I'm Back!

You may have thought I had abandoned all of you, but fear not! I'm still here. It has been one of the busiest two months since I was in undergrad at Drew. Last time I wrote on this blog, I was just about to start my second term of my Masters degree. I am now in my last week of the term and about to head off to America for a week and then back to London to enjoy my month long Easter holiday with friends and family.

A LOT has gone on in the past two months that it's hard to even know where to begin. I think the most poignant is my placement at Shakespeare's Globe. I have been working with The Globe's education department for the past two months on an amazing project called Playing Shakespeare. It was a project that produced a full-fledged, professional production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. There were 13 performances, all FREE for students (and only students) across Greater London. Working on the project was the highlight of my Masters degree so far. The people I worked with were amazing and I loved working with them. To top all off, I was on stage at the final performance to help close the program and thank Deutsche Bank for sponsoring the whole project. How many people can actually say they've been on The Globe's Stage? I am loving this MA so far! Not to mention, being able to work right on  and walk along the Thames multiple times in a week was an ultimate London experience. The view of St. Paul's Cathedral directly across the river was breathtaking every time I saw it.

On top of my placement at The Globe, I've been babysitting 10 hours/week for a little one year old baby and bartending 15-20 hours/week at Powerleague. I've been teaching drama one hour/week at a London school and have our final performance this week. Finally, I've been equally as busy with school and the work that goes along with it. I've been working on a big research project with three of my friends looking at intergenerational theatre. Not only did we do all our book research and never want to hear the word 'intergenerational' again, but we also held interviews and set up two workshops with participants ranging in age from 21 to 75. It has been interesting and we have been working really hard...keeping our fingers crossed for a solid final mark!

Speaking of marks, I finally receive d my first marks as a Masters student. Grading in the UK is very strange. anything between 49-69% is a pass (which is good) anything 70%+ is a distinction which is super/amazing and difficult to get. Coming from 18 years of anything below an 80% not being acceptable is not easy to comprehend anything different. While I'm happy with my marks, I'm definitely still confused.

Now that it's March, I've been having a tough time knowing I won't be going on a 'spring break' vacation. I can't even remember how long it's been since I haven't gone on a Spring Break vacation to a warm place. For me, it's a necessity to get me out of the gloomy winter. It always revives me. Luckily, it wasn't a coldy/gloomy winter. It only snowed one week this winter. I'm not totally out of luck because my beach holiday is now going to be in June. I will be going to Corfu, Greece with Matt and our friends Jack and Lucy. June cannot come fast enough. I need to be on a beach, feet in the sand and sun in my face. ASAP! I will be heading to Cape Cod on Saturday for the week, but it won't be Summer weather just yet. After that, I won't be able to get back to the Cape or America at all until August. A Summer with so little Cape Cod is NOT ok with me! Hopefully I'll have a super cool job/placement to make up for it and some weekends to the coast. haha in my dreams!

I do promise to keep up more with my blog. It will hopefully be easier now that I have a month off of school. I have a lot of plans to enjoy myself over this month. I plan to read a book that I am NOT REQUIRED to read. I also plan to do some more things in London I haven't done. I will fill you in on all of it!