May 7th. How did it get to be May 7th? Anyone? And no wise cracks about, “well, that’s just how the calendar works Mandy”. I leave in one month to today. And to be quite honest, I’m not very happy about it. I miss my family and my friends so much (yes, all of you who are reading this, you have no idea how much I’d love a real hug right now). But, I’ve fallen in love with London, with everything about this city and with everyone who defines this city for me. It’s going to be incredibly hard, but the entire experience will be the best thing that has ever happened to me. Ah, well now, enough with the crazy sentiment. How about a little story time? Perhaps one that takes place in the far-away, distant and exotic lands of the Czech Republic, Germany and Greece?

As I mentioned before, everyone else I knew went off on month-long trips to places as varied as Sweden, Poland and Syria. I was perfectly happy staying behind and working on my papers (Alex was there to distract me, so don’t worry everyone, I was not as perfectly studious as it seems) and going on my smaller trip when I had time. I left for Prague on April 4th. Getting to airports here is a lot different than if I were back in Houston. First you take the tube to the right stop with a train station, then the train to the airport shuttle, then the shuttle to the airport. There are some really great airlines over here, like Easyjet and Ryanair that have insanely cheap flights, so I hopped one of those to Prague. I sat amidst a giant stag party of 14, which was entertaining to say the least. I dutifully read my Prague guidebook, re-checked the maps I had printed and was ready for the city when I landed. When I stepped off the plane, I was not greeted by a weird foreign place. In fact, most signs were half in English. The first challenge was figuring out the bus. After I got on, I got off at the appropriate stop, navigated their Metro (underground) system, and ended up at the stop the hostel said to get off at. And that is where maps and printed advice fails you, when you are surrounded by only Czech-speakers in a city you don’t know with zero idea as to where in the world to turn. I called Bryan, who was already at the hostel (I was meeting him and his UCL friends for this leg), who helped me. After turning down some twisty side-streets, there I was, in front of the hostel. I went up to the room and knocked on the door, only to be opened by one of my best friends. You know, in PRAGUE. That was a very trippy and cool feeling. The next few days we navigated the city, stopping at markets, going to the old Jewish quarter and all of the old synagogues and cemeteries (a beautiful and moving experience), checking out the castle and strolling the Charles Bridge. Bryan’s birthday arrived, and we went to a classical concert at the Spanish Synagogue, an amazing dinner with a beautiful view over-looking the Charles Bridge, a great club and topped the night off with fried cheese sandwiches. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten one of those.

We left for Berlin the following day via a 5 hour train. We had originally planned to be there one night, but chose to go for an extra, which turned out to be a great idea. Our hostel was incredibly nice (it even had a movie room downstairs with 100 movies to choose from), as were the guys who ran it (including Debbie- a Hungarian guy whose name we misheard, so decided to call him Deb...which evolved into Debbie….poor guy). Berlin was WAY cooler than I thought it would be. I actually liked it more than Prague. It is so full of history, the people are vibrant and the city itself has re-built into something great. We went on a comprehensive free walking tour that showed all of the best sights, including multiple memorials that are the most moving things I have ever seen. I would highly recommend a trip there to anyone.

I left the crew at the Jewish Museum to go back to the hostel and hop a plane from Berlin to Athens all by myself the following day. After getting thoroughly searched by a very brisk German woman, I was on my way on my first solo adventure. I arrived in Athens with no problems and even met an Irish guy on the Metro headed for my hostel (Athens Backpackers- great). I went to bed early, and the next day headed nice and early for the Acropolis, which was right next to the hostel. The day was clear and beautiful, and it was quite serene wandering around the Theatre of Dionysus, where the plays of Sophocles and Aeschylus were first performed (for a theatre person like me, that was such a thrill). The Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike, all of that was just mind-blowing. I’ve wanted to see these sites my whole life, and here I am, on top of the freaking Acropolis! Such a wonderful feeling. What is not such a great feeling is pointing your camera at the Parthenon, only for it to tell you that the card cannot be read (exactly what happened to me in Antwerp). But I shrugged it off and found a camera place once I descended the hill and bought even more new cards. I then wandered around the Plaka district, weaving through narrow streets, vendors, crazy tacky shops and eventually ended up at the Greek Agora (with delicious chicken gyro in hand). Later I tried I wandered around more, found out ferry ticket prices, and went back to the hostel to chill for a bit and call my friends Anna, Becca and Jesse, who were arriving the next day. Anna picked up the phone, and upon my inquiry of “hey, when are ya’ll getting here”, replied, “oh in about 5 minutes” and proceeded to stroll through the hostel door in 5 minutes. It was a very happy surprise indeed. We went to the very best Greek dinner I have ever had, followed by a pub crawl with some new friends (we picked up a guy, West, from Massachusetts). The next day we basically repeated my day, plus a museum and the Temple of Zeus, and then the following morning hopped a 7:30 am speedy (5 hour) ferry to Santorini!

Our hostel was more like a hotel, incredibly cheap, good rooms and right on Perissa Beach, a basically deserted (at least at that time) black sand beach. We spent a lot of time lying out on the beach, playing in the freezing surf and generally relaxing. We rented a Fiat Panda (least threatening car name ever) for 20 euro a day- 4 euro each, what a HUGE steal- and spent a lot of time driving around the island and seeing how pretty it is. The first day we went into Fira, the closer town and walked around the white-washed alleyways and tourist shops, taking in the sun. Afterward, we went to a small winery and drank wine on a cliff overlooking the caldera. That night we drove to Ia (pronounced ‘ee-ah”) with the hopes of catching the sunset over the ocean from the city. We took a wrong turn and ended up taking the long way around the island, but it was for the best, since we got to see all the scenery. When you think of the quintessential Greek home/island, you think of white walls and blue domes, and that is Ia. It is also where they filmed Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I’ve always always dreamed of going to Santorini, to Ia, and just being surrounded by the city. It lived up to its expectations. While we didn’t get the sunset (too hazy), we stepped on the cool, smooth stone paths and slowing walked through the streets, taking in the beauty of the place. We got gyros for dinner and sat on a wall overlooking the caldera and watching the pinpricks of light appear in the little towns on the island. I’ll never forget it. The next day, Becca’s birthday, we went back to Fira and climbed down this crazy side-winder donkey path to reach the old port. We took a boat out to the volcano and climbed all around. It was like being on Mars. Then the boat took us to a hot spring, which you access by jumping into the freezing water and swimming to it. Incredibly and ridiculously fun. We went back to Ia that night for the sunset and Fira for dinner and dancing. The next day Jesse and I took a 9 hour slow ferry back to Athens- yes, 9 never-ending hours- and spent the night to leave the next day.

Now that I look back and read all of that, I’m not sure if it is boring or not. I mean, I lived it, so it was pretty damn cool. But maybe to others, it isn’t. We were warned before we left that people would not find our stories as cool as we do. I’m sure that will happen- and as I am particularly loquacious- I know I will get told to shut up multiple times. But that trip was an incredibly important part of my life, and I want to share it with all of you. I hope you can read my excitement, joy, fears and general life-changing time in between the lines of text.

This was an incredibly long post, so the promised celebrity story will be in the next one. Yesterday I went to Greenwich to visit Alex on his lunch break and wander around. They filmed The Golden Compass (one of my favorites) at the Old Royal Naval College, so I of course crashed the place (they were filming a Charles Dickens movie there at the time) and had a great time pretending I was Nicole Kidman. Today our program is taking us for afternoon tea at the Dorchester Hotel, where apparently Madonna and Kate Moss take their tea, and then I am going to the National Portrait Gallery for a little more culture. I’m trying to make the most of my time here, so I know that I am hard to reach, and for all of you that are in contact with me, sending me love from home, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being such great friends, especially Carrie. I know I don’t do personal shout-outs often, but when someone is so kind, they deserve it. Ta-ta for now darlings, I’m off to tea!

Posted by Mandy at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sun is sparkling off the Thames, glittering on the buildings and blinding tourists as they gaze across the water. The sky is a brilliant blue, with so few clouds that I fervently wish hundreds of red balloons would fly up and dot the sky in a patriotic celestial celebration. Ice cream men have appeared along the bank side to sell cones with Flake to children in bright-colored clothing. Birds are fluttering about and singing cheerful Disney songs. In fact, every person on Waterloo Bridge has just burst out into an elaborate song-and-dance number, fairly reminiscent of I Will Survive. Is this just my imagination? Am I dreaming? Or, have I just turned in 4 4,000 word essays thus completing my major coursework for the rest of my semester? The correct answer is a little bit of everything. The only thing that did not happen in real life is the birds and the song-and-dance number (but don’t you think for one second that I wasn’t going all Fosse in my head). Give me a little artistic license on this joyous occasion- I am finished with my Junior year of college.

(*edit- Ok. Ok. I wrote this last week. And didn’t post it, because I am an awful and terrible person. So I decided to add more to the end to make up for my lack of posting skills. I also sincerely- truly and deeply- apologize for not updating sooner. I know that I should more, and I can only offer the excuse of being without a computer for over two weeks and dealing with final essays for not updating. I have recently realized that people do read this blog- I know who you are, my dear dear friends, and I thank you so much for it. I will be more vigilant from now on.)

After I returned from my holiday (see the next post for my memoirs), I went to work immediately on the rest of my coursework. I told you in the last post about the essays, so I won’t bother you with those fun details. But I still had one whole essay, and most of another to do when I got back. I am not condoning this type of work ethic, but lets all be honest with ourselves. Who is, at this moment, writing an essay due tomorrow, and instead reading my blog? Yes, yes, I know exactly who you are. Don’t wag a finger at me my friends! Anyways, it was a whirlwind 5 days, full of lots of sleep deprivation, cups of tea and digestives, and learning more about the portraiture of Elizabeth I than you could possibly realize. Did you know that she really liked her hands and they are featured in every portrait? Now you know! (*cue the Bill Nye music*). The day I turned them in was utterly brilliant- it really was as beautiful as I describe, or maybe only more so because I wasn’t hauling twelve library books twenty minutes away to the library (never again will I curse you Coates). The English department had free drinks and nibbles, so my friends from Penn and I went to have a drink, and then sat in our favorite local pub for about four hours toasting our collective brilliance. Alex, my lovely boyfriend, came by with champagne, but sadly, after not sleeping for about five days, 1 pint of cider each was enough to do me, and all of my friends, in for the night.

So what have I been doing since I turned in my finals? Oh, you know, nothing big, just hanging out at Shakespeare’s The Globe! Ok. Yes that came off as rather braggy. But well…I don’t really care. It was an amazing experience. For two weeks, 10 of us from Jacobean Shakespeare met at the Globe for workshops, lectures and seminars from Globe practitioners to learn about costumes, music, movement, vocals, original practices and much more. Our leaders were top professionals who have worked with the Globe for many years, some the experts in their fields. We learned about what instruments in the Elizabethan era were considered lower-class and upper-class, and how no one in the audience probably knows or cares when they make everything accurate. The Globe used to stick a policy of “original practices”, following the tradition the theatre itself was rebuilt with (as close to what was available in the 16th century). Costumes, music, lighting, sound effects, seating, audience roles, and speech- everything was done with as close accuracy as possible. Costumes- which were referred to as clothes, because that’s what they were- could cost up to 20,000 pounds a piece when completely constructed accurately. Incredible! We viewed the current show- King Lear- twice; once from the Upper Gallery, where the nobles sat, and once from the yard, where the groundlings were. Both had their own sets of problems. It is very difficult to hear or see from the Upper Gallery, but the view of the crowd in the yard is quite interesting. The copulating pigeons on the roof took away from the tragedy on stage. The yard was also fun…or rather…as fun as it can be to watch a 3+ hour show whilst standing in the rain and cold.

The best part of the whole experience was performing a scene under the direction of a professional director/actor. My director has several notable film credits and numerous other theatre credits. He is on the audition panel at RADA, apparently has frequent conversations with Alan Rickman and is best friends with Tim McInnerny. On the last day, I worked up the courage to ask him if I could meet with him for coffee and discuss his professional career and how I can do what he does (he said yes!). We performed scenes from King Lear- I was Edgar, in the cliffs of Dover scene. It was great fun and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Today was sadly our last day, but I’m comforted in knowing that it is not the end of my experience in acting in London. I know that for a fact.

As always, I will end my post with a celebrity sighting. I have two great ones to tell you, but I will wait until the next post with the best story yet. The day before I left for Prague, I was walking down The Cut (a street next to mine that holds the Old Vic Theatre). I was thinking about how I was jealous my friend saw Kevin Spacey walking down the street, and how I wish I could see him or Jeff Goldblum (both actors were starring in Speed the Plow at the Old Vic). I stopped to mess with my ipod, when I looked up, and realized that I was standing directly before- you guessed it- Jeff Goldblum. He was looking into the coffee shop next to us and sort of chuckling to himself. He is so bloody tall that I was completely out of his line of sight, which is good, because he just would have seen a girl staring at him with a mouth wide enough to fit in a Frisbee. Then he just sort of shrugged and ambled on toward the theatre. I was just so shocked that I didn’t have time to say anything or scream “Scott Wooley!!!” (points to whoever gets that reference) or hug him, but oh well. I got to see his awesome face, so I was happy. I really love this city.

Posted by Mandy at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)