The vicious ankle breaking...

One group of the many musicians Caroline and I had the pleasure to listen to on Sunday morning before the horrible ankle incident.

At the hospital... that ice pack was on my foot for 3 hours while we waited... I think this is after a guy with a blood bag attached to him walked by and Meredith sang, "Making Memories!!"... classic...

The cast... the signatures make me happy... thanks everybody!!

So, I thought I would share why I am so behind on this blog. I totally broke my ankle! First broken bone ever and it had to happen the first weekend of circus school. I was running as we always do on the gymnastics floor in a circle to warm up for some practice on Sunday night before we continued with school on Monday. During this particular run my ankle just twisted, but because we were on a gymnastics floor which gives underneath your feet, it gave way and all my weight went onto my ankle. That is when I heard a snap... I froze and hobbled to sitting on the floor while repeating over and over again to Meredith and Caroline (who were also running with me), "I heard a snap... I heard a snap". It was my worst nightmare. Meredith came with me to the hospital and kept me company. She also wheeled me all over the hospital. The doctor said I was lucky because I had fractured the bone, but not quite enough to have to have surgery. I was off by a centimeter... yuck. Monday I had to be fitted for a proper plaster cast and now I cannot put any weight on it before June 16th (I cried non-stop for about 2 days... now I just cry every once in a while). For those keeping count, Circus School ends June 15th. Anyways, here I am in Torino figuring it out. Jesse came down to give me some support and helped me figure out the public transport to school. He's a great husband!! Now, the rest of this blog will now be labeled from Day One to Day Thirty-Five (the day I have my cast removed). This will be journaling my experience in circus school on one leg. Should be interesting.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day mom!!!!

Our welcome to Torino from the bar on our corner.

I have had an eventful few days in Torino. Caroline, Meredith, and I had great fun doing laundry yesterday then Caroline and I went out exploring the city. Torino is wonderful because it is filled with artists and museums. There are outdoor markets down every other street and musicians on every corner. Not to mention the amount of museums, my weekends are going to be full for sure. Yesterday I had the great pleasure of seeing the Shroud of Turin - for those of you who do not know what this relic is, it is believed to be the cloth they wrapped Jesus in to bury him after the crucifixion. It was a pretty amazing piece of history to say the least! Then we discovered a giant park which was lovely and the Mole which is a crazy cool structure. The Mole holds the Museum of Cinema inside. Today we were going to go to the Egyptian museum but the line was much too long. We will have to get up way earlier in the day to make that happen. Tonight we will go to see the 1st year circus students do their final performance (Cart-One).

Since it is Mother's Day, I wanted to touch a little bit on mothers... more specifically my mother. She is the reason I am able to do all of these amazing things. Her support and love through out the years has kept me on my feet and running. She always wanted me to travel the world and do what there is to do in the world. And though I know she misses me so much, she wants me to live my life. She is the most unselfish person I have ever had the privilege to know. Because of her strength, I am strong. Because of her wisdom, I grow wiser everyday. Because of her love, I live. Thank you mom!! I miss you more than you could ever know and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!

Circus School Week One

While we were on Elba Island the girls and I decided to get back in shape and do some acrobatics on the beach before we started circus school. This is one of my many handstands from that day.

4-5-10

Today was much harder than yesterday and much more frustrating. We started with Physical Preparation taught by Matteo. He is a great teacher but the moves are obviously difficult because it is preparation for circus. We went straight into equilibrium class with Dario where we studied tight rope today. It was harder for me than what I expected considering my dance background. Next we met Elena who taught us tissue. Also very difficult, yet much less difficult once you put resin on your hands so you stop slipping. Then we learned all about how to be a circus actor from Raymond.

5-5-10

I hurt myself today… of course I was the first one to hurt themselves. I sailed (literally) through acrobatics, doing fantastic work (I was even surprising myself) then went on to dance where I came down on the side of my foot during a hitchkick turn. Luckily, it was just sprained, but I hit my butt against the floor pretty damn hard and that is definitely going to hurt for a week or so. I was fortunate that juggling was in the afternoon and I was able to participate.

6-5-10

Today in equilibrium we tried the tight rope again, then we touched on the basics of the giant ball (walking on top of a free rolling ball), the free standing ladder (walking on and up a free standing ladder), and the sphere which is just a circular can with a piece of wood on top. This one was my favorite and it was much easier for me to understand than the other pieces. I don’t like the ball because you are always on uneven ground and I panic a little bit, but the sphere is more like a skateboard, you can gain control of the mechanism much faster. We worked on tissue and I climbed all the way up, yay me!! Then we started with basic tricks on the trapeze, which was fun but painful. In the afternoon we did more work on the actor with Raymond. We love him!!

7-5-10

So I almost died during physical preparation today. It is Friday and Matteo decided to turn up the heat a little bit. Since he has trained Olympic medalists he probably could have pushed us even further, but I definitely was at my limit. He began teaching us acrobatic basics but I hurt my neck and back during a backwards roll. Nothing horrible, just need to get a massage to fix it. We went straight into juggling, which is my most frustrating class. I just get really bored with it and I never really wanted to juggle so it is hard to care. But I try as hard as I can to concentrate and Dario is a great teacher and very patient, so maybe I will actually be able to juggle. Whoopee! We went into dance with Erika who looks like she dances on water, is teaching us a beautiful piece that is extremely difficult. It is an acrodance (acrobatics and dance put together). I’m picking up most of it, but with my foot still hurting I have to be careful. I’ll rest over the weekend and hit it hard again next week.

Circus School

Mer and I on the bus to Torino!

I’ve packed up my bags, left behind my husband, puppy, and beautiful new home all in the hopes of learning the art of circus. Excuse the randomness of this entry but it is quite late and my head is spinning from a day of travel. Bad news: I miss my husband and my dog more than I thought I ever would. Good news: I saw the 2^nd year students of this circus school (FLIC) do their final performance… amazing!! I’m very excited to start on this adventure and thanks to my wonderful roomies (Bob and Mer Mer) I am not too lonely yet.