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!

Every ending is a new beginning, but all beginnings are hard

There are many blogs and pictures about my last weeks here that I want to put up but this one simply can't wait.

I have just spent my last full day in Birmingham and have said many goodbyes. I had a little farewell lunch and in the evening I saw a production of Midsummer Night's Dream, the cast of which consisted of some of my best friends here. We all then headed for campus for Joe's, the bar at the guild.

I don't remember the last time I cried so much. I tried so hard to hold everything back when saying goodbye to friends that hated tears, but in other instances I just had to let go. I have been crying a lot, I grant you, but I would rather have it this way than me aching to go home and not acknowledging my last moments. It is so hard to say goodbye but the friendships I have made here are so strong, it would be ridiculous NOT to come back and visit.

All I can really say is that I don't know how I got so lucky in making so many amazing friends in one year.

I have adored every moment.
I have had my lows but I do not regret them.
I know I've accomplished so much.
I have made the most of everything.
My heart has ached so much these past few weeks, but I take comfort in the fact that I and everyone I've loved here are going to make sure that we see each other again.

I am glad though that it isn't another week until I leave the country. In the mean time I will be having an undoubtedly wonderful time in Cornwall with Paul and his family.

It has been the most amazing journey. I have soaked up every last bit. All I could think of on my walk back home was how grateful I was for everything. I even found myself whispering "Thank you" to everything around me.

I cry to acknowledge all the wonderful things that have happened and I find myself smiling when I think of my return. I know this is not the end.

Brighton By the Sea

At the end of May I decided to take a trip to Brighton to visit my friend Claire whom I met at the EAP orientation in London.

On my way to the train station in Birmingham, I always pass by a rest home. On this day an elderly woman who was out for a walk with a caretaker stopped me for a little chat just to say hello. Woman: "Where are you off to on this lovely day?"
Me: "Oh I'm going to Brighton!"
Woman: "Oh Brighton by the Sea! Oh, take me with you!"
It was the sweetest thing! She also complimented my eyes. I wish I did take her along.

Claire goes to University of Sussex in Falmer, but met me in Brighton to show me around.



The Pavilion


The Seaside!





The next day in Falmer, Claire took me on a nice walk behind her campus. As Jane Austen fans how could we not enjoy a nice long walk in the English countryside, imagining Mr Darcy shall appear at any moment.


Claire lovingly calls this place the Bennet House






Made a new friend! :)

In the evening I headed for London for one last visit to Sam's. The next day I took in a matinee of King Lear at the Globe.


It was pretty incredible. The eye-gouging scene was so graphic!



On my way back across the bridge I soaked some last bits of London in...and stumbled across my friend, Anthony's, school.


How lucky: to go to school nestled between St. Paul's Cathedral and the Thames and to have The Globe just across the river. *swoon*

Socials Piling Up

It's the end of the year which means all the socials and plays are piling up at the last minute. All the birthdays too surprisingly.

A few weeks ago, Article 19 (the society that put on Oleanna) held a social as promotion for their upcoming play The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? which was performed last week. The play deals with bestiality, and the social was a fancy dress party, so everyone came dressed up like animals. Yep.

My friend Vicki and I dressed up as sheep.



I had a lot of fun with those cotton balls, I'll tell you.

My friend Adam directed the play. He also came as a sheep so the three of us managed to make a flock.


That's Maddy as the frog with the identity crisis

They really went all out on the decorations. There was hay everywhere.




(the bar)


(the loo)

There was even an animal dance off where you had to dance as your animal.


My friend Luke came to the party dressed as Roadkill. He won the dance off.


And of course there was a competition for the best costume.


Here are some more of me as a crazy sheep:

Yes I am aware that my tail slightly resembles a tampon. That's fine.


Getting a drink at the trough


So it's Non-Silence of the Lambs then.

Everything a Birthday Should Be!

It's long overdue (as always) but I promised my family pictures from my birthday... and some stories to go with them.

May 20th:
I actually got up fairly early and the weather was gorgeous. Some friends of mine that are in the improvised theatre group came by my flat with some chocolates and we walked to the lake to lay out in the sun.



That was all good fun. Later they had to go to rehearsal and had me come along to watch and I was more than happy to. I'm always in stitches when I watch them perform. They were rehearsing on the lawn behind the guild. I left briefly to buy myself a birthday drink: Magners cider (cuz it's such a summery beverage). I am not usually IDed at the Tesco Express but that day I was. I smiled a bit thinking about how on your 21st birthday in a America one shows their ID even if they're not asked for it- it's pretty much a tradition, isn't it? I couldn't seem to escape it even in a country where I have been the legal drinking age all year. The only disappointment was that the guy at the till didn't seem to notice the exact date under 'DOB'. (!) He must've forgotten what day it was.



I soon had to run back to my flat to get ready for the 6 o'clock dinner I reserved at this Italian restaurant called Pizza Express. I had sent out invitations for a night of clubbing to celebrate my birthday a good two weeks before the day. I also added that if anyone wanted to go to dinner before going out to let me know so I could start a head count. 20 people ended up responding. For parties bigger than 10 at Pizza Express you have to pre-order all the dishes, so up until the very last minute I was gathering dinner orders for everyone. It was all fine, I just wanted to make sure everything was clear so we wouldn't anger the staff.

I didn't realize a 20-person table would be so long!




It's really interesting: on one side there are the red wine/rose drinkers and on the other side there are the whites.

Things got a little hectic when the orders started coming. I ended up comparing the emailed list of orders I sent them to my own hard copy of who ordered what. I definitely didn't hear them when my order came up so I was the last to receive my food, but no matter. I silently stressed a bit and my friend Katie Brennan who was sitting next to me was patting my back saying "Don't stress, don't stress..." She directed the latest musical show so she knows all about it. :)


Adam


Reece and Oleanna director/friend, James


Char


Thom


You know Paul...

A birthday cake came out later (which I suspect was organized by James and Thom as they escaped for a bit during the dinner).


I was really quite touched!


Thinking about my wish...

I then spoke a bit to thank them (Thom made a video and Paul made one on my camera but it was from an awkward angle cuz he was sitting next to me, not that I would post them here anyways cuz I'm a horrible speaker I realize).

After dinner the waiters that served us offered me a birthday drink. Adam and James were with me and they told the guys to give me a shot of tequila (Sauza I think it was). Oh I hate tequila but I was actually able to down it without any chaser.

We then headed for James' old workplace, Pitcher and Piano, for more drinks before we headed out.


Drinkin a Cosmo with Char



The club that we all went to afterwards was this place called Barfly. I had never been but their thing was 90's music so I knew it'd be good fun!
Most of everyone that couldn't make it to the dinner came there.



And now for some embarrassing but funny pictures of the dancing that followed (most of these I have stolen off of friends):

Dancing with Lara




Stephen

It was all so so SO much fun! I knew so many of the songs they played. I found myself dancing to B*Witched, N*Sync, Backstreet Boys; they were the same songs I was dancing to at all my birthdays in middle school. I couldn't have asked for more.

People kept telling me days afterwards how much fun they had that night. The next time I ran into Stephen he told me, "Oh you were so drunk! Well not drunk, you were just...embracing every tune!"

I could not have asked for a better 21st! A good time was had by all and it was so nice of everyone to celebrate with me.
Thank you all for your birthday wishes! It was truly a day to remember! xx

"We're So Un and Bohemian"

un: [uh-n] adj. meaning "unbelievable", part of the slang vocabulary specific to the members of the Guild Musical Theatre Group (GMTG) of the University of Birmingham. The infectiousness of this particular way of speaking, however, has caused it to branch out to other theatre societies in the area.

This particular quote came about when some friends and I were hanging about the guild on one of its surrounding lawns waiting to go in to attend a production of No Exit around mid-May.
We were all sitting in a cluster. Many of the people I hang out with are Theatre/English joint honours (double major) students so they were studying/cramming for one of their exams the next day.
I had just turned in some of the books I used for research and picked up some more to look for potential monologues for auditions.

A couple yards away from us, a rehearsal for Midsummer Night's Dream was going on and a safe distance from that was the Battle Reenactment Society dressed in their best medieval garb wielding swords (not drama/drama circle related).

Stephanie (who is responsible for most of the GMTG slang, in my opinion) is the one I credit the above quote to. She also took some candid photos which were quite nice that I just thought I'd share.




Me, Char, and Will (who just got into Oxford School of Drama!)

A memorable moment and quote for the books.