Survivors

-- Han and Luce --
Saturday was incredibly surreal and exciting, one of those days that we knew was an important step on the right path. We woke up early and went to Beverly Hills for our haircuts! Leonie was awesome and spent almost 5 hours colouring and highlighting and cutting and trimming and styling our hair!

We felt like regular celebrities, getting all pampered. After that we went and got new headshots taken in Downtown LA - 25 minutes away, thank goodness! There was a heart-attack-inducing mix up with the address where we briefly thought it was two hours away, so we were extra grateful we didn't have to go far! The headshots went really well! The photographer was so sweet, really talented, and gave us a good deal because we were shooting together, nice one!

After that we went to Bronzed Aussie to get some sausage rolls, meat pies, a custard tart and an apple pie! The perfect end to a wonderful day!  

Sunday we had a lazy morning then went to the Grove to see Meme and get Sprinkles Cupcakes! It was poppin! All decked out for Christmas and getting ready to light up the tree that night. We saw a bunch of singers warming up for the celebration that night, including Gavin DeGraw who was absolutely gorgeous! The holiday cheer was infectious and we're getting very excited for Q's birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all right around the corner!!

We drove back to Chapman because Han had a 12 page paper to write (eww) and Luce had to work on her final celebrity performance for Monday! 

-- Luce --
Monday was a complete whirlwind - probably one of the most stressful days of my life haha..! So, on Sunday I was talking to my friend Alicia and neither of us were feeling very excited about our celebrity performances the next day, so we decided (somewhat foolishly) to change our celebrities to Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles so we could sing a duet together! The main complication was that Alicia was in Washington visiting her family and wasn't going to be back in LA until 11:30pm! So we practiced by ourselves until I picked her up from the airport and then we went back to her place and rehearsed until a little after 2:30 in the morning! We woke up at 5:30 on Monday morning and got ready for the big day ahead. We were practicing at school at about 7:30 when I got an email from my teacher saying that he wanted to talk to Alicia and me about our last-minute change.. Uh oh. So we met with him and he said that he didn't think that there was enough movement in our new choice and he wanted us to change back to our original choices!! Ahh! Alicia couldn't because she didn't have her Britney costume, but when he asked me if I could do Katy Perry I (again, somewhat foolishly) was honest and said that I did have my costume and could do it even though I hadn't practiced it in the last 5 days!! So my teacher decided to make me re-do Katy Perry AND he said Alicia could perform as Sara Bareilles for her celebrity so that meant that I had to do both!!! I was freaking out. I practiced my butt off in the hour before my acting class started but I was still really nervous! To add to the stress, a bunch of the upperclassmen came in to watch my class perform..! Omg. I was 8th on the list to do Katy and by some stroke of luck, after the 6th person's performance all of the upperclassmen had to leave to go to class! So that wasa lot less pressure thank goodness! It got to my performance and I was a little flustered to begin with, but once the music started playing it all came back to me and I remembered all my movements!! Hooray! Katy Perry was done and it was a success! Next was my duet with Alicia and it went quite well too despite how rushed we'd been with getting it prepared :) after that I was in one more performance and that went down without a hitch as well! Phewww I made it through the class! Straight after acting class I hopped in the car and drove over to Chpman to pick Han up so we could go and see mum!! Yayyyyyyyy!!!

-- Han and Luce --
It was SO WONDERFUL to see Mum and the doggies!! Ahh we had a great time catching up, picnicking in the empty house, playing with the pups, and snuggling on the air mattress with mum. Just what we needed after a big day! Mum dropped Han back to Chapman and Luce went home too later that night, excited to get all the furniture delivered on Thursday!

-- Han --
When I got back to Chaptown I went straight to a meeting for my hall announcing, in honour of The Hunger Games: The COPA Games. (More commonly known as Assassin). The people participating all got assigned a target to kill by poking them with a crayon. There are rules and safe zones but they're constantly changing and oh man has this game taken over my life this week!!
I went to kickboxing with Megan in the morning on Tuesday and hatched a plan to kill my target later that day...
I had another theatre major to kill, but on the first day we were allowed 10 minutes of safety before and after class (we were also safe in the cafe, the lounge, classes, our hall, and in groups of 3 COPA people) so I had to bide my time. I went back on the shuttle with him and when the clock clicked over I pounced! He then gave me his target and I knew she was waiting to kill her target, so I raced back to the dorms and got her as well before she knew what hit her! A couple hours later, by third target asked me to stand with him so he'd be safe while he waited for his target to get back from class. I seized the opportunity and got him, making me the only person to kill 3 people and also responsible for almost half of the deaths on day 1. 
By yesterday I had been dubbed the Black Widow, so now I have a HUGE target on my back - nice going. I know who has me, though, so as long as I can avoid him I'll be fine! My target, a dance major named Hannah, was terrified of me though. I couldn't kill her yesterday, but that's not to say it wasn't a total bloodbath! The game's heating up and people are dropping like flies! Spencer got killed right after his dance performance (which I went to, he was incredible!), JT sustained an injury running from his own roommate, Tosh killed Sierra, paranoia is running rampant - it's pretty intense.
But back to my target being scared of me haha so she should have been! I knew she had class at 8:30 this morning, so I woke up early, waited outside in the cold and rain (ohh yea, I'm taking this game pretty seriously) and got her as she left Henley! 
It's been crazy but an amazing bonding experience - I'll update the blog with any major events!
The movers are over at the house unpacking and I can't wait to go over tonight for dinner and see the house with everything in it! It also might be good to get away from the COPA Games for a little while... I only have to survive for a few more hours and I'll be untouchable! Can't wait for a fun weekend this weekend, my last few classes of the semester, and more crazy times with all the COPA people out to get each other!

-- Luce --
Tuesday was an entirely uneventful day for me - pretty much just recovering from the drama and no sleep on Monday!

Wednesday was a pretty normal day as well.. I was just hanging out, when I decided to quick look at my mobile banking app on my phone too see how my bank account was going.. But when I looked, I saw that over 100 dollars was missing from my account! What?! When I looked at where it had been spent in my previous transactions it said it was at Ocean Seafoods in LA which I have never been to in my life!! There was something very "fishy" (haha) going on... But I couldn't call the bank because I had to go to class so I figured it'd be fine if I just called after class.. When I checked my app again after class I discovered that it was absolutely NOT fine! Another $400 had been taken out and whoever it was that took my debit card info had tried to take even more than that!! Ahh! I called the bank straight away and explained to them that I had been the victim of fraud! I couldn't even believe it! More than $500 gone in less than 3 hours! Luckily Bank of America completely reimburses any money lost to credit card fraud and the guy I spoke to on the phone was incredibly helpful. But what a stressful ordeal! I had to cut up my card and I'm now waiting on a new one in the mail - thank goodness I'm seeing Mum and Q this weekend otherwise I would've been completely flat broke with no way to access any of my money! To take my mind off the stress, my roomies and I all went to see a late night showing of About Time and it was such a wonderful movie! It really had the most beautiful message and the acting and story were impeccable. I absolutely loved it!

Thursday was an easy day at school, and then once my school day was over I saw LACC's production of Comedy of Errors and it was great! All of the actors did such an amazing job and it was so fun to see all three of my roommates in a show together! As soon as the show was over, I raced home, packed my stuff for this weekend and then got in the car with Qee and we were off to pick up Han and go home to the new house!!!! Woohoo!

Makin' it Happen!

-- Han and Luce --
Last week wasn't too crazy for either of us! On Monday Luce had her final Animal performance which went really well - best grade yet! Woo! Han also had a great time in her acting classes because the top professor came in to teach Meisner work, so fun and really helpful.
Friday came quickly and we went to Disney - California Adventure - with a couple of Lucy's friends. We did all the wild rides and, for the first time ever, the two of us saw the Aladdin show TWICE in one day! We're still not sure if that was pathetic or an achievement, but it was actually really cool to see two completely different casts,  one after another. We drove back to Lucy's and crashed out because we had to get up pretty early the next day.
On Saturday morning we had consultations with a hairdresser in Beverly Hills! It was pretty much the most extravagant and surreal experience ever - we definitely got a taste of what it would be like to live the dream! Beverly Hills is absolutely beautiful and everyone was so stylish and put together, yea, we could see ourselves living there one day... Anyway, we'd been sent with instructions from Chambers to let the hairdresser do whatever she wanted and she ended up deciding on cuts/colours for both of us that we're really excited about! After the consultation we visited MeMe at Starbucks, had a delicious lunch of spaghetti squash cooked by chef Lucy, and got ready to head back to Chapman to see Spring Awakening. Just as we were about to leave, Han saw on the Chapman facebook page where they post all the film opportunities that there had been an opportunity to get a union voucher that day in LA!! Ahh! We were seeeeriously bumming because we totally could have done it! Han decided to email the guy, just in case they needed people for Sunday, and we headed to Chapman to see the show. They did a GREAT job, and the guy who played Melchior was pretty damn gorgeous, so we got a little eye (and ear, he had an amazing voice) candy thrown in too! After the show we grabbed some food on campus and Han checked her email to find... They did need people the next day on that film for a prom scene!! YAY! We quickly changed our plans around, Han grabbed all the stuff she'd need, we popped in to the after party from the show for half an hour - which was really nice, said hi to all the crazy, wonderful theatre kids - and headed back to LA! Deja vu all over again...

Sunday was an 11:00am call time which wasn't too bad, although we had to drive a fair way to get there. When we arrived they told us they'd sent out an email moving the call time back to 12:30! Gaahh! They said they actually needed an extra in the scene they were filming, though, so we asked if there was any chance they could use us both? They said 'yes' so we turned on all the Aussie charm and twin guilt we could muster, and Luce asked if being in that scene meant we could pooossibly get principle Taft Hartley contacts (which means we'd be SAG eligible in one go!) annnnndd...
THEY SAID YES!!! In the scene we were in, the bitchy queen bee and the cute but socially awkward girl find out they've worn the same dress to prom! Oh no!! Han was part of the bitchy posse and Luce was fixing her makeup in the bathroom and then walked out as the cute girl came in. The crew was so nice, and with everyone crammed into this tiny high school bathroom there were heaps of funny little moments.
We also met a couple nice, funny, and very good-looking guys, Nick and Matt, that we spent most of the day with. We had to all dance on the dance floor, but of course there wasn't any music! It was hilarious! The AD kept yelling out if it was a slow, medium, or fast song and we got to be pros at switching in between. Matt was technically meant to be a 'chaperone' so he kept breaking us up and we had to work so hard to keep from laughing! At one point, a definite highlight in Han's career, they pulled her away because they sequins on her dress would help refract light - Han was basically a human lighting device hahaha oh background. So, after a fun day's work reliving prom, we are officially SAG eligible!

We wrapped earlier than expected and decided to go out afterwards to Del Taco. We had great conversation, a lotta laughs, and then called it a night fairly early and said goodbye to the two charmers. We both got home at decent hours for another week of school!

-- Luce --
On Monday I slept in for the first time in a very long time because I had the day off school for Remembrance Day! I spent the rest of the day working on my Celebrity assignment..! For the assignment we have to choose a singer's live performance and mimic their movements exactly and we can either lip-sync or sing along to a backing track while we perform. I chose Katy Perry and had a really fun time memorizing her moves :) On Wednesday I performed and it went pretty well! Not perfect, but I still felt good about it! It was also cool to see all the celebrities that my friends chose! That night Emily, MeMe and I went out and saw the new Thor movie and it was SO GOOD!!! I screamed, I laughed, I cried.. Ah, it was amazing! 
On Thursday I had a pretty relaxed day at school and then later that night I went out on a lovely date with Nick - the nice guy we had met on set - so that was a great end to the week!
Then it was Friday and off to see Han!

-- Han -- 
This week was super busy but really great too! Monday was Remembrance Day which, even though we didn't get the day off school, I still recognized with my Canadian friend Tosh. We went to the rock garden in the Interfaith Center and played the Last Post and had a minute of silence at 11:00. It was really special to still be able to observe that tradition and I felt like a good Aussie, thanking our troops from thousands of miles away. On Monday night Laynie and I worked up the courage to attend the kickboxing class they offer on campus and it was SO FUN!! I absolutely loved it and I definitely want to keep going for the rest of the time they offer it. 
Tuesday's activity was this Shambhala meditation I had heard about and it was actually a pretty awesome experience. It was an hour and a half long but the time flew by. It was great to work on centering myself, especially with some stressful assignments looming!
One such assignment is a 10-15 page research paper on immigration law that I've been working on, waahh! It's really interesting stuff though, so I don't mind too much, I just know the due date is going to sneak up on me... I had a paper for another class due Monday, one due Tuesday, and 4 more on the horizon! I just need to push through though, because Thanksgiving is also on the horizon and I CANNOT WAIT!
On Wednesday I was meant to have the last installment of my RAD Self Defense class where I get to use my skills to get past the 'aggressors' but it got cancelled - so hopefully that'll be a story for the next blog!
I had an audition at Dodge on Thursday which was heaps of fun; it was mostly improv and ad-libbing, so I had free rain and loved it! 
And then it was Friday! Luce came out in the afternoon and we did an audition at Dodge together - which ended up taking AGES, we were there for about 3 hours! We also stopped in at the mall nearby because I found out there was a Cotton On! Then it was back to Lucy's for some much needed sleep to tackle an exciting and busy weekend!

A Crazy Halloweek

We got the photos from our last shoot! Here're our faves:

-- Han --
This week was CRAZY busy in the most fun way possible! On Monday night mum and I went out to shop for a Halloween costume (which we didn't end up getting but we had a giggle anyway) and had Thai for dinner again at our usual spot. Tuesday marked the start of a waaayyyy too rigorous workout plan that personal trainer JT is helping Megan, Laynie, and me with to get fit. We did this crazy leg workout - involving soo manyyy burpeeeees! - and I swear my legs are still sore almost a week later. It felt good though and we're excited to be committing to getting healthy and working off that freshman 15 we've got going. Thursday was Halloween and it was one crazy night at Chaptown! I had some important stuff happening on Friday, though, so I opted for a much more tame approach: trick or treating then a movie night with my girlfriends! We had a great haul of candy and it was just a silly, fun night!

On Friday I had class in the morning then a performance of a scene for the Junior directing class at 12:30! It was really lovely, it was my second one that I've done and it went really well, I was very happy with my performance and proud of my scene partners. From there I went straight to my first ever Chapman film! I was playing the ghost of a woman who had killed her children then herself, pretty morbid stuff, and it's a recurring little series so I'll get to work on it again next semester! It was a super fun cast and crew, they ordered us Chipotle for lunch which was awesome, and I was rockin some seriously freaky makeup!

It was a big afternoon - including some AMAZING news: Mum and Q successfully bought their dream house!! YAY! We can't wait for them to move out for some much needed fam time and homecooked meals!

On Saturday, mostly recovered from Tuesday and having skipped out on the workout on Halloween, I made it to the gym with the gang. We went to the big gym on campus for the first time and it was intimidating to say the least! Hahaha the three of us girls were a little on the pathetic/embarrassing side but we made it through our back and shoulders workout with only a few extra special moments (one of which involved putting our feet in these ropes so they were a few inches off the floor, then doing push ups... I was actually pretty proud of myself! I managed to do a total of 24!). The rest of the day was restful because I was saving my energy up for an exciting night!

I was ushering for American Celebration, a big fundraising Gala for Chapman scholarships, with my friends and it was the best excuse to get all dressed up!!

It's a huge event with cocktails, a performance by some of the students, and a decadent dinner in a beautiful and extravagant tent. I had a couple friends in the show, so we snuck in to watch after ushering and they did a great job! So proud of them!

After AmCel Luce arrived at Chapman for a night on the town! As always, it was so great to have her here! :)

Skipping ahead to Sunday night, I had my second film!! It was called Ugly Person With a Cause about a woman, Charlotte, who's fighting for ugly people's right to play the villain in films. It was a funny script and I had a small role towards the end as the makeup artist that makes Charlotte look like a hag when she finally gets a role. It was an incredible learning experience and it felt so great to be in front of a camera and have lines! It was an awesome taster of having a role on a real set, so much fun!!

-- Luce --

Wow, what a week!! School has been getting more and more intense and I don't even know how I'm getting everything done! On Monday my voice class started a whole new exercise which was equal parts exciting and terrifying because it was so different to what we'd been doing in the past 10 weeks..! But I am finally starting to get a good grasp on it now thank goodness! In acting class everyone did their Animal projects - an assignment where we all go and observe different animals and then choose one specific one (mine was a Hummingbird) to imitate for the class. We had 3 minutes each and that was divided into some time acting as the animal on stage - noises and all! - and some time delivering a monologue where the character keeps a lot of the animal's characteristics. I had a great time doing it and, somewhat surprisingly, really enjoyed writing my monologue! I was a shallow sorority girl who had really bad party anxiety and it was so much fun! Also, I got very few notes from my teacher which is always a relief!

One thing that made last week a little more challenging than usual was that I had to usher 3 times for my school's production of Death of a Salesman..! It wasn't too bad because we could either watch the show (which was 3 hours long) or sit in a different room and do homework :) But it was still spending 13 hour days at the school which was pretty rough - took me back to the good old days of doing the shows at AB and spending all of my time at school!!

Friday was a great day because I was on the set of the new show "Ground Floor" and it was one of the best background days I've ever had! They were filming one of the last scenes of the last episode and all I'll say is that it was on a really pretty set and I got the cutest outfit ever from wardrobe! There was such amazing energy on set and everyone was smiling and people were showering me with compliments so I loved it haha! Oh, and I also got to see Skylar Astin from Pitch Perfect and he was gorgeous and funny - nothing like some good eye candy to brighten your day!

Saturday was a day of ushering and chores and freaking out about all of the stuff I had to do! Luckily, I was headed to Chapman that night to see Han - a welcome distraction from the overload of work that was on my plate!

-- Han and Luce --

We were SO excited for an opportunity to dress up (because Halloweekend was still in full swing) and we settled on going out as Sandy and Rizzo from Grease!

We went out to a couple parties then couldn't resist a late night run to get boba at a tea bar nearby, it was perfect! We hit the sack already looking forward to a Sunday in Disneyland!

It felt like ages since we went with Q! We mostly did California Adventure this time, went on a couple rides, met Mr. Incredible, and saw THE BEST performance of the Aladdin stage show we'd EVER SEEN! And that's saying something!! The genie made the show, he was INCREDIBLE! Great singer, SO funny. Han was also completely convinced that Aladdin was played by the director of her first directing scene, he looked EXACTLY like him, buuuut in response to a "OH MY GOSH did you play Aladdin in Disneyland today?!" text, Han got a "Nope, I was just sittin on my couch..." hahaha deeerrrp.... It was a compliment though because Aladdin was super cute and the show was just great!

We called it a day pretty early because Luce had heaps to do for her upcoming performances at LACC and Han had to get back to Chapman for her second film of the weekend! It's not getting easier to say goodbye, but we know we're sure to see each other next weekend!