Tuesday, October 13, 2009

les miserables - the highlight of the weekend :)

This past weekend marked the first in a while where I did hardly anything at all except lie in my bed and completely relax. Friday night was a chilly and rainy night and so a few of the girls from my house and I decided to get together in the downstairs common room and watch movies. We made some popcorn and watched A Cinderella Story and then Pride and Prejudice. I must admit I fell asleep for parts of both movies, but it was still a fun night in with the girls. The only time I got up, got dressed and left the house over the weekend was to go see Les Miserables with the girls on Saturday night. It was a fun-filled evening that was also really relaxing at the same time. We started off by meeting at outside of a vintage book store. A couple of us arrived with some time to spare before the other arrived, so we decided to look inside the store. It was so great to be in a little corner store that was packed floor to ceiling with all sorts of books, many being very old. I ended up venturing around until I found the photography section. I am very interested in the topic of photography but must admit that I don't know that much about the technicalities and techniques required. I was able to locate two very useful books, one is about creative techniques in landscape photography and the other is a complete guide to digital photography. I was even more thrilled when I found that got a discount at the store for being a student! Both of the books together only ended up costing me around £11.50. :) When we met up with the other girls, we all decided to go to a local chinese restaurant which was actually quite good! I had my first-ever Bubble Tea with Mango and Strawberry juices. The tapioca balls were quite interesting and got annoying after a while because I felt as though I had a million of them in my drink.. but I thought it tasted really good overall. Ali and I decided to split a chicken and noodles dish along with some vegetables. It was a good idea because I don't believe I could have eaten a whole dish by myself - the portions were huge! After dinner was over, we hurried to the theater to make the 7:30 curtain time for Les Mis. I thought the show was great minus some really poor stage combat skills. The voices of the cast were really strong though and I was swept away especially during the timeless songs Dreamed a Dream, Castle on a Cloud, On My Own and Bring Him Home to name a few. After the cast bowed at the end of the show, one of the men brought our attention to the fact that three of their leading characters were performing for their last time with the company and would be moving onto other endeavors such as joining the touring company of Les Mis and another is joining the Phantom of the Opera. This show was wonderful and I am so glad that I was able to go see it - if you have never seen it.. you should definitely check it out when you get the chance!

The rest of the weekend was really low-key and I ended up just taking a lot of time for me as well as to clean up and organize my room. The next few weekends and weeks are going to be quite packed with activites and travel.. so I figured I would just hang out and rest up in preparation. The school week has started off well and today, our choreography class is going to the National Portrait Gallery. Over the next few weeks, we have to develop some kind of artistic self-portait. I am hoping to get some inspiration from the Gallery today because as of now I have absolutely no clue what I am going to do for it.

That's all for now.. more to come. cheers! :) mk

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

gelato, jenga, brighton, salsa dancing.

This past weekend was probably one of the best yet! On Friday night, I didn't really do much of anything. I made myself some dinner down in the kitchen and then a few of us began talking about wanting some kind of dessert. We finally chose to walk together down the street to the gelato shop on Portobello Road. I got the chocolate and the cookies and cream flavors. I must admit that it was some of the best gelato I have had (minus the genuine streetside gelato shops in Italy, of course.. there is no comaprison to those.) We ended up walking downstairs in the shop and we found a table to sit around - then someone went and found that they had a shelf with a few games. We decided to play Jenga. Oh man. It started out as an innocent game where we were all just kind of goofing around - but with time the game got really serious! Haha :) It was so much fun - we were all really intense with our choice of which piece to remove from the tower. At one point, I was so in the zone and concentrated that any kind of noise distracted me.. which of course was the point where my friends took the given opportunity to distract me and ask me random questions so that I would make the whole tower fall over. They did not succeed, though! :) I am happy to say that I was not the person to make the tower fall over for any of the rounds we played!!

Shifting to Saturday, I had a lazy morning and then around 10:30, a few of us met to make our way to the train station. We booked 2-way tickets to Brighton beach for the day. I was really excited cause this was the first trip that I have taken outside of London itself. We arrived and the first thing I realized was that it was QUITE a windy day by the beach. I gave up on trying to keep my hair looking nice almost immediately. We found our way out to the pier where we walked to join our friends for lunch. I ate fish and chips for the first time! It was really good but it was also really greasy. Coming from America, this shouldn't be too much different than basically all food that is cooked.. especially in the south. However, since being in England, I have not really eaten any fried food at all and therefore it was a bigger shock to my system than I expected. I ended up having to dig through all of the fried parts to try and find the actual food inside, haha! After lunch, we walked around the beach and even ventured out onto the pebble beach. It was really windy, though, so we didn't stay out there too long. We walked back away from the beach and found some little shops. They were all quite unique little shops and I ended up buying a couple of artsy pairs of earrings. We walked around some more and I found a few more shops that intrigued me. It was a fun and relaxed afternoon! One special shop we found was a cupcake bakery called the Angel Food Bakery. They make these gourmet cupcakes that are simply divine. :)) I ended up choosing the Red Velvet Cupcake that had red sparkley sprinkles on top. The best part of the whole day was that I was able to take a lot of pictures with my new camera. I am still playing with all the different settings my camera has on it, but I am having a lot of fun doing it!

Saturday night, the girls and I went out together and a few of us went out dancing afterwards. We went to a couple of different places and just danced around, being completely silly :) I left a bit early because I was getting really tired, though, and I ended up crashing pretty hard when I got back to my bed. Sunday was a day of relaxation and I had a chance to do some homework while cleaning up my room a bit. In the late afternoon, I went to church at Hillsong for the 6pm service. It was a great service, filled with such uplifting and powerful music. I must say that the term "saving the best for last" really came into play this weekend, though. After the church service, a few of us all met up to go salsa dancing. Oh. My. Gosh. It was SO much fun! I had such a great time getting to learn the steps and then throwing myself into dancing with guys who knew a lot more about salsa than I did. I want to go more often so that I can get better at it! This form of dance is different than anything I have ever studied before, and I am intrigued by it. I am not used to having to follow someone else's lead in a dance that isn't necessarily choreographed steps. After letting go a bit and letting myself relax into the movement, I found that the steps came musch easier.

That's all for now. School is going well and I am loving every minute of my classes, even though the commute wears me out. More to come later. cheers :) mk

Saturday, October 3, 2009

touring buckingham palace and the second full week of classes

Last Sunday, Ali and I decided to head over to Buckingham palace to visit for the tours of the state rooms, which is a limited time tourist attraction, so we decided to take part in it. At first, I thought it would be realy "showy" and that I would not feel as though I were really seeing the palace, only a few display rooms that were never actually used. This was not the case, however. We entered from the side area of the palace and we were offered headphones for a free audio tour of the palace, which was actually quite nice to have. It was way better than having groups of people going through with a tour guide who would be screaming at the top of his/her lungs to be able to have everyone in the group hear what was being said. I really appreciated being able to go through the palace at my own pace and being able to guide myself with the little audio headset. I was able to see all sorts of rooms in the palace, most mainly used for entertaining guests that come at any given time as well as dinners, gatherings, meetings, conferences, etc. For each room in the palace, there was a big load of history given on the audio tour, which was neat.. but none of which I actually remember. The most amazing thing I was able to observe while at the palace was the overwhelming array of gifts that the royal family has received from various countries throughout the world. I found it quite amazing that the queen finds some kind of place to display every single gift that is given to her, whether it is small or big or even very oddly shaped. Every gift has a special place in the palace. I was quite disappointed when I found out that we were not allowed to take any pictures inside at all... but I certainly made up for it when we got outside into the back gardens. Here are a couple of pictures that I took and thought were especially nice.


I really enjoyed getting to ee Buckingham palace. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I then went back to the house and changed to get ready for church at Hillsong. This is a church I have found and really like. They hold services at the Dominion Theater and hold 4 services per week with around 2,000 people attending each one. It is a contemporary service with lots of music and enthusiasm. :) The best part about attending is that I have met a lot of people that are local to the area which is what I have been wanting to do. I love the girls I am living with and go to school with.. but I have also been wanting to get to know some local people, too!

This past week was the second full week of classes at Laban, and I loved them so much. I am learning so much just by being in this environment. I am learning a lot about myself as well as the type of dancer I am and want to be. The most important thing I am learning, though, is what I want to accomplish as a teacher of dance. I am learning so much about different philosophies of teaching as well as working in classes to try and figure out what it is within myself that I have to offer to my students. :)) more to come. cheers. mk