leaving londontown

sorry that my posts have been few and far between, but we have been hard at work on king lear. the show is great, and it's been one of the best play experiences that i've ever had. kelly is such an inspirational director; we always come home from rehearsal exhausted.

the show is on thursday, but we've been doing lots of performances for various people's families and we even did a run in regent's park. it was freezing and we got lots of strange looks from the passers-by, but quite a few people stopped and watched.

i fly home on saturday. i'm ready to be stateside again, but i'll definitely miss london.
anyway, i can't think about that too much, becuase it will make me sad.

see you soon!
ellen

oxford

this weekend i took a much needed break and visited one of my best friends, mel, in oxford.  she's studying at keble college this year, and so i spent the weekend running around oxford with her, taking pictures and pretending to be a college student again.

saturday, i got in around 1, so we got lunch at a local cafe and then walked around the city all afternoon.  this is the bod, or the bodleian, the really, really, really, really big library in oxford.  apparently it runs for miles, underneath the streets.  that night, we saw a really cool production of romeo and juliet that one of mel's friends was in.  it was a promenade performance, which means you mill around with the actors and a lot of scenes happen simultaneously.  it really imaginative but still a  good, coherent story.  

the next day, we walked around oxford again, visiting the oxford castle, which is really old (pre norman invasion!) and has a really great timeline in the sidewalk outside of it.

then we got ben's cookies, which make real-life american cookies (british biscuits just don't cut it after a while), with steve, the son of one of mom's really good friends from smu.  we snuck our way into christ church, where they filmed harry potter, by pretending we were students, and we took lots of pictures.

that night mel swiped some robes for me, and we had dinner in the keble dining hall.  there are three long dining tables, and you must wear your academic robe.  all the students enter and sit at the long tables, and then the professors in their full academic robes come in and sit at the high table at the head of the dining hall.  then some choir boys sang and we at dinner.  it was oh so harry potter and fabulous!

i grabbed the bus home late that night, and made it back for a very early 9:30 rehearsal of king lear.  the show is going wonderfully--i can't believe we're in our 3rd week of rehearsals!  it's going so fast!

happy thanksgiving everyone!  

drumroll, please!

so today was our second day of rehearsals, and so this morning kelly told us our parts.
i'm cordelia!
she's the good sister, who refuses to "heave [her] heart into [her] mouth" and declare her love for lear in order to recieve a part of his kingdom. he consequently banishes her, and she is taken in by the duke of france, and becomes the queen of france. she returns at the end of the play with the french army to take over england and save her father, and i won't spoil the end for you...but it's a tragedy.

xoxo,
ellen

election 2008-where were you?

election night, 2008.   it was our last night in barcelona, and we had decided to go dancing.  sticking true to spanish style, we grabbed dinner around 10 and headed out to a club around midnight.  before leaving, we had the bbc on, but knew that nothing would be happening becuase that was just when the first polls were closing--there is a 6 hour time difference between barcelona and the west coast.  

on the way to the club, we walked past a bar where they had put on the election coverage after the FC Barcelona game (first priority, clearly).  the first returns were coming in, so we popped in and watched a few true-blue northeast states go obama.  we then left to go dancing and get our mind off of things.

but when we left the club at 3, we knew that things would be happening.  we got back to our hotel room (with a bottle of optimistic champagne in hand) and turned on the bbc.  obama was up 175 to 95, but ohio and pennsylvania hadn't come in yet.  we watched as the BBC commentators interviewed such experts as eddie izzard and some republican in colorado.  clearly, the top peeps were taken by cnn and fox.   then ohio got called--and pennsylvania.  it was around 4, and we were beginning to feel confident enough to nod off...so one by one, we crashed on the beds.  but an hour later, at 5, ritu woke us all up, shouting, "GUYS HE WON! HE WON!"   we all jumped up and hugged each other, and smiled, and feel back asleep, becuase we had to leave for a flight in two hours.  

then we headed off to berlin, where we had a wonderful time.  berlin is basically like a big brooklyn--there is art, ethnic food, and music everywhere.  we listened to german music, saw an absurdist play (in german), saw james bond, visited the holocaust memorial, and on our last night made friends with a very charming and friendly gay german art magazine publicist.  

sunday was a rest and chill day, with the grandparents and poppa haun visiting.  

today was our first day of rehearsal--kelly is my director, and i'm in king lear, as a sister.  but i won't find out which one til tomorrow...so expect another update!

love,

ellen

p.s. to all the wonderful adpis who sent me that fabulous care package--i love you!

we´re in barcelona!

so on friday, we had auditions and that night found out what show we´re in. i´m in king lear! however, we don´t know what parts we have. there are only three of us girls, so we´re the sisters, and we know that amy is a bad sister, but between me and jaq we can´t figure out who is bad and who is cordelia. either way, i´m absolutely thrilled!

after celebratign the end of audtions and halloween on friday, we promtly boarded a plane! ritu, annie (my roomies), parker, tom and i are currently in barcelona. we leave for berlin on wednesday and will spend a few days there before heading back on saturday. barcelona is amazing. we live in la ribera, right next to the old gothic quarter. i´m getting to practice my spanish and translate for everyone, and it´s lots of fun. i forgot how much i love spanish culture and the people. everyone is so friendly here, and the men arent as creepy as they were in argentina, so it´s a perfect combo! yesterday we went to thepicasso museum, which was incredible. they mostly had his early and more obscure works, which were fascinating to see. it helped me to understand just how brilliant he is. then we saw the barcelona cathedral, which was amazing, and that night we went to a free jazz concert that was part of the barcelona jazz festival. these three guys played jazz for 3 hours straight and it was some of the msot incredible guitar playing i´ve ever heard in my entire life. we had a table right in the middle of the tiny, crowded club, and my clothes still smell like cigarettes, but it was amazing.

illl update when i can,
love, ellen

potions class and the rest of the weekend

so, friday...normal day...you know...oh wait, no, silly ellen, alan rickman came!
he came to do a q&a session, since he could only stay for an hour. so he walked in with this very stern snape-glare on his face. and i was scared. either he was going to take over the building (and since we didnt have bruce willis, what were we going to do????) or he was going to make us make a polyjuice potion, and i haven't praticed that one. but no, he immediately began answering questions, and was very kind, very funny, and cracked lots of jokes. here are the words of wisdom i gleaned from him:
put 120% of effort into everything.
after you've done that and put in the discipline, comes absolute artistic freedom.
take risks, and dare to screw up and be bad
listen very, very closely, and non-judgementally

after this, we were all on an absolute high. me and the boys in the flat next door went for a post-alan pint in camden, and then came back to watch lord of the rings. becuase we have these moments when we're overwhelmingly cool...

the next day, i decided to actaully get out into london, and went to the tower of london! we took a tour with a very friendly and boisterous beefeater, ran after the ravens, and saw the crown jewels. then we came back to all go out to dinner for jason's big 21st birthday dinner and went to the moose, a good local pub, to finish off the night.

sunday was a restful day, with some cheap shopping at primark.
so all in all, a perfect weekend!
love,
ellen

stonehenge and bath

yesterday we (me, harrison, and sam) decided that we needed to get out of london. so what did we decide to do on such short notice? go to stonehenge and bath!
on friday night, we found a little tour company to take us on a bus. we called them up, booked tickets, and rolled out of bed at 7:00am saturday morning to get to the bus station. after procuring coffee, we rode on the bus for about an hour and a half to get to stonehenge. upon arrival, we spent about an hour and a half walking around stonehenge and listening to our audio guides, which told us that no one really knows what the hell stonehenge is. it was awesome.


then, it was on to bath, which a really, really, really old city. there are hot springs, and it was oringially settled by celts, but when the romans came they really settled the place and built a huge temple to minerva and lots of baths and bath houses. hence the city's name. we had three hours in the city, so we toured the bath house, went to the abbey, had fish and chips, and walked along the river bank. it was beautiful.
sorry i have been a little slow about posting, life has become very busy! today we have a master class with alan rickman--and i am SO excited! this weekend will be pretty low key, as we are all preparing for auditions next week. we're grabbing dinner tonight in camden, and tomorrow i'd like to visit the tower of london.
i will update on sunday with the weekend's adventures and stories of snape...i mean alan.
love,
ellen

pictures!

picture time! this is an obligatory photo from london bridge, taken on the second day we were here, from a bus tour. this is billy shakes's grave (kind of morbid, i know) taken when we went to stratford. trinity church was beautiful.
this is the royal shakespeare company's current theatre in stratford, as they are renovating their other one. this is where we saw "a midsummer night's dream". they own the theatre world. i adore them.
this is my favorite group picture, taken at the volunteer, one of our local pubs. on the curve from left to right, it's jason, sydney, harrison, amy, pat, drew, amy, annie, me, lindsay, anne, will, tess, russ, and conrad. i LOVE these people so much!

xoxo,
ellen

how on earth is it october 10th?

i don't know where all the time is going! we're finishing week 5 of classes--here is the class round-up:
shakespeare: we're doing scenes. i'm juliet in the juliet/nurse scene in romeo and juliet (how many times can YOU say juliet in one sentence? also--did shakespeare ever realize he'd named a character juliet capulet? ew.) and celia in rosalind/celia from as you like it. LOTS of fun!
high comedy: i'm working on lady fullbank from aphra behn's 'the lucky chance'. it's a kind-of forgotten restoration comedy by a female playwright, and it's great. our teacher kathryn was in it with 'alan' (rickman, that is).
modern physical: we're doing mask work!
stage combat: basically, you all should be very scared when i come home. very, very scared. i could kill you with my dagger and rapier.
tutorials: i've got some mean monologues from richard the third and the merchant of venice.

for a life round-up, i'm going to barcelona and berlin during our week long break with my roommates, annie and ritu. ritu has friends in berlin, and i can speak spanish, so that's how we chose those two cities.
this weekend, the portobello road market is on the to-do list, as is a visit to the tate modern and brick lane for indian food.

my replacement camera battery came today so i will post pictures as soon as i can!
love, ellen

and today, we saw alan rickman

i think spoiling the end of your story is one of the first things they teach you not to do in writing school. however, i am in drama school. and i recall something called foreshadowing. so think of the title as foreshadowing.

SO about 5 other students and i were headed to the donmar warehouse in the west end, where we were going to see 'creditors' by alan strindberg and directed by alan rickman. anne, who is one of the most laid-back people in the entire world, said as we were walking, "wouldnt it be great if we saw HIM?" anne is...obsessed. as are, all of us, but anne especially.

so we were running a little late, of course, and we were walking down earlham st with the donmar in sight, and right there, in front of a small restaurant a few buildings down from the theatre, is alan, chatting with some friends. drew and i walk right by, trying to keep our cool but stealing sidelong glances. anne, however, freezes. drew and i turn around, and we see anne approaching very slowly. she says "um, mr. rickman...hi, um, my name is anne, and we're all acting students at bada and i just wanted to say i really admire your work. we're on our way to see the show right now, but i just wanted to let you know how much i look up to you." to which alan replied, "oh, why thank you so much. isn't it 7:15? shouldn't you get to your seats?" anne smiled and said "yeah, we're hurrying! thanks so much! and...you should do a masterclass!" to which alan smiled and said "oh, yes..."

yes, yes, the show was wonderful. but we saw alan!!!

in moments like these, the only thing i can do is think 'snape...snape...severus snape....DUMBLEDORE!'

from across the pond

this week has been theatre-filled. i've seen three shows:
1. cooped. recommended to us by our modern physical teacher, this was an hour and a half of british humor. everyone was made fun of--germans, spaniards, americans, women, old people. men dressed in women's clothes. there were rubber chickens and ping pong balls. it was great.

2. ivanov. kenneth branagh starred--it was the first time he's been onstage in five years. we were in the super-cheap seats: back of the top balcony, standing, but we could see and hear everything. it was tom stoppard's new adaptation of chekov's play, so the writing was excellent. and the rest of the cast was equally as talented. really, really fabulous.

3. hedda. this was a modern adaptation of hedda gabbler by ibsen at a small theatre in notting hill. i loved it--the adaptation was very true to the play but changed some really interesting things, and all of the actors were totally phenomenal.

one of my favorite things about london so far is how diverse theatre is here--there is always something for everyone, and the audiences are always full of all different sorts of people.
i found the cord which uploads my pictures to my computer, so i will post pictures soon!

love,
ellen

this week, in review

classes got harder this week, and the work began to pile on. this isn't a bad thing, though, and i'm quite head-over-heels for all of my professors. here are this week's highlights:

1. in high comedy, our teacher kathryn told us two stories. the first one began "well, when i was in 'the lucky chance' [a restoration comedy that i am working on] i was leticia and alan was gayman. alan rickman, you know him? a very, very fine actor, but he just did not play this scene well..." each and every one of us stopped listening around this point and started drooling. the next story began "when i was portia in merchant of venice at the globe". portia is (in my opinion) the greatest female shakespearean character of all time (and in 'merchant' she is by far the biggest character) and the globe is the old globe. where they do all shakespeare, all the time. i love this woman!

2. julian glover did our masterclass on friday. he's was clasically trained at the national theatre, and was a member of the royal shakespeare company. he was also this guy in star wars:and he managed to work in this story to our class: "don't beat yourself up about lines, when i did star wars the only thing i had to say was "fire up the main generators" and i just couldn't remember it! i wasted seven takes!"

3. bada took us to stratford-upon-avon (more commonly referred to as "disneyshakespeareland) to see the royal shakespeare company's production of a midsummer nights dream. we were able to cut through tourist land to pay our respects to billy at holy trinity church, play some theatre games and practice sword fighting on the banks of avon, and eat at the dirty duck (the company's favorite pub) under a signed picture of judy dench. to top it all off, the production was amazing--i've rarely seen a production so unified in its design, acting, and tone. it was magnificent.

too-do-lo!
ellen

the weekend's adventures

this weekend was our first out and about in london, and we had many adventures.

the first was i went with my roommates annie and ritu and yasmine to see damien hurst's art exhibit at southeby's. he is a bad-boy contemporary artist who is most famous for his diamond-encrusted skull, preserving sharks and zebras and horses in formaldahyde, and large canvasses with dead butterflies. he was auctioning off his own work, and before that it was all on display. the first day of the auction was today, and he walked off with a solid 70 million pounds. that's 140 million dollars.

that night, we made a cake for parker and steve, who both had had birthdays earlier in the week. after, we headed to our local, round-the-corner pub, the duke of york, for celibratory pints.

sunday was a grocery store, laundry, and work day, but i did make time at night to head to the thames and see the fireworks at the end of the thames festival. the were launched from blackfriars bridge, the nighttime view of city with the fireworks was beautiful.

chip chip cheerio!
love,
ellen

it's been a bloody long week!

we are rounding the corner on the end of our first week of classes. methinks i'll give you a summary of my classes here, so when i come home and have all these theatre games and monologues to show you all you'll know why!

modern physical: taught by mick who looks and acts like he just walked out of monty python, this class focuses on movement and being playful and engaging onstage. we run around a lot, improv a lot, and he makes fun of us. it's bloody brilliant.

shakespeare: this is taught by ian, the dean of bada, who drops in liners like "oh, that's just helen," to which we respond..."helen mirren?" he is brilliant and tough, but very kind hearted and very funny.

high comedy: this is taught by katherine, an actress with the attention span of a rabbit. but she's wonderful and reminds me of one of my favorite professors at usc. she's one of the most honest people i've ever met.

movement: marcel is our teacher. she's a little firecracker, and makes us run around the room with our eyes closed.

stage fighting: natalie is our teacher ("my name has a t in it, you americans say it nadalie") and she's downright scary. she could beat us all up. at the same time. but now we all know how to fake punch! and we'll be learning sword and rapier!

every friday we have masterclasses, which are like one-time classes from someone interesting. tomorrow is fiona shaw, most commonly known as mrs. dursely from the harry potter movies. she's awesome.

school is wonderful. i go monday-friday from around 10-6 and come home exhausted, but its wonderful, and i know this semester is going to be amazing!
plan for this weekend: get out and explore london a little bit, hopefully shoreditch and hoxon.

cheerio!
ellen

cheerio from london (finally!)

i am, finally, in london. the story of my arrival is quite a saga, so i'll tell it script-style.

scene 1. kansas city airport.
ellen: i'm going to chicago and then on to london!
united worker: oh dear....you're probably not going to make it tonight. there's major weather issues in chicago, and your plane to chicago hasn't left there yet. hopefully it will be here at 8:00, so you might be able to make your 9:30 flight, because it will probably be delayed too.
ellen: okay...

scene 2. mom and ellen waiting in kci. they look up at the departure ticker. it reads "to chicago. delayed. departure time: 8:00"

scene 3.
ellen: well, mom, it's 7 now, so i'm going to go through security.
mom: okay.
they look at the departure list. it now reads "to chicago. delayed. departure time: 9:00"
ellen: never mind.

scene 4. ellen sits inside security at kci.
untied worker: okay, our plane to chicago is finally here!
ellen looks at the time on her cell phone. it is 9:30.

scene 5. chicago o'hare. the united terminal. it is 12:00am.
ellen: okay, so my flight was delayed and i missed my flight to london. can i get on the next one?
united worker: maybe...the only one you would have a guaranteed seat on is the 4:00pm flight.
ellen: please?
united worker: okay. i'll put you on the 6:00am flight to heathrow.

scene 6. chicago o'hare. ellen is sleeping on the chairs outside of departure gate 13.

scene 7. 5:00 am. ellen wakes up.
united worker: attention passengers, we are now boarding flight 922 to london!
ellen grabs her bag and queues up to board the plane.

scene 8. 10:30 pm, london time. heathrow airport.
some guy in the customs line: hey, i've been on your flight since chicago, what's your name?
ellen: oh hi, i'm ellen.
guy: cool, what are you doing in london?
ellen: oh, studying.
guy: where?
ellen: bada.
guy: me too!!!
ellen: sweet!! where are our flats, and how do we get there?
guy: i have no idea....

scene 9: united baggage claim.
ellen: so, my baggage didn't come...
united worker: oh yeah. becuase your flight was delayed.
ellen: uh...yeah.
united worker: we'll deliver them tomorrow.
ellen: okay!

scene 10: ellen and isaac (the guy) in paddington station. isaac has his laptop open.
ellen: did they send you the address?
isaace: yep!

scene 11: ellen and isaac enter the landward, where their flat building.
ellen and isaac: we're here! *high five

epilogue: ellen's baggage did, indeed, arrive the next day.

we had orientation today, and i am so excited to start school tomorrow. i've met a lot of very cool people and the program sounds like it's going to be very intense in a good sort of way.

chip chip cheerio,
ellen

more lists

hola chicos!

so, i have hit the two weeks to london mark. this meant a panic-induced list making session last night that included people to see, places to go, things to buy, appointments to make, and lots of stuff to do. i won't bore you with the various lists here, but just know that i will be running around for the next two weeks trying to scratch things off the various lists but actually adding to them. *sigh

and yes, i continue updating in london. so keep reading.

my trips in the month of august:
1. to the brothel, aka annie and jessie's house in lawrence: delicious chinese food and champagne to toast the new house. it's straight out of pottery barn: college.
2. to los angeles: i have a killer sunburn, the knowledge that one of my writer friends has a blanket covered in times new roman adjectives that he uses every night (and this knowledge will be used to taunt him for years to come), and i shouted at girls doing a door block "IF YOU CAN HEAR YOURSELF YOU'RE NOT BEING LOUD ENOUGH...THEY NEED TO HEAR YOU DOWN AT PIKE AND TKE!!!!

besitos,
h-ellen

home again, home again

well.
after meeting up with the haun girls in florida and a week in sanibel, i'm finally back in kansas city. and boy is it good to be home.
i think that the thing i always miss the most are all of the people here--sure, oklahoma joes and hi hat are high up on that list too, but it's the old smeast/ku crowd that always pulls me back. right now we're all headed in such different directions (boston, london/oxford, ku), but its so refreshing to know when we all plop back down in kc, be it in lawrence or an apartment or a neighbor's pool, we've got our history and midwest love as a common denominator. and we always have fabulous stories to tell each other.

in other news, my wisdom teeth came out on wednesday, so i've been reduced to a diet of cream of wheat and soup.

upcoming travels:
tim hawk's farm, for an advanced rep. theatre reunion par-tay! aug 11-12
lawrence, to the brothel, as often as i can
los angeles, for recruitment school and general usc-loving, aug 18-21

vida/amor/pan.

fotos

there's not much to say about machu picchu other than the pictures, so here they are:

and this is the whole group: alex, me, beth, and abby
this is the part of the city where the people lived (not the farming terraces)
the main square, plaza de armas, in cuzco, lima, the former center of the incan empire
perú's politcally incorrect restaurants:
besos, ellen

un país diferente

hey guys,

so if you hadn´t memorized my schedule for the summer, i left ba on last saturday and went with beth thorne, alex clendennen, and abby wallace to perú. yesterday and today we went to machu picchu. we have one more day here in cuzco (the oldest city of the incan empire) and then we go to lima for a day and a half before heading back to the states.

perú is making us all realize how different ba is from the rest of south america. in argentina we could blend in (for the most part), but here, since the majority of the population has a lot of incan blood, we stand out like toursits with a capital T. this is making it an alltogether different experience, but a very enlightening one. perú is much poorer than ba, but the people here seem to be much friendlier and more open to talk about their culture. i suppose that´s becuase the spaniards pretty much wiped them out--according to our machu picchu guide, omar, the dominicans killed 90% of the incan population and attempted to destroy as much as they could of incan culture. what´s known now has been passed down in oral tradition and the ruins that somehow remain.

i can´t upload pictures now becuase there is no wifi in cuzco (i´m on a shared computer in a locutorio) but needless to say machu picchu was amazing. it´s beautiful and stunning and there are llamas that roam around and chew the grass!

i´ll be back in the states soon,
ellen

estoy con el campo

last night after dinner, when i was supposed to be studying, i instead got into a long conversation with my argentine mom, marcela, about politics in argentina.

some background: last night, the senate was voting on a tax that presidnet cristina kircher tried to put in place a few months ago. the tax is a steep tax on soy, which is a huge argentine export, that is tied to the world market value of soy. right now, the tax would be 45%. she tried to institute it a few months ago, but the people in the country began protesting, and this has been a contentous issue for a while now. it´s the reason we almost got stuck in iguazu--the protests were happening along the highway. it´s a strange issue, becuase it united both the poor farmers and the wealthy land owners. the people that elected cristina were the people in the country, she didnt win a single city when she was elected last year.

so last night was the vote in the senate. the tv isn´t on a lot at my house, but yesterday it and th e radio were on all day, as they were everywhere. the crazy thing about this tax is that it´s unconsitutional--their consitution says that a tax can´t be more than thirty five percent. but their constitution is only fifteen-ish years old, and marcela said that didn´t even really matter. everyone here is very distrustful of the government--everyone says its a given that there is corruption, and that all of the politicans are slimeballs (okay, my word, i dont think slimeball translates). and a huge part of the crash in 2001 was rampant corruption.

argentinians basically distrust all of their institutions. which got me thinking. no one in the states is particularly happy with the government and they haven´t been for a while, but we are all waiting it out until november, becuase we know there will be a peaceful change. and we have faith that while corruption may invade our institutions from time to time, our checks and balances will weed it out. sleaze and i love to run around getting angry about various things and asking where all of the crazies are, but we also have a politician that we really, really like.

i guess you just dont know how lucky you are til you leave.

in other exciting news: i dreamed a little in spanish the other night! granted, all i dreamt was an old woman saying ¨ella puede entender un poco¨and then it was all gibberish, but that´s a good sign, right?

we leave for peru on saturday, and i think my internet access might be a little limited when we´re there, but i´ll certainly update as soon as i can.

besos!

una semana más

qué lástima.

i only have one week and weekend left in BA. consequently, we have all made long lists of everything we want to squeeze into this time period, and are running around the city like maniacs trying to make it happen. here is my list:

1. go to a party with porteños--done. an alum of usc, matt, moved down here after he graduated and is having a party at his apartment tonight. he doesnt have american friends here, so this means lots of porteños and speaking spanish! hooray!

2. see rent in spanish--apparently the translation is wonderful, as is the acting.

3. see "open house"--it's a play that is very critically acclaimed, and a little more "edgy" or small-theatre than rent.

4. go to this restaurant called kansas--i MUST have a picture of me in front of this, i dont care if the food is good or not.

5. go to thelonius, a jazz bar. it's supposed to be great, but of course i'll be judging it against kc jazz.

things that were on the list that i've done:

1. see a movie in spanish--i saw "super agente 86" (get smart) in english with spanish subtitles, and yesterday i saw a documentary called 4 de julio, about 5 priests that were killed by the government durning the military dictatorship. understood the first one, the second one....er....well, 50%!

2. go to cafe tortoni-- it's a total tourist spot now, but it's the oldest cafe in ba, and it claims that borges wrote there. it was beautiful, with lots of old wood work and colums.

3. buy harry potter in spanish: harry potter y el prisionero de azkaban!


this picture has nothing to do with this post, but i thought i'd put it up anyway becuase it's adorable. this is from our night in rio at rio scenarium, a samba club. it was great--becuase all of our professors came with us and we samba-ed the night away with them!

besos y abrazos,
ellen

una carta a los porteños

a letter to the people of buenos aires:

dear porteños,
i like you. i like you a lot--you're all beautiful, you're very friendly, you make out with your signifigant others on park benches, you hire people to walk your dogs--you're quirky, and i like it. but we need to have a talk.

i do not consider myself to be a picky eater. there's not a vegetable that i hate, fruit is awesome, i love carbs, yogurt is good. and i love to eat: restaurants drain my bank account.

and even though i live in LA, i do not consider myself to be a health nut. sure, i try to eat my veggies and whole grains, but this girlfriend loves cookies. still, porteños, we have to have a talk.

potatoes are not a vegetable. they're delicious--mashed, sweet, boiled, plain, salted, with cheese, whatev. but they are a starch. let's just keep this in mind as we proceed.

when you pair your "vegetable", potatoes, with one of your favorite dishes, pasta with cream sauce, there is one color on your plate. one hint: it's not green. there is only one food group on your plate. also, when you give me a plate 12 inches in diameter, piling it 5 inches high with this meal satisfies my body's white-carb craving for 3 weeks. except you like to eat it a few times a week.

another thing: salads do not some served on a bed of white rice. lettuce or spinach. lettuce or spinach. lettuce or spinach.

breakfast is the most important meal of the day. i understand that you all like to skip it, but let me explain something: when you do choose to eat breakfast to be "healthy", choosing to eat white bread with dulce de leche doesn't count.

dulce de leche is amazing: carmely and thick and super-sweet. this means you only need a little, and it goes a long way. you don't need to put a cup of it in between two pieces of cake for dessert: let's try a tablespoon.

i know that you love your beef and bread, but let's try to branch out a little: some veggies, a little dairy, perhaps some beans or nuts. new things! whooo hoo!

that's all.

querida,
ellen

hemos regresado a buenos aires

we all arrived back in ba from rio safe and sound, thank you very much. rio was great--it was wonderful to see a different city and culture in south america. we arrived on sunday, and our schedule from monday-friday was sightseeing and lunch with the group, some freetime, dinner, and more freetime. we hit all of the touristy highlights of rio as well as a few others.

touristy highlight number 1: cristo redemptor. this is a really, really, really, really big statue of jesus. it's a wonder of the world (which i didnt know), and i can understand why--it's incredibly impressive and influences the city in ways i didn't realize. this is me and beth, makin' adpi diamonds!

not so touristy highlight number 2: o flavela. flavelas are the slums of rio, and we walked through one with a guide. we went through rosina, which is widely considered to be the nicest one and is not super-dangerous. we were dropped off at a little market where they sell goods that denizens of the flavela make, and then we walked down through the city. don't be picking up the phone to send me home right now--the slums here have become organized communities, with schoools, community centers, electricity, running water, markets, etc. all of the buildings are solid (not like the tin shacks in india), and i was amazed at the genuine sense of community that we encountered. it was good to see, becuase it's a part of the city that most people don't.

and, finally, touristy highlight number 3: beach day!
when i talked to dad after getting back on sunday, he asked me if i had any new tats or piercings--how do parents always know??? yes, while we were on the beach all of us got henna tatoos--henna is indian ink that they paint on you, so, never fear, it will be gone in 10 days. the beach in rio is absolutely beautiful--fine, soft sand and very clear water. here's a picture to make you jealous:


although rio was a blast, it's good to be back in BA. i'm very comfortable here now becuase i know my way around and can fairly successfully navigate the langauge, neither of which i could do in rio. i can't believe we only have 3 weeks left in the city--i'm determined to take full advantage of it!

besos, ellen

que bárbaro

this is me and alex, being brave souls and dancing the tango at a milonga.

midterms are over (already!)

which means that after this weekend in BA, we go to rio! i know absolutley nothing about rio de janiero, except that they do not speak either of the 1.5 languages that i do. that, and beth thorne and i are going to get a diamond adpi pic in front of the big statue of jesus.

kinda like this adpi pic in front of the cathedral in la plata-->

i'm really looking forward to this weekend to get to explore the city--i live in barrio norte, which is part of recoleta. the biggest parts of the city are san telmo (the old, historic city), la boca (not a very nice part of town, but famous for its brightly painted houses), retiro (where the rich moved), recoleta (famous for the cemetary), puerto madero (the docks, new and shiny), palermo (the new, trendy part of the city), the microcentro and congreso (where the goverment and business district are). on the to do list this weekend are la feria (the fair) in san telmo, the cemetary in recoleta, shopping in palermo, and just walking around!

i've been putting up a lot of pics of where we've been going, so here are some of all of the awesome people on this trip--
this is in acabar, a great bar in palermo. they have lots of board games that you can play--it's one of our favorite spots. we came here on tuesday to celebrate austin's birthday (he's the one on everyone's lap). from left to right, alicia, natalie, stephen (yes, he always looks this way in pictures, he swears he's having a good time :) ), sruti, jonathan, me, alex, madeline, and abigail.

this is some of the best grafitti in the world in uruguay--beth, andrea, alicia, sruti, and caroline.


besos, ellen

las cataratas iguazú

this weekend was a long three day weekend, so me and five other girls decided to make a trip to iguazú falls. iguazú falls lies at the intersection of paraguay, brasil, and argentina, and it's a 20 hour bus-ride away. we were being adventurous.

friday night we boarded our bus at 9:30 in the madness that was the retiro bus station--think punk rock concert, then think of three of them. when i say 'bus', i don't mean 'yellow school' i mean 'full bed, wide seats, lots of leg room, and food', so the trip wasn't too terrible. we got in on saturday around 3, which didn' t leave us enough time to get to the falls that day, but we spent several hours at a very good pizzeria in the town adjacent to the falls. we stayed in a hostel that night, which was clean--all you can ask for.

the next morning we woke up at 6 to make it to the falls when the park opened, since our bus home left at 5:00pm. and once we got there, any ounce of regret we had at missing a weekend in BA flew out of the proverbial window.

the pic on the right is a close up of the falls i'm standing in front of in the pic up top; they're on the argentinan side.


this is garganta del diablo, or the devil's throat. it's the biggest fall, and it is closer to the brazilian side.


querida,
ellen

puede sacar una foto?

this is libertador ave, a big avenue that runs the lenth of the city along rio de la plata. it's huge--all of this is one way.










this is the plaza de mayo and the casa rosada, where the president (cristina kirchner) lives. all of those people and signs in the plaza de mayo are protestors. argentinians are always excersizing their right to petition and protest--right now there is a huge problem with taxes that the government is trying to put on imports and exports. the really, really rich land owners are protesting this along with the poor campesinos, and this is a new, strange dynamic. it was amazing to see all of the protestors so close to the casa rosada, but this has been happening for years.
this are the mothers of the plaza de mayo, the women who have protested the disapparence of their children in the dirty war in the 1970s every thursday since then. i didnt realize they would be there when we went, but at 3:30 all of the other protestors made way for the mothers. it was very emotional--they all had pictures of their childen, and there were so many of them. i wasn't sure if i should take a picture or not, but when i turned around there was a local who discretly snapped a picture with his camera phone, so i did the same.

chau!

fuimos a uruguay

hola a todos--

we have now been in BA for a full week, but it feels so much longer than that--we have been going everywhere and doing everything. i feel like i now have a pretty good geographic sense of the city, especially the barrios where my friends and i live--the microcentro is a little more confusing.

about 7 of us got up at the crack of dawn today to make it to the buquebus station at the port to sail across the rio de la plata to colonia, uruguay. it's about 3 hours away by buquebus (the buquebus is basically a bar, beds, and a duty free store on a very large boat). colonia is an old port town from the portugese and spaniards, who fought over it for years. mostly it was used to smuggle british goods into buenos aires, when the spaniairds kept really tight control of the port. it was incredibly picturesque and quaint--very touristy, but beautiful.

for some reason the picture uploader isn't working, so check back tomorrow for some pictures from the last week.

besos y abrazos!

la americana estupida

here's the breakdown of la familia inchauspe, the family that i am living with:
marcela, the mom
santiago, married with three kids
pepe, engaged
ines, engaged
luis, a law student
biche, an economics student
gonzalo, my age

there's also another american student living here, mitch, so it's a crowded house, but it's a lot of fun. on sunday, everyone came over for empenadas. we were eating and talking about a politically contentious topic, the taxes that the argentine government is trying to put on all of the country's imports and exports. the family has 2 big farms, so they've been talking about this a lot. well, right in the middle of a lot of yelling and hand waving, pepe, blurts out, "well, ana and i are getting married!" everyone paused, and marcela asked, "en serio?", pepe said yes, and everyone jumped up and down and said felicitaciones!

so i was relaying this incident to mitch on monday when we were getting coffee, and he was very excited. we got back to the apartment and were hanging out in the living room with marcela, biche, ines, and mitch asked ines, "so is pepe getting married?" ines's eyes got very big and she said "no, no, no, i'm getting married." my heart started racing. my spanish isn't that great, but is it really THAT bad? how could i have misunderstood the whole situation? weren't they talking about un anillo, a ring? i was mortified. biche asked mitch, "who told you pepe was getting married?", to which i answered, "oh...i guess i didn't understand correctly..." then the subject was dropped.

so last night at dinner, marcela and luis started talking about pepe's wedding. mitch kept looking at me, and then listening to the conversation, and i was just getting more and more confused. finally he asked, "so is pepe getting married or not?" and luis said "oh! yeah!" we relayed what happened on monday and luis said, "oh, that was becuase biche doesn't know yet and pepe wants to tell her himself! so ines just blamed mitch's question on ellen's confusion...biche still doesn't suspect a thing!"

this was a HUGE relief to hear--i'm not a totally stupid american. even if ines did use my "she cant really understand what's happening" status to keep biche unawares. as long as i'm not going crazy!

this picture is me and beth from a walking tour we had of the city. the statue is the monument to the spaniards in palermo.
beso y abrazos!

ps. last night, we toasted to barack obama, and our waiter joined in.

el vino

mendoza, the wine-growing region in northwest argentina, specializes in malbec, which is a red wine whose grape was imported from france a long time ago. abby, caroline, alicia and i ate at la biela this afternoon, in recoleta, and had our first bottle of argentine wine--malbec, of course. it was delicious--very, very smooth and fruity. we spoke spanish with our waiter, and he asked me if i was russian or american. herm...well, i guess i need to work on that accent...

recoleta has an fair every sunday outside of the cemetary, and it was packed with people.
the people here are all very friendly and very beautiful. i succesfully navitaged el subte (the subway) back to my apartment, so i'm thinking of today as a success!

besos!

no puedo entender español a 50mph!

we landed in buenos aires this morning!

there were a lot of us on my flight from dallas to ba (me, beth, alex, andrea, brynne, hillary, and abby), and after making it through customs we were greeted by claudia and roberto, our professors. then we went to an apartment where our families picked us up!

i was greeted by my host mom, marcela, and she took me to their apartment--it's in barrio norte on the seventh floor of a very beautiful apartment building. i say on the seventh flor...i should say it IS the seventh floor.

i wandered around a little on my own today--we get our phones tomorrow, so we had no way of getting in touch with each other. everyone is very friendly, but they all speak very, very, very, very quickly, so i couldn't understand a lot of what was happening today. i hope that will change...

it's 10:40 now, i'm going to eat some sushi with my host sister and her friends and then probably go to bed to recover from last night while they go out. dinner is eaten around 10 or 11, and going out starts, at the earliest, at 2; it ends at 7. i don't think i can function tomorrow on 2 hours of sleep, so i will be skipping tonight, thank you very much.

loves!

so many errands, so little time

i leave on FRIDAY.

holey moley, this snuck up on me.
please email me your address so i can send you a postcard!
ellenvirginia@gmail.com

in the meantime, i'll be running to target, grandma's house, radio shack, the sprint store, reruns, last dinners/lunches/coffees, costco...

a whirlwind, or, a tumbleweed

deepest apologies for the lack of updates, but i have been quite busy readying myself for my holiday(s). first off, i shall relate my cross country road trip to bring my beloved car, gertrude, back to kansas.

my friend richard and i drove back together. this makes sense becuase 1. he is from kansas city (bv north) and 2. likes roadtrips. we took along his pinata and named it tumbleweed becuase in the middle of arizona, richard saw his first tumbleweed.

these are my roomates, chasing us and waving goodbye.

we stopped the first night in kingman, arizona, right after the ca/az border. the next morning, we at breakfast with 6 guys from the netherlands riding their harleys along route 66. on day two, we drove across arizona and new mexico, stopping at a meteor crater. they entrapped tourists with tantalizing signs such as this:

obviously, we stopped. we arrived that night in albequequre (i still can't spell it) to stay with our friend tyler. we at delicious tamales at the frontier, a unm legendary diner.

the next day we drove for 13, count 'em, 13 hours to come home to KC. highlights include:

i was very glad to be home.

until!

i discovered that my friend beth did not have the receipt necessary to pick up my visa at the brazilian consulate in los angeles becuase i had never given it to her becuase i had LOST IT. i had never, ever, lost anything this important before.

plan number 1: fly to LA two days before we were supposed to leave for BAires, get my visa, then fly straight to dallas and then to BA.

why plan number 1 failed: ticket prices were EXPENSIVE, in the $500 range. so i looked to use my southwest free flight, but i couldnt use them for the dates i wanted. the dates i could use them for: the very next day at 7:30 am. there were also multiple flights available wednesday and thursday to come home. so, at 10:30 pm i booked my flight and told mom she had to take me to KCI at 5:50am.

i arrived in LA at 9:00, and my good friend sarah picked me up. she was kind enough to let me borrow her car. long story short, i drove to the brazilian consulate, aruged with the security gaurd for a little while, and left with my visa in hand 3 hours later. i treated myself with a honey vanilla latte from urth caffe, and returned to sarah's apartment, where i booked a flight for 7:05 that night. i got back to KC at 12:20 that night, where mom picked me up a mere 20 hours later.

this is how fast i move.

countdown to argentina holiday: 6 days!

san diego

emily and i were kidnapped by carly and maddy to san diego. we left on saturday afternoon, checked in to our hotel, and spent the evening wandering around downtown san diego.

downtown san diego is a perfect example of what downtown renovation should be: there are condos and houses right around the corner from restaurants, coffeeshops, and grocery stores, and it's all connected by public transportation. the original architecure is still present and still beautiful, and the new buildings fit in perfectly.

and, we found a whale mural.

sunday we went to the zoo!












i love the zoo!

a mystery holiday

I have been informed that this weekend I will be kidnapped and will embark on a mystery holiday--my big sis Carly and her friend Maddy have decided to kidnap my friend Emily and I.

Pictures and details when we return!

$1.75/15 minutes!!! really!!!

beth and i took our passports to the brazilian embassy today to get our visas. a few perplexing points:

1. why does portugese sound nothing like spanish? i kept hearing words i recognized and would get excited, and then it sounded like someone was speaking french. trés, muy confusing.

2. labeling something "public parking" when it is really valet is unfair. this isn't perplexing, just irritating.

3. i have a spanish paper due tomorrow, and i'm procrastinating. once again, not perplexing--totally, absolutely straightforward.

oh, and more travels: my friend richard and i are going to make the drive back to KC together, so i will also be seeing: arizona, new mexico, texas, oklahoma, a moon crater, and route 66.

loves,

sorry to disappoint, all, but i have found that i no longer feel any need to travel anywhere, because of a miraculous event that happened to me this morning.

i was leaving the set of "ben and burman" (see: things i do to waste time, more aptly named things i do that take over my life and soul). it was 9:30, and i had been there since 5:30 (am, folks). i threw on my sweater, grabbed my bag, put on my sunglasses to hide my lack of makeup, clutched my now-empty coffee mug, and walked over to filming to say bye to everyone. i did, and as i turned to leave, james the dp said:

you look so fabulous with your sunglasses and coffee.

and this, children, is how i attained everything i ever wanted to be: fabulous.

travel agents scare me.

my first experience with a travel agent was today, and i so was oh-so-impressed with the grown-up manner in which i handled everything. she planned several flights for me and then asked, "which one do you think sounds best?"

i said, "um.....lemme go call my dad."

list making

trendy mcsweeney's has a trendy feature called "lists."  these lists comprise lots of clever things, such as: 

"significant ways i differ from carly simon"

the 6:23 out of penn station is making me wait.

do not find you to be particularly vain.

have got time for the pain.

as i was making my own lists, however, i noticed that mine are much less exciting:

to-do for argentina:

get visa from brazilian consulate

get health insurance info

find 3 good machu picchu tours and call them

do i need a visa for peru?

to-do for london:

paperwork.

mcsweeneys, please tell me how my lists can become more like yours.  

well, this should be fun.

general studying abroad orientation 3/26: highlights include tomm addressing the unfortunate stereotype that "americans are free", charts of the emotions encountered during culture shock, and having to look at a picture of what the brits eat for breakfast.

buenos aires studying aborad orientation 3/27: conducted entirely in spanish. understood everything, but the amount of ticket planning and travel arranging that has to be done in the next week or so is daunting.

what makes it all the more daunting: my beloved laptop, stella, has decided now would be a good time to make a trip to the mac doctor becuase of sudden case of, oh, a dead hard drive.
stressed you say? oh, no. just panicked and hyperventilating.

i could really use this holiday!

all right kids, here's the deal:

i am about to jet set.  because, as grandma haun told me, travel when you're young.  when you're old, you have to take cruises.

june-july: buenos aires-rio de janiero-buenos aires.  to actually learn to speak spanish.  then a stop in machu picchu for kicks and giggles.  because when is the next time i'll be in sudamérica? can't get to machu picchu on a cruise.

august: home.  kansas city, with road trips to the brothel in lawrence, the flint hills, and anywhere else you want to go with me.

september-december: london.  to study acting.  hopefully a saunter down to spain in the mid semester break.

december: bumming around hostels in france, spain, italy, germany, austria.  until i run out of money and have to re-earn all of the savings i've just blown.

buckle in. 

to come: planning, balancing, more planning, and more balancing.

loves.

hola!

my name is ellen.  

i am going on holiday.

more on that later.