Welcome to 2013!

End of term snuck us on up pretty quickly and it was the Christmas break before we knew it! I managed to get my Degas finished just in time for my mums Christmas!

The week after we broke up from uni I was at the Lyceum helping them work on 'A taste of honey' It was a really good week, the people there all made me feel so welcome and on my second day i felt like id known them all for months. I was actually quite sad when it came to the end of the week. I did some stenciling on bits of metal grate, the design was quite an interesting one, im not sure the designer really knew what she wanted, but hey, I got a chance to do stuff I hadn't done before! Oh and I did some wallpapering, always a good skill to learn!

Christmas and all its dramas came and went as did new year and suddenly January here! I came down to London for my work placement on the 2nd with my brother. Spent the first few days getting to know my way around and get the hang of the tubes! It's actually not as scary as i was making out, downloading a tube app on my phone has definitely been a lifesaver though!

On the 7th I made my way to Covent Garden for my induction at the Royal Opera house, it only lasted an hour, watching a couple of videos on the history of the Opera House and how it works, very interesting. I then managed to persuade my friend to come on a little trip to Purfleet in Essex so that I could find my way to the workshop where id be working. It seems a very random place to have a workshop, not very much around, a few new houses an industrial estate. But the workshop itself looked huge from the outside, huge and modern!

 Woke up on Tuesday not feeling great, I was full of the cold and had a sore throat but I tried to ignore it and got to it. When I arrived Emma introduced me to her first intern Lizzy who was lovely and gave me a little tour of the building....which is massive! I spent Tuesday working on a cloth for the next show 'Eugene Onegin' and priming some flats. I was chatting to mark who is the assistant head scenic artist to Emma. He was telling me about the 5 cloths they were working on at that point (all of which were on the paint shop floor, just to give an example of the size of the place!) It was a bit daunting on my first day but I did enjoy it and was working on a few different bits and bobs.

When I woke up on Wednesday I felt absolutely awful! I'd hardly slept as I had been up half the night in pain from my throat and woke up with swollen glands and feeling like I was swallowing razor blades. I found Wednesday pretty difficult. There are about 15 scenic artist working there at the moment, some full time and some freelance. The ones i've talked to have all been lovely but as a whole i felt a little out of place, i didn't feel very welcome. There were times where I had nothing to do and i ended up just taking it upon myself to go and wash buckets. They kept saying they had so much to do and that they were running behind yet there seemed to be nothing to do. I did feel a little like they weren't prepared for me coming.
On Thursday i was still feeling pretty ill and had hardly slept. Mark and Emma gave me a little project to do, a large charcoal drawing using charcoal on a stick. I did quite enjoy just being left on my own as at least I had something to do but i did end up getting a bit bored and went to see if i could help anyone with anything. Unfortunately i felt isolated and pushed in the corner for the rest of the week and as much as i tried to not let feeling ill get to me and affect my work I did not enjoy my first week and each day could not wait for 4.15 to come quick enough.

I know how much of an amazing experience this is that i'm getting but it is not at all what i expected. Last week I tried so hard to fit in and feel part of the team despite feeling like absolute shit and taking paracetamol and lemsip at every opportunity. The more I tried though the more I realised that it didn't actually have anything to do with the fact I was ill. It felt as though they get so many work placement/ interns that maybe they just don't care anymore. They are also treating me a little like I don't know anything which I feel is a little patronising. Like they asked if i had used a spray gun before, and if i had ever done lining or used charcoal on a stick....
I've spent the weekend with my brother relaxing, seeing London and art galleries and trying to get better, I'm still not feeling 100% but i'm feeling better and i'm going to go back into this week with a positive attitude (not that i didn't have one last week) and hopefully try and get all I can get out of it!
So that's week one done! I'm loving the London life though, even the commute and having to get up at 5.30am to get to work for 8am isn't too bad, its tiring but luckily i'm a morning person and i guess my experience from working at the fringe and being able to work on only a few hours sleep helps!