I’m all grown up (at last!)

I’ve had my first full week in my new house and 3 whole days on my new course at Rose Bruford College. And all of a sudden I feel quite grown up; I pay rent, I cook, I do my own washing, I do a weekly food shop. This isn’t a lot for some people but for me it’s huge as it means I’m finally growing independent and moving on with my life.

The first week at a UK university is called Fresher’s Week, which is basically full of evening events where you meet new people and drink, a lot in some cases. I’ve only attended a couple of events, mainly due to the fact I’m not a great drinking person and cause I’ve had a few days where I’ve felt ill, one of them due to too much wine! However I’ve still met some amazing people and am looking forward to the next 3 years in their company.

As well as drinking the first week, or half a week in my case, is full of introductory sessions where you meet your fellow course mates and get told a lot of boring stuff. We had a principle’s welcome (without the principle!) which was full of rules and guidelines, half of which are forgotten by now. This was followed by a ‘programme’ meeting which was led by our stage management tutors and included introductions, a tour and getting our timetable.

Our timetable needs a whole section to itself; basically we’re split into 4 groups which for 3 of the modules are then split in half again. Each week has a different timetable due to the amount of modules we have to take including housekeeping (I have no idea!), firearms, lx rigging and stage manager skills. Then after Christmas the groups all change around as do our modules.

On Friday we did a collaborative project with the whole year. We were split into groups of approximately 12, made up of all different courses and given a stimulus on which we had to base a performance. Luckily we didn’t actually have to perform it, we just had to build the concept. Ours was on SPAM, that’s right, the tinned meat SPAM. Okay actually it was on how SPAM was treated in different cultures, economies and times and I thought it was quite heart-felt and would make a good piece of travelling theatre. But let’s just say I was slightly sick of SPAM by the end of the afternoon.

Anyway apart from a safety talk and a module briefing that was my first week. I’m excited to start on actual lectures and begin working hard. In the words of my tutors ‘This is the first day of my career’ and that is a thrilling thought, and you’ll hear about the whole journey!