“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Welp!  I don't want to say goodbye to London or to this blog or to anyone here that I have met!

London is absolutely beautiful and magical and I hope that I can remember every small detail of it that has captured my heart.

Some good and bad things about London that I definitely do not want to forget:

• the "look right" and "look left" writing on the streets
• the way there's a yellow light before the traffic light turns green so that cars know when to get ready to go
• the way cars drive on the right/wrong side of the road (depending on which Brit you talk to)
• the way people say "Cheers!" instead of thank you
• the way that there is no right side of the sidewalk to walk on or on the stairs (one of the things that really bugged me)
• the Tube's "Mind the Gap" voiceover warning
• the Tube's very clear announcements of each stop
• the double-decker buses
• the way that the price of something is exactly the amount you have to pay because tax is already included on the tag
• "chips" are french fries
• scones scones scones scones
• how popular Starbucks is here
• everything closes SO EARLY
• Regent Street
• Kensington Gardens
• Mornington Crescent Tube station
• Great Portland Street
• Sainsbury's Grocery Stores
• Boots convenience store
• the pound coins, five pence coins, ten pence coins, one pence coins, two pence coins, twenty pence coins, and fifty pence coins
• Big Ben's bell striking on every hour
• the extremely forward European men
• their strange Minstrels chocolate candy and Double Deckers
• the drinking age being 18
• the extreme rudeness and slow walking of people here

I know that there are so many more things but of course I am having an extreme brain fart right now!

I am so grateful to have had the chance to come here, and I can't thank Mommy and Daddy enough for letting me go on this trip.  I am in love with this beautiful city, and can only hope that I will be lucky enough to return someday.

I love you London!

Until next time.

The first of two goodbyes...

 I must tell you about how my sonnet went yesterday!

When it was finally my turn to perform my sonnet, I thought that I was prepared...and I was.  But I guess that my preparedness wasn't enough for George.  Once again, he had me run around the room as fast as I could until I was out of breath and then when I stopped, he had me immediately slate my name to the camera and begin my sonnet.  I was not a happy camper, and I even stopped and said, "You know, I really don't think the running thing helps me."  He laughed at me but replied and said, "Oh no, I think it does, right Maggie?"  Of course Maggie nodded her head in agreement because no one wants to be on George's bad side.  Anyways, I recited the sonnet in my out-of-breath state, trying to take a deep breath and say as many words as I could before I ran out of each deep breath.  I used my class buddy to maintain eye contact with.  When I had finished, George looked at me and just smiled and then said, "May I have a hug?"  I take that as a job well done, and I couldn't help but smile while hugging him thinking about how relieved I was that it was over.

Maggie and I FINALLY got to go to Sports Cafe last night, ironically on our second-to-last night ordering purely American food.  We both got our pint of Beck's, a chicken sandwich, and loads of curly fries.  It was absolutely delicious.  Afterwards, we took our time walking towards Trafalgar Square and the Westminster area because my goal for this whole trip was to get just a few pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye lit up at night.  Although the sunset was at 9:15, it took until 10:15 for there to be pure darkness.  We stood there along the River Thames, freezing with no jackets, but just so happy waiting for the sun to go down singing "How Do You Know"  from the movie Enchanted.  After getting our pictures, we numbly waited for the next  bus towards our apartment, saying goodbye to Big Ben and the Eye for...forever, I guess.

This morning I took pictures of our final walk to class.  Today was "Sharing Day" so we basically did some warmup exercises with Charlie, and then some with George.  We then went around the room and each talked about what was our biggest challenge coming into this program, what was a highlight of our experience, and what was our biggest success.  When it got to be my turn (I was last), I said that the biggest challenge for me was letting myself be seen by everyone, as well as not caring what people think of me.  Constantly, I contemplate my actions and words based on how I think other people will react to them, which isn't how it should be.  On this trip, I tried to work on just letting myself be seen in whatever way that was (good or bad), by everyone and anyone.  I then talked about the highlight of my experience.  While most people mentioned someone they had met, or a show they saw, or a sightseeing spot they loved, I mentioned something that had been said in class the first week we had arrived.  It had stuck with me since the day it was said, and every day from there forward, and I know it will stick with me for probably the rest of my life.  I just remember Antonio talking about how we all needed to be spineFUL and not spineless.  And that stuck with me.  Just say yes.  Do what YOU want to do and just dive in.  There's a great quote that I have been thinking about a lot lately and it says, "I must be a mermaid.  I have no fear of depths, and a great fear of shallow living."  And it is SO TRUE.  Especially for me.  I don't have a fear of depths.  I want to soak up every moment and every possible experience that life has to offer, and I have to stop being so afraid of what other people think, because a lot of times that is the only thing holding me back from going full steam ahead.  So spineful, spineful, spineful.  I am spineful, and from now on, always will be.  As for my greatest success during this Dialogue,  I talked about the day that I got to work on my sonnet, and the circle exercise we did.  I just remember reciting those four very long lines of my sonnet and feeling the drive coming out of me, and the reaction on George's face when I turned around.  I remember the feeling of accomplishment and pride I felt when I had walked out of the door of RADA that day.  And to me, that was the turning point and the final success.  Not the final taping of the sonnet, but that moment.

We ended class with a gigantic group hug, and it was so so so sad.  We headed over to Marlborough Arms for lunch together, getting huge burgers with "chips", my new favorite strawberry and lime cider, and to top it off; apple pie.  We had some good laughs with Charlie and George, and I made sure to give them both a big hug when it was time to go, to make sure that they knew how much I truly appreciated everything that they had taught me.

In class, we also discussed if we had any suggestions for future years or things that should be changed or kept the same.  I feel like throughout the Dialogue, I had my criticisms on various parts of the program, but when it came down to it, it was absolutely perfect.  I am so honored to have been part of the beginning of a new Dialogue program, and I can only hope that they will be able to continue this program in future years.

They also asked us if we had any advice we would want to give to future students going on this Dialogue. So I'll put this here:  Don't have any expectations.  Expect the unexpected not just the first day of class, but every single day until the very end.  Be open to trying everything.  The time and experience can only be as much as you want it to be, and how much you put into it, and how much you want out of it.  It kinda disappoints me to see that several of our classmates only truly started to appreciate the program and the location this last week of being here.  I have embraced every moment of this past month, knowing that it would only come once and I had to relish in every second of it.  To go on this program, you have to be bold and "show up."  Leave everything at the door.  When it comes down to it, the people you meet inside that small acting studio will become your family, your support, your everything for the next month.  They will be the ones who will truly see you grow, and in the end, they are the ones who are most proud.  At least that's how it felt for me.  GAH.  I could go on and on and on.  I am just so happy with every moment of the past month and I would love to relive it over and over again and I hate to see it end!!

I have a lot more to say, and I want to write a more formal goodbye to London, but I will save that for later.

For now, I am going to enjoy the less-than twenty-four hours I have left of this beautiful city.

Cheers!

"The Journey"

Apologies for not blogging since Sunday!

Monday was a pretty regular day, and then Tuesday morning I woke up at four in the morning feeling absolutely terrible.  I stayed awake until 6am so that I could run to the store and buy some Sudafed, but I was basically running on empty for the rest of the day.  And of course, yesterday in George's voice class, I was supposed to do one-on-one work for my sonnet.  I'm not sure I have even mentioned my sonnet before; but each student in our class has to recite a sonnet in front of the class on Thursday and have it videoed to be sent to our professor back at NU.  So each student gets about 15 minutes in front of the class with the teacher to work on making their sonnet the best that it could be.  I chose Shakespeare's sonnet 43 which is:

When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, 
For all the day they view things unrespected; 
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, 
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed. 
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright, 
How would thy shadow's form form happy show 
To the clear day with thy much clearer light, 
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so! 
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made 
By looking on thee in the living day, 
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
   All days are nights to see till I see thee,
   And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.


So yesterday I get up in front of the class and recited my sonnet, which I know by heart.  My voice was cracked and I was all stuffed up, but I still tried to put as much effort into it as possible.  When I was finished, George says, "Okay, shall we play?"  And at this point in time, I know that "playtime" is never a good kind of playtime.  He tells me to start walking around the circle of my classmates bringing my knees as high as I can with each step.  Then, he tells me to start galloping and then to start running.  So there I am, jogging around this small circle as George yells,"Faster! Faster!"  Meanwhile, I can barely breathe and am running on three hours of sleep.  He then tells me to begin reciting my sonnet, while I run.  Yeah, I was not a happy girl.  When I finished, I stopped and gave him a pretty nasty look, but I'm sure he realized that his little exercise had no positive effect on the presentation of my sonnet.  It had just made me tired, upset, and hating him just a little bit.  

He then had me try to direct my sonnet towards one girl in our class.  Apparently, this improved the presentation of my sonnet and he was finally satisfied enough to let me sit back down.

Last night, our class went to see our final performance together which was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.  Here is the trailer from London:

It was an absolutely PHENOMENAL show and I enjoyed every minute of it.  It was definitely the favorite of the productions that we have seen with the class this past month.  Basically, Christopher (the main character) has Asperger's and is found in his neighbor's backyard with her dead dog.  The story is told through the eyes and mind of Christopher (mostly the mind) as he plays detective and tries to find the murderer of Wellington (the dog) as well as discover other secrets that he never knew.  What was so incredible about this production was how the stage and whole performance was meant to be like the audience was inside of Christopher's somewhat distorted view of the world.  There were no sets  besides the grid-stage, and props were minimal.  We really saw the ultimate use of the human body, as well as the importance of movement to tell a story.  I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat throughout the whole show, not because of suspense, but because of pure shock and amazement at every moment that was brought to life on stage.  I kept thinking, "How did they do that?" and "Who would ever think of doing that like that?"  I have the utmost respect for the creators of this production, for creating something so beautiful, that truly shows the beauty and abstractness of someone with this type of mental illness and also how they created such an appreciation for it.  Not once did you feel bad for Christopher or see him as "different."  He was seen as "special" in a good way.  I'm pretty sure I'm rambling now, but words could never describe what an incredible experience it was to see this story brought to life on stage and to have the privilege to see it in it's limited viewing time.  The story is based off of a book, and I am now dying to get my hands on this book!

Also, Christopher has a thing for prime numbers.  So, every prime-numbered seat in the theater was covered with a white sheet and had a little card in it's pocket.  Guess who was in a prime-numbered seat?  That's right...me!  I had to figure out if my name was a prime number.  Each letter in my name corresponded to a number, and I had to add the numbers up to see if they summed to a prime number.  My name came out to 167, which meant it was a prime number and I won a prize!  The prize turned out to be a silly little pin, but it was still such a cool little side-note to go with the awesomeness of the play itself.

Although I was feeling - for lack of a better word - extremely shitty, I still walked home from the theatre in the beautiful London evening down Regent Street.  The way the lights lit up each shop and the way the sky was still blue even though it was almost 10pm was absolutely beautiful.  It's so sad to think about leaving here and not knowing when I will be back.

Today I woke up feeling much much better than yesterday.  I think the drastic changes in weather and my sudden onset of allergies is just a bad combination and is messing with my body.  In George's class, we worked on our sonnets more, doing this exercise where we had to walk across the circle to one of our classmates while saying one "thought" in our sonnet.  When we arrived at our classmate on the other side, we had to encouragingly push them into the circle so that they could say their line.  At one point, I was up to the part in my sonnet where the thought is completed after four full lines.  So basically, I had to say "Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright, how would thy shadows form form happy show to the clear day with thy much clearer light when to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!"  Try reading that out loud, and maybe you will understand why my first attempt didn't go too swell.  I tried to speed-talk to try and fit the whole thought into the small diameter of the circle that I had to walk.  George laughed at me and told me that instead, I should try to arc myself and walk around the outer edge of the circle instead of making a direct beeline to my classmate, so that I would have more time to say my lines.  I tried this, while also trying to project my voice and maintain eye contact with my classmate.  When I finally got to my classmate and encouragingly pushed him into the circle, George stopped me and just said, "Wow!"  He was so impressed and so happy with my progress and I couldn't help but smile because for once, I actually felt the difference in myself and my voice.  I can only hope that tomorrow I can present my sonnet in the same way with such confidence and drive.

In Charlie's class, my group was presenting their play, the one I mentioned all of that criteria about on Sunday.  We had decided that our play would be about a family that was going on a road-trip to a campsite.  I was playing the nerdy daughter, and I had a younger baby sister, and an older drug-addict sister.  Our "mom" and "dad" were supposed to hate each other and it was to be assumed that our "dad" was cheating on our "mom."  By the end of our five acts, it was played out that our mom and dad had made up, and that us three sisters were all starting to get along just as we were getting back in the car to head home.  BUT, since we love a good plot twist we decided we didn't want a happy ending, and killed all of our characters in a tragic car accident.  Yes, it was disturbing.  Yes, our classmates were shocked.  But we got the effect we wanted!  Afterwards, Charlie told us that he was extremely impressed by each of our performances and how we all truly let down our walls and fell headfirst into our characters.  I was proud of that, because I felt that other people in the class were waiting to see us fail, but instead we became a very pleasant surprise.  As for some of the things on that strange list:  the passionate kiss between our mom and dad was just a kiss on the forehead, the uncomfortable silence occurred after a fake fart, my "guilty pleasure" was a huge picture of Prince Harry that I kept hidden in my pillow, the 75 second dance-break was performed to "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", and the word from another language was "Fuego."  It was funny, it was stupid, it was sad, and it was a mess, but Charlie liked it and in the end, we actually had a lot of fun doing it.  A lot of my classmates told us that the funniest part was when I woke up at the campsite and took out my Prince Harry head and said to it, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and then gave it a huge smooch!  I was glad that I could surprise my classmates and show them the silly side of myself.  The day ended on a good note, and then Maggie and I went back to Hummus Bros for dinner because there was no way we were leaving London without eating there again!

Only one more full day of class remains and then Friday is sharing day and our final lunch together!  Saturday starts the long journey back to the States and then to New York...

I can't believe it is already June 5th!

Much love from London and hopefully I will be able to blog a few more times before the journey is through.

xoxo

Mr. H. Potter. The Cupboard under the Stairs. 4 Privet Drive. Little Whinging, Surrey.

So this post is going to be a whole lot of rambling and randomness, so bear with me.

Yesterday was our last Sunday in London.  I know, it was extremely sad to think about.  The bright side of things was that we had been blessed with four beautifully sunny and warm Sundays, and we had basically completed everything on our list of things to do in London!

Yesterday, we went back to Camden Market for breakfast/lunch at the food market.  Okay, so it was more like dessert but that's what vacations and trips are for, right?  Maggie got herself a Churro and I, a banana drenched in chocolate and marshmallows.  (Mom and Dad, you're gunna have to put me on a diet when I get back!)

This was the breakfast of champions.

After breakfast, we took the bus back towards our apartment and stopped at Oxford Street to visit the Disney Store and a few other shops to look for souvenirs.  We weren't too successful, but we did get cute pictures with Mickey dressed as a British soldier!  (As well as with Tinkerbell, duh.)

We then went to TCR Bar which stands for Tottenham Court Road Bar for a late lunch/early dinner.  I have had a full english breakfast, a traditional English dinner dish (Hunter's Chicken), and now it was time to try a Jacket Potato.  Basically, a Jacket Potato is a huge baked potato that you can get with all sorts of toppings.  I chose to get mine with Chili, which was an EXCELLENT choice.

After a delicious late lunch/dinner, we made our way down to Euston Station to buy our train tickets to get to the Harry Potter studio tour.  Our tour slot was from 6-6:30, but the studios were a little of the ways out of London, so we had to be prepared to leave by 4.  We bought our commuter rail tickets for the 16:35 (4:35) and stood in front of the big board, which reminded me of Penn Station, which then reminded me of the journey I will be taking five days a week for the next six months.  Bummer.  ANYWAYS, we got on the train and twenty minutes later, we had arrived at Watford Junction.  From Watford Junction, we then had to board a completely Harry Potter decked-out double decker bus, which took us on the next twenty-minute leg of the trip.  Finally, about an hour later, we had arrived at Leavesden Studio where the official Harry Potter film series had been produced.

The self-guided tour is projected to take around three hours; beginning with a video montage that highlights scenes from all eight of the major motion-pictures.  Yes, I had chills (the first time of many in the following three hours.)  We then were lead into Lot J, which began with the grand entrance into THE Great Hall of Hogwarts.  It was amazing.  We then were lead through another pair of doors which brought us through the sets of Hagrid's Hut, Gryffindor Common Room, the Boy's Dormitory, Ministry of Magic, Potions, The Burrow, and so so so many more.  There were so many original props such as all of the Horcruxes, the Triwizard Cup, wigs, etc, etc.  It was also a very special day to be at the studios because it was the last day that they had some of the animal actors from the films there!  We got to see Fang, Crookshanks, Trevor, and even the kittens in the plates of Dolores Umbridge's office!

After lot J, we were brought out to the backlot, where they had such sets as the Hogwarts Bridge, the Knightbus (which is SO much cooler after knowing the London bus system), 4 Privet Drive, and Hagrid's motorcycle.  They also sold Butterbeer which I obviously tried and was worth every penny, or should I say pence?  Hehehe.

After the backlot, we then went into Lot K, which touched a lot more on the creatures of the films.  We saw a lot of dummies, animatronics, green screens, etc.  We also got the chance to walk down Diagon Alley (ah!) and even got to see Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.  The end of the tour brought us to a huge room that had a gigantic model of Hogwarts castle in it.  For those of you who didn't know, they used this replica of Hogwarts for many of the aerial view scenes, etc. and to add computer effects to.  While you're in the room, the lighting changes to mimic daytime and nighttime.  This was my absolute favorite part of the tour, and I could have sat there all day staring at this castle that basically embodied my whole entire childhood within it.

Those people at Harry Potter knew what they were talking about with the tour time, because by the time we found ourselves on the next train back to London, it was 9:00 and we had spent three hours reliving our magical childhoods.  I could not have been in a happier mood.  That is until I got these emails from Charlie:

Final Project

You are creating a short theater piece. It should be no longer than 15 minutes. The structure should be a play with five acts. Be specific about how time works in your piece and how you communicate the passage of time. Between each of the five “acts” there should be a transition/scene change. Be careful of how you accomplish that – it’s part of the performance. You may use the space in any way you like, and may move the audience depending on where you’d like them. You may use props, but nothing unsanitary or unsafe and nothing that can make a mess.

 Basic rules: No unsafe or inappropriate touch/contact. No one should be in any danger of being injured. No one should feel in any way personally violated. There is no leader – the group must collaborate and team direct as equal partners. Say “Yes” as much as possible. Work efficiently and respectfully. Make sure everyone is visible. When you make others look good, you make yourself look good. You must schedule time to rehearse. Respect your group, show up to rehearsal ready to work. Keep track of the time and maximize it. You are not allowed to miss the show on Tuesday night so plan rehearsal accordingly. And don’t talk about it too much, get up on your feet and make discoveries together in the moment. Build the piece physically and play together. Attend to elements of time, place, relationship and story so that we are oriented. If you want to confuse us, make that a specific choice and decide on the moments of confusion and moments of orientation. Be physically and vocally brave. The language can be muscular, the performance can be gutsy, the choices and action should be clear and visible.

  

Theme/Title:  The Journey

  

Ingredients:

-Each piece must have a clear beginning, middle, and end. 

-Each person must have at least one dramatic/dynamic entrance and exit. These entrances and exits may be solo or shared.

-Surprising reveal of a person.

-Revelation of an object in a way that is unexpected/illuminating/changes how we see the object (it essentially becomes something else through endowment).

-Three objects must be used that are from the UK, culturally specific, and recognizable.

-Everyone must speak.

-Text may be chosen from your scenes, the sonnets, poem and song you’ve worked on in George’s class (but not the individual sonnets you are preparing to perform), or from any of the readings.

*Note: even if you choose material from the readings to use as text, the scene can not be about an acting class, voice class, or the like. The point of the exercise is not to comment on itself, but to tell a story in a way that is immediate, theatrical, and dynamic.

-Full 60 seconds of continuous, simultaneous talking at hyper-speed. (This will require that you use previously memorized text).

-A dynamic adjustment to the rhythm.

-A dance break of 15 – 75 seconds. 

-Two moments of uncomfortable silence.

-A sound that comes from an unexpected place/source. 

-A broken expectation.

-A passionate kiss. 

-A sudden argument, which stops as abruptly as it began (like a summer storm).

-Use of a word from another language.

-A guilty pleasure.

-At least one moment where one performer is working in counterpoint to another. Be creative.

-One person must sing for 15-45 seconds. It should be either very quiet or very loud and may or may not interrupt the action of the scene.

-“Borrow” something from one of the plays we have seen and use it effectively… whether it’s an image, stage picture, plot device or storyline, relationship, etc… You get to choose, but it should be both prominent and seamlessly incorporated into your narrative.

So not only do I have to memorize Sonnet 43 and present it for George's class, but I have to compose a short composition by Wednesday.  Which is in like a day and a half.  Yes, wish me luck.

More to follow on this challenge...

"Let me guess; you Americans say things like 'literally' and 'oh my god' and 'like' a lot, right?"

It was a blessing that the day after we returned to Stratford we only had a Saturday morning session of class with Charlie.  In class, we each took turns performing our scenes with our scene partners.  Lori and I had decided that our scene would be that we are sisters and I am preparing to go on a trip to London where she has already been.  I have just returned from the travel agency and am frustrated because they were no help, and now I am refusing Lori's help.  We performed the scene, and then Charlie gave us critique on how to do it better.  We ended up doing the scene four or five more times, each time tweaking something else.  It was really interesting to see how the whole dynamic of the scene could change just because we said a pair of lines faster, or I used my prop in a different way.  It was a nice easy going Saturday class, and I was relieved when we finished up at 1.  Only two more days of real class before we start presenting our final products!

After class, Maggie and I went to afternoon tea at The Palm Court Brasserie in Covent Garden.  Not knowing what to expect of afternoon tea, especially since online many of the descriptions just say "assortment of teas, pastries, and finger sandwiches," you could say we were very very pleasantly surprised.  The waiter came over to take our tea orders; I ordered green tea and Maggie ordered chamomile.  Several minutes later, we were each presented with our own little iron kettle steaming hot with our desired tea, along with a decently-sized teacup and sugar.  Seconds later, our 3-tiered tower came out with our assortment of tea-time snacks.  On the bottom tier, there were four triangle-cut finger sandwiches of four different kinds; egg and mayonnaise, cucumber and cream cheese, ham and mustard, and salmon with some other type of dressing.  On the middle tier, there was a raspberry-topped mini cheesecake, a fudge brownie, and two eton messes.  Okay, so I had no idea what an eton mess was and had forgot that the menu even said that this would be on there.  Basically, it looked like a ice cream sundae with strawberry syrup and fresh strawberries.  But, when I took a bite of it, it was warm.  It turns out that eton mess is the original "strawberries and cream."  So, literally, it was a glass of cream, strawberries, strawberry syrup, and meringue which is just chunks of sugar and egg.  It was a delicious surprise.  On the top tier, there were two scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream.  This was probably Maggie and I's favorite part of the assortment.  The scones, which are similar to biscuits, were sweet and crumbly and were paired perfectly with the jam and cream.  I'm pretty sure both of us would agree that if they gave us three tiers of just scones, we would have been perfectly content.  Although we had been in the Covent Garden area before, we had never actually been to the Covent Garden Market.  Similar to Spitalfields and Camden Markets, Covent Garden had lots of little stands and tents with food and trinkets.  What was unique about Covent Garden Market, is that a large portion of it was inside a building-type structure with permanent restaurants and other shops.  We got to catch a glimpse of a string quartet finishing a performance, a mime performing in the middle of a large crowd, and the spot where Shake Shack London would be opening in July 2013!  It was very exciting and as always, on a whim.

I find it funny how some of the other students on our trip keep telling me that Maggie and I are so on top of things and so scheduled.  But, who wouldn't be?  If you just sit around trying to figure out what to do, you will never do anything and before you know it your month will be up.  We have made such great time with everything that we have wanted to do, and along the way, have seen so much more than we had expected just because we chose to wander and see where the city took us instead of going to once place and then heading back home.

Later on last night, Maggie and I decided to go to O'Neill's Irish Pub.  O'Neill's is a chain pub in London with several locations, but Maggie was determined to go there because she wanted to see if they sold shirts (they didn't, of course.)  So, we went to O'Neill's, the Irish Pub, in Chinatown of London, and they played all very very American music.  Like, country music about Sweet Home Alabama.  It was weird, but really really fun. The pub had three floors, and after splitting a pitcher of strawberry daiquiri, we went up to the top floor where live music was being performed.  We each grabbed a pint of Guinness and listened to the band play covers of Mr. Brightside and Sex on Fire, as well as a ton of other popular songs.  At one point, Maggie had to go to the bathroom, so she handed me her glass to hold while she went.  In that small amount of time of probably only three or four minutes, four or five people approached me to comment on my double-fisting of two Guinness's, or how I had "one too many" beers in my hand.  I was relieved when Maggie returned, and hastily gave her back her glass because I didn't want anyone else to approach me.  A few minutes later, as we were listening to the band, a guy came up to us and asked us where we were from.  When we told him Boston, he said, "Oh! The place where you don't pronounce your r's right?!"  We laughed, and then he continued by saying, "Let me guess; you ladies say things like 'oh my god' and 'like' and 'literally' all the time, right?"  We sadly admitted that this was all true.  He also asked us if we played American drinking games like beer pong and flip cup.  It was pretty funny how much this guy knew about American college culture.  At another point in the night, Maggie and I were dancing, and some random person grabbed my arm and tried to pull me into a picture with him and his friends.  I was so utterly confused, but luckily ducked out of the picture right as the flash was about to go off.  To say the least, it was an interesting night.  I had a ton of good laughs, but there is definitely a large culture difference between Americans and other foreigners.  The way they interact is so very different, and a lot more upfront than in the U.S.  Maggie and I went home feeling confused, happy, and accomplished at having fun on our last Saturday night in London.

Our adventures in the town that won The Loo of the Year Award in 2011

Yesterday morning, we met at the Marylebone train station at 8:45am to hop on a 9:15 train to Stratford-upon-Avon.  The train ride was just over two hours long, and did not involve any sleeping, thanks to the abundance of small children in our train car.  Upon arrival, we made our fifteen minute walk to the hotel that we were staying at, called the Mercure Shakespeare Hotel.  The hotel didn't have our rooms ready yet, so we waited in the lobby until our tour that started at 12:30.  We took a two hour walking tour of Stratford, seeing Shakespeare's birthplace and house, his grave, the church where he was baptized and buried, as well as other unique places in Stratford.  We also saw the canal that runs through Stratford, which used to be a major trade area.  Now, it is filled with small commercial barges and boats that open for business on nice days selling food and other little trinkets.  The best part of the tour; though, was the stop at one of the public toilets which England names "Loo of the Year" in 2011. We, as Americans found this pretty funny, especially when the tour guide said, "You don't have this in America?"

As we got to the end of our tour, the rain was finally dying down and the blue sky was peeking through the clouds!  OF COURSE it was now time for us to go inside to do a workshop with one of the voice coaches of the Royal Shakespeare Company.  I guess the sun would have to wait.  The voice coach we worked with was a really young Irish guy who had the most adorable accent! (Just had to add that in there.)  He made us do a warm-up similar to what we do in George's voice sessions, but for some reason this one was more fun.  He then gave us text to work with from Titus Andronicus (which was the play we were going to see that night), but we were not allowed to look at the text until he said we could.  We then got in a circle and on his mark, we all turned our papers around and went around the circle, each person only reading one word of the text and reading it as though "it is the most exciting word in the whole entire world."  It was funny how we went through the entire text reading it like this, and when we finished, had no idea what we had just read.

He then had us walk around reading the text and every time there was any type of punctuation mark, we had to change the direction in which we were walking.  This was supposed to emphasize the separation of each phrase as having it's own meaning.  We were all familiar with this exercise, because we have done it in George's class before.   We did several more exercises, but my favorite exercise that he had us do with the text was stand in a circle, and one person starts by reading as much of the text as they want while walking across the middle of the circle to another person on the other side.  When they reach that person, they have to stop reading and give a very strong encouraging push to the person whose spot they stole in the circle.  This person is then launched into the circle, and must continue the text from where the previous person left off.  This went on and on until the whole text was read.  What was significant was how some people would run across the circle so that they would only have to read on word before pushing someone else, while other people walked very slowly and read lines and lines of the text.  The exercise not only showed how we all supported each other, but how it helped to emphasize the beginning and endings of each line and make sure that we do not slack off and become lazy while reading.

At the end of the workshop, we talked about what we had learned during the session.  What we all came away with was the fact that not once during the whole session did we do any type of discussion of what the text was actually about.  But, through all of the different types of exercises and reading the text in different ways, we all knew what it was about anyway.  It was pretty cool to think that we didn't have to sit and do a boring thorough analysis of the text to understand what it meant, and that it could just come so naturally.  Maybe George should take a cue from this voice coach, I like his methods better!

For dinner, Maggie and I went to one of the little pubs in the town called the Golden Bee.  It was so weird, being somewhere outside of London...everything was so much cheaper!  We ordered a pitcher of Pimm's Strawberry Lemonade.  Pimm's is England's signature alcoholic drink.  We aren't sure what type of alcohol it is exactly, but it is usually mixed with lemonade, sprite, and a lot of different fruits.  After dinner, we made the very short walk (this town is really tiny) to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre to see Titus Andronicus.  Now, Maggie and I have been dreading seeing this play since basically the first full day in London, especially after Charlie told us it would be "extremely graphic."  We had googled and researched beforehand, reading things that said it is Shakespeare's most gory and disturbing work.  You could say our stomachs have been churning for weeks on end just preparing for it.  Three and a half hours later, and we survived Titus!  And, if these words are actually coming out of my mouth (or more like coming out of my fingertips), I have to say that Titus was not all that bad!  The storyline was confusing and as always I could barely follow the Shakespearean dialogue occurring without, but the plot and the acting were all so captivating that it was easy to stay awake and follow along (somewhat).  And as for the gore?  Almost every stab had absolutely no blood, or was done offstage.  Only in the final scene, was there a complete and utter bloodbath occurring before my eyes, but it happened so quickly and so randomly that by the end when there were bodies strewn everywhere, Maggie and I found ourselves laughing hysterically at just how terrible executed that whole last seen was.  It was just SO fake!  We were relieved to know that we had survived and would never have to see Titus Andronicus, or any other Shakespeare play, ever again (unless we so wanted to.)

Today, we had a free day to wander around Stratford.  Maggie and I checked out of the hotel and made our way to one of the bakeries, where I got a banana and chocolate pasty.  A pasty is a very traditional English food that is a pastry that can be filled with meats, cheeses, or in this case...sweets!  It was delicious, and I felt like I was just eating a banana drenched in Nutella.  After a yummy breakfast, we weaved in and out of all of the little shops of Stratford where I got the majority of my souvenir shopping done!  Yay!  Sadly, the size of Stratford in proportion to the strides that Maggie and I take is very small, and in under two hours we had made it through the whole town.  We still had five hours to waste before getting on the train back to London.  You could say that we wasted our time well, sitting in the sun by the canal and browsing a little street market that was happening.  We then finally found an outdoor beer garden (something we have wanted to do all month) and ordered ourselves drinks while we sat outside in the sun.  I had a delicious Strawberry and Lime cider, and sat on a bench outside for over an hour trying to learn my sonnet for George's class.  Thankfully, I got the sonnet down and finally had some quality sun time...apparently my shoulders even burned a little! (This is a good thing.) After our beer garden beverages and sonnet studying, we grabbed some lunch and made our way to the train station.  I didn't realize how exhausted I actually was until I got back to our room at Hampden House and sat down on my bed!  What a relief!

I can't believe that tomorrow marks one week until I head back home to Boston/New York.  It is extremely bittersweet, but I am ready to make the best of the next week and then I am most definitely ready to head home and see my family.

Tomorrow we only have class in the morning, and then Maggie and I have a reservation for a traditional Afternoon Tea!  Yay!

Weather forecasts are bright for this week...we may be blessed with a very warm and sunny final week in Londontown which is a dream come true.

Until next time!!

-5 degrees celsius is 23 degrees fahrenheit...brr!

It has been a rather quiet two days in London!

After having such a beautiful bank holiday, it would only be fitting that we would wake up to a cold and rainy class day on Tuesday.  It only fed into everyone's already present misery of being in class.

For the past two days in George's voice class, we have been working on a new poem called "The Highwayman."  Each person has gotten the chance to read a paragraph of the poem, and then get personal critique from George on how to make their voices and the presentation of that paragraph sound better.  George used different techniques on each person to show how different things work for different people.  When it was my turn, I read a paragraph in the poem that was more solemn and depressing.  George made me first rock back and forth while seated and reread the paragraph as to add a more comforting feel to the words.  It is pretty weird how I may not feel like anything I've said has changed, but meanwhile a subconscious switch has gone off and the words have taken on new meaning.  George then had me stand up and choose one person in the room to read the paragraph to.  I had to take it off the page (memorize it) line by line and then look the person in the eye as I said it.  This was in an effort to put drive and force behind the words, and to give myself a target which helps with putting meaning behind the paragraph.

In Charlie's class, we have been doing some weird skits that play on different types of relationships.  Today, we had to present our skits in class that we have been memorizing with our scene partners.  With our scene partner in our free time, we had to make up six "choreographed" poses to perform while we recited our lines.  First, Charlie had us move into a pose and say the line in our pose, and then switch to the next pose.  After this sequence, he then had us be silent in the poses, and say our lines while we transitioned to the next pose.  The third and final sequence, we had to connect the whole thing seamlessly; pausing when we wanted to, rushing in other areas, saying lines in transitions and in poses.  This exercise was in an effort to silently communicate with our scene partner and to see if we could truly listen to each other.  It was more complicated than I had imagined it to be!  It's funny how there comes a point, usually right in the middle of one of the sequences, where you suddenly just stop trying and the rest comes effortlessly.  And that's something Charlie has been trying to teach us.  Acting is something that doesn't need effort.  If you "try" to act, you can't act.  It needs no effort whatsoever.

On Tuesday, Maggie and I went to dinner at Hummus Bros which is basically a restaurant that only serves hummus dishes.  It was to die for.  I wish I could eat there every day, no joke.  I ordered a vegetable salad hummus with chicken so it was this huge bowl of hummus with the middle emptied out and filled with a greek salad and chicken.  And then you get these huge pieces of warm pita bread to dip in the hummus.  I could have actually eaten the whole plate if I didn't get so full!  I am determined to go back before we go home next week.

Today, we organized with a bunch of people on the Dialogue a trip to Ice Bar.  Ice Bar is based on IceHotel which is apparently a hotel in like Sweden or Norway or something that is made out of all ice. So basically at Ice Bar, you are draped in this huge comfy quilted poncho with attached gloves and pushed through the sliding doors into a glowing ice wonderland.  They change the theme every six months and redesign the ice, but right now it was galaxy and outerpace themed.  It was incredible.  The tables and even the glasses were all made out of ice!  We each got one complimentary cocktail that kept to the galaxy theme, so I tried an Apollo 11 and a Mercury Rising.  They were so delicious it basically tasted like tropical fruit juice!  Luckily, you only stay in Ice Bar for 40 minute sessions because it gets absolutely FREEZING.  At the ten minute countdown, my hands were numb and I was just about ready to leave.  But, it is awesome to say that I went to the Ice Bar in London and had a fantastic time!

I have to wake up around 7 tomorrow to get to the train station for our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon which is apparently the birthplace of Shakespeare.  I would say I'm excited, but that would be lying.  More updates to come on that escapade when I return!

Until then!!

That one time when we got to meet Giraffes...

I could not be happier about the Bank Holiday weekend that I had!

Yesterday (Sunday), Maggie and I walked over to Regent's Park which is only a few blocks away from where we live.  It is an absolutely beautiful park with all of these gardens and fountains.  So many people were outside for the beautiful weather walking their dogs, laying in the grass, or pushing their kids in strollers.  I think this Sunday was THE most beautiful day in London thus far.  Slight breeze, clear blue skies, and sun sun sun.  We went to one of the little cafes situated in the park and got breakfast (more like dessert).  We then made our way to the opposite side of the park where the London Zoo is situated.  We made our way through the zoo seeing the monkeys, the gorillas, the penguins, etc. FINALLY, around 1:30 we made our way over to the Giraffes.  There were three giraffes there; Maggie, Molly, and Alicia.  A little after 2, the zookeeper came and led us up to the enclosed platform where we would 'meet' the giraffes.  Once up there, he handed us each handfuls of carrot sticks and those giraffes knew it was time for lunch!  I couldn't believe how eager they were, they just stuck their heads right over the rail and practically put their faces into your lap!  It was fun to tease them just a little bit and see their long, purple tongues come out in an effort to get that carrot in their mouth.  After finishing up the whole entire bucket of carrots, the zookeeper then tied huge tree branches to the viewing platform for the giraffes to eat the leaves and gnaw on the bark.  While they gnawed, he told us some interesting giraffe facts.  Like, did you know that giraffes have four stomachs and that females can grow up to fifteen feet tall?  The average giraffe lives to about twenty, but the London Zoo had one that lived until 32!  The funniest fact he said was how giraffes days are usually eating, standing around to digest, and then eating again.  I laughed pretty hard at that; thinking how it is just another thing that adds to the list of why I am like a giraffe.

After getting our fill of giraffes, we made our way out of Regent's Park and hopped onto the tube to head over to Shoreditch and Spitalfields Market.  Spitalfields Market is just one of London's many famous street markets with many independent vendors selling food, jewlery, clothing, and crafts.  We took our time winding in and out of the different tents and tables, enjoying the sun and the peculiar things that people were selling.  We were pretty hungry after all of that visual shopping, so we stopped at a cute little Patisserie and got some sandwiches and smoothies for dinner which were delicious!  We made it home at about 5:45, only to get a text asking if we wanted to go see Abbey Road.  Knowing that we didn't have class the next day, and although we were exhausted, we knew it would be worth the trip.  So, no sooner than taking off our shoes were we putting them back on and hopping onto another bus to head to Abbey Road!  Abbey Road is a peculiar thing.  Abbey Road studios looks like any other recording studio building, besides the loads and loads of graffiti that have been painted on its fences and sidewalk.  The Abbey Road crosswalk itself is just that: a crosswalk.  It is still open to traffic, so it is pretty entertaining to stand there and watch chunks of people try to do the famous Beatles walk across the crosswalk without pissing off too many London drivers.  Of course, we got our little taste of fame as well when it was our turn to walk across.  It was the perfect way to end such an exciting day.

Today was another beautiful day.  I woke up to more sun and blue skies!  Maggie and I had planned to go to the Olympic Parks today before finding out that they are not open to the public.  A lot of people on our Dialogue took day tripes to Oxford, Stonhendge, and Bath, but we figured today would be a great day to just take in parts of the city that we didn't get a chance to truly appreciate.  We started with breakfast at Garfunkel's, which I think is supposed to be an American-style diner.  I got a Belgian waffle with ice cream because, hey, you only London once!  After yummy breakfast, we took the bus over to Camden Town to see the famous Camden Markets.  This was probably one of the coolest things ever.  Camden Market stretched on for blocks and blocks and had all these separate little areas like the horse stables, the lock market, etc.  Right in the middle of the market was an old-fashioned canal; one where people had to actively move the gates open and shut to let boats through.  It was really cool to watch in action!  A little deeper into Camden Market, we discovered the food area.  It was a bittersweet idea walking through that food area.  We regretted so badly just eating breakfast at a dinky little diner because the food at this market looked absolutely incredible!  Chocolate covered bananas, crepes, falafel, burgers, smoothies...basically anything you could dream of was there for you to eat!  I enjoyed just inhaling the delicious scents of all of the foods, and decided that we must return another day to give it a taste.

After Camden Market, we made our way to the South Bank near the London Eye to check out yet another food festival!  Sadly, this one wasn't as impressive as the one in Camden, so we just grabbed a beer and joined the throngs of people laying out in the grass taking in the sun with the beautiful view of the London Eye.  We took our time crossing over Westminster Bridge to get awesome views of The Eye, The River Thames, as well as Big Ben and Parliament.  It was a completely different perspective seeing Big Ben and Parliament today, than our first rainy day in Londontown. We trekked through Parliament Square, up to Trafalgar Square, through Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square, through to Oxford Street to Picadilly Circus, to Regent Street, and FINALLY about three hours later we made it back to Hampden House.  So, if anyone was wondering, it IS possible to walk almost all of London as long as the weather is cooperative and you have a lot of patience for the annoying pedestrians you have to deal with along your way.

Tomorrow it is back to class much to my disappointment, but this week is a short one!  Only two full days of class and then we will be off to Stratford-upon-Avon!

Until next time!!