En Guarde

Happy Sunday, everyone! And, hey, I just remembered, Happy Father's Day! I'm sure Dad hasn't actually figured out how to read and comment on this thing, but tell him I said hi and I love him and he's the best!

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We had a stage combat workshop alllllll day, from 10:00 until 5:00. It was a good workout, my body is really sore today. We did all sorts of stuff. We did some fighting with quarter staffs (that's what they're called, right, those long sticks?) and some hand-to-hand combat. We learned how to make it look like we were punching, kneeing, slapping, and strangling each other, pulling each other's hair, throwing each other to the ground, etc...And of course there was some sword fighting. We choreographed a bit of the Tybalt/Mercutio duel, which we staged with Tybalt having a sword and Mercutio fighting with an umbrella, which was kind of a cool choice of weapon, and then we learned choreography for the duel between Hamlet and Laertes. I loved using the swords especially, although they're pretty heavy. I think I'm too dainty to be very convincing in my sword play, but it sure was fun. I'd love to take some classes in actual fencing one of these days, since obviously stage combat techniques are a little bit different since the goal is to NOT actually hit the other person. Anyway, it was really cool and something I'd definitely like to try again in the future.

Last night by the time we got out of combat class the libraries were closed so I took my computer over to Dr. C's flat and Amanda, Liz and I sat outside on her curb stealing a wireless internet signal again. Dr. C is so sweet, we were sitting out there just chillin' and reading e-mail when her daughter Olivia (who is 9 years old and really cute and smart, I play a lot of I Spy with her on group outings) brought us a plate of veggie kabobs and some bread. We were joking that we should go over there and sit outside like bums more often since we sure don't get kabobs at the public library. While I was checking e-mail over there I watched the video Chelsea made me of Cohen, and of course it made me cry. She set it to "Baby Mine" for god's sake! So the music started playing and there was my goofy basset running around like a maniac (clearly being a punk, actually) and I started tearing up, and Liz and Amanda were watching me and Liz said, "Aw, Ashley, you're going to make me cry!" It was ridiculous. I DO miss Cohen a lot, but I swear it was more the song that made me get all teary than anything else since that song always makes me all nostalgic remembering Dad rocking me to it when I was little anyway. Damn you, Chelsea, for making me cry over my bassie! You totally did it on purpose! Thankfully my roommates don't think I'm crazy at all because Amanda misses her Penny just as much as I miss Cohen, and we've jokingly decided that Claire is sort of Liz's pet (in the best possible way and no offense at all to Claire, of course :-)). At night we lie in our beds with our computers going, "Want to see a picture of Penny?" "Here's a really cute one of Cohen in a party hat!" "Here's my favorite picture of Penny...wait, let me show it to you again bigger!" We're just waiting for the night Liz pulls out some snapshots of Claire. Haha.

Last night all of us went to the Lamplighter pub again to watch the USA/Italy soccer game. We met some interesting characters last night. One guy who has lived in Stratford pretty much his whole life was grilling Amanda about the USA, asking her all about the weather and different cities and whether certain things are true. His name was Pierre, and I've never seen a guy that looked less like his name in my life. He was a big old tattooed Englishman. We also befriended Pete the bartender, and there was this sort of crazy drunk guy named Zach who talked to us the entire time we were there. And then there's Jan or Jen (I can't tell which it actually is because of her accent) who is the pub manager, and she has sort of adopted us as her own and whenever other people would start teasing us last night she'd tell them, "You leave those kids alone, I'm looking out for them!" So in other words, I guess we're regulars now. The game itself was pretty stupid. It ended up tied 1-1, but only because one of the Italians accidentally scored a goal for the U.S. I bet he feels like a real tool.

Today is the first totally free day we've had since we got here a week ago. Time is going by so slowly here, it definitely feels like we've been living here for way more than a week. I actually slept in today (if you can count sleeping until 10:00 as "sleeping in") and then Amanda, Liz and I went and had a really good lunch at a cafe. Now we're at the library, and after this I guess we'll just chill for the rest of the day. I guess at some point today my group will probably try to have a rehearsal, and I'd like to go down by the river later because I think they're having a sort of arts and crafts fair down there today, but other than that we have no plans. I really wish we had a show to go to today, but we don't go to the theatre again until Tuesday (and then we go four nights in a row!).

I guess that's about all I have to say today. I always end up laughing so hard here about various things people have said but then by the time I get to the computer I always forget what it was that was so funny. Oh well. I'm having fun, anyway.