Life/LAMDA/London

It has taken me quite a while to post this second blog entry. Part of the reason is because I have been thinking too hard about what I want to write in it and the other part is because LAMDA is keeping me so busy, that I scarcely have time to write anything at all, especially if I take forever trying to skillfully craft each word.

Since over thinking this thing is getting me nowhere, I figured I would throw thought to the wind and just write. Better to have an unrefined something than to pursue perfection only to end up with nothing at all.

Anyway, moving on, I'm going to break this entry into too sections: Life and LAMDA.

Section one, Life:

Life in London has been an interesting one thus far. I have been suffering from a cough for the past going on 4 weeks or so (maybe even a little over 4 weeks...I've lost track). It's nothing that is constantly crippling but I do have the occasional coughing fit that will make my eyes water and have all those around me expecting to see pieces of lung erupt from my mouth. This condition has made life a bit more difficult, but I am dealing the best I can

So far as what I have seen in London, I actually have not seen all that much. I am currently housed in a student dorm located in the Chelsea area. It is a lovely part of town. The houses are gorgeous the cars are shiny and the shops are chic. While this is great from a visual point of view, when it actually comes down to buying things (such as food and necessities) it gets pretty darn expensive. I learned quickly that in order to get the best value for my pound, I need to shop outside of the Chelsea area (I have found Hammersmith, an area not too far from LAMDA to have reasonably priced goods).

The weather is pretty rainy, and a bit cold. Whenever there are clear blue skies, it is a blessing from God. It actually doesn't bother me as much as I thought it might though. I think I may need to make a run by Hammersmith mall however and pick up a few more long sleeve sweaters.

My room is a complete disaster area. Normally my living space ends up being very untidy, but this is the worst that it's ever been (next to the state that my room at home gets in from time to time). It is a combination of this space being small and me just being a very messy person. I keep telling myself I will clean it up later and yet...

Anyway, I feel like that is enough about life at the moment, now onto...

Section Two, LAMDA:

I can see why this school is such a big deal. So far, my experience here has been wonderful. Not everything is perfect, but everything has the potential to be really amazing. I have only just finished my second week of classes (my first week not even being a full one) so I cannot make any solid judgments just yet, but so far, so good.

I am worried about one thing currently though. When I first found out about this program, I was under the impression that we would be getting clowning classes (as were most people I've spoken to). I do not know for sure if this is true or not, but I have a fear that they might not be offering clowning this semester. On the first day they gave us this lovely two sided poster sized piece of paper that was our schedule for the entire program and granted, it's a bit hard to read, but on it I could find nothing that mentioned clowning. There was one series of classes that started in November sometime that was listed as physical theatre so hopefully that's it...

Apart from the classes, LAMDA also gives us tickets to see certain shows throughout the semester. We have already seen two: "Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford" starring Simon Callow and "Bedlam" a contemporary play written in a classical style. This particular show played at the Globe theater, so I got to be a groundling and stand down by the stage (luckily, not close enough to be spit on by the actors as one poor girl was during a particularly hilarious spit-take).

So yea, that's the brunt of it so far. This was very much a broad overview of the past two weeks. Hopefully as I get more frequent with these posts they will become more detailed, but we shall see :-P

Before I end this however I want to share the L1 British vocabulary for today:

"Take the piss" In American English, this means "to joke or to kid." So if someone were to say "Don't take the piss at me" they are not asking you to refrain from urinating upon their person (although I feel like you should just try and not do that to people on principle) but rather they are requesting that you not kid around with them or joke when they are trying to be serious.

Next entry, I'll share more nuggets of wisdom :)

That's it for now, thanks for reading!