Big Changes On The Way.

Hope everyone's week is going well, the first week of summer has been nothing but job search, job search, JOB SEARCH!

So far, I believe I have applied to every restaurant, retail store, and craigslist ad in the near vicinity. I had my first job interview today and I think it went really well. The job I applied for is a music therapist for a young boy with autism. The woman I interviewed with today is the boy's mom and such a sweet lady! What interests me the most about this job (besides the fact, that I get to work with a child) is that all the therapy they do with the boy is singing therapy! How perfect is that! The family sounds really sweet and the job sounds incredibly fascinating. I find out about it on Sunday, so cross your fingers!

We also might have possibly found a new apartment, which I am so excited about! For safety reasons, I a

m not going to post the apartment online. But trust that, its awesome; If we get the apartment we want we would move in July 17th!

I am also using this blog entry to introduce you all (and by all I mean the two of you who read this) to someone new/not so new in my life. World meet Tim, yes that's him in that ridiculously old picture. Tim and I met in high school, or 2005 to be exact. Tim basically was my savior and guardian angel in quite possibly the toughest period of my life. Tim pulled me out of my rut and gave me the confidence that someone else had taken from me. Tim and I started as very close friends and over time it evolved into something more. However, Tim graduated and we separated so he could live his life and truly experience college on his own. We kept in touch though, and saw each other during the holidays and whenever we were both in Maine at the same time. Over the next six years, we spoke sporadically and

leaned on each other through tough relationships, heartbreak, and the general stress of college. As most of my friends know I went through a large heartbreak of my own about a year ago and Tim also had a breakup around Christmas. During Christmas, Tim and I had our usual get together and we just sort of kept in contact since then. Since January we have talked basically talked everyday. As Tim and I tend to do our close friendship morphed into more.

A few weeks ago sneaky

Mr. Tim decided to surprise me (with the help of Ms.

Spencer!) and flew to NC to visit me for a week.

He came to my last performance of How I Learned To Drive and stayed through my senior recital. Over his week

in NC, we had a lot of talks about our relationship and we

mutually decided to take a huge step. Over the first week of

June, Tim will be making the move to NC to live with me.

I know I know, Sara you never make spontaneous decisions like this! It's crazy and totally out of character for me, but I am really excited. I really enjoy being around Tim, and he is a great guy who is totally supportive of me and my career;

I really can't say just how important that is to me. Plus, I am pretty sure my friends like him more than they like me, so I can't complain about that! So we'll see, big changes, all for the good I hope!

And so it begins.

I graduated on Sunday.

That sentence is really hard to look at, as I type it on my computer. I don't think I have completely excepted it yet. On Sunday M

ay 9th at 10am, a large chapter of my life came to a close. It was an incredibly bittersweet moment, a large part of me is actually hoping that I will wake up tomorrow and it will all be a dream. Suddenly, I will be back in my freshman year and able to experience these incredible four years again.

It all seems so surreal, I don't feel like I am ready at all to be a college graduate. There are some days when I feel like I am still a kid. I don't feel prepared to be an "adult." It's petrifying to spend 16 years studying, writing pap

ers, learning, and pushing yourself to this light at the end of the tunnel, this point on the horizon. And now that I am at the light, now that I have reached the point on th

e horizon all I see is water, and to be quite honest I have no frickin' idea what to do. I have been trying to apply for a job a day, but not much has turned up. This is quite possibly the scariest point in my life, because really I have no plan and anything is possible.

I guess the only

plan I do have is to stay here in Raleigh for a year, working and saving money and then in a yea

r I will re-evaulate and see where life takes me. However, if I don't find a job in the next coup

le weeks then I can't sign a lease for a new apartment. If I can't sign a lease than I have to move home. Moving home, wouldn't be bad, but it means I leave all my friends and connections I have made here in Raleigh. Which, is a terrible

thing to think about. But, I would be able to be with my family again, so that makes it worth it.

I guess, I just needed to write all this down, and get it out of my head. I am hoping that everything will work out, but who knows.

As you can see, I changed the name of the blog. I am hoping that I can use this blog to vent about life after graduation, and what being an adult really means. Cross your fingers for me...

My new life after I have turned my ring,.

2 days!

I come home in two days HUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAH!

Its very bitter sweet but, I am ready to come home. I love London, and hope to return for Grad School but right now I just need to see my Mom, Dad, Friends, Aunt Pam, and Chris.

This weekend we went to Bath and checked out the Roman Baths and Fashion Museum, and had wonderful strawberries at Dr. Webb and John Roses house.

Then after the theatre majors, cathy, Lisa, and Jo had dinner and I picked their brains about grad schools all night.

Saturday, we went to the Science Museum, I did a bit of shopping for people and then in the evening we went to see a preview performance of Streetcar named Desire with Rachel Weiss (will include picture). And afterwards waiting to stage door guess who comes out of the audience, James Cromwell! I almost peed myself, I love London you see people in the oddest places (will include picture)

Yesterday, Cathy, Amanda and I went to church at Westminister Abbey, visited The Tower of London for a bit, and then Carlene, Lauren, and I took in a show at the Globe of Troilus and Cressida. After that we rested our poor feet and did homework till I couldnt keep my eyes open.

Today, Amanda and I are hopefully going to do a tour of the National, and then I hope to check out Harrods and go to Notting Hill again. Tomorrow, I think I am going to go to the V&A which is a big museum, and PACK! Then in the evening we are all doing a big excursion to the London Eye, to close out our trip.

For all who care, my flight is American Airlines. Direct flight into RDU at 2:40. Be there or be square!

CIAO
SBC

LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN: 6 DAYS

6 Days left on the rollercoaster that has been my life for the last 2 months, cant believe I am this close to coming home.

Anywho, yesterday was a big day in Sara-land. Amanda and I woke up at 4:30am, to get ready and grab the first tube from High St. Kensington to Leicester's Square to rush for Hamlet. We decided to forgo a trip to Brighton to do this, because A) It was our only chance to go without having to miss class and B) we both weren't really up for spending a day at the beach when we can go to the beach in 6 days when we get home. All you previous study abroaders will probably be mad at me for this but, ah well. Anywho, when we got there a bit before 6th we were 8th and 9th in line, which guaranteed us a ticket. So our ass-crack of dawn wake up call would not be in vain. After making friends with the people before and after us we settled in (literally we sat on the sidewalk) for the next 4 hours till the box office opened. During which time I searched the illustrious morning coffee and breakfast for us, we read newspapers, regaled (sp?) of our trip to our line buddies, and caught up on some journaling. After FOREVER on the sidewalk and one very cold bum later we got our tickets around 10am. Amanda and I scored again on two box tickets stage right, which would later prove to be pretty darn good tickets for only 25pounds. I am really amazed at the seats we have gotten for shows this summer, pretty much 80% of them have been AMAZING and the not so amazing ones werent that bad either.

Anywho, we came back after our excursion took a well needed nap and then toured about town for awhile and went to shops and sights we have missed so far. I also got an extra duffle for all the gifts I have bought on this half. I am serious I have done some SERIOUS shopping for people. I have a huge itemized list of all the gifts I have purchased people, its ridiculous.

The show was pretty good in my opinion, and Jude Law definitely didn't dissapoint. But it was sort of the Jude Law show, and I felt the supporting cast could have done a lot more to back him cause the dude was onstage for 90% of the show and some of the other characters were just a bit lacking. Really (and I hate to say this because I love me the ladies) but the women in the cast were just lackluster, and the men were really dragging them along most of the time. I felt like Jude and the actor that played Laertes were the best in the whole show, and Laertes was really the only character that stood up to Law's level throughout the show. Ophelia was pretty eh too, I thought she could have projected more because I was pretty close to the stage and had a hard time hearing her and her crazy scene was a bit too un-crazy for me. But even though some of the supporting cast were not up to par Jude Law made up for them massively. That man had to have worked off at least 10 pounds during the show, and this was a two day show for him, so I can imagine that is how he stays in such good shape. And for inquiring minds, yes he really is that cute in real life too. He did an amazing job at Hamlet though, he had intention and projection, and his physicality was what amazed me the most. That man was up down, standing, sitting, miming, fighting, crying, screaming in seconds and each movement was fully understandable. It may from this write up seem like I didnt enjoy the production, but I did . No production is perfect, and yes Hamlet had its shaky bits but in the end it was totally worth rushing and waking up crazy early to see this interesting take on a classic.

Today, I went to cabinet war rooms and the Churchill museum which was really neat. And tonight its back to Leicester's Square for dinner and roaming about. I also have crazy homework to do! hehe
6 days
CIAO
SBC

Sunny Monday

Hooray for the sun, its been a bit overcast these last few weeks so its a great change to actually see the sun come out for more than ten minutes. I am feeling a bit better today, finally got some good medication that has been slowly battling this cold away. Its our last full week in London can you believe it? Today we are having class, and then headed to the British Silver Vaults which should be neat, hopefully I can see a lot of stuff I cannot afford but I guess there are some areas where you can buy some of the silver from the vault, and then hopefully trying to make it to the Tower of London later on in the afternoon if my cold holds out.

So this weekend we were able to see two shows, first War Horse on Friday and A Little Night Music on Saturday evening. A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim was great and the vocals of that cast were amazing but I have to say that War Horse by far has been the best production I have seen in London so far, which is saying a lot because pretty much everything we have seen has been fabulous.

This production was INCREDIBLE, and the highlight of the show was the puppets that were used throughout the production, in particular the horses themselves. These horses were lifesize so they were HUGE, and we were sitting in the FRONT row and I swear a few times the horses galloped towards us and I backed up in my seat because they were so close. The horses were very lifelike too, you could actually see them breathing and it took 3 puppeteers to man the things. Two men were visible under the horse moving his legs and tail, and one puppeteer was at the front moving his head and making all of the horse type noises. There were also small bird puppets, a goose, vultures, and this INCREDIBLE tank puppet that you can see in the image gallery that was wheeled out during one of the scenes on this immense trolley. I have no idea where all these puppets were stored behind the scenes because all of the puppets were incredibly large.

The story is about a boy named Albert Naracotte and his horse Joey during the first great war. Albert is 17 and cannot join the Devon military yet to fight the french but unknowingly his father sells Joey to the military to become a officers horse for 100 pounds. After a year of remaining behind waiting for Joey to return Albert runs off and joins the army himself to save his horse. Along the way Joey meets another horse Topthorn and the production is basically about the trials and tribulations these two horses encounter during their journey in the war, and their fight to return home. It was a really touching production and gave me a completely knew insight into the plight of animals during wartimes. It was also a bit of a history lesson because I learned during the first world war about a million horses were sent into battle and only about sixty two thousand were ever brought home, pretty sad when you think these animals had to fight a war that they had no part in.

Anyway this production was just amazing and the acting and puppeteering were awesome. Hopefully you guys will check it out and see for yourselves.
Have a great Monday!
SBC

TGIF!

Hey there,
Its the second day of our "travel break" and I have decided to remain in London again, because I really have no need to go anywhere else hehe. Although we are doing some day trips to see outside the city, because I hate to admit it but London is not the only place in England. hehe So yesterday the four of us who are staying in London decided to take a day trip and visit Oxford. We didnt plan out our trip all that well and by the time we got there (mid afternoon) most of the real "sights" had closed. But, I really didnt mind it because we just walked around and got lost in the buildings and shops that line the streets of Oxford. We saw a lot of college buildings and the Radcliffe camera (no Melissa not of any realtion to that Radcliffe ;) the Bridge of sighs, the new Business building, and the Oxford Castle. It was a really neat town, and I am hoping I have time to visit again and be there when I can actually go in and explore these places. I'll include a picture of the camera, cause I thought that was probably the neatest thing we saw there.

Afterwards, we came back to London, had dinner, I did some homework and tried to get a lot of sleep to beat this stupid cold I have.

p.s I finally got my phone figured out and if you know my us virtual number you can now call that and contact me. Sorry it took so long, piccell wireless is not the most speedy company out there.
Anywho, hope everyone enjoys there friday 12 days!
Sara

AHHHHHHH!

I totally met Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart last night!!!!!! We stood outside Waiting for Godot after their evening performance. And after an hour or so of standing outside in the rain, they came out and could not have been nicer. I actually had a conversation with Sir Ian, ekkkkkk!
We also got to meet Simon Callow, who was also a perfect gentleman.

If you are not sure who these guys are (which would be a true shame) I will include some picturesSo here is Sir Ian McKellen, he was in Lord of the Rings, X-men, and pretty much everything else on the planet.

Here is Patrick Stewart, he is best known for his role as Jean Luke Pacard in Star Trek, but he is also a well known Shakespearean and classical actor.

Ugh, I just love London!