NECCA Orientation!!!

Did my first post-training shift at Shin La sushi restaurant today. It went well. Always hard to tell if these waitressing jobs will work out or not for the first couple of weeks. So far so good with this one. Keeping my fingers crossed. The owner is a middle aged Korean woman called Mrs. Kim. She's friendly and helpful, but I could see her getting pretty serious given the perfect storm of events that so often typify restaurant work. I'm sure I'll get yelled at more than a few times over the next months. Comes with the territory. It'll help me build a thicker skin. Mrs. Kim was very sweet to me today, though. At one point she whispered, "Don't let Mr. So (the chef) get to you. He's very cranky". Awe, thanks Mrs. Kim.

And after Shin La was (dun dada dun!)....NECCA Orientation for Protrack!!! For anyone who doesn't already know, the school I'm going to is called the New England School for Circus Arts, or NECCA. Protrack means the "professional track training program", and indicates that I may someday be a professional circus performer. More on that later! NECCA is run by two twins, Elsie and Serenity, who perform doubles trapeze together among other things. Serenity was there with her whole family, husband Bill (awesome acro coach), and three kids.

Elsie, kind of the head hancho of Protrack, introduced a few of the coaches, then talked to us for a long time about paperwork, scheduling, private lessons, random rules and guidelines, i.e. "No open containers of liquid in the training area!", and "No, you can not do your own rigging yet!"

There are 18 of us in the program this year. We got to introduce ourselves briefly (nerve wracking!), before taking a tour of the facilities. I was so excited during the tour I just wanted to do handstands the whole time. But somehow, even among a bunch of circus performers, that didn't seem very "professional". So I waited till I got home :)

After orientation my wonderful Boston circus crew (Roger, Ellen, Morgan and Micah) came over to my new apartment and made a delicious dinner. Fish, sweet potatoes, kale and quinoa. I am so happy to be here with a built-in little family. Makes everything feel just a little easier, a little safer.

Tomorrow is our first training day, which will include a physical assessment. How many pull ups can you do, how many leg lifts, how long can you hold a handstand, and who know what else?! Then I have my first lesson with Bill at 1pm.

Bedtime!!!