The Hills Are Alive...!

....With the sound of MUSIC! Well… not really, but I’ve been listening to the Sound of Music Soundtrack and I just felt that everyone should know! Haha, anyway, I guess I should start at the beginning, its been a while since I’ve written so brace yourself. Right, so MONDAY. Bah, Monday, who likes Mondays? Monday single-handedly takes the cake for the worst day in the week, and as such you really would rather the Monday didn’t start off on a bad note, right? Well, this Monday everyone in the Elm Building (and I think the whole of University Village) was woken up just a few minutes past 8am with the fire alarm!! Don’t freak out, the building wasn’t on fire, they were just doing a fire drill, so I rolled out of bed listening to this “piercing two tone warble” (as it is so graciously described on the fire safety sheets), pulled on my jacket and shoes and stumbled out of Elm building with a handful of other grumpy college kids. Yay for Monday.

Fortunately, Monday was not a complete waste. I did however, after going back to bed after the fire alarm, sleep a bit too late and as such was forced to not take a shower before my class. Ah, my Introduction to World Dramatic Literatures class. I think its great how they don’t bother to tell you that you’re supposed to have a play read by the first week of class. So by that point I was behind in two different classes. Oh well, thank God they’re all plays and if they can be performed in 2-3 hours, in theory, I should be able to read them in the same amount of time (if not less). Too bad its all Greek and Roman tragedy at this point. So that was Monday, I finished the day off quite nicely by burning three of my fingers on the stove… Apparently I didn’t know it was still on.

So Tuesday rolls around and I sleep in because I don’t have class on Tuesdays. I did some homework, but the more important thing is that Heather and I went into Norwich to go to Morrison’s and do some grocery shopping! Not that exciting, right? But I feel so grown up when I go grocery shopping. Oh, and they charge you like 20p to use a shopping cart! How ghetto is that?? So we did our grocery shopping and had to take the bus back to our dorms and then after that we get to walk the 15 minutes from the bus stop to our dorms carrying our groceries, so the whole ordeal took us a good 2 hours. Never should shopping for food take that long. It was then that I truly missed my car. BUT, the good news is that I got potatoes and found Chalula Sauce, so I got a taste of home. :) Tuesday night was spent memorizing a sonnet I’m supposed to have ready for Thursday, and then sleep.

That brings us to today. Today I had class at 9am, which is really not the most pleasant hour of the day. I woke up and it was foggy as I was walking to class which really is quite cool. It reminds me even more how far away from home I am and how exciting that is. I had a bit of a breakdown the other night though because I really do miss home. Its weird, I was sitting in acting class today thinking about how I don’t really know any of these people, and it was disheartening. I had to remind myself that it was only the 2^nd week that I’d been here, and its going to take time to make friends and build relationships. In my acting class I have to do a scene with some other people next week so once we start rehearsals I might be able to meet some more crazy artsy people like myself. That brings me to my other thing, I’ve got an audition tonight and another one tomorrow so here’s hoping I get a part in one of those.

Ah, I almost forgot! Not that this is important, of course, but the girls and I watched the movie The Queen the other night and it was actually really interesting. Its all about the royal family's reaction to the death of Princess Diana. I had seen it before but it was far more interesting (and made a whole lot more sense) as I was watching it this time with a bunch of Brits who were able to explain some of the finer points of the monarchy to me. I would recommend it to anyone if for no other reason than to see an outstanding performance by Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II of England.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. Nothing too exciting, but its good to know that things are starting to settle down. I’m trying to get used to having homework again and remembering how to memorize lines… its been too long since I’ve done either. Things are starting to feel a bit more like “home” though. Seeing cars driving on the left side of the road isn’t quite so weird anymore, and riding the bus is starting to feel normal. It’s a weird thought that this may actually feel like home.

Well, I best be off, I gotta eat something before I start my homework. I hope life in New Mexico is just as fantastic as ever. Enjoy the sun for me, I know I miss it almost as much as I miss all of you! (wow…. These closing lines of mine are getting progressively cheesier… sorry!)