Hola. You join me knee-deep in freshers. Not literally of course. Well…

Suffice it to say that I’m here and I’m… making the most of my leisure time. In a manner befitting a person of my advancing years.

It’s truly been a whirlwind of a fortnight. When last we spoke, I was preparing to move house and join the cast of National Lampoon in a house share. Flash-forward two weeks and I’ve moved, enrolled – and started my classes. It’s been a turnaround worthy of a cabinet reshuffle. Phew.

It’s been an odd experience to become so instantly immersed in a whole new life. Aside from minor dramas with the housemates (the details of which I won’t go into, except to say that sex, drugs and a copious amount of Pepto Bismol have featured prominently), I’m enjoying life in the flat. True, I have been shocked by certain behaviours and events which have transpired (promiscuity, casual substance abuse, beasti… joking), but I’m also no prude – I watch Skins. I can see an appreciation of “FREEDOM” a mile off and luckily am able to help pick up the pieces and offer some of the wisdom (!) of years, without coming across like a heavily starched school matron. Mostly. Although, I do have a lovely apron, which I’ve needed – the kitchen is a disgrace.

Housing aside, it’s been straight in at Unnamed Drama School with meet and greets, introduction to the course and then getting right on and “doing it”. Phew. As much as I appreciate the “uni experience, dude”, I didn’t sign up for university. I want drama school – and drama school I have certainly got.

First day. Picture me: slightly sweaty and extremely hungover. Let’s… be bored rigid in a lecture hall. For seven hours. To be fair, I understand the necessity of formalities, but not on a Monday morning when, following the previous night’s fun and frolics, 95% of the student body is still rediscovering its basic motor skills.

First day notwithstanding, it’s been straight on with the show. I’ve really had to put my best foot forward in terms of meeting my new classmates and strike a balance between not behaving like a recycled teenager and attending enough social events to avoid ostracising myself from the group – already older, I don’t want to be invisible. So far, I’ve been successful. I’ve been very impressed with how focused and driven everyone is already. These kids like to party, but they also care about the craft of acting and seem deeply committed to it. Also, I’m not the oldest person in class – yay.

Classes, on the whole, have been fun. The course is structured around a number of basic modules (movement, voice – must stop smoking – fundamentals of acting, contextual studies, dance and singing – I’ll talk more specifically about these in blogs to come) and I’ve now experienced at least one class in each of these disciplines. Oh yes, it’s full on. And so it should be: £9,000 a year and an international reputation as a top CDS school demand it.

So far, so good – I’m shrugging off bad habits as I go. In truth, I tend to be quite an introverted person and I find it hard to open up and embrace new things before I feel comfortable with the group as a whole. That being said, I don’t want the reputation of the ‘shy guy’, so I’m throwing myself into it. Luckily, all my classmates seem very nice and supportive, so I’ve decided to just ‘go for it’ and embrace looking and feeling like an idiot at least 50% of the time (example – today’s movement class – my “ribcage won’t behave”. No, I don’t understand either).

Regardless, I’m in love. Truly. With the school, with the classes – with my new life in general. I absolutely adore it all so far and am so convinced I made the right choice.  Awww.

Give it two weeks, though, and the gloves may well be off.

Image via Fresh Meat Facebook page.