Shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am TITANIUM.

Apologies for taking so long to blog again!

Yesterday was a very dreary early morning.  We woke up around 7 to the lovely weather forecast of rain all day and temperatures only getting up to a measly 50 degrees.  This would be semi-tolerable if it was a normal day of class, but no.  Today we were getting a tour of Shakespeare's Globe.  At this point, it is obvious that every time I mention Shakespeare's Globe it is just going to bring bad weather.  The tour was scheduled to start at 9:15, but we had to meet on the South Bank at 8:45.  So we had to leave at 7:50.  No one was happy, to say the least.  We were cold, wet, miserable, and then had to continue to be cold wet and miserable while we got a tour of the all outdoor Shakespeare's Globe.  Don't get me wrong, the Globe is beautiful and extremely interesting, but there were other places yesterday morning that I would have rather been.  Like my bed, for instance.

After the tour, we sadly had to head back to RADA for our 11-1 class due to the dreary weather.  We all literally sat in the studio with our coats and hoods on for the next 2 hours because we were all so miserable and freezing.  Relieved is an understatement when that clock finally hit 1:00pm.  Maggie and I frantically speed-walked back to the apartment to get warm and took extremely scalding hot showers just to make ourselves feel better.  After relaxing for a few hours in the apartment, we decided to trek back out into the grossness (better prepared, though) and go see the Tower Bridge.  The Tower Bridge takes you in a lift (aka elevator) up 42 meters above the road part of the bridge to a pedestrian enclosed walkway.  Here, called the "Tower Bridge Exhibition", you can read all about the famous bridges of the world, as well as the history of this bridge.  After the upper bridge segment of the exhibition, you take the lift down underneath the bridge to the Engine Rooms, where you see how exactly the drawbridge functions.  It was definitely worth seeing!!

Next, after miraculously getting on the right bus back into the main part of the city, we visited Leadenhall Market.  Leadenhall Market is supposedly where Diagon Alley was filmed or based off of (not sure which, or both) in the Harry Potter film series.  So of course I had to go see it!  It wasn't as exciting as I thought, being kind of small and the only restaurants were pubs teeming with 9-5 business people who were definitely not our crowd.  But, I made sure to get a snapshot just to say that I had been there!

By this point, Maggie and I were getting pretty hungry but we figured that we would wander a little further to see if we would just stumble upon a cute little pub or restaurant.  Well, we didn't find a pub OR restaurant.  But, we did find our way to the Royal Exchange National Bank, St. Paul's Cathedral, and One New Change which is a shopping mall type area that has an amazing view from it's 6th floor.  I also took advantage of One New Change in my search for new combat boots because, as most of you probably don't know, my only pair of durable walking shoes that I had packed have come to the end of their lifespan and decided to break during my trip.  Sadly, I didn't find any new shoes at One New Change but that's okay!  We finally hopped onto the Tube with a sigh of relief (it was so warm in there!) and made our way back to Great Portland Street to grab a bite to eat at Pizza Express.  I know the name sounds deceiving and like fast food, but Pizza Express is actually a great italian restaurant.  We each got ourselves a Peroni beer, some dough balls, and I ate a monster calzone all by myself (thank God for all of this walking!)

Collapsing into bed last night was actually the best thing ever, besides realizing that we still had a full day of Saturday class ahead...

In our Saturday morning session, we watched a short YouTube clip of Glenda Jackson speaking to the House of Commons in Parliament after the death of Margaret Thatcher.  The news broadcast was supposed to be as part of a tribute to Thatcher, but when Jackson stood up, she had other ideas in mind.  She began to point out all of the flaws during Thatcher's reign, basically saying how it was the worst era in England ever.  Now, we weren't watching this video clip for political education or anything like that, but more to see how Glenda Jackson presented herself.  She was introducing such extreme and shocking ideas, but still managed to maintain a calm and level voice, speak without screaming even when people were trying to override her, and she owned every inch of that room.  She made sure that she was heard, because she knew that she deserved to be heard, and she didn't let that go until she had said every single thing that she had wanted to say.  After watching this YouTube clip, a couple of our classmates were told to go outside one by one and then come back in and try to tell us a poem.  But, while they were trying to tell us the poem, we would be whispering to one another, or banging on the floor, or have our backs turned to them; all obstacles that they had to try and fight through to make sure their message was still heard.  Our voice coach, George, said something interesting during this exercise.  He said, "10% of the people in your life are people who don't care what you do or say and will love you no matter what you do, 10% are people who care about what you do and what you say, and the other 80% just don't care...which percent should you be trying to talk to?"  It was interesting to look at it that way - at the very small amount of people who actually want to listen to you and hear what you have to say.  It is definitely something to keep in mind for the future.

In our afternoon session, we did some weird movement exercises with Charlie where he played a 3 minute song and within that time, each of us had to go into the middle of the circle and be part of the "dance" that was occurring.  Everyone had to be ready at all times, and there always had to be five people in the circle; three standing up and two in some type of squatting position.  If one person in the circle decides to squat who was standing, someone has to compensate for that and stand up.  The exercise was about cooperation and focus and less about the embarrassing dance moves that everyone was doing.  It showed how when we all put real focus into the task, all of the unimportant stuff just fades away.

At 5:00pm, I could not have been any happier.  The sun was out after many days of being hidden, class was over, and it was officially the Bank Holiday weekend!  We have Sunday and Monday off this weekend, which is a nice change and a good chance to relax and catch up on sleep.  Saturday night, we really didn't want to go to the strange club scene again, so we googled karaoke bars.  We ended up back in Shoreditch at a karaoke bar called "Birdcage."  It sounds really weird, I know, and the place definitely brought a different kind of crowd but it was an absolute blast.  We put our names on the karaoke list and watched as other people put themselves out there singing songs like, "Single Ladies," "River Deep,"  "Angels," and "My Sharona."  Finally, around 12:30am, we heard the MC say, "Up next, Christie and Maggie."  After all of these older more classic songs, guess what Maggie and I sang?  Titanium by Sia.  Yup.  But, we were a HIT.  We were probably so off-tune and completely screaming into the microphones, but we had so much fun.  And the crowd cheered for us which was awesome too!  It was an awesome way to start the weekend.

The craft of communication and how it led to a round of margaritas...

Yay!  It's Thursday night!  It's hard not to be excited that the week is almost over when I have a long weekend coming up.  And when I say long weekend, I mean two days.  Yes.  Since class is Monday through Saturday, I have Sunday and Monday off this weekend for the UK Bank Holiday and that is considered the long weekend.  Whatever, I'll take it!

Anyways, todays morning class was a pretty normal routine of our semi-supine relaxation exercises, a bunch of random voice exercises, and then more work on our sonnets.  Today we did the sonnet from Romeo and Juliet that begins with, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"  It was really fascinating to see how each person executed the sonnet differently.  What our voice coach wanted us to do was not to recite the poem, but to read it, be able to say each line without looking at it on the page, and put our own emotion and story behind it.  He wanted us to talk to whoever we were reading the sonnet to, not TELL the sonnet to them.  It was eye-opening how quickly the tone of people's voices and the way they read the sonnet changed so drastically.  It also was eye-opening to see how the sonnet took on so many different meanings depending on who was reading it.  Our next assignment is to choose one of Shakespeare's sonnets to share with the class at the end of the month.

Walking to class today, Maggie and I realized that we are already coming to the end of our second full week here in London!  Could it be true that we only have two weeks left?  After a bout of homesickness, I am now at the point where I am definitely NOT ready to leave this beautiful city!  I also am realizing how much of this city I have been taking for granted, as well as my time here.  Every little moment counts, and there's so many small things about London that I want to make sure that I will not forget.  So I am going to try and work on that for the next two weeks so that I don't leave with any regrets.

In our afternoon class, we had a workshop with two men who have created a company called, "Craft of Communication" which goes into big businesses and corporations and teaches employees how to communicate effectively.  Obviously, with only two hours time we didn't learn that much, but we did take away some pretty interesting information.  One thing that I found interesting is how much the fight or flight reaction has to do with the way we present ourselves and the way we communicate.  When someone is shy or closed off, they tend to slouch and lower their heads.  Little did we know that this is actually instinctual as they are protecting their visceral organs in the stomach and the jugular in their neck.  If someone is insecure with themselves, this is a natural defense mechanism.  On the other hand, someone arrogant and confident may hold their head high, exposing their neck and jugular and instinctively saying, "I am not afraid.  Just try and hurt me."  Another fascinating fact that they told us was that only 7% of communication actually has to do with the words that you say.  The other 93% is body language and the tone of your voice.  So as much as you think what you are saying may matter (which it still does, of course) it is more about the total presentation of yourself.  Finally, we were given the "Status Toolkit" of things we can do to present ourselves with a higher sense of status.  These were:

1. Own the space and time.  - If you walk into a room, from the second you cross that threshold you should be holding your head high and maintaining eye contact.  Not only that, but when you begin to speak, you must believe that these people are here to listen to YOU and YOU own that room and that it is YOUR time.  This will help you to slow down and thoroughly get your ideas across.

2.  One thought, one breath. - It is so easy for people to stumble through their words so fast that not a single thing is actually heard (sounds like me.)  If we focus more on separating our ideas into separate smaller ideas, and giving a breath to each one, we will learn to slow down our speaking and pause more often to make sure our ideas are coming across the most efficiently.  Which leads me into the next point...

3.  Punctuate your words. - It is important to actually finish each word you say and make it finite.  If you are saying "project" don't say "projec."  Say "projeCT."  You know what I mean?  There is a big difference; one that separates you from lazy to articulate.

4.  See and be seen.  - We all believe eye contact is THE most important part of communication.  And in some ways it is.  But it also important to allow yourself to BE seen.  You must have that openness in both ways, seeing people and letting them see you that they can better empathize with what you are saying.

5.  Maintain your three points of contact. - It is important that each of your feet keeps three points of contact; the heel, the big toe, and the little toe.  With these three points of contact comes the most stability, and the appearance of the most stability, which makes you seem more confident in front of a big crowd or audience.

6.  Divide your audience into three sections. - Many people who want to keep eye contact with their audience do something known as "the sweep" where they constantly swing their eyes back and forth across the whole group of people in front of them.  Little do they know that this behavior just makes it harder for the audience to concentrate on the words that they are saying.  Instead, it is better to separate the audience into three different sections: a left, a right, and a middle.  Always start with the middle, and transfer your eye contact at the end of an idea or phrase.  This way, you are engaging the whole audience without making them dizzy.

After all of this talk about communication, my brain was buzzing with new information and it was time to wind down.  It was happy hour at Benito's Hat, a little mexican joint down the road from class, so we went there with a bunch of the girls and got delicious burritos and watermelon and strawberry margaritas.  We ended up staying there for almost three hours just talking, but it was really nice.  It was way better than just going home and sitting on my computer!

It's getting late now, and tomorrow we have to be up by 7:30am to get to Shakespeare's Globe by 8:45 for a backstage tour!  We aren't supposed to have a full day of class tomorrow, and Maggie and I are hoping we will make it to the famous Tower Bridge (aka London Bridge) before the day is through.

Until then!!

The Audience

Today was not a very exciting day in Londontown, but it is still worth noting.

In our morning voice session, we focused a lot on intention.  We executed this topic by tossing a ball while calling out the person's name.  We noted the significance in not only saying the person's name loud enough, but maintaining eye contact and the very direct intent to throw it to THAT specific person.  With this focus on intention, we can further develop our vocal skills and learn how to execute our speech in such a way that it is the most effective.  I find it really interesting how all of this vocal work is extremely physical and is about more than just your vocal chords and mouth, but about every part of your body and your mind.  Our vocal coach, George, also told us some pretty cool theatre myths such as why the green room is called a green room, why people say "Break a leg" instead of "good luck", and what a ghost light is.  Now, I feel a little more in tune with the life of the theatre majors in the group as well as actors and actresses in general!

During our lunch break, Maggie and I walked over to Oxford Street which is pretty close by, so that we could start searching for souvenirs.  Oxford Street most reminds me of New York City out of everywhere in London.  Why?  Sketchy people, creepy souvenir stores, and lots of noise and crowds.  We wandered for a bit and even took a look around a strip mall a little bit down the road.  (Something very weird in London is that you have to pay to use public bathrooms...usually 20 pence which is probably almost $0.50!)  After getting our fill of Oxford Street, we scuttled back to the safety of Tottenham Court Road and headed back to RADA for afternoon class.

When we arrived back to class, we were told that Charlie our teacher would be late.  We were thinking at most, 15 to 20 minutes.  But instead, Charlie never showed up and the TA showed up an hour later.  Now, if we were normal college students on a Dialogue, after 20 minutes we would have all got up and just left class.  But what did we do?  We all sat in a circle together and sang random songs from Les Mis, Backstreet Boys...even Baby Got Back!  It was silly but amazing that it didn't even cross any of our minds to leave class, but rather just stick around and hang out together.  Unfortunately, when the TA arrived we did have to break-up our powwow and do a small amount of work, but our unplanned extra hour of break made it that much better.

Tonight, we saw The Audience at The Gielgud Theatre in the West End of London.  The Audience is a play about the Queen of England (played by Helen Mirren) and her meetings with every Prime Minister that has been in office during her reign (12 in all.)  It was an extremely interesting, thought-provoking, and surprisingly humorous play.  It is interesting to know that each Prime Minister in office out of precedent, would meet with the Queen every Tuesday evening for twenty minutes and update her on the status of the country.  It wasn't written anywhere in the constitution, and everything said during the "Audience" or meeting was completely confidential and held between the Queen and the current Prime Minister.  We were introduced to encounters between the Queen and Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and even the current Prime Minister, David Cameron.  They even touched upon the Queen's state after Margaret Thatcher's death, which apparently is a very emotional topic for her as they were only 6 months apart in age.  The play used flashbacks of the Queen as a child to reflect the Queen's discontent as a young girl to be the heiress of the throne.  It was extremely well thought out, and my favorite part of the play was the end when the Queen notes that it is not the Monarch that makes the country, but each of the Prime Ministers; and how each of them looks to the Queen as an unwavering constant in a country that is always changing.  The play, in this way, was not only entertaining, but left the audience with a real message and a true respect for the Queen of England despite her age.  I would greatly recommend seeing this play.

* Silly side note, at British plays and musicals, they sell Haagen Dazs ice cream in little carts right next to each seating section.  Apparently it is a tradition in all theaters.  Another difference from American theatre is that they allow outside food and drink, but they charge you almost $5 for a program!!!*

Well, it is extremely late here and time for me to go to bed!

Goodnight everyone xo

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Yesterday and today in voice class, we began to venture into text.  Yes, actual words to read off of!  Sadly, we are still forced to do silly vocal exercises for the first half of class, but at least with text we can actually read something now!  For the past two days, we have been working on Shakespeare's 29th sonnet which is:

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Basically, this sonnet is about a man who wishes his life was different than his current state, until he realizes he has nothing to complain about because he has the love of his life.

If some of you don't know, Shakespeare's sonnets are supposed to be read in iambic pentameter, which is a set of 10 syllables paired into twos with one syllable in each pair being emphasized more.  It is complicated and difficult, but when executed correctly, it leaves the sonnet with the greatest impact.  Today, once becoming familiar with the sonnet, we played around with it in different ways.  We tried walking around and reading it, and each time there was a punctuation mark, we had to switch the direction in which we were walking in.  We also tried reading the sonnet without iambic pentameter, as well as reading the sonnet as if each line were it's own finite poem.  It was interesting to see how different people executed the poem, some spoked fervently, while others more pleasantly who emphasized the love story part of the sonnet.  It really amazed me how the sonnet could take on so many meanings just by the tone and person reading it.

In our afternoon classes, we have been doing some pretty interesting things with Charlie.  Yesterday, we started off the class by lying in a circle so that your head was resting on the person's stomach next to you, and someone's head was resting on yours.  We then were told to let out all of the giggles that we had inside of us for the next five minutes of class.  It's pretty funny how when we are told to giggle, it becomes the hardest thing in the world.  Meanwhile, most of the class has giggles throughout each of our sessions.  Once one person started giggling; though, you couldn't help but start laughing as well just because of the pure strangeness of the sensation of feeling someone's stomach vibrating below you as it erupted with laughter.  It was a great way to relieve all the stress and tension everyone felt, and to start the class off on a light note.

After the laughing exercise, we were told to get into partners and do more mirroring.  I decided that since I have basically avoided Maggie in every session thus far, we should finally be partners.  And boy oh boy, what a good idea that was!  It was so funny how much we could predict each other's next movements, as well as how identical we have come to be in our mannerisms and facial expressions...no wonder people think we are sisters or something!  My favorite part of class yesterday was making Maggie do the dance to "Shawty it's your Booty" and seeing if she could figure out that that was what I was making her mirror.  Obviously, once she caught on, we both burst into laughter.  Gotta love that girl!


(For those of you who don't know the dance...here it is:)

Today in class, we were assigned scene partners because we are going to begin working with short scripts in this class as well.  But, before we were given our scenes, we were to do a trust game with our scene partner.  The trust game consisted of one of us closing our eyes and pretending we were blind, while our scene partner guided us around the room.  Lori is my scene partner, and I had no issues trusting her in guiding me around to room.  Only once did I come a little to close to hitting my face into the window, but I'll let her get away with that this time!  It was amazing to see how much my senses heightened when my eyes had to be shut.  Every smell was more poignant, and every touch was more intense.  We were told to touch other people's hands and arms and try to figure out who they were.  It was funny and rather embarrassing that I had such a hard time telling who was who when I could not look and see who it was!

We got to end class early today because we were scheduled to take a tour of the National Theatre on the South Bank.  The Theatre was extremely interesting, as it holds three different kinds of theaters under it's roof; each one catering to up to 3 shows at a time!  I'm pretty sure the tour guide said that over a year, over 26 shows could have been shown at the Theatre.  We also got to go backstage and see the set design area as well as all of the extra and random props that they have laying around.  I'm not a huge theatre buff but the tour was still very cool!

After the tour, Maggie and I along with two other girls went to the restaurant Giraffe that sits right along the South Bank of London on the River Thames.  It is a beautiful view, rain or shine; and luckily today, the sun was shining!  We got extremely delicious food and passionfruit cider that was to die for! I can't really tell if I'm gaining or losing weight on this trip due to the constant paradox of walking so much but then eating so much food!!

Another day of class awaits tomorrow and then tomorrow night we are going to see The Audience featuring Helen Mirren!  My hopes are high that I will actually like this play!

Until next time!!

“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Yesterday's class dragged on for quite a bit and I think everyone was ready to have their Sunday off.  In George's morning voice class, we did a lot of relaxation exercises as well as discussed the introduction of the book that we were supposed to read.  Basically, the book talked about how there is a difference between our natural voice and our habitual voice and how it takes effort to separate them.  The book also talked about how it can take up to 20 years to define this difference and truly come into your own natural voice.  Obviously, we are only here for a month and are only getting a small taste of all of the hard work it takes to really become comfortable with your voice.  The second half of our morning session, we practiced using our natural voice saying, "I am me."  We had to stare at the person standing across from us in the circle and look them in the eyes and say this statement with them.  We then had to take a step towards them and then do it again.  We continued to do this until we were face to face with them, then shoulder to shoulder, and then back to back.  After back to back, we then took one step away and did it again until we had swapped places in the circle.  Afterwards, we talked about how when you had someone to focus your attention on, it was easier to use your natural voice and not feel nervous.  It seemed as though we were drawing energy off of each other to encourage one another to do the exercise as efficiently as possible.

Our afternoon class was our first 'official' class with Charlie, our new instructor.  We spent the first half hour of class discussing The Tempest as well as anything else we had learned related to class.  I was shocked when Charlie was able to go around the circle and name everyone without hesitation, until our TA told us afterwards that he had studied on Facebook!  Very very clever.  We then got into two small circles and started a massage circle to release any tension we had from the past week.  I must say, everyone is a great masseuse and it was a good time to practice my massage skills for physical therapy! We then split into partners and analyzed each other's posture and helped our partner by telling them where they were holding tension and figuring out ways in which they could release that tension.  Both my partner and I are very tall, and we found that both of us held a lot of tension in our shoulders.  It makes sense, because we spend so much time hunched over and not standing at our full height.  It's amazing how much this all relates to anatomy and reminds me more and more how much I love the profession I am going into.  Finally, we ended the class with mirroring.  Basically, I had to stand less than 2 feet away from my partner, maintaining eye contact and TRYING (note that word) to keep a serious face.  Knowing me, I of course could not stop bursting out into laughter because my partner is one of the clowns in the group and kept making silly facial expressions at me.  After finally getting over the giggles, I realized how intense and intimate it is to maintain eye contact with someone.  But, I also realized how much better at it I am getting.  I can now stare into someone's eyes and truly read them, and not feel as awkward as I used to.  Eye contact is such a strong physical connection, one that we don't use very often.  It truly can be the difference in the way a person sees you.  I know that usually when people try to maintain eye contact with me, I make a silly face or ask, "What are you looking at?!"  So I'm going to try from now on to just let it happen and not make everything into such a lighthearted joke.

Last night, we went out with some girls on the Dialogue to a club called Tiger Tiger.  It was ridiculously expensive and definitely not worth the money it cost to get in.  Once again, the crowd was older and more businessy, and the music was OLD.  Like, we are talking Black Eyed Peas "Pump It" was playing.  Who plays that at a club?!  People in London, I guess.  Either way, it was still a great time and I love the girls I went with.  They are all so sweet and funny and remind me a lot of my friends at home.  I'm hoping that even when we all return home from the trip, we will still stay in contact.  (I'm even trying to convince a younger girl to go through recruitment just so she can be my little.  Sneaky, I know.)

Today, Maggie and I walked over to Oxford Circus and treated ourselves (more like experimented) to a full English breakfast.  So, a full English breakfast consists of eggs sunny side up, sausage, "bacon", toast, and beans.  Weird, I know.  I don't really like any of that stuff besides toast, but I ate it anyway because it was an experience!  Except for the bacon.  Ew.  It was more just like a gigantic piece of ham slightly fried.

After having a late breakfast, we then took the Tube over to Kensington and made our way over to Kensington Palace where we had reserved tickets to see the inside quarters of the Palace.  We first went through the Queen's apartments, which told the story of William and Mary and of Mary' sister, Anne, who had 17 failed pregnancies, only to have her 18th child die on his 11th birthday.  Anne was supposed to birth the next heir to the throne because Mary could not have children.  I know I'm missing pieces of the story, but somewhere down the line of relatives the next heir became King George I.  After visiting the Queen's apartments, we went to see the King's apartments.  It was amazing to see just how much more ornate and extravagant the King's quarters were compared to the Queen's.  The King had a grand staircase, fresco painted ceilings, chandeliers, and tons and tons of old paintings.  I liked how the Palace had transformed these old quarters to tell the King and Queen's stories so that it wasn't just walking through rooms with a bunch of artifacts.  I really wish I had read up on my English history before I visited; though, because it was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be!

The last section that we could see in the Palace was "Victoria Revealed" which was all about Queen Victoria, who was the youngest and longest reigning Queen of England.  She was brought into office at the young age of only eighteen!  Can you imagine being that young, a WOMAN in the 1800s, and being Queen of a country?  Absolutely insane.  But, she did it.  And she did it extremely well.  Victoria was an extraordinary person and very intelligent.  The exhibit had covered the walls, tables, and floors with quotes and blurbs from all of Victoria's journals and writings.  I truly felt like I was getting to know her, and what it was like for her to run a country and still try to have a normal life.  My favorite part of this exhibit was the love story that developed between Queen Victoria and Albert.  There was a whole room devoted to their love; segments of letters written to one another, things Victoria had written describing Albert, the place where they first met, etc.  Just from all of the writing and imagery shown in this exhibit, anyone could see how much they loved each other.  I felt like I was following Victoria through her whole life and truly feeling every emotion that she had felt.  It was  extremely sad when we arrived at the segment of the exhibit where she writes about Albert dying.  Suddenly, the whole exhibit was very dark and gloomy.  Victoria's writing became sad and you could sense how lonely she had become.  If I had to choose one thing that I have done so far on this trip that left an impact on me, it was the Queen Victoria exhibit and the story of Victoria and Albert.

After leaving Kensington Palace, we explored the gardens and FINALLY found the Peter Pan statue.  My lifelong dream has finally come true.  To stand next to the original statue of Peter Pan, donated by the author himself, J.M. Barrie in 1912.  The statue is 101 years old and as beautiful as ever.  It sparks such youth and a drive for adventure and it will always be my favorite thing about London.  It is a reminder that no matter how old you get, you never really have to grow up.

After thoroughly exploring Kensington Gardens on this surprisingly beautiful, warm, AND sunny day, we crossed the street to Hyde Park.  There, we stopped at the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, where we dipped our feet in the bubbling (and freezing cold) water.  Hey, if we are there, we might as well get the whole experience, right?  Sitting there with the sun on my back and my feet in the water, I couldn't help but really appreciate the whole experience I was having.  At the same time, today is the first time my homesickness is really hitting me.  There are a lot of things I miss about home, but I know it is worth it to be here and it's only three more weeks after all.

We ended our extremely long day at Harrods which is like the Macy's of London.  Except way more expensive.  A small moto-leather jacket was 1065 pounds!  Which is like $2500 in the U.S.  The place made me want to be rich and famous, to say the least.  It was still really fun to explore all the different rooms and gape at the loads of designer clothes within my reach.  It was also really fun to pose with yet another huge giraffe stuffed animal and just appreciate the pure fun of window shopping.  After exploring all five floors completely, I was relieved to get on the Tube and sit down.  Getting back to our apartment and sitting in my bed was even more of a relief!

A new week of class starts tomorrow (blegh) and yet another week of adventures awaits!

I hope everyone is enjoying reading this, because I am truly enjoying writing it.

I miss everyone so much!! So much hugs and kisses coming from across the pond.

xoxo

Reinforce the Outrageous

Hello world!

I had quite the exciting Thursday if I do say so myself!  In our morning voice class, we had to get together with our assigned buddies and tell each other something we have discovered thus far in the class, how many siblings we have and where we are in the order of siblings, and something that not many people know about us.  Once we had shared this information, we then all got into a big circle and took turns telling the group all of the fun facts about our partner.  Once everyone had done this, we then  threw around a small rubber ball and whoever you received the ball from, you had to try and remember their fun facts.  It was amazing how some people's facts stuck out in my mind and were easy to remember, while other people's I couldn't remember anything.  After the exercise, we talked about how the way a person had shared the fun facts directly affected how we remembered it.  If someone emphasized a certain fact, made a joke out of something, or articulated it very clearly, it made it easier to remember.

In our second session of class on Thursday, we played Master and Servant once again, but the scenarios were just a little bit different.  Antonio made all of the people who were insecure with having the power be the Masters.  Of course, that was me.  I don't like the idea of telling people what to do and I don't handle power very well.  At the same time, I don't like being walked all over either.  Obviously, I'm very paradoxical and still very unsure where I stand in terms of leadership and authority.  One thing that struck Antonio; though, when it was my turn to be Master in front of the class was that I used my height to my advantage.  He mentioned to me how when my 'servant' was not doing what I asked of them, as impossible as it may sound, I 'grew' taller to enforce my power over the servant.  He went on to say how we all enforce power in different ways, some by size, gender, wealth, intelligence, etc.  It was a pretty cool epiphany to realize that I make myself taller when I am trying to assert myself, without really trying.  I knew this height came in handy somewhere!  We also talked about women's empowerment and how most of the people who were insecure with power were girls in the class.  In the United States, women are not encouraged as much as they should be to be leaders and be empowered, and that should change.  Antonio made the point to say, "You are in London!  This city is a monarchy run by a QUEEN!  How much more women's empowerment could you get?"  And he was right.  We should all take an example from the Queen in that we can be just as powerful as men and accomplish just as much as them (if not more.)  Sadly, this was Antonio's last class with us as he is heading home and we are getting a new teacher named Charles.  As much as this class is whimsical and crazy and sometimes annoying, I was sad to say goodbye to Antonio.  Even though I have only been here a week, I genuinely have noticed a difference in myself and I think that I owe that to him.  He worked really hard to create a Dialogue that will leave a long-lasting impact on all of us.

Last night all of the girls on the Dialogue signed up to do a pub crawl in Camden Town which is a really hip area with a bunch of bars and live music pubs.  We started off at The Wheelbarrow where they let a huge Husky named Albert just roam around while people petted him.  There, we started talking to a group of guys who just so happened to also be from America!  (Pretty sure almost everyone on this pub crawl ended up being from America.)  Anyways, it turned out that two of them had just graduated from Arizona State and two had just graduated from Iowa state and they were beginning a backpack trip around Europe. (Personal Side-note:  I now want to backpack around Europe when I graduate.)  They were all extremely sweet and we ended up hanging out with them for most of the night and had the great time.  I won't bore you with all of the details of the pub crawl but we went to The Wheelbarrow, Belushi's, Barfly, The Blues Kitchen, and Proud Camden which was a club.  The pub crawl involved a lot of free shots and discounted drinks (Mom and Dad, I'm sorry but I was safe I promise!)  When we arrived at Proud Camden, we got into the club only to learn that THE Calvin Harris was DJing that night!  It was pretty awesome.  Proud Camden also has all of these mini individual areas that are small dance floors and bars that originally were horse stables!  We danced with the group of girls still remaining on the pub crawl, but they got tired pretty quickly and Maggie and I just weren't ready to leave yet.  So we stayed for an hour or two after the last of our group left and then finally around 2am we headed home.  WE WON THE BAR CRAWL.  Yes, the babies who are not yet even 21, won the bar crawl.  We were pretty proud and pretty happy when we returned to our apartment (not to mention relieved because we could finally go to bed.)

Although the pub crawl definitely took it's toll on us, we still managed to wake up bright and early and make our way over to Buckingham Palace for the traditional Changing of the Guard Ceremony.  By some stroke of luck, Maggie and I got a prime spot right in front of the main gate entrance.  Although the ceremony took longer than expected, it was extravagant and incredible.  It is amazing how they do this ceremony everyday; all the security it takes, the preparations, and the talented guardsmen who not only have to wear those outfits but also are all musically talented and sounded like a professional symphony orchestra! It was a little frightening how many tourists come out to see this ceremony daily, and we were reminded multiple times to watch our bags because pickpockets look for the opportunity of when you're taking a picture to steal your wallet or purse.  After the changing of the guard, we wandered along the outside fence of Buckingham Palace and then along some streets that I have no recollection of.  We found our way back to Regent Street, where we visited Topshop, Superdry, and the most amazing Hamley's.  Hamley's is like the FAO Schwartz of London.  It had five floors of just pure childish fun.  Maggie and I made sure to take a picture of every single Giraffe object in existence in the store, as well as photo ops with Will and Kate lego version, and Her Majesty the Queen, herself.  It was a very productive morning and I couldn't help but smile at how productive we were being!  London is beautiful and I don't understand why some of our classmates are just wasting their days watching movies and sleeping in.

Our afternoon session today was interrupted by a guest speaker, Bill Barclay, who is the Director of Music at Shakespeare's Globe here in London.  He is one incredible guy.  He is a man of so many talents and he has truly taken the saying "Live life to the fullest" to heart.  It seems that although he had a rocky start as well as many bumps along the way, he has finally found where he belongs at the Globe.  Bill is one of those people who is good as so many things, and had a hard time figuring out just where his passion really lied and what he wanted to do with his life.  But, instead of settling on one passion, he chose the option of fitting them all into his life and career.  I admire that, because although he may have an insanely busy life, he was able to keep everything he loved about his life involved.  I can relate to Bill because I know that I myself have many passions and interests and oh how I WISH that there was a way I could incorporate all of them into a professional career.  Anyways, after we heard Bill's whole entire life story up to his current age of 32, he then went into the entrepreneurial aspect of his life since after all, this Dialogue is, "Applied Theatre Training for the Global Entrepreneur."  Things that stuck with me in his advice.  1.  Follow your bliss.  Follow your passions and your ambitions and just see where they take you.  Don't take no for an answer and don't cross out any possibility.  So many people have said this to me in my lifetime that I probably can't even count.  But the way he said it, "Follow your bliss."  Just do what makes you happy.  Could it be any easier?  2.  Be curious.  When Bill graduated grad school, he took six months to hike from Mexico to Lake Tahoe.  Sometimes all it takes is a change in scenery and a little exploration to realize what you really want to do with yourself.  Sometimes getting lost is the best thing that could happen to you.  We should all take things in stride instead of getting frustrated, and let the curiosity take over and lead us wherever it may want to.  3.  There is a BIG difference between what you think you want and what you actually want.  And sometimes (most of the time) it is really hard to know that difference.  What we think we want is influenced by everyone around us; parents, teachers, friends, siblings, etc.  We just want to make everyone happy. But, NO.  We should want to make ourselves happy.  That's something that I am going to work on.  Figuring out what I want.  Not what he wants or she wants or how what I do affects THEM, but how it affects ME.  So thank you Mr. Bill Barclay for a very inspiring visit.

Ironically enough, I ended my day today going to Shakespeare's Globe to see The Tempest.  Now, I'm not sure how many of you know exactly what Shakespeare's Globe is or how exactly it works.  So basically, they rebuilt the original Shakespearean theatre in all of its forms.  It is an open theatre, meaning there is no ceiling.  It is all wooden and all very old.  Surrounding the stage is a large open area, which is for standing room only.  Fortunately (or more like unfortunately) that is where our tickets were for.  So yes, on this forty degree night in London, we were expected to stand for three hours and watch The Tempest outside.  Don't get me wrong, the first half of the play was amazing; the imagery was beautiful, the sound effects, the acting.  It was all amazing.  Even though I had a really hard time understanding the Shakespearean language, the story was intriguing and humorous.  Sadly enough, by intermission we were all fed up with having no where to sit and with being so cold, so we left.  I feel bad seeing that it was the historical Shakespeare's Globe and that the play was actually captivating, but I'll make sure to read up on the ending sometime soon.

And with that, I find myself sitting in bed rather early for a Friday night, but I am in no means complaining.  I am going to take advantage of getting a few extra hours of sleep in and preparing for another full day of who knows what tomorrow.

Until then!!

Albert the Husky!

Babies won the bar crawl!

Hamley's!

Lost in Shoreditch!

First, I must say that having class four hours a day and six days a week is not something I am fond of.  At all.  Especially when I am used to having Fridays off and a three-day-weekend every week.  Maggie and I woke up this morning and were like, "Yay! Wednesday!  Halfway through the week!"  And then a few seconds later, "LOL, JK.  We still have 7 classes left in the week. Wah!"  So we trudged along to class, not in the greatest of moods.

Our first session of class today wasn't too terrible.  We started off with our normal relaxation exercises in semi-supine and then did some visualization stuff with our eyes closed that just made us really dizzy.  Our teacher has been trying to have us speak from our "seat of power" which is apparently somewhere between our genitals and our belly button; right in the abdomen area.  I don't know if it's just Maggie and I, but this is near impossible to us.  Maybe we just aren't the visual type or open enough to truly understand what he means, but we try anyway.  It seems that he rather enjoys singling me out and making me create weird sounds with my breath and voice which apparently come from my "seat of power."  When he asks me if I feel a difference after stupidly repeating the same word multiple times, I just reply "yes" so that he leaves me alone.  Maybe eventually I will actually understand what the difference is!  At the end of class, we sang the little song we learned again and then turned it into a rap which was a lighthearted way to end class.

The weather in London, although it has been beautiful and cooperative, is still colder than I expected it to be.  For someone who packed mostly t-shirts and tank-tops and only one sweatshirt, I have been absolutely freezing.  So during our lunch break, Maggie and I trekked to Oxford Street, which is a really popular shopping area.  There, we visited Primark which could best be described as a combination of Marshall's and H&M in that they had a wide selection of clothing for everyone for extremely cheap prices.  I could have stayed in that store all day and spent way too much money, so it was a good thing that we only had about an hour.  We each bought a few cardigans and sweaters, and I left feeling relieved a little better about London in general now knowing that I had things to keep me warm.

During our second class session, we were introduced to Charles, who will be replacing Antonio as our teacher once Antonio leaves on Friday.  Today in class, we talked about role-play, status, and power.  We spent the whole two hours playing a game Antonio liked to call, "Master and Servant."  Basically, one person was handed a baton made out of rolled up newspaper, and they were titled the master and each master was given a 'servant.'  The rules were that the Master could ask the Servant to do anything for them besides leave the room, sexual favors, or going to get personal items.  The Master was allowed to hit the Servant if he/she was dissatisfied with the Servant's instruction-following. If the Servant really pissed off the Master, the Master was allowed to point at the Servant and yell, "DIE!" and then the Servant had to perform the most dramatic and operatic death possible.  The catch to this game?  The only communication you could use was Jibberish.  Yes, Jibberish.  Everyone had their own make-believe language that they spoke.  So there we were, all yelling at each other in Jibberish, trying to tell each other to do things, and getting smacked on the butt with newspaper if we didn't follow instructions right (don't worry, the newspaper didn't hurt.)  It was interesting to see how easily some people took on the role of Master, while some preferred the role of Servant more.  It was also interesting to see how some people were a dictatorial Master, while others were more like a Monarch, a mother, or an older sibling to a younger sibling.  Some people got really angry and physical while being the Master, while others tried to help their Servant understand as much as possible.  I found that when I was the servant, I was very obedient as I did not want to get hit with the newspaper even if it didn't hurt.  I didn't prefer being the servant more, but I also didn't like being the master.  Being the master, I never knew what to do with my power.  I would tell the servant to get me a chair...and then what?  It seemed silly to be asking someone to get me a chair when I could be getting one myself.  When we had a moment to discuss, I talked to my partner about how I am the type of person who would rather do things myself and see them done right, then have someone else do them for me.  It seems that this master and servant game just wasn't my cup of tea (haha, tea. get it? I'm in London!)

After class, Maggie and I had planned to go eat at this place called Queen of Hoxton which was supposed to have a cute little BBQ menu and a rooftop bar.  Well, they did have quite a nice rooftop bar, but their food choices were limited and the crowd was much older than we expected.  So after taking the Tube to somewhere in Shoreditch to go to this place and realizing it was not what we expected it to be, we were at a loss.  This area was more financial and business-ridden, so there were a lot of pubs and bars open with happy hours going on, but none of them really had food!  So after getting ourselves lost for quite some time, we finally decided to get back onto the Tube and search elsewhere for food.  We ended up getting of at Oxford Circus, a high-end shopping district and touristy area, and finally found ourselves at a very cute British pub/restaurant (finally!) called Shakespeare's Head.  I took the leap, and ordered "Hunter's Chicken" which is apparently a traditional British Pub food here and it was DELICIOUS.  So I am proud that I stepped out of my comfort zone, was 'spineful', and ate something out of the ordinary.  Of course, both Maggie and I ordered what has become our usual Beck's pint of beer...mostly because we are afraid to try anything else.  It is rather ironic though, because the beer isn't even British, it's German.  So, I guess we might have to try something new soon.  After filing our tummies to the brim, we walked back home to our cozy apartment and are absolutely 100% ready for bed.

Tomorrow is Thursday which means we are MORE than halfway through the week and classes (yay!) and tomorrow night we are going on a bar crawl in Camden with almost all of the students on the Dialogue!

I miss everyone at home so so much and am hoping that you are all enjoying reading the very silly and entertaining adventures that I am having.

Until next time!

xoxoxo