Enjoying Australia

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been awhile. I've been amassing things to write about since I've been pretty busy with classes. If you aren't too busy with work or school feel free to write me and email or comment! I love hearing how everyone at home is doing.

Last week I went into the city and stopped at Hungry Jacks for dinner. When Burger King first came to Australia they couldn't get the rights to the name for some reason so they changed it to Hungry Jacks. I wasn't planning on getting anything but it turns out they have veggie burgers! Sometimes being a vegetarian can get kind of boring when you cook your own food and are trying to save money so it was nice to have something different. Australia is actually pretty vegetarian friendly. The other day we went to the Village's Path Party and they had some really delicious veggie burgers with melty cheese inside.

For the past two weeks my "acting" class has been focusing on big voice and comedy. Two days a week we worked with our professor, Caleb, on stand up and sketch comedy. Comedy is super nerve-wrecking and requires a suprising amount of energy. Sketch comedy is alot easier because we mostly worked on improv exercises, but stand-up is terrifying! The first day we had to get up in front of the class and tell an embarrasing story. (Lindsey, it was the "Getting a penny are we?" story) It's exhilerating when everyone laughs but awful when all you hear is silence. I was surprised at how well everyone in our class did. Apprently I have a dry humor persona.

I've been trying to read as many Australian plays as I can get my hands on. For the most part I haven't found anything that really interested me but the other day I read a play called Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell that I really loved. It told the story of two couples who cheat (or almost cheat) on each other with a person from the pair. The four actors change parts for each of the three sections and the story builds and twists.

I've also managed to aquire about 100 songs from various Australian artists. Most of it is really good. If you are interested and can find it check out Missy Higgins, The Living End, and The Presets.

The other day I got an email from John Green, the head of the theatre department at Butler, saying that he would be leaving at the end of this semester. I'm disapointed that he won't be at Butler for our last semester but I think it will be good to work with someone else as well. In a couple of days I have to start deciding what classes I want to take next year. I also want to look into various types of interships. I'd love to get an internship that would let me work with film editing but I don't know if there is anything available in Indy. Otherwise I think I'd like to do a stage managing or acting internship.

This past weekend I went to the beach and didn't burn! We went pretty late in the afternoon so the sun wasn't as hot. I was hoping to even out the awful streaks I've got on my right leg but to no avail. Later that night we went into the city with some of Jeff's roommates and went clubing. One of the clubs has a night called "Flashdance" and only plays music from the 80's and 90's, so I can grantee that we'll be going there soon.

Just two more weeks until my mid-semester break! We are still getting plans finalize but we will be spending some of it at Melbourne. This week in my acting class we are working on clowning. I'm not sure what that is going to entail but it sounds like it'll be fun.

Don't forget to leave me a comment or write me an email! I wanna hear from you guys :)