January 2, 2011

Technically, this is the day BEFORE my Walkabout.

I'm trembling with anticipation.

Real quick - an overview of what I'll be doing for the NEXT FIVE MONTHS.

January 3rd - February 19th

I will be working with Columbus Civic Theater from 12:00 noon to 7:00 pm, Monday - Thursday.  At 4:00 on each of those days, eight actors from Graham and one actor from her house will be coming to CCT to rehearse a Scene Night.  I will be directing ten scenes, all ranging from about a minute and a half to five minutes.  Each of these scenes are from movies, with the exception of a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream.  This is supremely exciting, because I'm going to have a lot more control as a director during this internship than I did for Graham last year when we put on A Connectictut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - not that I'm saying that last year's production was bad - far from it!  It's just now that I can choose what I want to do, the subject matter is going to be slightly edgier and, I feel, a bit more relatable for high schoolers.

We perform February 18th and 19th (times TBA).

February 23rd - May 6th

Here's where I start sweating with both anxiety and excitement.  On February 23rd, I will be getting onto a plane and flying to Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel!!!!!  I'll be staying with close family friends for the first couple days, getting over jet lag, getting my bearings and then....

February 28th - March 18th

I'm going to be working at an organization called La Escuelita for about three weeks.  La Escuelita helps assimilate Latin American migrant workers into the Israeli population.  The organization is based in Tel Aviv, so during that time I'll be staying with my mom's cousins.  It's still up in the air exactly what I'll be doing, but hopefully I'll get to use my experience teaching English to refugees and teach Hebrew to these Latin Americans.  This will be a really exciting way to use both my Spanish and my Hebrew.

March 27th - April 29th

This is the meat of my Israeli Walkabout.  I'm going to be staying in a dorm in Yafo with six Israeli and Palestinian high school graduates, working as the English Publicist to Sadaka-Reut, a Palestinian-Israeli youth peace organization.  The interesting thing about this internship is a lot of my contribution will have to be passive - I'm not allowed to participate in any of the discussions or workshops, because I haven't been through the proper training for conflict resolution.  This makes total sense, but will provide a challenge for me.  I will be mainly observing and then probably doing office work for the organization - my mentor, Hana, mentioned something about sprucing up their website?  I know nothing about web design, but isn't this what Walkabout's all about, right?

And it all begins...tomorrow...