Holy Sondheim. January has been a bit of a blur for me. In a very good way however. It feels like I arrived here yesterday and at the same time it feels like it’s been ages. Blogging hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of my mind. My class schedule is extremely busy and it’s only been the past week that my body is starting to get used to the demanding nature of my course.

So I figured that some kind of catch-up post would be perfect for today.

In the past month I’ve:

Moved to Cardiff. We spent about eleven hours in the car which was less boring/annoying than I had feared. Music and re-reading The Fault in Our Stars helped. A lot.

It was so nice to spend a couple of days with my mum and my brother here in Cardiff. I showed them around town (the parts of it that I already knew), we visited the National Welsh Museum and Cardiff Castle, I took them to College and we had some nice meals in town.

Met up with Amber. We had talked about it once I knew I had gotten a place at the College but I wasn’t sure if we would be able to make it. Once I knew when I would be moving we started making plans and turned out she could come visit on my first Saturday here, the first full day I would be on my own in Cardiff. We had tapas at Las Iguanas with some happy hour cocktails and loads of talking. I guess we call that finding a part of your tribe.

Last weekend we travelled to London for a literary foodie day. But I’ll definitely blog about this later, it deserves its own blog post.

Started my MA. Exciting, exhilarating, exhausting, demanding and basically fantastic. From my lovely – seriously lovely – and non-egotistical classmates to the ridiculously great tutors and just the general kind and genuine atmosphere at College. Words can hardly describe how grateful I am for being here.

Tomorrow we’re on week six already and we’re halfway through the spring term. We’ve already had our first masterclass (week 3), finished our first acting project (improv with the fierce MamAnita) and have used more straws for singing practice than for drinks in the past five years. On to more!

I hope you all had a great first month of 2013.

Now that I’ve shared with you the message of the day it’s time to catch up a bit. It was my birthday yesterday. I had a lovely day with my mum and then spent the evening with my family. As good a birthday as any.

Being twenty-four has taught me a myriad of things so I guess that today I’m sharing some of them with you all.

• You can accumulate a LOT of stuff. Seriously, stop buying things or you’ll never be able to take them with you when you move.
• Happy = healthy. Try to be as happy and positive as possible and healthy nutrition will follow (at least it does for me).
• Kristin Chenoweth was right when she said in her book that you should sing with your hoo-hoo. Take advice from people who know what they’re talking about.
• You’re fooling nobody by trying to casually walk by the entrance of RWCMD because you’re nervous. They will still see you come in. Be brave.
• Talking to people is something you never regret. If you think the person sitting next to you on the plane is cool and you’re dying to ask them about that book on their lap, do so. Seriously.
• Taking care of yourself is important.
• There are a lot more people who care about you and your dreams and hopes than you could imagine. Appreciate them.

I hope you guys all have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be here working and whenever I’m home writing like mad for NaNoWriMo (I’m massively behind! Eek!)

Today I wanted to share this Mark Twain quote with you all. It reminds me about something my best friend once told me: people are in your life for a period of time. That might be a couple of weeks, some months, a couple of years or for the rest of your life.

The people you surround yourself with are important. Choose them carefully.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition, it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Similarly, be that kind of a friend for your friends.
- Mark Twain

I’ve been lucky in a way that the people who have become my friends are just like that. They support me, push me to grow and whenever I feel like I’m in over my head they point out why I’m actually really not.

Have a lovely weekend!

I went to see a play by the same company I did 3 Musketeers with last year. It was so lovely to see some of my friends again.

At the same time it was quite sad in a way. Some people you lose touch with after a year. Things like that just happen. But when it’s people that you were very close with it hurts. Of course if they don’t even say as much as a hello that says more about them than it does about me.

I was lucky enough to have a dear friend and colleague from last year with me. Some things are more easy to handle when you’re not alone.

Yes, I know: a double post day! Those are rare. I also know there are going to be a bajillion Hunger Games posts in about what, an hour or so? But I already got to see movie yesterday and frankly I can’t help myself. It actually came out on Wednesday but I couldn’t go before. I don’t know why but with the big blockbusters Belgium are usually two days ahead of the US. Not that I’m complaining.

I was so anxious to see this film version of Suzanne Collins’ books. At first I couldn’t find anyone to go see it with me (most friends of mine haven’t read the books – shock horror!) but then Alyssa decided to come with me anyways. She just finished the whole trilogy last week. Good on her.

We had a small dinner (more room for snacks), did each other’s makeup and then set off. We were quite the sight to behold in our pink and purple Effie-inspired war paint.

The theatre quite busy but we totally snagged the best seats in the room. There was this adorable older couple sitting in front of us. They loved the movie. Score!
I won’t give anything away but I loved it. So real and I loved the cinematography. Props to the sound people as well. The silence at the reaping was so poignant.

How about you? Have you seen it? Plans to see it?

I spent most of Wednesday evening in Ghent with Julie watching Doctor Who. We managed to get to The Doctor’s Wife in season 6. Of course Jules wanted to watch more so the next morning she set out to get croissants as I made tea and readied episode five.

Sometimes to have a good time you don’t need much. A good friend, some tea and something to eat usually does the trick. Rescue missions by the Doctor optional.

My best friend Julie is coming to visit tonight. We are planning an evening of watching movies and BBC’s Sherlock, using up all our tissues during the watching of the aforementioned and getting into some serious radical self-love (with imaginary mentor guidance by the lovely Gala Darling). There will be plenty of tea and chocolate being consumed as we start our self-love bibles and just have a good chat.

And it really is true. It doesn’t have to be a big thing with super-expensive activities. Sometimes just hanging out with your friends with some tea is enough.

What about you? What is your favourite friend-time thing?

Every year I just have to go ice skating at least once. It’s this thing that just makes me feel like it’s really winter. And I have to say that with the unseasonably warm weather we’ve been having lately (since when is 13°C a normal January temperature – not that I’m complaining or anything) it was lovely to be reminded of the current season.

For the past couple of years Sofie and I have always met up for an afternoon of ice skating during the Christmas holidays. It’s something we both enjoy – and her boyfriend really hates – and we usually end the evening at one of our places watching a movie or two and munching on some snacks.

I couldn’t find my ice skates and of course my mum just had to look for two minutes when we got home before she found them. And that after the pair of us had searched for half an hour. Fail!
The rental skates were another fail. The first pair I got (as well as Sofie’s first pair) were just not sharp enough to actually skate. The second pairs were a bit better luckily.
Moral of the story: keep searching for your skates until you find them.

After our skating adventure (yes, there were plenty of show-off guys in hockey skates who gave us plenty of frights) Sofie first showed me the house she’s building with her boyfriend. It’s nearly finished and the kitchen looks a-ma-zing! Then we picked up some munchies and went back to my place for the Disney movie extravaganza.

It turned out to be only two movies this time but after watching Pocahontas we viewed Beauty and the Beast and then watched all the documentary stuff on my double disc Diamond edition. It’s just so interesting all the animation and behind the scenes stuff.

Oh and did I mention that we totally had a big sing-along thing going with Beauty and the Beast? Priceless, absolutely priceless!

Can’t wait for our next ice skating + movie night! Do you have a winter tradition?

I got the most lovely surprise for Christmas on the 29th. My mum had told me that we were going to have a mother-daughter day. And then suddenly in the evening of the 28th my best friend Julie arrived. Talk about a surprise. And still they wouldn’t tell me where we were going.

The next morning we got up at half past five and then took the bus to London at half past six! Hello awesome!

We arrived at Lower Regent Street at 11 a.m. local time and it felt so great to be back. It had been over a year since I was in London and it felt a bit like coming home. We divided the snacks we had brought and then Jules and I said our goodbyes to my mum and brother before heading off.

Passing through Trafalgar Square, a quick stop at St. Martins in the Fields and then to the big HMV at Piccadilly Circus. I found the 25th Anniversary dvd of Phantom of the Opera for £10 and also bought the Catch me if you Can album.

After all that shopping we had some fika at the Nordic Bakery in Soho, one of my favourite spots from summer 2010. Cinnamon buns, a gravad lax sandwich and tea. Perfect fika.

A visit to the Illamasqua store, wandering through Carnaby Street and Soho to end up with a Tesco sandwich at Covent Garden.

Jules had been in London a couple of days before with her mum but the Moomin store was closed so imagine her delight at it being open that day. I’ve never seen her so excited: the only Moomin store outside of Finland.

I have to say that I’m quite proud of my restraint in the face of so many awesome things. London really is a great city for shopping. So many books (and sheet music books) that I wanted to buy but I didn’t buy a single one of them. Restraint. Restraint!

I can’t wait until Tennant & Tate’s Much Ado About Nothing is out on dvd!

I’ve got two more posts about London coming up. London love for the win. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve!

Where is all this time going? Five more days only?

Today was my last exam (drama) and it went well. Of course it didn’t go as fantastically brilliant as I had wanted but we can only strive for excellence instead of perfection. Afterwards I joined the bulk of my classmates and we went to the Christmas market here in Antwerp.

Unfortunately the weather decided to spoil everything with a lot of rain. We did however get some awesome pictures before fleeing the cold and rain.