london calling...

London!

Up at the crack of dawn we walked to the bus stop, caught the bus to the airport. As we stood waiting for flight to board I went into a bookstore thinking about buying a magazine when I saw 'The Alchemist' on the 'Staff Picks' shelf so I decided it was a sign... since Blakey loves that book... so I bought it. Our flight got into London right around 11... we took the Tube into the city, got settled in our hostel and I took off on my own. I took a walking tour based on the DaVinci Code, which was really interesting. Mainly just because I got see old churches and parts of the city that I hadn't seen before.
I headed back to the hostel around 4pm, wandered around Bloomsbury(where my hostel was) for a bit then met up with everyone else for dinner.
We got to the restaurant and while we were waiting for our table a couple of the lads and I went into Oxfam (Salvation Army type) and I found... wait for it... pink Converse for 3 pounds... in my size. I about lost my mind and naturally I purchased them.
We ate at a FANTASTIC Indian restaurant... I ate so much food it was crazy. We then went to see 'Warhorse'.

O.M.G.

Phenomenal. I can't even... so good. The puppeteers who worked the horses were so incredible... I kept forgetting that the horses were, in fact, not real horses.

After that, we walked back to the hostel... I hit the hay early.

The next morning, after a hearty hostel breakfast of cereal and uncooked bread ( toast), I gave Lauren a tour of the city (since it was her first time there). It was loads of fun. We grabbed a light lunch and headed to the Globe for our group tour. After that Lauren and I walked over Tower Bridge, contemplated going to The Tower of London, decided against it and wandered and saw some more sights instead. That night we went and saw 'Endgame'. I was so tired I almost fell asleep, though I was actually enjoying myself. After the show, I hit the hay early again.
I awoke early again and Lauren and I head to the British Museum. We attempted to form a strategy so that we could see everything... but our strategy crashed and burned and, instead, we walked through the whole place playing a game of "When I take over the world I get that".

We then saw a matinee of "If there is, I haven't found it yet." which is a new play. I actually enjoyed it for the most part and bought the script. Amanda, Erika, Lauren and I then rushed to King's Cross Station, found Platform 9 3/4, did what we went to do, then headed to the next theatre for the next show. We ate a quick dinner then saw "Many Roads to Paradise" which was bad. Just bad.
Went back to the hostel, I decided to NOT be lame and went out to the Pub with the lads. Then Amanda, Erika and I met up with a friend of theirs. We went to Tesco and bought a chocolate cake for a pound. We ate the whole thing... with our hands... it was epic.

Sunday, I went to Camden Market with Lauren and then walked through Hyde Park and Kennsington Gardens. We found the Peter Pan statue and sat for about an hour and a half. Then I met up with Claire, Audrey and Nicole and we had a lovely reunion on the grass. It was wonderful. :) Amanda and Erika brought my backpack to the park and we rushed to the train station to catch the train to the airport for our flight. We got lost and Amanda and Erika's friend Nikko and I sang 'Oliver' while wandering through London. A-MAZING.

Found the train, caught the plane... back in Dublin, did lots of nothin'.

There. I updated. Tedious recap of my trip... I hope you enjoyed it.

Switzerland, or how I decided to become a Swiss banker.

OK...

Where to start...

Switzerland was awesome.

I got to Zurich around 4pm and Mike met me at the airport. We then proceeded to wandered around the city for a few hours. I was still feeling kind of sick but much better. We ate a light dinner then took the train to St. Gallen and decided to stay in because we planned on getting up early to go hiking. So we hung out, caught up and watched Role Models (amazing movie) then went to bed. It was rainy the next day so hiking was out... instead we did a light hike in the hills around St. Gallen.

Fun Fact: There are LOTS of sheep in Switzerland.

Fun Fact: I hate sheep.

About 30 minutes into it it started snowing. SNOWING. I know. It was awesome... but quite cold.We went down to the city after that and bought some groceries, made dinner... and yet again, stayed in and watched a movie. Sensing a theme?

The next morning we got up early and head to the train to go to Santis for our hike. After about 2 hours we got there, only to find out there was 4-6 feet of snow on the ground so all the paths were covered. We were kind of bummed but took the Sky Tram up to the top to look around. Normally you can see 6 countries and all of the Alps from the top... but it was very foggy so we saw about 10 feet in front of our faces. We had a snowball fight, which was legendary.
Headed back to St. Gallen, did some sight seeing... saw the Abbey( beaaaautiful!) and then when to Olma Fest, which was a huge carnival with food and rides. :)

Mike had class the next day so I was on my own. I got up and saw some more of St. Gallen, then took the train to Rorschach, Switzerland and spend some time by Lake Constance (a huge lake that borders 3 countries). Then I head back to St. Gallen and saw Theatre St. Gallen's production of Romeo and Juliet... in German. I think some of it was lost in translation, literally. My German is pretty bad but I am almost positive Mercutio said "This isn't 'Trolius and Cressida'".

Tuesday I got up and headed back to Zurich and wandered taking pictures for a few hours before I headed to the airport.

What I Learned in Switzerland.
No one is Switzerland is poor. No one.
The Swiss are a jovial people for whom life is a musical. Example:

I have no hard evidence but I am pretty sure this is the home of a Swizz banker.
I want to be a Swiss Banker.
Mercedes Benz are common cars in Switzerland. Everyone has them... which is why I learning German and moving to Switzerland as soon as possible.



I'll post about London next.

nausea

i spent all of yesterday incredibly sick to my stomach.

i just put the first solid food in my body in over 36 hours. we shall see how that goes over.

its 6:48am here. i have yet to pack for switzerland... class in two hours then a mad rush to the airport.

time to get cracking...

rain, rain, is here to stay

Another rainy day in Dublin.

Voice class was awesome today. I normally just do the meditation/breathing/vocal excersizes and hope for them to be over quickly but today I really clicked with them, which was awesome. Maybe I am actually improving... perish the thought. We worked on Beckett text today. I have now worked on Beckett in EVERY class.
Those of you who were in Script Anal with me know my opinion of Beckett.
Dry, boring, pretenious... etc.
HOWEVER, this semester has really opened my mind to Beckett. He is only boring when people suck at doing Beckett.

WOW.

I openly laughed today at Beckett. Seriously. As in, I found the humor in it. I actually got up and did a scene from Endgame... and enjoyed myself.

I have an interview at the Ark Theatre in... 1 hour. I need to make myself presentable and walk over there and wow them with my personality so I can volunteer there, which I really want to do.

Today I am going to see my friend Annie's Irish manfriend (boyfriend) play at a pub downtown. Toooootally excited. I went Sunday night and saw him play. Good craic.

Monologue presentations tomorrow.

"Don't be afraid to take a risk, and fall on your face." says Donal, my acting tutor.

Dear merciful God in heaven.

connemara

Before you say anything... I know, I know. Its been like a week. I am a horrible blogger. I couldn't get myself to sit down and write about my weekend adventure (which was awesome). But now, I will.

The bus ride to Galway was ridiculous. Just plan ridiculous. Long. The guy next to me kept yelling on his phone. When he finally got off an Italian couple made out next to me for the remainder of the trip. It was raining when I got to Galway and I got lost going to my hostel. I know what you are thinking. I thought you said it "was awesome", Jule. I did. Hold your horses.

I finally found it. It was really cool. I met a girl with in a few minutes who had graduated from UF and we chatted and had some tea. Then I met Joey, Josh and Lauren for dinner at the King's Head pub. I finally got those Irish tapas I had been dreaming about. Yumm. Then we met up with the other people who happened to be in Galway that weekend and got drinks. Desi had a friend (from Dallas) named Preston who was studying in Galway who we met up with. He was cool and funny and we got along. He went to high school with Nelson, I later found out. Weirdness.

After a bit I headed back to my hostel as I had an early morning. I got sick during the night. Probably those Irish tapas I had been dreaming off. Not Yumm. I got up eaaaaaaarly to catch the bus to Leenane. It was basically deserted. The bus ride was about an hour and a half... when I finally got there I de-bused and walked down one of two roads in town to my B&B. The people who owned my B&B were.... strange. The young lady who greeted me (I say young... she was probably late 30's) I have decided is actually a character in 'Beauty Queen of Leenane', as is her mother. The Dad was very friendly, though slightly deaf, and made me a fire to sit by and read.

I wandered the town, taking pictures. Got lunch,went to the cultural center and the wool museum (hahah.) and interviewed a lady there. Found out there is actually a woman who called herself the 'beauty queen of Connemara' who lived in Leenane, who everyone believes the play was probably based on. I had dinner at the hotel after over hearing 4 conversations between the mother and daughter that convinced me that my theory was correct. I treated myself to cheese cake (which is NOT the same over here) and then returned to my B&B, read and then called it an early night.

I awoke the next morning to a full Irish breakfast. YUMMMMMMMMMY. Seriously. So good. Then checked out and walked to the Killary Cruises dock so I could take a lovely boat ride around Ireland's only Fjord. HOWEVER. I learned, after my 3 mile walk to the place that was 'just down the road', that in October the 10:30 cruises no longer run. SOOOOO... I walked back to town, wandered around, then headed to Letterfrack which is about 1o miles away, where I was to catch my bus. I met a lady who I talked to more about the 'beauty queen'. She told me she had met her and though everyone thought she was crazy that she had found her to be quite nice.

In Letterfrack, I decided, since I had 6 hours to burn before my bus to Galway, that I would go to the Connemara National Park. I wasn't planning on hiking but one thing led to another and before I knew it (actually it took a while) I was at the top of Diamondhill (not a fitting name for the BEAST I climbed) with torn up, leaky boots, my backpack and an apple. Lucky, I made some Irish friends on the climb, Tristan and Ciarian. They were kind enough to keep me company and offered me some of their food. We all walked down together and they bought me a pint at the bottom and chatted with me till my bus came. The bus ride back to Galway was fine but the bus to Dublin was delayed, then took forever. I got into Dublin around 12:30am, grabbed a taxi and fell asleep the minute my head touched the pillow.

Nothing to exciting has happened since then. I leave for Switzerland on Friday to met Michael and hike the Alps!!! Then I have a day turn around before I go to London for 4 days. Its going to be a wicked sweet and exhausting break. :)

Irish phrase of the day:

Tá mo chroí istigh ionat

My heart is within you.

to be straight with you

So I need to pack. Bah. I leave tomorrow at 1pm for my great solo adventure. I am slightly nervous actually. I am not sure what to pack. I forgot to get some of the books from the library before I left today... I am dumb. That means I have to do it tomorrow before I leave.... bah. That makes my day tomorrow.... stressful to say the least. I need to buy a camera too...

ANYWAY.
I saw an amazing show tonight called "To Be Straight With You". Its a movement based piece about hate crimes surrounding the gay community around the world. It was incredibly moving... there were some awesome projections and light effects that really pulled the piece together. The actors moved (or "danced") to recorded testimonies by real people but also "became" those people finishing the sentences, speeches, etc. It is kind of hard to describe it but when it ended they got a standing ovation and 3 encores.

For me, well, I was really moved by it. Some of the stories just hurt to hear. The fact that people use the name of God as a weapon to hurt and kill, hurts me deeply. I was reminded of an article I read some time ago in Vanity Fair.

"I could not for any part of me be able to keep quiet, because people were being penalized, ostracized, treated as if they were less than human because of something they could do nothing to change- their sexual orientation. For me, the Lord that I worship, this Jesus Christ, actually concurring with the persecuation of a minority that is already being persecuted. The Jesus who I worship is a Jesus who was forever on the side of those who were being clobbered, and he got in trouble precisely because of that, Our Church, the Anglican Church, is experiencing a very, very serious crisis. It's all to do with human sexuality. I think God is weeping. He is weeping that we should be spending so much energy, time, resources on this subject at a time when the world is aching."

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I have always felt an incredible connection to that quote and this piece of theatre just touched that part of my heart again.

1 Peter 4:8