Time for another update
I had a very lovely, low key Christmas.
On the 24th I went out to dinner with some friends at a restaurant in North London called Belgo Nord. It's apparently well known for its beer selection. I'm not a beer drinker by a long shot, but my friend who is liked it. Plus we were all impressed that every single beer is served in a different glass. Honestly I liked the restaurant I guess, but I mostly enjoyed the company (duh) and the restaurant's decorations:
Yeah, that says "blowhard" and "assface". Insults were carved into the wall along with food related words. It was pretty funny. Especially since there were Christmas decorations everywhere too, so it was both cheerful and offensive.
Christmas itself was low key. I skyped with my parents in the afternoon and unwrapped presents. I made myself a lovely dinner of beef stroganoff with chocolate Christmas pudding for desert. My roommate was out of the flat for the week so I had the entire place to myself.
The next day ("Boxing Day"--which is a shopping day on par with Black Friday here) I met up with my friend Sara and her friend Suri and Suri's boyfriend to go see Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland. It's essentially a huge fair with lots of local vendors and delicious food and rides and music and whatnot. I had been there earlier when Hildegunn came to visit me, but I hadn't spent a great deal of time there so it was nice to walk around with them and really see the place. Sara and I decided to go on some rides since they looked incredibly fun. She likes upside down rides and roller coasters at least as much as I do, if not more, so it was nice to have someone to go on the big rides with.
We went ice skating too. I only made it for about half an hour (the entire session lasted an hour) since I'm an atrocious skater and the skates hurt like hell. But I did it! With Sara's coaxing (and hand holding) I even made it off the wall a few times. So overall I wasn't a complete failure.
The rest of the break was pretty boring. I had to write an essay on whether catharsis is possible today, which was a terrible way to end the break frankly, but whatever. I got it turned in. It's done. Moving on.
I also managed to see both American Psycho the musical (yes, they turned American Psycho into a musical) and Tori Amos' new musical 'The Light Princess'. Monday night I also saw Richard II by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
I wasn't particularly impressed by any of them, frankly. The only one I truly HATED was The Light Princess though, thankfully. I don't think I could handle three shows in a row that I loathed! The next one I'm seeing is Midsummer Night's Dream. It's created by the same people who did War Horse, and it looks like it's almost all puppets (and one of my favourite Shakespeare plays), so I have high hopes for it.
Classes started last week and they've been going fine. I've got two directing courses, a movement class, and one that I'm not really sure how to describe other than theatre theory. Not really sure what to say about them other than they're happening and I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to enjoy them or not. We'll see, I guess.
Anyway, one of my very best friends from home, Caitlin "Owen", is in town now. She's staying with another friend until Sunday when she's coming to stay with me for a few days. I'm so excited to see her! We're going to meet up on Saturday night for some karaoke in Soho. It's going to be glorious.
