Day 21: Stunt School Blues

Ah, Sunday. The day we all had to leave and go back to our respective states/countries, except those who were staying the extra week for the aerial intensive master class. Maya woke me up sometime in the early morning when she left to go back to NYC. A few of us gathered for one last breakfast in the Alderwood Room. I accidently blew a fuse when I tried to toast a bagel, so half the meal was spent in the dark.... oops. Our shuttle to the airport left at 8:30 in the morning, and we waved goodbye to the small crowd that had gathered to see us off. Most people were still sleeping in after a late night, or had already left. After finally getting through security (which seemed a bit TOO intense, and it took a long time to get clear), Lyndsay, Johnathon, and I met up to say our last goodbyes. We walked Lyndsay to her gate, since she was leaving first, and watched her get on the plane, then Johnathon walked me to my gate, since my flight took off at 11:25.

Lyndsay and I found this whale on our way to her gate, and had Johnathon take our picture:



Goofing off in the airport:



The rest of my day was spent flying, sleeping through most of the trip. I went from Seattle to Philadelphia, and after an hour delay, got on the plane to Richmond. I got into town around midnight, and my wonderful parents picked me up from the airport and drove me back to my apartment. It's a bit lonely here, since my roommate is on vacation, but I've got a lot of things to unpack and I need to organize my life. So for now, faithful readers, I shall say I am done with the blog. Until next time, that is. When is the next workshop? Oh yeah, November....

Day 20: Last day of class.... going out in style!

My neck felt much better on Saturday, largely thanks to Lyndsay Brown rubbing my back whenever she had a moment. As a result, I got to go twice on the air ram in the morning, and got to focus more on how I flew through the air as opposed to how much I didn't want to hurt myself. I did land wrong on the second go, which didn't feel all that great (yeah, chin plant!), but otherwise it was good.

That afternoon, just like on Friday, we migrated to the high falls. I was bound and determined to do at least one, since I hadn't been able to do them yet. Like with the air ram, I found myself able to do two, though they had to be spaced out so I could get my neck fixed in between falls. I didn't go very high up because I wanted to keep it as low-impact as I could, but it was still 19 feet. This time, I went into the air bag, which was much more forgiving than the crash pad we used in practice. Kyle has the video of my better fall (the second), and Johnathon got one of my first, which I have on my computer but I'm having issues uploading it at the moment. It wasn't too high up, but again, there's another workshop coming up in a few months that involves high falls. I should be completely healed by then....

That night, we had our final party at a restaurant called Amante. We had pizza, pasta, and salad for dinner, and (of course) some celebratory drinks. We then migrated to O'Houlie's, the bar we went to the night before our first day off, and spent the rest of the night singing karaoke and hanging out. Luckily, none of us are criers, so we didn't get weepy as we said our goodbyes at the end of the evening. Not everyone would be taking the shuttle in the morning to the airport. It was a great night, and I already miss everyone.



Me, Mr. Boushey, Maya, and Danielle at Amante

Day 19: Air ram and (for some) more high falls

Our day today was divided into two parts: we could either do air ram or high falls, one in the morning and one after lunch. Essentially, the air ram is a small mechanized catapult that is designed to shoot a person through the air. Because my neck is still healing, I knew I had one good turn in me, so I opted for the air ram group in the morning. The first run through (after several practice runs, of course) ended with no satisfactory launches for me. I kept placing my foot too high on the machine, which prevented it from going off. It's a very precise device, and if you don't use it in a very specific manner, it either won't go off or it could potentially cause injury. I was very focused on trying to not injure my back, so I was admittedly a bit nervous in my approach. However, the second time through, I told myself I would get it, no matter what. After maybe two more unsuccessful attempts, the instructor gave me permission to look at the pad where the trigger was as I ran up to it. As soon as he said that, I landed perfectly and was launched high into the air. After all the times it hadn't gone off, I was so shocked I'd actually done it I almost forgot to complete the move. The end result was a bit sloppy, but I was still glad I'd done one. And it ended up being my only turn on that, since my back got aggravated again when I landed on the pads. Not enough to hurt it further, it was just my body's way of telling me it was done for the day. Again. I'm very glad this has only been a trend in the last few days, and not so bad that I have to sit out of everything. Even though the landing was a bit rough, I definitely want to get on an air ram again- it may be somewhat dangerous, but it sure is fun!

The second half of the day was spent in high falls. Since I like having a task to do, I volunteered to be a safety most of the time, and filmed my fellow students with their various cameras when I was simply a bystander. One of these days, I'll get to do a high fall. Maybe if I go to that week long workshop in Atlanta this November....





On another note, here are some wire videos from yesterday!

Flips:





Jumping up onto a barrel:



Spinning:

Day 18: Flying through the air with the greatest of ease

Wire work! Yay!

First of all, I could take part in this all day without hurting my back, which was back to being stiff again this morning. The combination of having narrow shoulders as well as a bit of a dance background definitely helped make me look more graceful up there. And.... get ready to be surprised.... it was SO MUCH FUN.

But really, it is actually one more thing that felt fairly natural. I really wish I was able to stay for the intensive master class next week. There's always next year....

All of that fancy work you see in fight scenes of The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were done with wires. We jumped straight up, forward, and back, and we did front and back flips all over the place. Definitely felt like a super hero.

We also pulled the rope to make the stunt happen, and make our fellow performers look good. Hard work at times, when we had to raise and lower them quickly, but our group was awesome and we all worked together quite well.

I don't have the videos quite yet, but I'll post them when I do!

Also, we went out to dinner at a local Greek restaurant for one of the girl's birthday. A large number of us went, and it was a very fun time, though kind of bittersweet. We're already starting to miss each other, with only a few days of classes left. But it was a blast!

Day 17: High fall

Yes, that's right. Only one. Except it wasn't that high.

Today was supposed to revolve solely around high falls, and I was very excited to start doing them. When I woke up, however, that old, familiar feeling in my shoulder/spine was back. Discomfort, and just enough of it so it mildly interferes with my day when I try to move too quickly. I did one simple sit fall at the very start of the class, and realized the moment I landed that I would not physically be capable of doing any more falls for the rest of the day. I didn't land wrong, and (not that it's actually a factor) it wasn't high up at all. We were going into a foam pad for that one, which was stiffer than the big air bag, which might have been my first mistake. Fighting through the frustration of knowing I had to sit out, I wanted to at least be an active participant. I know the limits of my own body, but it is still very hard for me to admit to anyone, much less myself, that I am incapable of completing a task or participating in something. To keep myself feeling useful, I decided to be a safety for everyone throughout the whole day, and help make sure no one got injured. That wasn't so bad, but I'm still pretty disappointed, especially since we have the opportunity to do more this weekend, but I know I won't be 100% by then. So, yes. I'll be a safety for those, too. Still, it was a valuable experience to help out on the sidelines, and I'd gladly do it again. Though next time, I hope it's entirely by choice, and not out of necessity.

Day 16: Harness work

We did three different things Tuesday: rappelling, ratchet, and snare. As trite as it is for me to say "everything we did today was so much fun," well.... it was. Our half of the class was split into three groups of 10, based on our body type. I was in the small group. This made things a little easier for the riggers who set up the stunts, since everyone in each group weighed roughly the same amount. Each of us headed off to start the day doing one of the three disciplines. Group "Napoleon Complex" started off rappelling. This was the kind of rappelling that is typical of someone, such as a thief, to enter a building through the ceiling. We did it right side up, inverted, and fast. Then I personally decided to mix the last two, since the instructors told us we could go as fast as we were comfortable with.



Next, we headed off to ratchet, which pulled us backward (and sometimes forward) in a special harness to make us go flying through the air. This video shows my last turn, in which we could get creative. I had a fellow student sneeze, but it was so forceful I went flying back. As you can see, I decided to keep flailing about at the end, since it was so much fun.



The third and last discipline of the day was the snare. You know when you're running through a jungle, and a trap has been set where a rope will grab you by the ankle and haul you, screaming, upwards, until you're dangling helplessly from the branches of a tree? Well, you might not know the feeling first hand, but you've probably seen it in a movie or on TV (think Rousseau's trap that ensnared Sayid in the first season of LOST). That's what we did. I was a little more nervous about this one, since my back has continued to bother me a bit for the past week or so. Nothing serious, just enough to make me cautious. Surprisingly, it did not hurt my back at all, and ended up being a lot of fun. There were three variations: walking into it, running, and jumping up from standing still. Other than keeping my leg straight on those first two, I like to think I did pretty well. And as a side note, it's harder than you might think to run with that rope strapped to your leg.



That night at the hotel we had a second (albeit more brief) business meeting about the industry. Very informative, and we all took a lot of notes. That ended pretty late, so I went to bed shortly thereafter.

Day 15: Burnin' for you

The song was stuck in my head all day long. Want to know why?

That's right.

It was finally fire day.

A highly anticipated moment for me, I felt surprisingly calm going into the experience. As soon as I stepped up to be prepped, I went into a very zen state and felt completely prepared for what I was about to do. A little nervous, yes, since I definitely have a very, very healthy respect for fire, but the instructors helped us all feel prepared and comfortable. I was clothed in special long-john style undergarments, which were freezing after being soaked in a special gel, then stuffed (with a great squelching sound, I might add) into the four items I had purchased from Value Village last week. After that, I was walked outside to the special area that had been roped off for our burns. Every remaining speck of my skin and hair were covered in fire gel/goop for protective purposes. Think Ghostbusters II.... the gel was a lot like that, but clear in color and not as angry. Anyway, they wrapped my head in a gel-soaked bandana and hat (lots of layers of protection), "painted me" with accelerant, and lit me up. I moved around until I started feeling the heat from the flames, and then dropped to the ground to be extinguished. Watch me burn here:



Being on fire is a lot more fun than I even realized, and I had high expectations. I didn't stop grinning like an idiot for at least an hour after I had washed the remnants of the gel off in the makeshift shower that had been set up on site. I did get some slight singeing on my eyelashes (sorry, family), but I didn't even notice it happen. What's kind of strange is I felt like I'd done it before, sort of like deja vu but not quite. Go figure. All I know is I'd love to do it again sometime.

At about 8:30 a group of us went out to the bowling alley that's a short walk away from the hotel. My bowling game was terrible, as predicted. I'm much better at Wii bowling. But it was a lot of fun and it was nice to unwind. There was a skating rink inside, too, and I briefly had roller skates on (it was free) before I remembered the disaster of having wheels strapped to my feet. For those of you who might not know, the last time I had done something like this, I was wearing my rollerblades in my hilly, sharp-rock infested college town, and I ended up scarring my right knee up. That was over two and a half years ago, so it's not like I've been working to hone my skills as a skater. I didn't fall or anything, but I do have a rugburn on my right elbow from running into the carpeted wall to stop myself when I didn't feel like gliding to a halt. Glad I'm here for stunts, and not to train as an aspiring roller derby girl!

Day 14: Twisting and Turning

Stunt driving! Building on the skills we learned Saturday, we started off the morning doing 90 degree turns on a mark in our trusty rental cars. They explained the concept, and sent us down the lot towards a wall of traffic cones. The first time I tried this, I barely went anywhere. Partially due to the fact that I was nervous about the possibility of hitting one of the assisting students by the sidelines, and partially because I am not used to letting go of control in a car. The second time I tried, I got a little farther, but still not great. However, the third time around I confidently asserted that I was going to get it right, and I did. Didn't quite make it all the way to the wall, which was our mark, and it definitely wasn't all that pretty, but the technique was there. It's easier to refine something like that when you know you can get it. We also worked on turning 90 degrees and immediately driving out of it (you'd be surprised how many issues there were with this), and turning a full 180 degrees. The last thing we did, which our instructors don't do with every class, was a tiny course containing two 90 degree turns back to back. Here's the video of me going through:



Not as smooth coming out at the end as I may have liked, but it was very fun.

On another note, my laundry situation by this time was truly desperate. I actually had to wear my bottom layer of fire burn clothes (a simple cotton t-shirt) to class because I had no other clean clothes. Seriously. None. Guess I didn't pack enough shirts from home. So I went with a few friends of mine to the laundromat, and got there around 9 PM. They were supposed to stop letting new people in around 8:30, but they still allowed us to wash our clothes as long as we got out by 10. Good thing, too, since the laundry room at the hotel was in use all night. And by room, I mean glorified closet with one washer and one dryer. Finished drying my clothes early the next morning, though, and the machine did a good job, so I really can't complain. All clean clothes for the rest of the trip!

Day 13: Precision Driving

We moved locations from the University of Washington to Sand Point for our precision driving training. There was a big lot overlooking the lake which we set up cones in, and we got eight rental cars to play with. Nothing fancy, just a few Corollas, Matrixes, a Yaris, and a Sentra. All automatic for learning purposes. We wove forward through cones, backward through cones, and learned how to come to a smooth, clean stop. After lunch, we did pursuits, lining cars up straight behind each other and going 20 mph, even maintaining around corners, and keeping a set distance from the other cars. Harder than it looks, by the way. At the end of the day, we were going through short courses, such as this one:



Please note the ice cream truck music in the background. It showed up shortly before my turn on the last course started, after I'd already gotten behind the wheel. To see everyone, all grown adults, run full tilt for their wallets, then sprint towards that truck (well, tiny ice cream Jeep), was an experience in itself. One of the other students grabbed a popsicle for me since I was driving, which was very nice of him. That ice cream man made BANK that day.

Day 12: Day off, take 2!

For the record, my neck is feeling almost back to normal today. Still a little stiff, but nothing another day of taking it easy won't fix. And since all we're doing tomorrow is precision driving, that won't be a problem. Still feeling fine, Dad.... don't worry!

Today was our second of two days off. And, happily, I finally had the opportunity to see my friend Tessa who lives out here with her sister. I've known her since childhood, but I haven't really gotten to hang out with her in a few years. As we were driving (she picked me up from Lynnwood), she pointed out Mount Rainier, which I hadn't seen before due to clouds. Today was beautiful, though, and we had clear skies to accompany moderate heat, sans humidity. It was beautiful! Makes me want to climb it at some point.

Seattle is made up of several different neighborhoods all closely clumped together. To an outsider, such as myself, they all blend into one great big city. She showed me, though, a few of the different districts: Capitol Hill, Fremont, Green Lake, to name a few. First stop? Theo Chocolate, where they have free samples of all their delicious, organic, fairly-traded chocolate. I ended up buying a 91% cocoa dark chocolate bar, which much to my dismay melted slightly over the course of the day due to the slight heat. Tessa and I shared a freshly made s'more with homemade marshmallows and graham crackers, and we chose the dark chile chocolate to be paired with it. Keep in mind, all of this was fresh, organic, and local. The best s'more I have ever tasted, hands down.

We went to this amazing sandwich shop called Paseo, and I had quite possibly the most amazing scallop sandwich ever made. Simple ingredients, but it was so good I couldn't stop eating even after my hunger had subsided. In fact, I stuffed myself so much, I didn't even eat dinner tonight because I'm still full. It was a TINY shop, but packed the whole time we were there, despite our lunch being a bit late. Definitely worth the wait, and if any of y'all are out in Seattle sometime.... I highly recommend it!

After that, we went out to Gas Works Park, which has a great view of the city. Some pictures from that excursion are on my still camera (as opposed to the others that I'm posting, which are from my phone), so I'll have to post them a little later when I can acquire a cord with which to connect my camera to my computer. After that, Tessa drove me through Capitol Hill, past where she goes to school, and we went to Green Lake, where she resides. We drove around the lake itself, which was very busy due to the ideal weather conditions. There was even a large wading pool for children to play in, so several families were around as well. Seems like a very nice area. We would have gone to a shop that served vegan bagels, but they were no longer open. Instead, we went across the street to Zoka, Tessa's favorite coffee shop. It was nice, too. I got an iced latte (delicious), and she let me have a sip of her iced black tea (also delicious). It was very large inside, but still had a cozy feel to it. When we finished there, we headed a few doors down to Tangletown, a bar run by the good folks at Elysian brewery, a local brewery. I had a specialty drink called the Champs-Élysées, which had Courvoisier and Chartreuse. Add a little bit of ginger and lemon and.... mmmm.

Coffee shop:




The doughnut shop we didn't get to go into, but I'd still like to try:




The bar:




My beverage:




Panoramic view from Gas Works. You can kind of see the Space Needle on the right-hand side (it was difficult to capture with my iPhone's camera):



After good drinks and great conversation, we had to part ways. She drove me back to the hotel, and we said our goodbyes. So Tessa, if you get around to reading this blog, thanks again for a wonderful day!

Day 11: Last fight, and James Bond

Our last filmed fight was our found weapons scene. I used a dog toy, which I promptly named Jebediah Foxley, III, as it was a squeaky toy shaped like a fox. It was a personal best as far as my fights go, but I still threw a pretty lame kidney punch near the start of it. At one point, I'm supposed to get pushed over the couch that was in the middle of the scene and then do a backwards role onto the floor, but when it came time to perform I went straight over the couch and landed on the floor on my neck. For that reason, for the sake of my parents, I'm not posting the video on here. Although it looked worse than it was. And thanks to the kindness of my peers, I've had enough massage and tiger balm to make my neck feel much looser than I thought it would. So don't fret, dear family!

That afternoon, we discovered what "James Bond" day meant. Since it was kept secret from us, I don't want to tell the world via this blog all about it. However, I can say it was a lot of fun and, essentially, playtime. We went through that segment in groups, and while we patiently awaited our turn, we watched behind the scenes stunt footage from various shows and films, and tested our fire burn clothes. We had to make sure they are indeed all natural fibers. Mine checked out, so I don't have to worry about getting anything different.

After class, a few of us were determined to go out and do something 1. Without going to downtown Seattle and 2. Without spending much money. One of the other girls and I rounded up a small posse of interested individuals and we headed to a dive bar close to the hotel called Harvies. There were darts, pool tables, a jukebox.... the works. It was a lot of fun, but I was tired and headed back with a few others before it was even midnight. Full day off on Friday!

Day 10: HADOUKEN!

Anyone who has played Street Fighter II knows what this title means. Since we reenacted this move all day, I had to name the post after it.

FINALLY getting up to date on my blog! Yay! Last night, it was fairly impossible to muster up the initiative to write, for reasons listed in my last entry. However, I got a lot of sleep, and woke up this morning feeling less stuffy and definitely more energized. My shoulder didn't even bother me much, and it only got better the more I moved around.

We learned our martial arts choreography when we arrived in class this morning, and filmed an hour after lunch. Did fine in this one, definitely an improvement from the last fight, but still could use work to make everything tighter and more fluid. We did have better energy and intention, though, so not a bad fight. There were three people fighting this time, as opposed to the usual two.

So, I'm VERY excited about tomorrow's fight, which we have choreographed ourselves. It's our "found objects" fight, where we use an apartment setting, and anything that could be at our disposal can be used as a weapon. Within reason, of course. We can't have real weapons, for one thing. And no flour, pizza, or other such messy items. We used the last few hours of class getting into groups and beginning to talk through our scene and possible blocking. There are four people in my group, including myself, and the other three are guys that are all bigger than me. Not necessarily hulking fellows, but we've planned out a fabulous melee in which we all take advantage of our different sizes. We'll have an hour tomorrow morning before we start filming, which should be more than enough time to rehearse. It's going to be a lot of fun, I can tell you that much!

Thank you, everyone, for your patience while I got this blog back on track. Daily updates will resume!

Day 9: "I know Kung Fu."

Had to use the Neo line.

Martial arts! What fun! We went over basic hits and kicks before moving into the grander motions like jump kicks and throws. Coming from someone who has never had a martial arts lesson in her life, it didn't seem that difficult. Perhaps because so many fighting techniques had been drilled into us for the past week, it was easy for everyone to pick up. Probably can owe that to our great instructors, too. Anyway, we learned a little bit of a few styles of martial arts and kind of combined them to create something that was both fun to perform and exciting to watch on film.

Sadly, I had to sit out for a little while, due to a pain in my right shoulder that I might be able to blame on the stair falls. It also didn't help that I had woken up with a sinus infection that made breathing quite difficult. Upon later inspection of the hotel room, we saw that someone had left our window open. Maya and I are assuming it was a maid, since we didn't believe our window was even capable of opening. Johnathon, a fellow student, promised me a decongestant once we got back, which was kind of him.

Now, this was a longer day than usual. Ordinarily, we're done around 5:45-6 in the evening, Seattle time. However, we took a dinner break and came right back in for a business meeting, held by Dave. In it, he explained much of the business, things we might know and things we certainly didn't, and how to get jobs and get hired back. It was very informative, and he allowed us to ask questions throughout. The whole meeting was about 3 hours 45 minutes, but I'm glad I got to hear what he had to say. Since we didn't get back to the hotel until after 10 PM, I was exhausted, still hurting, and my sinuses were totally clogged, I decided to hold off on writing the next blog post until the next day.

Day 8: Defying Gravity

Or: How to Work with It So You Can Minimize Bruising on Stair Falls.

Guess what we started our morning with on Monday?

Now, these were actually not nearly as painful as you might guess. Although, I did start off the day being the least bruised that I've been since I got here, and now I've got some very impressive splotches of black and blue all over my arms and thighs. I must admit, this actually made me nervous before I tried it the first time, as I haven't fallen down stairs since childhood, and never on purpose. After that first time, though, I jumped back up and set myself up for another fall because it was so fun. Now I'm not going to give away the technique behind it, but basically, the faster we went and the more we screamed, the better it looked.

The second part of the day was spent using (or, in my case, trying very hard to use) mini tramp[oline]s. For some reason, I wasn't punching it when I went to jump, and got very little air. The whole point is to try and get as much air as possible, so that was mildly frustrating. Gymnastics facilities, of which Richmond has plenty, have mini tramps, so I'm going to take lessons or join up or do whatever it takes to work on that skill until I get it right. And I am completely serious on that point.

We ended the day with a back fall onto a large pad, which is like what we'll be doing with high falls. Now THAT was fun! It wasn't from a great height, but it has definitely left me looking forward to the real thing next week.

After we got back to the hotel, we took a couple vans to the Value Village down the street to purchase fire burn clothing. Lots of layers, and each one has a purpose. Luckily, I found a pair of jeans for 99 cents, so it didn't end up being too expensive in the end. Getting excited for the stunt!

Day 7: Day off!

At this point, you're probably wondering, "What do a group of aspiring stunt performers do with a day off?"

Answer: Lots.

That morning, we had a special breakfast that included eggs and bacon- yay! Then I promptly fell back asleep until about 12:30.

A group of us (myself included) took the bus to downtown Seattle and spent the rest of the day walking around the city. First stop, because the folks I went with were nice enough to oblige me, was the REI flagship store. I was the only one who'd been in one before, but this was completely different from the store back in Richmond. Walking in, there are paths outside for testing out bikes, trees everywhere, and a waterfall cascading beside the store itself. It was like walking into an oasis in the middle of the city. Around the walkway surrounding the building, they had clocks with different times on them from all over the world. Only it wasn't for major cities, but locations like Mount Everest and Denali National Park. Inside the two-level store was just about every piece of equipment you never knew you needed for an outdoor excursion. Rock climbing equipment greeted you as you walked in, and there was camping gear, including tents, some clothing, and backpacks, and a kid's section taking up the rest of the first floor. The second floor also had clothing, but more importantly, it had a large shoe section. I'm posting a picture of this textured, multi-level pathway they had set up for people to test out shoes on. Also pictured is my roommate, Maya. One thing I really wanted to do, but couldn't, was climb their 65-foot rock wall, but they couldn't take anymore reservations until 6 PM. That's right, you had to have a reservation to climb.



One of a few cozy firesides in the middle of the store:



Once we left there, we headed down to the waterfront to see the fish market. There were so many things to see, we probably could have spent the entire day there and still not see everything.





Street performer we passed on the way in:



The only thing we really missed out on was seeing people throw fish, but we did see several cool shops, a neat wine shop, and the ORIGINAL Starbucks! We didn't go in because of the extremely long line, but it was still neat to see the one that started it all. It looked so unassuming, and not at all like the McDonald's of coffee.



We also went into a really cool comic book/collectables store, which had a great mix of old and new books, figurines, and knick-knacks. Adam Frazier, the following pictures are for you.







So after all that excitement, we called it a day and headed back to Lynnwood. Class in the morning!

Day 6: Second Fight Critique

Yes, this post is late. Sorry for that.

Anyway, Saturday was our second fight video/critique. We learned knife and club choreography separately in the morning, then had an hour after lunch to practice the two together before performing. It was rather quick, learning the techniques of two such vastly different weapons a day and a half before performing a fight with them. Maya was my partner this time, and she's my size, which helped a lot with targeting. We were doing very well during the rehearsals, getting the choreography down and telling our story at the same time. Then, the moment we were about to go on, we both completely blanked on the moves. The fight that followed wasn't necessarily the worst that we could have done, but we certainly weren't at our best. We ended up going a bit slow, to the point where it was a little painful watching the fight on video after it was over. It didn't help that it was the end of our first week and everyone was completely exhausted, so energy was low all around. Oh, and I completely blanked on a particular move, and Maya had to repeat a step for me so I could try to remember what came after that point. Ugh. Not the best fight in the world, but I'll work harder next time.

At the end of the day, it was time to celebrate our first night off. We went to a local bar called O'Houlie's, which has karaoke a few nights out of the week. When we arrived, there were only two or three people who were alternating in turns before we kind of took over. I got up there with Jonathon, one of the other students, to sing REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It" (we both knew it by heart and didn't have to look at the screen- embarrassing) and break the ice for the other students to go up and sing. Or, attempt to sing. Most of us from the school were there, and we were all exhausted, but it was a very fun time. I was too tired to write a blog at that point, so.... reason for this being a day late.

Day 5: "We'll have us a knife fight."

As y'all probably can guess, today's class involved learning weaponry techniques. However, the title of this post is not *entirely* accurate, simply because we learned how to use a knife AND club. I just really wanted to use a Kill Bill quote. Knife class was in the morning, and (as trite as I surely must sound by now), it was great. I love how tight and quick all the movements are. It's almost like dancing, but with slightly more risk. Obviously, we used prop knives that were nowhere near sharp, but they still were made from aluminum and would not be fun to be accidently hit with. My roommate, Maya, and I will be working more together tomorrow, and probably performing together the fight which will be filmed and critiqued by Dave. We are moving at a much faster pace now that we know the fundamentals, and they are trying to prepare us for the pace of the real world. Maya is much closer to my size than my last partner, and we move in a similar fashion, so we are both excited to work on this fight tomorrow. We'll be starting out the choreographed fight with clubs, though, which (for us) are sticks made from rattan. The clubs use much broader and bigger action and movement, but it was fun to do that as well. To compare the two styles would be akin to comparing apples and oranges. I'm definitely looking forward to the combination of the two in the fight tomorrow. Of the two, though, I think I was a little better with the knife. But then, I'm not the instructor!

Once we got back to the hotel, I showered and proceeded to wait around for some folks to get back from running errands and such so we could watch a movie. Unfortunately, they sat down to start watching it at about 10 PM when we were originally supposed to start at 8. On that note, I still need to see Kick-Ass.

After such an exhausting day, I need to get some sleep so I can do it all over again tomorrow.

Day off Sunday! And by then, it definitely will have been earned.

Day 4: Rolling, and.... ACTION!

Y'all will be glad to know that my head did NOT hurt at all today, despite the events of Wednesday's class!

The first half of the day was spent listening to Dave discuss the art of playing to the camera. Basically, it was a discussion on how to do our job and look good doing it, no matter where the camera is. After lunch, we got our first video critique. It was really nice to see ourselves on video for the first time so we could see where we aim our punches and kicks in relation to the lens. Despite whatever looks good from our perspective, we have to always make sure that it looks right from the perspective of the camera. Jan (pronounced "YEN".... yes, like the currency) was my partner today for the choreographed fight. He's from Denmark, and yes, he's the same guy involved with the incident from yesterday, but he was a good fight partner and not hard to communicate with. We were the 8th group to perform out of 29 (yes, that many). I actually almost lost a contact mid-scene while we were filming, but recovered it when we were through.

Overall, our fight was not bad. My targets were definitely off, as were his (big height difference was a contributing factor, and I just plain need to practice), but we definitely showed intent in everything we did and had good energy throughout the scene. In fact, we had it to the point where Dave and Jason said they were exhausted just watching it. They gave us some great notes, and I'm really anxious to start working on the areas in which I need to improve. We start weapons tomorrow- knife and club- so we all need to be at our best in the morning!


Oh, and a little disclaimer about the video below.... everyone in my class has been trained to do that stunt. That was the first of the three hits I took, so the particular one that was recorded was done correctly and didn't hurt. So please.... don't try anything you see or hear about on this blog at home.

Day 3: Dazed and Confused

I'll explain the title in a minute.

We did flips, rolls, and tosses today! Being a lightweight person myself, I am very easy to throw around, as evidenced by the exercises of this morning. Obviously, I went flying a lot, and it was a great time. We also worked a lot on strangling and hair-pulling. My partner for that was great to work with, and we ended up improvising a lot. For example, he threw me down on the ground with one hand grabbing my hair, and I went into a break fall. He then picked me up and dragged me, kicking and screaming, across half of the room. And guess what, Mom and Dad? Since we did it right, it didn't hurt one bit! We broke for lunch, and some of us ate outside since we were having such beautiful weather.

This is the point where I explain my title.

After lunch, we did some more tossing, and I was thrown onto mats several times. Again. And it was fun. Again. Then we moved on to body blocks, which entail one person running across the room at another, jumping into the air, extending themselves so they are flat and parallel to the ground, and slamming into the person who was just plain standing there. I won't tell you the magic trick behind this move, but take note that it's very cool looking and, if done correctly, does not hurt one bit. As a matter of fact, there's really not supposed to be that much contact after the initial hit that makes both parties fall over. So I was standing in line in front of the guy from Denmark. Very nice guy, and while we were having light conversation and watching the others he told me he weighed 95 kilos. I looked it up, and that's roughly 209 pounds, though I didn't know it at the time. So I went and flew into the person in front of me in line, and did well, got up, no problem. Turn around to be the victim for the guy behind me, when I looked and saw who it was. Luckily, he did it right, and I was smiling as I got up at the end. It was quite a hilarious moment, if I do say so myself. And yes, ladies and gentlemen.... we have that video!



Now, it so happened that he was the one to fly into me the second go round, which was also fine, and the third.

Ah, the third.

That's when things went awry.

He ended up jumping too high, hitting his hip against my head. When I got up, Mike (one of the instructors in the room) helped me over to a chair because I wasn't walking well and everything looked a little funny. I'll also have y'all know I was grinning like an idiot. I only had to sit out for maybe 30-45 minutes to get my bearings again, but I was able to get back up for the final fight sequence choreographed by Dave for us to perform in front of a camera tomorrow. Don't worry, family- it takes more than a 209 pound Danish man to keep me down! But, seriously, it was an accident. They happen. He was very apologetic, and there was no lasting damage, and no concussion. The fight is going to be very cool, and I practiced with some fellow students this evening at the hotel before tucking in for the night.

Day 2: For every action, there's an equal and opposite REACTION

Never in my life have I experienced such complete and all-pervasive soreness as I did this morning. There were fewer of us at breakfast when 7:30 rolled around, and every one of us in there was having issues with the whole movement thing. We found out later, this means we were doing things right in class. I personally had not, before today, felt my neck be this sore; I actually woke up this morning and began to wonder if I was getting sick, since my throat felt strange, before I realized that the discomfort was the result of the front of my neck being sore. Now, what did we do when we got to class at 9 AM? We stretched, and warmed up, and, as you may have guessed from the title of this blog post, we worked on reactions to the punch we learned yesterday, as well as more variations on that same punch. After an uncertain start, I finally started getting it- there's so much to remember in the space of a split section, AND we're supposed to be in character the whole time. By the way, this program kind of has an acting class built in, which is nice.

We did maybe 7 different punches, 8 different kicks, and reacted accordingly to everything. We partnered with several different people. I got a pretty good mix of good and bad partners, though I do wish I'd had a few more of the former, since I love being challenged. And since that's a big reason I'm here. It was really nice getting to work with different people, and adjusting to everyone's styles (and heights!). I almost got punched a couple of times, but nothing too alarmingly close, and not too many times. One guy actually did get clocked, and had to run off to the bathroom to deal with a bloody nose. When he came back, we saw he had a small scratch above his eye and the skin around it was swollen. Chances are it'll turn into a colorful shiner by tomorrow. He bounced right back, though, and continued on with the exercises. While it was unpleasant, I'm sure, for him to get hit (his partner was a BIG guy), he didn't seem to bothered by the mark it left on his face. Since bruises are unavoidable in this line of work, it is rather nice to be around people who consider them to be a point of pride. "Oh, MAN, look at the one on my knee! Will you take a picture of this for me? I've got to put this on my blog!" Actual words from my roommate, and I will probably be saying the same exact thing to her tomorrow. Though I'm not planning on getting a black eye!

After walking to the grocery store with a few fellow classmates when we got back from class in the evening, we stopped at Baskin Robbins and got some ice cream. Me, being the child at heart that I occasionally admit to being, obviously got a clown cone, which is pictured above. The girl working there told me she'd never made one before, but I still think she did a pretty good job. Once we arrived back at the motel, I decided to spend the rest of my night in the apartment doing various things that didn't involve moving far at all. And on that note, I am falling asleep at my computer, even though it's not very late here. Long day today, and long day ahead- love it!!

Day 1: So you think you're in shape?

Guess again.

I, along with everyone else here, am horrendously sore.

We got up bright and early at 7:15 this morning, which wasn't hard since it was 10:15 on the east coast, and had breakfast before heading out at 8:30 to the University of Washington. What did we do, once we got there?

We fell. And we rolled. A lot.

Hours and hours of falling forward, backward, and sideways. Of rolling forward and backward, of diving onto the ground and keeping the momentum with a forward roll. As difficult as it was on our unconditioned bodies, it was so much fun. Although, I did learn today that backward rolls might not be my thing. Might. But I'll work on that more.

All of the falls were in the morning, we had an hour lunch break, and came back to roll around on the ground, writhing around as if we were in serious pain. We got to finish up the day working on the "picture punch" in the last hour. This is essentially the mother of all punches, and is the foundation for many other hits we will learn and use in the business. I did well on that one, I suppose; we were told they'd tell us if we're doing something wrong, and if they don't talk to us about it, we're doing it right. After Jason, our instructor, initially corrected my form, I received no other comments from the other instructors walking around. I guess I'll find out tomorrow, when we use this hit more and learn how to react to it.

Right after getting back to the hotel we made a run to Sports Authority down the road. Some people needed to get knee and elbow pads, I needed a new backpack. I made a mistake when I was packing to use as a carry-on/day bag my brother's old backpack from the early 90's that we probably should have gotten rid of in the mid 90's. Sadly, I did not realize that, since it had been living in our attic a while, the lining (something plastic-like) had melted into a glue-like substance that fused to a few of my belongings. Luckily, these things were and are able to be cleaned, though it's quite obnoxious to travel across the country and realize you need to de-gunk your computer charger. Not fun. Anyway, I got a new JanSport backpack (and on sale!) that will serve me quite nicely the rest of my days here. It will probably be my rock climbing bag when I get back, too. All in all, it was a physically tough but successful day.

Welcome to Washington!

Finally here! Spent most of my day on the plane/sleeping, and arrived in Seattle around 12:15 in the afternoon (3:15 PM, Virginia time). Met David Boushey at the airport, who runs the school, as well as three other instructors and nine other students. Evidently, David and I know all the same people (my director from Blue Jacket, Mark "Rat" Guinn, being the predominant mutual contact). Then we passed through the city on our way out to the hotel we're staying at in Lynwood. This city is beautiful; it was neat to see the Space Needle, port, and mountains all in the same view. The only downside is the fact that it is currently quite chilly, but it's not too bad. Much better than the blazing heat and sticky humidity I left behind in Virginia.

I tried to meet everyone today, but as there are 60 of us total, I highly doubt I will remember most peoples' names by tomorrow. There are 15 girls, and the rest are guys. Several people are from outside the country, too: Chile, Austria, Barbados, England, Israel, Japan, and a couple of guys from Australia. Everyone seems to have different backgrounds; some have done martial arts in the past, some are actors who want more out of their career, others are simply looking for an exhilarating life experience. We had an orientation meeting regarding everything from our lunch breaks to the professionalism expected of everyone, then ate pizza and mingled some more before calling it a night. Personally, I have been up and about for 21 hours or so, and I'm dead tired. We start tomorrow- unarmed combat!