Trying to catch up...

My goodness, it’s been a while since I updated this. I’m sorry to keep you all in suspense, as I’m sure you’ve been biting your nails and eagerly waiting to hear what’s been going on in my life.

Never fear, faithful readers, I have returned… and with a goal in mind. Instead of updating this blog so haphazardly, I’ll try to do it once a week, on Sunday. I may update in between (ok, probably not—let’s be honest), but every Sunday it will happen. Really.

Life has been prancing on as you would expect. We’re growing accustomed to our schedule of classes—historical dance (think: corsets), movement, dramatic literature, stage combat (always a favourite—I don’t know who thought it was a good idea for me to wield a weapon, but I’m having a great time), Shakespeare, Alexander Technique, history of British Theatre, acting, auditions, dialect, voice, speech, and so on. Our weeks are packed and absolutely fly by. Classes go from as early as 9:30 to as late as 6:30; Wednesdays end at 4:30, which feels very early. Last Friday I got out at 3:45. I hardly even knew what to do with my time! (I went grocery shopping.)

Here at the flat things are going well. The roses on the table are beginning to wilt, but I bought them for £1.99 a week ago, so that’s not too bad. We are all settled into a sort of routine—elbowing each other out of the way at all mealtimes as we struggle to use the same space, curling up to watch random TV shows (Caroline and I are oddly addicted to Super Nanny), teasing each other about eccentricities, and planning excursions (Buckingham Palace, Edinburgh…). We refer to our flat as “the family”—Sevita is the Dad, I am the Mom (anyone surprised? Anyone?), Marielle is the daughter, Katie is the teenage boy, and Caroline is Zee, the youngest. In our flat we cook, bake, do handstands, clean (compulsively, in my case), and talk an awful lot. I’m tremendously happy that I live with the people I do.

Incidentally, I’m also very happy with the rest of the people on the programme. There are 22 of us total, and we see more of each other than you can possibly imagine. We live in the same apartment building and have all the same classes (though, of course, at different times). There are occasional differences of opinion or slight annoyances because, after all, we hardly ever have a moment apart, but in general I’m very pleased. Everyone is eager to improve, and happy to be here. We are having adventures, and everyone is eager to laugh. I think that if people have a sense of humour, anything can be fun.

Last night, for example, Dana, Kari, and I meandered about our area of town. Originally, we were looking for a tango place for Dana (and found one), but after that it became a search for Boba (does anyone know where in London we could find this?). When it became clear that there was no Boba in this part of town, we switched gears and started searching for dessert. Before long we found ourselves in a Greek restaurant, happily sharing baklava, ice cream, and halva. We still aren’t quite clear on what halva is, but it was delicious. That was not a big event, it was certainly not an exciting story, but it was an absolutely wonderful experience. It was relaxed, friendly, and not at all dictated by where we had to be when, or anything of that nature. It was just really, really nice. The man at the Greek restaurant was particularly charming, and I left wanting to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding. He didn’t say a word about Windex, but he did give us a free plate of fruit. It was delicious.

I think perhaps what might be appropriate now is a photo montage of my life, and I can explain all the random photos as I go. Pictures of places I go, things I see, people I know, things I find funny, and… well, you get the idea.






Today we went to Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guards and take a tour of the palace. It was truly incredible! We saw the state rooms, including the banquet room. Did you know they actually measure how far apart the napkins are from each other, how far the glasses are from the edge of the table, and so on? It was about an hour long audio tour, and really enjoyable. This is us in the back yard. "Us" in this case is myself, Caroline, and Katie.

Westminster Abbey! This is where we went on Tuesday of this week, with our Shakespeare instructor. I had been before, but it was still quite an experience to go again. For example, I'd actually heard of more of the people who were buried there, and had a better appreciation of the history. Did you know that Mary and Elizabeth I were buried in the same tomb? Awkward, because they hated each other.

This is a picture of the changing of the guards today. I've never seen so many tourists in one place before!

We saw Kenneth Branagh in Ivanov. Dana is pretending to be casual in this photo, but she was incredibly excited... as was pretty much everyone else.

Part of Westminster Abbey-- isn't it gorgeous?

I have moments of maturity, but they never last long. (Is that a quote from someone? I doubt I made that up.) Sevita and Katie made this cake, which was very tasty. Of course, it was still liquid in the middle, but who's complaining?

This is the street that my school is on. It's called a "mews," because in days of yore horses were kept here.

Statue of George Washington outside the National Gallery-- given as a gift to the Brits by Virginia. I ask you, why would the British want a statue of George Washington?

Giant astroturf furniture we found outside a theatre. Incredible, right?

Like my corset? Before historical dance started I had to do a little bit of twirling.

First day of school picture! Dana and me outside of school.

There was a microwave in the Rainforest Cafe. Kari was confused. So was I.

Sevita's birthday! We love an excuse to eat cake.

Caroline on our mini, itty bitty balcony. Innit cute? Isn't she?

This loft is my very favourite room at LDA. It's cute and cozy, and I have lunch there as often as possible (meaning Monday-Friday).

Kensington Palace-- still covered in papers and flowers for Princess Diana.

Marken, Kip, Caroline, and Katie in the tube station on our way to Covent Gardens. How come I didn't take pictures once we were actually there?

Caroline and Marielle, happy flatmates!

Trafalgar Square, where we meet Michael for all of our excursions.

The houses of Parliament (and Big Ben of course). We went on a great tour of Parliament there, and loved it. It's a gorgeous place to make laws.

I love this truck. MIND THAT CHILD!

This playground broke my heart. No adult may enter unless accompanied by a child? I showed very good restraint, until I saw goats. Free roaming goats! Then I went inside anyway to pet them. But really, I only stayed a couple of minutes. I promise.

Here I am having tea and Digestive Biscuits at the end of a busy day! It's my favorite way to relax and unwind. Plus, Digestives are just delicious. Why don't we have them in America?

Today I went to Buckingham Palace! I'm with Caroline in the gardens in this picture. The castle is absolutely huge. Inside there are "state rooms" (where the Queen meets guests), a banquet hall, over 20 bedrooms, 78 bathrooms, offices, enormous kitchens, and so on. It was a lot of fun to look around inside. I can't imagine being a queen and getting to live there!

I saw the changing of the guards outside the palace today too. There were so many people there, I could hardly see anything. Luckily, Litza held me up so I could see. I think their hats are pretty silly, but I guess it's all part of the tradition. I'm glad I don't have to wear a hat like that, though!

Here I am in front of Buckingham Palace, waiting for the changing of the guards to start. Isn't the palace enormous? I hoped we'd see the Queen, but of course we didn't. She is away for the summer right now.

I love the classes I get to visit! I'm learning a lot about theatre by tagging along with Litza. Every room at the school is named after a different playwrite. This one is called the Marlowe room, after Christopher Marlowe. He was popular around the same time as Shakespeare.

I went to see the play Ivanov early this week. I had a really good time... and did you know that the man who played Ivanov was also in the Harry Potter movies? He played Gilderoy Lockhart!

Not Much Time

I've got about 35 minutes before I have to leave for class (and somewhere in there I must put on shoes and brush my teeth), but I wanted to give you all a life update. Since last we spoke, I have been to the houses of Parliament, the Globe Theatre (where I was a groundling!), the British Library, Trafalgar Square, the Vegan Festival, the National Gallery (very, very briefly), visited the skeleton exhibit at the Wellcome Museum, and had classes from 9 until at least 5, but often 8, every day of the week.
One might say that I've been busy.
School is definitely wonderful. Our instructors do not coddle us in any way, and we are much more likely to be told "No! See how you did THAT that time, and the other way was SO MUCH BETTER? Do it again." than to be told "Good. Good. Moving on." I like that, because we all learn a lot more, and it's not like one person is being singled out for this toughness. Some people feel the instructors are being unnecessarily picky (especially because some of their comments have to do with our accents, and trying to teach us how to say words "properly"), but I reckon that it's all part of the learning process, and that we will come out better actors. This may be only because we will begin to actually THINK about how we speak, but even if that's it, well, that will be important.
OH. I nearly forgot to mention: While we were on our walking tour to see the houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, etc, we came across a crowd of people all dressed up like animals. I know. What? They were crossing the street in front of us, and (needless to say) we stared. Finally, someone in our group asked them why they were dressed like that. The rabbit turned to us and shrugged.
I guess London is just another big city after all!
Now for some Luna:






Last night I went with Litza and all of her classmates to the Globe Theatre. That's where Shakespeare used to have his plays performed! The original Globe burned down in 1559 and again in 1613, then intentionally destroyed in 1644. It was rebuilt in 1999, and still houses many of Shakespeare's plays. We went to see The Merry Wives of Windsor, and enjoyed it immensely. The language took a little getting used to for me, but it was worth it. Outside, we found this drinking fountain (that's Litza with me). When you pressed a button, the water poured from his pitcher into your cup. I loved that!

This picture is me actually inside the Globe. Don't worry, Litza took it during intermission. It's a bad idea to take pictures during a play... you could distract the actors, and someone could get hurt! We stood up for the whole play, which was almost three hours. People who stood on the ground to watch a play in Shakespeare's day were called "Groundlings". It used to be a pretty messy place-- people would spill food, shout at the actors and at each other, and the ground would get muddy whenever it rained. Apparently things have improved in the past 400 years, because everyone was very polite at this performance, and I had a lot of fun.



A week or so ago I went with Marielle and Litza to the Vegan Festival. Someone who is vegan doesn't eat any meat, dairy, or eggs (or anything with those things in them). That means that Marielle doesn't eat ice cream, most cookies and cake, scrambled eggs, jell-o, cheese... I'm not sure I'd be a very good vegan, even though I like the idea. While we were at the Vegan Festival we made chocolate! It was fun to press the soft chocolate into the moulds, but it was even more fun to eat it later. Yum!

On Tuesday, I joined Litza and her friend Marken at the Wellcome Museum to see the skeleton exhibit. There were skeletons from the year 200 right up until only a couple hundred years ago. It was so interesting to see evidence of the diseases people used to get all the time. Rickets, for example, was what some kids would get if they didn't get enough Vitamin D (that comes from the sun). Their bones would soften a bit, and curve from the weight of their bodies on top. You could also see evidence of arthritis, and some skeletons had even had broken bones during their lifetimes that had healed before they had died. I thought it would be sort of creepy, but it wasn't at all. I learned a lot.

After looking at the skeletons, Marken and Litza shared a beautiful raspberry and coconut cupcake, and they let me have some too. Delicious!

Here I am at the ballet! I went to see "Dorian Gray" with Litza and her class, and was very impressed. Not all ballets involve tutus and twirling, and this was a much more "modern" show. They had very good music too. I wish I could do ballet!

I think this building might be the first thing people think of when they imagine London... it's Big Ben! Big Ben is actually part of the Houses of Parliament, where all the members of Parliament gather to make laws. At the beginning of every session, the Queen comes and sits in a huge golden throne to open Parliament. I wish I could see her in her crown and long robes. It was pretty cool even to see the trone, though. I have never seen so much gold in my entire life!

The flash kind of makes me look like a ghost in this picture, but I had to show it to you anyway. Do you see what is behind me? It's King's Cross station, from Harry Potter! Of course, King's Cross is an actual train station, but all I can think of when I see it is the Hogwart's Express. I really wanted to try to get on Platform 9 3/4, but Litza told me I would bump my nose on the brick divider and get hurt, so I didn't.




Here I am at the BRITISH LIBRARY! I feel right at home with all those books. I got to see examples of lots of famous peoples' writing-- Jane Austin and William Shakespeare, for example. I also saw a small exhibit on the Beatles (the singing group, not the bug), with drafts of their first songs. It's nice to realise that I'm not the only one who has to try my writing a couple of times to get it right!

Here I am on the TOP LEVEL of a double decker bus, with Dana. You can't really tell it's a double decker, but I promise it was. I felt really high up, and like I had an especially good view of the ride. I like sitting in the very front on the top. I kind of feel like I'm driving the bus!

Why I call this blog "Digressions"

I did warn you, don't say that I didn't. The events of the past few days have been varied and fun, mostly getting to know people and trying to find the essentials of everyday life. (For anyone who is interested, we do indeed now have sponges. Thank goodness. After about 24 hours and no way to clean the dishes well, I was ready to morgage my soul for a sponge.)

At this point in time, I have now taken the tube twice (once to figure out a cell phone, and once on a vegetarian-dinner-adventure with Marielle), been to the LDA centre, met most of the teachers (some of who seem truly eccentric and wonderful), and explored a couple of the local pubs (one of which has a large black cat).

One particularly noteworthy adventure occurred yesterday, as part of the journey to find vegetarian food. Marielle and I took the tube to the Tottenham Court Road stop, and got out to find that there were no street signs whatsoever. Finally we figured out a direction, and set off. Much to our delight, we found the restaurant with no further trouble. It was delicious, and cheap! When we finished eating we decided to continue exploring the area. Soon, we found ourselves in Soho.

As we walked down the street, an unsteady man poked his finger my direction. "Wanna go out on a date?" he slurred. I gave him a look that was part confusion, part disgust, and total refusal. As we walked a way, a skinny man smoking a cigarette gave me an amused look and said softly, "You should have said yes."

After that somewhat unusual incident, we carried on, and soon Marielle was pointing excitedly at something. I saw a bicycle on the side of the road, some cars driving by, and big buildings up ahead. Nothing particularly mindblowing, but she was certainly delighted. I adjusted my focus closer, and saw what she was looking at: "Garlic and Shots," a restaurant we had read about in our guidebook earlier that day. The resaurant itself sounded interesting (they but garlic in everything, including the cheesecake), but we were most intrigued by the basement... also known as the Vampire Bar. Right. We ventured downstairs, and found a bar that looks like this (I know it's a bad picture, but if you tilt either the computer or your head at a funny angle, it's easier to see):

Once inside, the logical next step was to see what was served there. Don't worry, we weren't irresponsible at all. But we did each have a "Bloodshot," which was incredibly spicy. It was what I imagine a very condensed Bloody Mary to be like, though I have never actually had a Bloody Mary.

In other news, Caroline and I found a store today that carries dishwashing detergent, tupperware, plastic stick-on hooks, and other useful things. We were absolutely ecstatic, and had a lot of fun finding stuff for the flat. I found a scrubby brush that was covered in coloured polka dots. Naturally, I bought it.

In case you're wondering, it does indeed match my luggage tag. See?

Luna has also been having some pretty good adventures. Here they are!

This is me with my new friend Caroline. We're standing on Brownlow Mews (isn't that a funny name for a street?). This is where Litza and Caroline will have class for the next few months. I hope I get to go along and watch sometimes, because it sounds very interesting!

This is me at a vegetarian restaurant called Red Veg. I went with my friends Litza and Marielle.

Generally I'm an insectivore, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt me to try something new. Who knew I would like falafal so much! I'm a pretty big fan of hummus too, actually. Right next to me is a can of Organic Cola. It tasted kind of different from regular old Coke, but I like it a lot. It makes a good occasional treat! I wouldn't want to drink to much of it, though. I need my teeth to be in tip-top condition for crunching meal worms, my favourite. I can't wait for my next adventure out and about!

**Note: I just realised that there is a very real possibility that I have not explained who Luna is, and that some of you are (reasonably) confused. My mom is the librarian at an elementary school, and Luna is their library pet (along with Jack Prelutsky and Christina Rossetti, the tortoises, who do not travel). "Flat Luna" is taking pictures and writing to the kids about different things she has done.

Flat, etc.

Well.

After a 10 hour flight, I finally arrived in London at about 3:30 yesterday. I piled all my bags on a trolley and rolled myself out to a periwinkle coloured taxi. Seriously. You know how theoretically they're all black? No. Wrong. I've seen periwinkle, red, green, and a whole bunch covered in different advertisements. I started off in London feeling colourful.

Now I'm settled in my flat, which is not that far from Fleet Street and Buckingham Palace. My flatmates are lovely (Caroline, Katie and I are currently discussing the exchange rates and how to survive here). I've stuck up all the watercolours the kids gave me, set up my digital picture frame, and spread my striped blanket on my bed. It's actually quite cozy.

So far, the time here has just been a frenzy of meeting people. We're all very, very loud. It's sort of funny, but I'm vaguely concerned for if we all go out to dinner somewhere. I feel like it would be sort of awful for everyone else there.

In the past 24 hours I have acquired food, an Oyster card, and made my cell phone work. Excellent.

And now, a message from Luna the travelling hedgehog:

Here I am, waiting for flight NW 106 to London. I was all bright eyed and eager to go, because the flight was at 10pm. It's handy being nocturnal!

And now, here I am on the airplane. It was a really long flight, and I was relieved to be off the plane by the end of it. It was a bit of a rough landing in London, but I was so excited to be there that I didn't care at all. Let the adventures begin!