Adventure Awaits

Two years ago today I started a film course in a little town called London. You probably haven’t heard of it, it’s very remote and sort of off the grid.

While I was there I had the most amazing experience! From exploring + falling in love with the city, to being taught by some of the coolest people, as well as acting with and getting to know fellow actors, who are now some of my favorite humans on the planet! I lived on my own for the first time, well with housemates. And even though I was scared shitless I felt like I was supposed to be there.

I’m thinking it’s about time I get back there! Unfortunately it costs a buttload to live over there! Last time I went over I did a little fundraising by selling a photography + poetry book; this time I’m selling a notebook featuring some of my photos from my time in England. The sooner I get enough funds the sooner I’m able to get back there! So, if you would like you can order my notebook and/or my photography + poetry book by clicking this link:

http://www.blurb.com/user/oliviasapp

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and hopefully soon I will be writing to you all from across the pond!

Cheers,

Olivia xo

Poutine & Pints

      

This Dream Is All That I Need, Cause It’s All That I Ever Had.

Since my last post we had our last day of filming final scenes, had a casting session, did a class where we got to talk to an agent, and screened our final scenes. On the Thursday my fellow Canadian classmate, Zach, & I took two of our other classmates, Robin & David, to a Canada themed bar in Covent Garden, named Maple Leaf. Can’t get much more Canadian then that. We drank some Moosehead and Sleeman and ate delicious poutine! It was a nice little taste of home for Zach and I and an introduction for our friends to the world of hockey memorabilia, moose, Canadian cuisine & beer.

The next day was our last day of class 😦 We screened our final scenes for some of the directing students, and I was so happy because my friends Lex, Sarah, & Shenaz from the first course came to watch too!!! Afterwards we all went out to our pub of choice, The Grove, and had a very fun evening. DJ Marzy (Marlaina) & DJ Ollie (that’s me) graced the stage (aka the table) once more with our rendition of Iggy Azalea’s Fancy. I do believe throughout the evening various tunes from Les Miserables were also belted out at the table. I’m sure everyone else in the pub appreciated our singing & rapping immensely. As much as this night was a quite a fun one, it was also pretty emotional as I’m going to miss everyone a lot!

 

The next couple days I had a few transit mishaps, which made me 1. realize I can pretty much deal with anything (transportation wise) that London has to throw at me. and 2. It would have made things a lot easier if I had had a phone…so noted for next time…get a phone.

 

And all of a sudden Tuesday, June 3rd came and I was on a flight back here, to Canada. Here I am, back in the Great White North…and I’m missing London already and all my wonderful new friends I made there. I truly hope I get to see them all again soon but for now all I can do is thank them (the them being all my classmates from both courses and my teachers from both courses especially my main tutors Sarah & Emma! & the Holts!) all for the amazing time I had, I know it wouldn’t have been the same without you guys and I will miss you SO much! Thanks for making the experience unforgettable!

 

Cheers,

Olivia xo

Cheers!

We’re So Fancy!

It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted anything so this one will probably be a long one. Last post I made was at the end of my first course, and it’s now almost at the end of my second one, and as much as I do miss people back in Canada….I don’t want to leave!! I can’t say enough how amazing this city is, there is an energy here that is just what I needed and I’ve made so many new friends that I don’t want to leave.

It’s crazy because it feels like I just started this second course and yet I only have 4 days left of it, but here are just a few things I’ve been up to since this second course started.

This new group of people was double the size of my last one so it was a completely different vibe, but a great one still! I was really nervous coming into it but having done the first class really helped me be able to be a bit more open with this new group. I have to say I really love our group and I feel like we’ve become very close over just a short space of time, I guess that’s what happens when you spend 7 hours a day for 5 days a week together, and we’ve had some fun bonding time together too going out to the pub after class on Fridays. The first Friday we went out as a group one of my wonderful Aussie friends, DJ Marzy and I belted out Iggy Azalea’s Fancy which got a nice round of applause from the bartenders! The next day I met up with almost all (we missed you Shenaz!) of my group from the first course and we ate at Burger & Lobster where I ate lobster for the first time, and it was delicious!!

 

The next Friday a few of us went out to the pub again and then for dinner and then a different pub for drinks after 🙂 For dinner I had an amazing vegetarian risotto and it was sooooo yummy! And I finally had Pimm’s which has been on my “To drink list” for my time over here. It also happened to be National Twinning day for my classmate Robin & I. On Saturday I went up to visit the Holt’s again and we took a little trip down to a small town called Lewes. They had some great antique shops that I could have spent hours in! It also happened to be the anniversary of the battle at the Lewes castle so we got to watch a reenactment which was pretty funny, especially since not everyone was fully committed to their roles. I saw one guy answer his iphone in full costume. It felt like the ultimate game of “Costume or Choice”. At one point I do believe I heard them yell “tis but a scratch” which made me chuckle!

 

The next week we were assigned our final scenes, mine being a scene from Martha Marcy May Marlene with Marlaina, one from Hick with Robin and one from American Beauty with my other Aussie friend Becks. I’ve since filmed my first two scenes and will be filming the latter tomorrow. On Wednesday I FINALLY had some chicken wings from Nando’s and I must say it was super tasty! Friday a group of us hung out again went to get some food at this Italian restaurant near the school and had some amazing pizza, Funghi & Prosciutto mmmm mmmm good. After that we went back to our pub of choice, The Grove, and had a few more drinks. A guy had brought his dog with him to the pub and I spent a chunk of the evening petting the dog because I miss my Winnie so much!

 

Two days ago on Saturday I hung out with a few classmates in Central London. There was a nice magic show going on in Trafalgar Square and my fellow Canadian classmate Zach got dragged into participating 🙂 We had a nice walk around some of London and then ended up at…surprise…a pub. (I’m going to go back to Canada and expect to go out to the pub every night). Then Marlaina aka DJ Marzy and I went out for dinner and dessert which both were simply fantastic! We had Thai for dinner (best Won Ton soup I’ve ever had) and Caribbean for dessert (Mango Creme Brulee…can you say WONDERFUL!). The rest of my long weekend has been lovely as well 🙂 and I have to say I really would appreciate the rest of this week going by slowly, I know that’s not how it works but I’d like it to, just this once.

 

I feel like I am the most rambling blog writer ever but hopefully it is all coherent! And I know I’ve been up to other things also but I have tried to include most of it!

 

Cheers,

 

Olivia xo

Screenings & Snakebites

         Today was such an emotional day, we had to say goodbye to one of the most amazing experiences ever but it was such a fun day too! We did our final scenes screenings for our class; I was excited to see everyone else’s scenes and nervous to see my own. We weren’t sure if anyone else was even going to show up but actually quite a few director students came to watch which made it even more nerve racking, but it was quite a good opportunity afterwards to exchange info with some of them who will be needing actors for the films & projects they are working on. 

 

         After we finished we made our way over to The Grove, a pub nearby, to get some drinks & chips. It was quite a bit of fun to hang out with the little family we created with the 5 of us students in the class and our absolutely wonderful tutor Sarah Warren. I will miss so much being in a class with all of them because we all got along so well! Remembering back to the first day, which was a month ago now, we were all pretty timid and not sure of what to expect but we have all come so far not only in our acting but also in our closeness as a group. I’ve never felt more able to be myself in such a new situation (or in almost any other situation new or old) and it has all to do with my classmates and our tutor. I could go on and on about how wonderful an experience this has been and how very grateful I am that I ended up in this particular group. I don’t know if I believe in fate or destiny but something brought us all together and I can only say that I feel so so lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. I know I’ve made some life long friends through this and I can’t wait to see what they go on to do in their careers and hopefully we will all work together on something! Even though I worked hard to save money for this it truly feels like a gift. 

 

            “Your journey has molded you for the greater good. It was exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think you’ve lost time. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time.” -Asha Tyson

 

 

Cheers xo 

 

P.S. Snakebite is a drink that we had at the pub. No one actually got bit by a snake. 

Lost in the City

Hi all!

I’ve finally started my blog! I guess I’ll dive right in and let you all know what I did yesterday and today.

Yesterday I decided to go in to Central London, it was forecasted to be raining all weekend but I woke up to it being a really nice day so I thought I’d take advantage of it. So I took myself down to Leicester Square, along Shaftesbury Avenue, and along Oxford Street to do a little shopping at H&M, Primark, Blackwell’s, & Forbidden Planet. I realized it was past lunch so I popped in to the nearest Costa coffee (which is my favorite place to get coffee now, outside of the school’s cafe) and had a nice bacon & brie panini (which is one of my main food groups over here) and a mocha. I decided then that I wanted to go down and walk along the Thames. So I proceeded to do just that and ended up walking WAY more than I had originally planned to. I really wanted to see and walk across the Millenium Bridge (for purely nerdy reasons, it’s in Harry Potter ok). I headed in that direction and passed bridge, after bridge, after bridge and still I had not come across it….finally I found it! I walked across and it was wonderful! Then I decided I wanted to try to find Battersea park but by the time I finally saw signs for it I was exhausted and just wanted to find the nearest tube station and go back to the house. I ended up walking past all the bridges I’d walked past already and finally walked back across to the correct side. I had no idea really where I was at this point so I attempted to find a nearby station and walked and walked and walked, found a station only to see that that particular station was indeed closed. Brilliant. So I walked and walked some more and eventually came across Farringdon Station (my hero). It was quite the little adventure I had and indeed my feet and shoulders were killing me after. But did that stop me from going out again today? No, no it did not.

 

Today was also apparently supposed to rain, though amazingly enough it didn’t. But I thought what better to do on a potentially rainy day than take a jaunt to the National Gallery. I took a nice stroll through the gallery and saw works by the likes of Monet, van Gogh, Renoir, Gaugin, Pissaro, Cezanne, Manet, Signac, Seurat, Degas, and more. After that I thought I’d take a little stroll in one of the parks nearby (I feel bad cause I actually don’t know which park it was…..I’ll look into it). As I was walking through I saw a heron which so I stopped to take some pictures. When the heron eventually flew off I walked on, I was still so happy about seeing the heron (I know I’m weird) that I almost didn’t notice the five pelicans. Thankfully I didn’t (the crowd of people near them helped me not to miss them). I took some pictures and a video (I’ll post it soon) of the lovely birds and then I pet one. I PET A PELICAN!!!!! I thought for sure he was gonna turn around and snap at me (waterfowl tend to not be my biggest fans) but he didn’t and it was wonderful. He was so soft!!! Then walked across the Thames again, then back, and then took a nice double decker (obviously I went to the top) back to Trafalgar Square and hopped on the tube back to the house.

 

As you can see (and I realize I was probably rambling in the majority of this post) I had an eventful past couple days, I will try to make a post of catching you (anyone who actually reads this) up on the first weeks of me being here in the wonderful, beautiful city of London.

 

Goodbye for now I gotta go memorize some lines!

Cheers,

Olivia