04/27/11: Spring Solo Training Session #3

Running late! Only have a little over an hour in the studio, and I'm eager to get to the material development part. Feeling like a happy little kid and dancing to Lady Gaga as I put on my training clothes. No video camera but feeling okay about that today.




Contemplative Practice (0 minutes):
• Skipped contemplative practice today

Warm-up (25 minutes):
• Full warm-up sequence with playlist
(free movement, tree pose, jumping jacks, body scan, slow motion cross)
• Physical Point of Focus: Inguinal nodes at thigh/groin creases

Open Training (20 minutes):
• Body isolations: hips, chest, shoulders, combinations thereof
• Worked on this ice-skating movement, smooth, slippery, fluid limbs

Material Development (25 minutes):
• Working with notion of "Betrayal"
• Told stories about betrayal while moving, recorded them on garageband for later reference.

04/26/11: Group Training - Contact Improv

Today I took a two hour Contact Improv class at CounterPULSE. We worked on:

• rolling points of contact
• weight-sharing
• ways of moving from upright to floor, both alone and with others
• dancing with a partner's negative space
• structural movement vs fluid movement

I worked with one of my favorite teachers of CI, Ali Woolwich. If you're reading this, you should check out WICCF, the summer CI festival she runs, info here.

(Photo Credit: Ali Woolwich & Mary Ann Brooks, Aug 09, image by Raphael Coffey)

4/20/11: Group Training - Hiking Mt Tam

Today I decided to skip my solo training practice in order to take a three-hour hike up Mt. Tamalpais with one of my best friends who is visiting from New Orleans. We hiked, talked, and admired the beauty of the world together. And also played in the trees like monkeys. That counts as training, right?

04/13/11: Spring Solo Training Session #2

New videocamera this time. I don't like it as much. Video-recording feels less important this quarter, but I'm not sure why. Happy to be in the studio and excited about my plans for the material development segment of training today. Is that goal-oriented part of this practice overwhelming the prior openness of it?



Contemplative Practice (10 minutes):
• Meditated in the dark in half-lotus

Warm-up (25 minutes):
• Full warm-up sequence with playlist
(free movement, tree pose, jumping jacks, body scan, slow motion cross)
• Physical Point of Focus: My lower back

Open Training (30 minutes):
• Sang "When the River Meets the Sea" focusing on communication of song to world
• Sang "When the River Meets the Sea" into the mirror, focusing on communication to self.
• Mobilized Lower Back area, spoke about that part of my body and its history
• Sang "Dona Nobis Pacem" while opening space in lower back.

Material Development (20 minutes):
• Recorded Ethel Rosenberg poem and letter to her sons
• Moved to those soundtracks

04/07/11: Spring Solo Training Session #1

First training session of the new season. Working in a very small space. Excited, energized, ready to go. No camera today but full of new plans.









Contemplative Practice (15 minutes):
• Meditation, half-lotus, up against wall

Warm-Up (25 minutes):
• Full warm-up sequence with playlist
• Physical Point of Focus: My neck

Open Training (20 minutes):
• Sang “When the River meets the Sea,” and “Do you Realize” attempting to incorporate the adjustments Mario made to my singing this week.

Material Development (30 minutes):
• Began to learn “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol, Billie Holiday’s version
• Developed movement sequences based on photographs of the Rosenbergs.

04/06/11: Group Training - Grotowski Workcenter

Today there were about nine participants in the training, plus Mario and 11 people from the Open Program.

Again, the training consisted of about three hours of singing Afro-Caribbean and African-American songs plus a final question and answer period. On two occasions members of the Open Program spoke text from the writings of Allen Ginsberg, and at the end of the night, the group sang one of the songs from their piece “Electric Party Songs,” accompanied by two people playing guitars.

Overall the three days of training were challenging and rewarding and I look forward to integrating this embodied knowledge into my solo training practice.

04/05/11: Group Training - Grotowski Workcenter

Today there were about 12 people in the group, plus Mario and six members of the Open Program.

Again, the training consisted of three hours of singing and about thirty minutes of question/answer. In addition to the Afro-Caribbean songs, we also sang several songs from the tradition of the African-American Spirituals of the Southern United States.

We were able to learn songs slightly faster today with the added voices of the members of the Open Program. The standards for accuracy were set even higher than yesterday and we moved quickly from one song to another.

Mario worked with me for a few minutes on a song that invoked the loa Yemaya. His instruction was quite insightful. I record here what I remember of the adjustments he gave me so that I don’t forget.

• Sing as though you are speaking. It’s a communication.
• Forget everything you’ve ever learned in voice lessons.
• The vibrations you’re creating in your voice are added on top rather than emerging from the action. You are trying to produce a result rather than undergoing a process.
• As you’re singing, see other people. And see them seeing you. Use that connection.
• Relax and soften your upper body and arms so that you can embrace the song as though it were a lover.

In the question/answer period, Mario answered a question about how he arrives at his adjustments by saying that it is important for a teacher or director to be able to differentiate between intuition about a performer and projections about what that person should be like. I asked him how he could tell the difference between the two. His answer had several parts, which I’ll try to recreate here:

• You can’t, ultimately, it’s always a risk.
• Practice.
• Know that you’ll be wrong sometimes.
• Trust the performer enough to handle your possibly-wrong advice.
• Remember that the other person is a different universe, like at the edge of old maps where it said: “hic sunt leones” or “here there be lions.”

04/04/11: Group Training - Grotowski Workcenter

This week I have the pleasure of participating in three days of training with Mario Biagini of the Grotowski Workcenter in Pontedera, Italy.

Today there were approximately 16 of us in the group, plus Mario and one of the students from the Open Program.

The training consisted of three hours of singing traditional vibratory songs of the Afro-Caribbean tradition and about thirty minutes of question/answer.

The work was challenging and involved very little verbal instruction. Even Mario’s answers to questions respected the experiential, cumulative, personal nature of the work; he cannot and thus will not attempt to explain it all in words. I appreciate the emphasis on non-discursive knowledge-production as well as the sheer difficulty of the songs themselves.

03/30/11: Intertext - Spring Training Plan

For the Spring, I plan to continue several elements of my Winter training practice that were working well:

• Weekly sessions (video-recorded and blogged)
• Overall structure (Contemplative Practice, Warm-up and Open Training)
• Working with a physical point of focus
• Working with songs

In addition, I’m adding several new elements to the work:

1) Warm-up Sequence Formalization: In hopes of an increased sense of regularity and rigor, my warm-up will now be a specific series of actions (or modes of action) accompanied by a music playlist. This is the order of actions and their approximate length:
---> Free movement (9 minutes)
---> Balanced stillness in tree pose (7 minutes)
---> 50 Jumping Jacks (3 minutes)
---> Body Scan (1 minute)
---> Slow motion Cross of Space (6 minutes)

2) Material Development Time: Rather than writing a “Tiny Imaginary Play” at the end of each session, I’m adding another segment in which I’ll work on specific material for a performance piece. Unlike the free-form, non-goal-oriented space of Open Training, I'll have a provisional plan for how to use this time each week, but also remain open to what arises in the studio.

3) Additional Training: I plan to seek out group training opportunities over the course of the spring. In the interest of consolidation, I’ll record some details of those sessions in this blog as well.

03/20/11: Intertext - The Seasons Change

In my academic institution, the calendar divisions follow approximately the turning of the seasons. Thus with the Spring Equinox I conclude my first season of training, which lasted only eight short weeks.

This quarter I experimented with several modes of documenting this highly experiential research, and have ended up with three separate archives:

1) This blog, which records simply, if not objectively, what transpired
2) A video recording of each training session, thus far not shared online.
3) A series of “Tiny Imaginary Plays” written immediately after each training session, in which I attempted to capture at least a few drops of the unconscious material that arose during the session. You can find those plays on my other blog, Parapraxis.

I shared some of these materials with colleagues at Stanford last Friday at an open studio showing. The blog was made available, one of the six videos was projected on a large wall, and I asked attendees to read several of the Tiny Imaginary Plays out loud. I enjoyed sharing the work itself and appreciated the opportunity to discuss the significance and urgency of theatrical practice as research.

My weekly practice will continue in the spring quarter after a short break.

03/04/11: Solo Training Session #8

Horrible awful no-good mood. Don't want to do this or anything else. Don't want to be vulnerable to anyone, including myself. And also secretly I know I want to do this.








Contemplative Practice (10 minutes):

Meditated in half lotus in the one shaft of sunlight in the room.


Warm-up (15 minutes):

Did cat/cow stretch and child's pose.

Decided to work with intercostal muscles today

Rolled around on floor as felt pleasurable.

Spoke stream of thoughts: "I'm never a good enough..."

Sang stream of thoughts: "I'm never a good enough..."


Training (35 minutes):

Did pseudo-tai-chi while singing "When the river meets the sea."

Stretched and stroked intercostals while singing "When the river meets the sea."

Did 100 jumping jacks then did body scan, focusing on intercostal muscles

Worked in silence and slow motion, trying to breathe from stomach without using shoulders, playing with hard and soft edges, fluid and angular motion.

Created hand/arm choreography with fists and clasped hands.

Sang Dona Nobis Pacem

Sang Dona Nobis Pacem with hand/arm choreography.

Note-taking (5 minutes):

Sat in studio, drank cold coffee, wrote Tiny Imaginary Play #8

02/27/11: Group Training with Dandelion DanceTheater

Today I attended an open training session with Dandelion DanceTheater at CELLSpace in San Francisco. The training consisted of:

• 50 minutes – Ballet
• Short Break
• 50 minutes – Balkan Singing

There were 8 – 10 people there over the two hours, half of whom were company members and the other half were either friends of the company or folks like me, who had learned of the open training session online. Both trainings were geared towards those without experience in the specific performance modes, but the leaders encouraged and expected a high level of focus and achievement. After so much time working in the studio alone, it was a pleasure to train with other people.

Intertext: Video Documentation and its Discontents

Over the last two training sessions (#6 and #7) I finally feel like I've moved past my constant hyper-awareness of the eye of the camera in the corner of the room. I'm no longer trying to aggressively ignore it or pretend like I've forgotten it's there. It now feels more like a supportive collaborator than an invading force. I've only reviewed the footage of one session so far (#6), but I feel pleased to have a record of what these trainings look like from the outside, and I'm considering sharing clips of my work on this site.

Unsurprisingly, this comfort with video documentation of my work seems to have developed contemporaneously with a new relationship to my image of myself in training. I've been feeling greater ease working with my reflection in the mirror as a training tool, and also been less concerned about the potential narcissism of this kind of individual practice in general.

Oddly timed with my newfound appreciation of video documentation is the loss of the footage from my last training session (#7). There was an error with the video card and the data seems irretrievable. Alas! I'll press forward and try not to cry over lost documentation.

02/25/11: Solo Training Session #7

Embarrassed about the amount of procrastination involved in actually getting to the studio today. Relieved the room is available. Looking forward to exploring some of my new internal sensations of what this training is about. Pleased to be here. Pleased to be documenting myself being here. Feeling confident and happy.


CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE (7 minutes):

Meditated in half-lotus against the wall, room dark, eyes open, facing the mirror.

WARM-UP (20 minutes):

Long-form sun salutations, breathing deeply.

Sang "When the River Meets the Sea" a capella in front of the mirror while doing "infinity arm circles."

100 jumping jacks followed by body scan to find body part to work with today. Found my xiphoid process (aka metasternum, the cartilaginous end of the sternum which attaches to the diaphragm muscles and is related to breathing).

TRAINING (35 minutes):

Almost no speaking for the entire time.

Yoga poses to stretch region around xiphoid process.

Extensive work with mirror.

Explored shoulder and arm choreography. Right angles.

Drew blue dot on xiphoid process to isolate it more clearly.

Worked shirtless for a time in order to have access to xiphoid process, was slightly uncomfortable and switched to a small scarf around my breasts.

Mime-type exercises including pulling an invisible rope through my body.

Explored grotesque faces and body positions, particularly invoking archetypes of old men and women (like Pantalone character in commedia)

Explored soft and hard facial gestures, which led to a few words about gender and embodiment.

Camera ran out of memory, last 5 minutes unrecorded.

Short, extreme emotional experiences characterized the (unrecoreded) end of the session - confusion and anger. They subsided as soon as the alarm sounded for the training's end.

NOTE-TAKING (5 minutes):

Sat in studio. Took brief notes about session and found I could not remember very precisely what had transpired. Decided to watch session video to recreate notes (this plan was later foiled as an error occurred and the footage was lost). Wrote Tiny Imaginary Play #7.

02/17/11: Solo Training Session #6

Embarrassed that today's session is cut so short. Happy to be in the room. Happy to be documenting myself training. Happy to have a new song to learn and some preliminary systems for working. It's a sunny day.





Contemplative Practice (7 min):
Meditated in corner of room, half-lotus, eyes open. Deep breathing.

Warm-up (15 min):
Deep breathing, musical sighs and sirens. Arm circles. Yoga stretches (cat, cow, bow).

100 jumping jacks. Did body scan to find place to focus on for the day: found lungs.

Sang "Do you Realize?"along with mp3 player while swinging arms, doing wall-pushups, thinking about lungs transmitting air.

Training (40 minutes):
Sang "Do you Realize?" a capella, while moving.

Stood in tree pose, deep breathing, swaying. Experiencing awareness of all the unused space in the lungs. Comparing the expansiveness of the lungs to the static pulsing of the heart.

Moved like a sighing bird, in slow motion

Sang "Do you Realize?" in slow time.

Sang and chanted the phrase "Ladies and Gentleman We are Floating in Space" and the song of the same title.

Talked to the camera directly (for the first time) about breathing.

Ran laps in the room while talking, free associating about my desires for this training. "I'm trying to develop a somatic listening system that helps me become more aware of my desires"

Stretched on the floor. Touched toes to hands in rocking motion. Practiced attaching/detaching desire to action.

Note-taking (1 minute):
Ran out of time to take notes! Made very rushed scribbles about the day's actions and didn't write my Tiny Imaginary Play!

A few days later I force myself to watch the entire video documentation of Training Session #6, after which I write Tiny Imaginary Play #6

02/16/11: Solo Training Session #5

Embarrassed because I missed last week (again), embarrassed that I was late again today, embarrassed because I'm choosing this practice over reading for class, grateful for a body that still feels awake from Contact Improv last night and still feels ripples of love from other bodies moving through it.


Contemplative Practice (7 minutes):
Meditated in half lotus with eyes open. Noticed the changing light in the room.

Warm up (15 minutes):
Stretched while singing "When the River Meets the Sea."

"Polished" body with hands, then with other-than-hands. Really trying to sense deeply the points of contact between self and self.

While polishing, spoke stream-of-consciousness about what I was feeling. Thought about terms we have for this: "verbal diarrhea," and "discharging." Why are all the terms to describe speaking freely about inside experiences so gross?

Thought about feelings as skin. Polishing skin, polishing emotional surfaces.

Training (35 minutes):
Did 100 jumping jacks followed by body scan.

Chose part of body to focus on for the day. Avoided places that called out for focus due to pain (shoulders, neck, foot) and instead chose body part that felt good: skin.

Moved as if skin was a bubble

Worked with negative space around skin a la Contact Improv. Moved with almost-touch.

Worked with vulnerability of wrist skin.

Tried to avoid being too hand-focused. Worked with legs and leg skin, both touch and almost-touch.

Moved with "thick skin" (where are the thin places?)

Moved with "thin skin" (where are the thick places?)

Did 100 more jumping jacks. Did second body scan. Compared difference

Video card ran out of memory.

Sang (no words) and moved around space for 5 unrecorded minutes. Acoustics exquisite and strange.

Note taking (5 minutes):
Took notes in space then moved to the dance lounge to write Tiny Imaginary Play #5 next to some fragrant eucalyptus stems in a vase. The weather is dramatic.

Intertext: Find a Part of Your Body

This weekend I spoke with a friend enrolled in a full time theatre training program at Dell' Arte about my training practice. I asked her for advice and she suggested I focus on a specific part of the body each week as a guide to my research.

This idea pairs well with my interest in using internal body-sensing scans as a way to sound out new places to converse with and engage. I plan to work with this idea for the next few sessions. During warm-up, I'll exert myself physically, then do a body scan to find a place that feels like it wants to speak, then use that part as a guide for the day's training.

02/03/11: Solo Training Session #4

Afraid that someone will need to use this room and kick me out if it. Weirdly paranoid that someone is going to peer in the windows at me. Worried that the room is too small or too cluttered or full of stale energy. Aware that I still have no idea what I'm doing. Excited to do training two days in a row. Excited to have time alone.

Contemplative Practice (10 minutes):
Meditated, lights out, eyes closed, half lotus, back up against the wall to feel strength in my back. Tried to balance energetic focus in space between eyes.

Allergist called. Bloodwork has determined that I am not allergic to shellfish! Will eat shrimp tonight to test it.

Warm-Up (15 minutes):
Turned on camera (closer to it than usual in this small room). Arranged cluttered room to make a better shot. Cold. Ran back and forth on diagonal of room, talking non-stop, inner monologue. Did a lot of shaking - hands, arms, shoulders. Thought about tension as apparati of capture in the body, how to break it apart. Rubbed skin with hands to warm and awaken it. Jumped up and down. Did headstand and shoulder stand.

Training (40 minutes):
Did push ups on wall and on floor. Sang through "When the River Meets the Sea."

Danced to a song that someone was singing in the hallway.

Did modified cat/cow and sun salutations while singing.

Moved while speaking about the difference between cause and cure. Moved while speaking about Plato/Derrida's pharmakon.

Got quiet at the end. Moved slowly and sensually.

Caressed self.

Did rocking motions in a variety of positions.

Video card on camera ran out of space so the last 10 minutes were undocumented. I turned out the lights and continued working. I enjoy a bit of unrecorded training time.

Note-taking (5 minutes):
Sat in room, where I'd meditated at the beginning of the session and jotted down notes. Wrote Tiny Imaginary Play #4 (click here to read)

02/02/11: Solo Training Session #3

Afraid that I am hyper-documenting an empty process. Wondering if I should've started this process sans documentation in order to establish a practice before adding on all these layers (blog, video, tiny invisible plays, etc). Worried that what I am doing is already completely changed because the video camera is looming there in the corner.

Contemplative Practice (10 minutes):
Meditated in half-lotus, eyes closed, lights out. Played with neck, trying to release tension. Lots of discursive thoughts.

Warm-Up (15 minutes):
Turned on video camera. Rolled on floor a la contact improv, starfish up to starfish down. Did a few yoga poses. Head very full of discursive thoughts. Spoke long list "Things that I am worried about." Then spoke shorter list "Things that I used to be worried about but am no longer worried about." Did headstand and shoulder stand.

Training (45 minutes):
Learned "When the River Meets the Sea" with headphones. Did about 5 reps, in both high and low octaves, loud and quietly, until ipod battery died. While I was learning the song I:
* Ran in circles.
* Did wall mirror movement. Worked on really feeling my back against the wall.
* Did "horse stance" and squats
* Thought about Death

Felt bored of myself so got out a wrestling mat and did somersaults back and forth until my head hurt.

Lay on mat and played with hair. Combed it with fingers roughly. Put into ponytail. Thought about the dead parts of our bodies: hair and nails and skin? Is skin dead or alive? Or always in process of dying? Thought about how these dead and dying parts seem very gender-marked. What do you do with the dead parts of yourself?

Did a talking dance on the blue mat. Asked myself what I could say in this place that I couldn't say anywhere else.

Video card on camera ran out of space, so the last 10 minutes were undocumented. This felt very freeing. What I did in that time will remain secret.

Note-taking (10 minutes):
Someone else needed the room so I sat in the courtyard by the fountain for ten minutes to write. It's February and I'm wearing yoga pants and a tee-shirt outside, hallelujah. Wrote Tiny Imaginary Play #3 (click here to read)

Intertext: Songs

This week I sent the following letter to five of my friends.

I'm a collaborator at heart.

Even if I'm working alone I want to work, somehow, with others.

****************

Dear [names redacted],

You guys know me really well and you're all very present in my head
these days and not near me in bodies.
I'm doing a solo training project thingy thing right now which means
I'm in the studio a lot improvising and trying to not feel
ridiculous.
I've been singing a lot.
But as you know, I don't know any lyrics to anything
So I've decided I'm going to learn a few songs, all the way through,
that I can sing as part of my training.
I wanted to ask each of you to give me a song to learn.
I'll never perform them so they don't have to be in my range.
I'd love for you to suggest a song you think I could learn from,
through the act of apprenticing myself to it.
As you know, I've been struggling lately in my head,
trying to change/evolve/whatever/whyisthissohardtotalkabout.
Do you have a song that might help me with that?
The one I've chosen for myself is here:
[link redacted]
It's a little cheesy but I think I need its medicine.

If you don't want to do this, no worries. Just wanted to ask.

Missing all of your bodies close to mine.

Best,
Joy

1/21/11: Solo Training Session #2

Afraid to video myself. Annoyed that I can’t do the full 2 hours. Afraid that I’m not going to come up with anything good, that I’ll do this exploration and find nothing. Fear that there are many other people out there much more qualified to do this than I am.


Contemplative Practice (7 minutes):
Child’s pose. Brought a blanket this time, and a warm hoodie. Made some sound but mostly tried to meditate. Body and mind felt pretty happy.

Warm-Up (7 minutes):
Turned on video camera and tried really hard to ignore it. Rolled around developmental movement-style. Played with sighs that turned into sounds. Exploring upper part of register (in contrast to last week’s baritone, and in response to recent conversation about my learned/artificial lowering of my natural vocal register).

Free Improvisation (40 minutes):
Spent time making high screechy wails, listening to the double tones that those sounds can make.

Did slow motion fist-fight. Played with sounds to accompany each motion.

Realized I hadn’t done my morning altar-waking ritual, so did a mimed version of those actions.

The opening of the Yemeni flower candle-holder became a twirling, dervish-esque dance. Wished I could dance better.

Found a character – a pre-adolescent Israeli girl dancing alone, singing songs to herself in a high strange soprano voice that are half made-up, half-traditional. Perhaps she is a prophet.

Ran around in circles. Ran back and forth. Walked a line in the floor like a tightrope, quickly. Speech about how perception feels like in fast motion versus slow motion.

Slow motion exploration, thinking about sensation inside the body.

Someone walks in at the end. Wish this room had doors that lock.

Note-taking (10 minutes):
Walked over to the Stanford Memorial Church, took notes sitting in the beautiful silence and golden light, under the sweet angels. Wrote Tiny Imaginary Play #2 (click here to read)

1/14/11: Solo Training Session #1

Afraid to begin. Annoyed at my constant procrastination. Wondering why I am doing this at all. Fear of narcissism and wasting time. Fear that this is the wrong time to do this, too late or too early, or not under the appropriately auspicious stars.

Contemplative Practice (10 minutes):
Sat in child’s pose. Made low, long sounds. Tone resonance is nice in the studio. Body feels achy, sick, lethargic, cold. Floor is very cold.

Warm-Up (10 minutes):
Too achy to be very physical. Worked feet and ankles mostly. Sang “The Water is Wide.” I don’t know the lyrics so I make up new ones. Created a game with myself about improvising lyrics.

Free Improvisation (30 minutes):
Mostly on the floor. Mostly with eyes closed. Room grew darker as session went on, quite dark at the end. Lots of crawling on belly and singing while in fetal position, or what I called “june bug pose.”

Speech about moment of psychic release that follows lovemaking and the attempt to find that full surrender elsewhere in life. Speech about being afraid to fall asleep the night before for fear I’d stop breathing in my sleep. Two releases – one desirable, the other terrifying.

Made up a song and a character that sings it – an old Black Jamaican man. Sang in an unfamiliar baritone voice that felt good in that room. Glad that no-one can see me. Sang “Hey ho, nobody home” in this same character.

Looked at hands to check and see if I was dreaming. This became a dance. Finally at the end I was able to dance – free movement, hips open, still very contained but at last I was a creature with feet and not just a june bug.

Very appreciative of the privacy of the space. Being alone feels safe and strange.

Note-taking (10 minutes):
Had idea about creating “tiny imaginary plays” after every session. I will post these on my other blog "Parapraxis" and link to them here. Voila, Tiny Imaginary Play #1 (click here to read)

Intertext: Sun Dogs and Theatrical Practice

Sun dogs, also known as parhelia or "phantom suns," are an atmospheric phenomena that create bright spots of light in the sky on either side of the sun. Often appearing in an arc or halo, they are the result of light passing through ice crystals in the sky.

They've been seen and mused on throughout history, and show up in art and literature, often interpreted as signs from the divine.

I've been lucky enough to see them on several occasions, and while I know they're purely astronomical phenomena that can be explained away in an instant as a mere side effect of physics and chemistry, I still find them beautiful and mystic.

In this blog I plan to keep a record of my experiences in my solo training practice. I'll write weekly after each session, and perhaps occasionally share video snippets. Because this blog is a record, I'll attempt to describe my experiences simply and without too much reflection, analysis, or interpretation. It may be dull, but I hope that it will add in some small way to the greater body of knowledge that emerges from practice as research.