19th October - 30th October

I must admit: I am a terrible blogger. First of all, I have a chaotic mind. I always think: this is something that just needs to be written down. However, a second later my mind is fully occupated by something else, like purple canaries. Which are very interesting, in case you were wondering. Secondly, I forget things quite easily. And by quite, I mean, all the time. I don't even remember what I was going to write about. *sigh*

What happened to me the past few days/weeks? Basically, I have been:
1. Getting to know everyone in my hall. By the way, the address is
Elise van Lil
Room 614
College Hall
Malet Street
WC1E 7HZ
London
United Kingdom
for those who are eager to write me a letter. Or those who feel obliged to send me some Belgian chocolate. Or Nesquick. Or Special K. Or "De Standaard". Or all of the above.

It has been great to meet all these people. The Brits may be "odd islanders", but they are - generally speaking - extremely friendly and nice. Also, they are very huggable, which can be a useful feature when one feels homesick or a bit lonely. Or too tired to stand up straight because the lift was being annoying and made one walk up the stairs {Note: "one" lives on the sixth floor}. Our hall is really a big family. Although incest isn't illegal here.

2. Working, working, working, purple canary, working.
Uni is uni. Wherever you go, whatever you study, there will we work. Unless you're name is Zach and you're my next door neighbour who's studying History at UCL and never has to do anything. And will remind everyone of this if needed.

3. Doing some more extracurriculars
Rehearsals for Little Shop of Horrors {Medics Musical Theatre} and West Side Story {King's Musical Theatre} have started, which means I'll be spending some time dancing, singing and eating pizza. Because apparently, that's what happens after rehearsals! Not that I'm complaining...

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The past week I've enjoyed a wonderful West Side Story rehearsal, which was 8 hours long, but such fun! We learned the mambo, the blues, the chachacha... And were all extremely sore the next day, which led to extremely funny movements while I was trying to get up the stairs. The LSOH-rehearsals are also going really well: we finished the song 'Skid Row/Downtown', but it still needs a lot of work. Dancing and singing a high B is not the easiest thing I've ever done...

This Monday was a great night, we finally found a place where drinks are affordable, and where the music is good. Yay. As you can see, I don't really have a lot to write about, because after all, I am just a normal university student, instead of a person who's travelling in Uganda or doing all sorts of weird stuff in Thailand. So a lot of my time goes to following lectures and writing essays... However, some can actually be hilarious, like the last Languages & Literature seminar. One girl randomly started talking about how ridiculous it was that Oedipus "just poked his eyes out. Because, why does one just randomly decides to poke one's eyes out? Instead of just killing himself, no, he had to be special, and POKE his eyes out!" Which lead to the whole class, including the seminar leader, to start laughing until he finally got everyone to shut up by shouting: "Order, order!". Which was quite funny too, actually. The last Greek seminar was also very interesting. We changed classrooms and ended up in a room with - wait for it- bouncy chairs. So we ended up bouncing the whole hour and talking about the bouncy chairs and their awesomeness, while some unfortunate peasants groaned while sitting on their non-bouncy chairs. Even our weekly test seemed fun while bouncing up and down. After a democratic vote it was decided to make this classroom our regular one. And, again, there was much rejoicing.

4-9 oktober

Hi iedereen!

Dit berichtje schrijf ik vanuit mijn vertrouwde kamertje in België, want daar vertoef ik op dit moment. Het was een erg zware week; deels omdat dit meteen twee weken zonder thuiskomen {en dus geen Nederlands spreken} waren, deels omdat de lessen nu anderhalve week bezig zijn en het werk al enorm is. Mijn excuses dus voor de weinige updates. Ik weet dat twaalf uur per week voor de meesten onder jullie weinig lijkt, maar in het Engelse systeem is dit echt wel heel wat. Twaalf uur les betekent ongeveer zes uur lectures en zes uur seminars, en die laatsten veroorzaken heel wat werk. Seminars zijn lessen waarbij we in nog kleinere groepjes {zo'n vijftien man} de geziene leerstof 'uitdiepen', lees: presentaties geven, literaire vertalingen voorstellen, extra boeken lezen, ... Dit zorgt dus voor heel wat werk naast het gewone bijhouden van de leerstof die je ziet in de lectures.

Gelukkig is er naast het academische gedoe ook wat leuks te doen in Londen: ik speel Minnie in West Side Story, waar ik heel dankbaar voor ben. We waren immers met 200 {!} man voor een cast van 25. Tijdens de eerste audities {zang en acteren} durfde ik zelfs niet te luisteren naar de anderen omdat ze gewoon stuk voor stuk ongelooflijk goed waren. Daarna volgde een callback, waar ieder met een nummer op de heup zijn best moest doen om een choreografie over te nemen, waarna de choreograaf enkele nummers afriep die mochten blijven en de rest zijn dromen opgaf en naar huis vertrok. Competitie is dus wel degelijk erg groot hier.

PS: het spijt me voor mijn weinige verslaggeving, maar de voorbije tijd bestond vooral uit heel veel werk en regelingen, waardoor er 1. geen inspiratie en 2. geen tijd was. Zoals je ook kan merken aan dit bericht was er ook niet veel gevoel voor stijl en witty puns. Mijn excuses.