Looking in Awe and Lacking Grace in London

Hello everyone!!!

Another week has flown by!! I have reached (sadly) the mid-point of the study abroad. I have three more weeks to go and am still so excited to be here and can hardly believe all of the things I've been learning here these past three weeks. Life long lessons, like the lesson I talk about below about grocery shopping at Sainsbury's and the importance of thicker bags. I have learned the lesson of never working the temperature taps while in the shower of an older building. Or how about the life lesson about the discipline about always keeping camera in an water resisting container. Camera meets water...death soon shall follow.

The moral of that story is really "HOORAY FOR FATHER!!!"

Thank you dad so much for mailing me your old Camera!! I can now just have my old camera fixed back in SLC and save much much pounds! The camera arrived last friday and I now will be taking ridiculously annoying "rub it in your face" type photo's again!!

Okay---Time for the week's recap!

MONDAY: I got some things organized, I went Grocery shopping and realized the thickness or lack there of with the bags. That night our group went to a platform (basically a lecture/discussion) with Michael Frayn. THAT'S RIGHT MICHAEL FRAYN! Most of you would probably recognized the name, he was the playwright of many farce plays including 'NOISES OFF'. He told some really funny stories, mostly referring to his new book he wrote. Katherine and I pretended to laugh at his intelligent sophisticated comments we knew nothing about. But in truth we really enjoyed ourselves. For those of you who were impressed with the Michael Frayn bit, our program director knew Neil LaButte (fantastic playwright, author of Fat Pig and The Shape of Things)in his day and convinced him to come and talk to us @ our Contemporary Plays class, so that should occur soon...jealous much?

TUESDAY: In class we discussed Merchant of Venice. We're seeing Merchant of Venice and Taming of the Shrew in Stratford-upon-avon this week. Afterwards I went to the National History Museum with Katy Wroble and others. We giggled and acted less than our age in the 'Human Biology' exhibit, where we found out where babies came from and what happens to each of us as we mature. I loved 'the vault' where I saw some precious gems throughout history, including...shoot I forget the name now..'Cape of Africa', 'Heart of Africa' something like that. I also saw a Amethyst gem, said to be cursed: "Much grief, tears, and blood is slashed across the history of the stone"

That was a quote from the bestower of the gem to the museum...huh..sounds like a great wedding present. Through the museum I remembered how much I hate monkeys, how much more recycling we as a people could do in our gardens, AND why my memory is so weird at remembering pointless information, and not my times tables.

WEDNESDAY: For those of you who didn't hate me enough for seeing Dame Judi Dench...um...Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson were at the National Theatre filming a part in their new movie. So yeah...they were there! HA HA!

THURSDAY: Class! We talked about Taming of the Shrew. Man I love that play. I love Katherine. I love the discussions we have as well, I am so pumped for my Shakespeare class this coming fall. Petruchio sounds really sexy too, I want one. Thursday night, though I must share that we went to the 'Maple Leaf Bar'. Which was a total Canadian tribute bar!! Of course I didn't drink, but I tutored my friends on the blessed ambrosia that is Poutine (french fries, cheese and gravy) and delighted at the title of 'Kraft Dinner' for the Mac and cheese! Was disappointed however that they didn't give me a discount, but at least I found a place I could wait tables. NOT ONE OF THEM was Canadian! There was one guy who sheepishly stated..."I lived there for a year..."

Barf.

FRIDAY: This was a packed day! We met with Tim early that morning for our tour of Westminster Abbey! SO BEAUTIFUL! We saw the casket/tomb of so many influential figures. I also learned a lot about the symbols...like what it means if the "kneelers" are holding a skull or not, what it means if legs are crossed, or not that kind of thing. So many important people! Edward I (Longshanks, who actually requested at his death to have the lid of his casket be easy to open, so that if ever England went to war again with Scotland, his bones could be carried on to fight!) Among him was many! Elizabeth I, along with her sister Mary. The bones & ashes of the murdered princes buried under the stairs at the Tower of London. Bloody Mary across from her, entombed slightly higher (ha ha). William the Conqueror, Williamforce, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, Charles Dickens, actress Dame Sybil Thorndike, Ann Bracegirldle, Aphra Behn, Richard II, Henry VII his wife Elizabeth, Issac Newton, memorials to the unknown soldier, Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, T.S. Elliott, Shakespeare, Bronte' sisters and Jane Austen. 3300 bodies!! I loved that visit.

We were blessed with the opportunity to have a BACKSTAGE TOUR of the National Theatre!! It was incredible. The National Theatre itself awes me at the best of times. So specific in it's design: three theaters (one thrust arena, one proscenium arch (your standard, traditional theatre), and one studio (black-box) theatre. And then the backstage rooms, there was a huge room for carpentry, huge room for properties, huge room for painting; I mean they had enough room to actually hang a backdrop, like a gigantic backdrop and just paint--they didn't have to fold at all! What really impressed me (and always continues to impress me with the NT) is that instead of focusing so much on theme, like when they're picking that years plays, they instead focus on the playwright range. "What new playwrights and text plays can we introduce to our audience?"

"What would they want to see, what's NEW that they would want to see?"

The National Theatre has been known to do a traditional play or Musical (for instance they're currently doing Major Barbara by Shaw) but they really push the development and trial of new works which I really like. And they always have a new show in, so many shows are taking place. You got Never So Good, Fram (which just closed) so in comes The Revenger's Tragedy, Pitman's Painters, Harper Regan which we're going to see, and also Year of Magical Thinking with Vanessa Redgrave. That night we went to another National Theatre production called 'Never so Good'. It was a production that I still have to ponder about and decide how I feel about it. It centered around old U.K. Prime Minister

Harold MacMillan. About how he came to power and the polictic's of his day....his decisions in comparison to Eisenhower. I liked it, it's overall message to me was how...It was how Harold MacMillan kind of came in, cleaned things up and did great things for the U.K., but when his mess to clean up was finnished, like when the 60's came in and a new range of thinking came on in, he was kind of...asked to lea

ve. Let's have a knew leader for this. It kind of focused on how, to really get a head (especially in politic's) you have to be cut-throat...and the playwright asked the question 'why?'

SATURDAY: Well...this is kind of a funny (more sad really) story. I was attacked. Harassed more....by our shower. When I awoke on Saturday I got in the shower. Now...I might need to explain to you our shower..it is a rather old building and being that way, the pipes are a bit 'finiky'. Our shower has a full curtain, but near the faucets and shower head there is a plastic separator divide thingie. It's actually quite inconvenient because to turn on the shower and find the right temperature (because trust me, it's hard to find the right temperature...its either freezing or scalding, WE'RE TALKING BOILING, hot) so you need to get in the shower, kneel, and work the taps. We have a extendable shower head, so usually I just lay it face down as I work the pipes. Well, I was in the process of showering (I wasn't even completely finished!) when it suddenly became cold! Now, this has all happened to us but my story becomes much worse. I recoiling from the freezing tides, scurried into the corner near the shower head to try and work the temperature taps, BIG MISTAKE. It suddenly became too hot. LIKE SO HOT, I've never felt this hot water, probably because to feel that hot water temperature I would have to plunge it into boiling water. I would have been safe in my little corner, had not the shower head fallen, blasting the burning water everywhere!! It was a complete 'psycho'-esque moment. In my panic, I fell!, receiving more burns as I try, on my back, to find the shower head and make it stop!!

Well...as harmful as this sounds, I laugh about it now. But currently I have two big red burns on my left forearm and my left knee.

After re-cooperating from that I set off to console myself with a delicacy from Borough Market. I had a delicious long sandwich which was like pork, some kind of stuffing and an apple sauce, it was so good. I finished it off with a pistachio gelato, which the wind blew my hair into. So much for showering. I took the tube south, to an out-skirt district of London to Balham and the Clapham area. I went to see the memorial at the "newly" constructed Balham tube station. During WWII during the London bombings, locals were put into this underground tube station for cover. On October 14th, 1941 sadly a bomb hit nearby this station, destroying the water and gas lines that ran near and over above. The tube station was filled with water and 64-69 people were killed in that event. For those of you who saw the movie 'Atonement' that even is mentioned. I walked around and loved taking pictures of the old 1940's/1950's/1960's architecture of all the buildings. Lot less money went into that area, and I liked seeing the difference. I then took the tube from Clapham Commons to Lancaster Gate across my home so I could walk through Hyde Park. I love everything about that park. Wish I could be there on a picnic with my family or my friends. Walk through it with my dog Keemo. He would love it there.

SUNDAY: (TODAY) Went and checked out St. Paul's Cathedral this morning, and couldn't get the song "Feed the Birds" from

Mary Poppin's out of my stinkin' head! But I loved it! It was so beautiful! I couldn't get over the size of the place. I attended the catholic service there and enjoyed standing, then sitting, and then standing again. Hearing the choir singing, there voices echoing off the high domed ceiling at the center. These cute little choir boys, HOW THEY COULD stand still that entire time I cannot fathom. My ansy-ness has only seemed to intensify with my getting older. After that I hurried back over to my area, where I attended the student ward OF LONDON, the Brittania ward. It was interesting for me to be able to compare the two services and compare the differences that they held for me. And then came here.

I am very excited for the proceedings that will be going on shortly. Tomorrow morning we are to meet at Gloscester Tube station @ 7:45am (MIDNIGHT YOUR TIME, tonight..ha ha that's so weird) and head off for Stratford-upon-Avon! Birthplace of Shakespeare, some theatre, and sticky toffee pudding! We'll be there until Wednesday, so I'll have a bunch of pictures to upload.

Love you all

Honestly missing you all, so much

-ellesse

P.S. WRITE ME LETTERS

P.P.S.How was Indiana Jones? Anyone? Anyone?

It's 7-9 pounds here, and that's like...14-18$ to go see a movie, and even though it is Indiana...I need to conserve!!

P.P.P.S. Those of you who do not have a 'Facebook' can always let me know, and I'll be sure to send you my families' "ofoto.com" link, as I will start to upload pictures there. Or I can try and send them to you another way, as I only put a few on here, I put them all up on Facebook.

Now you know!

I have realized...that there is a very real reason why so many people go grocery shopping with bags from home. Not only is it more environmentally sound....but

It might also be because the plastic bags they give you @ Sainsbury's...are incredibly thin...and will break...

As you cross a busy street

and your juice falls out onto Kensington Rd.

Luckily my apple/raspberry juice was unharmed. I know I brought those little canvas shopping bags from home for a reason...I should be sure to take them next time I go shopping.

Please watch your Umbrella Sir

I write to you all from yet, another week gone!

And finally THE RAIN HAS COME!!

I'm having such a time here, that the days are literally flying past me. It's been a packed week full of all sorts of meanderings and I'll try to remember them now
MONDAY: Monday saw us off to Kew Gardens in 'Kew', and I still cannot get over the beauty of that place! It was soo gorgeous!! My mother can attest, I've never been really one for seeking the company of flowers...dirt, and bugs...gardening has never really been my thing. I have to say though that I could not get over the beauty and vast spender of how big and beautiful those grounds were! I loved going into the greenhouses, my favorite was the Princess of Wales conservatory especially, where each room or section of the greenhouse you would enter, would be like entering another zone or climate somewhere in the world (Pacific Northwest, Rain forest, etc.) It was funny to see all the Englander's captivated by cactus's and desert plants...when I entered that area and was hit by all the dry air, no more humidity...I was like..."Yup...this feels familiar."
TUESDAY: I'm really enjoying our classes. We had quite a deep discussion in this days class, in pre-discussion on the play we would see that evening. That night we were to see 'God of Carnage' by Yasmina Reza (Yes, same woman that wrote 'Art') I was, to say the least, very excited to see this play as it featured (my hearts beloved) Ralph Fiennes and Yasmin Greig (of 'Black Books' fame!) We spoke in class about history and the arrival of 'existential' thinking within the realms of theatre. Darwin, Freud, Newton and others who brought the attention of perhaps life without the presence of a God. I thought about this...about the questions that, that's night play 'God of Carnage' presented. Is there only a 'God of Carnage'? That we are all doing good deeds for our own consciences...I say no. I think that people...pessimists tend to settle. They settle so much that they become comfortable for not striving for anything more, for the betterment of society. They think if there is no God, they have no cause to better themselves. On the other hand, they pose good questions...are we to busy to get to heaven that we forget to better the world we live in today.
I'd prefer to be an optimist.

The play that night, was WONDERFUL!! All of the performers were on that night...the curtain goes up with a fleshy modern red set, with a modern home dwelling. The plot surrounds the meeting of these two parents meet up to discuss the punishment and what is to be done about there sons, where one of the boys hit the other in the face with a stick. The beginning of the meeting starts off quite strained, and awkward but civil...by the end of the play it is chaos with each of the characters defending their motto's of life, and it becomes almost a school yard of immaturity and madness. I loved it!
AND got signatures from each of the performers...including Tamsin Greig, AND Ralph Fiennes!

WEDNESDAY: We took a tour of the National Gallery @ Trafalgar Square. I saw Monet's, Van der Weyden's, Da Vinci's, and Van Gogh's.

THURSDAY: It finally happened! On instinct, on impulse....I when crossing the road looked to the right for traffic. Finally correct, finally on instinct!

I guess I'll get hit by a car back in Salt Lake.

FRIDAY: Early Friday morning began our 'Shakespeare Walking Tour' led by our director Tim Slover. We saw so many interesting things...including Middle Temple, a Great Hall where many people have dined including Elizabeth I, Elizabeth II, and Shakespeare. Shakespeare's first performance of his play "Twelfth Night" occurred in that hall, and the hall itself was the inspiration for many other theatre's being the first 'indoor' theatre itself. We then walked around, hitting sights like the new Globe (where we'll be seeing 'King Lear' in a few weeks) the site of the original Globe, Rose, and Blackfriars. It was kind of humorous, seeing employee's working at modern buildings starring at us theatre nerds gaping at sites these theatre's 'used' to be, and they had no idea. We also saw Christopher Wren (renowned architect) and Southwark Cathedral, where Shakespeare attended church, where a memorial is built in his memory, and where his brother is buried. The tour ended at the perfect place. BOROUGH MARKET!!! This place totally trumps ANY farmer's market I've ever been too!! They're was yummy food, and yummy stalls, and people shoving samples of bread, oils, CHEESE, CHOCOLATE! Into your arms!! All i could think of was, how could I possibly stow away some of these things into my bag and explain it at customs!! Certainly they would understand that Pear & Raspberry juice is just too good to leave behind!!? I had so much food there..
-A Hamburger (not just any hamburger...a pork & stilton hamburger, with unions and mustard...I thought I could just die.
~Our director bought for all of us THE best brownie I have ever had in my life. These things weren't brownies...they were the perfect combination of both the "cakie" brownie, and the "fudgie" brownie at the bottom...they were literally HUGE BRICKS of chocolate!!! I thought I would just die
-I had delicious 'Olde Fashioned' Ice Cream, made from ~(get this) clotted cream, egg yolk and honey. And if that weren't enough the flavor I had was 'honey and lavender'!! There were bits of flower in my ice cream!!! I could have just died!
-Pear & Raspberry juice, I was so close to smuggling it across.
-Pistachio Baklava.
I could have just died!
I went back to the flat very contented that night, and looked forward to our Contemporary play we were seeing that evening @ at the National Theatre called 'Fram' by Tony Harrison. Tony Harrison is an interesting playwright I hope to learn more of, who believes extremely in the continued use of "public poetry", and so all of his plays & works are done in complete rhyming verse. THIS ENTIRE PLAY RHYMED! I really have to say, that I loved this play. The plot is frenzied taking three different themes and individual plots and winding them together in the end. From the Arctic explorer Hjalmar Johansen & Fridtjof Nansen, who were the closest to the North pole...these two men, who's personalities detested each other, only survived by sewing their sleeping bags together and huddling together. Through some of the different stories in this play including the famine of Russia in 1921, the play presents the realization that though civilizations and cultures of people, though we may distrust and hate one another, we must bind together when the world ends, and turns to ice...we must all huddle, cuddle together for warmth. After Fram, I opted for walking along the river Thames, and it was so nice to have that experience by myself. I took night pictures of the river, Eye of London, Parliament and Big Ben.

SATURDAY: Saturday was a mixed day for me. I started out with the best day! I had a cornish pasty (quickly becoming one of my favorite things!) And I was off to Portabello Rd!! I knew I was on the right track because I just followed all the umbrella's. I've come to be knowledgeable and careful of my head as when cattleling down a sidewalk, smushed together with the rest of the pedestrians in the rain, you have to be quite careful of your face or neck getting scratched or poked by a neighboring umbrella. Knit-knacky type clothing shops surrounded me on all sides. I passed stalls selling antique spoons, tin types, printing letters, prints, jewelry, scarves, including football scarves for Chelsea and Manchester Unt. All was going well, I had a delicious churro in my hand...and I reach down in my bag to take out my camera, and find it wet...with raindrops!! I turned it on, only to find that it wouldn't turn on...and still doesn't. So until I can find a place to hopefully get it fixed, we will be without photo's for a while:(

I miss you all! I hope you are liking these blogs! It's helping me remember and collect my thoughts about the week.
Love you! Until next week, or sooner!
-ellesse

Oh...the Gap is to be Minded!

Week One
(A warning: I will have no proper grammar in most of these blogs. You've bEAN WaRNEd)

What
a
Time
I am having. I am writing to you all today, on Mothers day, after a full week indeed, my first week on my study abroad trip in London. As is usually the first week in a new place, this week has been just crazy, and full of ups and downs.

I might as well start at the beginning...
"a very good place to start"
THE FOLLOWING WILL BE QUITE BORING TO SOME OF YOU, BUT OTHERS have requested to hear details of how I mucked up losing my bags on the easiest leg of my journey, hence I have written the following...which is boring, you may skip over if you wish:
Sunday morning:So starting off, ali and I are riding off in the car to the airport early Sunday morning, I'm saying goodbye to my precious third arm which is my cell phone. We check, and I say "Goodbye!" to my bags, not realizing just how long of a goodbye it would be. I'm on standbye to Calgary, and don't get on the first intended flight. It's full.
That's a bad sign, as that was my best bet for getting out of SLC, all the other ones would be just as packed. As an option 'B', my father had also booked me a flight to Vancouver...so split second decision, I hop on a plane to Vancouver B.C., with the full understanding that I would be in Calgary in three hours anyway to get my bags which would be waiting there...

famous last words. I arrive in Vancouver...dad meets me in Vancouver, and we spend the rest of the sunday, cooling our heals around Vancouver airport trying to get to Calgary...
But then, an often repeated phrase arises:
"dude...where are my bags?"
Calgary had no idea where they were....oh! No we found them, we'll send them on after you to Heathrow on a flight later this evening. yeah...famous last words.
So we cruise over to U.K., executive class! I watched '27 Dresses'.
I got to see frozen Northern Territories Tundra for the first time in my life! I could see so far down to the earth, there wasn't a cloud in my way it was so cool! I forgot that the shortest distance to the U.K. would of course be up over Greenland & Iceland so that was really cool, the sun was with us the entire time.
We arrived in Heathrow, dad set me off on a tube to my station and I was off:
I had arrived.

When I first got off the station (my station was Glocester road) somebody could have robbed me right then and I wouldn't have noticed, I looked like such a tourist. My jaw dropped.
Black taxi cabs, wrong directions, people everywhere not even looking up for the scenery that was around them, three big red double decker buses right in a row! Congested, crammed, and loud...I loved it! It was a fifteen minute walk to my flat on which I almost got hit by cars...(not really knowing which way they were coming) 6 times! (NOT EXAGGERATING) Beautiful Kensington gardens right in front of me, the weather a perfect...I mean perfect, warm sun, cool breeze, smell of salt and freesias in the air. I find my place...I'm there!
Ours in three flights up, a big common room area on the right, long hall with rooms & kitchen on the left. Mine is with Katherine Wroble all the way to the end. A beautiful corner room, with myself on the top bunk. Everyday there are men working on construction on the building next door. They smoke a half of the time, and sit and eat for the rest, while yelling at each other in french. You'll find yourself looking down at them, only to look up to the window opposite you and see one smoking and starring right back at you!
-Close the blinds-
They showed us around, to the place I am now: Metrogate House...a student facility with a computer lab, kitchen and lounge area...where all our mail goes. And also took us where we have classes.
We've had two days of classes since we've been here, and I'm really liking them. It was two days of Shakespeare in which we read and discussed Henry V and Richard II.
Okay.
Can I just say, that in the past 4 days...I have come to such of LOVE of Shakespeare. And I'm not just talking about those uppity hippy poet weirdo's that love Shakespeare, I'm really realizing that people who say "I hate Shakespeare, over-rated" You know who you are, Mr. Thorpe! Are just people who haven't been taught Shakespeare! How can you hate a guy who created these 'so called' over done cliche's...it's just not possible. You need to be taught it.
For example...I had to read on my own Richard II. One of Shakespeare's B-list history plays...I'm thinking "Good writing, bad story, not a winner this one Will".
But then we discuss it in class, before we see it at the Roundhouse Theatre in Camden, and I'm like...
This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays ever! Self-realization, mutiny...honestly I can say it's one of my favorites. I totally found my Shakespearean monologue to audition for BFA in Richard II.

I have honestly found one of my new favorite actors in Jonathan Slinger of the RSC. He played Richard II, Fluellen in Henry V, AND Richard III. He embodied Richard II for me. He played him so effeminate, in almost like the 1700's french with, powdered white face, rouge cheeks, lipstick...curly red haired wig. He was a pansy boy! And his voice! Upward inflections, downward inflections..he was incredible. Toward the end of the play, when Richard has the crown taken from him, he in one scene wipes off his face clean with a handkerchief, and then...you can see the 'man' underneath. He becomes a man robbed of thrown, title, in a way he sees his (who was then queen) for the first time and loves her and...you just...you feel for him.

"Thus play I in one person many people, And none contented"

"...And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be, Nor I nor any man that but man is With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased With being nothing..."

I had never seen acting like that...I had never seen a play like that. It certainly set a standard for me, and I can only imagine what the rest of the plays will show and teach to me.
Our second night we saw Henry V, and it was just incredible. The french cascading down on Cirque de Soleil like swings, all in blue...it was beautiful.
And who should watch the same performance as us?!!
but DAME JUDI DENCH! NO LIE! I even got a picture of her! It took all I had in me to not ask for her autograph, I climbed the stairs behind her and was just inches from her! People were doing double takes, and looking at her with snide glances. But she was there with her spoiled rotten probably, ginger nut grandson...she's so tiny!! like 5'3 I'd say. I didn't want to bother her, it looked like she just wanted to have a nice night out with her grandson. I her her talk to him, and when she first entered our section, she look straight into my smiling face with that cold 'dead locked stare' of hers...
Mom! you know the one I mean!
"This is not to be born!"
"Shall the waters of Pemberly be thus so polluted!!"

oh...in the midst of gods!
So I've had quite a weekend.
Today was a blast...we went to the tower london this morning...getting in for free cause we went first to church at the Anglican session. Beautiful music, but so hot. It was so hot I thought I was getting pretty dizzy, for a moment I thought it was from my guilty sin, but I hope that wasn't the reason. Saw where Ann Boelyn & Lady Jane Grey were buried, as well as those two boy princes. Jetted off to meet up with my brother Matt and Bonnie, who were stopping in on the weekend, to finish off their 5 year anniversary holiday in France that they were having.
It was soooooo fun. We got groceries...went to Trafalgar Square, went to Da Vinci code Temple Church. (I'll show you all the pictures) and finished it off with a trip to platform 9 and Three quarters at Kings Cross station.
It was so great to take pictures there, everyone was laughing at each other. You could be from anywhere in the world, but at that moment everyone was sharing a love for their 'Harry' no matter how he was to them individually. It was so great.

I said goodbye to Matt & Bonnie at Glocester road and walked back here, to where I am now writing. When I was walking here it was just twilight as I cut through the streets on my own. I love everything here so far. It was a dark blue sky, lighted stone buildings, and cheery lantern like flats within. I can't believe the time I've had so far that is just beginning for me.
I am so blessed to have had so many friends and loved ones that have wished me well on this first abroad adventure of mine...giving me advice, reminding me to take it all in...for myself and for others who are on this trip with me.
If you want to keep reading this blogs, I promise to update the week every Sunday, and within the week too, if I have time.

I miss you, and love you all individually.
Happy Mothers day to my cousins, aunts, friends...

Sisters: Alison, Donna & Bonnie. My beautiful heart giving mother, and my grandmothers.

woooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
-e
P.S. Sorry if this first blog was too corny, it won't happen again
WOOO I SEE RALPH FIENNES ON TUESDAY!

Here it goes!

My first blog!!



Hello everyone!

This is to be the first blog from the many blogs that I am going to write while over in London. I applied to the U of U study abroad 'Theatre in London' during the fall of 07' and was happily accepted at the beginning of the year. From May 5-June 17th-ish. I will be across the pond living in South Kensington London, England. I intend to write in this weekly to update those who are interested in my adventures, misadventures and experiences learned through this extraordinary opportunity. I plan to keep this updated at least once a week, probably on Sundays.
It's so close now I can hardly believe it. I never thought this week would come, the week finally before the send off, and now that it's here its almost (hard to believe) going to fast! I've had so many things to do with the end of school and everything. Today was crazy.I spent the last 24 hrs. packing up all my things, cleaning, getting them into seperate piles...whats going to London, what's going to mom's that can get there eventually, what's staying at my friend Camerons', what's too bulky and is staying with someone else...it's been just crazy!It wont end either. I take the shuttle to Salt Lake City tomorrow morning and will hopefully gt into SLC around noonish. Then it's pack pack pack, and I hope on a plane to Calgary on Sunday. Then monday @ 5pm it's off to London.
For those of you wishing to write me (snail mail) here is my address to where my mail will be sent. We will be living across the corner from this place.

Mailing address:
Ellesse Hargreaves
Metrogate House
3-7 Queen's Gate Terrace
London SW7 5PE
England, UK

Actual place of residence:
HYDE PARK GATE APARTMENTS
37 Hyde Park Gate
London SW7 5DW England, UK


So yeah, I'll keep you posted.
Here it goes!
-ellesse