Hello everybody!
So here I am just finishing up my fifth week of classes! What the hell happened?
Monday started out as the usual torture of exercise day. We started the morning happily with Simon's class and did voice work and such. Then we moved onto Sue's class in which I was partnered with another kid from Catholic named Christian, who was our local celebrity for class because he was good at doing stuff. We then moved onto creating poses using counter weight. Christian and I's were named "Saturday 3 AM, Siamese Dogs, Last Twelfth Night Ticket, and Icecapades". They were true works of art. Later that day, we had Stage Combat in which we came up with a little combination with the swords. We ended the day with Period dance in which we learned a new 17th century dance called "Jenny Pluck Pears". The name might be the best part. Then we were done for the day but not for me! I had a Skype audition at 1 am with the Great River Shakespeare festival in Minnesota for a summer apprenticeship. It actually went really well and I liked that way of doing an audition. Then I passed out that night and slept well.
Tuesday started as usual with acting and we went straight ahead to doing the animal work. I was the Brown pelican and Kathy finally said it worked! No more searching for animals. We also did our tempos and Kathy said mine was ok, but the overall consensus was that Kathy and I both needed to analyze my character. Then class was over and we had SPT in which we finished talking about The Duchess of Malfi. It was actually quite an interesting class and I enjoyed it. That night, we went to see a show in the West End called Privates On Parade. I got to Lecister Square early and walked around and discovered some cool little things around the theatre. Then we saw the show which was starring Simon Russel Beale and was a conflicting show because I enjoyed it when I first saw it and then not later after analysis. After the show, a group of us went back to the Chandos to celebrate Sara's, another girl from Catholic, birthday.
On Wednesday, we found out that our physical theatre class was cancelled and we did not have to start our classes until 11:45 am. It was magical. We had Shakespeare and Leo gave us our speeches. It was a bit of a let down because they are all from Measure for Measure and I have one of Angelo's, a role I will never play. Then Leo went around and worked on them with us, except me, which was equally as frustrating. The we had our break and I had audition with Ros later. This made me feel better because we finished working on my Restoration piece and are now moving onto to Major Barbara and after, Richard III!!!! I am so excited about this now. That night, we had a dance workshop in which we learned the Waltz and the Quickstep at the order of Kathy. It was kind of difficult but I seem to be getting the hang of these dances.
On Thursday, Valentine's Day, we started out the day with a tour of Middle Temple, which was one of the inns of court were Twelfth Night was first staged. The tour did not start out so well because the porter told us that he didn't know or like Shakespeare and didn't know how we, as Americans, could possibly could. After that moderately insulting start, he told us some very interesting things. We then poked around Middle Temple and left to go get food. We ended up on Fleet Street, which the Musical Theatre Nerd inside me was freaking out about because Sweeney Todd is my favorite musical. I ended up stopping at a place across from a very large Judiciary looking building and ended up in the Twinings Store, which was enjoyable. I was also super happy because the weather was beyond beautiful. I then came home for a very long break in which I began my bizarre Valentine's Day tradition of watching The Departed. I then had my Alexander session in which I learned that my back and everything around it are exceptionally sore from class and my horrid bed. I did not leave this session feeling relaxed. I then returned home to finish watching my movie and do some work.
Friday morning began well with Dramatic Criticism in which we analyzed Desolate Heaven. I need not talk about that play ever again. Then we had a break and then an Elizabethan Song workshop which I was really excited about. It was the biggest let down of my life because we only sang for five minutes out of a 2 hour class!! Waste! This made me feel annoyed throughout acting when I could hear the other group singing. In Acting, we then went through two more of the Stanislavski questions and it kind of felt like the first day again. Kathy did have some good insight that I most definitely will use. Then the day was over and that night a group if us went to a place on High Street for Rockaoke, which is Karaoke with a live band. A bunch of us sang (including me doing a great version of Cleo Green's F*** You!!) and had a great time cheering on the other people that sang. When we left, me and Summer and Laura and Mike wanted to go into Kensington Gardens which was closed and accidentally ended up on Royal grounds that no one is meant to go on. Then we came home and called it a night.
The next day, Saturday, me and Laura and Kyra went to Portobello Market and spent the whole day there. The market was massive and stretched for what felt like miles along one road. There was everything imaginable from vintage jewelry to old cameras and food. I wandered down what I believed to be the whole market and returned home happy and wishing I was wealthy. Then I spent the night in and did some work on essays (of which we now have two, thanks universe) and reading as well as watching Dirty Dancing. Then I went to bed.
Today, me and Summer and Laura and Becca went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard which was much less exciting then we were expecting it to be. It was still amazing to be at the palace and made me happy to be in London. Then we returned home and later that day, because the weather was so exceptionally nice, went for a walk up to Kensington Palace and sat and worked on my Angelo speech out in the beautiful sun. Then I went to Wagamama and came home feeling quite flushed from my very spicy food. Then we had a rehearsal for all of our dances and combat and am now home writing this post.
And that's been my week. Onto the sixth week here!
Bye Bye!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
British Museum, had lost its charm
Hey everybody! What's Up?
Here once again we sit (King John for any Shakespeare buffs out there, no, then I'm alone) for my weekly update.
On Monday, we had the usual exercise 9 to 5 day. We started that morning with movement in which we had to carry people on our backs and have people stand on our backs while kneeling. Sounds intense but it really was quite alright. All about counter balancing and figuring out weight balances. Then we moved on to our voice class in which we worked on nasal sounds versus open sounds. Then we had period dance in which we reviewed the Almain and then learned more of the Quadrille. This was the day in which my corset decided that it actually was going to cause me major pain and the Quadrille was a mess because of directions being lost in translation. Then we ended the day with stage combat in which we did more sword work. We were already exhausted from Period dance so this was really quite a challenge to get through at the end of the day. We went back to our dorm that night and passed out from exhaustion.
Tuesday started with Acting at 11 am. In this class, we learned that we have to write an autobiography for our character that we are working on and then we did a visualization of our character and then the blasted animal work again. In the analysis, Kathy told me that my visualization was one of the best in the class but that my animal was not right and I needed to try something else. So I was back to square one with that. Then we had a break and then had Space Place and Text in which we were talking about The Duchess of Malfi. We ended up having a rousing discussion about communicating in the texting and Facebook age which really had nothing to do with the play we were talking about. The day ended with me rehearsing for my audition tutorial and returning home for another night of work and sleep.
Wednesday started with our Physical Theatre class in which we worked on the eight stages of tension which is actually an extremely helpful technique to help build a character. We then applied it to an improv about a first driving lesson which I found funny because I could definitely pick out number five, the stage manager, as the stage I was in during MY first driving lesson. Then we moved onto our Shakespeare class in which we had to tell, in full detail, the first act of Measure For Measure and then we assigned an Act to present for the next class. We then moved on to our sonnets and worked on finding the vowels, consonants and the iambic pentameter to the poem. Then I had a break until my audtion tutorial in which I went to exchange my American money that I still had chilling out in my dorm. Then I had my audition tutorial which was super successful. I was nervous before because I wasn't too off book and had never done any Restoration work before in my life. Ros helped me understand the way the women moved and stayed on book for me throughout the speech. It turned out so successful because I just decided to have fun with the speech and go over the top with it. Ros kept laughing at things I did and it made me feel really great. She then asked what I would like to work on next and when I said doing George Bernard Shaw, she praised me up and down and said how smart I was. She then told me to look at Major Barbara and find a monologue from there. After this, Laura and I went to the STA office to book our trips for Spring Break. We are now all offically booked for Paris for three days and have decided to go to Berlin for a few days. I am so excited, I finally get to go to Germany which has been a dream of mine since about seventh grade. That night, we went to a fringe theatre called Theatre 503 to see a play called Desolate Heaven. It was not a good play. The plots never were wrapped up and it ended with one girl murdering the other. It was a play about the Irish so I should have known right away that someone would die. Then when we got back to our dorm after this horrendous play, me and Andrew (my partner for the Shakespeare project) had to work on Act 5 which is, of course, the most confusing because it wraps up every plot point and brings out every character. We finished working on it and then the night was over.
Thursday morning, Andrew and I had to present our disastrous summery of Act 5. Leo liked some bits of it and felt that there were other parts that needed work, which was all very true. Then we acted out Act 1 in all of it's details as a Western. This was actually quite fun except it's so hard to remember every little detail about a play I had just read. Then we had a break and our Dialects class. We talked about the terrible play for a bit of the class and then worked on RP for the rest of the time. I love this class because Simon doesn't care that we may be terrible at doing RP and just helps out so we improve. Later that day, I had my Alexander Session in which I learned where my hip bones actually are and the proper way to sit and stand in the Alexander way. It was very nice and relaxing and I enjoyed it. Then my day was over and back home I went.
Friday morning, we had another SPT walk, this time at Covent Garden. I was excited about the walk because the last one was very enjoyable. This one was educational but not anywhere near as fun because we spent the whole time walking around and standing in one spot in the cold listening to a lecture by Christopher. Then I had to make my way back to school for Acting. This was a thoroughly frustrating class. We started out with the animal work and this time, I was a squirrel. Kathy then asked me in the analysis if I thought that the animal work was helping me because my visualization was so good. I told her that I was not finding the animal work helpful because I couldn't find just one animal that encapsulated my character (well, yes I actually could but Kathy didn't like it so I have to change) and she tried to point me in the right direction, while confusing and frustrating me more. Then we worked on the Le Bahn tempos which also confused me and then we had to find one for ourselves and a song that went along. The only song I could think of was the song for the Marines and I only knew one line of the song, which annoyed Kathy. Then we were given individual assignments that fit our characters. Mine is that I have to go view a trial at the Old Bailey. Then the week was over and I got to relax and enjoy my comfortable bed that night after Laura and I did a little shopping on the High Street.
On Saturday, I woke up with a little time to spend relaxing and then had to run to King's Cross to meet up with one of my high school friends, Max, who was coming into London from Scotland. He was bringing along a friend from his program and another girl who was studying at Oxford and we had a great day traipsing around Leicester Square. After I picked them up at King's Cross, we went to the National Gallery and looked at the paintings for a little while. I absolutely adore that museum, it is amazing. We then had dinner at Spaghetti House which I had been wanting to try and it turned out quite good. The we wandered over to the Cafe Nero by Covent Garden and then made our way to a pub right next to the Opera House called The Chandos. It was very nice and I got to hear all about how Scotland is trying to become an independent country because Max and Ally are interning at the Scottish Parliament. We then returned home at a reasonable time and they spent the night at my dorm.
This morning, Sunday, we woke up around 11 am and got breakfast at my favorite French cafe in Kensington. Natalie then took the bus back to Oxford and I escorted Max and Ally to their hotel near King's Cross and then we were going to go to the British Museum. It was super windy and rainy and cold as we were doing this and once we found the hotel, I decided it was my time to bow out and make my way home since I was dying from the cold. I got back to Kensington as it was getting dark and got some dinner and managed to thaw out in my room. I did some work and have spent the night rehearsing monologues and trying to find a picture for acting.
And that has been my week. Hope the next one goes well.
Bye-Bye!
Here once again we sit (King John for any Shakespeare buffs out there, no, then I'm alone) for my weekly update.
On Monday, we had the usual exercise 9 to 5 day. We started that morning with movement in which we had to carry people on our backs and have people stand on our backs while kneeling. Sounds intense but it really was quite alright. All about counter balancing and figuring out weight balances. Then we moved on to our voice class in which we worked on nasal sounds versus open sounds. Then we had period dance in which we reviewed the Almain and then learned more of the Quadrille. This was the day in which my corset decided that it actually was going to cause me major pain and the Quadrille was a mess because of directions being lost in translation. Then we ended the day with stage combat in which we did more sword work. We were already exhausted from Period dance so this was really quite a challenge to get through at the end of the day. We went back to our dorm that night and passed out from exhaustion.
Tuesday started with Acting at 11 am. In this class, we learned that we have to write an autobiography for our character that we are working on and then we did a visualization of our character and then the blasted animal work again. In the analysis, Kathy told me that my visualization was one of the best in the class but that my animal was not right and I needed to try something else. So I was back to square one with that. Then we had a break and then had Space Place and Text in which we were talking about The Duchess of Malfi. We ended up having a rousing discussion about communicating in the texting and Facebook age which really had nothing to do with the play we were talking about. The day ended with me rehearsing for my audition tutorial and returning home for another night of work and sleep.
Wednesday started with our Physical Theatre class in which we worked on the eight stages of tension which is actually an extremely helpful technique to help build a character. We then applied it to an improv about a first driving lesson which I found funny because I could definitely pick out number five, the stage manager, as the stage I was in during MY first driving lesson. Then we moved onto our Shakespeare class in which we had to tell, in full detail, the first act of Measure For Measure and then we assigned an Act to present for the next class. We then moved on to our sonnets and worked on finding the vowels, consonants and the iambic pentameter to the poem. Then I had a break until my audtion tutorial in which I went to exchange my American money that I still had chilling out in my dorm. Then I had my audition tutorial which was super successful. I was nervous before because I wasn't too off book and had never done any Restoration work before in my life. Ros helped me understand the way the women moved and stayed on book for me throughout the speech. It turned out so successful because I just decided to have fun with the speech and go over the top with it. Ros kept laughing at things I did and it made me feel really great. She then asked what I would like to work on next and when I said doing George Bernard Shaw, she praised me up and down and said how smart I was. She then told me to look at Major Barbara and find a monologue from there. After this, Laura and I went to the STA office to book our trips for Spring Break. We are now all offically booked for Paris for three days and have decided to go to Berlin for a few days. I am so excited, I finally get to go to Germany which has been a dream of mine since about seventh grade. That night, we went to a fringe theatre called Theatre 503 to see a play called Desolate Heaven. It was not a good play. The plots never were wrapped up and it ended with one girl murdering the other. It was a play about the Irish so I should have known right away that someone would die. Then when we got back to our dorm after this horrendous play, me and Andrew (my partner for the Shakespeare project) had to work on Act 5 which is, of course, the most confusing because it wraps up every plot point and brings out every character. We finished working on it and then the night was over.
Thursday morning, Andrew and I had to present our disastrous summery of Act 5. Leo liked some bits of it and felt that there were other parts that needed work, which was all very true. Then we acted out Act 1 in all of it's details as a Western. This was actually quite fun except it's so hard to remember every little detail about a play I had just read. Then we had a break and our Dialects class. We talked about the terrible play for a bit of the class and then worked on RP for the rest of the time. I love this class because Simon doesn't care that we may be terrible at doing RP and just helps out so we improve. Later that day, I had my Alexander Session in which I learned where my hip bones actually are and the proper way to sit and stand in the Alexander way. It was very nice and relaxing and I enjoyed it. Then my day was over and back home I went.
Friday morning, we had another SPT walk, this time at Covent Garden. I was excited about the walk because the last one was very enjoyable. This one was educational but not anywhere near as fun because we spent the whole time walking around and standing in one spot in the cold listening to a lecture by Christopher. Then I had to make my way back to school for Acting. This was a thoroughly frustrating class. We started out with the animal work and this time, I was a squirrel. Kathy then asked me in the analysis if I thought that the animal work was helping me because my visualization was so good. I told her that I was not finding the animal work helpful because I couldn't find just one animal that encapsulated my character (well, yes I actually could but Kathy didn't like it so I have to change) and she tried to point me in the right direction, while confusing and frustrating me more. Then we worked on the Le Bahn tempos which also confused me and then we had to find one for ourselves and a song that went along. The only song I could think of was the song for the Marines and I only knew one line of the song, which annoyed Kathy. Then we were given individual assignments that fit our characters. Mine is that I have to go view a trial at the Old Bailey. Then the week was over and I got to relax and enjoy my comfortable bed that night after Laura and I did a little shopping on the High Street.
On Saturday, I woke up with a little time to spend relaxing and then had to run to King's Cross to meet up with one of my high school friends, Max, who was coming into London from Scotland. He was bringing along a friend from his program and another girl who was studying at Oxford and we had a great day traipsing around Leicester Square. After I picked them up at King's Cross, we went to the National Gallery and looked at the paintings for a little while. I absolutely adore that museum, it is amazing. We then had dinner at Spaghetti House which I had been wanting to try and it turned out quite good. The we wandered over to the Cafe Nero by Covent Garden and then made our way to a pub right next to the Opera House called The Chandos. It was very nice and I got to hear all about how Scotland is trying to become an independent country because Max and Ally are interning at the Scottish Parliament. We then returned home at a reasonable time and they spent the night at my dorm.
This morning, Sunday, we woke up around 11 am and got breakfast at my favorite French cafe in Kensington. Natalie then took the bus back to Oxford and I escorted Max and Ally to their hotel near King's Cross and then we were going to go to the British Museum. It was super windy and rainy and cold as we were doing this and once we found the hotel, I decided it was my time to bow out and make my way home since I was dying from the cold. I got back to Kensington as it was getting dark and got some dinner and managed to thaw out in my room. I did some work and have spent the night rehearsing monologues and trying to find a picture for acting.
And that has been my week. Hope the next one goes well.
Bye-Bye!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
People Try to Put Us Down
Hey everyone!
Once again, my weekly blog update! I know it's the Super Bowl or something back in America but in London, one tends to forget about that. All I will say is, GO 49ers!!!!!!
Anyway, I had another full week of classes and such is my life. Monday as always was a very full day, more exhausting then usual. In Voice class, I finally got to read my poem which was nice and got the note I always get which is to Breathe! Then in Movement, we did our usual torture session of intense ab work, handstands, push-ups, chanting "nostrils in the knees" and the like. That class is still entertaining but sometimes it sucks to be bested by a sixty-four year old woman. Then in Stage Combat, we finally got to use swords! It was a bit frustrating though because in my life, I have worked with three different fight directors who all do the same moves slightly differently which makes it difficult to relearn moves in a different way. I was frustrated at the end of that class. Then in Period Dance, we finished up learning the Almain and then moved on to the Quadrille. The day was over at five and I felt like I had been slammed into a brick wall.
Tuesday started at a reasonable time with Acting. We were discussing our pictures that we had to bring in for our characters. The picture I brought was just not right and I was frustrated because I still have no idea what my character is all about. That's the problem with a monologue, there is no context. Then we moved on to using our animals as a character study. I had chose the Black Faced Ibis as mine and soon realized after a minute of acting it out that squatting was not a wise choice. Kathy liked what I did for my animal but thought maybe I could look at another one for characterization. That afternoon, we had Space Place and Text in which we were talking about Macbeth, my all time favorite play. I also got to act out the scene I just directed in Eleanor's class last semester which was strange but also awesome to do because I knew everything that was going on. After class, I rehearsed my audition speech and was totally thrilled with how it turned out. I returned later that night to work on my other speech from The Merchant of Venice and was happy with how much I actually knew.
Wednesday was a nice day because we had Physical Theatre for the first time in a few weeks. We were all together as a group and worked on the various elements of earth, water, and fire. Fire was the most exhausting because it was literally us spazzing around the room. After this class, we had our first ever Shakespeare class! I was excited to start and our group got thrown in the deep end with our professor whose name is Leo. He had us throwing a ball around the room and say our name both backwards and forwards. Anytime we hesitated he would yell "Don't Think! Just Do!" This man has one of the most ridiculous laughs ever and calls everyone in the class "My babies"said as one word. He also always demands that we "unwrap" which means we are not allowed to cross our legs or arms. He is very strict about no laughing and no food and no thinking, just impulses. He then sat us down in a circle and had us introduce ourselves and do a bit of Shakespeare. He then intensely worked on them with us, touching on different things for us all to work on. He just got to me at the end of class and didn't have time to work on it at all with me. After a long break, I had my audition class with Ros and finally finished working on Joan and am now moving on to Lady Wishfort from The Way Of The World, which is a Restoration Comedy. I then had to stay to talk about a project with someone and made it home at five pm.
Thursday we had Shakespeare in the morning for two and a half hours. Leo started the class by working with me and gave me the note that I needed to relax my jaw though I have a very beautiful speaking voice. I did some exercises and said one line that he loved and I was done. He then finished up with everyone which ranged from half an hour sessions to five minutes. We then began to look at Measure for Measure in minute detail and soon class was over. Right after this class, I had my second Alexander session which was so relaxing that I almost fell asleep. I could feel after that my standing was remarkably different. Then we had Voice and Dialects which was very entertaining because we were working on RP, which is the standard British speaking voice. It was a tad difficult but since no one knew what they were doing, it made it entertaining. Then the day was done. We had a rehearsal that night for the tea in acting the next day in which our group had to sing the Gilbert and Sullivan patter song, John Wellington Wells. I realized I knew a lot more of the song then I thought I did and had a fun time.
Friday started with our Dramatic Criticism class which we had also not had for about two weeks. We had a discussion about The Master and Margarita and really had to dig back in the recesses of my brain in order to remember the book and play. Then we had the reckoning day, it was the tea in Acting. It ended up being a great time with presentations of everything from social class to London Life (my subject) in the 1960s. There was even a rap created about the British rock and roll in 1960s. Then Kathy analyzed our items brought for tea which she described as random. It was true, there was an extremely random collection of things from scones cut the wrong way to Kit Kat Bars. She then taught us the proper way to make tea which is exactly the way my family does it. Then we sang our songs and my group had much more energy though maybe was a bit all over the place. That ended our day. That night, Summer and Laura and I went over to Oxford Circus and went to a pub called The Green Man and met a guy there named Gus who, when he found out we were studying theatre, told us he was an amateur screenwriter. We made it home at a resonable hour and went to bed.
Saturday morning, the three of us woke up at Five Forty Five am so that we could be out of the dorm by six thirty. We had plans to go get five pound tickets for Matilda The Musical. We arrived at the theatre over in Covent Garden at six fifty am and waited for three hours for tickets which we luckily got. I made friends with the coffee lady at Cafe Nero and also managed to finish reading one of the three plays I had to read for the next week, The Duchess of Malfi. We then came back to the dorm to relax and thaw out before the show at two thirty. It was an amazing musical and I loved it even though the talent of the eight year old leading characters was a bit intimidating. I layed low that night and went to sleep by one am (which is early for me).
Today, I woke up at twelve thirty (oops) and went shopping with Laura at Primark which I had been wanting to go to for a little bit. Never again. The store was super large and overwhelming and though I managed to get a bunch of basics for no money at all, the overall experience was not worth the prices. We then went to Eat and got food and then returned home. Then we had a rehearsal for period dance and stage combat at about nine pm. There is a super bowl party now and I will not be attending.
Anyway, that has been my week. I hope yours has been good.
Bye-Bye!
Once again, my weekly blog update! I know it's the Super Bowl or something back in America but in London, one tends to forget about that. All I will say is, GO 49ers!!!!!!
Anyway, I had another full week of classes and such is my life. Monday as always was a very full day, more exhausting then usual. In Voice class, I finally got to read my poem which was nice and got the note I always get which is to Breathe! Then in Movement, we did our usual torture session of intense ab work, handstands, push-ups, chanting "nostrils in the knees" and the like. That class is still entertaining but sometimes it sucks to be bested by a sixty-four year old woman. Then in Stage Combat, we finally got to use swords! It was a bit frustrating though because in my life, I have worked with three different fight directors who all do the same moves slightly differently which makes it difficult to relearn moves in a different way. I was frustrated at the end of that class. Then in Period Dance, we finished up learning the Almain and then moved on to the Quadrille. The day was over at five and I felt like I had been slammed into a brick wall.
Tuesday started at a reasonable time with Acting. We were discussing our pictures that we had to bring in for our characters. The picture I brought was just not right and I was frustrated because I still have no idea what my character is all about. That's the problem with a monologue, there is no context. Then we moved on to using our animals as a character study. I had chose the Black Faced Ibis as mine and soon realized after a minute of acting it out that squatting was not a wise choice. Kathy liked what I did for my animal but thought maybe I could look at another one for characterization. That afternoon, we had Space Place and Text in which we were talking about Macbeth, my all time favorite play. I also got to act out the scene I just directed in Eleanor's class last semester which was strange but also awesome to do because I knew everything that was going on. After class, I rehearsed my audition speech and was totally thrilled with how it turned out. I returned later that night to work on my other speech from The Merchant of Venice and was happy with how much I actually knew.
Wednesday was a nice day because we had Physical Theatre for the first time in a few weeks. We were all together as a group and worked on the various elements of earth, water, and fire. Fire was the most exhausting because it was literally us spazzing around the room. After this class, we had our first ever Shakespeare class! I was excited to start and our group got thrown in the deep end with our professor whose name is Leo. He had us throwing a ball around the room and say our name both backwards and forwards. Anytime we hesitated he would yell "Don't Think! Just Do!" This man has one of the most ridiculous laughs ever and calls everyone in the class "My babies"said as one word. He also always demands that we "unwrap" which means we are not allowed to cross our legs or arms. He is very strict about no laughing and no food and no thinking, just impulses. He then sat us down in a circle and had us introduce ourselves and do a bit of Shakespeare. He then intensely worked on them with us, touching on different things for us all to work on. He just got to me at the end of class and didn't have time to work on it at all with me. After a long break, I had my audition class with Ros and finally finished working on Joan and am now moving on to Lady Wishfort from The Way Of The World, which is a Restoration Comedy. I then had to stay to talk about a project with someone and made it home at five pm.
Thursday we had Shakespeare in the morning for two and a half hours. Leo started the class by working with me and gave me the note that I needed to relax my jaw though I have a very beautiful speaking voice. I did some exercises and said one line that he loved and I was done. He then finished up with everyone which ranged from half an hour sessions to five minutes. We then began to look at Measure for Measure in minute detail and soon class was over. Right after this class, I had my second Alexander session which was so relaxing that I almost fell asleep. I could feel after that my standing was remarkably different. Then we had Voice and Dialects which was very entertaining because we were working on RP, which is the standard British speaking voice. It was a tad difficult but since no one knew what they were doing, it made it entertaining. Then the day was done. We had a rehearsal that night for the tea in acting the next day in which our group had to sing the Gilbert and Sullivan patter song, John Wellington Wells. I realized I knew a lot more of the song then I thought I did and had a fun time.
Friday started with our Dramatic Criticism class which we had also not had for about two weeks. We had a discussion about The Master and Margarita and really had to dig back in the recesses of my brain in order to remember the book and play. Then we had the reckoning day, it was the tea in Acting. It ended up being a great time with presentations of everything from social class to London Life (my subject) in the 1960s. There was even a rap created about the British rock and roll in 1960s. Then Kathy analyzed our items brought for tea which she described as random. It was true, there was an extremely random collection of things from scones cut the wrong way to Kit Kat Bars. She then taught us the proper way to make tea which is exactly the way my family does it. Then we sang our songs and my group had much more energy though maybe was a bit all over the place. That ended our day. That night, Summer and Laura and I went over to Oxford Circus and went to a pub called The Green Man and met a guy there named Gus who, when he found out we were studying theatre, told us he was an amateur screenwriter. We made it home at a resonable hour and went to bed.
Saturday morning, the three of us woke up at Five Forty Five am so that we could be out of the dorm by six thirty. We had plans to go get five pound tickets for Matilda The Musical. We arrived at the theatre over in Covent Garden at six fifty am and waited for three hours for tickets which we luckily got. I made friends with the coffee lady at Cafe Nero and also managed to finish reading one of the three plays I had to read for the next week, The Duchess of Malfi. We then came back to the dorm to relax and thaw out before the show at two thirty. It was an amazing musical and I loved it even though the talent of the eight year old leading characters was a bit intimidating. I layed low that night and went to sleep by one am (which is early for me).
Today, I woke up at twelve thirty (oops) and went shopping with Laura at Primark which I had been wanting to go to for a little bit. Never again. The store was super large and overwhelming and though I managed to get a bunch of basics for no money at all, the overall experience was not worth the prices. We then went to Eat and got food and then returned home. Then we had a rehearsal for period dance and stage combat at about nine pm. There is a super bowl party now and I will not be attending.
Anyway, that has been my week. I hope yours has been good.
Bye-Bye!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
I took the tube back out of town
Hello everyone!
So I just finished my second week of classes here in London. I have now had every class more then once and am starting to feel more in the grove of things. Our Shakespeare Acting class hasn't started yet which is annoying because that was why I came to the program and getting to do it was my main draw. But, I digress.
So Monday was the usual full day of active and all-day classes. Apparently Mondays are our only days that are like this. We started out the morning with Sue's movement class which was both fun and exhausting. We spent far too much time trying to figure out push ups (or press ups as they are called here) and ended up embarrassing ourselves with our complete lack of arm strength. After that we had Voice in which we warmed up and read the poems we had brought into class. In Stage Combat that day, we learned how to do various types of strangles and I found that these are much easier for me to do then punches albeit the psychological block in my mind of how horrible strangulation is as a way to die. In Period Dance, I finally managed to find a corset that fits me and does what it is supposed to. We then learned another 16th century dance and then called it a day.
On Tuesday, I started my morning again at eleven am with acting. Kathy then asked us the question "Who Are You?" Because this was an acting class and not a job interview I answered the question as truthfully as possible which others did not seem to partake in. We then were given our scenes from the play Mixed Doubles. It turns out, I got a monologue. So that is what I get to work on all term. Not really what I wanted. Then after a break, we had our Space Place and Text class in which we talked about Twelfth Night. Then the day was over.
Wednesday started out bright and early with a tour of the British Library. This tour was one of the most absurd things I have ever been on. Our tour guide started the tour with talking in the lobby about the architect and why Prince Charles hates the building for forty-five minutes before ever going anywhere. We then went and looked at a model of the building and he talked about that and robberies from the library for another twenty minutes. Then we meandered over to a room where he discussed getting library cards which is not even a viable option for us. Behind him playing on a TV was a video about the proper way to take a book off of a shelf. One technique included going behind the book and pushing it out. Then there was a section about how to properly open a book that was so specific it was things like "flexible side-stitched book". One of the kids from CUA, Christen also noticed this video and it has since become our joke. Our tour then brought us up a staircase next to the King's Tower which includes all kinds of books. But still, we were not looking at the books. One girl, Summer added her own thought into the mix with the deadpan "Even the school kids are looking at the damn books." We then looked at the King's Tower for about five minutes and wandered on to look at the world's largest Atlas. At this point, it was already 11:30 am and half of our group had to leave at noon to get back to class. Our tour guide was adamant about showing us a film about the conveyer belts when Ellen had to step in and ask if we could just go look at the treasures of the Library. Our tour guide kept pressing the video and eventually gave up and took us to see the treasures which are things such as the Magna Carta and the First Folio. We there ditched the tour guide, saw the sights, and left for class. In our Dialects class, we continued to read poems and had a heated discussion about guns and gun control. It's interesting being in England because guns are not allowed in the country and our discussion was helped by seeing two sides of the debate. That night, we went to go see Merrily We Roll Along at the Meiner Chocolate Factory. It was a great show but unfortunately we have all had the title song stuck in our head since Wednesday.
On Thursday, we had no classes because we all needed to have a session with our Alexander teachers and a meeting with Ellen to discuss how we were doing. My first meeting was not until four thirty pm and I had all day to do work and nothing. In my meeting with Ellen, we discussed how I found things and had a little mini voice lesson to help me not press my voice too far into my deepest register. In my first ever Alexander Technique session, Dee helped me learn to sit up straight properly and try to stand properly as well. I'm looking forward to having these sessions throughout the term.
Friday we had an exceptionally early start so that we could see the Rose Theatre. Except that we got lost on our way there and everyone was confused as to where to go. When then found it and we given a lecture inside the building. The space is incredible. The remnants of this theatre were discovered under an office building and have since been preserved under water. There are red lights denoting where the boundaries of the theatre are. We were then lucky enough to be allowed to doing speeches inside. I did my Joan of Arc speech from Henry VI Part 1 which was originally done at the Rose Theatre 400 years ago. It was incredible! I could practically feel the actor saying it 400 years ago behind me in the darkness. We then moved onwards and saw where the original location of the Globe was. There are some lucky people who get to live right where it was. My life's goal is to buy one of those apartments. Then our group had to go back for Acting in which we answered questions about ourselves and then connected it to our characters. That night, I decided to stay in because I was exhusted from waking up very early with little to no sleep and ended up learning harmonies to "Papa Don't Preach" and doing rounds with Summer and Laura.
Saturday was also an early morning because Laura, Andrew and I decided to go see Mark Rylance's Richard III. We got there at about ten thirty am and managed to get 32 pound tickets in the nosebleed of nosebleed section. The show was still incredible and I am so happy that I went to see it. That night, we all tried out this club called Tiger Tiger that was a huge bust. We ended up at a 24-hour Tesco and bought food befitting a drunk person.
Today we had to go to the London zoo for our acting class. It was a great time except for the fact that it was very cold. Then we returned to our house and have been doing work the rest of the day.
And that's my week!
I hope you enjoyed it!
Bye-Bye!
So I just finished my second week of classes here in London. I have now had every class more then once and am starting to feel more in the grove of things. Our Shakespeare Acting class hasn't started yet which is annoying because that was why I came to the program and getting to do it was my main draw. But, I digress.
So Monday was the usual full day of active and all-day classes. Apparently Mondays are our only days that are like this. We started out the morning with Sue's movement class which was both fun and exhausting. We spent far too much time trying to figure out push ups (or press ups as they are called here) and ended up embarrassing ourselves with our complete lack of arm strength. After that we had Voice in which we warmed up and read the poems we had brought into class. In Stage Combat that day, we learned how to do various types of strangles and I found that these are much easier for me to do then punches albeit the psychological block in my mind of how horrible strangulation is as a way to die. In Period Dance, I finally managed to find a corset that fits me and does what it is supposed to. We then learned another 16th century dance and then called it a day.
On Tuesday, I started my morning again at eleven am with acting. Kathy then asked us the question "Who Are You?" Because this was an acting class and not a job interview I answered the question as truthfully as possible which others did not seem to partake in. We then were given our scenes from the play Mixed Doubles. It turns out, I got a monologue. So that is what I get to work on all term. Not really what I wanted. Then after a break, we had our Space Place and Text class in which we talked about Twelfth Night. Then the day was over.
Wednesday started out bright and early with a tour of the British Library. This tour was one of the most absurd things I have ever been on. Our tour guide started the tour with talking in the lobby about the architect and why Prince Charles hates the building for forty-five minutes before ever going anywhere. We then went and looked at a model of the building and he talked about that and robberies from the library for another twenty minutes. Then we meandered over to a room where he discussed getting library cards which is not even a viable option for us. Behind him playing on a TV was a video about the proper way to take a book off of a shelf. One technique included going behind the book and pushing it out. Then there was a section about how to properly open a book that was so specific it was things like "flexible side-stitched book". One of the kids from CUA, Christen also noticed this video and it has since become our joke. Our tour then brought us up a staircase next to the King's Tower which includes all kinds of books. But still, we were not looking at the books. One girl, Summer added her own thought into the mix with the deadpan "Even the school kids are looking at the damn books." We then looked at the King's Tower for about five minutes and wandered on to look at the world's largest Atlas. At this point, it was already 11:30 am and half of our group had to leave at noon to get back to class. Our tour guide was adamant about showing us a film about the conveyer belts when Ellen had to step in and ask if we could just go look at the treasures of the Library. Our tour guide kept pressing the video and eventually gave up and took us to see the treasures which are things such as the Magna Carta and the First Folio. We there ditched the tour guide, saw the sights, and left for class. In our Dialects class, we continued to read poems and had a heated discussion about guns and gun control. It's interesting being in England because guns are not allowed in the country and our discussion was helped by seeing two sides of the debate. That night, we went to go see Merrily We Roll Along at the Meiner Chocolate Factory. It was a great show but unfortunately we have all had the title song stuck in our head since Wednesday.
On Thursday, we had no classes because we all needed to have a session with our Alexander teachers and a meeting with Ellen to discuss how we were doing. My first meeting was not until four thirty pm and I had all day to do work and nothing. In my meeting with Ellen, we discussed how I found things and had a little mini voice lesson to help me not press my voice too far into my deepest register. In my first ever Alexander Technique session, Dee helped me learn to sit up straight properly and try to stand properly as well. I'm looking forward to having these sessions throughout the term.
Friday we had an exceptionally early start so that we could see the Rose Theatre. Except that we got lost on our way there and everyone was confused as to where to go. When then found it and we given a lecture inside the building. The space is incredible. The remnants of this theatre were discovered under an office building and have since been preserved under water. There are red lights denoting where the boundaries of the theatre are. We were then lucky enough to be allowed to doing speeches inside. I did my Joan of Arc speech from Henry VI Part 1 which was originally done at the Rose Theatre 400 years ago. It was incredible! I could practically feel the actor saying it 400 years ago behind me in the darkness. We then moved onwards and saw where the original location of the Globe was. There are some lucky people who get to live right where it was. My life's goal is to buy one of those apartments. Then our group had to go back for Acting in which we answered questions about ourselves and then connected it to our characters. That night, I decided to stay in because I was exhusted from waking up very early with little to no sleep and ended up learning harmonies to "Papa Don't Preach" and doing rounds with Summer and Laura.
Saturday was also an early morning because Laura, Andrew and I decided to go see Mark Rylance's Richard III. We got there at about ten thirty am and managed to get 32 pound tickets in the nosebleed of nosebleed section. The show was still incredible and I am so happy that I went to see it. That night, we all tried out this club called Tiger Tiger that was a huge bust. We ended up at a 24-hour Tesco and bought food befitting a drunk person.
Today we had to go to the London zoo for our acting class. It was a great time except for the fact that it was very cold. Then we returned to our house and have been doing work the rest of the day.
And that's my week!
I hope you enjoyed it!
Bye-Bye!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Miss Macbeth saw her reflection As confetti bled it's colours down the drain
Hello Everyone!
So I have officially finished my first week of classes at the London Dramatic Academy! It is both reliving and strange to think about.
I've been sore all week from the first day (Monday) because we started with three active classes. Our schedule for Mondays consists of Voice, Movement, Stage Combat and Period Dance. Voice was my first class and it established a good president for the rest of the classes. It is taught by a very chill man named Simon Money who also teaches at RADA. He also teaches our dialect class which is nice. It was a good way to start out classes. For the next class, we had to bring in a poem or song lyrics that we liked and I chose Miss Macbeth (which is the blog title). The class we had after that was Movement, which is taught by an older South African woman named Sue. Let me say, I have never laughed so much in a class. Sue gets very excited about things and calls every student Poppet. She made us feel comfortable with the movement things we were doing and had us laughing all the time with her comments such as "super sonic spudnic" and her squeals of happiness over people's flexibilities. Movement kicked my ass though and made me sore for days. Then we had Stage Combat which is taught by this awesome man named Gordan. We learned how to do slaps and punches to the face. I love stage combat so I loved this class a lot, but was super tired by the end. We ended the day with Period Dance which is probably one of my favorite classes. We learned a 16th century country dance that is so much fun but super exhausting. The only thing that is annoying about the class is that the corset we spent so much time trying to find the right fit are too big for me and is not doing the job it's supposed to. We ended the at five pm and proceeded to have a little birthday celebration for one of the girls in the program who was turning 21. It also had been snowing all day and made for a very magical first day.
Tuesday was a nice day because I did not have to start class until eleven that day. Our meal plan in the dorm also started and it has not turned out to be all that bad. There organization is the only thing that needs serious work. My school day started with my Acting class which was not the way I was expecting it to be. Our teacher is this very strange woman who is very passionate about theatre and has high standards about what she wants for the class. We spent about half an hour trying to answer her question "What is Acting?" and finally when she told us that "Acting is doing something to someone else" it made a lot of sense. She then had us do an exercise where you had to sneak into the room without waking someone or else you died. She was kind of harsh throughout the class and yelled at me for yawning in class, which I found unnecessary since I only did once. This first class left me with a bad taste in my mouth but I decided it would be best to keep an open mind. We then had Space, Place and Text which is a part of our Dramatic criticism class and consists of reading plays and then taking tours of the areas where the plays were staged. Our teacher for this class is a very adorable older woman named Alison. The entire group was in this class and we discussed Doctor Faustus in great detail. Our day ended there and I limped on home to chill that night and rest my very sore limbs.
Wednesday started at nine as usual with a entire group Physical Theatre class which was a lot of fun. Our teacher is this awesome woman named Alley who studied at the Le Coq school and does a lot of physical theatre all the time. We did all kinds of stretches and exercises that involved physical theatre. It was very enjoyable and I will like this class. We then worked on sonnets with Ellen, the director of the program. I was the third person to go and Ellen helped me work on making my sonnet more personal to me. It was very nice because I got to hear everyone else in the program kind of act. I then had Dialects with Simon which was great because we led a list of words and tried to pick out how the other people in the class said words differently. It made me realize the the Bay Area does have a very slight accent. We then listened to the RP pronunciation of words and tried to imitate them. I then had my audition tutorial with Ros who is amazing. She helped me work on my Joan speech and helped me scan the speech to find anything interesting in the speech to help me act. I am going to really enjoy working with her. Wednesday night was uneventful.
On Thursday we started our day with an introduction to our Alexander technique class. With those unfamiliar, this is a way to teach proper alignment to the human body and is necessary both for life and theatre. We discussed it with our teacher, Dee, and then watched a very old movie discussing the subject. After this, my group had physical theatre again and we did massages (which were incredible, apparently it made me grow about three inches) and then began on the elements which helps with physicality on stage. This class, we were air and had to move around the room as such. It ended up being incredibly relaxing and made me feel great afterwards. Because I had no one-on-one Alexander tutorial, I was done with my day by lunch time and got to chill in my room until we had to go see The Master and Margarita at the Barbican Theatre. Before LDA started, we were required to read the novel and it made the viewing of the play very interesting because I obviously knew what was going on. This show was incredibly technical which helped with the fantastical element of the story. There were some things I did not agree with in the show but I still found this three and a half hour play to be quite enjoyable. Plus, they used "Gimmie Shelter" by the Rolling Stones which I was very excited about.
On Friday, along with it being the end of the first week, it also began to snow all day! Kensington becomes magical when this happens. Anyway, on this day we started with Dramatic Criticism which was amazing, I love this class. Our teacher, Christopher (we are only allowed to call him this) started the typical name, where you are from, with asking us "Which Shakespeare role would you kill someone to play?" The answers were all very interesting. We had roles from ten tragedies, two histories, and eight comedies. I said Lady Macbeth because I would kill someone to play this role. We then had a guest speaker! Pip Carter from The Dark Earth and the Light Sky which we had seen the week before! He talked to us about being an actor and it comforted me to know that even professional actors can still doubt their talents and lack a process. I then had a long break before I had to return for acting, which I was dreading. Acting turned out to be incredible because we talked about the personal objects or photo that we were instructed to bring. It really gave a great insight into these people that I feel like I've known my whole life but really have only known for a week. We then worked on sonnets with Ellen and then were done for the day at six thirty. That night, me and a bunch of people went to a gay pub and club which was my first time ever doing anything of the sort. I loved it from the minute I stepped into the Duke of Wellington. Everyone looked good, they were playing eighties music, and no one was trying to awkwardly hit on me! We then moved onto Gay Late, which was the gay club. This was also a lot of fun until one of the guys in our group got his wallet stolen. We all felt bad about it and decided to come home.We arrived back at the dorm at about three am.
Yesterday, I woke up at eleven thirty (so not what I wanted to do) and then went to the Victoria and Albert with a group of girls. We had an amazing time and saw the fashion, jewelry, glass art, architecture, medieval and sculpture section and didn't even touch the rest of the museum. That place is massive. While in the jewelry section, Meg and I got roped into a very long conversation with one of the museum docents that started with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and ended with Winston Churchill. I had been feeling sick all day and was starting to zone out during this point. The museum was the perfect way to escape the cold weather and see some amazing things. We then did a little tea break at our favorite neighborhood cafe called Montparnasse, which serves some great food. Last night, me and Summer and Laura went to the Prince of Wales pub on High street and enjoyed one drink before coming home to hang out.
Today, it had begun snowing again and despite this, we managed to go to Spitalfields market, which is one of my favorite places to shop in the world. I managed to finally get an amazing dress coat for only 30 pounds along with a cashmere sweater for only fifteen pounds! We then met up with Kyra and Summer to see one of the Harry Potter filming locations. It was a bit anti-climatic because none of us could recognize what set exactly we were looking for. I then decided to come home because I was freezing. I have since been relaxing and managing to watch half of Django Unchained before it was removed off Youtube.
Class resumes tomorrow and now it's no longer the first day. I should go to sleep soon and get ready for the coming week, which is not looking all that bad.
As usual, see you all next week
Bye-Bye!
So I have officially finished my first week of classes at the London Dramatic Academy! It is both reliving and strange to think about.
I've been sore all week from the first day (Monday) because we started with three active classes. Our schedule for Mondays consists of Voice, Movement, Stage Combat and Period Dance. Voice was my first class and it established a good president for the rest of the classes. It is taught by a very chill man named Simon Money who also teaches at RADA. He also teaches our dialect class which is nice. It was a good way to start out classes. For the next class, we had to bring in a poem or song lyrics that we liked and I chose Miss Macbeth (which is the blog title). The class we had after that was Movement, which is taught by an older South African woman named Sue. Let me say, I have never laughed so much in a class. Sue gets very excited about things and calls every student Poppet. She made us feel comfortable with the movement things we were doing and had us laughing all the time with her comments such as "super sonic spudnic" and her squeals of happiness over people's flexibilities. Movement kicked my ass though and made me sore for days. Then we had Stage Combat which is taught by this awesome man named Gordan. We learned how to do slaps and punches to the face. I love stage combat so I loved this class a lot, but was super tired by the end. We ended the day with Period Dance which is probably one of my favorite classes. We learned a 16th century country dance that is so much fun but super exhausting. The only thing that is annoying about the class is that the corset we spent so much time trying to find the right fit are too big for me and is not doing the job it's supposed to. We ended the at five pm and proceeded to have a little birthday celebration for one of the girls in the program who was turning 21. It also had been snowing all day and made for a very magical first day.
Tuesday was a nice day because I did not have to start class until eleven that day. Our meal plan in the dorm also started and it has not turned out to be all that bad. There organization is the only thing that needs serious work. My school day started with my Acting class which was not the way I was expecting it to be. Our teacher is this very strange woman who is very passionate about theatre and has high standards about what she wants for the class. We spent about half an hour trying to answer her question "What is Acting?" and finally when she told us that "Acting is doing something to someone else" it made a lot of sense. She then had us do an exercise where you had to sneak into the room without waking someone or else you died. She was kind of harsh throughout the class and yelled at me for yawning in class, which I found unnecessary since I only did once. This first class left me with a bad taste in my mouth but I decided it would be best to keep an open mind. We then had Space, Place and Text which is a part of our Dramatic criticism class and consists of reading plays and then taking tours of the areas where the plays were staged. Our teacher for this class is a very adorable older woman named Alison. The entire group was in this class and we discussed Doctor Faustus in great detail. Our day ended there and I limped on home to chill that night and rest my very sore limbs.
Wednesday started at nine as usual with a entire group Physical Theatre class which was a lot of fun. Our teacher is this awesome woman named Alley who studied at the Le Coq school and does a lot of physical theatre all the time. We did all kinds of stretches and exercises that involved physical theatre. It was very enjoyable and I will like this class. We then worked on sonnets with Ellen, the director of the program. I was the third person to go and Ellen helped me work on making my sonnet more personal to me. It was very nice because I got to hear everyone else in the program kind of act. I then had Dialects with Simon which was great because we led a list of words and tried to pick out how the other people in the class said words differently. It made me realize the the Bay Area does have a very slight accent. We then listened to the RP pronunciation of words and tried to imitate them. I then had my audition tutorial with Ros who is amazing. She helped me work on my Joan speech and helped me scan the speech to find anything interesting in the speech to help me act. I am going to really enjoy working with her. Wednesday night was uneventful.
On Thursday we started our day with an introduction to our Alexander technique class. With those unfamiliar, this is a way to teach proper alignment to the human body and is necessary both for life and theatre. We discussed it with our teacher, Dee, and then watched a very old movie discussing the subject. After this, my group had physical theatre again and we did massages (which were incredible, apparently it made me grow about three inches) and then began on the elements which helps with physicality on stage. This class, we were air and had to move around the room as such. It ended up being incredibly relaxing and made me feel great afterwards. Because I had no one-on-one Alexander tutorial, I was done with my day by lunch time and got to chill in my room until we had to go see The Master and Margarita at the Barbican Theatre. Before LDA started, we were required to read the novel and it made the viewing of the play very interesting because I obviously knew what was going on. This show was incredibly technical which helped with the fantastical element of the story. There were some things I did not agree with in the show but I still found this three and a half hour play to be quite enjoyable. Plus, they used "Gimmie Shelter" by the Rolling Stones which I was very excited about.
On Friday, along with it being the end of the first week, it also began to snow all day! Kensington becomes magical when this happens. Anyway, on this day we started with Dramatic Criticism which was amazing, I love this class. Our teacher, Christopher (we are only allowed to call him this) started the typical name, where you are from, with asking us "Which Shakespeare role would you kill someone to play?" The answers were all very interesting. We had roles from ten tragedies, two histories, and eight comedies. I said Lady Macbeth because I would kill someone to play this role. We then had a guest speaker! Pip Carter from The Dark Earth and the Light Sky which we had seen the week before! He talked to us about being an actor and it comforted me to know that even professional actors can still doubt their talents and lack a process. I then had a long break before I had to return for acting, which I was dreading. Acting turned out to be incredible because we talked about the personal objects or photo that we were instructed to bring. It really gave a great insight into these people that I feel like I've known my whole life but really have only known for a week. We then worked on sonnets with Ellen and then were done for the day at six thirty. That night, me and a bunch of people went to a gay pub and club which was my first time ever doing anything of the sort. I loved it from the minute I stepped into the Duke of Wellington. Everyone looked good, they were playing eighties music, and no one was trying to awkwardly hit on me! We then moved onto Gay Late, which was the gay club. This was also a lot of fun until one of the guys in our group got his wallet stolen. We all felt bad about it and decided to come home.We arrived back at the dorm at about three am.
Yesterday, I woke up at eleven thirty (so not what I wanted to do) and then went to the Victoria and Albert with a group of girls. We had an amazing time and saw the fashion, jewelry, glass art, architecture, medieval and sculpture section and didn't even touch the rest of the museum. That place is massive. While in the jewelry section, Meg and I got roped into a very long conversation with one of the museum docents that started with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and ended with Winston Churchill. I had been feeling sick all day and was starting to zone out during this point. The museum was the perfect way to escape the cold weather and see some amazing things. We then did a little tea break at our favorite neighborhood cafe called Montparnasse, which serves some great food. Last night, me and Summer and Laura went to the Prince of Wales pub on High street and enjoyed one drink before coming home to hang out.
Today, it had begun snowing again and despite this, we managed to go to Spitalfields market, which is one of my favorite places to shop in the world. I managed to finally get an amazing dress coat for only 30 pounds along with a cashmere sweater for only fifteen pounds! We then met up with Kyra and Summer to see one of the Harry Potter filming locations. It was a bit anti-climatic because none of us could recognize what set exactly we were looking for. I then decided to come home because I was freezing. I have since been relaxing and managing to watch half of Django Unchained before it was removed off Youtube.
Class resumes tomorrow and now it's no longer the first day. I should go to sleep soon and get ready for the coming week, which is not looking all that bad.
As usual, see you all next week
Bye-Bye!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Auld Lang Syne
I just realized that I forgot to do a New Year's list of all the things I did during 2012 so here it goes.
In 2012 I:
1) was a part of Seven
2) lost my childhood dog, Kiara
3) had the exceptionally interesting classes, Revolutionary America and Modern American Drama
4) Finished my dumb math requirement
5) got the internship at Marin Shakespeare Company!
6) was a part of King John, my first ever Shakespeare play
7) Understudied for Hedda Gabler
8) Became a Junior in college!
9) finished my philsophy and English requirement
10) GOT INTO LDA!!!!!!!
11) Turned 21!
12) Went to the White House to celebrate Obama's reelection
13) Lost my grandmother in June
14) Made Dean's List again for the Fall 2012
15) Directed an awesome scene from Macbeth
16) Went to my cousin's weddings, my first since I was six
17) Hurricane Sandy
18) Got closer with friends and all that cliche stuff
So much more happened last year but I just can't remember it all! I hope that all of the rest of your had a great 2012 and an even better 2013. I know I am.
Bye-Bye!
In 2012 I:
1) was a part of Seven
2) lost my childhood dog, Kiara
3) had the exceptionally interesting classes, Revolutionary America and Modern American Drama
4) Finished my dumb math requirement
5) got the internship at Marin Shakespeare Company!
6) was a part of King John, my first ever Shakespeare play
7) Understudied for Hedda Gabler
8) Became a Junior in college!
9) finished my philsophy and English requirement
10) GOT INTO LDA!!!!!!!
11) Turned 21!
12) Went to the White House to celebrate Obama's reelection
13) Lost my grandmother in June
14) Made Dean's List again for the Fall 2012
15) Directed an awesome scene from Macbeth
16) Went to my cousin's weddings, my first since I was six
17) Hurricane Sandy
18) Got closer with friends and all that cliche stuff
So much more happened last year but I just can't remember it all! I hope that all of the rest of your had a great 2012 and an even better 2013. I know I am.
Bye-Bye!
London calling to the faraway towns
Hello everyone!
So I am writing this post after my first week in LONDON!!!! It's amazing, I love this city. There are twenty one of us in the program (11 girls and 10 boys, 6 people from catholic, 6 people from Fordham and the rest come from various schools around the country) and everyone is nice and I'm excited to work with them. Classes start tomorrow and I figured that I would keep you all updated on my study abroad.
I flew out of San Francisco on Monday and was so nervous on my way to the airport that I wanted to get out of the car and run home to my bed. Going to the international terminal was strange for me because the last time I was there was when I was flying to London in high school and I had a whole bunch of people I knew around me. I also knew that I was going to be home in two weeks, not four months. Getting through security was rough because there were so many people flying and TSA kept yelling at everyone and it made me very glad to be leaving the US. I managed to get through security with enough time to try and use up my American dollars with a quick meal and then I boarded my flight.
I was flying in economy (because really, what average person does not) in a window seat next to a very nice British couple and proceeded to try and make my movie selection for this nine and a half hour journey. I managed to watch two movies (Moonrise Kingdom which was great, and Pitch Perfect which I love) and a bunch of TV shows (The Newsroom is actually pretty good) and as usual, tried to sleep which is always futile for me. We landed at Heathrow at 10:45 the next day (Tuesday) after circling around the airport for awhile, only made clear to me when I realized that I had seen the same clouds-turned-into-fresh-powder (in my imagination)before. Once I got to the airport, it was a race for time because I was trying to meet the LDA coach at noon and we got off our plane at eleven. I got a bit hung up at baggage claim because Heathrow has this confusing carousal that just keeps snaking around the room forever and is never really marked what is what. Yet I made it safely to the Meeting Point and found other LDA students. And the true fun began.
I met about half of the LDA group at the airport and instantly knew that we were all going to hit it off. It became clear when the whole group was trying to figure out a way to stall our leader from leaving because we were still waiting for one person to show up (also flying from San Francisco) whom about half of us had never met. She made it to the coach in the nick of time and we were on our way to Kensington, where we are living. We had to drag all of our suitcases through the tiny streets of Kensington and never felt so silly or foolish before in our lives. We made it to the Atlantic House, which is a dorm that is a part of Richmond University (which has a ridiculously long, expat name). We got a chance to get to our rooms and put our stuff down. I'm living on the first floor with Kyra Jackson, who is from Long Island and is actually exceptionally sweet. Then we were forced to drag our jet-lagged selves in a tour of the very strange building (every dorm room is different, honest to God) and then to two meetings led by a very exuberant American and a somewhat racist British police officer. I went to sleep at 7:15 that night, the earliest I've gone to sleep since I was seven. The next day, we were all comparing what time we went to sleep and how many times we woke up that night.
The next day, we had to find our way to where classes were being held and we taken on a walk to Hampstead Heath by the director of the program. Now, traveling in a group of twenty two people obviously pointed out the fact that we were Americans and when one person got left off the Tube, that just sealed the deal. We had to get off the Tube to wait for them to return and ended up crossing Hungerford Bridge over to the Southbank arts center. After about a half hour of that, we got back on track and made our way to Hampstead Heath which ended up being a two hour walk through a very beautiful and extremely muddy park. We ended the scheduled day with tea at the Kenwood house which was wonderful and gave us a chance to talk to one another again. We then embarrassed ourselves by taking the bus as a large group and took the tube back to High Street Kensington. That night, we tried to find nice bars to go to around the area which just proved to us that we were indeed living in the most expensive part of town.
On Thursday, we started out with a walking tour of the Kensington area led by our Dramatic criticism teacher named Simon, who is very quintessentially British. He took us around the palace and gardens, which are walking distance from home and then took us down to South Kensington into some of the museums along the main drag. It was exceptionally cold that day and we were all ready to stay inside forever. We then had an academic meeting in which we were given our massive time tables with every class and excursion on it, which Kyra and I have since highlighted and tacked up to our door. After this meeting, the girls had to stay for our corset and skirt fittings which was both fun and kind of chaotic. We all learned that we had to hem our skirts because the measurements we sent in were wrong and then had to go on a treasure hunt to try and find the corset that would fit us best. Only two girls ended up not finding on and the rest of us were set. Then we were fed pizza and some of us ended the night by walking along the south bank of the Thames.
On Friday, we didn't have to start our day until one pm and I slept late and ran some errands. We then were having a meeting with all of the people that are a part of the London Centre and it ended up being some strange lecture on how we have to create real memories and not fake ones. It made entirely no sense. Then us LDA students had a meet and greet with our faculty and were given more free food. I loved the meet and greet because it gave me a chance to meet all my teachers and realize that I am super excited for classes to begin. That night, a bunch of us manged to get into a very nice club for free and had a fun time, though it was strange at first.
Yesterday was actually the greatest day of my life. It started by going to see a play at the Almedia theatre called The Dark Earth and The Light Sky which was about the relationship between poets Robert Frost and Edward Thomas. It was a good play with a few flaws (the lead actress had this strange face she kept making and Frost's American accent was horrid). The best part of the day was when four of us girls decided to go get standing room tickets for Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse, which we had all been told to go see. We luckily got the last four standing room tickets for only seven pounds and saw the greatest piece of theatre that I have ever seen. It was an all-female production set in a women's prison that did not have a single weak actress in the bunch. It was scary and violent and totally bad-ass. The actress playing Brutus, Casius and Marc Anthony were probably some of the best actors, male or female, that I have ever seen and I am so glad that I manged to go see the show. We ended the night by walking around down by Westminster and came home to chill out and tell everyone and their mother about JC.
Today we have nothing scheduled and I have taken advantage of it by clearly blogging and sleeping late. I need to go buy a phone later and get prepared for classes tomorrow. But I just wanted to tell you all about my first week in London.
I plan on updating this at least once a week and will try to make it just as action packed as this one!
Bye-Bye!
So I am writing this post after my first week in LONDON!!!! It's amazing, I love this city. There are twenty one of us in the program (11 girls and 10 boys, 6 people from catholic, 6 people from Fordham and the rest come from various schools around the country) and everyone is nice and I'm excited to work with them. Classes start tomorrow and I figured that I would keep you all updated on my study abroad.
I flew out of San Francisco on Monday and was so nervous on my way to the airport that I wanted to get out of the car and run home to my bed. Going to the international terminal was strange for me because the last time I was there was when I was flying to London in high school and I had a whole bunch of people I knew around me. I also knew that I was going to be home in two weeks, not four months. Getting through security was rough because there were so many people flying and TSA kept yelling at everyone and it made me very glad to be leaving the US. I managed to get through security with enough time to try and use up my American dollars with a quick meal and then I boarded my flight.
I was flying in economy (because really, what average person does not) in a window seat next to a very nice British couple and proceeded to try and make my movie selection for this nine and a half hour journey. I managed to watch two movies (Moonrise Kingdom which was great, and Pitch Perfect which I love) and a bunch of TV shows (The Newsroom is actually pretty good) and as usual, tried to sleep which is always futile for me. We landed at Heathrow at 10:45 the next day (Tuesday) after circling around the airport for awhile, only made clear to me when I realized that I had seen the same clouds-turned-into-fresh-powder (in my imagination)before. Once I got to the airport, it was a race for time because I was trying to meet the LDA coach at noon and we got off our plane at eleven. I got a bit hung up at baggage claim because Heathrow has this confusing carousal that just keeps snaking around the room forever and is never really marked what is what. Yet I made it safely to the Meeting Point and found other LDA students. And the true fun began.
I met about half of the LDA group at the airport and instantly knew that we were all going to hit it off. It became clear when the whole group was trying to figure out a way to stall our leader from leaving because we were still waiting for one person to show up (also flying from San Francisco) whom about half of us had never met. She made it to the coach in the nick of time and we were on our way to Kensington, where we are living. We had to drag all of our suitcases through the tiny streets of Kensington and never felt so silly or foolish before in our lives. We made it to the Atlantic House, which is a dorm that is a part of Richmond University (which has a ridiculously long, expat name). We got a chance to get to our rooms and put our stuff down. I'm living on the first floor with Kyra Jackson, who is from Long Island and is actually exceptionally sweet. Then we were forced to drag our jet-lagged selves in a tour of the very strange building (every dorm room is different, honest to God) and then to two meetings led by a very exuberant American and a somewhat racist British police officer. I went to sleep at 7:15 that night, the earliest I've gone to sleep since I was seven. The next day, we were all comparing what time we went to sleep and how many times we woke up that night.
The next day, we had to find our way to where classes were being held and we taken on a walk to Hampstead Heath by the director of the program. Now, traveling in a group of twenty two people obviously pointed out the fact that we were Americans and when one person got left off the Tube, that just sealed the deal. We had to get off the Tube to wait for them to return and ended up crossing Hungerford Bridge over to the Southbank arts center. After about a half hour of that, we got back on track and made our way to Hampstead Heath which ended up being a two hour walk through a very beautiful and extremely muddy park. We ended the scheduled day with tea at the Kenwood house which was wonderful and gave us a chance to talk to one another again. We then embarrassed ourselves by taking the bus as a large group and took the tube back to High Street Kensington. That night, we tried to find nice bars to go to around the area which just proved to us that we were indeed living in the most expensive part of town.
On Thursday, we started out with a walking tour of the Kensington area led by our Dramatic criticism teacher named Simon, who is very quintessentially British. He took us around the palace and gardens, which are walking distance from home and then took us down to South Kensington into some of the museums along the main drag. It was exceptionally cold that day and we were all ready to stay inside forever. We then had an academic meeting in which we were given our massive time tables with every class and excursion on it, which Kyra and I have since highlighted and tacked up to our door. After this meeting, the girls had to stay for our corset and skirt fittings which was both fun and kind of chaotic. We all learned that we had to hem our skirts because the measurements we sent in were wrong and then had to go on a treasure hunt to try and find the corset that would fit us best. Only two girls ended up not finding on and the rest of us were set. Then we were fed pizza and some of us ended the night by walking along the south bank of the Thames.
On Friday, we didn't have to start our day until one pm and I slept late and ran some errands. We then were having a meeting with all of the people that are a part of the London Centre and it ended up being some strange lecture on how we have to create real memories and not fake ones. It made entirely no sense. Then us LDA students had a meet and greet with our faculty and were given more free food. I loved the meet and greet because it gave me a chance to meet all my teachers and realize that I am super excited for classes to begin. That night, a bunch of us manged to get into a very nice club for free and had a fun time, though it was strange at first.
Yesterday was actually the greatest day of my life. It started by going to see a play at the Almedia theatre called The Dark Earth and The Light Sky which was about the relationship between poets Robert Frost and Edward Thomas. It was a good play with a few flaws (the lead actress had this strange face she kept making and Frost's American accent was horrid). The best part of the day was when four of us girls decided to go get standing room tickets for Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse, which we had all been told to go see. We luckily got the last four standing room tickets for only seven pounds and saw the greatest piece of theatre that I have ever seen. It was an all-female production set in a women's prison that did not have a single weak actress in the bunch. It was scary and violent and totally bad-ass. The actress playing Brutus, Casius and Marc Anthony were probably some of the best actors, male or female, that I have ever seen and I am so glad that I manged to go see the show. We ended the night by walking around down by Westminster and came home to chill out and tell everyone and their mother about JC.
Today we have nothing scheduled and I have taken advantage of it by clearly blogging and sleeping late. I need to go buy a phone later and get prepared for classes tomorrow. But I just wanted to tell you all about my first week in London.
I plan on updating this at least once a week and will try to make it just as action packed as this one!
Bye-Bye!
Friday, December 7, 2012
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Hello everyone,
As always, I have been so busy that I have been unable to update this blog as much as I want. Maybe I should just write once a month because that is what I seem to be doing.
So I hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving. Mine was great because I got to go home for the first time in two years. I spent thanksgiving day down in LA and then flew back to DC that Saturday after. I had a nice week long break that was shortly ruined by the last three weeks of school.
Finals have apparently become a two week affair and I have been so busy and stressed trying to finish everything for this week that I haven't even thought about actual finals week. That is a joy.
I have a week left here at Catholic and then I am off to the United Kingdom. I can't believe that it is happening. And I turn 21 in fifteen days! Look at me, growing up and stuff.
Tonight we have our Christmas dance which I have never been to and am both excited and indifferent about. And then finals start.
See you all on the other side!!
Bye-Bye!
As always, I have been so busy that I have been unable to update this blog as much as I want. Maybe I should just write once a month because that is what I seem to be doing.
So I hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving. Mine was great because I got to go home for the first time in two years. I spent thanksgiving day down in LA and then flew back to DC that Saturday after. I had a nice week long break that was shortly ruined by the last three weeks of school.
Finals have apparently become a two week affair and I have been so busy and stressed trying to finish everything for this week that I haven't even thought about actual finals week. That is a joy.
I have a week left here at Catholic and then I am off to the United Kingdom. I can't believe that it is happening. And I turn 21 in fifteen days! Look at me, growing up and stuff.
Tonight we have our Christmas dance which I have never been to and am both excited and indifferent about. And then finals start.
See you all on the other side!!
Bye-Bye!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)