I guess I'll do one of those, "My Year In Review" things

I'm going to go back ever so slightly here though, take it back to around Christmas last year until now rather than almost new year.  Around Christmas last year I was packing my life up and trying to tie up any loose ends in my life in California.  Have you ever tried that?  I mean, have you ever thought about what you'd have to do to leave your country for an unknown length of time?  It's a bit overwhelming, I packed up my life and moved to the UK within two months of finding out I was going.  In retrospect I wish I had had more time to see my friends individually and I probably should have seen my grandparents.

Christmas last year was strange and oddly calm.  Rather than looking forward to presents I just hoped no one would get me anything I would have to leave behind.  I must say I was truly touched by the presents I got from two of my friends specifically.  They showed me that there were people who truly knew me and would sincerely miss me when I was gone.  Those three presents are in the room with me now here in London and they remind me I am loved (Tardis biscuit tin, The Big Book of Muppet Crafts and a tea mug that my friend has a match to so we can drink tea together).  I spent much of Christmas trying not to cry actually, from being scared or from how much I was going to miss everyone.  I knew that the minute I cried my parents would lose it, this was hard enough on them as it is.  It was great to see the friends I did see in December.  Our last Dnd session stands out to me, times I won't soon forget.  Then I saw Rockapella again, I got to tell them why I won't be seeing them as often.  They were so happy for me but I couldn't help but be sad when I left (and now as I type) the things we take for granted because they're so available.  Now I might be able to see them if I can get over to Germany when they're there, but I won't see them every year, maybe not even every other year.  They've been a part of my life for over half of my life and they are very dear to me, they always make me happy no matter what's going on.  I love them, and I don't mean as a band, I love them as people - as Scott said, they've watched me grow up.  They've given me so much, they don't have to, all they have to do is be cordial and sign my ticket or whatever but they care and have been so good to me, made me feel so special. 

Then I had the most awesome going away party!  I don't think I've ever held a party that was so well attended.  And of course only the coolest people were invited (if you weren't invited it was clearly an oversight).  Normally I don't go in for large parties, I value my friends and want to be able to pay real attention to them and not have to flit about being hostess - so when each person came in I sort of cornered them in the kitchen to be sure to get some one on one time.  Even people who were only able stop by for a minute, it made me feel so amazingly loved and so thankful for all my blessings.  It was also gratifying to see that Americans could take to apple pie served the British way, hot custard makes everything better (except maybe fish fingers).

Then I moved 6000 miles away.

I moved to an island I'd never stepped foot on into a house full of people I didn't know.  I'd mentioned before that every mile closer to Cardiff I felt that much closer to my doom.  It's funny what fear can do to you, how something that's merely a mental exercise can put you in knots.  I moved to Cardiff and everything was fine, I liked the people I lived with, I like my classmates, I liked my school, my instructors, Cardiff itself and these wonderful things they call seasons.  For seven months I was mostly too busy to be homesick (I did have a couple mild bouts) immersed in a world of theatre and meeting lots and lots of new people which of course helped a bit with my shyness.  I worked on some shows, went to sometimes hilarious lectures (thanks Andy) and got to work with some amazing people whom I cherish.

And just seven months after I moved in I moved out.  Suddenly I was living for a month in Edinburgh, once again in a place I'd never been only this time living with people I knew.  The Fringe is an amazing beast and I really want to work it this coming year.  It was the most difficult placement I've had, I felt alienated from the crew, it was an emotionally difficult time but a brilliant time as well. To be part of something like that, to experience a city overrun with theatre, where what I do isn't a novelty... I think that's part of it.  When I lived in Cardiff I was a novelty, not many Americans in Wales it seems.  Everyone I met, be it at a bar or college, wanted to know all about California and why on earth I'd leave LA county to come to Wales.  Seven months of the same five questions.  Even when I visited Claremont I was a novelty, "For a Limited Time Only - Liz Carr," only in Claremont at least they knew me, I repeated myself a great deal but I didn't have to explain who I was.  At the Fringe what I did was normal and where I'm from was hardly out of the ordinary.

Home to visit, three weeks with those I hold most dear.  My dear friends, I stand amazed at how blessed I have been.

Moved to another city I didn't know, but at least I'd been here.  Moved in once again with people I didn't know but I did know they were Christians so that helped.  This is the first time I've gotten to choose where to live.  London has so many accents I'd say that a lot of people hear I have an accent but don't really attach it to America, several times I've said something and compared it to my country and people ask where's that.  I less British accents than any other really - maybe that's because I live in that kind of neighborhood.  I've been trying to meet new people and have now joined two knitting groups.  The second one is with a group of ladies from Steph's church and they're fantastic.  They keep apologizing for being beginners but what I want are people I can talk to, it makes no difference to me how long they've knitted.

Christmas.  There are moment where I hate a large section of Christmas songs; I'll Be Home for Christmas, Merry Christmas Darling, Home for the Holidays and the like.  There's a Rockapella CD I couldn't listen to because they are all like that, torture.  I decorated my room and all but Christmas on your own just isn't awesome in any way.  And the season starts so early and goes on and on.  But I had the blessing of being invited to north Wales to stay with Sian's family for Christmas!  Took the train into Chester and they picked me up and took me straight to my first panto!

My first pantomime.  I'd been looking forward to it since January, seeing this cultural experience.  The only things I knew were either from hints from British friends or allusions to it on Monty Python.  What I wasn't prepared for was how talented the cast was.  It seems it's not enough for you to be a talented actor and singer, you also had to  be able to do a prat fall, play a musical instrument or three.  I swear all but three can play a saxophone it seems.  It was Sleeping Beauty (my favourite Disney princess) and we called the Dame "Taffy" (if you don't know what a Dame is you should look it up) and the kids in the audience shouted things at the stage and waved sticks with blinking lights inside (a bit like a colour changing light saber with no handle).  It was lovely, I look forward to seeing another next Christmas. 

The Woottons were just as lovely to me this time as the last time I visited.  Once again I slept in a big lovely bed in a room with a great view of the hills.  They do their Christmas stuff on Christmas eve and we went to Sian's Aunt's house and everyone made me feel at home.  We exchanged presents and had dinner and Guinness and it was divine.  Then Christmas day we had roast dinner and crackers (not the food) and then I had a fantastic nap.  Boxing day saw me building lego with Sian's nephews and the family likes me so much they've already invited me to two further family functions.  It's nice to be appreciated.

Now I'm home, I have a cold, but I look back on all my blessings and I couldn't even count them.  It would take ages and even then I'm sure I'd miss some - to have so many blessing I could forget one, I am truly grateful.  How great is our God, sing with me...

Unemployment

The placement at the Almeida was phenomenal.  I had so much fun running all over London, and going through pages and pages of research on things that are perfectly normal back in California.  Laura, Annique and Helen were all perfectly lovely and I look forward to visiting them on a matinee day.  The rest of the cast and crew were also great and I am so glad I was blessed enough to meet them.  On press night the lovely stage management team got me flowers and a poster signed by the cast.  It's funny, I got BIllie Piper's autograph and I didn't even have to ask for it - she still doesn't know I'm a Who fan.  She is also incredibly sweet, just so personable it would have been hard to feel nervous talking to her.  And after press night I found another example of chivalry in the form of a gentleman noticing I was looking for something and he walked me to the bus stop, sweet guy.

Now I'm unemployed and BORED!  Bored and broke, not the best combo, so I can go to any of the amazing free museums as long as I don't mind the walk.  So first I did the closest, The Imperial War Museum, which I wanted to see anyway.  Now however the museums I haven't seen are a two and a half hour walk away.  Don't get me wrong I've already done it once to see the Natural History Museum, but it's hard to convince myself to make it a regular thing.  I need to go out though, not knowing many people in London I end up home a great deal of the time and I need out.  My knitting has greatly benefited by this inactivity.  So far I finished a blanket I started a year ago, started and finished a Christmas Wreath, started my first pair of socks and made great progress in my K9 bag.

I haven't done nothing during this time though.  I found a church which makes me very happy.  It's great to be able to go somewhere and worship God each week, and I've met a couple people there as well.  Oh, and I went and saw Piff the Magic Dragon in Cardiff!  It was a cold, blustery day in Cardiff, raining on and off but it was great to see the place all done up for Christmas.  I also took the opportunity to rearrange some of the stuff in my storage unit.  Soon there shouldn't be anything in there anymore.  Piff was opening for The Pajama Men whom I had never heard of.  Needless to say he was great, I was apparently the only person in the audience who had seen him before and he carried that off in his slightly grumpy, understated way.  It was super weird though, I was sitting in a row entirely by myself - every other row was full.  It was quite strange.  Mr. Piffles was as majestic as ever, despite missing his entry cue, and read minds and cuddled with the audience participants to perfection.  The Pajama Men, how do I describe them?  When they first started I thought to myself, "What have I gotten myself into?"  They do these sketches that at first seem to be unrelated, from hospital scenes to aliens to time travel to cowboys, but then you begin to see how they fit and by the end you find yourself actually caring - don't ask me how they do it.  It was a bit dirtier in patches than I generally go for, but I must admit I enjoyed the show in all it's ridiculousness.  And I'm a bit partial to time travel anyway as most of you know.  Afterwards I gathered my courage and told Piff (cunningly disguised in roughly human form) how much I enjoyed his show and that I had seen him previously at the fringe.  I'm pretty sure it all came out in a rush, but hey, I was nervous.  Then he let me give Mr. Piffles a scratch, softest chihuahua I've ever met (and obviously the cutest - sorry Diamond!).   I think I did rather well considering my shyness, I feel pretty good about it.

I am going to north Wales for Christmas to stay with Sian again and I am super grateful as I'm finding Christmas time a bit hard being so far away from the people I love.  That means you guys and I wish I could be with you now.  I know that it's an amazing blessing to have this opportunity to be here and experience London and I know I'll find work, but knowing that this is where I need to be doesn't make me miss you guys any less. Think I'll watch Muppet Christmas Carol now.

Do I live in London?

I have a sneaking suspicion I do, South London actually.  I must admit it all seemed a bit like a holiday at first, living in a youth hostel, eating junk and reading and reading and reading.  Now I feel I live here, I have my own room and an oyster card and groceries and all those things that are part of just living.  I go into work each morning, I know where to stand on the platform to get the less crowded cars, I know not to speak to guys who ask me "You alright darling?" on the street and I am becoming quite familiar with the tube system as I have propped all over London.  You get a weird familiarity though, propping - I can tell you where the major sports shops are, also second hand bookstores and which ones have the best selection of classics, I can even tell you about the areas with the most flooring shops and if they sell vinyl tiles.  In the midst of my research I also looked up places more useful to me and plan to explore the markets and antique stores and charity shops (thrift stores).  London is no longer a holiday destination consisting of museums and more souvenir shops than is probable, it's a real place where you get necessities and go to work and all those everyday little occurrences.  I may even like London, they have Mexican food for one thing, it's so different from Cardiff but has its own character that I look forward to being friends with.

All that being said, I still need community, I need some eccentric people who like the Muppets, conversation and good food.  I'll find 'em, just need the patience.

Work and Housing

I don't live in a youth hostel!  I moved into a house on Sunday and it is certainly a relief.  I am living with a lovely lady named Steph who works at a church and a lady called Jennifer who works at a school.  They're both Christians which is nice since I don't work in an industry known for it's large Christian population and I miss the community.  I was very much reminded how much I miss that kind of community when I was in California for my visit and went to CCV again - gosh I love CCV.  I had dinner with my new housemates last night and it was lovely.  Getting my stuff from Cardiff to London is proving to be a bit of an ordeal, I'm taking the bus in (4 hours) and then getting a bit from my storage unit and then back on the bus the same day (another 4 hours).  So this is an all day event and will be encompassing several of my days but I have more time than I have money so this is the way it's gotta be.

I am now on my second week at the Almeida theatre, I am typing this out on my lunch break in the production office, and I am having a great quantity of fun.  The Stage Management team is all nice, Laura (CSM) and Anique (ASM) are way cool to work with and Helen (DSM) is funny although I see her less since she is in the rehearsal room.  I do get some of the little jobs, I wash a lot of mugs and fetch water and fruit and stuff, but I also help with the propping and get to go out to pick up the props and stuff  Now I know a bit more about London as well, so it's all a learning experience.  The show is set in the US so I look through endless pages of pictures of stuff that is everyday normal for me but is strange and foreign here.  How many pictures of bunches of keys do I have? 

life is strange and wonderful...

In Which London is Entirely Too Warm

I landed in London today, I had an amazing three weeks in California with some of the coolest cats ever. It was wonderful, I didn't have to make plans or sort things out, people just invited me places and then picked me up to take me to them.  It was magical.  Special thanks to Emily Versace who planned many of the events and even hosted a few - thanks Emily.  But then I could do a special thanks section that includes everyone who I saw in these last three weeks, everyone has been so great and I miss you guys already.  I hope when I visit next that it will be September again so that we can have International Talk Like a Pirate Day festivities and have a bonfire sing-a-long again and oh everything we did - we could just do those things again?  Although next year maybe we could do an afternoon tea?

So I had Tito's Tacos as my last Mexican food for a bit, it was a bit beyond delicious, and now I contemplate having a pizza downstairs in my youth hostel.  I must admit it feels a bit strange at the minute, I mean, I'm used to moving to the UK without a set address, but I'm not used to it be so ridiculously hot!  I left the desert, what gives?  I mean - it was in the eighties today! London, I'm afraid this is Fall and you're not holding up your end of the bargain, in this country we have seasons sir - get with the program.

So I mentioned I don't have a place to live yet, not to worry - the Lord has me covered.  I am in talks with a lovely lady who works at a church and I will be meeting her this weekend to see if this is the right place for me.  If not I will need to work on some other leads I have, which is far more than I had when I left for Cardiff the first time.  My placement starts Monday - so VERY excited!  For those who don't know, I am going to the Almeida, a lovely theatre with a great reputation and we'll be working on an American play so I can be all kinds of use to them.  Can't wait to get started.

Well, I should probably go find some food, stay up a few more hours then pass out from extreme tiredness.

I love you guys!!!

And Today's Fixation Will Be...

Okay, I admit it - I get these fleeting fixations on subjects that will preoccupy my mind for weeks sometimes and then slip from the top of my consciousness. I will always love these subjects but they only possess my mind in it's entirety for a bit.  Take the Muppets - I LOVE the Muppets, I will watch their movies or shows all day, if allowed, and am currently working on an amazing Muppet movie script with some of the most awesome people ever (I hope the new movie does well so the audience is there).  However, it will never take over my whole world as it did when I was getting the show on netflix.  I watched endless hours of interviews and special footage, I read large chunks of the muppetwiki site, I even looked into how hard it would be to get a job at the Creature Shop in London (very, very, exceedingly hard by the way).  But after that three week period, I only think about them in spurts.  Same thing has happened to me with Ardal O'Hanlon (why oh why did I watch every episode of Father Ted?), Hyperbole and a Half (a blog), Precious Metal Clay, Knitting (although I sustain this one better), and many other subjects that I have vast knowledge of for no real reason).

Today I will admit it's Magic.  I don't think I'd seen a magic show in around 5 years.  That's a long time for someone who's mother does magic and who was a clown and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.  The reason, or catalyst, for this recent fixation is Piff the Magic Dragon.  It was like the 1st or 2nd flyer I got up here on the first day of the festival and I knew I had to see it. I mentioned in last blog about the serious awesomeness of his act.  Looked into him as a person, inside dragon costume, and found he's also a proper legit magician (not that he didn't do real magic in his show - loved how he worked in cigarette magic which seems to be a dying art) by the name of John Van Der Put (not sure if it all is capitalized or not) and winner of magic awards and inventor of magic effects (check out VDP).  This has sparked the magic bug again.  I will be seeing a further 4 magic shows this week and I've been trying to catch up with what's happening in magic these days since I haven't paid too much attention since I stopped spot light op-ing magic shows around eight years ago.  It also is a great reminder that straight theatre is not the only job opportunity for a stage manager.

I will say this for my seemingly random fixations - I learn a lot of truly interesting information and it leads to interest in surrounding topics that I would not normally have looked into.  And I never really move away from the subjects, I love them all, and I look forward to greeting them like old friends.  I'd totally see Piff or Ardal again, and I can't wait to have time to make jewellery again and the Muppets are always with me - long live the fixations!

21 Days

So I visit SoCal (can't believe I called it that) in just a scant three weeks.  I shall be there for three weeks before moving to London.  I have not had my interview yet and I don't have a place to live and, you guessed it, it stresses me out.  I can't believe I will get to see your shining faces so soon :)  it will be amazing.

I saw Piff the Magic Dragon, supported by Mr. Piffles the first levitating chihuahua, live on stage on Monday.  Dude is a full grown man who dresses as a dragon to perform magic (not a kids show) and I was so excited to see him.  He opened with the cup and ball - no joke.  He was great, funny and had amazing eyebrows.  I think he's probably funnier the more you know about magic but even still I would recommend him to anyone.  I am lead to understand he also does straight magic but how can you go back to that after the amazingness of being a dragon?

So excited to see you all soon!

So We Open

It's completely bizarre to think that I have been here over a week.  I've been here a week and a half.  The first day we opened all the shows but one because of projector issues.  It was way less hectic than I thought it would be and the shows went on time.  We're doing eight shows a day at the minute.  Our biggest change over is from "Broken Wing" (with lots of flying pieces) to "Fragments of Ash" (with a floor cloth and five flats).  At the end of each show we lower all the set (apart from the flats) down a hole at the back of the room and lift out the next shows stuff.  I like the pit, it's got this neat basement sort of smell.

After our opening day we went over the another venue called the Pleasance to have a drink.  Whilst there were given free tickets to see a comedy show and, though it was very late and we had to be in at half eight the next day, we went.  Rich Halls Hoe Down.  He's an American, there are loads of them here now, and he told some jokes but mostly played comedy songs with the help of his country and western band.  Some of it was quite funny, and in general I liked him - but alas he sang a song involving Jesus and it's not really a laughing matter for me.  I've actually seen it so much and I do wonder why they can't just leave him alone?  Why is it that they can't find their comedy somewhere else?

"Fragments of Ash" got a four star review the other day and "Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary" got Five.  My favourite show at our venue, "Hotel De L'avenir." only got three.  It's not fair, they said such nice things about it in the review - why only three stars?  Caitlyn took over box office for me so I could run and go see "Piff the Magic Dragon."  It's this grown man who puts on a dragon suit to perform magic and levitates a Chihuahua (also dressed as a dragon).  It was sold out through Friday, I was gutted.  I did, however, buy a ticket for next Monday so all is not lost.  As a consolation I went and saw a show my friend Lewis was in and it was gorgeous.  It's called "Muscle" and it is brilliant.  It's about men, about being a man and the experiences they go through as fathers and sons.  It was beautiful.

Edinburgh is a lovely city.  It missed most of the bombing so it's wonderfully old.  I haven't toured the castle yet, or climbed Aurthur's Seat, but I've wandered the streets and it's a great city.  Been learning about my ancestry.  Apparently we (the family Kerr) are known for being Left Handed and our spiral staircases curve the oposite direction from everybody else's.  In case you are not awar, spiral stair cases are built so the defending men (coming down the stairs) can swing their swords freely whilst the attackers (coming up the stairs) keep hitting the center of the spiral.  We're from the border lands and were often Wardens of the Middle March.  We had couple long and bloody feuds (one was between two batches of Kerrs).  And we were absolutely split on the issue of Queen Mary.  Met another Kerr in a shop, I think she was left handed.

Love you and miss you all - see you soon!

The Beautiful Edinurgh Sunshine

It lasted about half an hour maybe.  Our church hall definitely looks like a theatre now.  We have a stage and seating and lights and everything.  We managed to get our hefty to do list done and are on track for focus and later on a rehearsal for Broken Wing.  I have been the one organizing the pit, which is a basement area that smells of earth and makes you feel more like your under a ancient castle than a church hall.  I love it down there, it's so cozy.  I've had two amazing jacket potatoes (baked potatoes) with baked beans and cheese - so very  good.  If you haven't discovered the wonders of British baked beans I highly recommend a trip to the British Emprium on Central in Montclair (across from The Hat) and trying it out.  Whilst you're at it try cheddar that isn't bright orange (Welsh for choice) and I promise you won't regret it.

Hello Edinburgh, and how are you doing this day?

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Edinburgh, after only seven hours in a van.  We listened to Daz's (one of my lecturers) occasionally strange music.  We did stop at s really nice rest stop that had barbecued burgers and a duck pond - so cool.  Other than that our ride up was uneventful.  My last weekend in Cardiff was a bit surreal, knowing it was my last couple nights in my cozy little house and my last days in that town I love.

So Shannon and I decided to commemorate it first by going to a bar we had been threatening to go to since probably week two - the Cathays Liberal Club.  It's this old man bar near our house.  The people who frequent it do so just as their fathers and grandfathers and probably great-grandfathers have done so, time out of mind.  They serve up the local Brains ale but I had a Guinness, as is my wont,  and we played the Beatles and Meatloaf on their, and I use the term loosely, jukebox.  We sang along and others joined in - it was magical.  We celebrated our last night by going to our local bar and getting dinner and then headed off to two of our favourite seedy clubs.  On these adventures we dragged poor American Joe.  American Joe is a student from Virginia who did an exchange program a year and a half ago and is now jumping into our Venue 13 team.  He's on my team actually.  He's been a pretty good sport about the things we've made him tag along to do, sweet kid.

I miss my house.  I hate that my stuff is in a storage unit on City Rd.  I can't believe that when I come back from visiting California I will be living in London and not my lovely Cardiff.  I'll just have to visit Wales often to get my fix.  And to clear my lungs, London had chewy air, like LA.  Luckily, first before I visit Claremont I will be camping in Pembrokeshire.  I miss camping and it's a part of Wales that I have not had the pleasure of seeing.  I miss my room, my overgrown back garden, my chip shop... sigh.

Our first day in Edinburgh has been great.  We unloaded, moved everything in and hung the truss, rigged the lights and Shannon and I got to organize this pit under the stage where we keep the props and set pieces for the shows.  We have this cute system for organizing tea for tea breaks, there's a chart showing how everyone takes their tea and a piece of electrical tape across the counter with everyone's name and their mug is right there so it's all set up so easily.  Tea breaks are a big deal here.

Gonna try to blog everyday whilst I'm at the Fringe - we'll see

Love you guys!

5 feet from Ardal O'Hanlon

This is kinda about British things (I know Ardal is Irish - keep cool, I'll explain).  I have now lived in Cardiff for 6 months. The house I live in feels like home, the food I eat seems normal and when it rains I don't complain or become discouraged - I just bring out the umbrella I carry everywhere, everyday.

When I got here there were a whole bunch of terms I was either unfamiliar with or knew but had never used.  So now I can say AJ instead of C-wrench, lighting desk instead of light board, torch in the place of flashlight, prompt book instead of prompt script and various other terms related to my work in theatre (like get in and get out instead of load in and strike).  But as I learned these things so that I could function properly in UK theatres other terms seeped into my everyday speech.  Word like - proper, "he is proper Welsh," calling people lovely - "how are you lovely?" and things like ending my statements with "to be honest" or beginning them with "to be fair."  Those last two at the start I tried to keep them out of my speech but they got in some how.  One term that can be awfully embarrassing if you don't know is "pants," that right, not some strange out of the way word, pants.  If you, as an American, think the word pants is what you mean then the word your after is "trousers," as I said before it's not hard to adapt to these words you just get used to it.  However, if I were to say C-wrench to a UK person I would get a blank expression, if I said light board they would probably guess my meaning - but that's because those words don't have any meaning here - "pants" does, pants means underpants, as in underwear.  So if one forgets and uses the word normally in a sentence, like when describing the Christian school you went to in kindergarten and say "we weren't aloud to wear pants," or perhaps you tell an actor to tuck his shirt into his pants (made more awkward by one of his costumes being just his Captain America "pants"), you get some funny responses.  So I can say lift when I mean elevator, and tabs when I mean drapes (theatrically speaking) and film when I mean movie, but pants is a hidden trap that lies in wait for me.

I don't feel like I'm 6000 miles from my house.  I try to picture the globe, or go on google earth, and see myself as on this island with a great big ocean and a whole Continent between me and Claremont (ei everything I've ever known) and it doesn't process.  In the first couple months I would walk down a street and take a picture because the street was some completely and awesomely not American, I don't notice now - they're just streets.  You may have wondered why I didn't include chips vs fries in the above section, that's because I know they aren't the same thing.  Chips are lovely, I didn't think so six months ago but I do now, I like 'em better than fries (Shock! Horror!). Accents only register if there particularly strong, like a guy starts talking and he is proper Welsh, I love that accent, especially if they're proper Cardiff Welsh (watch some British Torchwood, you'll here it).  The strangest accent to hear is my own.  I run across any middle of the road US accent and I nearly flinch when I hear it, not in a bad way, just in a surprised way.  There are words I no longer use because they sound harsh to my in my accent.  This was slightly tough for my birthday as one of the words I avoid is thirty.  Thirty sounds so harsh, so instead of saying it's five thirty, I say it half five - a perfectly acceptable phrase here.  My accent has gone more beachy Californian as well, slower sometimes and elongating my words.

I realize this gone a bit ramble-y, I tried to keep it in sections but my life isn't in sections so it didn't pan out.  This brings me to Ardal O'Hanlon.  If you do not know Mr. O'Hanlon then I recommend you watch his stand-up on youtube and then take in the first episode of My Hero, he was also in the Doctor Who episode Gridlock, but he was kinda made up as a cat so not the best for identification.  I love Ardal O'Hanlon, not romantically though, My Hero is just the right kind of cheesy superhero thing and he's amazing.  But it's British to like him, most Americans have no clue.  It was goal 2 on my list of things I need to do in the UK - see him live.  Be in the same room with Ardal O'Hanlon.  Oddly, I am more familiar with Eddie Izzard's stand-up and whilst I would gladly see him live, it's not a priority.  So why Ardal?  I think it has to do with him as a person, I've seen him interviewed and I think we could have a great conversation.  I can see us sitting and having a long, satisfying conversation.  However being in the room with him was important because it's so essentially British.  I like a great number of UK products, like the Beatles and Monty Python and Eddie Izzard and Keeping Up Appearances and Doctor Who and things like that.  All the things I've listed are widely known in the US, most people have heard of those, a great number of people have seen them.  If I said I wanted to see John Cleese live most people would know what I was talking about and it would be amazing.  But being 5 feet from Ardal O'Hanlon.  That's British amazing that is.  That is an experience that I can really only share with the people of these two islands.  He made British Ilse political jokes and I got them.  He informed me that Americans are upbeat and jump out of bed, ready for the day - well, you can't win 'em all.  I know I'm not British, there are many things I don't understand or don't relate to, but last night I got a gleam of what it could be like in, say, ten years time.

In Which Liz turns 30

     So I've been working on a show called "In the Blood" in the Caird Studio at college.  It was not the show I wanted but it turned out to be a way better environment then any of the other shows.  I felt bad at home talking about the show because Chris and Shannon were not having an easy go of it and all I could say was how lovely everyone I was working with was.  It has been great working with Charlie, wandering Cardiff, poking about in skips and peering over fences into church yards looking for American looking garbage for the set.  Our Stage Manager Ethan has been supportive and didn't micro-manage.  Bethan, the Deputy Stage Manager, was cool and kept us well informed.  Seriously - our crew is all so calm, super chill, and beyond that we all get our work done so there's no worry about whether something will get done or not.  It's been fantastic.
     Tech week was amazing.  Spent all day lifting heavy things, climbing ladders and using tools.  I really enjoy focusing stage lights and I was one of the only people who enjoyed it so I got to focus many of them.  I know it probably makes me some kind of freak, but I also enjoyed running the cables and making them all neat and tidy.  Any day spent mostly at the top of a ladder is a good day in my book.
     Some of the props have been interesting.  Not just picking up the oil drum and having the nice man give us honey from his bees and maple syrup, there was this cross.  They required a neon cross - buying one is prohibitively expensive but renting one wasn't much better.  So we rented this thing from Welsh National Opera, it's a pine outer casing with lights inside and this neon wiring in it.  The wiring was a nightmare.  In order to plug something in at college it has to pass PAT testing and this thing would never pass, not ever.  It had exposed wires, the lights inside weren't clamped down, the neon wire didn't actually run into anything.  So I stripped the cables and took out the lights so we could just use the neon wire - that was assuming that the neon wire was going to work, which it didn't.  So in the end I striped the neon wire and we ended up putting battery operated LED lights inside and I gotta say it looks amazing.
     So we get into the actual tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals and it falls to me to the costume changes for a gentleman named Lewis.  Lewis is what is described in this country as "well fit."  A nice guy, not really my type, but not at all unpleasant to dress and undress.  He proposed actually, twice, but only in that appreciative of my pastry way.  We do all the scene changes which is fun and of course there's blood.  I took over the blood, I kinda jumped on it because I really wanted to make blood packs and I get to everyday!  It's this awesome blood made from molasses, I kinda want to use the spare blood and make a treacle tart.
     So today is our last show and also my 30th birthday.  The cast and crew are going out after and we're gonna celebrate!  S arrived Thursday night so he'll be here to, which is nice.  I left him the college bar last night whilst I worked the show, I left him with the guys from workshop... ya.  He already is making friends and a girl who is a twin asked if we were twins - we said yes.  My birthday is a gorgeous day here in Cardiff, we just got back from Tescos and it is lovely.  I'm wearing a new dress and feelin' fine.
     We got our placements for next term as well.  I got the one I wanted *jumps up and down* it's Deputy Stage Manager for the four shows running at the same time in the college's brand new theatre, The Richard Burton.  It's probably the best vote of confidence they could have given me.  I get to call four separate shows, the first shows in the new space.  I am so excited and terrified and jumping up and down.  God is good.

School time

     So I have just one more day and I'll be done with my first module of classes.  These last six weeks have been amazing.  We are generally in class from 9am to 6pm Monday through Friday, so it's been fairly packed so far.  One of the fun things about it has been that each day we are learning something different, using different skills.  One day we were working on hanging and focusing lights then the very next day we're learning sound board operation from a guy who is half Eddie Izzard and half Tim Curry.  That last bit was beyond awesome.

     So we've learned about making paper props, both on photoshop and by hand along with distressing.  I made this cool puzzle in that class.  The biggest amount of learning has been about the differences between the US and UK stage management teams.  I guess the job I've been doing is two and a half jobs over here.  The prompt script, the script that has all the cues and tech info, is nearly the same so I only need a slight adjustment there.  We had a class called Sloppy Props where I got to make a copy of my hand in vinyl (super creepy) and we talked about latex molds and plaster and so forth - our teacher reminded me of S.  That week we actually mostly spent down at the workshop, learning about putting up sets and safe manual handling.  Then a few of us went back on a free afternoon so that w could learn welding.  It was amazing, no other word for it.  It was scary the first couple of times but now I want to go back and help out, it turns out I am a natural welder.

     We also have toured some theatres recently.  We went down to Plymouth (south west England) to their Theatre Royal which is a fantastic facility.  Not only is the theatre space great, but the also have TR2 which is a workshop beyond imagining but also thier wardrobe department and these rehearsal spaces that are so large you can set up your set in there and rehearse just like it will be on the stage.  In thier workshop they are currently working on part of the Shrek musical set.  Well worth the three hour drive down in the bus.  We also went to the Riverfront in New Port (Wales) which was fun and we learned about counterweight flying (that's like curtains and set pieces that are attached to bars above the stage that you can  raise and lower).  Then we went to that iconic Welsh building, as seen in Doctor Who, the Welsh Millenium Center.  I'd like to work there sometime, they have a beautiful theater there.  Lastly we went over to Saint David's Hall which has one of the top ten natual acoustics in the world.  They have a lovely organ as well, over 3000 pipes.

     So I got my review of the first module yesterday, letting me know how I've been doing.  I just blushed the whole time.  It turns out that after my interview for the BA program they had a meeting about me and they basically decided last January that they wanted me for the MA program and all the rest was just formalities. *blush*

Cardiff

I figured I was gonna talk about my classes and thier progression and so forth but instead I'm gonna talk about life in Cardiff.

     So my very first night in my new home I went out with Chris and Shannon and Shannon's friend.  We went to the seediest clubs that Cardiff has to offer and Chris explained the last one we went to was a Chav bar, followed by his discription of what a chav might be.  He has a hilarious demonstration if any of you meet him sometime you should totally ask him to do it.  I was massivly broke at this point and living on apples, pasta and canned soup and subsiquently I drank very little in the first couple weeks.  But we had so much fun anyway, I learned the fine art of having fun with no money - apparently when you go with your friends to a bar you aren't legally required to buy anything! Who knew?  My classmate Matt had a birthday in week two (I think) and we were out for hours and I didn't spend a single pound.  So fun.

     Around week three I had money again and I tried to change my habits as little as possible (except of course now I eat food of a higher quality).  There have been some fun nights out, a fair amount of dancing (I know, shocking right?) and some drinking and we went and saw Matt in "Footloose" at a town hall of some kind and it was Hil-arious.  I love people doing the American accent, any time I get to hear other people's view of Americans in general I fall about laughing.  Canadians in particluar have a kinda funny view of us.  I won't go into that just now though.  I have told them that I am not your typical American and they cannot expect Californians to talk or act like me.  Otherwise I feel they'll have an even more warped view then.

     I do hang out with my classmates pretty much everyday and I love it.  I am so blessed to have fallen into a great, rather stange, group.  Just so you can know that they are our kind of people - on three seperate occations we have been in class early and decided what we really wanted to do was hide in the room from our lecturer.  Last Sunday Shannon and I built a fort in the living room, then we had tea and crumpets in it, then when Chris woke up we made him hang out with us in it.  These are totally my people.

     Which brings me to last night - We had been down to the Theatre Royal in Plymouth during the day and then we decided to go out since we have no classes today.  First we went to the campus bar where we met a friend of Shannon's from a previous visit, Sion, and we went up to Blakweir Tavern up the road.  I started talking with Sion and he is awesome, he's a musician and kinda cray, like in an old school punk kinda way but he plays hard folk music.  Shannon was dealing with girly issues (others not hers) so basically I just talked to him for a couple hours and it was superb.  Then he keeps hearing from his cousin that he should come on over to this other bar and he sheepishly asks us, explaining that's it's basically a dive where you meet nutters.  But at the same time he's saying he's not sure he wants to take us there and yet he'd really like us to come.  Quick clarification - at Blackweir most of my class was there, he was asking just Shannon and me.  He's adorable.  So he took us there in a taxi and it was almost a family party, this guy's birthday/open mic night.  Oh, and the taxi drive, it's like Sion and the taxi driver where speaking a different language, I knew the words they were saying, but what they meant by any of it I have no idea.  Sion explained he was taking us to this place and they cracked jokes and explained he was showing us a good time at this dive bar.  At the bar he played, we met his cousin Griff who also played.  We had so much fun with those two, need to hang with them again.

I guess that's all for now - love you!

Blogging?

I guess after being reminstrated by all and sundry I must start some kind of blog to keep all the cool people in the know about my life in Wales... not sure how this works, but here goes -

Nearly a month ago we said goodbye and it's been pretty weird and awesome and sad since.  I miss you guys more than I admit on a daily basis, but that's because even typing that has made me cry.  *Handkerchief break* okay, I think I'm okay.  It's easy to pretend most of the time because I am so busy usually and everything is so different here.  Thanks guys so much for an amazing send off and visit me as soon as possible!

On to happy things - I got to spend four days in London!  Mom, Aunt Kathy and I saw so many amazing things in London

it was lovely.  The first day we went to the London Eye and saw "A Flea in Her Ear" which has been one of my fave shows ever.  The cast was great, the Spanish guy in it practically made me fall off my seat laughing.  It was well teched and fantastically executed, half a sleep as I was when I walked in, it was way awesome.  The next day we saw the Globe, yes, THE GLOBE.  It was a theatre gal's giddy explosion, I could hardly contain myself.  Then of course we saw a lot more of London, and whilst it was all fun I don't really want to make a catalogue of things to see in London - let's move on.

Mom driving - wow, I've never been so stressed as I was being Mom's navigator as she drove through rural England.  Poor thing, she kept being close to tears with frustration.  However, her driving enabled us to see amazing things.  First we drove down to Windsor Castle and it was massive and had a half lived in and half museum type quality to it.  The doll house is amazing, if you ever get over to see it, it has running water!  I wish I could have taken pictures, not only to show you guys, but also so I could remember it all.  There was so much to take in at once.  Then we went over to Stonehenge.  As you drive along the road to go see it, you're wondering where the turn off will be, and then you just see it sitting by the road.  It's just right next to the road, sitting there like some mystical bus stop.  I would recommend going in January, there were so few people there that my pictures are unencombered by tourists - including me, I probably should have had Mom take my pic in front of it.  Then we were off to Bath.  Bath is lovely and so very old.  You can walk down most streets and feel like you've gon back in time - until a car drives by.  I convinced Mom and Aunt Kathy to stay at a youth hostel, which was novel.

At this point I was begining to get panicky, I didn't have accomodation sorted.  I felt with every mile we came to Cardiff we were driving to my doom.  I tried to be excited, all I managed was terrified.  But I gamely navigated Mom to Cardiff.  It totally turned out to be a non issue.  I called up Brian, my landlord, and he told me to come on over to look at a room.  That room I am typing in now.  We had fun in Cardiff while Mom and Kathy were here.  We went down to the bay and saw places Doctor Who was filmed.  We were walking along and saw a wall with a bunch of notices on it and wandered over to see what it was about - good gravy.  It was a memorial wall to a charcter who died in Torchwood (spinoff of Doctor Who), not the actor, his character died.  Houndreds of posts littered a bit of fence down my the docks - where am I?  What is this? We also saw Cardiff Castle, which my school is just above, and Cearfilly castle which was amazing, a bit of a ruin but wandering around a castle is always fun.  It wad water all around it and they'd fixed up a main dining room which was gorgeous.  Even after I moved my stuff into my new room Mom made me stay the night, she wasn't super excited about leaving me in Cardiff.  But then on Saturday night I was to stay in my own room and meet Mom and Kathy for church the next morning.  But when I got home it turned out two of my flatmates and a friend of one of thiers were going out so I thought bonding was a good idea.  Especially since these were the two that are in my class and I was going to spend great chunks of my time with them.  So that's how I met Chris and Shannon.

Chris is from Manchester and is a former dancer, although that former title is fairly recent.  He used to dance on cruise ships.  Shannon is from Toronto and is about as different from me as is possible, but she's awesome.  She has a BA in theatre and worked at it for three years before coming here.  We went out that night with her friend Seth who lives near London.  We went to a whole bunch of rather rediculous places that ranged in seedyness.  With all of that it was still fun and I got to know them, which was the whole reason for the exercise.

Of course, now I know them pretty well.  I see them all day everyday.  I walk to school with Chris in the morning and we all walk home together.  We're kinda the three headed monster.  The other six people in the program we at least get to leave for the night.  Last Thursday we were each going to go somewhere different and we all ended up going to the same place.  But they're awesome, so I'm not concerned about it.  I'm actually going to the opera tonight with Chris, but Shannon is watching Rugby with a couple other classmates.

I guess this got kinda long, so I'll talk about my classes and classmates later.

Love you!!!