Cheeky bird.....

So, I don't know why I didn't think about posting on my blog here what I've been up to while I've been studying over seas this past month. So I'll try and do a quick update.

For the first few days we were in York, England. We walked around the town, visited a few pubs, and visited York Minster, which is gorgeous! While in York, on our last night, we saw a world premier of a play called Catcher. It's about the man who shot John Lennon.

From York we went to Edinburgh, Scotland. I love Edinburgh! I was so happy to be back! One day in Edinburgh we took a bus trip around the highlands and boat ride on Loch Ness. I didn't see Nessie this time either :-( I spent a lot of time by myself in Edinburgh actually. I was dealing with a bit and was tired of being around certain people so I walked around by myself and hung out in a cafe for a while and it was awesome. I also got tea at The Elephant House, which is the coffee shop that J.K. Rowling wrote the first 2 Harry Potter books! That was a highlight of my trip. We also went underground to a street that they have excavated and is completely natural from back in the day. It was one of the coolest things! While there, we saw a few shows from the Imaginate Childrens Theatre Festival. The first show, Martha, was amazing!! So good! The second one was Woodbeat and it was really cool and reallyneat to see that little kids watch it. The 3rd one was called Senses and was geared to high school students and it was interesting but not that great. The hostel we stayed in was so cool! You walked out the front door and right in front of you on a hill was Edinburgh Castle. The guy that worked there, Elliot, was amazing and we kind of had a flirting thing going on when we saw each other but there's a girl here on the trip, Amy, who was 'cock blocking' ridiculously! I'll say more on that later.

After Edinburgh we went to Stratford, England and saw Shakespeare's birth place, of course. We also saw Romeo & Juliet performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was AMAZING. I can't begin to explain how great it was. Also while in Stratford, Will & I performed our scene from Romeo & Juliet. I had a balcony. I was in heaven for about 10 minutes. Definitaly a dream come true :-)

Once we were done in Stratford we went to Bath, England. Bath was great....except for our hostel. We stayed in a YMCA and I'm pretty sure they had a group of resident AA members living there. It was so sketch and uncomfortable. While in Bath we went to the natural spring spa there. Amazing. We also visited the ancient Roman Baths and that was really cool!

Once we left Bath we finally arrived in London...which is where I am now. We've seen so many shows it's hard to keep track. I'm sure I've missed some already. First, I'll start with that. While in London, I believe, that we've seen Posh at Royal Court Theatre, Ruined at a theatre that I can't remember, Macbeth at The Globe Theatre, Avenue Q at Wyndham Theatre and Hair at Gielgud Theatre. Posh was so good! It's about the secret society at Oxford University called The Riot Club. Ruined was a play about the civil wars going on right now in Africa.....we got to meet the cast afterwards and I got autographs. Macbeth was phenomenal! We had ground tickets so we stood the whole time in front of the stage but there was a tarp over part of the ground with holes in it to stick your heads through, and we did that, so that we couldn't see when people covered in blood were gonna pop up at random times in random places. It was awesome!! There was so much blood! It was just such a great show! Avenue Q was awesome! So funny! The actors were great and we met them afterwards and got autographs also. Hannah and I went and saw Hair and I must say, one of my favorite musicals now. It was just such a great show! AND we got to get on stage during the last song and dance with the cast! I danced on the stage of Gielgud Theatre where 3 years ago Daniel Radcliffe stood on....naked. Oh my gosh.....amazing! I can't explain the feeling and energy that was experienced at that moment. And then we met the cast afterwards. And I met Sasha Allen!! I didn't even know she was in the show until I saw her in the program at intermission. Ok, besides shows, we also did two workshops while here. We did a Shakespearean acting workshop at The Globe which was cool. And then the coolest thing was that we did a scripting workshop at Royal Court. And that workshop made me realize that I want to work at Royal Court Theatre. So I am definitely looking into some kind of summer internship there or after graduation getting some kind of job there. What Royal Court Theatre does is produce new plays. One of there shows in production right now is by a girl who is 17. So....once I get a play done and complete, I'm totally sending it in to see what happens with it. Another thing I've done while in London was get a tattoo! There will be pictures on facebook of it once I get back. It's on the left side of my torso and it reads "Thus from my lips by thine, my sin is purged." It's from Romeo & Juliet. I got it because how many times is a person going to get to perform Romeo & Juliet in Stratford?! I got to do that...and it was a dream come true. Especially since I got to perform it with such a great person and actor. Today, I found Portobello Road market and bought a few dresses, some shoes, a scarf AND two books! I got a book of Robert Browning poetry and a hand-bound copy of William Wordsworth's poetry. Once I bought those books and walked away from the booth my hand was shaking because I was so excited.

Tomorrow is our last day here. It's a free day and everyone else is doing a lot of touristy stuff. I've already done that so I really don't know what I'm going to do. I would love to find the phone booth from Harry Potter 5 where Harry and Mr. Weasley entered the Ministry of Magic. Yes, it actually exists. So, to end my last night in London, I kind of think I have a date! One of the guys that works here at the hostel, and I have been talking this whole time and my friend Amy and I are going out with them tomorrow night with a few other people. That's whatI was gonna mention about Amy "cock blocking" me like crazy. I mentioned that this guy, Robin, was flirting with me and she decided to talk to him to see if he'll flirt with her. And then, when she finds out that he thinks I'm cute, stands at the front desk and talks to him the whole night. But, she did mention to him about hanging out tomorrow night and he said that she should bring me. So.....take that Amy! Haha, but I am really excited about this "date".

That's all I can thin of for now. See you all soon!!