Cool blogger Girl writes in British coffee shop

I write this blog post from the Caffe Nero behind Liverpool Station.

I realize that thus far, the blog posts have been pretty superficial; for those interested, I'll have a post that's more in-depth about the actual classes at the end of this week. 

Girl goes adventuring with her oyster card, Caffe Nero loyalty card, and Boots Pharmacy advantage card!  She feels like such a resident!

                                      

 I now have seven contacts in my phone! Wheee!

Inside one of the studios.

David.

I am here because I just finished an Alexander Technique appointment. This is a very "high-rise" part of town; it's one of the main business areas. It's quite busy, but not necessarily in the tourist-friendly way, which made for quite an adventure as I clutched my massive Jansport bag to my side whilst holding my directions whilst taking pictures with my camera so I can be less of a miserable blogger whilst balancing my umbrella. 

Because it was raining. 

On Girl's adventure down Liverpool Street.

Brits trying to get all American country. Girl was tempted to join them, but  didn't have the time.

Plus, I was walking amidst a crowd of mostly very well-dressed individuals. I was wearing my tennis shoes, gym pants, and Dad’s old sweater. Hot dog!

Girl creeps on crowd.

The extra-snazzy lobby of the Longcroft House, where the Alexander lesson was.

Girl felt out of place in  this clean room. She had been rolling on floors all day.

I landed at the Caffe Nero to use my awesome blossom Caffe Nero punch card, which is mostly filled up due to my family's trip here in March. Thanks, Mom!

A look inside the school

No big stories from today, but some pictures!

This evening, we went to see One Man, Two Govn’orsin the West End at the Royal Haymarket Theatre, which was utterly hilarious.

This course is going to be amazing, and challenging. My group (“S4”) is getting quite close already.

Patsy Rodenburg passed me in the hallway today. I nearly fainted. Okay, not quite, but I suddenly became immensely aware of the 2nd circle and breath support. We work with her tomorrow. :) 

Ooh ooh ooh check out my awesome video of the Guildhall Lobby! 

Inside the Guildhall Lobby

Other side of the lobby

Lysanne and Marina, from Holland and Canada, respectively

The Movement studio

Ida, Shabhum (sp?), and Cammi on our way to the show.

Classes commence

So, my plan was to have more pictures than words; however, I can’t really take pictures inside my classes all day long. It’s not like simply touring around.

But here's a picture of a very tired me in the dining hall area at Sundial Court (where I'm living). 

I will try to be brief with the words, though.

Day 1 of classes! Wahoo!

Here’s what the classes were today:

-Voice

-Mask

-Impro.

-Project (this is where we will work on scenes from the plays Twelfth Night and Closer)

The teachers are fantastic. My group has already made good friends with one another, and we even have tentative weekend plans!

 It’s so cool how international this program is, and what a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences are represented. Some students are studying drama, others hope to eventually get in to acting, but are studying other things in the meantime, and others still are taking this course just to see what’s up. I have met students from Belgium, Holland, Germany, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, among others, and, of course, there are plenty of students from the UK and USA.

As I write this, I am talking to a dude from Venice.

I am a little star-struck. I keep sitting here in my flat going: I wonder who’s lived in this room? Or visited? Did Michelle Dockery ever visit the room I’m living in? or did she ever live here? Was Orlando Bloom dating a girl who lived in my flat?
And at the school, it’s like with every new part of the building that I go into: Ewan McGregor probably had classes in this room! Carey Mulligan probably used this bathroom! 

I mean, you never know.

Day One

I got in this morning before 8 am.
I found my school, my flat, and got my phone to work, and found Bradford!
We played tourist, hitting up a pub and walking along the South Bank. We took a ride on the London Eye. This is my 3rd time in London, and I hadn't ridden on the Eye yet.
I love how international this city is.

We checked into our flats in the afternoon. We got our welcome packets, and it's all super exciting! We have classes in mask, acting, combat, period dance, voice (w/Patsy Rodenburg! be still my heart!), and more. I have already met some of the other students taking short courses here; some are from the UK, but others are from the US, Switzerland, Holland, and elsewhere. Some of the people taking courses are even a little older-- the minimum age is 18, but there is no maximum age.

I am exhausted, but excited for what is about to come.

Below are two shots: the inside of my flat, and the view from my window.

The real adventure begins tomorrow.

London/Scotland 2012

I am off to the UK for a month!
I am taking a short course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Acting Contemporary Drama and Shakespeare. My BSU buddy Bradford Reilly will be there as well.
Then, I'm going to Scotland for a week to take a course on the Isle of Skye in Acting Gaelic Drama. It's a bilingual course, and I know no Gaelic. This will be fun.

I'm super excited to be traveling again, and this time not so much as a tourist, but as an actual student. I wish I could study abroad for an entire year or semester, but the way my major is structured, it's really hard to make up acting studios out of sequence. But that's okay; I will just do a lot of mini-adventures, which is what I did last summer, and what I am doing now.

I am going to try to keep my blog updated over the next month.

There will be more pictures, I promise.

In the meantime, here are the links to the schools where I'll be:

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Sabhal Mor Ostaig

Donate so Others Might... Die?

The other day, Walgreen's had a philanthropy program at the checkout counter, where you could buy a candy bar that the store would donate to the Muncie Mission.
Since the bars were only 60 cents or so, I bought one and donated without thinking.
I would like to believe I was doing a good thing.
But was I?

I happened to be with two of my best friends, who are officers in the Students for Responsible Consumerism club... obviously, we often talk about how our buying habits and our monetary support of multinational corporations (or the farmer's market) adversely impacts our world (or positively, if you're talking about the farmer's market).

image from aft.org

Here are just two stats from the Fair Trade Federation about children and chocolate:

• 284,000 - number of children in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon working in hazardous tasks on conventional cocoa farms, according to a 2002 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture study directly involving 4,500+ producers.
• 15,000 - number of children aged 9 to 12 in the Ivory Coast alone who have been sold into forced labor on conventional cotton, coffee, and cocoa plantations, according to a 2000 US State Department report

So the question is: should I have bought that chocolate bar for the underprivileged children of Muncie, when that same chocolate company is exploiting thousands of children on the other side of the world?
Yet, often when we purchase inexpensive food, clothing, and utilities for others, we are purchasing products that have not been made using ethical practices-quite the opposite actually.

I want to help the needy of the community, but not at the cost of the well-being of global citizens. It's a thin line to walk, sometimes. It shouldn't be, but it is.

for more information:
http://www.fairtradefederation.org 
http://www.aft.org/about/world/democracy-humanrights/childlabor/cocoa.cfm
http://www.heifer.org

10 ways to change the world without leaving the covers (mostly)

I posted this on a friend's facebook wall the other day, but then I thought "why not make a blog post out of
this?" 

A lot of these ideas came from the book 365 Ways to Change the World by Michael Norton.

10 things you can do to change the world without leaving the covers:


(1) visit www.ideaaday.org 

(2) play www.FreeRice.com and feed people with your brilliance


(3) Read a write a letter to your Congress people about a cause close to
your heart 

(4) Go to www.thehungersite.com and click to feed a hungry person
(5) write Talley a love poem
(6) go to www.netaction.org/training and learn the skills of internet
 activism 
(7) write a 10-minute play that is about something so utterly
 ridiculous/controversial/absurd/deadly dull that 
people won't stop talking about it for days
(8) get someone to do a Tarot reading for you (it's not occult; it's just guided therapy and just makes you
think a lot about yourself as a person) 
(9) share a link to an article that really peaks your interest
(10) buy yourself a present from a fair trade website. I suggest www.tenthousandvillages.com