In London the Phones Don't Work, or Else I'd Be Calling.

I'M ALIVE!!!! In case anyone was worried, I made it here in one piece. Drew's basically told you peeps already, but to expand upon it, my flight got delayed in Chicago because it's snowy there, so I didn't get into London until 12:30am after the tube had stopped running. I didn't want to pay 95+ pounds for a taxi (around $150), so I decided to try to navigate the night buses with all of my luggage. In total I'd have to make 3 transfers, and since the oyster ticket machines were all broken or shut down, I had to beg each bus driver to let me onto the bus. The first one wasn't even checking tickets, so that worked pretty well. Except that the bus broke down. Slowly and painfully. Another bus eventually came along and picked us all up, and I made it through the rest of the transfers to the last bus stop and decided to catch a cab since it was super late and I still had no ticket and buses can't take cash. I finally got dropped off on Drew's campus, but my phone stopped working somewhere over the Atlantic, so I couldn't call him to find out where on his campus I should go, FORTUNATELY, we bumped into each other when I hadn't been there more than 15 minutes and we got back to Drew's room and I DIED, having woken up at 4:15amEST to catch my flight to Chicago.

Fast forward to me showing up in the queue and letting Drew go warm up a bit: there were 6 people in front of us who were quite lovely and talkative and made the waiting go MUCH faster! 10am came around and the box office opened up and people started getting tickets, and I don't know what Drew is on about "Eight people in front of us" because tickets ran out SIX ahead of us! The same 6 we'd been talking to the whole time. Since at this point we'd all been waiting together and besides, we were inside now even if it was still cold (It had actually been snowing at one point in line! Oddly, the snow was all 2 pointed instead of 6-pointed flakes. I have NO idea why, but Drew can confirm.) we all decided to wait together. Long story short, we got return tickets with full view in house left of the stalls (ground level) and we scurried off home to change and get all prettied up for the show! We missed champagne with our waiting family in the bar beforehand, but we made it in before the lights got flashed.

As you all should know by now, Drew and I NEVER agree about theatre. Think Communist Dracula Pageant. Or really anything we've seen together. Usually we conform to exactly the opposite opinion of each detail, HOWEVER!!! This Hamlet was THE BEST SHOW I've EVER SEEN. Ever. Evereverever. I'm not particularly a Star Wars fan or an X-Men fan, and I'd only watched a few episodes of Doctor Who, so while I liked Patrick Stewart and David Tennant, I didn't really have hugely strong opinions of what they would be like. It was... amazing. I really don't know how to describe it! It was natural and beautiful and genuine and just... AUGH! SO GOOD!!! There was one point where Hamlet was talking to Horatio (I think) and the bit about the king carousing and the cannons being shot off each time and the lights BECAME the fireworks they were talking about. And the costumes for the play within a play were perfect. And the set was incredible and the acting was... Words can't even describe. It makes me want to run off and join the RSC (which is only a few tube stops away, after all!!!)! In a while maybe I'll be better able to describe it, but for now: It was without question the best piece of theatre I have ever seen.

Ok, this is about my fourth time writing on this entry since I've just got bits of time during lunch or between classes to get online.

In other news: I just finished my first week of classes and I am EXHAUSTED. It is an exhaustion I have never known in BC theatre due to the fact that I am spending up to 12 hours a day in theatre classes with nothing else, and then going back to the hostel and doing theatre homework, and nothing else. I haven't even had time to get out to a pub yet, and there's one about 100 yards from my doorstep! It's amazing. At the end of these 14 weeks I'm either going to be a fucking amazing actress, or I'll be DEAD. Right now it could go either way, although after the 3 hour jazz class I had last night that made Kirstin's class look like child's play, dead is looking more and more probable. I've got text classes, acting classes, choir, small chorus, singing (yeah, that's 3 classes), plus voice (pure, applied, and phoenetics), movement, jazz, Shakespeare's histories, historical dance, stage combat, Alexander technique, and clown/physical theatre improv. Classes go from 10am-6pm, except on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays when they go until 9 or 9:30pm and Thursdays when they start at 9am. This whole course is exactly what I've been wanting, especially since it is chock full of teachers who are entirely happy to tear you apart to make you better (even happier if they're doing it to an American or someone who's French).

To give you a taste of what it's like: our first day we had a 3 hour lecture/explanation of the line of ascent to the english throne and how that shaped all of the history of English Kings from 1066 until the Henry VIII, including who was lord protector and what conditions required one, who was duke of where and why, who was sleeping with whom, and about a million other details all spouted off in a manner that would've put an encyclopedia to shame. Yesterday in the histories class we went literally word-by-word through 6 scenes of Richard II as well as through the full play paraphrasing every line into modern language, which was (obviously) tedious, but really pulled it apart in a way I've certainly never experienced at home. This evening we had Jeff Perry (one of the co-founders of Steppenwolf) come in and talk about how they started the theater (which, if I'd known beforehand I would've dragged Drew over to hear it), how he approaches a role, how he deals with having over a THOUSAND performances of the same show, and whatever else he felt like talking about. August:Osage County is here for a few more days, so I'm going to try to get out to see it this weekend.

As for London itself, it's not quite what I thought it might be. I haven't seen any of the touristy stuff yet, not even the Thames or London Bridge or anything, so maybe that's why... But it's much more just like any other city than I expected, just that they drive on the wrong side (which may just get me killed one of these days) and it's all super expensive. I'm feeling rather lonely for everyone at home and in Boston and scattered across the globe!!! I wish you could all be here, because I miss you lots and lots and lots!!!

I love you bunches!!!
Caiti

p.s. And now I'm going out clubbing to celebrate a week of exhaustion. Bad ideas? I think so, but it's for all the LAMDA students, so ah well. I LOVE YOU!!!