Running Away from the Finish

It's not so much that I'm running away from the end of my time here, I'm just trying to consciously will it away. Not that my time here in the grand ole UK ends as soon as some of the other people of my program who are leaving right away, but being here without them will be equally tough. ALRIGHT - enough of the ending stuff... what happened in my life this week you ask?
Well... Monday night Margy & I ventured over to Shoreditch, a recently-made cool area with a friend from LAMDA to see a musical that one of his mate's had directed. It was called "Bright Lights, Big City" and the best way to explain my feelings about it would be to tell you that there was a song titled "I Love Drugs" with a lyric "Drano for my brain-o". So... yeah. But it did end up being a really great night of adventures in new areas of London, and therefore, a successful evening!
Thursday marked two exciting things; not only was it Thanksgiving when I got to head back to my favorite half-American, English family, the Mogilner's, but I also had, what I think, is my favorite class at LAMDA thus far. It was my Physical Theatre Class, an hour and half that usually leaves me sweating and sore in places that I didn't know could be sore, but this class was totally different. It's going to sound very artsy and drama-schooly, but we literally spent the whole class listening to our bodies and moving in ways that made us stretch and move around space in ways that made us feel good. It was entirely about impulse and pleasure, and was just a excerisize in cutting the crap and doing whatever you want. People in my class ended up strewn over ballet bars, climbing into rafters and somersalting across the sprung floor - and none of us had any idea what was going to come next. My favorite thing was to try and let myself fall and not think about how I was going to keep myself from getting hurt. Every single time my body moved in a way that kept me from every falling to the ground or hurting myself, leading me to wonder how in the world I can be such a klutz when I'm concentrating. I know it probably sounds a bit bizarre and the fact that that is a class that I am being graded in baffles most everybody I talk to, but it was such an unreal opportunity that I have never had before, and doubt I will have again anytime soon.
Friday night brought our "Improv Party", which sounds a lot like a party with "Whose Line is it Anyway?" games, but was actually quite far from it. For the last 2 months in class we have each been keeping a character journal, inspired by a picture of a stranger. Our instructions were to find a picture of someone of our gender over the age of 40 (ideally, someone you would never be cast as) and create a character around them. This included everything from first kiss to most recent pay-check and every week my improv professor would give us a series of questions to answer as that character. Friday night we arrived at the party in full-costume and make-up according to this person that we had created, and proceeded to socialize for the next 3 HOURS a them. We were pretty uniformly terrified about keeping it going for that long, but it ended up going a lot smoother than any of us had anticipated, and it probably didn't hurt that they served alcohol as a social lubricant. At 9 o'clock when we all left the party and returned to our normal hair, makeup, clothing and age there was really nothing else to do but head to Curtain's Up, the local LAMDA pub and reminisce about just how ridiculous the last 3 hours were - and they really were.
This weekend was lovely, albeit frigid, so Saturday after meandering about King's Road for the morning, I headed back to my hall to start preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner; pt.2 with all of the Americans from our program. We did it pot-luck style and called it for 4, which obviously means we didn't eat until 5:30, but it was such a wonderful time! Everybody was scrambling around the hallway from kitchen to kitchen checking on their food and tasting everyone else's. I made delicious brussel sprouts (if I do say so myself) and enjoyed a wonderfully veggie Thanksgiving of sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn salad, stuffing, mashed potato and LOTS of pies. We had to roll ourselves out of the common room by the end of it, but it was so nice to all be together laughing and eating on a Saturday night before people dispersed for their various shows, movies, plans, etc...
Today I woke up just as full as I was last night and somehow Maddie and I managed to get ourselves over to Brick Lane to do some Sunday afternoon shopping. They have all of these amazing vintage shops and craft tables, and there was one HUGE warehouse that was packed with rows and rows of vintage stalls, full of sequins, feathers, velvet and leather. It was such a lovely way to spend the day and we even managed to make ourselves hungry enough to both have our first experience with Burmese food from the international market. And a cupcake, from the not-so-international market :)
I am just so delighted with how I get to spend my time here. I really love everything about this city and how every part of it is different and interesting and beautiful. I keep thinking about ways to fill my days between getting back from traveling and leaving for home and keep realizing that the real problem is going to be deciding what I have to leave out. This week brings the last week of standard scheduled classes, which is just too too weird to think about, but time goes on, and to quote a true London-er singing about her city; "Sun is in the sky, oh why oh why, would I want to be anywhere else?"