You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming?

Last night I tried to write a post, but my internet sucks, so of course it wouldn’t post…so here’s an update!

Two night’s ago I ended up meeting up with Heather and her friends Amelia, Jordan, and Stephen at a Baskin Robins and taking them to a pub. We had a good time just talking and it was nice to be with Miami people again. And I am going to Dublin with them this weekend!

Yesterday we sprung forward, so I lost an hour of sleep, thus didn't wake up as early as I hoped too. But I did get up eventually and began fixing my paper (I wrote a lot about one play, but Chris Cook said I had to also write about one we saw together as a group). Needless to say my paper is almost done and about 500 words over the limit, but oh well.

We left to walk to school in the early afternoon for our master class with Greg Hicks and Kelly Hunter. Both of which were really cool people! They are actually brining plays to NYC next summer! They were completely honest about how it is working for the RSC and gave pretty great advice. Wish I had liked their production more! But from what it sounded like they weren't completely happy with it either. After the Q&A I went to the grocery store and to pick up some short shorts from Primark to wear for rehearsals. I then went and met up with Heather and her friends at Harrods, but they were ready to leave when I got there, so we went to Hyde Park. We walked around most of it, and went to the Peter Pan statue that you can see in the movie Hook. Then I walked home and was too exhausted to do much else. Worked a little on my paper, wrote some post cards before bed.

Today was one exhausting and trying rehearsal. We worked from 10-5:30 on 2 dances!!! GAH! EXHAUSTING! And Rania got a little cranky and snappy, which made it worse. The dances both look really amazing though! I do a pretty intense floor dance. I also have to practice in heels so I wore shorts and heeled boots today—looked like a country girl! Lol.

After rehearsal I went to Top Shop with Mara and tried to meetup with Sara, but they were going to see a show and we somehow ended up at different HMV’s. But I did buy a MIKA CD and Moulin Rouge for 10 pounds. We also went to Ben’s Cookies and stopped at Primark. I bought some boxer shorts for rehearsal. We met up with Nick and went to Waitrose to get stuff to make taco salad. We made a delicious salad in a huge pot. Great way to end the long and tiring day! I am hoping to write some more of my papers, and then meet up with Sara before they leave! Emily’s birthday tomorrow and Mara’s Wednesday…the rest of this week is going to be crazy!!!

Henry the VIII I am I am!

3 Saturdays left in Londontown! And this one was a typical rainy and slightly cold day.

Last night was a lot of fun! We went to a mustache party in the boys flat! And Jake was meeting a bunch of people, so he had a good time as well. We fell asleep at 1:30am, and then he had to wake up again at 3:30am to catch a cab to the airport, so sleep was definitely sporadic. I really enjoy playing host...I enjoyed getting to show him around my other home!

I woke up this morning and uploaded pictures from the week (which you should check out on facebook)! Then I got a call from Sara (my friend from Miami) who was on a hop off hop on tour bus, so I met her and her friend at the Tower of London. We went on a tour given by a yeoman. There were a ton of people on the tour, so at times it was hard to hear him, but he told some pretty interesting stories. I got to see where Ann Boleyn was proposed to, buried, and beheaded. I also saw the originally city wall of London built by the Romans, engravings from prisoners from the 15th century, and the crown jewels. It was a really great day despite the fact that it started to rain really hard. I didn't realize how exhausted I was. By this point I had tried contacting Heather (another friend from Miami who is visiting), but had heard nothing. Found out she lost her phone, but has internet! I came home and grabbed Prett for dinner since I hadn't really eaten all day.

So the plan for tonight is to hang out with Sara, Heather, and their friends. So we are looking for a pub or bar, but since we are tired we just kind of want a chill environment. Emily's friend is coming tonight too, so we all wanted to hang out together! We'll see how long I last. Tomorrow is master class and the writing of papers...oh yeah, even though classes are done I still have two papers due this week :(

Born to Boogie

I find myself having less and less time to write Blogs because I am too busy enjoying my last 3 weeks in London!! CRAZY! But here are the life updates.

Yesterday morning I woke up for like the 5th time because the radiator went off every 2 hours and made really loud noises. The tube I was suppose to take was closed, but there was another one close by, so it was fine. Taking the tube was kind of stressful through because it is so jam packed. I went to Cafe Nero for breakfast and had a wonderful chai tea latte! One of the best I have ever had. Man, the coffee here just doesn't even compare to America.

In rehearsal we did a cardio work out and worked on the stage combat with Micah. It's SO cool! I get beat up :) We blocked all of act 2! My whore character lies on the floor for the entire scene and I get to be very sexy...I think that's all I'll share on this :P But I definitely made Rania laugh a good bit! I also ran into Sheila who came to school for some reason, and she remembered me! We got out of rehearsal early, which was wonderful!

I got home and took a quick shower before me and Jake left to go see Billy Elliot! The tube station we were suppose to get off at (right next to the theatre) was closed so we had to walk 20 minutes to the theatre. By this time we didn't have much time to eat, so we grabbed Prett, and went to the theatre. Our seats were 3rd row which was awesome! And the show was GREAT! Really super cute, good morals, and wonderful dances and songs! Our Billy was really good too...we had the oldest one, though my favorite character was definitely Michael. I suggest every one see it! It kind of reminds you why you love acting and art.

After it was over we decided that we didn't want to stay in the jank hotel, so we went and got our stuff and checked out and came home! I slept on the couch cause Nick was over (Mara's boyfriend).

Which brings us to today! We did cardio, ran act 2, blocked all of act 3, and ran the whole show!! It was one EXHAUSTING day! BUT I finally found my character for Smith cause I was really struggling with his voice. It was super exciting! We got out super late at like 6:20, but it felt really productive. I'm sure there were a lot of good specific stories, but I can't remember them. Me and Jake went out to dinner at Strada, and tonight I am taking him to a party in the flats so he can meet everyone else! He leaves at 3:30 am :( Off to enjoy my weekend in London!

We're at the Hotel, Motel, Closet Basement!

Today was another productive day in the life of Lys.

Rehearsal consisted of blocking the rest of act 1 which took until 3:30. There are some really funny bits and some really overtly sexual ones (I'm starting to become immune to it). Rehearsals are so fun though because we are still laughing at one another. Zach said he couldn't keep a straight face whenever I talked, and anytime someone used an accent we all had to supress laughter. I'm sure at some point Rania is going to crack and get really strict on us, but we are having a good time so far! We just need to work a little faster.

We rant through the entire act 1 at the end of the day, and it ended up taking an hour! We still have two acts left! It was kinda crazy and off, but pretty good for our first time through. We ended at 5, but we still had to have time with the costume and set designer. I hate when directors are not accurate with time. We ended up getting out an hour late! But I find out my costume. I get a lacy bra with a see through slip and really short knickers. I'm going to look sexy! We get coats when we are gang members and hats and beards when I'm Smith.

After rehearsal I went and got Jake and we went to eat at Golden Hinds. We got slightly lost, but once we got there we had delicious fish and chips and an apple dessert! Also, because they had no two person table available we had to sit with another couple. It was kinda funny. Then we went back to the flat and got stuff for the hotel.

The hotel is SO jank!!! They gave us a room in the basement...it was literally like a maze to get to it. We walked through 4 doors and then we got to this tiny room with only one bed (there were suppose to be two) and our shower is smaller than a sink. It was just too funny because so far Jake's trip really has been an adventure! But now I really must head to bed listening to the hispanic couple screaming outside our window :)

The Adventures of Jake and Lys

The last few days have been ridiculously crazy and fun! They have also definitely been adventurous! So back to the beginning…

Oh and warning-this entry is not for children :P

Sunday Jake came in the early afternoon. I knew that I wanted him to try scones (because those are one of the best things about London). We decided to go to Harrods because I knew you could get good ones there quickly. We also explored a good deal of Harrods, and I bought a wallet! Thank you Miller family for giving me money to spend there! I feel very snazzy now! Jake was floored by how amazing it was. Since everything closes fairly early on Sunday we just went to my favorite spot in London (Trafalgar Square) and then walked home through Oxford Circus and all the shops there. When we got back Jake was pretty exhausted because he hadn’t slept on the plane, so since we were too tired to go to dinner anywhere we got out the cheese dip and salsa my mom brought me and the girl scout cookies and had a chip and cookie party!! We had a picnic on the floor of the living room with Mara, Alyssa, Emily, Erika, and Emily’s friend Caroline. Also, Alyssa wanted to watch Dollhouse (a tv series that is on fox) that she owned, so we decided to watch it too….THAT SHOW IS AMAZING!! We got hooked! We watched 6 episodes of it! Then we went pretty much straight to bed.

The next morning Jake and I got up early to go to Bath! We got to the train station super early so we went to Costa and waited until 5 minutes before the train departed when they told us which platform to go to. We had to book it there! Train ride was fine, and we stepped off the platform in to beautiful Bath! We started to leave the station, and Jake realized he left his phone (his iphone) on the train. We found an attendant and basically told us that they would sweep the train in Bristol, and we could pick it up there. Jake decided it would be the same amount to re buy a phone than to buy a train ticket to and from Bristol.

So that was the start to the day! It started off sunny and fairly warm so we went to the Roman Bath’s, which are gorgeous! The audio-guided tour was really good too. Well, when we left it started raining a little, but we went to Sally Lunn’s to get “Bath Buns” because they are famous for them. We also got coffee and got the ones that were covered in chocolate- DELICIOUS! When we came out it was windy, and freezing, but we decided to go uphill to the fashion museum freezing all the way! It was really cool! We saw the dresses of the year since the 1960’s and then the main fashions from around the 1700’s. We dressed up in corsets, hats, and skirts, and I have some wonderful pictures of that. When we got out we wandered around Bath a little bit as it got colder and started to rain harder. We went to the Jane Austen Center, but we didn’t want to pay for the tour. We stopped to get lunch at a cute little sandwich place. It was raining pretty hard when we got out, so we bought an umbrella. They had a Ben’s cookies there, so I made Jake get one! Well, his first one had a hair in it, which was disgusting, so they gave him another. Though we both had kind of lost our appetite, so it went uneaten.

It was only 3, and our train didn’t leave till almost 8! There wasn’t much else to see museum wise except for art galleries so we went shopping! Jake got a sweater and “man purse” and I got two sweaters for cheap from H&M. We tried to find me black boots with no heels, but no such luck. At 5:15 we decided to see if we could get on an earlier train-we couldn’t! Shocker! I mean, we could, but it would have been 26 pounds more each. So we tried to find a bar or pub, but none of them served strong bow so we settled on going to Costa again (our feet were pretty exhausted). We sat there for about 45 minutes and decided to buy sandwiches at 6:45 before it closed at 7. Well, they had already closed the cash register, so we left. The only other place open in the whole of Bath (so it seemed)? McDonalds! So that’s where we got dinner before getting back on the train. So much for all the healthy eating I was doing! Grrrr-today was good though! Just a momentary slack because I have a guest!

We made it home at 9:30, and were EXHAUSTED, but the roomies had waited to watch Dollhouse, so we watched two episodes! I gave Jake my phone from here, but lost the charger to my phone from home, so I told him to contact a roomie if he needed me because he was off in Paris for the day!

Which brings me to this morning! Rehearsal! I was very very tired, but excited about getting to start blocking. Rania showed us some historical pictures and things she had found and then we warmed up! We spent the entire morning blocking the preshow and first song. It is so cool!!! Since those of you reading my blog won’t get to see the show (unless you would like to come visit!!!) I will explain to you what’s going on! So for the preshow me and the whores are choreographing a dance while the audience is coming in, and then pretending to pose for pictures. When the prologue starts, we get into place and do the fosse knee bounce thing. Once the song starts we do the dance moves we made up last week of the everyday things and sexual things. Half way through the song we break off and a few people dress Mac and Mr. Peachum in show clothing. Three of the whores are doing a slow, creepy dance thing that was based off of my dance from the beginning. Ashley, Allison, and I taught it to them (I was glad she liked it). But, Rania asked Allison and I to do a double act type thing in the front of stage while all of this is going on by acting out the words from the song. It’s SO much fun! And we get to do audience interaction! AHHH clowning, I love it! The last move of the whole show is everyone pretending to Jack off, or “wanking” as Rania says. Well, Jesse who sings the song down in the front with me and Allison is playing the accordion at the same time, so I had the brilliant idea of wanking him off since he can’t do it himself and then Allison was the odd ball out so Rania decided Allison would wank Jesse and I would wank her and then be upset that no one could do it for me. It’s SOOOOOO FUNNY!!! And even more funny because it was partly my idea-the innocent one in the program. But the whole number looks sooooo cool!

After lunch we blocked two scenes. They both look really good, and they are pretty funny. In one Power Five make the map that Peachum refers to with our bodies. So I have the word East written on the side of my stomach. I also found my physicality for my gang character Jimmy and that is a ton of fun too!! Overall rehearsal was tiring, but really great today. Went shopping and now I am eating dinner and doing laundry. Taking Jake out to the pub across the street tonight to let him try a snakebite! And then hopefully more dollhouse!

P.S Living in London definitely removes you from America. Found out about the huge health care plan through facebook….thank goodness for social networking or I would have had no idea how socialist our country is becoming.

Dancing the Night Away

Yesterday was wonderful! It wasn't sunny unfortunately, but I still did a lot anyway.

I woke up at 8, so that I could try and get day seats for Jerusalem. I stopped and got a Costa coffee, and realized that if I kept walking as fast as I was I would be at the theatre early at 9:30, so I slowed down a bit (I'm used to booking it everywhere I go). Well, that was a bad idea because though the box office didn't open till 10, there was a line wrapped around the building. By this point, I'm worried I am not going to get a seat, but I stand there in the rain for 20 minutes. I get close to the box office and I hear that the night show is sold out. That's fine, I wanted to go to the matinee. Well, luckily, I got them! They were not in a very good section, but I heard the show was amazing, so I couldn't pass it up.

I walked back home and just kinda chilled for two hours before I walked back to the theatre. Alyssa and I went to the show, and despite how hot it was in the theatre, the show was great! I thought it was extremely well written and the lead actor was absolutely phenomenal. I wish we had better seats, but what can you do! 10 pounds for a top notch show was a pretty great deal. We walked back after the show (Yes, I got my exercise in today). And I will have you know that I passed Ben's cookies 4 times, and I didn't stop! YEAH ME! Got home and tried to work on my drama crit paper, and made dinner.

That night was Mac's birthday, so a bunch of people were going to a bar to surprise her, and I decided to tag along. I have only been "out" like twice since I have been here. Well the club was fairly far away on the tube, but it was fancy. We had to be on the list and wait in line and such....I felt like I was in a tv show. lol. There was about 25 BADA people there and we pretty much just danced the night away. I even convinced Alyssa to dance (it's one of her least favorite things). After 2 and a half hours of dancing, I was exhausted. It had been a long day! But it was definitely one of those nights that you will always remember. Gah, I can't believe I only have around one month left in London!

Anywho I am up early again because Jake is coming today! So hopefully there will be lots of adventures to update you on this week...just gotta hope I can get all my hw done too!

Never thought I'd be on a Boat...

Week one of rehearsal...done! The wonderful week of sunshine ended this afternoon unfortunately, but maybe it will go back to being beautiful again tomorrow!

Woke up early this morning because we started 30 minutes earlier than usual, and I wanted coffee. It's official, Pierre has disappeared off the face of the earth. He has not been at Costa in 3 weeks!! I check every morning! I fear he has been fired, or quit, or moved to nighttime shifts. Either way, he will be dearly missed.

In rehearsal we started off this morning doing some dancing. We did sun salutations (which hardcore reminded me of GHP). Then we learned how to do some Cabaret and Chicago moves on a chair! It was a lot of fun and very sexy. Rania turned on music by the Lonely Island (guys who sing Jizzed in My Pants and I’m on a Boat), which was freaking hysterical. We also did some picking people up things, though I wasn't comfortable doing quite a few of them because our boys aren't the biggest guys in the world. We took a short break and came back to discuss different historical things we were suppose to research. Rania starts almost every day with newspaper articles that remind her of the play usually dealing with different crimes, so she shared some of those first. Then she says, “Okay, we need to talk about costumes. Libby (costume designer) wants everyone to be completely nude under see through clothing. Is anyone not okay with this?” Who raises their hand? I do! I’m sorry, but this isn’t professional and I’m not getting paid for this, and that would just throw off my performance so much. She said it was fine, and that I would just be wearing lingerie, which will be a big enough stretch for me anyway. Most everyone else is willing to show their breasts, but nothing else…so only two girls are going completely naked. Apparently there is a section in the show when we are all mooning though! Ay ay ay! This show is ridiculous! But tons and tons and tons of fun.

We got out of rehearsal at 12:30, so Rachel, Emily, Mara, and me went to lunch at a Thai restaurant, which was delicious! We all decided we are going on crash course diets and doing crunches/stretches/sit ups every night until the show. So far, so good. We came back to the flat, and I waited for Em to take a 30 minute nap, and then we went to the science museum!!! SOOOO COOOOOLLLL! They had a huge hands on section, a science in medicine, mathematics, materials, plastics, war science, and science of the 1700’s exhibit. There were others, but those are the ones we got too. We spent a good 2 hours in there. They had so many really interesting things. I went back to my nerd physics!!! I kept telling Emily, “This is like my other home! I’ve missed it!” I took a few pictures that I will put up at soon.

We came back home and I had taco salad again for dinner. If I don’t fall asleep soon, I plan on writing some of my paper, exercising and showering. It’s been a very busy week though. And tomorrow needs to be entirely devoted to writing an entire paper! YIPES!

"Moving from place to place as we come face to face"

Another sunny day in London! (It has been all week! Makes the walk to school that much better!) Rehearsal went well today, but it seemed like we wasted a good amount of time.

We started off the morning going through all the songs in the entire show. All my songs went well except one of our gang songs, which is suppose to sound awful--and it did. Rania said we would just have to risk having people think it was unintentionally bad. We had an extra long lunch break which was nice. I got to catch up with some of my group p friends, who I miss dearly. It is so weird not being with them every day. We also had an all school meeting where we found out the running order of our shows. Ours is Wednesday night, so we get the middle show! I'm a little bummed that Nanny and Pop won't be able to see it now, but since it's so risque, it may be for the better! Costume designer and set designer came in today with their baby who is absolutely adorable!! The costume designer brought in her inspirational pictures, which were almost all of completely nude women...yeah....I'm getting worried. Apparently one of the outfits is a see through coat with NOTHING on underneath it. Yeah, that better not be my costume!! My guess is she will only make us do what we are comfortable with, but damn these designers are hippies! lol.

After lunch we had an "actioning workshop". It was a little annoying since all of us already knew how to do them, and have done them in detail, but oh well. We did a scene from a melodrama and actioned it with a partner and them performed them for everyone outside. Rania decided to tell everyone their tics as an actor, or what she noticed about our acting styles. She told me that I did a really great job, and that comedy was clearly my thing, and to just keep it up because it works! I was really appreciative of the compliment. Seems like comedy is really becoming my thing here, and I never thought about it before as something I was into, but I love it, and apparently I am good at it! Since we were outside Rania passed each of us out a cigarette to learn how to hold them. It was pretty funny to watch all 13 of us holding cigarettes. We are only allowed to smoke inside the theatre during the actual show, so next week she is going to teach us how to smoke, so that I don't have a coughing attack on stage. lol. At the end of the day we came inside and watched a movie called Blue Angel. We watched the english version, but with german actors, so you could barely understand a word of what they were saying. We were all very lost. We ended up having rehearsal until 6, so we were all tired by the time we got out and it was too dark to walk through the park, so we haled a cab!

For dinner I made a taco salad- lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, hamburger meat, salsa, and tortilla chips. Best dinner I have made in a while!! Somehow it is already time for me to go to bed, so no hw got done again today, but we get out early tomorrow, which is great. It's going to be a busy weekend!

Smoking, drinking, AND nudity?!?!

I am sooo freakin excited for this show! We are having such a great time, and it is going to be amazing.

So yesterday we basically spent the whole day reading through the script with our parts. We talked a lot about the world of the play and dramaturgical stuff. Anyway, I guess you guys are waiting for my part. Drum roll please....The Power Five...in other words we play multiple parts. It's me, Mara, Rachel, Maggie, and Allison. I'm one of the gang members- Jimmy, a whore, and the side kick cop-Smith. While I'm not a main character, I couldn't be happier with what I got. I have to create 3 entirely different characters and I still have a good chunk of lines.

For Jimmy, I picked an almost New York gansta accent, and a few of the year longs came up to me and told me with that voice I might steal the show with just those 3 lines, which I thought was really nice. I really enjoy finding the different characters. I'm doing a fake cockney accent for Smith, so that should be fun too. I get a chase scene! It's basically like I get to be in Mick's class all over again, but this time in a play. When I was reading Smith, I read him normally, and went up to Rania afterwards and asked her if I could make him more a character, and she said "Girl, your hysterical. Have as much fun with it as you like." YEAH! I really think comedy might be something I need to look a little more into.

She also decided that she wants everyone in the cast to smoke. Not only do I have to be in Lingerie on stage (yes, I definitely will because there is a line about me being only in Lingerie!), but I have to smoke! She said she is going to "teach us how"...I'm probably going to end up having a coughing fit! lol. The rest of the read through was just a whole lot of fun, and I can't wait to find my characters physically. Last night I came back made hamburgers and watched Into the Wild with Alyssa, which was really good!

Today we had a music rehearsal. I got out at 12:30! We learned our two gang songs, the small finale song, and the chorus part of one other song...I was allowed to sing with the guys! YEAH! Our songs are really cool. All the main characters have GORGEOUS voices. Thank goodness I am not singing a solo up against them! (Not to mention the parts are high as crap) We have to learn all the lyrics for tomorrow for our songs. But I think the rest of tonight I will be working on that, and hopefully starting my papers due for Chris Cook. Can't wait for more rehearsal, this play is going to be soooooo cooolll!! And very risque, grungy, and sexy! It's going to corrupt me!

Three Penny Opera begins!!!

First day of rehearsal!!! It went....FABULOUSLY! I am SO excited for our play! But starting at the beginning....

I started at 10 am, which was wonderful (sleeping in till 8 was ah-mazing). Stopped by Costa, and Pierre wasn't there, again! I am beginning to think he got fired or left because he was being stalked... (just kidding!).

Started off the morning with our director, Rania and our stage manager, Debbie. Rania wanted to know our favorite/least favorite thing about London, why we're at BADA, where we grew up, went to school, where we went on break, and our favorite musical. It was nice to get to know everyone better. She is SO cool! She told us about our production of Three Penny...we are doing a play within a play. In other words, we are all going to be members of a cabaret (in 1920's) that decide to put on this play (from 1837). Our costumes are going to be super slutty (corsets and the like), and we are all going to play multiple parts (guy and girl). Apparently our costume designer is interested in nipples and not wearing underwear...so this is going to be one fun show...lol. All our props are going to be something you would find at a cabaret, and we are going to have old lamps as lighting. Logan, in our cast, can balance a ladder on his chin, and Jesse can play the saw, so we are putting both of those things in it. It's going to be really really fun. She already has everyone cast, and we find out tomorrow! Sounds like everyone will get a chance to be one of the main parts in at least one scene, so that should be great too. We did a read through just alternating lines before lunch. I'm still really hoping to be Matthew in a scene!

After lunch we did some really awesome movement work. She had us start by picking a mundane task and miming it (fixing your hair, brushing your teeth, making a sandwich). Then she had us set it to an 8 count. Then she had us exaggerate it, so it almost doesn't look like what it is, and then she had us either slow it down, speed it up, get stuck on something, or do it backwards...it turns into really awesome choreography! We also did it doing something sexual mimed! And some people got VERY graphic...don't worry it is all going in the play!

Last we watched Cabaret with Liza Minelli! It was such a great day, and it was such a relief that we didn't have to reaudition and that our set and costumes are going to be awesome!

Came home and hung out with the flatmates and Lauren and Alina to see how everyone's rehearsal went. Everyone is excited, but so far sounds like our cast is having the most fun ;) Can't wait for tomorrow! Now we are all watching the Ugly Truth...yeah having no hw!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

So this weekend has been very relaxing and rewarding...it feels so good to be back in London. I have missed it!

Yesterday I didn't write a blog because I didn't do enough to write more than a few sentences. I tried to wake up late, but my body naturally got me up at 7:30, 8:30, and finally 9:30. I spent the morning uploading pics (which you should check out), writing letters, writing in my journal, facebooking, and eating. I didn't change out of my pajamas the whole day. I finally got ahold of Lauren in the early evening, and we decided to order pizza. I hung out with her and Alina just talking for like 4 hours. And most of the roomies came home, which was wonderful! We all missed each other VERY much, and it's only been a week!

Today I went to the Saint Patty's day celebration in Trafalger Square. People were in green and drinking beer everywhere. I went with Alina, Lauren, and Micah. We ended up just walking around for awhile and eating/drinking, which is what we normally do when we are together. We had a really great time all catching up though. We went to Mcdonald's and then Ben's cookies...yep we were fatty's today! I came home and the roomies were watching The Proposal, so I watched too, and then we put on Notting Hill. All of us plus Rachel and Livy watched it together. It was like having a sleepover! Feels good to be back!! And now I have to get ready for rehearsal tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

P.S-Today in London it is Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's! Also, it is daylight savings for yall, but ours isn't for another 2 weeks I think, so that means we are only 4 hours apart now!

Home sweet...London?

Ah, my fantastic spring break is over. I had a wonderful week with the family, and I am very excited about getting to sleep in tomorrow!

So to fill you in on the past two days...well what I can remember with my tired mine:

Thursday morning we got up early to go to a market that the concierge told us about. We walked about 15 minutes in a direction, getting slightly lost, but finally coming to the market! We went inside and it was ALL food, after we asked the lady multiple times if it had everything including clothes and jewelry and the like. Well we meandered on and found another closed tent that said accessories and fashion on it, so we were in luck! But...it was closed. We walked back to the main square and hopped on the bus to take us to Sagrada Familia. It is still in construction but the design is Gaudi's. It was really gorgeous and we paid a lot of money to go in and see the somewhat lack luster inside, though, it did have a museum section about Gaudi that was really interesting. He takes all of his inspiration from nature. An artist that is driven by science...now that's what I like to see!

We got back on the bus and went to Parc Guell which was a park designed by Gaudi. Also very very gorgeous. We took lots of pictures! We went to some souvenir shops as well before hoping back on the bus. We just looked at the beautiful view and architecture the rest of the ride, and then we got off at the end to get money because NO WHERE I repeat NO WHERE takes credit card in Barcelona...if you visit be prepared with lots of cash! We ate lunch at a smallish restaurant that was pretty good, but nothing amazing. we walked down Las Ramblas and stopped at a few stores and a delicious food market, and then headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head for the airport. We got there with plenty of time and tried to find somewhere to eat, BUT we had no cash and NO WHERE took credit card so we wasted time going to almost every restaurant only to end up getting to go sandwiches, which was fine. The flight was good and we made it to Gatwick early!

Then we went to customs...oh my gosh customs. The line was not very long...some 25 people, but we only had 1 person working, 1! The UK customs had 6 and all they had to do was walk right through! It took us like 45 minutes to get through customs (only after everyone in the UK section was done so the workers came over to help us). We were in line behind a cute couple (this info will come in handy later on in this post).

We got picked up by a guy that owns a bread and breakfast with his wife. It was very cute and homey. We pretty much went straight to sleep though. We woke up at 9am for breakfast (after the fire alarm went off at 7am from the bacon cooking). It was delicious and the couple were very nice. The man kept joking around with Reagan, and then he brought over marmite and told us to try it because it was British....most. disgusting. thing. ever. But of course Dad thought it was hysterical and bought some for me to try and make my friends eat it! They drove us to the train station after breakfast, and eventually we made it into London. At one of the tube stops on the way home I look over, and saw the same couple from customs!! Small place England! lol.

The fam and I stopped to get groceries (which was fabulous because they paid and I had more hands to carry more stuff back to my flat!!!) which is where we headed next for internet access and to pack up there stuff/my stuff. Then mom knew she wanted to have scones before she left so we went to Harrods and had a lovely lunch of scones...probably one of my favorite things about London (with clotted cream and jam!) I took them to Trafalger Square because that is probably one of my favorite places in London! We went into a few more souvenir shops, and then decided to head home. It was early than planned, but we were all exhausted and still fairly content food wise. We did stop at good ole Mickey D's for some dinner though (and sat next to a REALLY cute guy who was eating by himself, too bad my parents were there...) lol. Came back to the flat, gave them there luggage, and said goodbye! Hope they have safe travels tomorrow! I am really glad that they came to visit. We had a wonderful time!

One of the roomies is home and brought a friend, but they went out, and I decided to catch up on the computer, unpack, shower, etc. But now, I am very much ready to go to bed!!!

Live'n la vida loca!

First day in beautiful Barcelona! We decided to take a hop on hop off bus for the next two days in order to get to all the main stops we wanted to see.

We saw a good chunk of the city. We passed markets, sculptures, and houses that were designed by some famous architects. One of the museums we passed is shaped like a huge castle and was up on one of the hills. When you looked out you could see the entire city all the way to the mountains on the other side. It was breath taking...I got some really great photos. We saw the sight of te 1994 olympics, and then the bus made its way down to the port. We ate lunch at a restaurant by the beach, and walked out onto it...in coats, scarves, and gloves. We tried to get a family picture by the water, but at the exact same time a wave came and soaked dad through his tennis shoes and socks. We got back on the bus and saw the school Pablo Picasso went to and an old cathedral from when Rome controlled Spain. We went to a cute art store and stopped at a starbucks, which believe it or not was better than in the US.

Late afternoon we returned to the hotel and looked up some markets we wanted to go to, but it was too late to get good finds, so we are hoping to go tomorrow morning. We walked down Las Ramblas (one of the popular streets) and tried to find a candy story we had heard about. Unfortunately it was closing when we got there, so we didn't get to see them make the candy, but it was a nice walk. We went in a few souvenier shops before stopping to get some dinner. The place we had dinner was DELICIOUS! Best meal we have had. We had spicy potatoes, croquettes, chicken, steak, and french toast with ice cream and chocolate brownie with ice cream.

Now we are off to bed in order to be well rested for our last day in Barcelona. We are planning on going on a different line tour of the hop on hop off bus and to the markets. And then we are headed home super late! Funny, how London is now considered "home". I like it! :)

Au revoir Paris! Bienvenidos a Barcelona!

Today has felt very long, but has been very busy! We woke up a little later than expected, but made it to the Eiffel Tower for a tour! We rode up to the top floor and took some wonderful pictures. Paris is a HUGE city with tons of sights. We rode the bus a little ways and stopped to get lunch (mom finally got her french onion soup). We also found an ad for a perfume called Passion Lys! We tried to buy it, but they were all out.

We waited to get back on the bus to get back to the hotel and leave for the airport. Well the bus was SLOW and the traffic was awful, so we ended up having to get off and finding a metro to get back to the hotel. We took a taxi to the airport, and despite the traffic we made it with plenty of time! Our taxi driver was pretty cute too :) The plane ride was fine for the most part, though Rea thought it was really bumpy.

I got off the plane and was excited to understand things! Yeah Spanish! Our taxi driver was extremely nice, and wrote down restaurants we should go to, and a good market. Already spotting nicer people! The hotel is very funky. Two of the beds pull out of the wall, and the bathroom has a bediet. By this time it was pretty late, so we decided to go down the main street for dinner. Dad got a HUGE beer (apparently it was a liter) and mom got a rather large sangria. The food was asi asi (so, so) but it was a pretty fun experience when mom started playing with the the small lobster that still had eyes on dads plate. Our waiter didn't know english either so my spanish skills are definitely coming in handy! Wish it hadn't been a whole year since the last time I took spanish...though after almost 17 years of the language you would think I should be fluent!

Now we are trying to decide what to do while we are here...guess it is a mystery. Hopefully tomorrows post will contain lots of fun adventures.

The French are Glad to Die for Love

Bonjour from France!!! It has a been a busy couple of days, so here is a short update on activities.

Saturday night at the medieval banquet there was some pretty good food, jousting, singing, juggling, and acting. It was enjoyable, but not the best thing ever. Some of the highlights were the lady that had alzheimers and never sat down and the continual audience participation. I convinced dad to dance with me at the end of the night, and his 70's moves mixed with mine were very entertaining to watch...the whole table buckled over laughing.

Sunday morning we left very early for Paris! We rode on the chunnel and it was about a 2 hour trip. We figured out the metro to make it to our hotel which is very close to the arch de triumph. It took us forever to hail a taxi to get to our hotel from the metro (and it definitely ended up being like a block away...whoops!) We went to get lunch from a little French place, which was super expensive. It is a lot more difficult to get around when you don't speak the language. Oh, and it's funny because when English speaking people run into each other they get so excited. It could be because the french people live up to their reputation...they are very rude! I called Heather Boddy and met up with her!! I only got to see her for a little while, but it was great to see a Miami friend!!! Then the fam and I went to the Louvre. We saw the famous things like the Mona Lisa and the Venis de Milo. We walked around for about an hour, and I survived! :p We walked around a bit and I found the Commedia Frances, which is one of the oldest theatres where Moilere produced his plays. This was probably one of the most exciting finds. We came back home, tried to find a grocery store (which don't seem to exist here), and I fell asleep at like 10.

The next morning we all woke up at like 10, but we got eclairs and croissants which were delicious. We got aboard the bus where you can stop on and off it. We went to the Eiffel Tower, but not up it yet, Napolean's tomb, and Notre Dame. We went on a tour at Notre Dame, which was pretty great telling us about the architecture, and then we ate a local cafe. I got quiche and ate some of my mom's crepes! Yeah french food, and yes, the do serve bread with EVERY meal. The bus took us around a lot of other places that I have pictures of and will post soon! Last we got on a different bus and went to Sachre Cur (sp?) It is a beautiful cathedral on the top of a hill where you can see all of Paris. I had been told there would be TONS of Gypsy, but it definitely was not that bad! We went to a few tourist shops and I got a french hat and a painting for my house next year. We had to metro it home because the buses had stopped, and we went to dinner at a restaurant called Hippopatumus! It was delicioussss!! It was a wonderful day overall, and I feel like I have seen almost the entirity of the city! Now I am at the hotel and exhausted. More of Paris tomorrow and then off to Barcelona!!

Auvoir!

Double Double Toll and Trouble!

Okay, so sorry for the lack of posts, but I have been super busy since the family got here! Quick culmination of events.... 

Thursday was the last day of classes :'( Dramatic Crit was wonderful as was Theatre History. Chris Cook is a genious and said he would be willing to go see more plays with us! Yeah! I talked to him for a while actually, and he was cracking some great jokes. We had our last class with Mick :( We impersonated one another and teachers...they were all spot on! I almost cried when it was over. I'm going to miss Mick SO much! Last we had our high comedy performance of The Provoked Wife. It was long, but it went really well! Chris Cook came to see it and he loved my performance of Cornet! Norman was very proud of me as well, so that was all around good! Afterwards I took my sis and parents around BADA and then we went for Mexican food (after trying to get into a pub and realizing Rea wasn't old enough!) 

Friday was auditions day!! I felt very good about both my scene and monologue. Not to mention I got a lot of laughs which was great! I had a feeling I was going to get in the Plague because that director was most interested in me it seemed. I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and hanging out at the flats with people. We went to a few pubs and hung out as a group until the all school meeting at 6. How nerve wracking! I got in Three Penny Opera!! I must say it was a huge shock because I assummed since I didn't sing for the audition I wouldn't be in the musical. I did put it on my special skills list though. But fingers crossed I still get a good part! At first I was worried about being in the musical, but now I am getting really excited to do Brecht and there are a lot of parts in the play, and I am totally willing to play a guy part, so think good thoughts for me! We find out within the week we get back...it's kinda of like an extenuation of auditions I think. Also I am in it with my roomie Mara and a flatmate Emily both of which I love. We have a lot of year longs and talented people in the cast, so I am super excited to work with everyone. Though it will definitely be weird to not be with group P anymore. I will miss them! I came home and met my fam at the Marriot and brought them back to see the flat. My flatemates love them because they brought us Reeses, salsa, and girl scout cookies. They only stayed for a little while though because my flat was having a party type thing, which was nice and relaxing...to kick of spring break '10! 

Which brings me to today...finally! I woke up fairly early to pack for Paris and Barcelona. Said goodbye to the roomies and went to my parents hotel. I took them to some London gift shops and to see Primark (the REALLY cheap clothes store here!). We went to Prett for lunch, and then were off to the Globe to see Macbeth!!! We had standing tickets like true "groundlings". The show was really good. I am so glad I got to see a show there too because it is definitely an experience. It was a shortened version, and they set it in more modern times. The fight choreography was really good (and I knew how to do a lot of it! Yeah Philip!), and the blood was very real looking. Even though it got cold we all enjoyed it! The only real problem I had with it was there was a lot of double casting, which didn't really make sense. We came back and got ready to go out because tonight we are going to a dinner theatre thing where they perform Shakespeare and such all around you! I hope it's good! 

I leave in the morning for Paris!!!

London Thing: queing...is standing in line. So people will also ask "Are you in que?" It's funny :) 

Have wonderful spring breaks!! Love you all! 

We don't live in an elevator!

Second to last day!! Started off the day in voice, which was fine as usual. She worked on some Uta Hagen stuff with us, though a lot of it was finding character for our audition, which I had done a lot of. We also did relaxation, throwing the voice, and diction.

In Jackie's class we decided to have a 90's dance party before class officially started, so she let us continue as a warm up. Then we broke into groups and became a body of water. Last we played the essence game, our favorite!

They served Macaroni and Cheese in the cafeteria today, which was delicious! But here they don't call it that, they call it Macaroni Cheese. hehe. I worked on my audition scene, and then had high comedy. It went well, but it was just my Cornet scenes.

In modern physical we played frogs, a walking (one step at a time) team game, the look and kill game, and keeping the ball in the air. Then Mick talked to us about Harold Davidson because he created a play about him. Then we got to do a few small improvs of characters from the story. He brought three huge bags full of costumes for us too. He also talked a bit about the process of creating a piece, which I really enjoyed since I am into that sort of thing. We did short duet combo jokes that he had written...they were very vaudeville/three stooges. It was pretty fun and a little bit different than usual.

Tonight we are all rehearsing our Provoked Wife scenes because we perform it tomorrow!! Hope I'm not up forever! Also, mom, dad, and Rea are coming tomorrow!!! Can't wait!! Last day of classes :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

P.S Alina said the funniest thing today. We were talking about leaving the door open, and someone said "we don't live in a barn" and then Alina said "It should be we don't live in an elevator because those doors close automatically!" HAHAHAHA wonderful!

London Things: In the alphabet Z is pronounced Zed. They also weigh things in stones which equals 14 pounds...interesting :)

Last day with Line Endings :(

LAST DAY WITH SHEILA!!!! It was a very bittersweet day today. I had coffee in the morning and was oddly wide awake despite the lack of sleep even before the coffee.

Potluck breakfast was a huge success! There was A TON of food! French toast, fruit, scones, croissants, eggs, bacon, sausage, apple strudel. It was a lot of fun to just get hang around and eat. Which is clearly what we do best :P We also ran two scenes, which was kinda a long and painful process, but Sheila is always entertaining to listen too. We all took pictures with her at the end (check out all of todays events in my recent facebook album).

In Jackie's class we played her game where she tells us what to do. We had a lot of fun with it today, and she pretty much let us dance around. We were taking pictures so she tried to come up with fun ones, which resulted in "Crawl around biting each others bums" It was hysterical!!! I have some very good photos of this. She let us act like superheroes today too which was fun. We also did a bit of stretching and then became water.

During break I worked my fight scene with Trevor and m audition scene with Alyssa. Both went really well. Last we had stage combat, which I was really looking forward to! I had a lot of energy. We rehearsed our fights on and off. Me and Trevor decided upon a script from Inglorious Bastards. Well about half way through our rehearsal, I run to jump on his back, and I don't get high enough, and I was very tired by this point so instead of trying to hold on, I fall straight back on the wood floor on my head. Everyone freaked out. Philip who didn't notice what happened at first started talking to me about all sorts of things to look out for, he was super worried. I mean, it hurt like hell, but I have a high pain tolerance, and I could still see and everything. I had a bit of a headache by the time it was our turn, but it went wonderfully!! Philip told each group what to work on and he told us that we just needed to make the beginning punches in our fight a little less airy, but that we had one of the best fights of the day technically! WHOO HOOO! That was super exciting because we had been working on it quite a bit. I just hope he wasn't telling us that because of my head. Don't worry, all my roommates keep checking on me, I'm fine!

Came home, showered, ate, put up pictures, relaxed (notice that "doing hw" is not in that list) but all I really have left to do is prepare for our high comedy performance. I'm getting pretty sad that classes have to end. I really love our teachers and our group dynamic is so secure it is going to be weird having new people to work on the plays with. Not to mention it feels like it is ending even though we are only half way through. Anywho, off to get some sleep. Last voice and movement class tomorrow :(

London Thing of the Day: Torches=flashlights

Just another Manic Monday

So it's very late, so this is going to have to be a short post despite all that happened today. Got some coffee and headed to Sheila's class. We just worked on the scenes that people were using for auditions. I had tutorial with Ian and I worked on my scene with Alyssa, which went well and he gave me some good tips! I also worked on my Isabella monologue and my Sylvia monologue, which he laughed at! Sweet success! Working with him today was a lot of fun, and he seemed impressed. I am very excited for auditions now.

We worked our scene in High Comedy today. And it actually went really well! He said he was impressed with how nicely it was coming along just have to remember his notes! Our make up voice class was actually pretty fun....we did massages! We did foot massages which were wonderful! Micah was my partner and he was really good at it.

Lauren, Alina, and I went to see a german play which was called Heldenplatz by Thomas Bernhard. The first act was great, but it kind of went down hill. It took us forever to get there because the over ground was closed. Apparently he is a wonderful playwright so I think it was just the translation. And then walking back we missed the bus, so we didn't get home till 11:45! Talk about an exhausting trip. It was ridiculous!

We are having a breakfast party tomorrow in Sheila's class! And I was all excited about bringing scones, but apparently a bunch of other people are, but hey, it's breakfast! Sorry about the sporadic post! It's 1:15 am and I have to be up at 7!

~Lys