May the odds be ever in your favor...

If I needed more indication that my life is different than it was a year ago, I traveled to another country just to see a movie in a theatre yesterday...I think it's official, life has changed. 
All my roommate wanted for her birthday was to see 'The Hunger Games' in the theatre. We are fortunate that we are very close to the border of Romania and the city of Galați  (guh-lots) is just o n the other side of the border. Holly found a movie theatre in a city just south of Galați called Brăila (Bry-ee-lah) that was showing the movie. When we first mentioned this jaunt, many were interested, but few actually went. However, it was the perfect combination. At first the idea of it sounded a little shady, wake up at 4am, get on a bus, go to a foreign city, take a train to another city, search for a movie theatre, get back to said bus at the perfect time so that the driver will take you back home...and yet, it all went smoothly, down right delightful. There were four of us that went, besides me and Holly, Erin and John also went too. Erin is a Fulbright scholar from New York and she lives in Cahul for the year. She's one of my favorite people although I'd never say that to her face. We all woke up at 5am to meet our private driver, Dimitri who picked us up outside of our apartment. It was still dark out. (I stayed up all night for those wondering how I came to be awake at that hour on a Saturday). The border cross wasn't even 20 minutes away and the border guards thought it was hilarious that this group of Americans was up at 6 in the morning to go see a movie. We were stopped a couple of times since we were coming from Romania and they do stop a lot of vehicles to check for smuggling but the police were very nice to us. Once in Romania we were treated to a beautiful sunrise over the Prut River. Our driver, Dimitri, was awesome. Although he was familiar with Galați, he was not as familiar with Brăila but he stopped and asked directions a multitude of times until he found the movie theatre we were looking for. It turned out to be a brand new movie theatre complex called Cinema City inside a new mall. For those of us who haven't seen anything like this in nearly a year, it was pretty damn exciting. We got to the mall at about 9am and the movie didn't start until 11:30 so we had some time to wander and to shop. There was a nice coffee shop to relax in, even an indoor ice skating rink. We got to eat Chinese food for lunch, a rarity and it was delicious. The movie theatre had stadium seating and popcorn and it was just heaven. The movie itself was fantastic. It was a wonderful day. We left John in Galați (not on purpose, he elected to go further south in Romania to do some exploring) and we headed back. We were back in Moldova by 4:00. It was just a wonderful day.
Other than that, I've been working with the film group on their new film. The three guys I work with Vlad, Viktor and Sasha are putting together their new film and I have had the privilege to go to their rehearsals. So when they asked me for some acting techniques, I was like 'wait...I know how to do something.' It's been so long since someone has asked me for something that I actually had knowledge and expertise in. So I gave them some acting exercises and they listened intently and we worked on it and it was awesome. I almost felt normal. I was showing Sasha some vocal warmups and he started singing a little bit and I said 'oh, let me play it for you on the piano.' We had been rehearsing at this cultural center and there was a piano in the room so I sat down and played some scales for him. And then played the piano for a little bit. It was damn near normal! When I think that I haven't done theatre or played music for nearly a year, it's almost mind-boggling. I mean I think I just tune it out (pun intended) for the most part but then when I actually think about it, it's so ridiculous. So now to be in this situation where I can not only participate but also use my own unique skill set, it is insanely gratifying. 
I have 29 days until I leave for my Spring vacation in London and Paris. I cannot WAIT to see my Too Faced girls. I don't know how it went from being 4 months away to less than a month away. April is chock full of stuff to do so I haven a feeling it will continue to fly by. Maybe the odds are ever in my favor.