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.