Days 7-17

OK i SWEAR after this i will write everyday instead of waiting and collecting it all up

It takes too long to put together haha!

Day 7

On my last day of freedom before classes I went shopping with Kori and Stacey….

I now understand why the writer of “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is from London. This city could make even my mother a shopaholic and she HATES shopping. So after dropping way too much money at Topshop and H&M we ventured back to the dorm to get ready for the first IES social outing!

Drew, who coincidentally also goes to IU, made everyone Chicken Curry for dinner and it was totally ABFAB! After spending way too much time relaxing I hurried to get ready.

The student assistants took us to Tiger Tiger! Which is this awesome night club with 3 dance floors and a VIP lounge. Since it was freshers week it was wonderful cause everyone there was our age.

Day 8

Today was my first day of classes!! I know you all hate me cause I didn’t start class till September 14^th!

I LOVE my classes! Usually every semester there’s the one class that brings you down and makes you want to sleep in and skip it. But so far I don’t think that’s going to happen this semester.

Does it have something to do with the fact that I’m taking all theatre classes… probably

So I start off my Tuesday mornings from now on with Playwriting at 10am. I was worried about playwriting because it was never my forte. I can write you poems and short stories

Sometimes a Haiku

If I’m in the Haiku mood

Which never happens

Anyway, I was really nervous about playwriting but I really think that other then acting this will probably be my next favorite class!

Acting follows Playwriting after which we end our day at 7pm with the theatre industry.

However…today was special!!!! Marina (our theatre teacher) thought it might be fun to go see a reading a RADA…so she took us.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I literally can’t believe that I spent 2 hours in RADA (for those of you who are non theatre folk that stands for Royal Academy of Dramatic Art)

Let me just say that for the record…after seeing a performance at RADA there is no question in my mind as to why everyone who leaves there has totally fab careers.

Day 9

After a fiasco on Monday where I accidentally ordered 2 coats instead of one I took the extra coat back to the store. Followed by an exciting trip for school supplies!

This was followed by the boring class about what its like to be an intern which thankfully has a HILARIOUS teacher who I think just dropped out of the 60/70’s stereotype definition book and into our classroom.

When I think about it…today was actually pretty boring compared to all my other adventures

Day 10

The best way to describe the experience I had is to start from the beginning

In class on Tuesday Marina told us about the show that we were going to see Thursday night.

She explained that

1. 1. its fringe theatre

2. 2. we would be sitting on mats on the floor

3. 3. we would be SITTING on MATS on the FLOOR

4. 4. see 2&3

So am walking into this show ready to see a piece of crap theatre. Probably another “concept piece”…I hate concept pieces. Normally because I never get the concept and when I do get the concept I feel like it would have made more since if the actors weren’t in the audience throwing confetti at everyone. Or standing in the middle of an empty stage asking rhetorical questions that are stupid.

SO basically I’m expecting to experience the above…BOY WAS I WRONG

This show was chilling! I cried at least 6 times during the show and at the end I was crying like someone had told me I was going to die tomorrow. Which wouldn’t be an advertisement for the show in itself because I cry at Christmas cards and Pillsbury doughboy commercials. However, the boys were crying too so I think that says something about the intensity of the production.

I really don’t want to give away the story so I wont tell any of the specifics. The acting was…amazing.

I don’t know why I didn’t think it would be, I mean I am in LONDON, just amazing.

Day 11

Friday was so amazing! Watch my vlog for a video of the excitement!

First (not on video) I decided to get lost in Harvey Nicks for a few hours and it was AMAZING!!!!!

I tried on expensive dresses and shoes and it was totally ABFAB

I wanted to buy a headband but the cheapest one there was 90 pounds so that wasn’t going to happen!

Then just as I was walking out I walked past the makeup counters and found MY makeup!!!

Which sounds ordinary but in the states this makeup is only sold at sephora so I was concerned that when I ran out I would have to go to Amsterdam just to go to a sephora for some foundation!!

So I bought myself some mascara and called the adventure a success!!

This was followed by a trip to Harrods – La Duree. Which is a French tea room in Harrods that is supposed to have the best pastries in the world

Personally I thought that they were the worst ones I have had so far!!!!

This was all followed by the AMAZING BEYOND AMAZING adventure that was Friday night

Josh and I went to…Love Never Dies

It was amazing! I don’t care what those stupid critics say! They can take their reviews and shove them in a ketchup bottle! Love never dies was like sunshine on a cloudy day!

Years and years I have sat waiting wondering and crying over the horrible end to Phantom of the Opera. I hate Raoul and I always will. I always knew that she really loved the Phantom and it was just stupid for her to not choose him.

Love Never Dies made all my dreams come true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The singing was AMAZING!!! Ramin Karimloo has the most beautiful voice I have ever heard in my entire life! Better then Norbert Leo Butz who had been my all time favorite singer since 2004. But now he is bumped to the #2 slot because Ramins voice is what I think heaven must sound like.

Sierra Boggess was sick….rude

After the show Josh and I met up with the group at O’neils in china town and had a jolly good time! The guy at the front didn’t believe I was 18 and wouldn’t let me in at first. Even after I showed him my id. Yet did he card josh…NO! I suspect meaness!!!!!

Day 12

I WENT TO BUCKINGHAM PALACE!!!!!!!!!!!

How awesome is that!!! Getting to the entrance to the palace was difficult because we needed to get to the other side during the changing of the guard and so I almost was accosted by an unusually large horse.

This makes me wonder where they get these horses. Is there a special breeding farm in England where they bring up extraordinarily large horses or are there special supplements involved? More importantly…why aren’t people asking these questions? Perhaps the Queen has paid off the major media outlets to keep her secret giant horse-breeding factory under the wraps…I don’t know.

SO once we escaped near death by mutant horse we went into the palace!!! Personally I like the inside of Buckingham Palace much better then Windsor Castle. But I like the outside and the gardens better at Windsor. So if they could like mesh the two the result would be a pretty fierce house. Perhaps that’s what her home in Scotland looks like.

The best part of the experience was at the end…when we discovered that you could have TEA AT THE PALACE!!!!!!! So I did and let me tell you…the queen knows how to make a chocolate tart and tea!

After rushing home to grab my music I headed far far away to go to my first British voice lesson. After she had me belting G’s and F’s I decided that she is the most fierce woman EVER!! So I have now booked every Saturday that I have free with her from now until I leave!

We thought about going out but everyone was just so exhausted so Drew, Josh, Steve, Jamie and I played card games for 10000 hours.

Day 13

Today was a tour of some of the East end markets. I was so excited about the experience because I was ready to buy some 5 pound vintage dresses.

I found 50 pound vintage dresses

So I came home with 2 necklaces and 4 scarfs instead.

The best part about the experience was the flower market! There were just rows and rows of beautiful flowers that I wanted to take home. Of course everything I buy, whether it be fish or flowers, always dies. So that really wasn’t an option.

This was all followed by Izzy and I cooking Rosemary Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and a Garden Salad for dinner for everyone. Izzy wanted to learn to cook so I decided to do the Barbie doll method of teaching.

*Barbie doll method of teaching = when I was little and wanted to learn to sew my mom made me make Barbie clothes as my first project because they are one of the hardest things to hand sew and so by doing something really hard everything else afterwards seems so easy

Day 14

Today I had my first interview for an internship with “The Space”! I really loved the people there and the atmosphere and I thought it was a great experience.

The evening was pretty amazing! The student assistants took us to an ice bar in London that was negative 5 degrees Celsius. So it was bloody cold. But it has to be obviously because otherwise the ice would melt! The bar itself was somewhat disappointing but im glad I had the experience. About half of the people went out afterwards and the other half of us was too tired and went home.

However, on our way home Kori and I walked past this pastry shop, that will be called heaven from now on, and creeped in and bought yummy pastries that totally made up for the ice bar being somewhat lame!!

After coming home and eating yummy yummy chocolate moose Josh decided to entertain us all for a couple of hours and it was HILARIOUS.

Day 15

Our second round of classes began. I was very nervous because I had a presentation on Stanislavski in my acting class and I really wanted it to go well…AND IT DID!!!

Then in theatre industry a casting director came and talked to us about the casting process in London.

After a very yummy dinner cooked by Josh I was so tired that I went to sleep because the next day I had big plans!!!!

Day 16!!!

So today was AMAZING for the following reasons

1. I just went to my first open call here and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! It went so well and I got to meet all of these british girls who are in theatre and their accents were hilarious!! Most people would feel awkward being the only American in a room full of brits but I found it totally exhilarating!

2. Then I had my interview with The Actors Centre, which is the place that I have decided that I want to work. All the work that I’m going to do is awesome and top secret.

I LOVE my boss. We spent the whole time talking about Joss Whedon and then Dr. Horrible which of course lead to Neil Patrick Harris which then lead to glee! She is basically awesome and I can’t wait to work for her!

3. We all got together and saw Les Miz

Actually in a way this isn’t part of the AMAZING list because I was really disappointed in Les Miz. I was ready to have my heart and soul ripped out and thrown on the floor and all I could muster up was …that’s sad

It was funny though because on our way out we passed by the gay bar that my mom and I accidently stumbled into when we were in London and so I thought of her lol!!!

Day 17

That’s today!!! So my presentation on Pieces of Vincent went really well!

Its pouring rain today so I decided to take the bus home so I could sit on the top and look out the window at the rain filled city…it was beautiful

Later tonight im seeing Clybourne Park at the Royal court theatre and I am VERY excited about it

Shows seen to date= 6

Wicked

Merry Wives of Windsor

RADA staged reading

Pieces of Vincent

Love Never Dies

Les Miserables