Ouch. Ouchy ouchie ouch ouch. Seriously, fucking ouch.

As of yesterday, I have completed two full weeks of boot camp my Masters course. It is absolutely physically BRUTAL. My body feels like it was in some horrible car crash that I was just not aware of. Monumental Amounts of Pain aside, I'm having an amazing time.

My roommates are absolutely lovely. Alice and Claire are pursuing Theater Management, Amy is doing Theater Design (more specifically, PUPPETS), and Rich and Paddy are in my class. Our Masters class is a sort of tiny United Nations, and consists of the following ridiculous people: Rich (Australia), Paddy (Northern England), Brian (Ireland), Anjana (Singapore), Louise (Scotland), Me (USA), and then Rhys, Matthew, Ceri, Sion, Lauren & Gwawr are from all over Wales. We all have such drastically different accents, even the Welsh ones, that it's really quite beautiful to hear everyone doing scenes together. Or, in our spare time, ruthlessly mocking one another and attempting to get better at each others' dialects.

Sion & Gwawr

(From top left, clockwise:) Rich, Matthew, Paddy, Anjana, Lauren, Louise, Rhys, Brian, Ceri

The teachers at Royal Welsh are incredible. The classes are intense and rigorous and wonderful. The ones that have us all limping like we're 80 years old are Movement, and Stage Combat (aka: Fight Club, or MORTAL COMBAT). They don't waste any time at all getting you to engage your body in a heavy workout, and I'm sure we're all going to be seriously fit by the end of this...but for people who aren't used to doing so much all at once, it's definitely taking its toll. I'm trying to keep moving though, so that I get into some sort of rhythm...as much as my little body wants to resist, and just have a nap. All the time.

The undergrads are a lot of fun as well...the whole atmosphere really reminds me of Goucher, in that you pass people in the halls or outside, and you can't remember their names to save your life, but you know you got drunk with them last night, and therefore run over for a big hug. It's pretty great.

As for now, I am off to shower and stretch so that I can muster the ability to walk into town to get about a million things done that I keep putting off. We'll call this Responsibility Saturday. ...At least until about 7 or 8pm when it will most likely become another Make Questionable Decisions Saturday. Ah, college.