Amsterdam, Paris...

Someone pinch me. Is this a dream? I just came back from Amsterdam. I'm going to Paris tomorrow. Two dream places to travel... in under a week? Wow. My life pretty much can't get any better than this.

Update later when I regain my senses.

xoxo

Edinburgh, Scotland

The most beautiful city. Edinburgh, Scotland. Like every other blog, I wish I could talk about it more. But do to other circumstances- like my charger just blew out on me (ah), my theater paper is due in like 2 days and I have yet to start, and I am cooking dinner for 2 before our show tonight (The Tempest, back at the Old Vic, directed by the great Sam Mendes)... I again have lack of time. Check out my facebook pictures if you care.

Edinburgh was perfect. Minus the coldness, which I wasn't prepared for!!

Where to begin? How did we choose Scotland in the first place? Funny, I was actually persuaded into it. I didn't think I wanted to go. But Matt insisted. He had to see the Open, this world renown golf course and tournament. I really couldn't turn him down and I guess I was curious about Scotland and all I've heard about it. So I agreed, but told Matt the planning was up to him... So here goes- The hotel was sketchy, but cheap. I'm glad I had Matt to at least make me feel safe. We were on an off-streets and we got in late at night, so it was a bit scary finding our way to our little hole in the wall room. We didn't even know which room was ours (the room was about 3 miles away from where we picked up the key) so we had to guess, trying to open up different doors! We eventually found our room, and for the price, only 65 pounds per night, it was pretty sweeeet. A bit of a walk into the city though.

The next morning we woke up at 7:30, off to find our ways to St. Andrews. We found the train out of Edinburgh that directly took us to the course (they had a Golflink bus set up for us), so it was very convenient. We got there around 11 am and It was actually fun going to The Open Championship. We saw Tiger haha. And it's a fun event. The course is amazing, massive, and beautiful. They made us check our phones and cameras before going in!! So we only have memories. I would of even stayed there longer, it was fun!

Than around 5, we got back and went over to the Royal Mile. A veryyy fun street- street performers, shops, restaurants. We then walked over to Grassmarket- the hostel/club streeet and had dinner in a pub there. We were so tired and far from our room that we didn't stay out. But we tried getting back, and ended up walking about an hour and right when we got in a cab we realized we were finally only 5 minutes away!

On Sunday, we got on a hop-on hop-off bus which was interesting to hear about the history of Edinburgh and be driven around for once! We hopped off at the castle and explored for about 3 hours. We saw the prisoners of war room, about 3 Scotland history/battle museums, some royal rooms, the oldest church in Scotland, the memorial, etc. It's very cool up there. I love how it's a castle on top of rocks. It's amazing.

We than went to the Whiskey Factory and instead of spending more money on a tour- it was getting to be a very expensive weekend- we ATE! We ate at the restaurant there and I got the traditional Scottish dish Haggis! But vegetarian. It was amazing. I can't believe what's in the real haggis dish. GROSSSSS! We also tried a glass of whiskey= and it was so strong, it was also gross haha. Check out the menu here- http://www.amber-restaurant.co.uk/pdfs/amberbyday05_2010.pdf

Back to London. Wish I could go back to Scotland, it was great. A very tiring weekend. No time to rest though, off to AMSTERDAM friday. I've always wanted to go the Netherlands since I was a little girl. I can't wait. Till then.

xoxo

Sorry for such a long delay. I literally have been busy every second. There isn't any break coming up anytime soon either!

The plays to catch you all up on--> Thursday the 8th: King Henry the Eight at the Shakespeare Globe. Very long and boring play haha. It was awesome being in the Globe, we'll be back there on Friday, but it's a bit torturous out in the heat and on the uncomfortable benches. Than that night we saw Hair! It was such an energetic play. We got to go up on the stage after the performance and just stepping on the stage and we were sweltering with heat. I can't imagine how the actors do it, and that was their second show of the day!! We met the lead actor after in the play, his name is Gavin Creel, he plays Claude in the show. He was wonderful and very inspiring. Friday the 9th: We had a night off!! I went to this club called Fabric with Matt and his friends and the music was so loud I had to wear ear plugs (that gave me a wonderful ear infection). Some of Matt's friends didn't leave till 7 am, but we left around 1:30 am. It was definitely a fun night out.

On Saturday we went to Hamsptead area, Swiss Cottage region, to see Salome the play. Before, Matt and I visited the Sigmund Freud Museum. It was really cool, we even saw his original chair where he would have patients sit on and do the "free association" and all that awesome stuff. He had more books in his house than I could ever imagine. The key to success is definitely all about reading, thanks Freud! Salome, the play, was CRAZY!! The actress was a bit overdramatic and very annoying. Our professor told us that this director doesn't really direct his actors so that could be the reason she didn't have a very dynamic character. However, the star of the show was her father, Herod. He was incredible. He had this raspy voice and got so into it he spit out every word. The whole play was wet- bloody, wine, water, tar. Very cool.

Sunday I hung out with my parents. We saw our relative and had a very traditional English meal. We had to leave early to go visit the V&A (victoria and albert museum). We saw the theater and performance exhibits, the grace kelly exhibit, the jewerly exhibit, and some ancient pieces like a bed that Shakespeare referenced to and Coco Chanel's classic little black dress. Than we trekked over to Harrods. It's AMAZING. I want to go back ASAP. But it was the last day/hour of the sale so it was crowded beyond belief.

Monday night we saw Salome, the Opera. Yes, I'm being exposed to everything around here!! It was interestingggg... Than Matt and I went to this club called the Zoo Bar. It was really fun, they played great music there (unlike Fabric haha).

Well time to go, I will hopefully update soon.

SCOTLAND ON FRIDAY :)

Sorry this has become more of a diary entry. Not enough time to post real poetic lines anymore! Tootles. xoxo

quick thought

Wish I had more time to update. I don't right now but I have so much to tell, not enough time. Keeping myself very busy, only 5.5 more weeks left and SO much to do! Therefore, I'm just jotting some things down and hopefully will come back to this blog.

I'll breeze over the 2 plays we saw. War Horse at the New London Theater. Go see it. Amazing. You can't help but to find yourself falling in love with the horse and the relationship between Albert and Joey. It makes use of your imagination- something you may have even forgotten you had. Though the show was adapted based from a kid book, this play intrigues everyone. You forget that the horse is, just a puppet (but handled by 3 amazing in-sync people who create real horse movements). I won't ruin the ending for you but I can say it was a REAL tearjerker!

Last night we saw The White Guard at the National Theater. The most magnificent sets I have ever seen! You felt as if you were in the house with them. The set covered the entire stage and was just so detailed and real. However, I didn't like the plot and I found myself hunched in my chair covering my eyes the whole second act. I didn't know what was going on and all I know is that there were the loudest explosions I have ever heard in my life. They were also too real for comfort.

This morning Jonathan Cullen came to our class to teach us how to read Shakespeare. It was one of the most fun classes I ever had. We just acted out the lines in a sonnet and acted and it was great. We are seeing him in Love the Sinner tonight!! How crazy.

After class I walked around the streets of London alone for about an hour, getting lost. I found a street with jewerly stores galore, and other streets with a ballet school, a mini street market and a very cute shoe store. It's so exciting that you never know what you will find when you walk the streets, each street has something new and different to be seen. But, I did get lost so I ended up getting back later than I planned.

Off to the Tate Museum with the group (those who want to come) and then we will be back at the National Theater tonight to see Love the Sinner. Hopefully, we'll stay out in that area and go to a pub with the group. So mom and dad, don't expect me on skype tonight (which means i'm out having fun).

Signing out, xoxo

The arrival

Hello darling. Here I am on day 1 of the Duke in London-Drama summer program. Arrived after an overnight flight with my boyfriend Matt, whose here for classes at the London School of Economics, quite jet lagged and very confused time-wise. We had our orientation walk around and chat, and then the group went to a dinner at the typical London pub. We finally found a restaurant that was 1) open on sundays and 2) served food with their beer. We all were carded- it was very exciting. I ordered what had to be the most typical food choice at a London pub... fish and chips! Which, turns out, is just overly friend fish (not sure the type, pray it wasn't catfish) and french fries. It was still enjoyable, though I was too tired to wash it down with a beer (as other duke in londeners chose to do).

Some differences arise than I expected. For one, the dorm is NOT air conditioned and this is one of the hottest summers in London. Open a window? Can't. They also aptly chose this time to do construction outside my window. Drilling started at 6 am this morning. Joy. Heat or noise? You let me know!

The showers are funny, very green. You must manually push the shower button if you want the water to keep flowing, every 10 seconds or so (if you're lucky). The dorm only provided us with one towel and one pillow, which is nice, but I guess that means I will have to do a bit more laundry than orignally planned- which means detergent, hangers (which there are none), and understanding the meaning behind each coin in pounds...eeeek! I miss luxury. Though, I am SO beyond excited for this adventure.

Today we had our first class, introductory of the course and of the shows we will be seeing this week...all 6 of them (we have a double header on thursday to give us a break on sunday). It all sounds so exciting! What I'm most looking forward to is seeing Hair on Thursday (the second show of the day) and we will be meeting the cast and going backstage after! We also will have in class workshops with a director and actor from the shows we will be seeing this week, how cool! :)

Our first show is War Horse tonight at the New London Theater. We will be treated to one of the finest meals at the Forge. Where frog legs, calves liver, duck leg among other "exotic" "authentic" London meals will be served. I think I'll stick with a salad please. Here's the menu if you're curious. http://www.theforgerestaurant.co.uk/menus/the_forge_menu.pdf

Anyways, must get dressed for our first official night on the town. Cheerio mates, and leave me a comment.

Signing off from Danielle's first blog in London xoxo