Day 49, 25 Feb: Cabaret!

Norfolk Terrace, Day 49. Cabaret!

            I read a little of Great Expectations and then went off to the city centre with Dan. We discussed a bit of our excitement surrounding Jailbreak! during the bus ride. As we roamed through the mall, we first went to an array of clothing stores for Dan to get new clothes (some shrank in the wash) and I was obsessed with finding a specific yet generic blue-and-white striped shirt. Unfortunately, by the time I found my size at the fourth store, Primark, my interest in the shirt was gone. It saddened me for some odd reason. I didn’t end up buying anything.

            But for the better or the worse, I made up for not buying any clothes by buying a ton of food. But before that part two, lunch at this falafel place was incredible. I’ve never had as good a falafel as this one was. Dan, who ordered the same thing, agreed.

            At Sainsbury’s shopping mall, I ended up buying 4 dinners, 2-3 weeks worth of snacks and bread and most foods. £77. I had come prepared with five bags and my backpack. I have Dan to thank for helping me carry one of my bags. (Luckily, I didn’t use all my bags—just three and my backpack.)

Sainsbury's (Market)

            It took me forever to do the Kitchen Fridge Tetris game, placing foods of odd shapes in odd spaces. Most went into my little corner of the second fridge, and as I was wondering if other flatmates had a specific space for their stuff, Vinnie half-complained later that my Portobello mushrooms were in his spot and that answered my unasked question.

            I proceeded to write a first draft of an interior monologue from the perspective of a woman in her twenties at an audition. I used my memory of River City Theatre Company auditions I used to do in my early teenage years: the three judges, five auditioners in the room at once (each one goes up, then sits back down as nervous as the rest), the taped square in the middle of the floor to stand in while singing your twenty bars of a song. It all came back in these details.

            I shaved and supercooked (cooked-ate-cleaned in ten minutes) mince meat for two tacos and ran over to the union pub, the red bar side, to meet up with Jazzi, a friend of Dodo’s. (To refresh, Dodo is a UEA student currently studying abroad at UC Berkeley—I met him last November at a Mrs. Buch luncheon at Berkeley. We’re on the same scholarship but in different directions on the globe. Anyway, he told his friends about me, i.e. Kate, Stef, Jazzi, Abs, and here we are! I have to thank him for it at some point.) Jazzi introduced me to Alec (the British reincarnation of my high school friend Joel) and Ann, and within five minutes, Jazzi and Alec shed light on the crazy side of Dodo—he head-butted a frozen chicken that was flung in the air at him. Jazzi drove him to hospital last year, reflecting how this was the most bizarre hospital ride she had ever driven. I told them that he was in a co-op in Berkeley this semester (think hippieland student housing and you’re not far off) and that some of the co-ops raise chickens in their backyards. Needless to say, we all got along well.

            A half-hour later, we headed over to Cabaret, a production of musical numbers, duets, and some of the most hilarious MC’ing I’ve ever experienced. Jazzi told me that the concept rolled over from last year, and I could see its appeal. The straight man-funny man duo was outright ridiculously well-performed. One of them was definitely a British reincarnation of my Berkeley friend Rio Van der Staal and one of their centrepiece topics was the charity for which they were receiving donations. They actually mocked themselves of it at some points, CHARITY! But then seriously, they asked for donations. The whole night was really fun to watch, from Grease numbers to…Legally Blonde? I wasn’t too familiar with the second half of the show’s numbers.

            I pregamed /pre’d (drinking before an event) at the third floor of D Block in Norfolk Terrace—it was quite hilarious because two girls caught my name and then acted as if I was famous: “Wait..SPENCER? The runner from – Block?” (If you remember Day 11, these were the girls who cheered when I finished the 6:53 time going on lap around the lake. I had never met them—only heard them.) That was fun, and afterwards, Alvin, Marie, and I (with Vinnie walking behind) went to the campus club LCR and the night of crappy music, good drinks, and fun conversation (met up with Jazzi, Alec, and Ann again) commenced.