giving thanks

I am thankful for the Partonus charm, Innocent smoothies, and thermal underwear.
I am also thankful for cups of hot chocolate, snowfall, and Glee;

on a more serious note, I'm thankful for:
-my family,
-all my new friends that Ive been so fortunate to meet in this brilliant city,
-my friends at home that stand by me and put up with all my crazy,
-all my past friends that have helped shape me into who I am today. they've taught me how to love, how to feel, and how to cry. ive learned more from them than anyone else and I attribute so much of myself to them. Even though we're no longer in touch, I love so many of them and I take them with me everywhere I go.
-the opportunity to live in London and explore not only new parts of the world, but new parts of myself.
-theatre and the purpose it brings me
-and all the little things that make me smile throughout the day.

Thanksgiving away from home is a challenge to say the least. Everyone here is struggling not being home. this morning I was super depressed and cursing out the world. No one should have to go to school til 6, followed by work til 10 on Thanksgiving day.
I was standing outside the tube station and noticed some flurries whiz past my face and my whole day instantly turned around. It reminded me to be thankful of what I have and to try and make the best of my last 3 weeks in London.
Tonight after work, youll find me in the Famous Cock with the bros drinking to all the fantastic things we've experienced in these past few months.
Let Jack Daniels be my turkey substitute.

iAMsterdam

So the kids and I took a 4 day vaycay from Londontown to experience the fine culture of Amsterdam.
after a train, a bus, a 40 min plane, a train, and a real life TROLLEY we arrive in the amazingly bizarre capital of the Netherlands.

Advice to all travelers: Amsterdam is great for 2 days. 4 is plain excessive.
Despite visiting the Heineken brewery, the Van Gogh museum, Bols Museum, and various other sites, the city felt very small.
Its not the prettiest city in all of Europe but its definitely the strangest. Its super tiny, and theres more trolleys than cars and you dont drink coffee in coffee shops, and the ladies that stand in windows run the town. and dont even think about asking for tap water cause they dont have any.
oh, and theres a reason for the stereotype of the freakydeeky Dutch language "fleegen floggen flugen fleegen." it ACTUALLY sounds like that.

I did find some pretty epic shoes, tho! Gagalicious. I love the ones with the vertebrae.

The fashion was surprisingly amazing. It all felt so much more modern than the Victorian feel of London fashion. After not having coffee in a coffee shop, I went wild in an H&M and bought everything in site. Such awesome product.

But all you really need for a good time is the two crazy cats that are in the proceeding videos.
 First: an audio of how wild Jillian is, backed by the evocative images of puppies and such.

I've been possessed by the spirit of Jillian's dog. I've embodied Stella and actively keep Jillian warm at night just as Stella would.

and finally, another fine performance by Jillian Waldron.

VLOG!

Throwing myself off a cliff and living to speak about it...

My friends and I booked a trip to Wales to go cliff diving. What ever possessed us to do that? I have no idea. BUT, its been my favorite thing that I've done so far.

6 hour train ride, and several treat trolly's later ("Want anything from the trolley my dear? Ill take the lot!") we arrive in Haverfordwest, which none of us still can pronounce.

Let me start off by saying, Welsh is an interesting language. The letters and the words dont correlate in the slightest bit. There's just too many consonants. But my Scandinavian streetwalker friend, Jill, fit right in. It sounded like her native language.

........................

hallelujah, cmon get happy!

Ive been slacking this week on the blog! Lots to include. lets see how concise I can be.

Art:
In the past week, I went to The National Gallery to visit the Renaissance collection,
and The Wallace Collection for their Dutch Genre paintings and Rococo art.

Fashion:
I went to the Globe Theatre and was part of a costume demonstration.

Meow. This is exactly what purchase needs: a Victorian drag queen. Id put all of those other bitches to shame. Watch out Fall Ball!

a day in the life.

European Travelers note:

When you put you're debit card into a machine, dont get all excited when the money comes out and run away because you haven't got your bloody card back yet! Wait for it, c'mon, wait for it. Ok, now take it and go.

I've lost my debit card twice in this fashion already because I overzealously took the money and ran to my nearest pub/shopping destination. 

I know this sounds like complete bollocks, but I HAVE to emphasize how amazing the weather has been.
We've had 5 beautiful days in a row now. Blue skies, crisp air, and sunshine. Unheard of in this city.
Its helping compensate for missing fall. Cause its nothing like a New York fall.

but when the weather is nice like this, I like to get lost off the main road,
into the smaller neighborhoods, where theres more trees, and leaves to scuffle on the ground.

I think about living here after school. Totally plausible.
With things going so well at the King's Head, I might find a paid position pretty easily.
We have a press night on Thursday to introduce Opera Up Close, at the King's Head, London's first new opera house in 40 years.

I totally could do this forever. Last night I comped all my friends tickets. I LOVE being able to do that. so VIP. We saw Showstoppers: An Improvised Musical. It was absolutely brilliant. The actors were so talented. They story was so coherent for something that was made up on the spot. I could swear that one of the actors was Patti LuPone. Spitting image. Exact facial expressions, mannerisms, and voice. I pretended it was her to whole time. gay dream.

Speaking of gay dream, I got lost in a bookstore yesterday. I went in with a few friends and they were looking for something specific, so I sat down to relax cause we had been walking all day. I looked up from my chair and was staring at the fine art section. It was only seconds before I was compelled, no, forced like a magnet, into a world of Bauhaus theory, White and the use of Negative Space, Japanese Aestheticism, and a photo-chronicle of the collections of Alexander McQueen. I could've been there all day.

I haven't quite missed home much, but that bookstore made me miss Purchase. I need to be filling my brain with theory and history all the time! This "semester off" is intellectually unsatisfying thus far. But its too early to complain, we're only in our second week of classes.

Glitter and Grease

Week two of my London invasion has been a success.
Classes are awesome. Im taking Theatre Skills, Theatre in London, and Computer Software and Hardware Architecture.

For Theatre in London, you basically go see 11 shows over the course of the semester which is everything i need and more.
The theatre skills class is my favorite though because, believe it or not, most of us on a daily basis have little to no interaction with Londoners. And due to the nature of a acting class, I get to form close relationships with people that actually live here. what a concept.

I also started my internship at the King's Head Theatre. I hold the title of box office manager and worked 5 days this week. I promised myself I wouldnt work that much but my excuse for the first week is that we just opened a production of Barber of Seville and so they needed extra hands.
Its pretty legit, I get to work on managing ticket sales, sending daily updates to the producers, and managing the website. Ive already earned a set of keys, an email address (anthony.russo@kingsheadtheatre.com) and free ale in the pub downstairs on my breaks.
What more can a girl ask for?

Now on other note, this week I saw a cat on a leash, and I HAD to ask the guy if all london men keep their pussies locked up like that. He thought it the appropriate time to ask me for money.

Story of the week:
I was showering on an average Wednesday morning when the fire alarm went off, I got freaked out, fell out out of the shower, whacked my head on the toilet, and laid on the cold wet ground, naked,  for 5 minutes crying that the world was ending.
fantastic.

The appropriate inappropriate Photo-log of the week:
(after the jump, naturally)