry juice, and totally wish we had some here in the states. Like every meal in Europe we had some salad with oil and vinegar... mostly vinegar I think. I really did enjoy those salads at every lunch and dinner. The main dish, as I recall, was a leg (?) of chicken and a slice of pork, fried potato bites-- WAY better than tater tots and not even remotely similar-- and some other kind of starch... rice I think. There was a lot of gravy involved too. It was absolutely delicious and completely filling. I had a hard time finishing most of my meals in Europe, they fed us so much.

When we left to back up to the show, it had started to rain and drizzle. I've found that most rain in Europe isn't really that strong, overall. Tiffani, Sherrie, Emily, and I dashed back to finish getting ready, although we did stop for some photo opportunities. The photo below was shot on our way back. I just couldn't resist the beautiful gardens and pretty houses. [The first photo was a detail of the garden behind one of these houses; this was the small road we followed around to and from the dinner/venue.]


More about the show later. :)

Spaghetti Eis Bitburg, Germany

So while in Germany, I heard about this treat called Spaghetti Eis (Spaghetti Ice). Apparently, it's a unique specialty that originated in Germany. I'd vaguely heard about it on some Food Network show once, but didn't really put it together. One of our days in Bitburg, most of which were quite cool-- people were buying jackets and sweaters-- we decided to sum up a few hours of shopping with a stop in the local ice cream shoppe. Of course, we all ordered spaghetti eis! I really enjoyed this delectable creation. Beneath the vanilla ice cream noodles was some whipped cream. A delicious strawberry sauce covered the "noodles" and the "cheese" was shreds of white chocolate. So good! The little wafer wasn't particularly memorable, but overall the whole creation was delectable! I've found some recipes online for the strawberry sauce, so one of these days i'm going to find a spaetzel maker for the noodles and make the concotion. YUM!

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria June 29, 2009

The exterior didn't nearly betray the beauties inside. Scaffolding and paper facade mimicking the underlying structure being renovated, I didn't really think the cathedral was all that impressive. I walked in the small doorway, which seemed almost lost in the wall. A dark, tunnel-like passage led through to the vestibule. And then I was in the cathedral.

My jaw literally dropped. I was awe-struck by the scene unfolding and soaring before me. The space felt so vast! True to Gothic style, the verticality in the building captivated my eyes heavenward and my jaw downwards. After appreciating the artistic beauty and vision, I finally gathered my wits to look at the rest of the building. Intricate stone carved pulpits, rich stained-glass windows, and at least two pipe organs... it was a feast for the eyes. Even with all the tourists milling around, you could sense the reverence inside, a feeling inspired by the spacious skyscraping interior.

Going back outside after seeing the inside (where we spent a good deal of time appreciating the architecture, beauty, and pews), the exterior seemed vastly more impressive. That cathedral is HUGE! It takes up so much ground space and its walls and supporting structures are simply massive, in stark contrast to the delicate details. I loved seeing my first true Gothic Cathedral in real life. You really feel small as a human being inside that vast space. And to think of the decades or centuries spent building it by hand-- there were stone parts near the vestibule that had been broken off over the years. It was a beautiful, incredible building.

Lone Wolf

Karlovac, Croatia July 7, 2009
On the way down from Dubovac, the old castle above Karlovac

During tour one of my friends said something to the effect that I was a bit of a lone wolf type. Not a loner, just a lone wolf. He said that it means I'm strong and I do my own thing, although I don't avoid or dislike social settings. That characterization seems potentially right-on. I'm not sure I see myself as strong, but I have certainly survived by doing my own thing for quite a while. I'm just feeling more introspective today. I guess it's hard for me sometimes to see my friends hooking up.... I am really happy and not jealous or anything like that, but it throws me off a bit. I came back from Europe actually really content with being single, but give the Provo atmosphere a few days and the same emotions surface again.

I'm excited to be moving forward in my life. I'm starting my master's program officially in a few weeks, I'll be in BYU's World of Dance this fall, and I'm planning on going to Europe again next summer with Clog America (however I can get work to be lenient with me). Life is good. I am loving this summer! I am finally getting a decent tan to show for it all, and enough cuts from slip and sliding to prove I'm having fun. Even if I "lone wolf" it a little longer, that's okay. There's only one person in that picture there... but look how happy she is.

Rathaus, Vienna, Austria June 29, 2009

This is probably one of my favorite "artistic" photos that I took while in Europe. We came across this lovely building during our marathon walking tour of Vienna. Armed with a small tourist map showing some of the city's cool buildings downtown, Heather, Daniel Jackman, and Daniel and Tina Adams and I headed out for a day on Vienna, thrifty style. We seriously walked ALL DAY LONG! Our hotel was relatively close to the old downtown district, so we meandered down to see this group of buildings. Of course, Heather, Daniel, Carson, and I had already been downtown earlier that morning checking out some of the sights. (We had to return to the hotel to move our bags out of the rooms and into the front breakfast area; technically we were checked out, but they were kind enough to let us store our luggage there for the day.)

We came to the Rathaus around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, pretty thoroughly tired already. It was such a beautiful building that I had to try for a few glamour shots. Walking past the front of it, we saw it was set up with a giant screen. Apparently there was a film festival going on in the city, and this was a viewing area. Some musicians were on stage doing a sound and tech rehearsal, so we stopped on the front to sit and listen to them. They had some great rhythms going on-- I think we decided they were from India or Nepal or somewhere with similar influences-- and honestly we were happy for any excuse to sit down for more than 5 minutes. It was a big, beautiful sqaure where the chairs were set up. I would have liked to have known what it was like normally, but I loved the rest and the great music. By the end of the day my knees hurt so much that I could have sworn an 80 year old woman had taken mine and given me hers instead. Also, our attempt to find a kebab was pretty much a failure, although we sure tried and ate something very distantly related to one. Heather and I capped off the day with some Austrian pastries-- I had a most delicious apple struedel (although the one in Slovenia trumped it, in my eyes). But that's okay.

Living the Dream

Our first venue: Maribor, Slovenia
July 4, 2009- closing night of the festival

This is the stage where I lived a life dream: June 30,2009. On that big stage, floating in the Drava River, the flags of the participating countries lining the backdrop and the bright lights illuminating the floor, I walked up the wooden gangplank and waited for the musicians to play. Did I walk? I'm pretty sure I hopped and skipped, tapped a friend on a shoulder just to say how excited I was, maybe even twirled once. I've performed hundreds of times, in many locations. But nothing can really equal the feeling I had as I stepped out to the strains of "Devil's Dream", doing a dance of my country as a representative on foreign soil. I think, just maybe, that beautiful dancer in my soul made a rare appearance that night. So often she is just a vision I have inside of me, but that night the real and the ideal harmoniously unified for a few magical minutes.