Three Months

So it has been three months since my last post! That testifies to the craziness of being at art school.
A general overview:
My classes included Yoga, Dance, Voice, Singing, College Seminar, and Acting Fundamentals. We have worked on improv, monologues and songs for auditions, basic dance technique, college applications, circus skills, and one act plays.
My academics were (and will be for the rest of the year) AP Literature and AP Calculus.

It's been really hard being away from home; such as not having a car/being able to do whatever you want/not having a job therefore a general lack of money/missing my bed/wanting to hang out with my friends from home/kind of actually missing my family, etc. But I got home this past Friday for break, and I am home until January 4th. School starts on the 5th.

Other general life things...
I have been looking into stage management and broadcast journalism, alongside acting.
The schools I am applying to include: NYU, Emerson College, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-School of the Arts, UNC-Greensboro, Elon University and maybe Catawba.

I'm so grateful to be on break! Hooray. I get to catch up with everyone and see people I've missed a lot.
Happy Holidays!
<3 ~Britt~

UNC-SA, at last

I'm officially moved-in to my dorm room at UNC-SA in Winston-Salem!
Friday was move-in day... I brought WAYYY too much stuff. Anyways... The day. It was excessively long and contained too many orientation sessions. And Saturday wasn't too half bad, just more orientation stuff. Though, we did have a kind of a group drama meeting and got to know each other a lot better with moving/dancing/telling favorite things, etc...
But, other than that I was lazy. But I did chill with a girl in drama who plays guitar and listened to her sing and play. But generally... I just felt weird. Kind of lost. Lonely. Everyone kind of gravitated to a group, and then there was me. I just can't deal with big LOUD crowds of people and pure chaos. I generally just sat and listened to people's conversations or chilled in my room. I hadn't found anyone I could be 'me' around. But continuing-

Sunday was PREEEETTY epic.
Well, first I woke up at like 8 and was starving/couldn’t fall back asleep. So I got up for about an hour, ate crackers and read Arcadia. Then I went to bed for another two hours, and got up at 11.
Then went on a walk/run around the campus bounds. It was soooo hard/tiring with all the humidity. The Fitness Center isn’t open on the weekends yet, or else I’d have gone there. But I was very impressed/happy with myself for not passing out. Haha. Then I went to lunch and had a SALAD... Crazy, I know. But I balanced out all the healthiness by eating a ridiculous amount of bacon and star shaped tater-tots. :)
THEN- we had this kinda dumb thing called ‘Play Fair’- We were outside for like... Gah, 3 1/2 hours doing ‘team building’ things/ice breaker type stuff. And now I’m a little sunburnt on my face and I have a funny burn shape on my back cause I was wearing a razorback tank-top.
Next, I chilled with Regina and Cameron, both in drama, and it was sooo nice. I was just so comfortable with them. So I hung out with them before going on the trip to Wal-Mart to get things like Excedrin, tacks, V-8 and headbands. I came back, and went to the ice cream social in the Connector Gallery and hung out with some drama peeps. Then Cameron and I went outside and chilled on a swinging bench and chatted about life/getting here/dating/family. It was really really nice and today I’ve felt a lot less lonely; I’ve had more ‘one on one’ time with people, which is the only kind of contact I can really deal with! Haha.

And now it is technically Monday (twelve twenty-something A.M.) and I have to be up by like... 7:45. Gah. Off to bed I go.
Photos will soon be posted and will be found by clicking on a link on the left side of my blog.

Thanks for everyone's well wishes/love/support!
~Britt~

The Move

Wow! It's been almost exactly three weeks since I've written. Tomorrow I move in to my dorm room at NCSA.

Well, let me recap the past three weeks first:
Worked at Domino's, visited Elon/UNC, hung out with friends and family, did school shopping...
I've really just been chillin' and taking it easy.
Oh, except the whole 'college application' thing. It is horribly obnoxious and massively time consuming.

Right now I'm applying to these schools: NYU, Emerson College (Boston), UVA, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-School of the Arts, and Elon University (NC). And I am re-taking the SAT on October 4th.

Let's see... other interesting things... I'm taking only two academic classes this year- AP English Literature and AP Calculus.
All of my other classes will be arts related. I'm so pumped for that! I'm very curious though, as to how they do class ranking. It's been kind of confusing for college applications since I'm changing schools just for senior year.

Well, I must head to bed. Nonnie and I are leaving the house at 7:30 (if not earlier) to get to Winston-Salem. Oh, orientation. How I am NOT looking forward to you.

Hope everyone is well!
<3 ~Britt~

It's weird to think that exactly three weeks from today, I'll be in my new "home"- a NCSA dorm room.

But in the time leading up to then, I've been trying to accomplish some things. I have gotten about halfway through totally cleaning my room (as in, going through stuff and getting rid of dumb things), fixed up my bathroom, started working at Domino's again, been researching schools like crazy, and of course spending time with friends.

Also, next week Nonnie and I are going to do college visits at UNC-Chapel Hill and Elon University. I'm stoked!
Not to mention, my boyfriend Eric, from Governor's School, comes home Saturday night from his college visits at Berkeley and Reed. Hopefully I'll get to spend some time with him as well!

Anyways, nothing else much going on. Just working and cleaning, catching up with family and friends.

Hope all is well...
<3 ~Britt~

Home Again

I am officially back at home from GSW.

Yesterday was heart wrenching... But it still hasn't hit me - the true realization that Governor's School is over.

In our 6th week, we didn't end up working on fairy tales. We were actually given a 'neutral scene', that ran as follows:

A. Well
B. Well. What
A. Nothing
B. Okay. Please-
A. Excuse me
B. Yeah
A. So
B. So
A. So
B. Come on
A. What?
B. Quit it
A. Quit what?
B. That
A. Better?
B. Yeah

So yeah... pretty neutral. Then we got partners and read it with them and ended up creating scenes based around that text. We had sibling fights, a 'silent film' type thing, romance... and for mine, I was a heroine addict and my sister was trying to get me to stop doing drugs. Yeah. Intense!
We worked on those for a day and a half and performed them informally the next night.

Anyways... back to home. Gov School is over! I can barely believe it. I will surely believe tomorrow though, when I'm unpacking all of my stuff. Oi vey.

On a similar note- I've been in 'freak out about college' mode since I got back home.
I just want to get it 'out of the way' before heading to NCSA in about 3 weeks. I'd rather do this process with Nonnie now instead of by myself later. But man... there are so many colleges! And it doesn't help that I don't really know what I want to go for. haha. Theatre seems like the 'duh' answer, but... I'm just scared of the possibility of turning into a starved artist.

I've got a list of potentials as of now, ranging from safety schools to reaching for the stars:
NYU, Emerson College, UVA, Chapel Hill, Penn State, Elon University, SUNY Purchase, Yale, UNC Greensboro

My goal is to get an educated list of about ten schools, then mark down all of the requirements and application dates. And... work from there.
This is so excruciating!

Well, I'm exhausted. Time for sleep.

much love,
~britt~

Home Stretch

Well, I'll recap a little of the past few weeks. The 4th of July visit home was pretty nice- Got to chill with the fam and friends. But it was strange to not be in the world of Governor's School... It felt like home was out of place. I longed for my life in Winston Salem.
Returning to GSW was awesome. It was like we had all been apart for an extended period of time. Our fourth week was Bryan's last week as our teacher, so we were working like mad on Shakespeare pieces and starting our new project with Rosalie.
One weekend we had a Masquerade ball, and that was soooo much fun! I went with my friend Eric (he was James Bond) and I was the 'sexy arm candy' in my black and red salsa/flamenco-esque dress.

Bryan left, and Rosalie took charge. We started our major group production. Our task was to adapt the best-selling book "Life of Pi" into a play.... If you know anything about it, you'll know about India, the zoo, the shipwreck, and all of the strange things that happened on that trip.
It was horribly chaotic at first and my anxiety was at an all time GSW high. Everyone is so... eager. But all of that energy 'attacks' at once and it was just too much for me. Anyways, this week (week five) was our last to work on this crazy project. Yesterday was dress rehearsal AND opening night. We were all struggling to remember lines and scene transitions. We had actually just gotten the 'final' script on Tuesday.

Sidebar- My mommy and Greta visited on their way home from Virginia! Hooray. It was very nice.

But- it was successful! We got through it all without any major catastrophes. We'll have a total of five shows- One last night, two today (Saturday) and two tomorrow.

Once this production is over, we'll be working on fairy tales. I'm not quite sure what that entails, but I'm thinking it will be good.

I'm missing home a lot. It's not that I'm not having fun here, I just really miss my bed and family and Madeline. And being off of this campus. haha. Salem College is beautiful, but it's turning into a slight prison.
And I know I'll be missing this place desperately... This is our last week. I'm terrified that I won't be able to make the best of it. I don't want to leave these people... The atmosphere... Oi vey.

Three more shows to go.

Hope everyone is doing well! I'll be home in a week.
Much love,
~Britt~

Week Three

So we're rollin' into week three pretty quickly- It's kind of blowing my mind how we feel like we've been here for months in such a short time, yet it still keeps going by so fast. I love it so much and wish that Governor's School was "real life"... or at least college.

Recently, we started some new plays and I was in "Mountain Language"- it's about war, suppression, fear, and manipulation. My character was a wife who was waiting to see her husband who was something like a POW. It's very intense and good. There were three other plays done by the other 3/4 of the class (or so) and yesterday we had our dress rehearsal. It was open, so there was a big audience. It went so great! Swimmingly, amazingly, considering we'd only had a week to put everything together.

We've also been able to watch an orchestra and chorale concert, and those were pretty good. This past Saturday night was the 80s dance, so I dressed up... but only went for like 20 minutes. I can't stand 80s music for some reason (sorry...). AAAAAnd yesterday after my dress rehearsal I watched Part II of "The Seven Samurai" and that was pretty awesome. Let's see... And today the drama kids got to sit in for the Dance group's dress rehearsal with a theme of "Disruption". VERY interesting and strange. Personal and invading, among other things.

Well, I come home Thursday this week for my 4th of July break. I really miss Greta, which is strange...haha... not too strange. I don't feel really "homesick", but i do miss my air conditioned room, having a car, and hugging my little sister (not to mention other family and friends of course.)

Well, it's time for dinner. The food hasn't been too bad... Sometimes there is bacon in the morning and that is really good!

Hope everyone is doing well.
Much love, ~Britt~

Run for the Boarders

So this past weekend was my first at Governor's School. It was pretty fun!

We had a trip on Saturday to a local shopping area to buy stuff we forgot or stock up on snacks and groceries (that includes a Boarders bookstore, which is where the name "Run for the Boarders" comes from). I got lots of food and a bamboo floor mat (I always spill water in front of the sink in our room for some reason). Saturday night was pretty chill- we had a mandatory Staff performance thing that was very contemporary and confused me a bit. Strange shrieking of violins and trumpets mixed with bashing on the piano and squeaks of a clarinet. Yeah... don't ask. But we drew with chalk all over the main walkway to celebrate Summer Solstice.

Yesterday I slept in (hooray!) and then started watching the film series in the big auditorium- Psycho and Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Then later after dinner there was a big storm with lots of lightning and the power went out for a few seconds. It was funny because I was stuck in the parlor of a guys dorm and had to wait to be escorted to my dorm.

Well, I've got to gallop to the dance studio in order to make it to yoga. I hope everyone is doing well.
Much Love,
~Britt~

Governor's School West 2008

So... I'm officially at GSW! I am so excited...
I wrote a piece to add the other day, but there is no wireless internet here, so I couldn't use my laptop to connect to the internet. I'll add that sometime later.

Just a short summary-
Drama class has been fun; intense, hard, a lot of observation (which is hard... I have a short attention span now)... we've done miming (not the white faced kind, haha), reading a play, masks, and stick fighting. We have a performance with those things on Thursday.
Other than that- still learning people's names, sitting with new random people at lunch, playing frisbee, singing along with someone playing guitar, laying in the grass, wandering around with someone having a fun conversation, exploring the in-bounds area, swing dancing...

I'm going to attend a seminar tonight called "The Battle of Algiers". Should be interesting!

Well, much love to all of you who have helped me get here.
Until next time-
~Britt~

Day 1 - GSW

(This was the post that is mentioned in the next day's blog, and I have now been able to post it!)

Day 1

I arrived at Governor's School West today. They were half prepared and half not prepared- they ran out of lanyards, laundry cards, and ice for drinks by the time we got there. Also, our "tours" weren't very good, but oh well. I'll be here for six weeks- It'll all work out.
I LOVE my drama teacher. His name is Bryan Close. He is hilarious, spontaneous and tongue-twisted... he reminds me of Mr. Case. I know we're going to have a lot of fun!

My room-mate is awesome- her name is Mary Katherine and plays the cello. I think we're a perfect match. Our RAs (or TACs here, Teacher Assistants (and) Counselors) are cool as well- one of the them on my hall is a TAC for drama as well.

I've met some cool people, talked about everything from favorite subjects at school to middle names and quoting books. I'm still feeling a little awkward... but once classes start I think I'll find some friends pretty quick.

Wish me luck!
~Britt~

Birthday Goodbye Bash

Yesterday I had my "Exotic Cookout Party" at the house and had lots of fun!!! Thanks to Madeline and Allie for helping me set up, and to Ma and Pa for cleaning the house and making food.
We had some laying in the grass, hula hooping, drum beating, chalk drawing, among other fun things.

As of today, I leave in one week to Governor's School West in Winston-Salem. I'm kind of nervous about packing because I'll be there three weeks straight- so if I forget something of real importance... I'm screwed. But I've talked to many people that have gone years before, and it has consistently been "the best six weeks ever" and a "true life changing experience." I'm so stoked!

In other news, this is the last week of school. My last day is Wednesday. This year has been excruciatingly long, with more downs than ups. But I've ended in the middle, which is good enough for me. I know Governor's School will be awesome, but I still can barely comprehend going to the School of the Arts in August. I kind of feel like I must refuse to believe that I got in until I get there and see my name on the dorm door.

Well, today is for more cleaning. Thanks to everyone for making my birthday celebrations uber fun!

much love, ~Britt~

6-6-08

I've decided to start up a blog for this summer at Governor's School and NCSA next year! I'm hoping to use this blog to keep in touch better than I would with individual e-mails and such. I usually end up writing a novel when I write letters!

My birthday was yesterday, and I've had so much fun. Thanks to everyone for sweet notes and presents!

love, ~Britt~