Wooden joints and sister time

Hello from Edinburgh! Finally I have computer access again, even if my email refuses to work properly on it. 

So.  Recap.  Venice was my favorite city in Italy…it was like a maze, with endless winding tiny streets that kept coming to the ‘dead end’ of a canal, and unbelievable mask shops around every corner, with artisans working away in the windows.  Leslie and I also took a boat ride out to Murano to see the famous glass blowers (not worth it…cheesy and hot!), but even more bizarrely, we managed to run into two of my friends from school who were studying near Florence this summer!  Dan and Sara were equally shocked I think, but it was nice to have a brief catch-up session with someone familiar, and I can’t wait to hear more about their adventures in the fall!  The best part of Venice, though, was getting up at 5 am to haul our butts to the San Marco square to see it sans tourists and heat.  It was really lovely, and the rising sun over the buildings was the perfect was to start our last day in Venice.

Rome was hot hot hot but obscenely epic.  Everywhere you go there are ancient monuments (some remarkably well preserved) and famous sites, and even though my long khaki shorts were somehow too whorish to allow me entrace to St. Peter’s Basilica, I still managed to experience the Sistine Chapel with a real art student (thanks, Les!).  Leslie and I also did our early morning trick again, visiting the Spanish Steps and Travi fountain before they were mobbed and the sun was out in full force.  We also did a great walking tour at night, and the next night discovered this great little puppeteer busking in Navora square.  Leslie especially adored him.

Then Totnes!  Which is beautiful and quaint and absolutely dead after 5 pm.  No matter though, because we were there to carve puppets!  It was a weeklong course with John Roberts, who is a very talented puppeteer and puppet maker, and apparently very well known and respected in England.  He was a phenomenal teacher, and very patient with me, given that I had never carved before.  It was wonderful too meeting other puppet-mad people, and all four girls, Fitz, Tinka, Chloe, and Sully worked in London doing puppet stuff (and got paid for it!).  With only six people in the course (including Leslie and myself), we each got plenty of attention, and now I have a puppet I’m carting around with me! 

He’s entirely made of wood, all carved by me…and I still can’t get over the fact that I made it.  The head looks like a head.  The hands look like hands.  The knees bend perfectly on their wooden joints.  All I need to do is string him and he’s a working puppet.  John even explained the Salzburg style of stringing to me, because he used to work with the Salzburg Marionette company (!!), so now my puppet will have that amazing articulated head I loved in those puppets!  I even own my own chisel now, so watch out because I will be carving my head off come fall.  Ah! 

And now I have 5 nights to explore the Edinburgh theatre festival before moving on.  Wish me luck!