Wrapping William and Planes to Poland

Well, this past week was a whirlwind of activity as we closed up shop and headed into the Holidays. Monday and Tuesday were again spent with the amazing Liam Brennan. He continued to coach us through Shakespeare monologues and scenes. Brennan has a wealth of experience playing these classics. Amongst a slew of other credits, he has done Macbeth six times and thrice played Mac-ers himself! That's a lot of blood!! For me, with my very limited Shakespeare experience, I found these sessions with Brennan invaluable and a fantastic preparation for our month at the Globe in January.

End of the term papers were turned in, one on one meetings with faculty members were held and I even managed to get to a Christmas concert. And then came Saturday...

Saturday. D-Day. Departure Day. Actually, our flight to Milan didn't leave until the wee hours of Sunday morning but our journey started Saturday night. My classmate Remi has graciously invited me to his home in Poland for the Holidays. And naturally, to get to Poland from Scotland one has to go through Italy. Really, it was just the cheapest route and hey, a day in Milan, that's cool! So the last train to the airport left Glasgow's city center at 11:30pm. We could have called a cab at 3am to take us but why spend the money when we could make it an all night party at the airport? So we went to the ballet. Sleeping Beauty. It was lovely and we had time to kill so why not catch a ballet? Then off we went. The airport we flew from was a smaller airport and when we got there nothing was open. All the cafes and shops were closed. But we were not the only ones crashing for the night. Many a Holiday traveler had the same idea. We tried to sleep a little but it wasn't easy and it was freezing in there! But no worries, morning came and we were soon boarding the plane to Italy. The flight was a few hours and we slept most of the way. I did wake up in time to see the majestic Alps looking just like they do on the water bottles. They were a gorgeous view out of the plane window as we descended into Northern Italy. Arrival was a snap and we had a whole day to kill as our flight to Prague didn't leave until later in the evening. So off we went to see the sights of Milan. It was a beautiful day! The sun was shining and Milan was stunning. One of the major attractions of Milan is the Milan Cathedral or in Italian: Duomo di Milano. I have photos but won't be able to post them until I get back to Glasgow. After a day using the only Italian I know "Grazie" we headed back to the airport and were off to Prague in the Czech Republic. This is where Remi's father was to collect us and we would drive the two hours to Poland and Remi's home just over the border. Prague was the only time we ran into a little snag on our trip. It seems my luggage may have decided to stay in Italy. No bag. Bummer. The airline is on the case and hopefully they will get it to me soon. Otherwise it may be a very stinky Christmas. Remi's family is very sweet and so hospitable! They don't speak English and I don't speak Polish so Remi is having to translate but it's going well. And I was very thankful just to be able to sleep in a bed! It is Polish tradition to keep a fish in your bathtub so that it is fresh for Christmas dinner. The fish will be coming tomorrow (Tuesday). I'll let you know...

So that's the scoop my friends. I don't know how often I will be able to blog but I hope to get another one posted next week. We shall see. In the meantime, I hope you are all having a wonderful Holiday season!
Peace, love and light,
-m