Glasgow, Scotland!

Hey Guys! Sorry I havent posted in so so so so long and sorry i really have ZERO pictures for you until i find a starbucks with free wifi to send pictures to facebook, but I still wanted to update you on whats been happening. 

The second day in London was super cool. Great eats, great sights, great schools, great fun. I visited a lot of schools (actually only 3 but thats all i wanted to) and went around all of Londons shopping looking for clothing that wasnt terribly expensive. 

However, that didnt last for long because the next day we woke up,  had a stressful time hitching a ride without a ticket on a train to the airport in the next town (slept the whole way through) and then boarded a flight to Glasgow where the excessive amount of times i accidently fell asleep and then woke up gasping because i was surprised i nodded off made the man next to me very concerned. 

On another note, I dont care what people say: MY HOMELAND IS BEAUTIFUL!
Flying above Scotland was so nice and cool, and although im not staying in the beautiful Scottish countryside, but rather a bustling city, its still pretty rad out here. However after spending a few hours walking around with Laura and Hannah, our whole adventures that morning, and having to call British airways 129847248720 different times because my bag had not arrived at the Glasgow airport, i was exhausted. I dont remember falling asleep once hannah and laura had said their goodbyes but i apparently did and woke up at 11:00pm (the British would say 2300.) My bags still had not arrived at where I am staying even though british airways said they would, and i couldnt call them because their office was closed. 

This and experiencing being alone for the first time in a long time made me bummed that night, and i got over that by skyping anyone who was online and watching adventure time until my eyes would not stay open any longer. 

The next day was my first day of the course. 
Wow. 
So
cool.

I am no longer lonely because I have so many people here to keep me company! People from everywhere from every walk of life and every age! There's Oscar: cool 19 year old English guy who likes the Arctic monkeys and whos favorite film is "Rebel without a cause." Dalia: Shes from Cairo, Egypt. I KNOW RIGHT! Hearing her stories are absolutely fantastic, and although shes been living in germany the past few years, its still interesting to hear about her past and her family living there now during the turmoil. Meret is from Switzerland, and is 17 as well! Amelyine is French and lives in the heart of Paris. I swear the first day I thought she was the youngest with me but shes 28!!! FRENCH! She did a monologue today that ROCKED EVERYONES SOCKS OFF! Jake is 20, English, and knows Oscar I guess. He lied about his age to do a short course at RADA where you had to be 25. thats how you do it Jake.  Tim is welsh and is super good at shakespeare. There is one guy and one girl from Iceland (coincidence! they dont know each other!) but if you think i know how to spell their names, youre wrong. The guys is pronounced Gven-knee. Two scottish girls are also in the course and both look really young but are actually in MFA programs already! Graduate school!

The first day we watched a whole bunch of films that displayed good acting. If ANY of you have the chance to see the short film "Bonjour Maman" with English subtitles it is the most brilliant short film i have ever seen. What a powerful message. 

Today, we worked monologues a little and a couple people got to shoot theirs already! Super cool equipment so nice quality footage, and we shoot it in 2 different angles! We also did this excersize literally titled "slow walk." which almost made me cry. almost. But my eyes were BURNING and people had such emotional reactions to it. If you want to know more about the process, let me know! 

Every day for lunch and after coursework me and some of my friends go look for a bite to eat and chat and its super cool! Today we came back and watched Rebel Without a Cause (oscar.) and we almost fell asleep because slow walks just KILLED us and weve done a lot today. so now im here typing this up.

BUT HEY I GOT MY LUGGAGE 2 DAYS AFTER THEY SAID ITD BE HERE

Catch you on the flip side:
Out.

The First Day!

Hey guys so even though ive pretty much been up for 48 hours straight i still have just enough energy to give you the deets about my first day in the UK (or at least what seems like a day, but in reality is definitely two.) 

I know that most of you are reading this in the afternoon or late evening, but here it is 2am, so that is why my day is finished and my day tomorrow will have started before any of you are even awake (or if youre Tyler Wallake before you even go to bed tonight.) Anyway, Im just going to get started cuz a lot has happened.

So I arrive at Hannahs house (we are traveling together for the first 5 days) at 10:00am, we laugh about how Mr. Trujillo takes too long, and were on our way to Los Angeles to meet Hannahs mom. She works at a baking factory where they make bagels and things, so this is a picture of us getting a tour of the factory in cheesy hairnets:

We then make our way to good ol' LAX in a fancy rented towncar. We then meet up with hannahs grandma who has flown in from Arizona (she wanted to come because she is originally from London. She thinks her accent is gone but she is in denial shes British.) We get to chill in this swank lounge at the airport cuz we somehow got a hold of passes to do that, and before we know it, were flying out to London. 

The 10 and 1/2 hour flight was excruciating and for some reason there was always a reason i could not get up so i spent a whole 10 and a half sitting down (my legs would thank me for this later.) Anyway, there wasnt really much to do cuz there was no wifi, so here are some crazy pictures me and Hannah took on Photobooth:

 When we arrived in London me and Hannah were dead-set on listening to Astele and Kanyes "American Boiiee" which resulted in failure after we both realized that that song didnt exist anywhere on any of our devices. Regardless, we trekked on. Picking up our luggage from "Carousel 1" and getting into another swank chauffeured town car, we were now in the UdotK. When Hannah told the man that I was going to sit in the front, I started walking to the drivers seat to which the man responds "what are you doing?" THE SEETRIGN WHELE IS ON HTE RIHGT CRASON!!! tourist mistake numero uno. I was not doing well with George the driver. When I eventually found my way to the passenger seat, I was instantly filled with regret because despite his formal demeanor and name, George drove like a maniac. BUT WAIT! I then realized GEORGE IS THE BEST DRIVER ON THE ROAD AND EVERYONE HERE IS LITERALLY INSANE! THERE WERE PEOPLE DRIVING THE WRONG WAY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD IF THEY SAW A CLEARING TO GET A PARKING SPOT! MADNESS! No but literally Ive been to like Jamaica and Mexico and this is the craziest driving I've ever seen. 

We eventually arrive at our hotel without getting killed and we realize it is STUNNING! The Ceiling was beautiful and romanesque architecture lined every single wall! A man carefully escorted us out of the town car, taking all of our luggage which he later brought to the room with some complimentary tea-party-invitations. Even in these pictures you cant tell how gorgeous the room is! But we were not in it for long!

We headed straight out to the town to try to get theatre tickets! Long story short, every single place we went said that the Shakespeare shows were sold out the entire time were going to be here! But me and Hannah are insane little people, so we decided to take the 45 MINUTE WALK to Shakespeares Globe, across the River Thames. Even though the box office there said they were sold out as well, we managed to score some tickets for that nights showing of Macbeth through a man who didnt want his anymore because we heard he was exchanging them for seated tickets! So we got to put on our old English britches and, like they did in Shakespeares time, STAND for a couple hours to watch some quality theatre. It turned out being the best show me and hannah have ever seen in our whole entire lives. It was the most engaging thing I have ever laid eyes on ever, and it made me forget that standing for hours is not something most people are willing to do! And we could lean on the stage! We even had to move our hands once when we saw an actor running towards us! If you want to know more about it, talk to me about it :) but i dont want to ramble on here. Both the walk there and the half of a walk back (we took a taxi the rest of the way) were the most beautiful walks ever. 

That pretty much ended the day. We tried to go out to downtown and find some cool shady Pub to eat at at like midnight, but we ended up just wandering around. Hannah is asleep now. I should probably be too. Cheers!

As of this moment at midnight on the 14th of august, 2013, I will be leaving for London in 1 day. I have created this blog so you all can follow me and my adventures every day for as long as i retain your interest! But I also should add that I am writing these words down as they come into my brain, and I am not going back over them to check for any of what i consider arbitrary spellchecks or grammar checks (although my mom would disagree about the importance of these things.) This is a place to just spew at you as much information on my trip as I can, and if that means that sometimes youre going to have to decipher what seems to be almost shorthand, i am very sorry. haha

For those of you who do not know where I am going or what I am doing, here is a brief explanation and a schedule of important dates on my trip in the U.K.:

I will be both looking at colleges and taking a course at a university for the duration of my stay. The colleges I hope to look at are:
RADA (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts)
The London School of Film, Media, and Performance (Through Regents college London)
LAMDA (The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art)
LIPA (The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts)
The Central School of Speech and Drama at the University of London
and others!

Second, I will taking the ¨Acting: For Camera¨ course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland! I am so excited to be a part of my first university intensive, and being 17, i will the youngest in the course! Being able to learn from graduates and teachers from the school, I hope to come back with so much knowledge about my craft, and I am both open and ready for it.

Important dates! 
If any of you do want to keep up on what I´m doing without having to check up every day, you can check up on important dates in my itinerary!

August 15, 2013: Taking a 11 hour flight to London, England
August 16,17: College exploration and Londons West End shows!
August 19: First day of my acting course in Scotland! Officially moved in for the next 2 weeks!
August 30th: Final day of course, moved out of student accommodation
August 31st: Flight to New Jersey (7 hour layover) and then flight home!


Im excited to share with you my thoughts, experiences, sights, smells, scripts, stress, and joy!