Back to School

Year in USA 1:

What an unusual year this is for me. I have a break to be able to study whatever I'd like until next summer when we plan to return to Singapore.

I've gone back to school at 45. From the very start of our dreaming about a year in USA, I knew WHAT I wanted to learn about. There are some gaping holes in my undergraduate theatre education. But I'd wrestled long and hard with WHERE to study. Do I commute to school a bit further to take 2 semesters of upper division Theatre History (etc)? Do I apply for an MFA at Cal State Long Beach...or somewhere else? Somewhere that would offer me graduate level academic challenges coupled with an excruciating daily commute on the congested LA freeways!

Choosing Pasadena City College in our neighborhood is certainly not the most prestigious or career advancing choice. But it is a school in Los Angeles County that produces more than 8 shows a year and a convenient, and cheap option.


An MFA would take more than one year to complete, and it will be another 4 until I could continue on the course.

So with PCC I'll learn as much as I put into it while studying near the children's schools and actvities. It will not only be a replentishing sabbatical year of study, but a rich and rewarding year for us as a family to enjoy. PLUS I'll not have to endure sitting on highways looking at red tail lights. Maybe I'll take on that MFA when Cameron is in 9th grade and Tyler starts college.

But I'm posting this entry to say:
I've survived my first week back to school.

Yes, there were the students on the first day who stopped me in the halls to ask directions or advice because I look like a TEACHER.

But I'm off and running. Here's a link to my first assignement, a Scenic Design Survey. Our instructor wanted to get a feel for what we know before he launches into lectures. Next week we'll choose the play that we'll all work on for this first semester. I'm excited to learn a little about drafting, and white model making, and pushing my realists' head to more theatrical, abstract ideas.

Besides Scenic Design, I'm taking courses in: "Theatre History, Technical Theatre & Music Theory. It was hard to choose from the catalog of offerings. I was a kid in a candy shop. Prudence limited me to 12 units.

NOTE: The photo above was taken on my new iphone - yes! i got one! and it'd very very cool! But back to the photo: I was sitting in this cool spot under a tree after I'd hiked up a the foothills near our home. I'm loving living at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. They are breathtaking in the early mornings and at sunset. I'm discovering all kinds of places for early morning hikes and quiet time with the ipod of my new phone tuned to favourite worship songs. I admit I'm crying a lot these days, just overcome, and I'm not sure why. On this day I'd imagined that the rolling of the hills on either side of me, as I was sitting near a canyon, were the folds of the Saviour's garments as he held me in his strong arms.