Ok so I spent 54 days in London so get ready for a blast of
posts all at once. I am home now, I’m in Los Angeles living with Johnny
Knoxville (just till this Wednesday [July 16th, 2014]) and Chris
Evans (indefinitely). My trip was absolutely fantastic, but here’s a little
insight into my London trip:
Day 10 – Interview and Greenwich
The
definite day of the interview. Thank God an hour and a half trek with a
purpose! I figured I’d wear heels for the interview but I’m a smart girl, so I
wore comfortable shoes and put the heels in my bag. Well it turns out I’m a smart
forgetful girl because by the time I got to the interview (perfectly on time
[i.e. 5 minutes early]) I was running over drama information in my head so much
that I forgot to put them on. It’s not like I was wearing sneakers or anything,
they were nice shoes! Just not heels.
The
interview itself I figured would be more personal talking about goals and
expectations, I figured wrong! The interview was very formal and professional
and especially intense. In the interview I was sitting across from this woman
who was probably one of the most intimidating people I’ve ever met, think of a
more firm Hillary Clinton and you’ll get a sense. She wore pants and a button
down shirt and had her hair slicked back into a low pony-tail and wore no
make-up. While I was contemplating heels for the interview she must have been
fighting a bear. I mean, she looked quite intense. She starts off the interview
by introducing herself and what she wanted me to show her during the interview.
I do remember her saying “This won’t be too long of an interview, it’s only a
few tasks”. Well boys and girls, those were the most draining tasks I’ve ever
completed some of them I wasn’t even prepared for. First I did gymnastics, then
some piano and violin playing, followed by some singing and dancing, a whole
slew of impressions and stand-up comedy. It was a lot! The interview took over
2.5 hours and during it the woman was furiously writing notes and so
eye-contact wasn’t an issue. At the end I knew they were going to ask if I had
any questions and I totally butchered that one, “Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah….oh shoot
what was it…..it just slipped my…oh yeah, what’s it like working here?” That
wasn’t even the question I wanted to ask I was just so embarrassed that I asked
the most basic question ever. “So what’s up?” is basically what I asked. Come
on Essenelle.
Our
class was in Greenwich today and it is far from Kensington! I left around
11:45pm and got there just in time for class. This class was probably the
coolest class ever, and we got to do some outdoor acting which was nice. We
went to so many places around Greenwich, we saw the Cutty Sark (big olde ship
[resembles pirate ship to me]), the Prime Meridian, the view right next to the
Prime Meridian and observatory up there, a few museums that were very cool and
interactive, a gorgeous painted room that apparently a lot of movies are filmed
around/by, and a giant ship in a bottle that was once a Trafalgar square pillar
art icon. Even though I was quite cold during the outdoor parts of the journey
it was well worth it. My favorite part of the journey was walking through the
park up to the Prime Meridian. What a gorgeous plot of land with people playing
and picnics going on, it was like being in a movie. Keira, James and I were
attached to the hip throughout the day basically. I love those two, they’ve
been friends for a while so were. The area was so picturesque, it was truly a
sight to behold. After “class” I went to the local Boots, got some Band-Aids
for my wounded feet, got dinner, and slept for eons.
Day 11 – Soho/Piccadilly Circus/Finsbury Park
Today
was all James and I! All of the others were surely working at the one-on-ones
today so I had to entertain myself for the day. And what would Christina do on
her day to herself? Explore, read, drink tea, and then read some more. I first
headed to Piccadilly Circus having been told it was the Times Square of London.
HA. I’m from New York, and this was at best a blink of Times Square. Don’t get
me wrong, I love London for London, and I went to London to see…you guessed
it…LONDON. Basically the comparison is that Piccadilly Circus has a large
rectangular screen that shows advertisements and so does Manhattan, NYC. So we
decided to walk around the town a bit, we walked into comic book stores (that
turned out to be sex book stores), gift shops (which turned out to have
basements filled with sex toys and pornography), and tea shops (which were thankfully,
tea shops). We found this place called Apostrophe. Now in my head I kept
telling myself to look out for small cafes so I can relax and drink tea and eat
a bite without having the awkward “Table for 2” conversation. It’s funny but
this is the actual conversation went:
Christina: “Oh there’s a place…oh no too crowded.”
James: “NO”
Christina: “Oh Apostrophe what’s that?”
James: “Exactly what you were looking for”
Christina: “Get out”
James: “Oh right across from a sex toys store…”
I got a nice mozzarella, tomato, basil sandwich
while he got a tuna melt and we shared a giant pot of tea that served 5 cups! I
was in tea heaven. And the seating arrangement couldn’t have been better, it
couldn’t be seen from the storefront window. No paparazzi thinking we were
together or something or regular outside onlookers. Also, there were plenty of
tables for only 1 to 2 people! Cha-ching! Found my new favorite café. You go
Soho. After the bite to eat we walked around Carnaby Street and found the most
hipster of places, weed shops, vintage clothing stores, fro-yo, if only I was
15. Maybe I’d be wooed by the healthy, organic, nostalgia of it all but my 23 year
old self was really just looking for a good deal on fudge. Couldn’t find it,
better luck next time 5 pound fudge vendor.
After
we went back to Finsbury Park because my feet were starting to hurt, but after
probably 2 hours being cooped up in the apartment I left with my book to
Finsbury Park (the park) and read on a bench. It was probably one of the most
relaxing things I’ve done. People on bikes would pass by, a family played
Frisbee, I’m pretty sure I witnessed a drug deal but that’s beside the point.
When the clouds started to get dark grey I headed for food and shelter (in that
order). Since I had work the next day I went to bed early (NOT, I watched 12
Years a Slave and The Usual Suspects consecutively, great films, highly
recommend).
Day 12 – First Day of Real Work and Indie Punk Rock
Pub
Obviously
like I’ve said before that I can’t give details to class format and teachers’
names and what not but I really love this class. It opens up your mind as to
what acting really is and it’s not just channeling emotions it’s being the
character and living their life through your body. Definitely going to be an
amazing experience getting to come to these classes with amazing
actors/actresses.
I
was very tired after class but Hiddlesconvinced me to go out and go see an
Indie Punk Rock band over in Camden with Keira and James (at Barfly in case
further proof is needed). It was actually a lot of fun considering I didn’t
particularly want to go out, met some very unusual people (talked to a guy in a
suit who claimed he worked two jobs, one as a financier and another as a
mortician), listened to a free-style rap from a drunk guy on the tube, and got
heckled by 5 guys outside my apartment building who were dressed head to toe as
a punk (each of them had Mohawks that were at least 2 feet high). All in all, a
long, crazy, fun day.
Day 13 – Aubergine Café and King’s Cross Sushi
Today
sadly was a very mellow day, not too many adventures or ridiculous
happen-stances. The original plan was to check out another part of town and to
eat there but it was quite rainy so I instead got lunch by my apartment with
Hugh. It was at a place called the Aubergine café and it’s been recommended to
me several times. When I walked in a woman was trying to order a sandwich but
the lady behind the desk (wasn’t very fluent in English) was trying to
understand the customer’s broken English while the customer was trying to do
the same. “Sandwich?” “We have Panini” “What is Panini” “What?” “Panini?”
“Which one?” “Which WHAT?” It would’ve been funnier at the time had I not been
starving. Since everyone in New York speaks broken English I decided to jump in
and point at the paninis, “Panini is hot sandwich”. And from that one
caveman-esque statement it was like the heavens parted and they finally
understood what the heck was going on. Thank god for me.
I
basically spent the day moving from parts of the building reading my book, I’m
almost done with it! Around page 350 out of 450. Finally at 4:30pm I realized
that social interactions are necessary for human life and I messaged Benedict
asking if he wanted to get sushi with me at Yo! Sushi. The running joke at SNL
is that Yo! Sushi is the best place in the world and every sushi place should
be run like Yo! is and if I don’t get some Yo! Sushi then my life will be
significantly worse. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lorne so jazzed up about a
food place, especially not one that serves raw fish on a conveyer belt. So we
went to the closest Yo! I could find. And by “closest Yo! I could find” I mean
we went 2 stations away, looked for a solid 5 minutes for it, gave up, and got
regular sushi from the station itself. Equally delicious, conveyor belt not
required.
Day 14 – Stonehenge and Bath
Today
was definitely one of my favorite days of the trip so far, and it was LONG. We
were all told to be at the busses for 8:20am and that the bus would leave
promptly at 8:30am so don’t be late! I wasn’t late, but there was Tom Hardy,
Benedict and James strolling in around 8:35 complaining about how early it was.
You’re only going to be sitting on an air-conditioned coach bus to go see one
of the 7 wonders of the freakin’ WORLD. *sighs* Excuse me. After a 2 and a half
hour coach bus ride we arrived in the town of Bath where it is a literal
requirement that all buildings and homes there be made of the stone from the
Bath rock quarry. Bath was gorgeous, the town was super quaint and very much
felt like another time, there were shops that sold patsys (plural for pasty,
I’m not auto-correcting it so pasties thank you very much), a shop for ye olde
wear, etc. We got to the entrance of the Roman Baths early so we got extra time
to look at all the different bath rooms and waterfalls. I think my favorite
part of the “museum” was that to make us viewers understand what it was like
back then the museum designs decided to project people onto the walls of the
bath houses. But people back then didn’t wear clothes, so this tour group of
frat boys and sorority girls were shouting over each other in this small quiet
museum “AW DUDE, CHECK OUT HIS JUNK! HA HA, I SHOULD JOIN HIM DUDE!” to which
I’d reply “You wanna be naked with that guy?” “WHAT? NO THAT’S GAY, EW, GOD
NO”. Oh the simple ways to scare a frat boy. It was mainly Keira, James, and
myself. After the tour we bought fudge, I got a pin for my pin collection, and
I tried some water from the hot spring. Oh my LORD, if anyone reading this ever
goes to Bath and is wondering if they should drink the water at the very end,
DON’T. I was thinking, oh it’s going to taste like regular water because
otherwise it’s probably not safe to drink. But we’re not in America folks, the
amusement park actors can touch you, and it is frightening (and if you don’t
get that joke, you’ve never almost threatened to sue Knotts Berry Farm Theme
Park for having one of their Halloween Haunt “scare-ers” accidentally touch you
thus breaking the solely American rule of “no touching” [and if you still don’t
get that joke, you need to reread the first parenthetical]). The water was very
warm (for obvious reasons) and taste like the water version of a fart. I know
that’s pretty crude but that’s literally what it was, it was like I licked a
rotten egg. Either way, the baths were pretty cool and historical.
Keira,
James, and I all got pastys after the bath houses and it was surprisingly
delicious! The way a pasty was described to me was “It what coal miners used to
eat, you could get your hands really dirty and still eat the pasty because of
the impossibly thick crust. Then you’d crumble up that crust (if you could) and
feat it to the gas-detecting canaries that also lived in these coal mines”.
Well damn, I was eating coal miner’s food and loving it! After listening to
some street performers and walking around tourist-y shops it was time to leave.
So we all waited an extra 5 minutes for the Greek crowd to show up and then
headed to the bus.
Day 15 – More Work, Tube Trauma and 1984
What
my trip would have been was a 45 minute ride from Stratford to Green Park on
the jubilee line and then a 10 minute trip from Green Park to Earl’s Court on
the Piccadilly Line. Oh, no, no, of course today there was extreme power
failure so the Piccadilly, Victoria, District, Circle, and Jubilee lines were
all closed right where I wanted to go. But I didn’t know the extent of the
damage till I got outside. Basically I got to Green Park from Stratford, no
problems, the power outage wasn’t all the heck way over in Newham, but then
once I got to Green Park, got off, and then got on the Piccadilly line the
conductor man said that there were severe delays. Ok, severe delays are ok, I
was doing well for time so I thought I’d wait a bit and see if things would
start to move. Every 5 minutes he would say the announcement again and on the
third announcement I decided to call it quits and take an alternative route. I
got on the Victoria line (which I thought was completely fine) one stop until
it shut down as well. Now I was stuck slightly closer to my location, which
was…better…I guess. Shooting yourself in the foot is better than shooting
yourself in the head but it still hurts like crazy. I got out of the station
and talked to a man at the information desk who looked so displeased to be
doing so much work with rerouting everyone. He told me the only, the ONLY, way
to get to Earl’s Court other than walking or hitching a ride on someone’s back
was to take the bus. Now, I had never taken the bus before on purpose; the bus
system is confusing. But hey, first time for everything right? It was just
Hiddles, James and I just freaking out over the fact that we were going to be
late and that the teacher would murder us. We got on the bus at 12:42 and was
(what I thought at the time to be) 3 stops away. Oh, no, no dear Christina! I
counted, it was 9 stops, with traffic, and I didn’t even make it on the first
bus! Everyone outside the Victoria station was mobbing these busses so tiny me
couldn’t make it on the first one, I swear people were ready to bite heads off
for a seat on these cramped and slow busses. The entire trip James was saying
that class was probably going to be cancelled and that everyone else would be
late too. Class started at 1pm and I didn’t even get there until 1:35pm, as I
was walking in James convinced me class had been cancelled, I left so early to
get there we couldn’t have been the last ones in. We were. I don’t think my
teacher could have given me more of a deathly look when I walked in “And here
you can see…” she then waited for me to sit down, gave me a stern
you-know-what-you-did look, another 3 seconds so everyone else could see who it
was who ruined her riveting speech on docks, and then carried on.
The
class that day was quite interesting, I hadn’t eaten anything since that salmon
bagel at 9 in the morning so when we got out at 5:30pm I was about to mimic
those head biters outside the station. As I was heading out the door to get
some food I was stopped by the front desk. They asked me if I liked the book
1984 and if I was interested in severely discounted middle audience seats for
the play version tonight. And after all the hell I went through that day, I
said screw it, threw 10 pounds down and got myself a play ticket to go see a
play about a book I’ve never read, by myself. Since it was already 5:45pm at
that point and the play started at 7:30pm downtown I decided to not go home and
take all my books with me to my favorite café Apostrophe where I could read,
eat alone, and drink my tea in peace. Typing this I realize just how old I
sound. I’m 23. Maybe there’s something wrong with me…
I
got to the theater a bit early for being early and so I just had to brave
sitting in the theater by myself pretending to be very excited about this math
app I had on my phone. There’s only so many times you can play a game on your
phone before it gets boring. Now, I won’t spoil the play for those reading this
because it was really something spectacular. If you don’t like the dentist
don’t see it. It’s got this “special effect” of high pitched drilling sounds
about every 5 minutes, I thought it added to the effect they were going for, and
although I’m sure my mother would think that the playwright was purposely
trying to torture her. Difference of opinion I suppose. Also, I don’t
particularly like being in complete darkness especially not while cast members
are screaming and yelling at the audience to help them, but there are many
blackouts in this show and I thought they were just bone chillingly fun!
Oxymoronic, but it just works.
