Our Minutes Hasten to Their End

“Like as the waves make to the pebbl’d shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end.”

-Shakespeare, Sonnet 60

We’re getting close to the end, folks. Most of our finals are done now, so we’re just in rehearsals for our last two performances and trying to get in all of the last-minute sightseeing we’ve put off until now.

Monday we had our Movement assessment, where everybody performed our own pieces, self-choreographed alone or in groups of two or three. It was probably one of the most challenging assignments I’ve ever had, to come up with four full minutes of choreography that showcased a character and told a story through movement. Some people’s were comedic, some were dramatic, and a few were even political. It was incredible to watch everyone’s pieces and see all the talent and huge creative variety that went into the work. (Then that night was awesome because I had one last really special birthday celebration at the restaurant where they film First Dates. A+.)

Tuesday was full of more assessments (okay, just two, but it felt like a reeealllly long day). After a brush-up rehearsal, we all did our Period Dance final, and then another brush-up rehearsal for Stage Combat. Since then it’s been back-to-back rehearsals for Shakespeare and Acting. Those final performances (technically “open rehearsals”) are coming up this week! Add that to our final papers for Dramatic Criticism and Space, Place, and Text . . . we may only still be attending two classes, but we’re keeping busy anyway!

Wednesday night was amazing – we went to Lates at the Science Museum, which is when they keep it open late for adults only, and they have bars and special events throughout the museum. They even had a silent disco, a roped off dancing area where you wear headphones, so only the people dancing can hear the music. It was such a fun way to celebrate being done with our first round of finals!

Thursday we had a half-day and immediately headed home to start cooking for Thanksgiving! I made dip for before dinner, and chocolate cupcakes, and my flatmate made the chickens so I got to be a witness to that whole process too. We ate around six and then spent the whole night talking and digesting for hours. I’ve never been away from home on Thanksgiving before, but it was actually a really good day. Of course it’s not the same, but it sort of still felt like I was with family.

I’ve been trying to pack activities into my last few weekends here, and this one was no exception. Friday night was Lates at the Natural History Museum, which was even more fun than the Science Museum (though no silent disco here). I really hope I have a chance to come back to this museum after classes end, because it’s huge and there’s so much to explore. Saturday morning I got up early for Borough Market, which was just a bunch of really good food and fancy produce. We spent that evening in our flats hanging out and playing theatre games. Then Sunday was Camden Market, probably my favorite market I’ve been to. After that, even though it was raining, we went to see Big Ben and Buckingham Palace (finally!) and walked all the way to South Bank for the Rekorderlig Cider Lodge (basically a winter festival with a bunch of bars and different fruit ciders). Then back to school for some last-minute work on our Shakespeare performance.

As of this very late blog post, we have one more day of class, two days of finals, and then I get a little over a week to explore before I head back. I’m going to be very busy, because I have a lot more of London to see!