Bleh.

Today has been fun. Today has been fine. But at this very moment, for some reason, I'm feeling down.

I think I have some guesses as to what is the cause of my down-ness. Part of it came from trying to Skype with my friend Kara and it booting us off our call no less than six times within half an hour, and when we did get to talk for eighteen minutes straight, only her video was working and the sound wasn't great. And while we did talk about funny, good stuff, there was the part of the conversation where I found out some bad news and another part where I expressed my desire for something I really want and realised even more deeply than I have before that there's a 98% chance that I won't get it. And because I am two years old, this bothers me a lot, though not as much as the fact that I don't know how to make that percentage lower. I actually think that my down-ness about this latter thing might have something to do with seeing so much great theatre this week, never mind this month or since I got here.

Also, it continues to irritate me how much people are NOT enjoying their time here. I heard the other night that a good number of people still really want to go home. Like, if they could get on a plane right now, they would. I don't get it. I get missing your family and everything, but a) you're in England, which is amazing and not everyone gets to do this and b) you knew you were coming over her for six months. If you knew you couldn't handle it, why are you here? This is not a shock, length-wise. I just wish people would appreciate the fact that they are in an awesome foreign country that is full of things to do which, though I love my home school, is a very, very different situation than back home, location-wise.

But I'll stop being a Debbie Downer, because like I said, today was fun. Adaptations was cut short a bit due to our teacher going to a conference an hour in, and we had fun playing around with the scenes from 'Tis Pity She's a Whore for the next three or so. I really like all of my classmates (well, the ones that were there today, which is to say, those that attend regularly.)

Since our essays are due for this class in a few weeks, I asked one girl about a few things like the bibliography and the 200 words we had to write and hand in a little later tonight. Basically, her blanket statement was that American papers are ridiculous in how carefully instructions must be followed. Here (at least for all the ones she's written), even if a certain kind of resource is required (a journal, book, whatever), you can basically use anything you want. She saved me hours in the library today by telling me this. An while, if I needed the library resources, it would be fine... I don't really need them for the question I chose. It makes me laugh sometimes when I think of how scared we were made about this system and how lenient the students here seem to find it (and relay these leniencies to us Americans!)
Also, if you can believe this, anyone who was in the same English classes as I was for, well, my entire life- they're not only allowed, but encouraged to use the sentence, "In this essay, I am going to tell you..." It's in almost every professional, published paper we've read, too! I can't believe it; we've had it beat into our brains since about third grade that you never state anything like that. But that's basically their thesis statement (though when my American classmate and I used this phrase, they didn't know what that was.) And while I don't mind this at all- after all, why not just say what you're going to do, rather than skipping around it tossing around flowery language?- I can't get used to it. In the paragraph I sent in today, I used it and felt like I was committing a mortal sin.

I sent off a few postcards and a casting submission today, so if you're reading this and you haven't gotten a postcard from me yet, you may be getting one soon. If you want one and haven't gotten one, let me know!

Also, while today may have turned into an "eh" one, this coming week is one I've been waiting for for a long time- Megan's coming Saturday morning and we will adventure until Wednesday, when she must leave me again. I'll finish my Proof paper, both of my plays have their world premieres (in London... how cool is that?), and I'm seeing a play at a theatre that was particularly recommended to me, so I'm really excited about that. After my class tomorrow, I will be doing much housekeeping to make my room presentable and stocked with yummy British snacks, especially since I cleaned off my desk last night and it's covered in papers again. How do I accumulate so many papers everywhere I go? I have an accordian file that's already being misshapen by all it's holding, and I haven't even been here for two months or printed out all of the documents I was supposed to.

I guess I shall go write to the tune of Come Dine With Me (a British cooking competition show. The narrator's snarky comments are very entertaining.)