Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Stratford-upon-Avon-upon-Brussels




  Again I'm terribly behind with the posting! A couple of weeks ago, around the...14th of the month, I think, there was a class trip up to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of one William Shakespeare. The trip was two days long, and actually pretty entertaining. Stratford is a charming little town, and is also the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).
  While in Stratford, my fellow acting students and I enjoyed the sites, the pubs, and a couple of productions at the RSC- King Lear, and Romeo & Juliet. Lear was a bit on the dull and overly-long side, but R&J was fantastic. Both productions were elaborately staged and had some very bold choices, especially R&J. It was amazing seeing the RSC perform.
  After returning to London for a night, I was back to my old routine of weekend trippery. This time, we boarded the Eurostar and headed over to Brussels, Belgium.
  Brussels was beautiful, and had amazing food EVERYWHERE. It's one of those spots that would fatten me up something fierce if I lived there. The sights were amazing, my favorite being the Grand Place. Funny enough, we ate a lot of sushi there, because we found an amazing sushi bar. Besides the good quality of the food, I also very much enjoyed having my food brought to me on the freight cars of a model train that ran around the length of the bar. Yes, I am ten years old.



  Come on. That's f'in awesome. I want all my meals brought to me on model trains from now on.
  As is the problem with me not getting to the blogs quick enough- I have glossed over many, many amazing details and fantastic stories of things I experienced and saw. Simply put, dear reader, there just isn't time to go into it. I'm just not able to find time in this insanely busy schedule to expand on the details of these trips as I would like. For now, you'll just have to settle for pictures and let them speak for me.
  You can find pictures of the Stratford-upon-Avon trip HERE and pictures of Brussels HERE. Enjoy!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Rome, if you want to



  Last weekend, we went to Rome (that's in Italy, geography dummies) and fought with the lions and gladiators. Okay, I made the last part up, but the Rome part is true, and so is the Italy part, and so is the going there part.
  It was a quick weekender again, but there was a LOT of sightseeing and delicious food. The food was so amazingly good that I'm starting to doubt that the folks back in the United States know how to make any kind of food at all. Europe is spoiling me with all its fine cuisine. Yep, you can say it. I'm becoming a Euro-snob. Trust me, it's easy.
  Having never been to Rome, I only had an inkling in my brain of what to expect, and I was totally blown away. As with Paris, I was amazed at what a beautiful city it was. Granted, there were trashy things about it, as there are in a lot of European destinations- but the architechture, the history, the visual feast- it was overwhelming. Stepping out of the Metro and seeing the Roman Colosseum right in front of me was breathtaking.
  We put in quite a lot of walking time, and rushed from destination to destination but still missed a lot. Though we visited Vatican City, we missed the Sistine Chapel! We did get to go up in St. Peter's Basilica, though, which was indescribably beautiful. I took pictures, but they will never do it justice. The immense scale of the place and the ornate and intricate beauty of it all has to be experienced first hand. If you're ever in Rome, drop by.
  So, yeah, there will likely be a return trip, though I think the next planned Italian destination will likely be Venice. We are also taking a trip back to France soon, so stay tuned for that.
  School? What school? Yeah, there are a TON of things I could blog about school. There have been some amazing projects I've worked on: dance pieces, musical theatre performances. Material for the upcoming showcases in New York and Los Angeles. Working on "Where I Want to Be" from Chess for my singing rep. There's a lot going on. I have just been much more apt to blog about all the amazing weekend travels I've been experiencing. That's much more interesting, gentle reader, is it not?
  Please click HERE to go to my FLICKR page and check out some photos of ye olde Rome. Beauty, beauty.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Scotland!



  Yes, yes, this blog entry is very late. The insanities of a drama school schedule will do that to you.
  About three weeks ago, a couple of LAMDA lovelies and myself took a weekend trip to Edinburg, Scotland and had a hoot of a time. Edinburg was a beautiful city; very picturesque and charming, and full of friendly folk with awesome accents that I wanted to just sit and listen to over and over. Bagpipers played on practically every other block, so the air was always full of that cultural sound. In one pub, we friended a couple of locals, one of whom bore a crazy resemblance to Sean Connery. He and I had a long talk about acting/performing over a couple of glasses of wine. Meanwhile, his buddy charmed my two companions over a flask of whisky. Devilish!
  We took a tour of the "Real Mary King's Close," which was a walk into the old underground sections of the city. Super creepy and claustrophobic. One of the facts about it that stands out in my mind was the fact that some of the walls were constructed of human cremation ash and horse hair. Outdo THAT, Bob Villa.
  We also took a brief tour called the "Whisky Scotch Experience," where we learned all about the makings of that beverage and then got to sample a few varieties. For the second time in my life, I was exposed to whisky, and for the second time, it didn't agree with my palette. Sorry, Whisky. The thousands-of-bottles collection on display was really impressive though, and we had a great time taking pictures on the rather kitschy Disney-esque ride through the "factory."
  We crammed a lot into our two days, including the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, The Grass Market, a late night half-mountain climb of Holyrood, and quite a bit of good food and drink. One of the highlights of the trip was our first night there when we were having trouble finding any food after arriving so late. We eventually stumbled across a Chinese takeaway place and ordered a metric ton of grub, but had nowhere to eat it. Back at the hotel, there was nowhere to go except our rooms. I tried my room key in the lock of the hotel's dining room door, and we gained access. Being the late-night-dinner rebels that we were, we broke into the dining area and used one of the tables (which were already set for tomorrow's breakfast service), in the dark, to eat our feast. The next morning, we came down to breakfast and ate at the same table. One of the hotel's owners, a grey mop-haired lady with a thick Scottish brogue asked us, "So, did you finally find something to eat last night?" I'm sure the guilt was all over our faces.
  We had an amazing time and laughed the entire weekend, even though we were continually stalked by Fluffy McFluffers, Scotland's leading cat private-eye. You can't prove anything, McFluffers.

Click HERE to be whisked away to my FLICKR page, where you can view a few photos of the trip. Enjoy!