IHOP Is The Breakfast Place of Liars

Since I just finished my review of Julius Caesar (if 300 or less words can be considered a document of any length... really, teachers?), I am taking a break from homework.

First of all, may I present to you my biggest triumph of my day:

Yes, that's right, I made scrambled eggs (they were not neon yellow, as they appear in the picture)! Hooray! As I've mentioned, I'm not much of a cook, so this is a pretty big accomplishment for me. They were delicious and I only burned myself twice!

The one thing I don't like about making scrambled eggs is that you have to pay close attention to them, and I usually read when I cook here, so the cooking of these eggs was cutting into my reading time :p

Here's something that seems obvious that you don't realise is a cultural difference until you're stuck. I mentioned yesterday that I was going to go looking for art/office supplies for my project. I was just looking for stuff like scissors, glue, colored paper, etc. But... where do I get that stuff? The first places I would look at home would be stores like K-mart, Wal-Mart, Staples, etc. But they don't have those here.

I remembered picking up some thumbtacks at an office supply store by the study abroad office in Kensington, and I remember seeing them everywhere. But the only thing I remembered about the name is that it started with an R and there were a lot of consonants. This did not help in a Google search.

Eventually, I figured out what it was called (Ryman, for any fellow students reading this), checked their hours and for a closer location (Kensington's rather far from school), and headed out. I found the place without too much trouble... and it was closed. Actually, EVERYTHING was closed. It's Saturday. Color me irritated, especially because it's so cold here that when you exhale, you let out an opaque cloud.

Four random things:

1) I love that people here use the word "clever." It's such a lovely word and we really don't use it in the U.S.

2) Last weekend when we were waiting for the waterfall to cease, Adrienne was jonesing for some chocolate chip pancakes. We expressed our love for IHOP pancakes and asked Emmie if they had IHOPs here. She said that they do not. So basically, their name is a lie :p They should be called AHOP.

3) I heard the phrase "tucking in" (a.k.a. beginning to eat) on Thursday. I had heard it before in books, and that's another phrase we don't use at home.

4) I'm not sure exactly how over the list I am, considering how much I've been torturing myself by reading stuff about the show. It'll pass. #masochist

That's all for me today. Tomorrow- another homework day (without supplies for my project.) Hurrah.

London Audition!

I went on my first London audition last night; I won't go so far as to label it a London-style audition, as the company was founded and is run by two Americans. It was a long commute to get there- about a half hour to forty-five minutes by tube, then what was supposed to be a seven-minute walk. The walk was made much longer by the fact that, even with a map, I couldn't find the road and no one I asked knew where it was. Of course, I also tried to be choosy as to who I asked for directions, considering the fact that I was alone in dark London.

Eventually I made it to the theatre (late... I hate it when people are late, especially to auditions), was buzzed into the building and went up to the second floor (which, here, is technically the third; they count the ground floor as just that.) A guy handed me a form to fill out, but since I was late, I barely had time to fill it out before I was called in.

I was taken back to a rehearsal room and met the two casting directors, both of whom are American. We were just talking a bit and when they heard my accent, they asked, "Canadian or American?" I did my monologue, which was all right but nothing stunning, and then we talked a bit more after that. They were both really nice and seemed interested in any conflicts I might have with the rehearsal/performance schedule and kept saying how much they liked my monologue, so it was difficult for me to read the audition.

They said they'd let me know by last night if I had a callback or not, and unfortunately, I didn't get it. I'm disappointed, but it happens. I'm hoping this happened so maybe I can do something at school (we have a meeting about all things theatre in a week.) If I do get something at school, it will be my first actual college show, even though I've done shows while in school. Fingers crossed I can get something over here. I know that no one expects me to get a show while I'm here... but I do. Not because I think the London theatre community is waiting for me with open arms, but because I expect myself to work hard enough that I have a show at all times. This isn't always the case, though it was for many years, and because of those years, I go a little stir-crazy when I don't have a show of any kind (and my grades drop. The more shows I have, the higher my GPA.) So here's hoping I get something (anything) to keep me sane.

We got a free "dinner" tonight during one of the cafe's happy hours. We were meant to get a slice of pizza and a drink, but it wasn't really a meal... more like an appetizer- delicious, but very, very small. I also re-realised something that I already knew- they don't chill their drinks here. When you go up to a counter and ask for a drink, they just take it off the counter and hand it to you. I think they chll drinks more than they used to (I've noticed a lot of places like the school store have drinks in refrigerators and most restaurants give you ice), but you can't expect it.

Tomorrow I have seven hours of one class- ahhh! I'm already terrified of this class. I thought it was mostly a writing class, and while that is a large component, I know the parts that aren't writing are really going to push my boundaries... and I have it ALL DAY. The first session, the actual class, is from 9-1, and then we have an "unsupervised rehearsal" from 6-9. I know this class is worth 30 credits (a.k.a. around eight at my home school), but that's a whole lotta one class to have in a single day.

Today has mostly been spent doing homework- I have to read 'Tis Pity She's a Whore for class tomorrow, and it's a very weird play. John Ford, the playwright, seems to have been strongly influenced by Shakespeare; besides the fact that he references him a lot, the plot of this play is basically like a dirty, incestuous, less-money-focused version of The Merchant of Venice. He even comes dangerously close to copying a ton of lines from the play. Having done Merchant last summer, I keep marking the similarities in my notes- and there are a lot of similarities.

I'm not feeling extremely well tonight, hence why this post is free of the incredible wit with which I generally write my posts :p I started feeling really dizzy at dinner tonight and it hasn't gone away. I'm not sure what the cause is, but I hope it's not long-lasting. Perhaps I've just been eating too much Nutella and now I'm crashing from all the sugar.

I suppose I should get back to said homework... yay?