This weekend I took the trek down to Malta, an island off the coast of Italy. I had never heard of this country but was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful views I found on google images. Upon my arrival, my google research proved to be accurate. The country, while only 28 miles long is full of beautiful landscapes, streets, and historical sites. The Air b&b where I stayed with seven other friends was pretty much in the heart of one of the cities on the island. It was also located right next to a pastizzeria, which had some of the best pizza I have had in a while. I can't say there is a whole lot to do in Malta, but the first night we took a ferry across a little gulf to a peninsula on the island where we walked around and saw some cool and very old areas. We came across a barricaded road and found out that a processional with EU members after a conference about Brexit was coming through shortly. After waiting for a half hour we decided to move on and didn't end up seeing any diplomats come through. The following day we took a day trip. We got on a two-hour boat ride to another Malta Island and had a fairly disappointing bus tour. Not only was the driver zipping around corners, making us on the second story of the bus feel like we were going to be flung off, but we only had a few minutes at our historical or landscape view stops. The bus tour ended at the boat and we reboarded to head our third island, one that had no residents, was just a beautiful landscape with ocean views. All in all, the day trip was worth it, but could have been better. On Sunday we went back across the gulf, now in the daylight and walked for a while down by the water. We went up to an old fortress, went to some shops, and ended the trip with some gelato. The RyanAir flight back was exactly as expected. But I did not realize that the arrival airport was two hours from the dorm...
Malta is an interesting country because of its diverse influences. Being so close to Italy, a lot of the architecture and culture hinted at Italian influence, but the recent British colonization of the island country did not come and go without significant influence as well. English is one of the primary languages and everyone we encountered spoke it fluently. There were even some classic English telephone booths.
Beautiful take 2:
Last night I had the privilege to go backstage and shadow one of the automation technicians for Beautiful on the West End. I was intrigued by the different automated set pieces in the show when I saw it. So, after the show, I approached the lady who was mixing the sound for the show and asked if there was a contact in the automation department. She gave me an email address and a few days later I had a set time to go backstage. When I arrived an hour before curtain I was shown around the stage. I was shown the pieces that would move, the mechanisms that are used to attach the pieces to the automation, the winches, the drives, and the desk that everything is operated from. I also learned some UK terminology. So, for anyone who cares, here is a little CMU to UK automation (and other theater stuff) term dictionary. knife=spade, dog=skate, wire rope=steel, batten=bar, coms (headset)=cans, arbor=carriage. That's all I remember for now, but I am sure I will have more to add when I start my internship. During the show I sat with Alex, the operator for that night (the team of 3 rotate jobs). When he wasn't on standby for a cue we talked about the industry, how everything in the West End works, and my experience and hopes for the future. As it turns out, Alex and one of the other technicians, Simon, know a CMU grad who I know. If you want to know more of that story let me know. Alex and Simon also are helping me make other connections so I can continue to gain experience from these shadowing opportunities. I have started a journal of the various things I am learning that I could bring back to CMU or just to use in my life. Most people might call that memory, but memory hasn't been too good for me so a journal hopefully does the trick (you are welcome mom).
Thats all for now. I feel like I should mention that I am writing this in a cute cafe where I just finished some tea. Very British.
-Drew
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| future boat 1 |
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| future boat 2 |
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