Week Round Up:

I just went to another student reading. I really liked listening to the playwrights since they get to, essentially, write all in dialogue or voice. It gives you the chance to be really real and casual. I would like to try it sometime. Earlier today, Bret Lott took our class to this really good Italian restaurant today for lunch. It was to celebrate our last class with him. I have to say, Czechs really do Italian well! I had raviolis that totally looked delicately hand made! We gave Bret at T shirt that said "I know nothing" in Czech. It is essentially his motto. He loved the T shirt and kept folding it up and then unfolding it again to look at it. I think he was really touched! We also all read something aloud in the restaurant. He coached us on how to read for our own student reading next week. I may not be able to read next week as I am going on a photo field trip. That is still yet to be determined. I have to say, reading in front of this audience is a bit intimidating. I have definitely read my stuff before at other conferences. But, I feel intimidated here. Oddly so, since I get along with a lot of the people. I just think it's a really high caliber group to read in front of! Perhaps it's because I get along with them that I am intimidated--I want to do well in front of people I like!


I wanted to describe the other day going out to our photo teacher's village or "willage" as he calls it. We took metro, tram and bus to get out there and finally arrived at this old building he has access to as a place where he and the town do art installations. He demonstrated studio lighting techniques which were really cool. Then he demonstrated a way of taking photos so that you get multiple exposures of one person in one shot. That was super fun. We partnered up and I worked with another student Bryon to figure it out. It took a ton of trial and error, but by the end, we had created a few pictures that contained multiple exposures of ourselves in ways that looked kind of funky.

Then, our teacher said he was going to take us out to the field to shoot an installation of sorts. Basically, he has these giant paper rings that are made by another artist. And, in his own work he lays these out in a field or wherever else and then photographs them. So, he took us out to a poppy field in his town. The only thing was, he hadn't told us he would be doing this, and several of us were wearing skirts and sandals. And, of course, several of us, or just me, are not fond of bugs and brambles and sweating. Regardless, we finally arrived after walking through long grass and poppies and no path whatsoever. Several of us got nettles in our feet. I was showing my true suburban roots by not smiling! I honestly would have been MUCH better if I had had jeans on and sneakers! But, we finally arrived there and set ourselves up and then our teacher and his son threw these ring-things into the air as they came to settle on the poppies. We got some kind of cool shots. The best thing about this teacher, Jan, is that he really is both a photographer and an artist. And he is just as much about thinking of interesting designs and creative installations as he is about photographing them. So, we photographed and then headed back to Prague on the bus and metro and tram.

Last night I also got to see my friend from NJ Caylie as she and her father have also been in Prague. I haven't seen them that much as we are both kind of on different schedules. But we were able to meet up last night at her hotel and go up to the rooftop bar her hotel has. There there was an absolutely unobstructed view of Prague Castle. We had wine and beer and looked at the night.

Tomorrow, the program has planned a trip to Terezin, a concentration camp. I think it will be a lot to take.
Good night.