Fall, Japan, and Ingesting Things I Shouldn't.

I always forget that Fall is one of my favorite seaons. There's something so clean and new about it -- I alays feel that way, even though Spring is supposed to be the season of rebirth and blah blah blah. I feel like the sky is clearer in Fall. It makes me miss California. :)

Soooo we've been in China for a little over a month now, and I'm ashamed to say that I've explored next to nothing. I use the excuse that we've been in rehearsal all day and night, but really I just haven't been into it yet. But now that the show is open (details of which I'll not post here, for fear of getting fired), we have all day free -- which basically feels like a vacation with a trip to the theatre every evening. So that's pretty nice.

Most of the exploring we've done is culinary... And by that, I mean finding things that are familiar and edible. Don't get me wrong -- the Chinese food is cheap, plenty, and delicious. But after rice and noodles so many times a week, this California girl needs her staples. Among our favorite finds: Mexican food Wednesdays at a sports bar, two-for-one burgers and all day breakfast at a 24-hour diner, and 15 RMB sub-of-the-day at Subway. I could live on that alone for a good while.

More excitement: some of us are heading to Japan for our first 10-day break from the show. We're staying in Tokyo for about a week, and are just going to see what adventures find us! It's opportunities like this one that make me stop, take stock, and be grateful for where I am and what I'm doing. Just the ability to explore the world in this way, travel, and experience all of these things while we're actually working and performing is a crazy blessing. Pretty amazing.

In other news, China's been celebrating their Fall Festival, which involves the eating of lots of little pastries called mooncakes, in honor of Chang E, the mythical moon Goddess of Immortality. They package them in the stores in these little plastic baggies in the stores. The other day I was eating one, trying to be all adventurous, and in the little baggie was a separate small package of what I supposed was extra flavoring for the mooncake. So I ripped it open and started to taste it before I realized that it said on the package "Do Not Eat. Oxygen Absorber."

Awesome.
xoxo

Listaroo

Things I Miss in China:

ice

napkins

speaking the language that everyone else speaks

meat without fat on it

meat in general

Mexican food

paying with a card

tap water

my personal bubble when in public

salads

easy internet

margaritas

So interesting, the things you take for granted!

Broadway Bootcamp

So, the reality is that there is probably no better class that I could be taking right now to get myself back into shape after being on tour for so long. One of my qualms with coming to China was that I had been really looking forward to just living in the city, taking a ton of dance classes and voice lessons, and getting fierce for the next big audition season. But this -- this will do the trick just fine.

We're singing and dancing for 7 hours daily, and as a dance swing, I'm covering 5 girls' tracks. It's completely intense, and I find myself not struggling to keep up so much with the amount of material, but with the technique -- these girls are all gorgeous dancers, and I struggle just to keep a double pirouette clean. There are multiple times daily where, literally, I remind myself that giving up is not an option. I'm here, in this amazing new place, with an opportunity to come out of this experience better (on so many levels), and I will push through. But if Jenn says "double in tap shoes" one more time, I'm gonna cry.

The great thing is that the majority of the dancers are so sweet, and willing to help with anything that I need. I'm completely up front about the fact that I'm not a dancer-dancer, and that this is definitely a learning experience for me. But the bottom line is that if I need to go in for someone, I want to do that track justice, and not just "get by."

So that's where I am. Oh, and: don't drink the water.

xoxo

Retro Blog

Only retro inasmuch as I wrote this blog on the plane heading to Shanghai, but couldn't post it due to lack o' internet. Here she is.

It's about halfway through the flight to Shanghai, and I think we're somewhere near the top of the world. At least that's what it looks like on the map. Jackie thought we'd fly west, I thought we'd fly east, Ryan thought we'd fly right up and over the top. Ryan was right. :) (Sidebar: Anyone ever see that episode of The West Wing where there's a committee that wants to flip the map of the world upside-down, because they claimed that once upon a time someone just randomly decided that north was up, and there's nothing that says north can't be down? Intense. Think about it...)

(Oooh! Another sidebar: I'm watching Mulan on the in-flight tv. Isn't "I'll Make a Man Out of You" a freakin' awesome song? When they sing a cappella in unison octaves at the end?!? Gah!! Men's voices in a choral setting drive me out of my mind. In the good way.)

Anyhoo, when we got on the plane today, they were playing James Taylor's version of "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma! I thought it was a good sign. And aside from some questionable "steak" that they served for dinner, that's all I have to report.

xoxo

ni hao and zai jian!

off to china tomorrow -- heading from Newark to Shanghai, nonstop. i'm sort of all turned around and not sure whether i'm coming or going; these last 2 weeks in the nyc have sort of felt like i'm still on tour and just waiting to go to the next city. i'm crossing my fingers for drawers in our hotel rooms in shanghai. it would blow my mind to open a drawer and see my clothes in it! drawers and hangers. that's all this girl really needs.

sooo... say a prayer, if you don't mind, that we all have safe travels and take care of each other. this, for sure, is going to be an adventure.

gen wo lai!!

xoxo

so close, yet sooooooo faaaaarrrrr.....

how in THE WORLD is it that the last seven days of this tour feel longer than the last seven months?  a few weeks ago, when some of us were conjecturing that the end would fly by, nicole had it right:  it was going to drag, and drag bad.  badly.  bad.  whatever.  

my skin is literally crawling to be home.  no one can do right by me these days, and for 90% of the people here, that's through no fault of their own.  (the other 10% are simply failures as people, so they can just stew in that pot all together.)  i'm just on edge and angry and rubbed raw, and i am done.  i have nothing left to give and no interest in giving anyway.  

i've been counting down days for about four weeks.  counting down shows for about two weeks.  today i considered counting the hours left, but i refrained, as i thought that would just make me feel a little crazier.  that's it.  i feel crazy.

facebook fanstuff

so here's the deal. i realize that you're not my fans. you're my friends. i know that. but the problem is that on facebook, they call it a "fan" page. if i could change the title to a "hey, what's going on in chelsea's career?" page, i would. but i can't. i feel a little bit like a tool inviting people to be my fans. but the deal is, that when you're an actor, you have to market yourself, plain and simple. you're a brand, and you are in charge of putting your brand out into the world for people to consume. and obviously, it's easiest to start with your friends. so be a fan. be a friend. be all of it, and suggest being a fan to your other friends. spread the love people, and i'll do the same for you.

xoxo