An unbelieveable homecoming…

Well, I have finally made it back home safe and sound! I know I have been missing in action but A LOT has happened in the past week. My journey home was nothing short of a nightmare – or a horrible written 90’s film. My mom and I were among the thousands of people whose flight was cancelled at JFK in New York. It was a nightmare. Our flight out of London took off an hour later than scheduled due to the fuel pump pumping at a snails pace. From JKF we were scheduled a connecting flight immediately upon arrival. So in my head I thought it would be better to not sleep on this 8 hour flight so that I can reset my internal clock and knock out when I get home. Which was going to be around midnight Friday. When we arrived at JFK we had been told that we missed our flight, then told it was cancelled. We then like hundreds of other people had to stand in line for hours to even speak with someone. One couple I talked to waited 12 hours for their turn.

We were fortunate that we found someone that helped us without having to do that. But he did lie to us. He said he had gotten us on a flight leaving in the morning, and said that once we got to the gate we would be assigned a seat. All the hotels were sold out so we had to stay at the airport. Where I did not sleep cause I was worried about my things “disappearing”.  So the morning comes around we go to the gate and find out we were not put on the flight but wait listed. With the 150 people who were supposed to be on the flight the night before. I was pissed! So we spent the day waiting and going back and forth between  gates waiting to see if our names would be called. The worst part was the service! No one from the airline would speak with us. It took a lot of patients but we did make it home safe which is all that really matters. And the fact I will never fly with that airline again!

So I arrived home Sunday to an unbelievable surprise! While we were gone my dog Coco had puppies! On New Years Eve around midnight she delivered 3 little girl puppies. This was not planned at all! In November my mom had taken her over to a friends house, which she often did cause Coco and her dog play. Well Coco the little hussy that she is, snuck over to the neighbors house to visit her boyfriend and well now we have three new puppies!  Expect tons of updates. After dealing with that bomb, it was time for me to already go back to school Monday morning bright and early. My apologies for falling short of my blogging duties but as you can imagine its been a crazy start to the new year. I am excited to see what else is to come!

Our lovely airport accommodations.The puppies! From left to right; the little one is Bean (She’s the runt), Nordi, and Gidget.This little nugget is Gidget. And yes, I know, I need a mani. But I’ve been a little busy.

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Lights, Camera, Action!

I had an amazing opportunity presented to me here in Prague, which was to work on a feature film.  Never did I expect that I would have this experience. The film is about 3 classic fariytales; Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Ridding Hood, and a classic Czech tale about 12 moons. We shot for a few days at the Zleby castle which was founded around 1289. It was a pretty magical place. As we shot at the castle I found myself day dreaming about what it must have been like for a young girl to live in such a big place. I can only imagine it must have been fun, there were a lot of secret rooms and walk ways. I’ll admit it took me a while to remember my way in and out, cause it was so simple to get lost.

The film was shot on a RED camera, which I thought was so cool! RED is one of my personal favorite cameras to shoot with. I wasn’t sure on what to expect, I guess really had expected them to be shooting on film, so seeing they were using a RED was really cool. It made me feel right at home on set. We also shot in the forest of Zleby and at deer park, which is where I was able to take the most photos. The set inside the castle was rather small and so I wasn’t really permitted to take many pictures. The deer park had all types of exotic hunting birds and owls. I thought it was interested how they were kept, the majority of them were housed in an open hut, not in cages. We also shot white deer, which was cool cause I had never seen any before. It was nice to get out of the city and see the forest/country side of Prague. I can’t even begin to describe the small town, it literally is right out of a fairytale and the houses in the woods were buried so far I don’t even know how they find or remember how to get to them. It was really neat to see this different culture and way of life. But I’m definitely a city girl, for sure!

The set wasn’t all that different from the movie sets back in Hollywood. They used the same type of equiptment, had the same positions, the only main difference was that they all spoke Czech.  That was a bit intimidating for myself, because half the time I had no idea what 80% of the crew was saying. I’m also certain the first day I was on set they thought I was a tourist looking at the castle, which looking back was actually quite funny. But I was able to work with a really great crew, everyone was very polite and understanding that I only have been studying Czech for 2 weeks. So they sort of took me under their wing and looked out for me. It’s been a real struggle for me here with the language barrier. In America our language is so informal compared to the language here. Conversations are usually finished with puzzled looks on our faces. I am glad I stuck it out, it will be worth it to look back and saw I stepped out of my comfort zone and was apart of making a foreign feature film. After this experience I am so exciting to start my film classes at FMAU tomorrow, I am even more determined to pursue my passion for acting and film making.