One weird thing about being in England is the amount of free time I have.  I’m used to going to class five days a week and rehearsal six.  Here, I only have class three days a week and rehearsal one or two.  So, I’m trying to find ways to fill all that extra time.  I’ve joined several clubs (two theatre related, one writing related, it’s fairly obvious my passions are specific), watched more movies than I think I’ve watched in the past year, and read lots of new books.

It’s lovely to have time to read.  I’m used to mostly reading just required texts over the school year, with maybe an occasional fun book thrown in, usually the next book in a series I love or the newest book by an author I admire.  Here, with all the extra time, I’ve been able to read more randomly, picking a book from someone’s recommended list or something mentioned by Amazon’s algorithm.  I also joined Goodreads, which people have been suggesting I do for a while.  My dad always told me I should keep a list of all the books I’ve read, and now I have an electronic version of one (or the start of the list anyway.)  And it works as another recommendation algorithm.  I’ve had to start reading on a Kindle, since books are not the most portable of objects, and while it’s nice to be able to immediately buy and start the next book in a series, I sometimes miss pages.

Funnily enough, this week is reading week, when we have no class so we can catch up on any schoolwork or required reading we haven’t done, or (in my case) work ahead.  I’ve spent the weekend reading a wonderful series I found (through Goodreads).  Tomorrow I’m going with a friend to Stratford.  Maybe after that, I’ll find some new books and read some more.  Really, what I should be doing with all my extra free time is laundry.