The Life and Times in America: November 2010

Friday, November 9th 2007, Wake up time: 6:30am

I got to school and I went to the teacher's café where we helped prepare for the Day of Dialogue. I hung out with Cortney for most of it and we moved tables and such and the refreshments we'd bought. A good way to always win people over is to buy them cake! We took the stuff down to the auditorium and I had a cup of tea to perk me up. We took our seats and spent the morning listening to the various speeches, most from external speakers, i.e. people who are actually good at giving them! They were mainly talks on what it's like to be homosexual and how hard it can be to be accepted by your peers. Touching stuff.

Monday, 8 November 2010

Last Show!

Thursday, November 8th 2007, Wake up time: 6:40am

I woke up and made myself some pastrami and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I got to school where my first lesson was history. We were doing some work on political cartoons for the hour. I then went off to my maths lesson where we continued to do graph work by using our calculators, thrilling stuff! I kid...

In literature, we had a vocab review... I only got a B+ which I was a little disappointed about, almost an A though! After that I headed off to Psychology. We watched a video on babies, which was very cute! Lunch was my sandwich but it was kinda squished and didn't taste great. I did get some free cookies though so it wasn't all bad!

I had my gym class fifth but I just spent the time talking to Julian as I wanted to save my energy for the show! After that I headed to film where we continued going over various key scenes in Casablanca so that we felt ready to write our essays on the film. After class I hung out with my usual motley assortment of people! I then left for my usual meeting at the GSA. We were preparing as tomorrow would be what's called a Day of Dialogue. This was where we did a speech on homosexuality and our support of people's rights to be with whatever sex they wanted. I also met Cortney. Cortney was a girl who I became relatively close with and I was there for her to talk to. She was quite shy and self-concious even though she was so pretty! I was able to help her feel better about herself. I think...

I walked home with Zahira and Nick, stopping off briefly to browse in the Sox store. On arriving home we went food shopping, but headed back so I had time to get ready for the show. I wore my costume under my clothes because if the audience sees you in costume it ruins the illusion! I had dinner of pizza and pastrami before heading to school for the show.

On arriving, I gave Mr.Byrne his present which he was very grateful show. Nerves pushed down, riding high on adrenaline, we stepped out onto that stage to perform for the last time, and it was amazing! The audience were great, so responsive, I didn't forget any lines and afterwards I had lots of congratulations! I did hear one woman saying that she was confused as to why I did an English accent, especially as it wasn't a very good one! Ha, what a fool!

As an entire cast, along with the cast of Scapin, we arranged to go to IHop for post-show celebrations. IHop is amazing, it's short for the International House of Pancakes and it's open all night! You can have pancakes at any time! I had eggs and ham with hash browns on the side and some sausages. I also had some cheesecake pancakes for desert. It was delicious! I regret not going there more often during my stay! Hannie kindly gave me a lift home as he'd come too. I arrived home, babbling excitedly and getting congratulations from Bev and Ralph who'd come to see it. I had school the next day, so despite the rush I had to wind down and get a good nights sleep.

Thanks for listening.

Sunday, 7 November 2010

Senior Show

Wednesday, November 7th 2007, Wake up time: 6:25am

I got myself ready for school and on arrival dressed up to perform to the Seniors. The show went quite well, but I think I'd done a better job the night before :/ They all seemed to enjoy it though! My favourite part however was the question and answer session following the performance. We were each asked a question about the performance. What was my question? 'Are you actually British?' It was a relatively silly question but I enjoyed answering with a simple 'yes' all the same. After the show, we talked about Shakespeare before I headed off for lunch.

Lunch was some pizza which was quite greasy! After lunch, I had more Psychology where we did some reflection work. We watched the end of Casablanca in film class before I had a directed study where I just walked around the school. This may seem like an odd thing to do but I genuinely liked just walking the empty halls and checking out the sights and thinking to myself. I saw Joyce briefly and we had a catch up chat but she had to go, so we didn't talk for long.

After directed study was over, I hung out in the main lobby as usual talking with various friends! I was very pleased to receive a card from Raquelle and Luke, two Seniors, which said I was the 'bestest actor with a British accent (apart from Hugh Laurie)!" I was very flattered and thanked them for their kindness. Hugh Laurie is well known in America as the British actor who plays Gregory House and in doing so does a very, very convincing American accent.

I went to Sweet Sue's, as per usual. During my stay, I hung out with mostly Seniors, so they had seen the show and kindly congratulated me on my performance. Whenever I act I always feel that I've not done that good of a job, but everyone seems to enjoy it. Or they're very good liars! After hanging out for a while, I headed home. On arriving home, I asked if we could go to Barnes & Nobles for a present for Mr. Byrne, to thank him for directing our play. I can't quite remember what I got him, some theatre book!

After picking up a present and a card for him, I was dropped off at school so that I could re-watch Scapin. I saw Erin, Tani, Talia, Claudine and Emily. We all took our seats and waited for the show to begin. I think their second show was even better than the first and I enjoyed it immensely. It's an impressive feat to present something someone enjoys twice in quick succession...well actually three times! After the show I congratulated everyone, who was very emotional as it was their last performance! You were for ages and then it's over so quickly! I walked home and before going to bed, called Gracie and had a chat with her. I was looking forward to our last night, as it's usually the best one!

Thanks for listening.

Saturday, 6 November 2010

First Performance!

Tuesday, November 6th 2007, Wake up time: 6:35am

I woke up early as I was very excited for my first show! I got dressed up in tights, which were rather comfortable! I wore them under some shorts. I had some time so I made my lunch for the first time in a while! I got to school and my first lesson was drama, but we were still doing direct addresses and it wasn't hugely exciting! For my second and third lesson, I actually got to watch Scapin again. They were performing it to the Junior year, and it was just as good and funny! We did a brief question and answer session after, and then I headed off to psychology.

Psychology was quite interesting, we watched a video called 'Real Boys 1'. It was about a boys who were interviewed about turning 18, and asked if they thought they'd become men. It was quite interesting because when do boys become men? Physically and legally in their teens, but psychologically? I don't know... After psychology I had lunch of mozzarella sandwiches. I also met two new people, Taylor and Lauren who were both Freshmen. I had gym fifth but it was just a normal workout session. We then continued studying American foreign policy in history.

After school, I came outside and met up with some of my friends in the Freshmen year, Bettina, Alex and Sam. I hung out with them briefly but then headed home. I wanted to get home quicker than usual as it was my first performance night and I wanted to be 100% ready! I did talk to Alex briefly though but I told him I needed to get home. Once I got home, I thought I'd take a nap to freshen up, which ended up being a two hour sleep! I woke up feeling more alert and took another shower. I shovelled down my dinner excitedly, a meal of mac n' cheese with roast chicken. It was then time for me to leave and perform!

I arrived at school and got ready, wishing fellow cast members well wishes! I don't need to go into too much detail here, just to say that the performance went really well! Everyone remembered their lines, cues and emotion ;) It was brilliant, we even got a couple of laughs! After the show I saw Hannie and Danielle, who'd got back together! Pah, they'd only been broken up a day! They congratulated me on my performance, and I was riding that usual adrenaline you feel after performing so well! I ran home, feeling very happy and looking forward to the performance we were giving to the Seniors. On arriving home, I talked to Bev and Ralph about how it had all gone, they were coming to my second night. I then tried to wind down and get to sleep! It was tough, but I managed it eventually.

Thanks for listening.

Friday, 5 November 2010

Scapin!

Monday, 5th November 2007, Wake up time: 6:35am

I woke up quite early and got my costume ready! I managed to get to school on time though! I had a lesson off instead of maths so Virginia and I hung out in Old Hall. We talked for a little bit about the play and how nervous I was! She told me I'd be fine though. We then headed to drama, where we practised direct addresses to audiences. I then had my American literature, where we were set up with a new seating plan because people were talking too much! There were questions on the book we were reading at the moment.

In psychology we watched a video which students had made the previous year. I enjoyed it because it featured Nick Jackson! He's a kid at the school that, for whatever reason, was one of the most popular kids. I then went to lunch of pizza and milk, but I didn't enjoy it a whole load because the table was so crowded! After lunch, I had my history lesson but I was quite tired and kind of fell asleep! I was more alert in film class though and thoroughly enjoyed watching more of Casablanca.

I went to rehearsal after school, which went very well! I enjoyed wearing my tights! After rehearsal I helped Julia who was doing the stage lighting for both shows. I wasn't performing until tomorrow, as Scapin was on tonight and then the Wednesday and we had the Tuesday and Thursday performance! I walked home, and went to look in the Red Sox merchandise shop again but it was closed! I did see Cecille, Julia, Stephanie and Nick in Sweet Sue's though!

I got home and quickly had a dinner of more pizza. I then headed back to school as it was almost time for the first performance of Scapin! We obviously had to attend to give our support. I arrived at school and saw the cast of Scapin and obviously wished them luck! (Or told them to break a leg, as it's bad luck otherwise.) I bumped into Hannie who had come to see Danielle perform, along with her brother A.J, Shoko, Fiona and Danielle's mother. We settled down to watch the play, which was very good and hilarious!

During the intermission, Hannie and I had a good adventure running around looking for bathrooms! It's so weird going round a school at night, it's kind of spooky! We came back for the rest of the show and then after I congratulated everyone, I headed home. It was pretty late, but I spent some time to talk to Gracie to tell her about the show and ask her to come to mine! She didn't think she'd be able to though :/ Hannie called, it was a bit late but it was okay because he needed to talk to someone as he just split up with Danielle...I was able to cheer him up though which was good! With a mixture of emotions, sadness for Hannie, excitement and nerves for my performance and a little bit of love for Gracie, I drifted off to sleep.

Thanks for listening.

Thursday, 4 November 2010

$20 For a Candle?!

Sunday, 4th November 2007, Wake up time: 9:25am

I woke up quite early and got myself some pancakes for breakfast. However, early in the morning the Carriers (Katelyn's family) came round to purchase some tickets to my show! They said they were looking forward to it, no idea why! However, they gave me a $100 bill! I went around to try and change it so it was in say $20 bills, but every where was closed! I also was instructed to get Danielle a fantastic gift to make up for such a brilliant birthday party! However, the only shop open was Monroe Saltworks, so I was forced to buy her something expensive and girly! I got her a small card and a scented candle, which did cost me $20!

I returned home and found Hannie had called, so I called him back and arranged to go round his house. I couldn't get a lift so I had to walk. This was an adventure I'll never forget! Basically, Hannie gave me some pretty vague directions to his house, so I spent quite a while searching for his house! I had an address but it involved running through various side roads and across streets and many, many times asking for directions! I found a guy with an I-Phone and he used his maps application, to point out I was...very far away! I ran through Ottoman as I had to take a short cut in that direction, and I finally arrived...tired and panting!

I had a coke and ice-cream at Hannie's before we hung out. We watched some youtube videos and then Hannie helped me run my lines. He then served me up some dinner of pasta and chicken wings, it was quite tasty! It was already quite late, due to my long walking escapade! I walked home, but I stopped off as I bumped into Danielle, so I walked her home before heading back.

I arrived home, and kept going over my lines, again and again and again! I was desperate to learn as much as I could! I only had lunch of oranges and a slice of cherry pie as I'd already had quite a bit of food at Hannies. Before bed, I kept just reading through my script, attempting to get the damn lines to stick in my head! I then headed to bed, first noting that Hannie owed me $25!

Thanks for listening.

Wednesday, 3 November 2010

The Saddest Thing...

Saturday, November 3rd 2007, Wake up time: 12:05pm

I woke up quite late, I think I was still catching up on the sleep lost during the World Series! I got myself a quick brunch of bagels with jam (our jam...). I needed some more clothes so we went shopping. I got myself a nice shirt for $17, some more boxers and a jacket for $16. It was rapidly getting very cold so I needed the jacket to survive the freezing weather! We then went in Broadway Shoes as I wanted to get some dress shoes for any formal I wanted to attend. I had trainers, but no proper, smart shoes. They were about $60, but very lovely, and I still have and use them! We then picked up some tights (I needed them for my role okay!) from Walgreens. Ralph didn't like that while we were buying them I kept saying loudly how I would feel like a transvestite ;)

I came home and got on with cleaning the bathroom as that was my chore for the week. It was mid afternoon and I wanted some more food so I made myself some macaroni and cheese. I needed to get on with tidying my room as well! The rule was that even if I did my chores, if my room wasn't tidy, I didn't get my allowance! Previously my room had been pretty tidy so I hadn't needed to bother. Damn shame I had to now! I got it done pretty quickly before sitting down to do a lot of homework, what a good boy I was!

The first piece I did was my American literature work, and then some maths homework which involved drawing some graphs. I called Gracie to have a chat, and we talked for a little while...her being gone is pretty unreal :/ Sorry! Positive right? I then called Tani but she was having a little bit of an emotional breakdown! I said I'd call her back sometime soon when she felt better.

It was time for dinner, a lovely meal of roast chicken, potatoes and broccoli! After dinner, we decided to watch The Green Mile, the second of our rentals. O boy, where to begin? Not only is it a fantastic adaptation of the book...it's the saddest film! It makes me cry without fail every time, in fact, when I need a good cry I purposely watch the end scene. After that moment of intense sadness, we watched Mad TV, which is a famous sketch show in the States. It's very funny and it cheered me up a lot! After the film and the television, I was pretty tired! Despite waking up so late, I was tired. I always find if you have too much sleep it sort of over tires you...weird.

Thanks for listening.

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

Stress!

Friday, November 2nd 2007, Wake up time: 7:30am

I was late awaking again, but I had to go to school so I quickly dressed and rushed out the door! I arrived at school, and I was late again! I had a drama lesson first, but as I was late I didn't get to do much. I then went to maths where we did more work on graphs, but I used the time to learn my vocab instead, as I had a quiz in my next period!

I went to my literature lesson, where I took the vocab quiz...it went quite well! I then went to American history, where watched a video on President McKinley. He was one of the few Presidents to be assassinated, and it was because he claimed he wouldn't need any bodyguards to a guest appearance that he did...turned out they were an excellent idea as he was shot. Well done to him.

It was lunch time, but I only had a nutritious meal of cookies. I used some of my lunch to go see my guidance counsellor as I was stressed about quite a few things! My biggest being my rehearsals and line learning and also homework and to some extent Gracie! What a lot on one plate. She helped me talk about it though, which is always something. I had film class fifth, where I used the time to run lines with Leah, as Mr. Byrne was still absent. My directed study was used in much the same way! I was seriously stressing about the lines I still did not know, so many paragraphs.

I then had rehearsal, where I met Ryan's friends Mikayla and George. Mr. Byrne was back for rehearsal, but I still did not enjoy it and was stressing over my scenes. I got to relax after school in Sweet Sue's though, where I met Rob who was one of the funniest kids I met that year! He and his cousin, who I met at a later date were too funny! We hung out for a while with various people before I decided to head home for dinner.

Dinner was a large meal of hot dogs, pizza, chilli dogs and carrots, it was a great meal! Bev suggested we go to the film store to pick up a film for that evening. We picked up two films, both that I hadn't seen. One was the film version of The Green Mile which I had finished, the second being It's a Wonderful Life which starred James Stewart. It is a film that is shown every Christmas in America so Bev felt I should at least be aware of it! It's a bit like The Snowman for us Brits ;) We arrived home and I chose to watch It's a Wonderful Life which was a lovely feel-good film. I think you have to be pretty soul-less not to enjoy it to be honest. After the film was over, I got an early night, I wasn't planning on getting up late again!

Thanks for listening.

Monday, 1 November 2010

Hot Shots Part Deux

Thursday, November 1st 2007, Wake up time: 9:25am

I woke up so late because either I had the day off or everybody did...not quite sure! I called Mum and chatted with her, I think it was half term in England...lucky bastards! America doesn't do anything like half term, they just have wicked long holidays! I played some of Knights of the Old Republic before just hanging out for most of the day. I didn't have any homework that urgently needed doing, so I didn't see why I would! I took a walk to the park, to just say I'd done something for the day!

I walked back home and it was already time for dinner! I had sat in the park for a little while, I like to just sit and think, it was a very peaceful place. Dinner was sausage and beans. I had a drama rehearsal that evening, as it was getting very close to the performance! I walked to school but stopped off at a Red Sox merchandise store on the way. However, I didn't purchase anything because there wasn't much I liked the look of. Ralph said he'd take me to the Fenway Park shop...where I did get some stuff at a later date!

I arrived at school and headed to the theatre. However, my rehearsal wasn't great though as I hadn't really practised my lines in a while! I vowed to learn them as soon as possible! I headed home, a little depressed because of how the rehearsal had gone...but then it had been my fault! I got home and watched some telly to try and cheer me up. Shame the only show we watched was Smallville! :( If you don't know, it's a rubbish prequel to Superman...i.e. a young Superman. It's not great and it didn't cheer me up! However, my desert did :D It was a delicious slice of Red Velvet Cake! What made the evening funnier was that we accidentally stumbled upon a film which was ridiculous! It looked like a copy of Rambo...but the acting was terrible! We quickly found out that it was Hot Shots: Part Deux which is a parody action film starring Charlie Sheen! It was pretty funny. I finished the evening off by calling Tani and having a pleasant talk with her, it was nice to have a new friend!

Thanks for listening.