Things I'm struggling with in this class right now: staying on top of the reading (while the Ramayana is a fascinating and wonderful book, I find it hard to make time to read this when I have so many readings for other classes...), my thighs constantly being sore (but hey, since I haven't gone to the gym once this year, this class has pretty much become my workout for the day), but mostly I've been struggling with letting loose in class and really delving into the exercises. It's interesting because right before this class I have a Beginning Acting for Majors class in the same room for two and a half hours. That class has about 12 people in it, and most of them are pretty serious about their acting and what they are doing. We do acting exercises where we yell at each other and roll around on the floor and contort and seduce, etc etc. Anyways, coming from that environment every day to an environment where I still don't think people feel free to let completely loose, is quite a shift. I've never really been one to be self-conscious or hold myself back from getting into an acting exercise, but for some reason in this ICAP class I haven't really felt able to get out of my body and just do it and not worry what everyone else is thinking. I have a feeling that once one person in the class steps up and just puts it all out there, that we will all feel more comfortable letting loose, but right now this is something that is on my mind a lot and really frustrates my personal growth as an actor. Why can't I get over that self-consciousness??

On another note, I've been wanting to perfect the chant we do...and I always change the syllables a little bit every time I do it, so I thought I would write down phonetically as close to what I think the chant is right now, and maybe people could comment on what I have correct and incorrect. I think it will help to learn it by seeing it written down as well:

See ah vah rey rama jaya jaya ram
Mon geh leh huh vuh neyah
Mon geh luh hari
D____ Dasarata ah ji dah bihari