Back home for Christmas!

At mine (and Jenny's!) 21st (25th!) birthday meal!


And the semester is over! Almost as quickly as it started, time ran away and suddenly 4 months are gone and I am on a plane hotfooting it back to the UK for Christmas!! It has been a whirlwind of a semester, busier than I ever would have planned it (haha), but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I am currently sitting in Chicago O’Hare airport, waiting out the five hours between my planes! I will post this online when I get home (eeek!) seeing as I don’t have the internet here.

So, what has happened since I last updated? LOTS of final assessments and exciting things like that – I almost finished my play (Mind Art) and I plan to do the rest of it on the plane or during the holidays at home. I am quite proud of it – obviously, its no work of genius, but its alright and maybe at some point I’ll find a director and someone will stage it. That would be very nice!! I ended up getting A’s in all of my modules – on one of my assignments I got a 50% bonus, which is a little bit ridiculous, because I know the work wasn’t perfect – but hey ho, I’m not complaining!!! I now know exactly what classes I am taking next semester and it is looking like it will be quite an exciting time!! So far next semester classes are:

- Participatory Theatre (OK, I get no credit for this, but it sounds like fun!)
- Stage Directing
- Advanced Theatre Games and Improvisation
- Studio in Stage Management (Stage Managing a show called ‘Our Town’ wooo!)
- Independent Study (doing research for a devising project on the myth of Penelope)

It all sounds very exciting, far better than what I would be studying if I was in England, in my opinion! On top of this, I should be doing some work experience at First Stage, if they ever contact me again (!) – they are MIA at the moment, my parents are visiting for a couple of weeks in April, and hopefully lots and lots of travelling! I am sure I will end up doing lots more than that though – I might make more time for socialising, but we’ll see!!! I am very happy with my work/life balance in America most of the time (I have time to go out or eat or hang out with friends, which is nice – I am starting to see where I went wrong last year!). I am still ridiculously happy in America, which is fabulous – but it will make it very hard to leave. It’s even difficult leaving for a few weeks!

I managed to go to the theatre quite a lot at the end of the semester. The University staged a brilliant version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ – where even the lovers were funny! The lighting was amazing, the acting on the whole was good, it was just a good show! I also saw a modern dance show, which I loved (I really miss dancing, it is a shame I will never be able to go back to it really). I also saw the directors scenes, which were in general really good! I want to make more time to see more theatre – weirdly in America studying hasn’t put me off going to the theatre, it has done the opposite! In England, I was getting a little fed up with theatre, but in America, this never is the case. And I know I am learning stuff, which is fantastic!

I spent a lot of my last week before Christmas in Milwaukee just hanging out with friends – Meghan and I cooked dinner (twice!), I went to a play reading and hung out with Colin, I went to eat with the Paradise lot at Shiraz, and just hung out in the lounge with the internationals!!! Also, with the internationals, we did Secret Santa and went out for a meal to a place called the Safe House – this was a REALLY cool place to go, you have to do a task to get in there, if you don’t know the password, the exit is ‘secret’ and the whole place is a rabbit warren of spy memorabilia – and the food is pretty good too (although expensive)! For Secret Santa, Jack gave me a wonderful hat, which I actually love – my hat addiction is back with the cold weather! We then had some drinks, and then went to an Irish Pub/bar – the first time I have been out in America since I turned 21! It was a really good night, with really good company – obviously, I still don’t LOVE going out, but this was a good night, and a positive experience, so we’ll see! I did manage to get drunker than I ever have done before (I blame the generous bar-people who poured the drinks) and therefore was dying yesterday – I always wonder if the hangover is worth it!

The weather has turned FREEZING but we have had no proper snow. On one evening we were at a tutors house for our final ‘exam’ and it was PROPER snowing, which was really exciting, but we have had no such luck in Milwaukee! It is a lot easier to survive than I thought it would be, but wearing leggings under jeans, and lots of layers is definitely necessary, as everyone said! Apparently, January will be colder, brrrrrrr – but at least them we maybe will see some proper snow!!!

Anyway, I better go now – I want to have a frappucino before catching my flight home – I am so excited to be back, but sad to be leaving – ahhhhh!

Merry Christmas!

Ciao Ragazzi xxx

What a lot can happen in two weeks!!

So, these last 17 days of so have actually been totally and completely jam packed with stuff!! It has been fabulous - now, sadly, things are calming down a little (I suppose its good to have a break) so i am able to do all those things that i ran out of time to do (such as go to the theatre millions of times! YAY!) It's hard to capture everything thats happened, but i shall try!!!



GLACURH!!!!


Jenny, Taylor, Allison, Me and Kenya in our pirate costumes!





So the GLACURH leadership conference was an experience and a half - i loved every single minute of it!!! It was such a cool idea, getting all the leaders from 56 universities around the Great Lakes and letting us have fun and share ideas together!! We journyed from Milwaukee, through Illinois and Indiana to get to Central Michigan University where it was held - it took a whole 7 hours, but it was worth it!! We did so many activities and things - we did a lot of cheers and shouting (where my English accent was so obvious it was funny!), we danced on stage as pirates in routine (a video that shall never be seen ever again... hilariously bad!!! But at least we tried :-D And it was kinda fun in the end, i sorta miss being on stage, it was nice to be on that side of it again rather than the technical side of things!), we went to lots of workshops that taught us leadership things and cool activities (i had an entire hour workshop on laughing, it was fabulous!!! and a really cool coloured bead leadership activity that makes you reflect on your leadership stuff.... all this stuff that i really wanna bring back to the UK with me!! ) We collected clothes pegs that every team decorated to swap before they came to the conference. We talked to people a lot! We entered the banner competition and the display competition, won neither but had lots of fun!!! We had a banquet wearing posh clothes - the waitresses hated us and it was hilarious - and then there was a disco and everyone danced for hours... like in a club. But with no alcohol. It was really wierd, but kinda coool! There were some REALLY cool chants that i learnt - like, for applause, you would clap once, and then use the deaf sign for applause. Or we would click - it was really rather cool! And when someone did something we liked we would chant 'We are proud of you, say we are proud of you' and things like that - i am writing them so i remember to take them back to the UK!!!! Things like they would shout 'HEY GLACURH' and you would shout back 'HEY WHAT'... it would be really useful to use things like this in the future....childrens theatre, woooo!! They had some really cool chants about Wisconsin milk and such like - it was just an awesome atmosphere!!! It gave me some really cool ideas that i am going to investigate whether they are possible... YAY!!!! Anyway, it was a fabulous weekend, and despite initial doubts i am so happy that i went!!





STAGE MANAGING THE READING


This was also a very good experience!! It was interesting working on my own, after working with so many people on my past two shows. It was far easier than i thought to be working with Equity actors and timing breaks and stuff - it was really refreshing to be working with people who were over the age of 21!!!! Also, the play was AWESOME. Actually Amazing! Seeing the rewriting process was super interesting as well, from a playwriting perspective. My english accent was saught after, which was amusing - one of the actors recorded me reading some lines so to help his actors do English accents in a Caryl Churchill piece. He thought i read well, which was flattering, as i barely get time to act anymore, sadtimes. All in all it was a fabulous experience!!! Admittedly, i am so addicted to Stage Management at the moment! I think thats where i am heading too... i think thats where i am going to find work, and i enjoy it, and it doesn't feel right when i'm not doing a show... At the moment, i enjoy the stage managers life! Stage managing children's theatre may be where i'm heading - but i'll do my 4th Year in Applied Performance (hopefully!) first, and then see where it leads!!!

CANADA!!!!

Alison and Me outside the Peace Tower (Houses of Parliament, Ottawa)

So, my 'Thanksgiving' trip to Ottawa was my next exciting adventure, starting on the 24th November and ending on the 29th November! I set off from my house, (Meghan kindly gave me a lift to the airport - yay!!!) and flew to Detroit as part of my journey to Canada. And when i arrived there, it was quite late at night, and i found that my plane from Detroit to Ottawa had been cancelled due to 'bad weather' (whatEVER!). So i was stranded for the night - and they wouldn't even pay for a hotel for me! So, for $70 i had a very comfortable night in a bed big enough for 4 me's - it was quite an adventure!! My flight the next day was at 2pm, and it went without event, until i arrived in the airport. My phone died, and wouldn't work in Canada, so i couldn't contact Alison! I waited for a bit. Then i tried various methods. Eventually, after a few hours, we managed to contact each other, she managed to get her car out, and everything was okay!! Firstly, we went to sort out her horses, which was cool (a bit like being back in England with Lucy!) then we just chatted for a bit then slept :-) Alison was unfortunately ill, so the next day i slept in for a long time (bliss!) then i went on a big adventure!!! Well, it wasn't that big, but it involved two busses and not knowing where i was going! I went to the Canadian Museum of Nature, and it was kinda cool - the dinasaur bit was the bestest! We had a quiet evening of board games, movies and poutine (mmmmmm chips, gravy and cheese - delicious!) pizza and sleeeeeeeep! The next day, Alison was feeling a little better, so we did all kinds of exciting things, like going to see the awesome Art Gallery in town, and going to see the Nutcracker ballet! It wasn't the traditional Nutcracker, but it was a brilliant version of it! It was the first ballet i had ever seen, and i REALLY want to see more, coz it was really good! The next day was even busier!!! We went to the dog park with Sabin, Alisons Westie - this is a 'scary' park that hundreds of dogs go to to be walked - they all make friends and run, its kinda cute - but a place i would have been scared of not long ago!!! We then went to the Parliament buildings, which were awesome!!! We went to the market afterwards and looked at the amazing hat stalls, and bought beavertails, which are like these delicious pastries - mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! We went and bought candy, then went to the Museum of Civilisation on the Quebec side of Ontario (they speak more French over that side!) - there were awesome displays about aborigionals (lots of totem poles and canoes!) and a town back in time, lifesize, which seemed like it was outside, which was pretty cool! We then were tired out, so we went home and Alison cooked us an AMAZING meal (it was wierd to taste real food and see it being cooked!) mmmmmmm. We hired out some movies: My Sisters Keeper, which is actually the saddest movie in the world EVER. And Up, which was pretty good, not amazing! I loved My sisters keeper, but i think its almost too sad to watch again. SUCH a good movie! The next day (my last day, sad times) we went to see The falls, which was a beautiful waterfall thing, and then to the dog park again, then i had to travel home :-( Hopefully i'll be back to Ottawa again, or at least Canada this year! I want to visit Toronto!

MY 21st BIRTHDAY!

This was yesterday, and it really did pass without event! I got some lovely gifts -some photo albums/scrap books from Jess, some candy from other people, and some very funny gifts from Bexi and Ash of including an Elf hat, a cool book and my own mini geek, teehee!!! We went out for a meal (Jenny, Jess, Jana, Jack and myself - all the J's!!!!) at Palermo Villa, which was a very nice Italian restaurant, but had HUGE portions!! Other than that, i was in class most of my birthday, yuck!!! But it saved me from getting bored, i spose! My Stage Management teacher gave me a cupcake with a candle in it, which was my only birthday cake, which was very cute, and i really appreciated :-D I am going to have a birthday celebration with my family on the 24th Dec when i get back to England - i am having a hair cut, and we are going to Jamie Olivers 15 for Lunch -mmmmmmm!!! Exciting!!

OTHER STUFF

My classes are still going well - my storytelling group is still frustrating, but thats the worst problem i have!! My play writing is going quite well, i am having to work quite hard on it, and sometimes it is hard to concentrate, but hopefully, most of it will be finished by the time i submit it in two weeks time, eeeeeek!!! Next semester i might have a (perhaps paid) position as one of my lecturers Research Assistants too, which will be fabulous!!! In my Theatre in Elementary Education class, we had to make a puppet show: the product of which can be seen on youtube, wooo! Have a gander:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLbkMLPDP0c

hahaha i can't believe i do this for a degree!!!

Anyway, i better go now, i have like 10 tonnes of homework, eeeek! and an early class tomorrow!

Ciao ragazzi xxx

Happiness, Busyness and the occassional bout of sadness!

John, Mark and myself making silly faces at Rock Bottom. Please ignore my terrible fringe! (or bangs!)

So, updating is getting more and more difficult as time gets less and less - but hopefully i will continue to update as much as possible (every two weeks, it seems! I try!). Life, it seems, is still pretty great - as normal, it has its highs and lows, but i always aim for there to be more highs, and it seems that way at the moment - i love this place, and it is going to be almost impossible to leave the friends i have made and the people i have met - I think at the moment that 4th year in Canterbury is going to be depressing as hell! But it is worth it for being over here :-)

So, Paradise is now over, the whirlwind that it was! Tech was indeed interesting - relationships between the designers, director and myself were sometimes a little fraught, but we got through it reasonably amicably, which is great! I ended up cue-ing using a very simplistic cue lights, which was a little bit interesting lol - i colour-coded my cue lights to my post-it notes, which was very exciting, but sometimes it became very easy to flick the wrong light switch, which meant sometimes cue sequences were interesting - flicking them on and off meant different things, and sometimes we had to resort to hand signals, which was bad times! Buttt it worked :-) The board ops were very patient, and eventually we worked the ancient systems of T6. The show was quite emotional, due to the subject matter, and it has made me think seriously about war, rather than just the numbers behind the deaths - they are people too. Which is very interesting. I loved the cast for this play - we went out for a few meals all together, to pasta place, and a breakfast place and to an ice cream place: it was very much fun!! I don't think i will miss this play, but i will miss the people - luckily, i see most of them quite a bit, so everything is ok!

In Playwriting i have started writing a play about agoraphobia. It is really difficult, but a fabulous challenge, and i am enjoying it!!! I hope that i will finish it, if not this semester, during the Christmas break. It has the potential to be great, but i don't know if i will reach that level! The rest of my classes are going well, but I have lots of group assignments, which is pretty tough with my schedule! We are creating a piece in Storytelling about childhood and seperation - i have a very different group for this, but hopefully we will eventually work together and make it work! We made puppets for Theatre in Elementary Education - mine was called Penelope, and was very noisy - she wore a pink dress with green frogs on it and is very cool! Stage Management classes are great as normal - getting one on one tuition is always fantastic, and i am learning so much!

Tomorrow, i leave for Central Michigan University for the GLACURH conference - i am so excited to get away from Milwaukee and experience some proper American cheesiness! I have to dance like a gangster pirate to songs such as 'Beat it' and 'We're all in this together' from High School Musical - i keep forgetting the dance and going the wrong way, so i am likely to make a fool of myself! Buttt i am excited to meet people from all over this part of America and learn some more about leadership - we have been making displays and boards for it for a while with 'puffy paint' and glitter and all kinds of exciting things, so i hope it will go fabulously!!! I will keep you posted!

I am definitely going back to the UK for Christmas from the 21st/22nd of December to the 12th January - i am very excited! I have also booked my flights to Canada for American Thanksgiving - i love being able to get away from Milwaukee and see the rest of America, as good as it is here!

I have also just taken on another small stage management project - it is a rehearsed reading of a new work by a 'nationally acclaimed' playwright, working with professional actors! It is next week, and i am very excited to be working with such exciting people in a place where i have to practice a more professional style of Stage Management -funtimes!!!

Anyway, i will write again soon - i hope to hear from you guys soon!

Ciao ragazzi xxx

Show is over, another show begins!

Me (ASM), Meredith (PA) and Colin (SM) = the most awesome tech team ever!!

So, things have been pretty busy since the last time i updated (when are they not?!?!) and, i have officially done my first show in America!!! My life has been filled with theatre and rehearsals and tech and dress and performances, so things have been more than a little crazy! But, i have loved it - almost every single minute of it, apart from when i was deathly bored backstage, or when a stagehand was driving me crazy! Things were a lot more formal here, but i did almost everything right, and i didn't get shouted at once! It was the calmest, quickest, least eventful tech i have EVER had in my entire life - it was so refreshing after other technical processes i have recently been involved in, which was such a relief! I like stage management now!!!! I was working with the best team ever, so good that it was even better than my team for Lieutenant of Inishmore, although my stage hand team was a lot better for Annie than for this, the rest of it was great! Everyone kept putting on posh english accents, which was pretty hilarious, and there are always so many in-jokes that are amusing - we want to write a musical about backstage, with a romantic number called 'I'm only a headset away' and other funny things! I am REALLY going to miss WIDLS (i'm already missing it!), and the people involved in it - i just hope we all stay in touch!! Smashing!

During tech week, for my playwriting class, i wrote a scene about backstage, which was fun! We are having to do quite a lot of writing now for playwriting, which is cool, and i think i am starting to get into it :-) - at first i found it quite difficult, but i think its beginning to come more naturally! I keep leaving homework stupidly to the last minute though, which has resulted in some VERY late nights and lack of sleep, which i have GOT to stop doing! It is hard to keep on top of everything though, which i suppose is part of the fun of it! I am enjoying doing things like lesson plans for Theatre in Elementary education, although i am missing quite a few of the lessons due to tech and shows - it makes me think that teaching could eventually be a possibility, if it has to be! I'm not sure i could ever be a professional stage manager, so it may have to be! For storytelling, i recently had my midterm exam where i had to stand up in front of the class and tell a 7 minute story. It was completely and utterly nerve wracking, and i'm not sure if i enjoyed it or not (it's all a bit of a blur!) but i got a good mark for it, which was good! Most of my grades are very high at the moment, so hopefully i will be able to keep that going!

Paradise, my other show, is going into tech this week. This show is completely different than WIDLS, in the sense that we are all students, so i think tech week is going to be an interesting experience. I will be cue-ing using hand signals, which will be hilarious, and running tech will be interesting - i just hope it is easier than i am imagining! I'm really going to get on top of paper work in the next couple of days, so then i can have a head start in being organised. I seem to be giving a reasonably good impression at the moment with my skills, so i'm not worried. I'm also trying to get a headstart with my homework, as it always seems to be pushed to the back of my mind when shows are concerned!!

I had a meeting for the leadership conference last night, which is amusing! It is going to involve a lot of chanting, some dancing/doing a skit on stage and a lot of spirit activities, which will be very funny. I'm looking forward to it, although it is a little daunting!

I am definitely going to Canada for American Thanksgiving! I am so excited!!!!

I am still in love with America, very much so, although i am almost definitely going to go home for christmas, as i feel it would be the right thing to do. It just hits me sometimes how lucky i am to be able to experience all these things, and have so many exciting things to do, and lovely people to meet and stuff. I'm just lucky, i guess!

Anyway, i better go to rehearsals now,

Ciao ragazzi xxx

Getting busy!

Me, Jess and Jana at with the Panther - UWM's Mascot

So, another chunk of time has gone by, and I need to update!!! Things, as always, are going fabulously, and I am still totally in love with America – I think if there were going to be problems, it will be when it gets bloody cold (its starting to get chilly now!), but at the moment, I still just love what I am doing over here, and all the new stuff I get to do and everything! The majority of the time, I am happier here than I was at Kent – and I was pretty happy at Kent! There have been quite a few people this year that have dropped out of being in America, and I can’t even imagine doing that – anyone thinking of doing a year abroad should DO IT!!!

So, what have I been up to? Not a lot it seems, apart from rehearsals!!! The schedule is intense, and it is still the balance of boring and fun, but it is bordering on the so much fun and will be sad when its over part now – I think I’ll miss the social side more than anything, but hopefully that will continue! Tech week is next week, and i am a little bit worried about it, because its quite formal here, and i'm worried i will have done something wrong or something, and people will shout at me - but, as i'm still learning over here, i will have lots of supervision, so that is good. The only bad thing about being in rehearsals all the time is that i have to eat at Palms (or nowhere on Fri and Sat nights as nothing is open!) which only really serves fast food - it feels like i am poisoning my body a little bit. C'est la vie. I try and balence it out by going to the free gym every so often! In other news, I have just taken on another play, this time as Stage Manager! Its called ‘Paradise’ and I’ve got my first meeting tomorrow, so I am looking forward to that – soon I will be as busy as I was in Kent, and it will be fabulous!! Classes are still going pretty well – I got some well good marks for my last assignment, over 100% (:-P) which isn’t physically possible, but still! It made me happy! Maybe this year i have a chance of getting a 2:1 or first after all! Although, being snowed under with homework really isn't that much fun!

I have still been doing some exciting stuff! Last weekend i met up with some of my friends from Leadership camp (and John), and we went out for food, and played funny board games, then went out for ice cream, then rented Sweeney Todd and watched that - it was so much fun! Ice cream over here is AMAZING, and the ice cream shops are even better! I wish they existed in the UK! Hopefully i will meet up with them again soon, although my schedule has just got crazy, so my social life is going to have to wait a little bit (gahh!). Tomorrow (Saturday) i have a day off, so i am going to go round to my friend Meghan's house and we are going to cook savoury pancakes and something sweet, which is very exciting, as i haven't been able to cook since August! Its surprising how much i miss it!

I am starting to become neutralised to the American accent - i no longer can tell when people are speaking with one!! It is really wierd - it didn't take long for it to become normal! I haven't really managed to pick it up, apart from the odd word - i am never calling Candy 'Sweets' ever again!! I have found that my structure of speaking has changed a little too - although it is said that if you talk to someone, you imitate the way they talk so that they understand! Many, many conversations i have had are centralised on differences and simerlarities - today we had the ladybird/ladybug discussion, which was funny!

There are a couple more exciting things coming up for me in the near future! On 13th-15th November i will be representing UWM as part of a leadership team at a leadership conference in Michigan! I am very excited about this, as it means i will be able to visit a different state, and meet people from all accross the 'Great Lakes' part of America - and do fun things for a weekend too! Although it does mean squeezing it in to my very tight schedule, i think things will be ok! Also, this week, i am going to visit a local milwaukee children's theatre company, one of the biggest in the mid-west, with the possibility of being a teaching assistant and gaining some work experience with them, which is very exciting! I might have a meeting with them tomorrow, which i am definitely looking forward to! If not, i will be meeting them later this week! They want to hear about my experiences in the UK too, so that is a little bit exciting - finally, some children's theatre to learn about and enjoy, rather than just the methods class i am doing! The final exciting thing is that i am hoping to go to Canda on 24th-29th November - YAY!!! That has yet to be finalised, but i will definitely be going at some point!

Anyway, i better go now, its probably time for me to sleep, or do some more work, or something crazy like that!

Ciao Ragazzi xxx

Time flys by

Me, Grace, Kayleigh, Austin, Eric, Sam and Courtney at Camp!

Time is flying by so quickly! Yesterday, it was exactly a month, since i have moved here, to the wonderful America, and in some ways it doesn't feel like i have been here any time at all - in others, it feels like i have been here for my entire life. In other news, i actually LOVE it here. This may all change in 3 months or so, but for the moment, i think it is going to be incredibly difficult ever to leave - unfortunately, it is a degree requirement for me to leave and go back to England for the 4th year of my degree, but i think i will be reluctant to do it. The teaching in the UK will frustrate me, as it will be back to childs-play and nothing more serious, whereas here, i love the way things are taught. OK, we are skimming the surface a bit, and i am taking no real theory modules (Jess M says these are apparently a little bit rubbish), but they are so amusing, and in different ways, challenging - i find it hilarious that in lessons people clap and cheer and laugh when something good happens, or someone says something intelligent - its so funny! I have had to do some pretty rediculas tasks - i was the tortoise in a 3 minute version of 'The Hare and the Tortoise.' I had to sing out in public and chose 'We're breaking free' from HSM to sing in the elevators hahahaha that was fun! I've had to read ooodles and ooodles of pages and make intelligent comments at them online. And then there is stage management, which i am both loving and hating at the same time - love the people i am working with, and getting to know everyone, hating the fact that it is 4 hours every evening cept saturday and monday, and all day on Sundays and that there is nothing for me really to do, as i am ASM - just tracing the props and stuff. Everything is super formal here though, so that bit is a wee bit scary!! Machinery, as normal, hates me to huge degrees - computers break at the meer sight of me, and yesterday an electronic pencil sharpener tried to murder me/the pencils i was trying to sharpen - it was very funny, but i am never using one of them again!! It is nice to be working on a production where so many other people are involved in proceedings - the set is up already, the props are all done etc - its so low stress, its lovely! I'm sure stress will happen soon, but now is not the time, yay!! There have been other exciting things that have been happening too - last weekend i went away to a 'Leadership retreat' aka CAMMMMPPPPPP!!! As camp is my fave place in the world, this was an awesome weekend! I went boating on the lake, and on a low ropes course (being lifted like over 6ft in the air through a hole in a rope by a bunch of people was scary times!!) and watched a high ropes course, and did all sorts of fun 'leadership' activities - we stayed in a little wooden cabin (there were about 7 of us in there) and we were late for everything lol... but we made very cool friendship bracelets, yay!!! It was brilliant to escape milwaukee for a bit and to have some stress-free fun!!! I have been snowed under with homework a little this week (they give you so much work to do, it is completely insane) but it has been a positive experience, although having little sleep has been less fun! I am trying, from now on, to look at the simerlarities rather than the differences between here and the UK - i have spent much time looking at the differences, and i'm not sure that that is productive in a way... today, though, i found out they call full stops 'periods' which amused me for quite a long time! It makes that american catch phrase make perfect sense though!!! The only thing that is making me a bit frustrated atm is my lack of volunteering work and being able to help others/work with kids. I am so used to doing this all the time, and i really really miss it. Its one of the only things i miss, and i think i am going to have to find a way to change this - the volunteering centre couldn't help me out much :-( buttttt they did give me a good website address, a place where one-off volunteering opportunities are posted, so that was positive. I am going to look around to see what opportunities i can personally find, but because i'm not here long-term, its difficult! Another thing that has happened to me recently is i haven't been 100% well - the doctors here, which i have been to twice already, is quite an experience - but, i have found, i far prefer it to the UK, as here they do seem to actually care about your personal wellbeing, unlike in England (although, they care so much that you tend to have to spend over an hour there - its a big chunk out of a day!)!! I have a bunch of tests done, but i am still a medical mystery, so i am just hoping it all goes away by itself - i will keep you posted lol! Anyway, thats all from me, i better get some homework done, before i go sit in rehearsals for 4 hours, yay! (although we made fence posts today after production meeting with like cardboard tubes, wood, and a drill - it was fun! Not as fun as making the headless cat though!!!)

Ciao ragazzi xxx

Classes, Stage Management and other busy things!

Jess and Zamna sunbathing outside the dorms

So, this week the main thing that has happened is classes have officially started! As the addition of 'school' work normally does, living in Milwaukee is starting to feel a lot less of a holiday and more of a place to live now - but it is a lot better this way! My first class, Storytelling, was on Wednesday. It was a little bit intimidating, and the classes here are quite intense, in my experience so far (maybe i just picked the wrong classes though!) but very enjoyable - it is nice being treated like an adult with valid ideas in class, rather than just a pupil who is not 'educated' enough to have their own opinion, like it can be in the UK. My Stage Management class is also interesting and i have very much been included in the 'fold' of that! I am the only one in my class, so i get my own private tuition, which is perfect as everything here is so so different to in England! There are so many new words to learn and new processes to go through that it is a little bit like starting from scratch again - so frustrating!!! I am ASM-ing 'What I Did Last Summer' this term, a brilliant American play that i think i am going to like a lot :-) The Stage Managers here are very welcoming - i helped out at auditions on Friday and Saturday, and I have been doing some meetings and things. This play rehearses every evening 6-10pm apart from Sundays, so until the end of October, things are going to be very stressful!!! College work has to come first, but this is a semi-professional play, so this has to be pretty high on my priorities too! I am also trying to become a member of SHAC, to help fight for older and international students living in student accomodation lol, so we are not treated like children so much!!! I have done some other exciting things since i last spoke - i have 'joined' the free gym, and am trying to work out as much as i can fit into my schedule! So far, i have been twice, cycling and cross trainer, and i haven't died, so thats a good thing, definitely! I'm going to try to keep it up, although it is boring it is good for me, and that is the main thing! Also, we went to Mayfair mall shopping - we got SOOOO lost on the busses, but it is a really cool mall - i bought two t-shirts and a jumper from American Eagle, which i am very excited about - and it only cost me $40, which is barely anything at all! Oh, i also started my 'Theatre in Elementary Education' class today, its hardcore because they are all training to be teachers and i am not, but i am sure it is going to be really good! Anyway, until next time,

ciao ragazzi x

The first real update!

Jenny, Zamna, Me and Yuki near Milwaukee Art Museam


And i am here!!!! I would have updated sooner, but i kept going to do it, and then things got terribly busy or i'd get distracted - and there is always so much to say!!! America is like sooo much less scary than i ever thought it would be - i seem to have settled in very quickly, things are sometimes a bit up and down, but other than that, it is all going very smoothly indeed! My flight was pretty nasty - it took like a million years, i almost missed a connection because one of my flights was in late, my hip was very painful, and THEY LOST ONE OF MY BAGS (and broke the other one!) - ARGH!!! Said bag turned up last night, 4 days after i arrived - and boy, it was pretty interesting living without toiletries, underwear, tops and pyjamas when trying to make decent first impressions! However, it is all ok now - they broke some of my make-up on the way over, and i will def be writing them a complaint letter and not flying with them again (yucky iberia) unless they give me free flights or something! No one else should fly with them either!!! There has been so much going on that it is hard to keep track of!! One of the main differences between here and England is how processed the food is, and how rediculasly unhealthy - even the Americans know it, and it is very clear why some may be overweight!! It has been very difficult to get food, as the cafeteria opens at wierd times, and everything seems to be some sort of sandwich, but today i bought some rice and stuff, so i will be able to have a normal meal soon, YAY!!!! I now have a room-mate - her name is Katie, and we sorta got off on the wrong foot from the beginning, but i am hoping things are going to get a little better from now on once we establish some kind of rules - she is 17, and the girls here tend to be quite young it seems, but i hope at some point we will find something in common that we can chat about :-) I have been doing some brilliant things during the day, like going to Milwaukee Public Museum, the beach, downtown, 'Wal-mart' and other cool places, just starting to get a grip on America! Also, i have met so many nice people so far - the RA's are soooo nice, i know a few of them now, as are the other international students, we all get on very well! However, i can't wait for the course to actually start, because then i can meet people of my own age, and do mature things!!! I had the nicest greeting from the airport, the girl who met me took me out for soda and told me a lot about the area and stuff - i have been really lucky with the Americans i have met - everyone has been super friendly :-) Anyway, i better go now, i want to see if i can meet some more people!!

ciao ragazzi xxx

Pond-Hopping!

So, in 24 hours (ish) i will be in America!!! It seems i have been planning this for years, and it is so exciting that it is actually happening, finally! I have two suitcases packed and ready to go, along with all the important documents that i think i'll need, but i am certain i must have forgotten something. I'm just hoping it is nothing important! I am leaving around 4am tomorrow to get to the airport for my first flight at 7.25am to Madrid, then to Chicago, then to Milwaukee! It doesn't quite seem real yet, and until i am in the country i am sure it won't sink in! I am looking forward to starting the course over there (its been a long time since i've had to learn something, and the stuff over there looks pretty exciting (GEEK!)) and exploring a new place, and meeting some new people - I'm sure, at times, it may be a little bit challenging, and the culture shock is going to be big i am certain, but it is also going to be great! Anyway, i will message again when I am over there -eeeeeeek!!!!!

Ciao ragazzi xxx