Peculiar Vernacular

 "Adaptation is like a beautiful woman, it can never be faithful."

Just one of the many interesting quotes my professor told us on the first day of classes. She broke down the types of adaptation into three groups, using Romeo and Juliet as an example.

-Reconstruction: A faithful adaptation of the text (ex. Zefirelli's Romeo and Juliet)

-Reimagination: Recontextualizing the material by adding your own voice, while closely paralleling the original story. (ex. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet feat. Leo Dicaprio).

- Deconstruction: A totally fresh story that stays true to the themes of the original. (ex. Westside Story).

As you could see from my last post I am taking three classes over here: Screenwriting Adaptation, Fiction Writing, and Intermediate Spanish. Only having three classes a week is really great because I feel like I actually have enough free time to do all the reading and the assignments.  And I still have time left over for a social life, going to the gym, eating proper meals, traveling around, and doodling on the internet for a few hours.

The gym here is about the size of a classroom. We have six weight machines, including three for legs, and some dumbbells. There is one bench. There are usually two or three other people in there with me. The locker room has 24 lockers, which I suppose is the gym's maximum capacity. Oh Worldgate, how I miss you...

There is one indoor basketball court, with no basketballs. Apparently human beings can be spotted playing there on Thursday evenings. I have one of my three classes on Thursday evenings. "Unlucky!" (as the British soccer announcers often say).

Moving on, I've compiled a short list of adorable British words that we should start using in America. Please read the following with a British accent:

1) Juicy Bits

definition - pulp in juice

use it in a sentence - "I bought a gallon of Tropicana with juicy bits if you'd fancy some?"

2) Comfies

definition - Pajamas

use it in a sentence - "Chloe do you want to go to the gym?"... "No I can't be bothered, I've just put my comfies on."

3) Toastie Maker

definition - a Toaster

use it in a sentence - "How long does frozen bread take in the toastie maker?"

4) Dodgy

definition - sketchy or low quality

use it in a sentence - "This milk I bought two weeks ago smells a bit dodgy."

5) Merch

definition - merchandise, or goods of any kind.

use it in a sentence - "There are plenty of merch stores in Putney."

6) Fancy Dress

definition - a costume, like for Halloween.

use it in a sentence - "The bop tonight is fancy dress, have you got anything to wear?"

7) The Bop

definition - school sponsored party on campus that I had to sneak into because I didn't get a wristband.

use it in a sentence - "I snuck into the bop last night because I didn't get a wristband."

On another note, I'm meeting up with Bobby Bruderle tonight who is studying at Richmond university which is only 3 tube stops away from me. It's fun to meet up with old friends in new places. I have a bunch of other contacts in London and around Europe at the moment and I look forward to visiting with all of them as well. I'm also going to meet up with Joe Dutton, who use to run Wilmington Camera, where I interned last fall. Now he works right outside London inventing cameras for Panavision. Here is a list of the movies that his company has provided cameras for: link

Pretty impressive list! I'm really looking forward to talking with him, although I can't say if anything will come of it.

-Del