Getting Older is Not All Bad

In the last month I feel like I’ve had so much information come my way that a lot of it has washed over me and gone on its way. Some bits have stuck though and I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio when I return from my trip. Two weeks free of classes, San Francisco here I come!

Starting January 9th I’ve been in Laban Monday through Friday. Being creative as a full-time job is  draining. Some of my classmates and I discussed reaching the point last week where we were no longer capable of really basic decision-making. I spent ten minutes in one store staring at the hair products as they didn’t sell the stuff I get in the US before moving on to another store where I stood stupidly in front of their hair products for another ten minutes. In the end I decided I had better just wait until I’m in the US next week since I can’t possibly choose a new product. Yikes.

And decision-making becomes even more important as my proposal for my final project is due in about a month. So San Francisco here I come, loaded up with books!

On a happier note I am on track so far with my New Years resolution of seeing at least one show a week. I would have missed a week but my wonderful classmates got me a ticket to see Cirque de Soleil for my birthday!

Royal Albert Hall

And, because it made me smile when I saw it I had to share: the hill in front of my school, demonstrating a rare occurence, sunshine!

Good bye London, please try to warm up a little while I’m gone.

Happy New Year! (one term down)

I have somehow survived my first term of grad school, and now I feel like if I could just rewind back to September I could actually do a halfway decent job of it.  I’m finally settling into the mode of being a student again. Basically at any given moment I should be doing school work. If I’m not reading, then I’m rehearsing and if I’m not doing either than I’m behind. However, despite those feelings I think writing and reflecting on what I’ve been up to is important as well so one of my New Years resolutions is to write more. The others:

Watch more dance

Travel more

It seems like resolutions are often about things you can’t do, trying to quit, etc., but this year I want to approach all my resolutions and life positively. Fresh start. I can’t go back to September and do it all perfect but I am ready for Monday and to attack this coming term with all my energy.

Note: I have no control over what apparel my nieces and nephew wear.

Assisting me in this venture will be my lovely new camera. (thanks Mom and Dad!) I’m looking forward to being able to post some photos that I didn’t steal or take with my phone. I’m particularly excited to use this panorama feature somewhere other than my family’s kitchen.

hanging out

Spoiler alert: my next big trip will be to San Francisco in February.

The torch is coming to my school/how is it already November?

That’s right, I know you’re jealous now. As the Olympic torch travels around England before the games it will start its journey on the 23rd of July at my school.

Meanwhile I am wondering where all my time went with the end of term less than four weeks away. As the pace of school picks up my time is filling up with rehearsals, reading and work, but I’m still managing to fit some fun in.

This past weekend I got a bike. It now takes me a third of the time it previously did to get to school and I only wish I’d gotten it sooner. I’m looking forward to exploring the area around my house more by bike too but that will probably have to wait until next week because this weekend I  head out to Bristol to see Jaime again -and I’m working everyday until I leave.

Yay, work! Maybe it sounds a bit crazy but after several months away from the pilates studio I was really missing it. I’m only working as a sub filling in for other teachers on holiday but that’s plenty on top of my school schedule and hopefully I’ll be able to get some regular shifts eventually. My first reformer class on Sunday morning included a woman who was in her 19th week of pregnancy. Please, pregnant friends- don’t go to a regular pilates class –even if you feel fine your teacher will stress out the entire time.

I’ve also been doing plenty of pilates recently as my school has this AMAZING deal offering cheap pilates classes to students for the month of November. It’s made me a bit homesick for Hasti and Mighty pilates. Hopefully I can get in few more classes while the deal is on and pick up some new tricks

foxes in the fall

I’ve seen at least four foxes this past week. Since it now gets dark practically at noon (ok, not  that bad, but still) I’m always coming home after dark and there are foxes just roaming around my neighborhood as if we were in the middle of a forest and not a huge urban city.

hard at work on our sound score

While one of my roommates had this past mid-term week completely off of classes and was able to travel I had EXTRA classes. Each day a different artist came in -a musician, an architect, a film maker and talked to us a bit about their art making process and then gave us an assignment to complete by the end of the day. I liked the product of our sound score best but they were all challenging/interesting in their own way.

Next trick is to design a John Cage style score before Wednesday. Does anyone have a pair of dice I can borrow?

Trackybums???

I know I just posted yesterday but after a very funny conversation this afternoon I couldn’t help wanting to share my new-found knowledge. One of the supposed pluses about going to school in England was that they speak the same language as we do in the US, but this is not completely true.

A friend (Jaime) warned me not to say pants when I meant trousers because pants here are the undergarment. Of course you could also say knickers. And then if you are wearing sweatpants they are trackybums. Trackybums???

One Month

I arrived in the UK one month ago today. Its strange the way time works. On one hand with all that has happened between finding a place to live, starting school, looking for a job, trying to train myself to say loo instead of restroom it seems like it has been far longer than a month. On the other hand as I get up and go to dance class this morning it seems like I’ve been doing this forever.

I’m starting the third week of school now and beginning to feel like I have some clue what’s happening.

my school!

The first day of school everyone kept asking me if I was ok and I was glad to discover thats just what they say (“Are you ok?” as opposed to “How are you?”) not that I really looked so lost and confused that people were compelled to ask how I was doing. There are actually a lot of Americans at Laban although my choreography classmates are a very diverse bunch. In my program there are two Americans, two British people, a Canadian, Italian, Polish, Korean, Indian, Serbian  and Portuguese. Whew!

my new flat, thank you Jaime for the fabulous photography

I am really excited about having found a great flat. I’ll be living with two girls from Laban and one student from Goldsmiths. Right now its just Elaine and I  -the other two roommates are moving in this week, so we’ll see if I’m still as excited once there are four women sharing the ‘loo’ instead of just two.

Also excited about having fall for the first time in six years!! Check back soon for photos of leaves.

Goodbye San Francisco

I left San Francisco a little over a week ago and it feels simultaneously as if I’ve been gone forever and no time has passed. Since I’m staying with my family in the midwest for another week I think I will just continue to feel as if I’m on an extended vacation until I finally arrive in London.

I took the train from San Francisco to Chicago and will fly out of Chicago to London Friday the 2nd of September. 51 hours on the train was a LONG time but there was some gorgeous scenery especially in Colorado where I took this photo.