This past Friday, amidst a cloud of perfume, roses, chocolates, and wine, I braved the bus to go meet Emma when she arrived in London!! Due to some particularly terrible London rain and wind, her flight was delayed a bit but got in with plenty of time to get some dinner and catch up. Her friend from Swarthmore is also studying abroad in London so the three of us met up to get dinner. I chose Nando’s because who doesn’t love a good chicken sandwich? We had a delicious dinner and then Emma and I headed back to my room. Turns out the shoebox is big enough to sleep an additional person!! (If that person is willing to curl up on the floor for a couple nights…)

I was worried about the weather for the weekend because Friday night there were extremely gusty winds and sheets of rain falling on the city. Fortunately, Saturday morning didn’t look too bleak so we headed out to Westminster Abbey.

Like proper tourists, we picked up our free audio guide and began wandering around. Despite the slight drizzle carrying on outside, the Abbey wasn’t too terribly crowded and we could see it all with relative ease and enjoyment. I don’t think the grandeur of this building will ever cease to amaze me. The history that lives within its walls is palpable. Walking the halls, you share pathways with some of the most famous (and infamous) kings and queens of history. Standing at the various graves and memorials, you are in the company of brilliant minds, brave warriors, and regal rulers. I think my favorite area in the Abbey is the Lady Chapel, built under the orders of Henry VII. With a magnificent fan vaulted ceiling, colorful banners of family crests lining the walls, and the tombs of Mary I and Elizabeth I, it is truly a masterpiece to behold. Poets’ Corner also holds a dear place in my heart. While all the geniuses memorialized there are not interred at the Abbey, it is mind boggling to realize (in a more tangible way than a list of names) the number of great minds who have impacted this world in such a grand way through their words and thoughts alone.

After our long visit to Westminster Abbey, we ducked into a Pret a Manger to escape the rain which had picked up considerably. We enjoyed a quick lunch and then decided to walk along the South Bank. Our walk took us all the way from Westminster Bridge to the Southwark Bridge. From the Southwark Bridge, we could see the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. On our way, we passed the National Theatre, The Globe, The Tate Modern, and many other beautiful South Bank sights. Walking along the South Bank is truly one of my favorite walks in London. Earlier in the day we had decided to ride the London Eye that evening so, doubling back, we got in line to board the Eye. Somehow, we managed to time everything perfectly so that we boarded at sunset. I don’t think the city has ever looked quite as lovely as it did on that ride. The sunset glowed purple, red, pink, and yellow. It bathed the city in such beautiful light.

Disembarking from the Eye, we walked back across Westminster Bridge to board the tube.

We headed to the Churchill Arms for some delicious Thai food for dinner, where Emma’s friend from Swat met up with us again. After that, we went to Leicester Square to hear some live music and hang out. Exhausted, we soon headed home for some sleep.

The next morning, we woke up and headed out towards Buckingham Palace. Stopping for some tea and breakfast, we soon joined the crowds waiting at the palace gates for the changing of the guard. We managed to find a spot not too far from the gates themselves and we waited for the ceremony to begin. While we understood none of the formalities (and probably should have downloaded the 69p app that would have explained it all in real time), it was still delightful to watch. People abandoned their posts early on because they thought they weren’t going to be able to see anything. Emma and I pushed up right against the gate just as the whole ceremony moved to the half of the palace we could see. Silly people gave up hope too quickly. Not that we were complaining… we had a front row view of everything!

Once the guards were finished changing (and strangely playing some Billy Joel songs for a while…), we snapped a picture of the three of us and headed out.

From there, we walked to the Churchill War Rooms at the other end of the park from Buckingham Palace. The next time any of you are in London run, do not walk, to the War Rooms. Descending underneath the city above, you are thrown back in time and learn more about World War II history than any AP US History class could ever teach you. You are taken through the bunker from which Churchill operated during the Blitz. Many of the rooms, though shielded by a pane of glass, look as though their inhabitants might return at any moment, having simply stepped out for a cigarette or some food. One room contains the phone from which Churchill and Roosevelt frequently spoke. The room was disguised from the outside to look like a lavatory but inside one can only imagine that some of the most important conversations of the century took place. The Map Room was my personal favorite, as it has hardly been touched since the war ended. On August 16, 1945, the lights were switched off for the first time since the war began and the room was sealed. It remained undisturbed until the government decided to open this museum in the 1980s, so undisturbed that in preparing the museum the conservators found an envelope containing a commander’s sugar ration tucked away in his desk drawer. The maps on the walls are dotted with pin holes, evidence of the meticulous tracking of Allied ships. Just as in Westminster Abbey, the history is palpable.

Needing something a bit lighter to finish Emma’s visit off with, we headed out towards Arsenal Stadium. Arsenal was playing a big game that day against Liverpool and Emma had found what the internet proclaimed as the pub from which to watch an Arsenal game. Emerging from the Tube, the streets were lined with vendors selling Arsenal gear, fish and chips, sweets, burgers, and beer. The whole area was buzzing with activity and excitement for the afternoon’s game. We wandered around, taking it all in, and finally grabbed a burger. We perched ourselves on a garden wall and watched everyone walk to the game. Then we went to the pub to watch the first half of the game before getting on the Tube so Emma wouldn’t miss her flight back to Paris. Thanks for visiting, Emma!! I had a great weekend and I hope you did too : )

This week has been flying by… There are no clown mishaps to report although as people continued to show off their “special skills” we all laughed so hard our sides hurt. It was also my day to work on my monologue with Jenny on Monday. It went pretty well and I have yet another monologue to tuck away into my repertoire. (I think that brings the total up to 5 monologues and we’re only half way done. I love it.) Tuesday we continued hearing character presentations in James’ class, followed by a pure voice class taught by George in which we focused on our ribcages and breathing to our full capacity. Following George’s class, we went to improv where we continued working on our ever important concepts (accept, listen, commit) by getting into pairs (followed by groups of 3s and 4s) to tell stories one word at a time. This yielded funny, entertaining results.

Tuesday night in rehearsal, George came in to help us with voice work while Tina rehearsed other scenes. It was immensely helpful to have a voice coach work with us on this material. He helped identify some of my bad habits and we worked to fix them. He gave very astute notes that I am working hard to apply.

Stevie continued helping us with Restoration concepts in applied voice on Wednesday. Following Stevie’s class, we learned a new historical dance with Diana and then got a nice workout with Yorgos. After our classes finished for the day, the ladies met again with Diana to get fitted for corsets. We are sharing corsets with people in the other casts so we will only have them occasionally for rehearsals but then we will all have them for our performances. Uncomfortable though they are, I think they will help us get into the style of Restoration much more.

Today the day began with singing where we sang through our Elizabethan songs one last time before she assigned us Restoration songs. Then we went to combat where I always feel like a total badass which continued today as we learned more and more fight choreography. My badass factor only slipped a bit when Christina used me to demonstrate the shoulder shove. After explaining that we would almost certainly do it wrong the first time because our natural instinct is to absorb the shock with our upper body/torso, she shoved me with little warning and I went flying backwards. Sure enough, I absorbed the shock with my shoulders instead of sending the energy down into my feet to use to get away more quickly. Lesson learned, Christina, lesson learned. After fighting our hearts out, we headed to Debbie’s class where we continued our Michael Chekhov work.

Following lunch, we got to see the Ds presentations. One group of them performed The White Devil and the other group performed The Duchess of Malfi. Both were excellently done. I was so impressed by everyone and it was great to see some new friends perform such lovely work.

Tonight, GW’s first department show opens and many of my friends are in it. I am sending all of my love across the pond to them. It feels weird not to be there and I am sad to be missing what I’m sure is a brilliantly hilarious Ionesco piece. Looking at our timetables, it is hard to believe we are nearly half way through the term. There’s still so much to be learned and so much to see. I’m missing everyone back home but am excited for all the adventures ahead.

Until next time!

Cheers : )

How many people do you know who can say they have a bruise on their bum from clown? Not many, I’d venture to guess. Well I can.

Monday morning had us showing off our “special skills” in our clown class. A special skill for a clown is quite different from what us normal humans would consider a special skill. One girl had her clown’s socks become opera singing sock puppets. Someone else could read minds through a complex series of hand motions and sounds. My clown? My clown was skilled at juggling slips of paper. As I was directed through the exercise by Michael, I found myself hopping along on one foot while the other foot balanced a slip of paper I was juggling. Hopping along (in socks… my fatal flaw), I slipped and fell on the floor. Always the performer, I simply used it and tried to recover as quickly as I could. It was hilarious, embarrassing (but what is clown class for if not to laugh at our own missteps?), and now I have a lovely bruised bum.

Later that afternoon, we met our director for our new project. Tina is a marvelous woman. She’s about 5 feet tall and quite old but with all the energy and passion of someone four times her size and three times as young. With the mouth of a sailor, she says exactly what she’s thinking and feeling at all times. It is immediately apparent how talented she is, she is not one to shy away from a dirty joke, and is the perfect person to be working with for our Restoration comedy pieces. Due to her age and some occasional medical issues, she needs a lot of help carrying the piles of scripts necessary for rehearsal and generally needs assistance every so often. Because of this, she asked who would be interested in being her assistant director. Alessandra and I both volunteered and are having a great time helping her out. It means we get to hang out with her more and I couldn’t think of anything better. After introducing ourselves to her in a lengthy, thorough fashion, she explained what we will be working on. For our showing, we will perform 5 different scenes, a dance, and a song. The scenes are from various Restoration plays and affords each person the chance to shine. The plays we will be working from are The Rover, The Provoked Wife, The Plain Dealer, The Beaux Stratagem, and The Basset Table. Each is a hilariously entertaining piece and we’ve got our pick of some wonderful scenes.

On Tuesday, we had to give our character presentations in James’ class. That was a bit intimidating but it ended up being very interesting to listen to everyone’s presentation. The music I chose for my character (Queen Margaret) was The Firebird by Stravinski. Since this is technically a whole ballet worth of music, I brought in the last three movements. It is an incredible piece of music and I encourage you all to go listen to it. After text, we had pure voice with George (who is quickly turning in to one of my favorite tutors that we have) and improvisation with Adam. Both were great classes, as usual. This was our first time having Adam since the first week of class. We played a lot of games focused on the three concepts of accept, listen, commit. It was a fun way of practicing skills that are not only useful for improv but also for scene work as well. In George’s class we worked a lot with our breath and some exercises that are good for figuring out how to make your voice fill a given space.

As you can obviously tell, I’m loving the training that we receive at LAMDA but this week I realized a concrete reason why I love it so much. The tutors don’t just blindly lead you in exercises, expecting you to follow along and immediately gain something from it. Instead, they teach an exercise, give you the opportunity to discuss it as a class or with a partner, and then explain what it is useful for. If it isn’t useful to you (or if you didn’t really feel like you got anything from it) that’s ok! No one cares or is offended because chances are the next exercise will yield brilliant results for you but not for someone else. There is a sense of cohesion about the training – what you learn in voice with George can be applied in rehearsal with Tina and what you learn in physical theatre with Yorgos can be applied in text with James. Everyone is working towards a common goal which is to give you exercises and tools that you can draw on to make yourself a better actor. No one is trying to further an individual agenda or simply spew knowledge at you. I think this is a trait that many American theatre schools could learn from.

Wednesday had us in applied voice, historical dance, and physical theatre, followed by rehearsal. In historical dance, we learned yet another dance. This brings our tally up to having learned 7 dances already. The smile never leaves my face in that class. It’s wonderful to be learning choreography, moving, and wearing elegant skirts. In Yorgos’ physical theatre class we did some conditioning and then a really interesting partner exercise. The conditioning was a welcome addition to the day. I loved getting my blood pumping and working out. The partner exercise we did was really similar to some dance improvisation exercises I’ve done in the past. Basically we just had to listen to ourselves listening to our partner’s movement. Teresa and I paired up and the first time we went through the exercise it was a little weird, starting and stopping, going in and out. After we talked about it, we tried it again. We were focused, unafraid, and did not second guess ourselves the second time. That second time went very well and it was really cool to be moving so in sync with another person without having planned anything in advance. Just goes to show how much a little eye contact and connection can do to people…

Today, I began the day with singing where I performed my song for the class. I have never felt so confident singing in front of people nor have I ever sung a song so well. I guess I really missed my calling as an Elizabethan lute song singer.

Next came combat which was taught exclusively by Christina today. We continued work on our fight choreography and even added a bit on towards the end. I was sweating more than was probably appropriate but I was having such a great time. There’s something really empowering about being able to adeptly yield a rapier and dagger.

Rehearsal with Tina was a hoot, as it has been all week. We’ve been assigned our scenes and I am working on a Mistress Sullen scene from The Beaux Stratagem. It’s a great scene and the character is effortlessly witty. Tina keeps telling me to “think Maggie Smith.” As if I needed more reasons to watch YouTube clips of Maggie Smith all evening…

I am now home, working on some homework and relaxing. Tomorrow Emma arrives which I am quite excited about. We will spend the weekend being super tourists and exploring the city. And what better way to spend Valentine’s Day than getting dinner with Emma?

Until next time!

Cheers!

Another week over and done with before I even had a chance to accept the ending of last week! It was another busy week punctuated by a crazy day trip to Wales. This promises to be a long post so… settle in!

The schedule of the week was pretty standard so Monday I started off with Alexander technique, acting with Jenny, and clown with Michael. It was my turn to work on my monologue in Jenny’s class. I had chosen to work on Hermione from the Winter’s Tale. Jenny let me go through it once and then we chatted for a bit about the piece. She gave me a few small notes and things to think about and then had me do it again. The second time around I felt so much more grounded, like there were more levels, and that the whole thing was more connected. It felt great to be able to take such small, seemingly simple notes, and use them to enhance the entire piece. She was happy with where the piece is so I get to choose a new one to work on for the next time it’s my day to work.

Watching everyone else work in Jenny’s class is also really helpful. She’s quite a character but it’s amazing to watch her work with our monologues. She gives the smallest adjustments that make the biggest difference. It’s also incredibly apparent how much she adores Shakespeare and has lived with his texts for so long. While one person was working on the Marc Antony monologue (“O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth”), she was trying to get it to be more emotionally connected. As she launched into a side bar about violence and revenge and the love of another human, she sort of off-handedly threw out this nugget of brilliance: “400 years ago, Shakespeare said all there is to say about the human condition. And here we are, 400 years later, doing the same things.” Preach, Jenny. Preach.

Rehearsal this afternoon was spent working on Richard II 5.2. This is a fairly farcical scene with York and the Duchess; it includes an almost Commedia style lazzi including a servant running back and forth, the Duchess hitting the servant with a shoe, and a game of keep-away played with shoes. I got to play York and it was such fun to work on this scene. The scene goes from quite somber to hilarious in 0.2 seconds and then can be played where it comes back to the somber quality at the end. We had a lot of fun exploring the different ways to play this scene and ended our Monday with lots of smiles and laughter.

Tuesday we had acting with Debbie, pure voice with George, and text with James. James’ lecture today was all about finding a character. We have a really lengthy assignment for this coming Tuesday which includes preparing a 5 minute presentation on our character’s factual (what can be found and undisputed in the text) biography, a piece of music the character would listen to, a pair of shoes the character would wear, a picture of what they might look like in real life, and 3 objects that would be part of the character’s world. I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s presentation. The character I’m working on is Margaret and I’m quite excited to present on her. I read my monologue for James today and he was quite complimentary. Getting compliments here, no matter how big or how small, feels like winning the lottery. Each time it happens it’s so validating and feels honest. No one is here to pay unnecessary compliments, they are here to give you honest feedback. While it feels incredibly good to get the odd compliment from a tutor, it’s also motivating and makes me want to keep working even harder. My favorite James quotation from this class was, “Some of the happiest people I know don’t understand anything, nor do they try to. They simply live life moment to moment.”

Wednesday we had applied voice with Stevie where we looked at a new piece of text, the first scene from As You Like It. Then we had historical dance with Diana where we went over the dances we have learned thus far, adding a bit more technique to them and really cementing them in our bodies and brains. Just before lunch, we had Yorgos for physical theatre. A lot of people in my group are sick with extremely terrible colds (I have managed to avoid the plague thus far, knock on wood) so rather than having the intense conditioning class that Yorgos had planned, we had a healing class instead. It was lovely and relaxing.

Wednesday’s rehearsal was spent working on Richard II 5.3. This is really a continuation of 5.2 as York and his son, Aumerle, try to get to Bolingbroke first. York wants to accuse his son of treason and Aumerle wants to be pardoned for his treason. Then the Duchess shows up to pray for Bolingbroke to pardon Aumerle. It’s another funny scene with a darker undertone and, again, it was a lot of fun to work on. After we finished working on that scene, we began our rotation with Phil of working on our monologues. For our first session, he spent 30 minutes with each of us and then a subsequent 20 minutes. I was not on the rotation for Wednesday so I got to go home a bit early. It was still daylight when I left school. I was so disoriented!! But it was also great because the Tube was closed due to a strike and walking home in the dark didn’t sound like much fun.

Thursday’s schedule was text with singing with Caryll, combat with Jonathan and Christina, and text with James. I sang my song in singing and it actually didn’t sound half bad. Caryll said it was good and to come in next week with a performance of it – make a decision about the character and the story I’m telling. Combat was bad-ass as usual. We learned a few more techniques with the rapier and dagger. The entire class is spent in lunges and I’m almost always sore the next day. Text was enlightening as always. We continued our conversation on feelings and characters. James discussed how important it is to be an unselfish actor. He said the moment he realized that was when he looked out at the audience one day and saw this old woman who was there by herself. He realized she didn’t give a crap about his acting. She was there to be moved, to be entertained. It isn’t about the actor. It’s about other people, it’s about the audience, it’s about making people feel something. The best part of today was when he asked us to define acting. People had some really beautiful definitions but my favorite was: Acting is about making things that are invisible visible.

This afternoon I worked with Phil on my monologue. I am doing one of Richard’s monologues from 3.3 which begins, “What must the king do now? must he submit?” Richard is very nearly beaten at this point and it’s a powerful monologue. I had done a lot of work on it already which we could use as a starting point to explore the text. It was cool to see how you could play this one monologue a million different ways and be totally justified in each choice. Phil is incredibly brilliant and it was nice to work with him one on one. It’s been ages since I’ve had such focused, individualized attention for one monologue. He helped identify some of my personal actor habits that I need to break as well as telling me what I bring to the room right off the bat which is helpful and good. After our 30 minutes were up, I had a bit of a break before my 20 minute session later that evening. Lindsay and I got some dinner and then headed back. This 20 minutes was just a continuation of the work we had already done. We got the monologue to a really great place and I was honestly very proud of myself. Brilliant, snarky Phil gave me a high five so really that was all the validation I need for the rest of the year.

Friday we had movement with Yuri, RP with George, and choir. In rehearsal, we showed our monologues to each other while continuing to work on them. Basically we each did the monologue once, Phil gave some adjustments, and we did it again. I was blown away by everyone’s pieces. Each person clearly worked hard and took direction well. It was awesome to see. This was our last day of working on Richard II with Phil. As our last activity, he had us write a letter to ourselves that we will get back on the last day of the program. I took a lot of time writing mine and look forward to seeing what I was thinking now in about 2 and a half months.

Friday night I went to dinner with Amy to celebrate her birthday. The big 2-2!! My little old lady best friend. We got burritos and it was nice to sit and chat. Plus I had been craving a burrito so it was really a win-win situation. I returned home and went straight to bed because I had an early start on Saturday.

Saturday morning I woke up early and headed to the bus station to catch our 7:30am bus to Cardiff. Jules, Lorenzo, and Hannah met me there. Somehow, for our very cheap bus ticket, we had managed to land ourselves a seat on a Megabus Gold bus. We travelled in style. The seats were so comfortable with plenty of space and leg room. Half way through the busy ride, a nice man came around with cold drinks and muffins followed by some shortbread cookies. Guys… this is the only way to travel. It really was luxurious. I slept for a little bit but tried to stay awake because the drive through the countryside was practically worth the price of the ticket alone. We saw sheep and rolling green hills and beautiful cottages. At one point, we could even see a full rainbow from one end to the other, framing the most beautiful landscape. It was as picturesque as you can imagine.

Around 10:30am we arrived in Cardiff. First things first: caffeine. We walked from the bus stop into the city center. The whole city is built around Cardiff Castle so within two seconds of getting off the bus, we could see the castle walls. In the main square, we found a Cafe Nero and I got some tea and a muffin. We warmed up, enjoyed our sustenance and headed to the castle. There are ruins on this site dating back to when the Romans built a walled fortress on this spot. You can still see the ruins of the Roman wall which are nearly 10 feet thick in some places. Then there are various aspects of the castle still standing today, some built in the middle ages, some built closer to the 17th-18th century. The castle apartments are spectacular and very well restored. The vibrant colors of the decorations have not been lost to time, making the rooms feel like their inhabitants have only just gotten up and left for a mid-morning stroll.

Upon leaving the castle apartments, we visited the castle keep.

This is where the knights and soldiers could defend the castle from attack. There were also some stately bedchambers maintained in the walls of the round, stone structure. Our helpful audio guide informed us that at one time, Edmund, Duke of York had stayed in one of the bedrooms. The Duke of York featured heavily in Richard II  and Lorenzo had worked on one of his monologues. We all paused for a moment to deliver a couple of those lines through our beaming faces. It’s great traveling with fellow nerds.

After exploring the grounds a bit more, we decided we were quite hungry and headed out. Oh, but don’t worry, we didn’t forget to take our pictures in the stocks.

We had lunch at a small, local restaurant on the high street. We noticed there was deep fried brie on the menu and obviously had to order that. We enjoyed our cheese and our meal and headed out to keep exploring. It was absolutely freezing and was raining off and on. Lorenzo didn’t have a scarf or hat and was frozen. Jules needed a hat too so we stopped in a store to purchase them some warmer garments. Hannah had looked up a castle she wanted to visit called Castell Coch. Unfortunately, it would take a bit of time to travel there and, by the time we got there, it would be closed for the day. Disappointed but determined to keep exploring (despite the pelting, freezing rain) we decided to be the ultimate tourists and take an open top bus tour. The front of the open top was covered so we could still see everything while being protected from the rain. It was the perfect way to see all of Cardiff without a car and without being soaked to the bone. We passed Cardiff University (which had a dragon on its gates), the National Museum (which had some dragon statues out front), the law courts of Cardiff (with a dragons on the top of the posts out front), the old senate building (with some dragon motifs), the new senate building (did not spot a dragon…), the Millennium Centre, the BBC studios, Cardiff Bay (dragons galore here), and much, much more. With the weather as it was (extremely windy and rainy), the water was ridiculously choppy and the locals seemed to be avoiding the waterfront area, though we did see some people boarding a water taxi. Crazy people…

Why all the dragons you ask? I don’t really have a good answer other than the fact that there is a red dragon on the Welsh flag. Wikipedia has informed me that the red dragon is the “Red Dragon of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd.” From what I can gather, the Welsh love two things above all: rugby and dragons. Oh! And putting all their signs in both English and Welsh, the Welsh looking like the vowel thief has come round and stolen them from one word and put them all in another.

After the bus tour, we decided to head out to Castell Coch because we wanted to get out of the city and, even if it would be closed, we could still walk around it. A recurring theme throughout the day was how incredibly nice everyone we met was. As we boarded a public bus that we were fairly certain would get us to where we needed to be, the bus driver could clearly tell we were not all too certain. He took his time explaining to us that we were, indeed, on the correct bus and how we could purchase a round trip ticket so we didn’t have to pay again when we boarded our bus to come home. We settled in and when we got to the stop we needed, he stopped the bus, got out of his seat, came to tell us this is where we needed to get off, and gave us walking directions for the rest of the way to the castle. I was absolutely blown away by his hospitality.

We could see the castle from the bus stop but it was off in the distance, up on a hill. We walked up, through a beautifully charming residential neighborhood, and climbed the hill to the castle. It was an enchanting place. The castle is nestled amongst trees and tucked away, nearly hidden by the foliage around it. I’m so glad we made the trip up there, it was absolutely worth it. We didn’t get to go inside but we took our time exploring the grounds and wandering all around it.

We caught our bus back to the center of Cardiff, discussing our options of what to do next. As we got off the bus, the rain started falling very, very hard with no sign of it stopping anytime soon. Since it wasn’t quite time for dinner, we opted for some warm coffee and (arguably more important) a warm coffee shop. We were quite chilly and sitting for a little while and warming up was the perfect idea. At this point, we all agreed that it might have been a little over-ambitious to think we would need to stay in Cardiff until 2:45am. However, upon trying to change our bus to one departing sooner, we found out it would cost nearly £25 to do so. 100% not worth it so we started planning the remainder of our evening.

That day, Wales had played Ireland in rugby and Cardiff had a football match against Swansea City. We decided going to a local pub might be fun, in light of those two big sporting events going on. We were right. We found a great place with delicious food and a fun atmosphere. Half the fun of this trip was the group of people I was with. We sat in this pub for probably 2 and a half hours and, despite being pretty tired, there wasn’t a moment of silence nor a moment when we stopped laughing. It was lovely.

Since we still had a while until our bus, we decided to go see a movie. Indoors, warm, entertaining, and how many people can say they’ve seen a movie in Wales? We ended up seeing Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Certainly not the best movie ever made but entertaining and fun to see. Plus, who doesn’t love Chris Pine? Or, for that matter, Kenneth Branagh?

After the movie, we headed back to the center of Cardiff to kill about an hour before our bus. The pubs had just kicked all the drunk rugby/football fans out and the entire city was a mess. It was actually pretty gross… Hannah and I remarked that it looked like the entire city had been turned into one enormous fraternity house. Ah well… the Welsh and their sports teams.

It was finally time to board our bus and we fell asleep almost before we could sit down. The drive wasn’t nearly as fun in the dark, no pretty landscapes to see! But we made it back to London and I was in bed by 6:45am. I slept for a while and now I’m preparing to do some homework and prepare for the week ahead. As always, it promises to be a good one. We start working on a Restoration comedy this week with a new director and Emma arrives in London on Friday. I’m looking forward to it.

Until next time!

Cheers : )

Weekends here, like the weeks, pass so quickly that if you blink you’ll miss them. This weekend was no exception but we filled it with plenty of activities. Saturday morning I decided to walk over to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It’s about a 15 minute walk from my flat and there’s no entrance fee. On my way, I heard from my friend Sarah that a couple of people were going to try and rush The Weir. This sounded like a great idea so we agreed upon a time to meet, leaving me about 30 minutes to wander through the V&A.

One actually needs close to a lifetime to truly see the collection housed in this museum. It is such an impressive place and I only saw 4 galleries worth of art. I will most definitely be back and am thinking of making Saturdays my museums days. It was wonderful to be back inside a museum. I didn’t realize how much I missed it but I suppose when you go from spending 2-3 days each week at a museum to spending none, you’re bound to miss the atmosphere a bit.

Sarah, Teresa, and I met up and took the Tube to Leicester Square. We met Lindsay at the theatre and asked about tickets. The kind woman at the box office informed us that for £55 or £85 we could see the show. No, thank you, box office lady. That is far too expensive for us! So we decided to just wander around the area, popping into theatres with shows we could see, and checking to see if there were any tickets. Everyone wanted to charge us an arm and a leg for tickets so we opted for simply enjoying our walk.

For our RP class, we need to find scenes to work on so the four of us headed to the Samuel French bookshop to hunt for plays. It was a nice walk from Piccadilly Circus to the store, taking us through some picturesque neighborhoods, including a part of Soho I hadn’t seen yet. The bookshop is tucked away, a little off the beaten path, and has more plays than you can imagine. A far cry from the pitiful, singular bookshelf at Barnes and Noble back home, this place had quite possibly every play ever written. They also had books on theory, criticism, and analysis of theatre. We sat there for a while looking for scenes and eventually each found what we needed.

At this point we had a bit of time to kill until my dinner plans with Amy and their dinner plans with some other friends. We decided to get afternoon tea. Sarah had a recommendation from a friend who had been here before so we headed to Fortnum and Mason near Piccadilly Circus. Fortnum and Mason is a magical place… You walk in the door and all around you is every kind of tea ever dreamed up, packaged in the most elegant tins. There is fudge wrapped in perfect cellophane packages, pink champagne with ribbons on the necks of the bottles, and a gorgeous collection of china tea cups and flatware. There is jazz music just loud enough to be heard over the clinks of spoons in tea cups. I grabbed this picture off of Google Images to give you a visual but it doesn’t even come close to doing this place justice:

We headed up to the 4th floor because that’s where the map said the restaurant was. The elevator doors open to reveal a grand piano being played by a man in coat and tails. The hostess standing just in front of that asks us how she can help us. “Can we look at a menu?” we ask, staring incredulously at our surroundings. The menu revealed that we were in the fanciest (read: insanely expensive) restaurant in the building. For a simple cup of tea and perhaps some pastries, we needed to go to the 1st floor. Down we went to The Parlour where we were seated at a pastel, floral table. While we waited to be sat, I noticed a logo for the store and the small writing underneath that read “Since 1707.” People have been drinking this tea longer than America has been a country. We each ordered the Royal Blend tea (which is the blend that was created for Edward VII) and I ordered the duo of scones. Lindsay and Sarah got strudel. Teresa got the Esterhazy cake. Absolutely everything was spectacular. The scones were light and fluffy, the cake was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and the strudel flaky and sweet. The tea came in heavy silver tea pots with intricate decorations adorning the handle, sides, and lid. We were all like giddy little girls and we couldn’t stop smiling. We felt like such ladies and were loving every second. The 4th floor is now something we aspire to… perhaps we will splurge and go for a special occasion. (My birthday is in a couple of months… I wouldn’t hate getting dressed up and going for proper high tea.) Needless to say, I love Fortnum and Mason. I will be back and high tea alone might keep me in this country. (Don’t worry Mom, I’m only slightly serious.) It’s such a civilized activity and I think that if everyone took an hour out of their day to indulge in some conversation, some sweets, and a warm drink (even just once a week!), the world would be a kinder place. Teresa and I are definitely bringing this custom back to the States.

Here are two pictures from our lady-like afternoon tea:

I then went to meet Amy at The Churchill Arms in Notting Hill. This pub was built in 1750 and was apparently Churchill’s grandparents’ favorite spot to hang out. Now it has a delicious Thai restaurant in the back and the whole thing is filled with World War II and Churchill memorabilia. It’s a truly unique place. There was a big rugby game yesterday (don’t ask me who was playing. I don’t even pretend to understand that sport) so the pub was filled with people watching the game. We enjoyed our Thai food and then stuck around for a bit, enjoying the atmosphere. The all Ireland hurling team was there (ok, really don’t ask me about this because I don’t even know what hurling is… From the game on the television, it looked like lacrosse but with no rules and British) and the owner of the pub was very, very, very excited to have them in his establishment. We even made a new friend! Peter, the 65 year old Londoner who wanted to play guess the US capital cities. It was really awkward when he knew more state capitals than Amy and I. We had a very good time at the Churchill Arms and I will definitely be back. We headed out and I went home to sleep.

Today was much more lazy than yesterday. I slept in, did some work, went for a walk around the neighborhood, and now I’m back in my room doing more work. It’s been a very successful weekend, if I do say so myself. Back to the grind tomorrow!

Until next time!

Cheers!