Two weeks of updates to get to! Between not having internet at home and being super busy with work and some other projects, I haven't had much time for anything else. 

Samurai class is getting pretty intense. Whenever we have a performance coming up, we add an extra hour of practice, so class runs from 2:00pm - 5:00pm. In the middle of the California summer, even if we are only 5 miles away from the beach, it's still pretty sweltering. Rome demands nothing but perfection from his students, and the extra hour of practice is needed so we can nail our performances.

After class on June 27, the day after Rome's birthday,we had the usual acting class. After class is where we had the real party, though. As I mentioned before, We have students in class whose birthdays are June 6, 17, 18 (me), 21, and Rome's is on the 26th. The student who usually hosts the acting class at his apartment got Rome a bottle of Champagne as a present, and being the gracious person that he is, Rome wanted to share it with all of us. Well, after acting class, a bunch of us were pretty sneaky and we all had cards signed for each other! The funny part was, I had no idea they had a card for me, and the other birthday people thought they all were signing cards for everyone else, and not for themselves! It was pretty funny. Rome wrote something very nice on my card, "Mike, you are my dearest student and friend." :) Actually, everyone wrote very nice sentiments and I cherish all of them.

After the cards were handed out, another surprise. All the non-birthday people pitched in and bought a HUGE sushi platter. Plus, one of the other students provided us with a delicious multi-fruit topped cheesecake... but it got a little smashed in her car! It was still delicious, the icing said "Happy Birthday Mr. Rome" on it. You can see it in the pictures below, but the writing might be hard to make out. 

Just to recap, we all had a delicious meal of Sushi and Champagne, with a wonderful Cheesecake for dessert! Truly awesome. Rome and the rest of us had a great time! I even remembered to ask what his favorite sushi was. His favorites are anything with Salmon or Crab.

This past weekend was even hotter than the week before, AND the last hour of class we had to rehearse in full dress. It was pretty brutal but I think we all look great!

This coming week is a busy weekend for me, as we have a dress rehearsal on Saturday and two performances on Sunday. Hope it's not too hot. I hope to have some pix of the event, but as I'll be performing in it, I can't make any guarantees. I will post sometime next week and let everyone know how it went. 

Until next week, 

Majide!