are you SERIOUS??

Hey everyone,

I just get shocked every now and again at how my life is here. This week I went to Hampton Court, ate lunch in one of the most beautiful gardens (which i'm sure is even more beautiful when the green fields are colored by the spring bulbs... some which were confused and already sprung in January!) Monday I met Riccardo Lopez, italian singer-songwriter who I'll be working with an promoting. Since then we've met twice and almost finished writing a song together! He's a lot of fun and a great person to be working with.

Tuesday I had art class, in the national gallery... I looked at some van eyck paintings which were pretty amazing! the detail he gets is just ridiculous. Next week we meet in the portrait gallery.

Wednesday I met with Riccardo and worked on music and then went to a comedy club for an improv show, which was hilarious! I did wish though that there had been some females up on stage, i thought the humor could have been a little more interesting with some women up there -- but it was still really really funny and i'd love to go again. they have a pretty good student discount. tessa and i were brave and sat in the front row! nothing terrible happened to us either,just a great view and good times.

Thursday I had a busy day! Unfortunately my guitar had a little injury and I needed to get it patched up. Luckily it wasn't too expensive, but i carried it through the wind and rain to Denmark street, the ultimate guitar street, there must have been 9 different guitar stores, so when it came to getting a repair job done... i just went door to door til i found someone who was available. its a cool area, i might do an open mic over there some time! Thursday night we went to see a midsummer night's dream, the opera by britten. It was really really wild to see that production as an opera. It was also atonal, but i thought it worked pretty well. i will post more pictures soon (just not tonight) and you can see part of the set i got a picture of (probably illegally).

Today I picked up my guitar at the shop and met with Riccardo and Orrin. Its really fun working with these two. Writing songs is fun! And tonight i saw dido queen of carthage in the kensington palace, which was really cool! we got to walk through the royal apartments and sit at the dining room table during this production. the actors communicated some with the audience and it was really really intense and tragic! a really cool experience though. i just feel soo weird sometimes when i think of all the wild things i get to do here! its really awesome but i already have no idea how i'll go back to living in the states doing something remotely normal, instead of going out night after night to see amazing productions at the expense of this program. studying abroad is awesome. i just feel very privileged to be here -- thank you mom and dad!!

i need to get new pictures up, give me til the end of the weekend. i hope you all are well!! send me some mail if you feel inspired to, i'd love to hear about your life:

Jodi McLaren
Metrogate House
3-7 Queens Gate Terrace
London, SW7 5PE

Take care everyone!

Jodi