Katedra alternativního a loutkového divadla

I just hurt my finger so bad that I left the carpentry lesson. It’s not easy to type on a czech keyboard with only 9 fingers, but it will have to do to use my time functionally. Yes, I get to carve things out of wood. I’m making a cyclope kitten. Got carried away with the chisel, that’s all.

The semester starts late in DAMU. I’m an exchange student at the KALD department which means Department for Alternative and Puppet Theatre. My main subject is scenography. The first real day at school was October 6th. Until that it was the lost in translation part. Later, it’s been lost in the Process by F. Kafka. I refer to the blog posts here and here, describing the process of applying for a living permit – for / and the process of – opening an internet connection. Even if you don’t understand Estonian, you can guess the elaborations by the posting lengths.

The main phrase that you can hear is “Come back later”. If you agree on a meeting with somebody, the meeting is probably just to confirm, when you both really have to meet. When you try to open a bank account, you’re asked to come back in 30 minutes (which you wait right there because it’s no time to actually go anywhere) just to receive a phone call that you really should come back in 2,5h. I think I will eventually be able to sign a proper study agreement with the school and then get my Erasmus scolarship in a week or so. The international office in Finland has been asking for it since beginning of September.

At school, the international programme is quite uninteresting. There’s a lecture on Czech theatre history by an overwhelmingly art-impressed lady who is quite difficult to follow. There’s a theatre analysis class that hasn’t started yet (but we’re going to see Euripides’ Medeia on Sunday and it’s all czech). And there’s a acting class by an (ultra-)american lady which I hope I could skip just not to ruin the experience for them who are really interested in group excercises and self-motivation at 9 a.m. on Tuesday mornings. At that time, the ultimate level of my social skills is grumpiness and pointless bitching.

The scenography courses, on the other hand, are pure gold. I have 4 hours of drawing and painting (and tired feet) on Mondays, basic puppetmaking and technical drawing on Tuesdays, puppet carving (and bleeding fingers) on Thursdays and sculpture classes on Fridays. In addition to that, there’s a cooperation class with the Technical University and abundant consultations for my personal stage design project.

As if that were not enough, I got already mixed in a demo production that premieres just before Christmas.

Added the czech language classes once a week, I get just about the 30 points needed for the exchange year. Meaning there’s no way I can skip the early morning acting class. This sort of depresses me.