It's Christmas Time in the City

Hello everyone! Andrew and I are getting increasingly jealous as Thanksgiving approaches. Obviously, they don’t celebrate said holiday in the UK. However, we will be celebrating our own version of it with the rest of the students from my course. The two British women are very excited to discover what this mysterious holiday means to Americans. We told them that it pretty much consists of gluttony and football (our version). We will all be indulging in a Thanksgiving feast next Saturday, most likely at our flat.

Classes are going well. There isn’t much to say about that. I’m still working hard from 9-7. It’s amazing how quickly this trimester is flying by. There is only four more weeks until Andrew and I come home for the holidays! A class regarding my dissertation has begun, so I’ve been actively thinking about what I might do for that. We are given the choice of either doing a typical written dissertation or doing a performance/project-based one. Obviously, I’ll be choosing the performance one. Who wouldn’t? However, this does mean we might be in the UK a couple months longer in the summer. If anyone wants to visit, this would be a great time. I don’t have to be anywhere in particular to work on the dissertation, so long as I get it accomplished by the end of August. Also, I have a month long break between the end of April into March, which would also be a good time for friends and family to come visit.

Andrew and I are getting much more comfortable in Birmingham. Last week we attended the city’s Christmas parade where the city turned on its Christmas lights for the season. The parade was a little strange, but the atmosphere was very festive. We are also making a habit of visiting the “world famous” markets which sell fresh fruit and vegetables as well as many other wares. At the food market, you can get an entire basket of practically any fruit or veg for only a pound. It’s amazing. Also, cheese is really cheap there in comparison to the grocery stores.

This past Wednesday, I attended my first Monologueslam with some of the girls from my course where I performed some improvisation and my monologue from “Keely & Du”. I had no intention of doing the improv, but a guy needed a partner, so I thought I’d give it a try. As it turns out, he and I actually won the contest! My monologue went really well. I guess the lesson I learned from the experience is that I need to be getting out there. It felt great to be performing for a group of strangers who enjoyed receiving the performance. I think I’m going to make it a habit to attend and perform at things like this, including some open mic nights. I’d like to get singing in public too.

Last night we went to HP7 (part 1) with some friends, and afterwards we walked around the German Christmas Market, which is absolutely huge. It is the biggest German market outside of Germany. The vendors are selling things like Christmas ornaments, crafts, toys, clothing, and lots of food. The food is our favorite part. Andrew had a shish and tikka kebab, and I had a doughnut. I would’ve eaten more if I felt better.

Which reminds me…I have the flu or a cold or something. It’s really distracting. Hopefully it will be gone soon, because rehearsing for eight hours on Friday was torture.

Andrew’s job has been a good experience, but it’s clear that it’s not meant to be. It was a great opportunity to speak with hundreds of Brums (affectionate title for citizens of Birmingham) and do something completely unique, but it’s clearly not Andrew’s style to go door to door to ask people to donate to charity and be really persistent about it. Instead, he is trying to get things organized to become a substitute teacher. I have a friend who used to do this, and she is helping us work with an organization to make that happen. Andrew will have to figure out his qualifications in the UK since they are different from the US. Our fingers are crossed that this will work out.

Well, that’s all we really have for now. We will be sure to take photos of the market and the German market so you can all see how beautiful it is.

We hope all is well with you!

A month and half down...

We would like to issue an apology for those who have been eagerly awaiting a new post. We are ashamed at our recent neglect.

This is my fourth full week at BSA, and I finally feel as though I’m starting to get the hang of everything. Whenever I come home, I’m very tired- both physically and mentally. In class, we engage in a lot of movement that is surprisingly difficult on the body. We do a ton of Qui Gong stretches and exercises and have begun doing some elementary ballet. In the next few weeks we will begin learning some traditional Elizabethan dances. Another physical class I have is stage combat where we have been learning to work with rapiers. This week we will also get to use daggers for the first time in addition to our rapiers. I am finding stage combat to come very natural to me. I think it’s because I’ve watched “The Princess Bride” a few too many times.

I am also in three different speech classes that focus on finding “the inner home of the voice”. Basically we’ve just been doing a lot of spinal stretches and experimenting with sounds. One of the three classes is more focused on phonetics, and we will be learning accents with the emphasis in this term being RP or “Received Pronunciation” which is the standard for British actors. My acting classes are extremely long, but very useful. On Mondays, we have a four hour acting class in which we workshop scenes from different Shakespearean plays. I’m currently playing Juliet from “Romeo & Juliet” which I find very enjoyable. However, we also have two other four hour acting classes on Wednesday and Thursday and an eight hour rehearsal on Fridays. During these classes/rehearsals we are working on Twelfth Night. I have been cast as Olivia. We are also working through a lot of sonnets, which is very helpful in fully understanding iambic pentameter, context, and finding emotion through the text. I am learning so many things about reading and acting Shakespearean text than I could have imagined. I can definitely see my acting improving through a more disciplined approach to text.

Enough about that.

Andrew has been actively seeking jobs and finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. A few days ago, he received a call from a potential employer and interviewed with them today. He got the job! He will be working for an employer downtown Birmingham (as long as they still take him even though we’re coming home for Christmas). In essence, he will be fundraising for British and international charities. He begins training tomorrow, and our hopes are high that everything will work out for the best. More information about his new job to come…

We are falling more in love with our flat every week. Yes, it might be in the alley, and yes, it might be a long commute to and from school, but it’s become rather cozy. I finally bought a scented candle to make it feel like the holidays around here.

We celebrated Halloween by going over to the house of some of my classmates. It was very laid back. Because children don’t really trick-or-treat here, we had to eat all the candy and drink all the cider ourselves. It hasn’t been very cold here yet- we think it got below freezing maybe once. Luckily, we haven’t had to break out our winter coats yet. We still are avidly watching several episodes of “Friends” every day and are very happy with our decision to purchase a television set. Sometimes, we even get to watch good movies like “The Swiss Family Robinson” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, which was made more enjoyable by the fact that we have one of the world’s largest chocolate factory a half a mile away- Cadbury World.

We really miss everyone and hope that you are all having great adventures!