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