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.

It has been a few days over seven months since I was last in Cardiff. Since then I got a very happy email, I was in our end of year production in June, I travelled to Rotterdam with my best friend and have been working my bum off not only at work but also in dance and singing class.

I can’t believe it has been seven months already, it feels so much shorter. In exactly a month I will have moved here and I’ll have a couple of days to settle in before classes start on the 7th of January. Excited does not really cover it.

Right now I’m back here with a purpose. I’ll be back at the lovely (seriously, it is gorgeous) building below for an audition. I’m hoping to obtain one of the scholarships that the college offers.

So this afternoon I’ll be singing my little heart out and in about three hours from now it will be all over and I’ll be biting my nails for the results. Not that I have any nails to bite really but that is not the point.

Oh and can I just say how amazingly supportive my friends and family have been for this whole enterprise? Every single one of them is delighted for me that I get the chance to attend what has turned out be to my dream school. If that does not say awesome then what does?

Have a lovely start to the week! With love and some vicks vapo-rub thrown in for good measure.

I feel a bit like a broken record these days. ‘Keep focused’, ‘Take that jump and go for your dream’, ‘Be patient’. I feel like I’m constantly repeating myself while waiting (rather impatiently) for January to come. I feel like I’m not doing anything and it’s just about driving me utterly bonkers.

And just when I think this impatience of mine is going to make me snap in two I come across this marvelous print by Kate Moore of the fabulous Blimp Cat Studio and I snap out of it.

I’m actually doing something. I’m working full-time. I take three dance classes a week and go to singing lessons. I take care of myself (which for me mostly consists of getting enough sleep) and have a bit of fun while doing every single one of those things. And that is somehow what it’s all about. That little bit of fun.

Breathe Karen, breathe.

PS: You can totally buy this awesome print right here in Kate’s shop. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Hello guys and gals! I am back with exactly one week to spare before this little blog’s second anniversary. Time really does fly by. I’m still changing hosts (there’s something with the nameservers, blabla, techspeak, bla) so hopefully all this will work out the way I want it to.

The past month I’ve been…

• Working. Those housing bills in Cardiff next year aren’t going to pay themselves after all. It’s nice though: good atmosphere with the colleagues and I’ve managed to get the times I need free for dance classes and singing class cleared with my schedule.
• Dancing. I started with dance classes again: jazz on Thursdays and intermediate ballet on Sundays. The jazz is perfect level-wise but ballet is kicking my proverbial behind. I love it though, I feel that I’m really progressing even though I do struggle with the terms and the pace of the class. Ah well. I’ll keep on keeping on eh. And I started with tap again last week. I’m loving the advanced class, finally a class I’m really good in while still being challenging enough.
• Reading. Not as much as I’d like but I’m re-reading all of my Harry Potter books (no idea why, I just picked up the first one and kept going) and I’ve just started Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald. Any recommendations are always welcome… Hehe.
• Listening. I have discovered Newsies the musical. Oh, the genius that is mr Alan Menken. Seriously. I’m loving that show right now. Oh and this tap routine is beyond awesome. That goes on the want-list…
• Writing. No, that big novel isn’t coming out just yet. I’ve started going my morning pages every day. 750words really does help with that for me. A bit of brain vomit that gets dumped every morning is good to clear the head.

As for the coming month, there are plenty of things to do. I’ve gotten my first email from RWCMD last week with the term dates. Hopefully I’ll get some more information soon and I can start planning and arranging. It did kind of hit me that day that this is real. Seriously real. Which is at once wonderful and exciting and just a tad scary.

Have a lovely day, dears!

I’m getting up at 4.30 a.m. tomorrow. It’s going to hurt a lot.

Then I’m going to get on a bus with over 30 other students from my school. We’ll be on the bus for 12 hours. It’s going to hurt a lot.

But then after those twelve hours we’ll be in Wroclaw, Poland. We’ll rehearse, take a look at the town, get to meet new people and perform in a concert. It’s going to be awesome.

See you all in a week!

PS: I guest posted at English Muse again: Mum’s the word.

Friday is upon us, lovelies! It’s nearly the weekend and I’m lucky: I have both Monday and Tuesday off. Time for some relaxing!

Last night was the first real public performance of our class. Just before our part I was sitting in the wings and I couldn’t help this massive grin forming on my face. It’s such a wonderful feeling when you realize that you’re doing exactly what you love most in life. The adrenalin of being on that stage was brilliant.

What makes you feel that life is beautiful?

I hope you all had a good week. Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Monday everyone. I hope you all had a good start to the week.

As for me, I have an important week ahead. Audition at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on Saturday so I’m afraid that posting will be minimal this week. I’m sure all you lovely people understand.

Have a lovely week!

It’s true, you know. There is so much potential in each new day. All it takes is a little spark, some motivation, something small.

Well, I know what I’ll be doing on April 21st. I got an email from the one drama school I want to study at above all others. Five more weeks and I’ll be auditioning. Can’t wait!

Today we had the audition for our end of year production at the course. We’ll be doing our own version of Red Riding Hood featuring the iconic scarlet cloak and as of today I can affirm that yours truly will be following in the footsteps of the amazing Julie Christie.

Not that I’ve just been Oscar nominated or something, I’ve just been cast as grandmother. Yes, I am the oldest of the bunch. No, I’m not greying prematurely.

It’s a pretty sweet part and it’ll be very interesting to figure out how to make this 65-year-old grandmother come across well. I guess lots of observations will be in order. All in the name of research of course.

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.