It's been a while

And so, after weeks of being bored and wanting to start school, I am deep in school work and lectures. I know it sounds nerdy but it feels good to be back in the library study cubicle, taking notes and seeing friends come and go. I am still working on finding a placement but until then we've been having some amazing extra-curricular lectures and performances outside of our regular school work. One day we went to a high school in South West London to participate in a drama class while the other day we watched a performance by a theatre company that works with prisoners and ex-prisoners. Not as fun, but I just finished two days straight of lectures. Going to an all day lecture session on a Saturday isn't exactly what I hope for, but its now over and time to enjoy the Halloween weekend.

Besides school I've been bartending away and actually bartended the craziness that was the NFL at Wembley Stadium this past Sunday. Every year the two teams from the NFL come over to London to play one of their regular season games. Powerleague hosted a touch football game with fans, old Superbowl players from years past, and the scariest mascot I have ever seen in my life. Check him out in the picture. That's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers mascot. Terrifying. Anyways, we hosted pre-game drinks. There were four of us bartending at this tiny bar and hundreds of fans...English and American. People fought to get to the front of the bar. It was insanity but fun at the same time.

On a different note, I have to say I love this season with its warm foods...spiced apple, cinnamon, pumpkin galore! I love the holidays...Halloween, Thanksgiving and the gearing up for Christmas. I even love all the fall fashions. There is nothing like wearing a good pair of riding boots and a warm scarf but having it still warm enough to take walks outside. The fall air is so crisp and smells amazing. Ok, now that I've gushed over fall -- which may only be because apparently they had a blizzard in the States today and I'm bragging -- it is time to get to the point. I made my family's famous Old-Fashioned pumpkin cookies this week! I made about 40 and within a day they were almost totally gone! They rarely use pumpkin in foods here so it was nearly impossible to find pumpkin puree in a can. I had to go to a specialty store just to get it. People thought I was crazy when I described the cookies, but once they had a bite, they were in love. They are seriously the most amazing cookies ever! The icing on top is literally the icing on the cake. It just makes them perfect.

I would like to end this post by saying how sad I am that Halloween isn't as big of a deal over here as it is in the States. For a person who obsesses over creating creative homemade costumes, I am very sad that I haven't had much of an opportunity to dress up this year without spending a fortune. Matt is working every night this weekend AND Halloween so there is no opportunity for us to do anything. And if I wanted to go out with friends, I'd have to come back late and alone which is not an option in my book. I'm trying to get a little spook in my life and going to a ghost tour with friends but we shall see. Since Matt and I aren't working next Saturday night, and are hosting a Bonfire Night party. Over here, the 5th of November is a celebration of the day when they caught Guy Fawkes just before he was about to blow up Parliament. In celebration they sometimes burn a scarecrow-esque doll representing Guy Fawkes, but it is mostly an excuse to set off fireworks and party. Our balcony will allow us to see fireworks across all of North Western London which is going to be so fun. I know that because as I sit here writing this, there are Fireworks out my window in celebration of Diwali. We are also making the party a costume party to celebrate our delayed Halloween. Can't wait to post pictures!

Making Friends

It's been a couple of days of recovery from whatever cold/flu thing many people around here and I had. They call it the Fresher's Flu because we've all been herded into different lectures and auditoriums constantly over the past week and our immune systems were completely unprepared. Luckily thanks to the help of many over the counter drugs I am doing much better!

My main task this week has been to find my first placement for school. I know I want to work with a well-established theatre or broadcast company and see how they run their educational programming. In particular, a company's programming for bringing the arts to children and teens. I can't wait to officially land my placement and tell you all about it. I'm looking at educational programming from programs such as The Royal Shakespeare Company's, The National Theatre's, The Old Vic's (Old Vic New Voices), The National Youth Theatre's and even programs included as part of the Cultural Olympiad (the arts part of the 2012 Olympics). Speaking of the Olympics, I have been desperately trying to get involved with the ceremonies and signed up to audition for as a volunteer performer. My audition will be in the beginning of next month.  Who knows what will come of it but it will be an experience.

Oh and good news, I've been making friends! We even had our first social tonight after a long day of lectures. Making friends and being in a new environment is so daunting and I was admittedly nervous but there are some great people in my program! It's so great to hear everyone's experiences and to just bounce ideas off of each other is so exciting. We are all passionate about (generally) the same thing which makes it so great. We have a HUGELY packed year ahead of us with everything from courses, practical work, projects, dissertations, jobs etc. All so scary but exciting at the same time!

Also good news, Emily, your clone on the X-Factor UK is STILL in the competition! The judges put her into this really cool girl group called Rhythmix and they are killing it as the only girl group in the competitiion. Em, I am so proud of you! (See earlier blog posts to better understand this joke)!

She's the one on the left but Emily is even prettier...for those of you who do not know her   ;)

Sick in bed :(

 LONDON FOG

Ah so it starts...the chain of illness. It usually starts around this time every year with your basic sore throat or sinus infection. I felt it coming on last night at dinner: sinuses hurting in the nose and the back f the throat with ear pain in the left ear. Woke up multiple times throughout the night with such a painful sinus infection. Now I am in bed all day trying to get better, drinking my Emergen-C and taking sinus decongestants. What a gross feeling. What made me feel a little better about spending all day in bed was the fact that it was not a nice day in London, but rather, what is well-known as a London Foggy day. I couldn't believe how thick the fog was. I could barely see the building across the street. I'll never forget one time I was visiting Matt in his hometown of Upton-Upon-Severn (near Worcester in the Midlands of England...to give you a geographical idea) and we decided to travel about an hour to his Nan's house to pay her a visit. Along the way we stopped at Stonehenge but in order to get from Stonehenge to his Nan's house we had to take the tiniest, windiest, roads in the English countryside. However, the fog was unreal. I have never in my life seen fog that thick. We literally could not see in front of us...at all...or any of our surroundings. It sounds ridiculous but I was really scared. I was waiting for something to pop out in front of us at any moment. Then again I shouldn't have been surprised as England is known for their fog.

Well sadly my battery is about to die and I do not have a charger at the moment. So it looks like I'm off to take another nap and try to make this sinus infection go away. Hope you are all enjoying the day of rest!

First Day of Classes

SOME MORE MONEY PLEASE

One of my biggest fears about leaving the working world and heading back to school was the lack of a paycheck. It is so nice to have the satisfaction in knowing that money will be there waiting for you in your bank account every other week. I was scared to let that security go…even though it wasn’t much of a security. I am a worrier and I tend to panic randomly. One of my big reasons for panic is not being able to financially support myself. Checking my bank account online is like avoiding a root canal for me. I put it off and put it off until I really can’t avoid it any longer.

You can imagine my freak out when I saw my schedule for the next month of bartending. I assumed I was going to have the solid 20 hours/week that my visa allows and make the money I need to stay afloat. Turns out I’ve been demoted to 10-15 hours/week which means I can pay about half my rent. You would think I could do better seeing as my boyfriend is assistant manager but sadly his power for that was usurped. I can’t do much complaining until I work more and have the right to ask for more hours. Until then I have been brainstorming ideas to make an extra quid here or there. P.s. “quid” is slang for a pound here. It is sort of like saying “five bucks” in America but you would say “five quid” here. I’ve gotten pretty used to the term and love using it.

So how can I find some more money? Besides the fact that Matt and I have together gained a bit of a gambling problem. We’ve done everything from hoping we will win the lottery, trying to win bets on the football to even trying our luck at a Pub Quiz machine. Sadly not much of that has been lucrative. Matt won a bit of money on the football while I won six pounds on a scratch card. We lost about ten pounds playing on the pub quiz machine Saturday night, which was embarrassing but really fun! Through all this failed luck I think I’ve decided to put my Martha Stewart talents to work. Oooooo it would be good to be living with Hanna again right about now. Hanna (my NYC roomie and longtime friend) and I were super crafty together. We made homemade Christmas gifts together and spent many hours at Michael’s Crafts Store. She always has a box of paper or fabric samples and her sewing kit at arm’s length. We had this idea of making headbands and clips with cute little fabric flowers attached. We had a tendency to see things in a store and say, “we could totally make that.” Anyways, I’m thinking of crafting a line of hair accessories and once I have enough, I want to bring them to an arts and crafts fair and see if I can sell them. I know I won’t make a ton of money off of it, but it will be a fun project and I really want to “give it a go,” as they would say over here. Thoughts? As soon as I make a couple I will take pictures and post them here for further comments and suggestions. I’m putting up these pictures so you can have an idea of what I mean.

BACK TO SCHOOL BABY!

Today we officially started classes and we were hit with all our coursework and outline for the year. That wasn’t as painful as some of the “all-postgrad bonding” exercises we had to do. As an isolated program, I can tell I am going to get along well with my peers. It was nice to share a bond with them as soon as we walked into the auditorium filled with all the graduate students. It’s sad but funny when a group of students walks into the auditorium together and you can instantly tell “oh they are DEFINITELY actors.” Or, “those are the technical kids.” But it’s also comforting to know you are in a group of people who you can relate to in such a huge way. Even though it was a long day, I loved getting to know all of these people in a much more relaxed environment than it was at the scary and daunting orientation.

 

I also just want to finish this up by noting that I realized a huge dream of mine coming true today. At lunch I was sitting in a hallway with some other students eating and chatting. Because it was lunch there were tons and tons of students running up and down the stairs, some in their “theatre blacks” (the all black uniform usually worn by theatre people), others carrying giant rehearsal bags and some in dance and movement clothing. I realized in that moment, I had finally made it to that performing arts school, just like in Fame, that I had always dreamed of attending. Not to mention it was one of the best performing arts schools in all of the UK with an amazing list of alums. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret any of my educational choices in the past, but I am finally getting this performing arts school experiences that I always wanted to be a part of. I never saw this opportunity as that until today which was a fun realization.

Alright, off to do pages and pages of reading for school!

School Registration

 Today I FINALLY headed over to school for registration and a brief intro. It was so weird being in that new school situation again. We're all standing around awkwardly waiting to be told what to do. You will be sitting next to someone in an auditorium situation, waiting for further direction, and you sort of look around awkwardly knowing that the person next to you is doing the same. So who speaks first? If we happen to make eye contact, then I will say something. Ugh meeting new people...so not easy. I met a few people but spent most of the morning with an American. Go figure. There are only 35 people in my program and even that will be broken into two and I will end up with about 17 in my class but most of it will be made up of internships.

APPLIED THEATRE

For those of you who don't know I am studying a specific type of theatre called "Applied Theatre." I say educational theatre to make it easier when telling people what I'm studying, but it's a lot more than simply teaching theatre and drama. An example of Applied Theatre would be that of using theatre to educate or to give a voice to an oppressed community. There are countless ways to use this form of theatre. My year will consist of discovering how I can use the power of theatre to educate and in what field I can use this skill. I'm seeking my career that excites me every single day. I have a passion for other fields but this is one of them as well and I'm looking to see where it brings me. I'm looking forward to sharing that journey through my blog with my placements. I'm telling you now that I so desperately want to not only work in a school but on a larger level of working in the educational programming department of the BBC or The Royal Shakespeare Company. I would love to experience the large and small of this field. And that is a little bit of insight into my program.

BARTENDING

I just want to keep updating you on my miserable bartending skills. Last night was the test of the Shandy and the Tops. Again, lemonade here is sort of a lemon lime soda. A Shandy, which I don't is a thing in a America, is a pint of half beer half lemonade. While Tops is a pint of beer with a little lemonade at the top. Well when this group of 20 from a local business came in after work and started ordering Shandies and Tops...I looked at them trying to remember what Matt had taught me. I didn't realize I must have been staring at them for a good 20 seconds trying to recall...looking like an idiot. They totally called me out on it AND criticized my technique of failing to put the lemonade in first. I was SO embarrassed. I've seriously been trying to play this whole bartender thing cool. I'm a total newb. Sort of comical. Oh ya and I also had a bunch of 14 year old boys hitting on me while the receptionist had every ADULT man who walked in giving her their number. I'm so cool.

SAD DAY FOR APPLE

It was a sad today when we found out that Steve Jobs had passed away. He was an incredible innovator and has brought so much to the world of technology. He has actually dominated the technological world and is an amazing business man. My dad taught me a lot about Steve Jobs as a business man and innovator. I spoke to my dad tonight about the loss and I just wanted to quickly end this blog post with an inspirational old commercial Steve created but was never aired that my dad told me to watch. Steve was one of those great people in history that took risks and for that he will always be remembered. Thank you Steve. Signing off from my Apple MacBook Pro. 

First day on the job

Soooo….Saturday night was my first shift as a bartender. Not to mention, my first shift with Matt as my boss. It’s a 5-a-side football complex, but the reception/bar area can be rented out for parties. Last night I was serving a 24^th fancy dress (costume) birthday party. Talk about being thrown in the deep end. I was being trained by Matt but of course everything had a different name. Like everything had a splash of “lemonade” which is basically lemon and lime flavored soda or Sprite. Everything was “vodka lime and soda” or “vodka lemonade lime.” I was essentially learning all new drinks last night. One of the hardest parts was the hearing and understanding. For one, all of my friends will attest to the fact that I DO NOT have good hearing. I’m always asking them to repeat everything five times or saying “WHHHAAAATTT?” I’m so annoying, but I blame my mom’s side of the family. They never hear anything correctly. (Sorry Mom)! So try to imagine: me trying to hear these drink orders over the loud music AND in thick British accents…NO WAY! 

This is the complex where I work. That's Wembley Arena in the background where they hold tons of concert events.

Let’s also discuss how they rarely tip bartenders over here. It’s great for a night out because it’s a great money-saver, however, not so great when you’re the bartender. There were a couple generous (and drunk) men who would continue to leave their change with me as a tip…one in particular had the worst pick-up lines all night but some great tips. I misunderstood one of his drink orders and Matt made me pay four pounds of my tip money to replace it. Sad but I guess I had to learn. At the end of the night I was so excited to show Matt the money I had made in tips. I counted it up to show him and was feeling all proud of myself when he pulls out coins AND paper money all adding up to more tips than I earned! WHAT?! He then casually pulls a slip of paper out of his pocket and says, “Oh ya and I got some guy’s phone number.” So let me get this straight…he got more tips than I AND got a phone number. What gives? Apparently some guy dressed as a Mario Brother was telling him how he has connections and can get him anything he wants…whenever he wants for half the price! Uuuuhhhh what? It’s ok because I experienced one of the best chat up (pick up) lines ever dropped by a sketchy guy in a Jason mask. He told me, “You can’t be bought in a shop…that means you can’t be bought in a shop…because you’re priceless.” Huh? Oh ya because I’m American he had to explain what his crappy chat up meant….obviously. 

Another view of the complex with Wembley Stadium towering above. The short grey and green building on the left under the stadium is where the reception and bar area is located.

Matt and I were there until 2am cleaning up which was exhausting but at least we were together. So there you go, that was my first night as a bartender. Hopefully more adventures to come! I work Tuesday and Wednesday night this week bartending for sweaty, nasty footballers (it’s not what you think ladies).They are crude and ruthless (or at least that’s for who I’m preparing myself) Here goes nothing!

Anyone up for some night football?

London is a sauna!

 
Ok so I don't know what the deal is, but London has been in the 80s every day this week! What is up with that? Isn't it supposed to be cold and rainy? I'm not complaining except for the fact that I've resorted to wearing gym clothes everywhere because I did not pack normal summer clothing. Oh well. Since Matt had the day off yesterday we decided to spend most of the day at Regent's Park. We were cheesy romantic and rented a paddle boat where I stupidly allowed Matt to steer. We basically spent the half hour chasing ducks, geese and swans around the pond. He also paddled into low hanging branches that made perfect contact with my face. Awesome. After eating our packed lunch, we got ice cream and chilled out in the gardens of Regent's Park. It was such a relaxing day!

When we got back Matt made my favorite dish of his: Chicken Risotto. I never had risotto before he made me his specialty dish. He makes it with chicken stock, white wine, chicken, bacon, leeks and onions. We had it with garlic bread and feasted! I can honestly say his risotto is the best! I'm pretty sure nothing can compare! The picture doesn't do it justice because risotto will always be a mushy glob. If only I could give you a taste through this blog you would know! Ignore the picture's presentation as well...nothing special.

Ah today I finally set up a UK bank account. I've been putting it off but I finally did it. Awesome...a place where I can keep all the money I don't have. Super! And finally, tonight I start my first shift as bartender at the 5-aside football complex where Matt is Asst. Manager. Yes, Matt is going to be my boss. I'll let you know how long it takes before he fires me. The complex is called Power League Wembley. Tonight we are hosting a 24th birthday party at the bar with a DJ. I hope they are easy on me! :/ Wish me luck!