Nine Months Later...

It has been nine months now since I left England and ended my year of study abroad. Since then I have slowly readjusted to life in Santa Barbara and even enjoyed a visit from Paul over Christmas Break.

And this month I am happy to say that I WILL BE VISITING BIRMINGHAM FOR MY SPRING BREAK JUST AS I'VE PLANNED ALL YEAR!!!!

After working late shifts every Saturday night at a burrito joint in Isla Vista all fall quarter and with the help of some generous Christmas contributions from my family, I saved up enough to buy my own ticket to England...and at a very reasonable price: $586 total roundtrip!

(Sidenote: I have taken up a new job in retail since fall quarter)

I'll be done with my exams on Tuesday of finals week so I'll be able to get away earlier than I expected which allows me to spend some time with Paul's family before I go to Birmingham and catch all my friends during their last week of spring term before they break up for their Easter Holidays. Basically, the timing is PERFECT!
I'm going to be able to see a few shows being put on by the department and the theatre societies I was part of as well, one of them being one of my all time favorites: The History Boys!
And I will even be making a getaway to London to visit with Samantha Dakin and see my friend Orlando James play Hamlet for his Drama Centre third year performance.

There will just be so much to do and I cannot wait!

Now you're probably wondering what I have been up to since I got back to Santa Barbara.
Well, I've been adjusting for the most part. It was not easy to come back. At all. But the place I moved into had some lovely girls living in it which made it a little easier.

I forced myself to get out of my room and get involved with things. I auditioned for a student film, actually, and got cast in a fairly large supporting role. Through the film I made many new friends, and actually became closer with some old acquaintances from freshman year. It's called Until the Very Last Moment and will be premiering in April. You can stay up to date on the post-production of the movie and other works of the director, Steven Ray Morris, here.
That pretty much what I was doing in terms of acting fall quarter. That and I was in a Solo Performance class where we learned some of the basics of solo performance art. For my final performance I wrote and performed a piece about the Velvet Revolution in Prague.
The rest of my time was taken up by work and Psychology...and trying to stay up to date with everything that was going on with my friends in Birmingham through the wonder that is Facebook.
Youtube was also a good comfort when I wanted to watch or listen to some things that would remind me of England and my time there.
Like this little commercial that was playing on television a lot during my last weeks in B'ham:



This song seriously transports me back there every time I hear it.

This was a video that my friend Ed sent me the beginning of Fall Quarter and I ended up watching it quite a lot:




You can't get enough of British humour. Which is why I would also watch this music pop quiz show called Nevermind the Buzzcocks quite a lot as well. I even got one of my housemates sucked into it.
Here's one of my favorite episodes with Amy Winehouse: (if you have 30 minutes, watch it)





Don't worry though, I did do [some] work!!

I have also been staying involved with the Education Abroad Program by going to some meetings for prospective EAP students that want to go to the UK and telling them what to expect as well as offering advice. There was even a workshop that they offered to EAP returnees that were having a hard time readjusting to student life at UCSB. I attended with 5 other girls and it was basically a support group for those going through the reverse culture shock blues. We all went around the circle and talked about our experiences a bit and why we wanted to go back...I actually started crying. But it was a comfort to know that there were other students that were going through the same things I was.

Basically the fact that Paul was coming to visit for Christmas really kept my spirits up during the fall. It was probably one of my best Christmases.
Here it is in a nutshell...

IN THE BAY AREA:

Took him to Chinatown...


The Golden Gate...


Sausalito...


IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY:

Obviously, took him to visit Confusion Hill on the way home...


Taught him how to prepare crab for Christmas Eve dinner...




Took him on lots of hikes and walks ('cause I've realized in Humboldt, that is basically all you can do to entertain your guests...)




Showed him a small-town New Year's celebration...


BACK IN THE BAY AREA:

Took him to Fisherman's Wharf...


Took him for a ride on the streetcars...


And finally, Pixar Studios.


A very eventful and fun holiday, I think. It was really hard to say bye and go back to school. At the airport Paul said, "See you in a couple of months, yeah?" and at the time I didn't have my ticket so I tearfully said "Maybe," and he obstinately replied "No: I will see you in a few months."
I'm happy he was as hopeful for my spring visit as I was. I'm really glad it's going to happen now!

Winter quarter has been a very good one for me actually with the anticipation of my visit to England and I've been doing some theatre as well...more than I expected actually. I'm in a dialects course and a film/stage acting class through the Film and Media department and I've been cast in a few scenes for the directing class throughout the quarter. Don't worry, I WILL complete my Psych major.

It's almost 2 weeks now until I fly to Heathrow! Paul's dad has kindly offered to pick me up from the airport to drive me to Gloucestershire. There I will celebrate his birthday with him and Catherine (I somehow always manage to visit the Coates during events that call for celebration- Alan's retirement, Catherine's father, Harold's, birthday, and now Alan's!) :)
The next day he'll drive me to Birmingham and that evening I will be seeing The History Boys featuring my former Oleanna co-star, David, in yet another professor role.

I can't bloody wait!!!

"Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay!" Part 3: A Cornish Holiday

I did try to follow up my last entry with one about our holiday in Cornwall as soon as possible...but clearly I wasn't trying hard enough.
But I'm doing it now seeing as how I have found the time and the motivation to carry out my promise because once I say I am going to do something, I always follow through...eventually.

So last time I left you with Paul, Alan and I driving out of Birmingham.
We arrived at their home in Gloucestershire in the late afternoon.
Wine was had before dinner and Paul entertained me with his guitar-playing to keep my mind off of how sad I was to leave Birmingham.



Oh clearly he succeeded.

The next morning we began the journey to Cornwall. We took three cars; Alan and Catherine in one, Pip (Paul's sister) and Dom (her boyfriend) in their car, and I rode with Paul.

The trip itself wasn't that long (to me at least, as I am quite accustomed to long car journeys from Humboldt to the Bay Area). Halfway there, Paul and I stopped for petrol and lunch. Thankfully there was a nice pub near the petrol station so we weren't forced to eat anything cheap or inedible from the shop.



It had a really nice view as well.

When we arrived at the house we were staying at in Fowye, it was overcast but the view from our patio was lovely!
We took a walk about the town and had dinner at a place by the harbour where I ordered sausage and mash in a yorkshire pudding. It was a massive dish and I barely put a dent in it. After eating his massive steak and chips and peas Paul finished it off for me.

The next day it was still a bit overcast and we went down to the docks to check out the boat we had rented out for the week.

The next morning, however, the weather was much more pleasant.




Catherine, Pip, Dom, Paul and I took the boat out to go fishing.




We returned empty-handed to the house where Alan was getting the barbecue ready, but we had an amazing dinner nonetheless.


Dom and Paul looking at pictures taken from the day.

From the first day on we fell into a nice routine of getting up, walking around town, getting into the boat to attempt fishing, coming home, and having dinner.

In the middle of week, Alan and Catherine thought we'd take a day trip to a nearby town called Falmouth.
It was a bit cold and the town wasn't all that exciting. Paul and I often found ourselves wondering, "Why did we come here?"



At the end of the day, Dom exclaimed, "Well, Falmouth isn't getting an entry in my diary!"

The rest of the week we were back in the same routine.




This was the road where we lived: Esplanade.


Our address

Paul and I even discovered this nice cafe called Pinky's where we could get a wireless connection and get our much needed internet fix.


Oh, as well as fishing and walking and such, we also ate a MASSIVE amount of Cornish cream teas!

One morning we even had some pleasant visitors:


Dom had made a little plank out of a cereal box so the ducklings could make it into the makeshift pool we'd provided.


On our last evening out.

On our last day in Cornwall, Paul and I had a day of hikes.




After covering the hills of Fowye, the entire family took the boat across the harbour to this town called Polruan where we took a walk through these lovely gardens.




All in all, it was a fantastic holiday and I was so happy that Paul and his family had invited me to be with them for my last week!

Driving back having arrived in Gloucestershire:


On my final FINAL day in England, Paul and I took a walk through the countryside, which was lovely:


And lazed about at home watching telly:


With the cats...


It was the perfect close to an unforgettable year!

Next I see Paul, now, will be next month when he comes to visit me for Christmas and New Year's!!!!
I am well excited!!

Perhaps before then I will blog and update everyone (who still reads this) on what I've been up to my first quarter back in Santa Barbara.

"Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay!" Part 2: Sweet but Sorrowful Goodbyes

Right, so during my last week in Birmingham, I went to GradBall and then I thought it'd be nice to arrange a sort of lunch with my friends in Gunnies. So created an event on facebook and invited people and ended up staying at the pub for, I dunno, a good 5 hours or so. People sort of drifted in and out as there were dress rehearsals going on for two last minute end of the year productions: Therese Raquin and Midsummer Night's Dream.


Katie and Maddy

So that was all rather sad and bittersweet saying bye to everyone. That night Paul went with me to see Midsummer Night's Dream. They had to perform inside unfortunately (not outside in front of the Vale lake as they'd planned) but it was wonderful nonetheless. After the performance, everyone migrated onto campus to Joe's for an after-show pint. The Therese Raquin cast had just finished their opening night as well so there was a great deal of theatre people present which was convenient for me because I could just get all the painful goodbyes over with in one go.
I would go into details, but I wouldn't want to drone on and bore you. Just know, I cried very much. I nearly got a headache. There were even a few parting gifts which included a ring from my friend David, an impromptu poem from my friend Vicki, and a letter from my friend Will that I was told not to open unless I was "extremely low".
Ugh, it sounds so cliche but Shakespeare had it right: "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

The next day, I took care of some last minute errands; gathered my papers at the drama department (got a whopping 90 [well over a first mark] on the Theatre and Cultural Politics paper that I slaved away on over Easter holidays!). Actually met with one of the professors who went over my final marks with me. And when he saw the 86 final mark for Theatre and Cultural Politics and he exclaimed, "My word; 86. Graduate school is in your future."

So I'm quite pleased with that.

My flatmates had a brunch but unfortunately I couldn't join them due to all the business I had to take care of.



'Had some last minute goodbyes after I gathered my papers, and then Paul's dad arrived to pick us up and drive us to Gloucestershire.
Oh god it was the hardest thing clearing out my room. It was just so empty in the end. If I didn't have people waiting on me to clear out, I would've had to be dragged out.

So as Alan and Paul and I drove out of Birmingham I spent a lot of time just gazing out the window and soaking every possible detail in.



It was so hard to fathom leaving Birmingham before the fact because I'd grown so attached to the places and the people. So actually leaving was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

Cheerful Cornwall pictures to come!

"Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay!"

So this blog is far too long overdue but better late than never.
I'd meant to do a blog on my last weeks in England but I've clearly been procrastinating because I was afraid that to write about my last moments in the UK over the summer in my seemingly constant depressive state would be to mourn them and that's not what I wanted. I wanted to be in the right state of mind to write this so I could celebrate them. I want the remembrance of them to make me happy as I anticipate my return.
This is my attempt at celebration.

First let me briefly mention the Vale Festival that took place on the 10th of June: it was an awesome music-based event where all proceeds went to charitable causes. This year the charities were focused on bringing more access to clean water and sanitation in countries in need. So this year the theme was 'Water is Life'.



And I finally made my way to Stratford upon Avon! I took the train there on my own and took a tour of Shakespeare's house and later on, Will met up with me and we took in a matinee of Midsummer Night's Dream.


In my last few weeks I got so sentimental I actually took brief videos of my typical walk to campus so here are some clips so you can see:








I hope that wasn't too boring for you...

For my last weekend in Birmingham, I finally took part in a 48 Hour directed by Flo and James. We did a Russian play, The Government Inspector.


I played the Director of Education, Khlopov. When I read for the part in the auditions I tried to channel the head of the Drama/Dance department of UCSB, Simon Williams, who is British and the charming bumbling professor type. It seemed to have been a good acting choice as that was the role I was given.


My friend from UCSB, Karie, had taken a year abroad in Italy. She was the one I visited in Paris for New Year's/her 21st Birthday. The weekend we did Government Inspector she came to visit me with another UCSB friend, so they got to see the show.

Me and Karie

Here are some of the rehearsal pictures I stole from my friend Lauren Baker.

The ensemble!


Look there's Oleanna Dave in the back there with me!


Danny Fisher as the Town Mayor


"Oh deeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaar!"


Warm-ups before performance.
Mom, you said I looked a lot like Dad in this one so I thought I'd post it for you. :)

On the 17th of June was the GradBall and I thought I'd attend seeing as how I was kind of graduating from Birmingham.
My friend Ed and I decided to be each others' dates.

It was soooooooo pleasant!


I think I'll end this portion now on a happy note. I still have much to post with all my Cornwall pictures and such so stay tuned.

But first, some footage of a lip sync performance by my friend Tommy...accompanied by Adam and his DJing skills. This was the man who so famously coined the phrase, "Hey baby, let's vacuum." Basically, the story behind this whole lip syncing to N*Sync ordeal began back in fall term. I was at 69 Alton, the home of David and Tommy, and Tommy had some cast members from Little Shop, which he was directing at the time, over. Some N*Sync came on and I just started lip syncing and dancing for Tommy in that corny boy-bandish way. He loved it and since then we always talked about having a Boy Band Lip Syncing Party which we never actually got around to doing...until my last week.


Catch Adam's "whatthef&*$?!" face which we invented back in December:


Okay, I will leave you there.

SO Many Fancy Dress Parties

Here's some stuff I wanted to post before the weepy blog came along.

So bascs (another drama word: 'basically') the first week of June after I came back from Brighton a whole load of fancy dress parties just kinda piled up.

On Wednesday it was my friend Reece's birthday celebrations and he encouraged people to dress up 50s 60s themed (this later stretched out to the 70s thanks to our friend Will) and go out to our favorite club SNOBS (where I spent every Wednesday evening Winter term, actually) :-x


Alice and I in our best 50s 60s garb

Next morning Will and I surprisingly managed to drag ourselves out of bed to watch the Drama final year practical performances in town. Later we did some shopping for Will's fancy dress costume for Friday night.


The Bull of the Birmingham Bullring

On Thursday it was my friend Thom's birthday celebrations and the fancy dress code was T-Themed. I decided to do my uncles proud and come as a Trekkie.

For some research, Paul had me watch this:





It was one of those eventful nights and Will and I were still in Selly Oak when the sun began to rise at like 3 in the morning! That's another wonderful thing about England in the summer- the daylight really does last longer. It wouldn't get dark until 10 pm.

Friday we tried catching up on sleep to get ready for one more night of fancy dress at our friends' joint birthday party themed 'Beauty and the Geek' where the pieces of Will's week-long search for the best outfit finally came together.



I miss this boy!