All We Can Do is Keep Breathing

Hi!

Sorry I didn't update last week. As usual, I'm getting to the end of every week and going "well, that was exhausting." This program really pushes you to your limits, and it's exhausting and wonderful all at the same time. Anyway, I'll try to be better about that.

Some exciting news: I officially booked my tickets last night for spring break! I'll be spending half of our week off in Barcelona and then heading up to Madrid to meet with Margaret (my roommate). It's less than a month away and I could not be more excited. Because we're going to be flying there in an airplane the size of a smart car, I will be living out of my backpack for that week. So that should be interesting. Check back for updates!

Theatre-wise, I've seen some amazing productions the last couple of weeks. The week before last, we had no theatre trip planned, but a small group of us were able to see "One Man, Two Guv'nors" at the National for 5 pounds. I was a little skeptical mostly because I heard so many wonderful things about the Tony-Award winning production that came to Broadway for a while, so I was wondering if this would hold up. I don't think I have laughed so hard for so long in my life. I don't want to give too much away, but there was a lot of audience interaction and breaking character and all the things you're not supposed to do in the theatre and it was hilarious and fantastic (and it was 5 pounds!!). So glad I was able to see it.

This past week, I saw two productions. The first was a Harold Pinter play called "Old Times" starring Kristen Scott Thomas (Academy Award winner for "The English Patient" for those of you who care). I could see how this would not be some people's thing, as it was very strange and pretty much nobody knew what was going on, but thanks to a shot of caffeine before hand (I guess that's my thing now) it was something that I thought anyone who wanted to be an actor should see. Just incredible. Harold Pinter plays have a ton of awkward silent pauses in them and all three actors worked those pauses.

The other production I saw was called "The Effect" about how a clinical trial for anti-depressants makes two strangers fall in love. Absolutely fantastic and absolutely broke my heart. This past week was an especially good week for theatre (particularly English theater) and you always need those moments that inspire you to be an actor.

Some fun/interesting things I've done these past couple of weeks.

Shop on Oxford St. There's this massive store called Primark that is basically like a high-end Walmart. It's basically like Black Friday there everyday (which makes me not want to think about what it's like on Black Friday). Lines that are 50 people long for the dressing rooms. 10 pound shoes. People just everywhere. It's an experience.

Went to Oxford. Yesterday, I took a day trip to Oxford (which is where they filmed a lot of the Hogwarts scenes for Harry Potter). I got to be all English and have a croissant and tea for breakfast before spending the day wandering around and looking at buildings that were literally almost a thousand years old. And then being super touristy and hitting up the shops and what not. Overall, a great day and I definitely want to come back.

Crashed a faculty viewing of a production. Sooo, the kids who are at BADA for the year-long program put on a production this past week. All of the single-semester kids saw on Thursday, and then they had another show on Friday evening. Well, my roomie's roomie back at 'SC knew someone in the cast and was going to see the show and she didn't want to be alone. So we decided to go with her, thinking it wasn't going to be a problem. Well, as we came up the steps, our dean stared us down through his glasses and after a moment said "What are you doing here?" Apparently they don't do things spur of the moment here. We caused a little problem as there was a brief panic that there would not be enough chairs. Whoops. Don't worry, we saw the show, and then at the reception afterwards, after standing awkwardly in the corner, one of the women who worked at the office said "Have you had any wine yet??" and shoved a couple of wine glasses into our hands. So then we wined and dined with the faculty. Totally worth it.

Maybe not interesting or fun, but here was my Super Bowl experience. The game started at 11pm. I was desperately craving all of the crappy food I usually eat on Super Bowl Sunday, but had to settle for a block of cheese. And...Beyonce. was. un. real. UNREAL. It is now my life goal to just be her someday. Think I can do it? And then it was 1:30am and I just couldn't make it the rest of the game. Ah well.

Alright. Guess that's it for now. Sorry for the long post. Hope things are popping in America.

Till next time!

Rookie Mistake #11 - The whole party/production crashing thing which turned out to be a win, so...Rookie Solution #1?

Rookie Mistake #12 - So apparently sitting in a place that seemingly looks like a coffee shop that is equivalent to Starbucks and using their free wi-fi will cause you to get a mean-mug stare and huffy reply from the waitress after you tell her you don't want anything. Left a 2.50 pound tip on the table. For free wifi. Ugh.

Rookie Mistake #13 - Thinking that I've mastered understanding the British accent. When I got on the bus yesterday, the bus driver said something to me and I was 100% sure he asked for my name. After I gave it to me, he gave me the strangest look to which I replied, flustered "Sorry, what did you say?" To which he replied with complete deadpan "...morning." 0_0

Rookie Mistake Counter: 13


Pictures:

London really is beautiful at night. 

Look at me being all English. 

Obligatory snow picture even though snow is not a novelty to this native Nebraskan. 

This guy casually walking a tightrope session while playing the violin in Oxford.

Hogwarts

"Cowardice is the only sin."

'ello!

It's been yet another crazy and eventful week here in London. I'll try and make this post more entertaining than the last. Last week I was very stressed out and hadn't gotten much sleep. Don't worry -- I recovered fully by sleeping most of Friday, Saturday, and today. Before you call me a homebody, sickness has been spreading like wildfire around BADA, so it's probably for the best.

This week we saw two shows, which is awesome and exhausting all at the same time. The first was the Master and the Margarita at the Barbican. I would try and explain it, but it would pretty much be in vain. To summarize: there was a retelling of the trial between Pontius Pilate and Jesus, a romance between a writer and this chick named Margarita, who at one point sells her soul to the devil to save her lover and traipses around bare-ass naked for over a half an hour, it all takes place in Stalinist Russia, and a demon cat rapes a guy who runs a theatre.

...

Okay, that recap was a little insulting to the work done by the actors. I wasn't sure what to make of this 3 1/2 hour show (with the first act running over two hours...yikes) when we came out of it; needless to say, I was very grateful for the cappaccino I chugged just before the houselights went down.

Side note: They are super chill about eating and drinking here in the theater, which I definitely appreciate with sometimes only having an hour to get to the theater after class.

Anyway, about two days afterwards when we were talking about it in my dramatic criticism class, I realized that I enjoyed most of the show. It was definitely an ensemble show, and every single actor on the stage had unwavering commitment and precision. There were also some amazing technical things going on, and it all came together beautifully.

The second show we saw this week was Richard III at the Apollo. Mark Rylance, who played Richard, has been heralded as the best Shakespearian actor of our time, so I had high hopes for it. Well...perhaps my severe lack of sleep this week was to blame, but I fell asleep during most of the second half. It wasn't necessarily boring, but I'm not sure I enjoyed Mark Rylance's performance. Maybe I need to see it again after having a double espresso.

Anyway, I had the fortune of seeing another show this weekend called Monkey Bars at the Unicorn Theatre. This and the Master and the Margarita has probably been my favorite piece of theatre so far. This one was a very short (just over an hour) show where the author interviewed kids (8-10 year olds) about being adults, and the adult actors acted as the children. That being said, all of the actors were dressed in business attire, so it was more the child's words being spoken by an adult. It was funny, sweet, and poignant. Kids are way smarter than we give them credit for.

Also went out for Chantel's birthday on Friday night to a club/bar in Camden Town called The Underworld. A lot of fun, and Chantel even got a British guy to buy her a drink. Good music, too!

I guess theatre overtook my week. Guess that's all for now. Oh, and since I was lame and didn't take any pictures this week, I'll post some pictures that I took last week.

Rookie Mistake #8 - Only leaving about 40 minutes to get to class on the day it snowed about 2 inches. In Pumas and sweatpants Trying to power walk through the snow covered sidewalks (I guess they don't clear snow here) with frozen feet and your sweatpants soaked up to your ankles doesn't really work out.

Rookie Mistake #9 - Following someone's lead who says they know where they're going when you're pretty sure they're wrong. They're wrong. (sorry guys, love you <3 hehe)

Rookie Mistake #10 - Planning large events with BADA students ;)

Rookie Mistake Counter: 10


Pictures from last week:

St. Albert's Memorial in Hyde Park

\Posing in front of Kensington Palace in Hyde Park

Artsy photo of the St. Albert Memorial in Hyde Park

Cheesin' in front of ...some monument that I don't remember.

Roomie picture in front of Big Ben

Just scoping out my wedding venues (Westminster Abbey)

This awesome exhibit at the V&A museum that showed what you would like in angelic form

Jumping with all (sore) body parts in...

Hey everyone! It's been a very eventful, jam-packed first week. Ian (the director of BADA) really wasn't kidding when he said there's really no easing into the semester.

So, last Sunday was our bus tour and orientation before starting classes. Whoever was supposed to be our guide never showed up, so the bus driver, Stevie became our surrogate tour guide. I don't know what the other guy was like, but Stevie was awesome and funny and just overall, a cool dude. Unfortunately, we only got off the bus once, so my pictures aren't very good of many of the sights since they came from a moving bus window. Definitely going to have to go back to some of the sites to take pictures. The one place we did get off though...

Just saying hi to William and Kate and Her Majesty, of course...

First week of classes: That 45 minute walk to BADA from our apartment building ain't no joke. Most of the first week was fine because it wasn't that cold, but it's been getting colder as of late and I'm not going to lie and say that I wouldn't take a nice warm taxi cab if I could. I guess I'm getting a lot of exercise.

The first week of classes went really well. It's really intense -- most of our days are 9am-6pm with only short breaks in between classes. Since we have the almost hour walk to BADA and back, you could say that a typical day is 6:30am to 7pm. Definitely going to take some getting used to.

But the quality of the classes are amazing. This semester I'm taking Acting Shakespeare, High Comedy, Movement, Theatre History, Stage Combat, Voice, Dramatic Criticism, and one-on-one acting sessions with the faculty. Hard to pick out a favorite class because they've all been great, but High Comedy is definitely towards the top of the list. For those of you who don't know, High Comedy refers to comedies written during the Restoration in England. Farce was the child of High Comedy, so think in that vein. Anyway, the professor for our class is this guy named Norman who looks like he may have lived during the Restoration and who I firmly believe will have us acting like snarky, vain, wealthy hypocrites in no time. Today, we learned how to walk in curves (because curves were totally in) by walking in zig-zag around a line of chairs without actually looking or touching the chairs. Easier said than done. Anytime anyone so much as brushed a chair, we would hear a very exasperated "Nooooooooooo!" After doing this exercise for a good 15 minutes, Norman sighed and said in what only can be described as "stiff upper lip" "I just don't understand why you are all so clumsy." Guess we've got some work to do.

One of the other amazing things about BADA is the fact we get see a London show just about every week. They make for very long days, as we often have to go straight from class to the theatre, but it's completely worth it. Last week we saw "The Magistrate" which is playing at the National Theatre starring John Lithgow (Lord Farquad in Shrek). The show was good, John was great, and the set absolutely blew my mind.

Sorry this post is kind of short with not many pictures, but it's around 2am here which is a little too close to 6:30 for my liking. So until next time!

Rookie Mistakes

#5 - Turns out pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way here. I was wondering why that stream of oncoming traffic just looked like it was really not going to stop.

#6 - When a native gives you directions, you should follow them.

#7 - Pulling an all-nighter turns out to be not any more fun in a foreign country. Bummer.

Rookie Mistake Counter: 7 

A Fish Out of Water Across the Pond

Cheers! Greetings! Salutations! It is day four of my little rendezvous here in London (although as the director of BADA has so firmly said: “This is NOT a holiday.”) and so far, the city and the people have treated me very well.

Day One: Arrived at Heathrow around 7 in the morning – was happy that flight time was shorter than expected but not so happy about the possibility of having to wait longer for a comfortable bed to crash in. After nearly having a nervous breakdown the night before about not getting through customs, it took about 8 minutes and the workers were very friendly. Grabbed my bag right away and hopped on the tube. Here is where I made my first rookie (or I suppose I should say Yankee) mistake: There is a small area reserved for luggage on the tube. But thinking that multiple empty seats and space on the tube was going to remain, I plopped down in a seat with my large bag blocking most of the aisle. Well, soon the tube was completely packed from wall to wall. My hope that people would get off was not realized so I had to be that girl and made everyone make room for me as I tried to get off the tube. Then there were the stairs. Ah, the stairs. Second rookie mistake: Wearing a cardigan and a heavy coat. Let’s just say by the time I got to the hotel after lugging around 70lbs of luggage, I was a hot mess. Thankfully, the very nice people at the London Marriott Regents Park saw me coming from a good 500 ft. away (hopefully couldn’t smell me…) and came to my rescue. And despite the fact it was 9:30 in the morning, my room was ready. Thanks to whoever for the good luck this day. Really needed it.

Do I look like a native yet?

Day Two: Rookie Mistake #3 (I should have a counter or something for this) – Thinking that jetlag wasn’t going to be an issue. Let’s just say I went to bed at 6am and woke up at 12. Whoops. Anyway, so I hopped back on the tube to go meet Chantel at Heathrow. I guess the good luck gods were feeling generous and made a meeting that could have gone wrong so many different ways go perfectly. We managed to get to Terminal 1 at the same time without any prior communication via phone and Facebook. Score 1 for the Americans. After derping around a bit in the airport trying to find the underground and then getting an oyster card (some very nice people came to our help), we got on the tube. Then at the transfer came those hated stairs again – and this time we had three very heavy bags to lug up. Then, in a sweeping gesture of British hospitality, two natives helped us take the bags up the stairs, to the line we needed and off the tube at our stop. Didn’t catch the nice gentleman’s name but Madeline became our first British friend. We chatted a bit and thanked her greatly. Realizing that neither of us had eaten in almost 24 hours, we headed out to an Indian place nearby and smashed. The guy serving us was really cute, but was clearly trying to upsell us like crazy. We weren’t buying it.  One thing we’ve noticed: people here talk very quietly. We felt like we were almost whispering during all of dinner and on the tube as well. So gotta work on that one.

Day Three: So the day before Chantel and I had asked the front desk for directions to BADA from the hotel. The guy was said it was super close and about a 20 minute walk. Well, a 20 minute walk with 5 suitcases (between the two of us) means an hour and a half walk with lots of stops along the way. It was an absolutely beautiful neighborhood to walk through (sort of like Dundee but way better, for Omaha friends) and I’m sure the locals got a kick out of the two of us struggling mightily with our luggage. Thankfully we got some motivation when we looked to our left and saw a giraffe roaming by.

Oh, hey look, a giraffe…

…oh, it’s the London Zoo!

Yep, BADA is just down the street from the London Zoo, another pro to add to the long list. Just as we thought we were going to die, a very nice guy asked us “Here for BADA?” and directed us across the street where a bus was waiting to take us to our apartments. Thank God. Got settled into our apartment and then got lunch at the pub down the street. Unfortunately made the mistake of crashing from 7pm to 10pm. Guess the jetlag hasn’t quite worn off yet. Oh well, at least I was able to unpack everything (which those of you who know me well is a miracle).

Day Four: So our empty kitchen was in need of some love, so today was grocery shopping day. Going grocery shopping to fill an empty kitchen is always stressful, but this was a little more stressful than usual. First of all, I’m used to only shopping for two people instead of four. Then there were a fair number of things we got that were not called the same thing as they are in the United States. Also, I don’t think the little grocery store was used to people with large orders. Rookie Mistake #4: Assuming that our things could be split 3 ways. Also you bag your own groceries here. So again, we were those people by causing a very long line to form behind us as we frantically threw things into bags. Then there was the task of carrying all of it back to our apartment. I guess people in London don’t usually struggle with lots of groceries because we got plenty of odd looks as we waddled back to our apartments. My arm muscles have gotten more work the last couple days than they have in a year. Sign of things to come? After we got our groceries, my roommate Gabby (who’s a year long student) showed us around Oxford St., which is probably comparable to The Grove/3^rd Street Promenade in LA except bigger and longer. Absolutely beautiful and really tempting to spend a lot of money. It will be a struggle not to do that.  

Oxford Street

The group is going out to dinner tonight at a pub called the Beehive. We’re taking a tour of London tomorrow. In an attempt to not make this post eight million years long, I’ll stop here. Ta-ta for now!

KP

Rookie Mistake Counter:  4

P.S. Add me on Skype! My username is broadwaybabykp (don’t judge me, I was in high school). I probably won’t be able to video chat much because our data allotment per week is not very much, but I still appreciate chat/phone calls J

Bon Voyage (and Happy New Year!)

Nothing much to report yet -- currently sitting in the Omaha airport waiting for my flight to Chicago and then it's on to London! Could not be more excited, been waiting for this for a long time :) Happy New Year to all and catch you on the other side!

Hey guys!

So in an attempt to be a good family member/friend and not just disappear for four months, I use this to chronicle my adventures in London (and hopefully other places in Europe) for a semester. I will try to do as many awesome and crazy things as I can so that this will be an entertaining blog. Haha. I will also try and make the template a little more "look-at-this-awesome-unique-and-relevant-background!" and a little less "I-just-chose-the-best-looking-template-option" once I have more time. Right now, I am still in L.A. and in the thick of finals, but Christmas break will soon be upon us and I'll have more time then.

Can't wait to talk to you all on the other side of the world. Good luck with finals and Happy Holidays!

-KP