Bienvinue a Paris!

Alright...so officially day 4 in Europe, and now onto a new country! Just when I get used to the other country, I have to move off to another one that's even more unlike america! But none the less just as awesome! The feeling of being thrown into a language I enjoy is a very good feeling. I can talk to people, and they can talk to me...if I can understand them, that is. Mr.Cole spoke a lot slower in French 3 than the actually Parisians talk. But I like it, it's ringing a lot of bells from the past about my classes, and talking to people during the first day has already gotten easier.

We started the day in London, as you know. We got up around 5:15am, then went down for breakfast. But before that, we had to get everything ready for the trip to Paris. Of course, after everything is rushed to be packed, we noticed that a bus wasn't outside of our hotel. This is odd because a bus was supposed to be there at 6 ready for loading (it's already 10 past at this point). Apparently, the bus got delayed, so instead of a crappy bag lunch from Great Britain, we got one last real one.

So once we actually got on the train, I played cards with some friends for the amount of time we were aboard, and almost forgot to use the Lou while onboard. Whoops, that won't ever happen again.

When we got to Paris, we got off the train and headed to our hotel. Imagine the niceish part of Irving, under a whole bunch of construction, with a really nice hotel packed in the middle of it. Well, we happen to not be in the nicest part of Paris, and our building is lovely. If that paints any pictures for you.

We then went off to see Notre Dame Paris; cathedral. It's still under use today and it took over 180 years to build. Then we went to lunch and then we went to the night session of the louvre. It was excellent

Then we came back to the hotel and got hungry and tired. Luckily I had some cracker jacks because our dinner wasn't very much to fill us up.

But I keep dozing off and such so I will update more on Paris tomorrow!

I bid you adieu!
-Matthew Wofford

London!

Blog for July 15th, 2010:

Whenever I embark on a trip, I usually know if I'll have a good time or not depending on the amount of water surrounding the location...seeing as Europe is a peninsula and Great Britain (where we are now) is a huge island with a lovely little river running through it, it promised to be a blast...but that was not the case. The amount of joy and excitement I have received from London has absolutely and in every way turned my expectations into rubble that would compare to the amount left by the great London fire in 1066. This trip has totally blown my mind and it's only the second day.

Today when we woke up, we headed down for breakfast, which was a bit strange. They use a different type of sausage and they actually fry eggs in hot oil rather than just cheat and do it sunny side up like us. I got to try marmite for the first (and last) time. It was absolutely disgusting and will never be going into my mouth again. The toast here is very good, and the tube service (Aka London Underground) is brilliant. Watch out blocking and cutting in the queue. It's bad form.

After breakfast we headed off to our first official tour of London. We had a giant Mercedes Benz bus and it was pretty cool. We stopped at several places, my favorite probably being the Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. It was shortly after that I found a post box, and my first batch of postcards went on their way.

We later ventured to the Tower of London and heard many interesting things about Torture and execution. We also got to see all the crowned jewels of England, and even one of India. The largest diamond in the world, at a measurement of 530.2 karats, is also housed in the tower of london, guarded by two armed guards. The same guards, infact, from the Palace earlier that day.

At the end of the night, we had dinner at some British food place (really Indian food, but it's so much assimilated into their society, they call it British) and then went to my favourite activity of the night...the show!

We went to see "Blood Brothers" at the recommendation of our guide, Stu. It was an excellent excellent amazing wonderful all out awesome production. The acting was good an the cast wasn't super huge, but it was great.

After the show, we headed out to the hotel and packed up for the night...my roomates and I stayed up til about 2 playing cards and stuff, not planning on sleeping due to we have to get up at 5am tomorrow....but a hotel worker came up and told us to quiet down because apparently the sound of mild laughing and card playing was too much for the other group next door.

Well, time to go...Paris tomorrow and it will rock!

Peace
Matt Wofford

Arrival.

So we finally made it to London today at around 12:00noon there time. Right now it's midnight here, and I've been forced to set up a little corner of my Internet bliss in the bar in our hotel. It's going very well so far though! I didn't sleep at all on the plane, but watched about 6 movies. They were all really good and most I hadn't seen before. The plane was really cool. We got two meals,
Dinner and breakfast. It was delicious. I couldn't even really taste it, but it was food and it was good.

So now that I'm hunkered down with only 36 minutes per 3 pounds I give them of Internet, I'll have to keep this brief, but I'll try to elaborate soon.

We started the day after we landed by going to the hotel to freshen up. We have a really cool tour guide named Stuart. Or stu. But nothing other than the two, or he will just ignore you. He is very down to earth and he has a twisted sick of humor so we get along pretty well. I never knew so much was different from the USA and Britain, but there is so much! I've taken probably 300 pictures just today, which I will have to delete some in order to capture the whole trip. We went to a few different places before heading to dinner at 6:30pm. We went to big Ben, the houses of government, the square of trifailger or something like that. And a few others. We went to dinner at a pub called the centre page. It was actually really cool. The interior structuring of buildings here is so much different than the USA it's almost surreal. It rains off and on, so having to constantly try to fumble with an umbrella and borrowed camera is a bit tough, but I get it done pretty well.

So anyway, at dinner we all were served the English classic, fish and chips. Which is actually fish and French fries, but don't call them that here! And I got to try out a Guinness extra cold beer. It was actually very good and cant wait to sample the rest of europes unique flavors.

Then after dinner, I reluctantly bought a ticket for the London eye at 17.85 pounds. Which is like, 24 dollars American. It really was just a giant farris wheel right in the center of london that could let you see as far as the eye could see. It was pretty boring after the first few seconds when while boarding the pod you are assigned, it continues moving...so it's a bit challenging for the slow folks.

After the eye, we went through one more shop and I got my first batch of post cards at 10.75 pounds. That included postage as well. So you lucky 7 people to get a postcard from london should be getting it soon...I hope.

But now as I sit in the bar while my roomates sleep, I realize I need to sleep as well because after about 30 hours without any, London won't be super enjoyable.

So tomorrow we are going to see "Blood Brothers" a show created by London for London. We got within the first 5 rows and the tickets were only 30 pounds each because our guide used to be an actresses brother.

Crap, ok, I'm going to bed. I can hardly think!

Good night everyone!
I miss you all!!!

T- 20H 27M to takeoff

I officially cannot wait for Europe. I know it will be a rewarding experience and I can't thank my parents enough for allowing me to go on this trip! I am trying to get as little sleep as possible so I can sleep on the plane tomorrow, but we will see how well that goes.
Right now, I'm updating my iPod and putting lots of boredom reducing materials on it. And as for tomorrow, I'll finish up packing and head to the airport around 2:45pm.
I got an amazing camera to use on my trip! And I can't wait to start using it.
Other than that, I will see all of you on the flipside. I will have wifi sometimes, but please, no calls or texts.

Thanks!
Matthew Wofford

Senior year... (T-1D:13H to takeoff)

Is OVER! I know it's been like half a year since I've cleaned the dust off my keyboard, and my typing skills are suffering greatly. I can already feel the fingers starting to ache tomorrow after I finish typing this. A lot has happened this year, and when I say a lot, I mean A LOT! Somethings were good, some were great, and some were amazing! But we might as well go in order, shall we? Let's get started...

The Technician: Between September and December...
Well, I was officially the Head Theatre Technician at the Jack Singley Academy. that gave me great pride and responsibility as well. Not only was I in-charge of all things technical that went on with the theatre, I had to show up for almost every single Senior/Junior/Sophomore/Freshman event EVER. Between the several several hundred people in the school, only 3 were trained on the specifics of the new auditorium, which was finally finished in October of '09. Myself, Michael Hill (auditorium manager, musical guru) and Lacey Rowe (theatre teacher, scene painting wizard). And out of the three, the only one who had time to really get to know the equipment on a deeper level, was, you guessed it, ME. Never in a million years would I complain about having such a responsibility, because working under pressure is what I do best. ALL aspects of technical theatre amuse and confuse me, which is probably why I have stuck with it for 3 years, starting with medieval times. The thrill of knowing that you're only one button push away from screwing up an entire crew of people's hard work is exhilarating. But not only was I the tech for all class events, I also was assigned the choir shows that happened. There were two that happened during this period. The first was the opening choir show, that had a variety of songs that were nice, a few solos here and there, but I can't remember the theme of it. I'm sure there was one, but it's not coming to me right now. No matter, anyway...where was I....Oh yeah! The tech! Well, as many of you know, I am absolutely obsessed with lighting. I live it, breathe it, sleep it, and in some cases, eat it. But the chance that I was given to work with my own set of intelligent lights...was...nothing less than the BEST WEEK EVER! I had about a week to design a light show for a song called "Colors of Winter". It was not my best work, obviously, but with the help of my boss at Medieval Times, Rick Grimes, it was good enough for the entire choir to like it! I impressed a lot of people, including myself with that show. If you want to check out the final version of that very light show, CLICK HERE. I forgot to mention this, but at the first concert of the year, the one I didn't do a super fancy light show for, I performed along side my friend Chris Farrar as "The Matt Wofford Project". We played two songs, and both have a live recording on the projects website HERE. During all this auditorium awesomeness that is going on, I had to worry about getting my Eagle Scout, and the musical...which were definitely the best parts of the year.

The Actor and Technician: From December to May...
So after the busy season of the Auditorium died down...another one started up. The Academy's very first musical! It was nothing short of a historic event. I first noticed signs up for auditions around the end of December...and immediately started preparing a monologue. Now, let's take a moment to look at my past. The only productions I have ever been in that are even close to being theatre related would be church Christmas plays; where I was always either a shepherd or an angel. One year, I was a homeless man, but I wouldn't call that experience. I had honestly had no "for real" experience acting for theatre. Earlier in the year, around September or October, I auditioned for a part in "Sander's Family Christmas", which would have been my first real production, but, sadly, I was out read at the audition, and didn't get the part. I did go to see the play and Sonny Franks, the man who got me an audition in the first place, who was the lead role and musical director for the production. He said the kid only got the part because of experience, but he liked the way I read the part. The character was supposed to be a kid going to war. This kid looked like he was going to a puberty seminar on his way to see how an erection worked...not the horrors of war. But none the less, he did perform the part well, and I enjoyed the show. But as I approached the auditions for our musical, I thought of a few different scenarios that could happen. 1, I could have been exactly what they needed to play the part I wanted, but I wouldn't be allowed because I was too necessary on the technical side of the production. 2, I could have sucked at the audition and been stuck with doing the tech stuff. Or the scenario I wanted, 3, I would get the part I wanted, and still get to design all the lighting for the show. After the audition....I was very happy to be called back...and then even happier when I learned I had gotten the part of The Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz"!!! As soon as I heard the news, I told the others in the cast and everyone else I could think of. I had to start advertising as soon as possible! I couldn't wait to begin work on the show! My first real show! And the best part was I got singing solos! I hardly knew it before this year, but I love singing. And the musical let me know I was also very interested in tap dancing. Two things I hope to get more training on next year at TCU. Before I get to that, I'll have you know, the three nights that "Oz" went on, were the best three nights ever! We couldn't have had a better show! The music, the acting, the lighting, the sound, the EVERYTHING went amazingly well for the Academy's first ever live musical production. After the musical died down, I did find myself a woman, who went with me to Prom, Arianna Nau. Her, Bree Keele, and I had a great little friendship, then some stuff happened, I ended up going out with Arianna, and that pretty much screwed all of it up. I admit, I kinda figured if we did go out, the whole "three of us" would go down the tubes, but it was definitely a good relationship to have been in, and while it didn't last due to some differences in opinion, I think it was for the better. We still all talk, but the three of us won't be like it used to be, and I have to admit I will miss it. But of course all of this was still going on while I was getting ready for COLLEGE! and trying to get my eagle scout, and the auditorium lighting business continued through the year. I had designed lighting for a middle school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, an elementary school production of The Music Man, and Dana's Dance Academy's Summer Show. I was only paid for one out of those, and honestly, I don't even care. I have so much fun doing lighting and the performing arts, I wouldn't even worry about money.

The College Freshman, The Actor and The Technician
May through June
Of course, as a senior, I was reminded all throughout the year to apply for college and make sure I get accepted to a good one. At the start of my college search, I applied to four universities. All were local, and all seemed to have what I needed, but only one would be mine. My application to the University of Texas at Arlington was the first to be returned and accepted. I was happy, I had been accepted into something, anyone would be. But the feeling I wanted wasn't there, it was then I decided this wasn't the college for me. Then, I got an acceptance letter from the University of North Texas. This was my absolute last choice, and when I had learned that I was accepted to UTA, UNT basically just fell through the cracks. I had later received a large packet from Texas Christian University. While this university wasn't my first choice...anytime I looked at the acceptance packet, or held it, I felt something. I don't know what it was, but it was a good feeling. I let it pass me up though, because the letter I was really waiting for hadn't arrived...the letter I wanted from Southern Methodist University. My best-gay-friend, Sammy Partida, had been accepted there for the theatre program, and I couldn't wait to get my letter....but it never came. I waited and waited, checking the mail box everyday...when FINALLY...I got....and email. Ugh. Not what I expected, but ok, I'll play your little game SMU. Apparently I needed to audition for the theatre program...something that had fell through my list of things to do. And with the little experience I had, I didn't expect there to be auditions! But sadly when I learned about the final audition date, it was too late to get the day off work I needed to go do it. Not to mention I had nothing prepared. So I ended up not doing the audition. I was hoping that they might let me in the school...just not into theatre...but I had this weird feeling...and sure enough, a few weeks later, a letter came in and SMU denied me. Well, I say, 3 out of 4 ain't bad at all. I was certainly happy with it, because I finally could hold that TCU packet and feel right about sending them my final transcript. It was at orientation when I started asking myself the obvious question of "Why the hell did I want to go to SMU? Stupid ponies." I love TCU, and I couldn't ask for more generous family members. Mom and Dad are taking care of the housing costs, while Grandparents are taking care of the tuition. That is such a good thing to not have to worry about financial crap while in college, and I can't thank them enough for paying my way. And if they are reading this, I love you! All of you! And I won't let you down! So now that I'm off to TCU...and pretty much set for the next 4 years of my life...nothing to do but relax. Right?
...WRONG.

The Worldwide Traveler, The College Freshman, The Actor, The Technician.
NOW
Europe?! I'm going to Europe?! I must have forgotten about the group I joined at the beginning of the year...so much has happened....so much has distracted me from the glory that is a European Vacation. When it did hit me that I would be going to Europe in less than three weeks, I was super excited. I couldn't remember the last time I was so excited to go somewhere...well...that's not true. When the school went to see "Wicked"...I'm pretty sure I peed my pants from how awesome that was. But anyway, back to Europe. So...yeah...I'm going to Europe! And I can't wait! The plane leaves on Tuesday at 7:45 from D/FW Intl. I am not looking forward to the flight, because I don't like being bored...but the experience will be worth a thousand more flights. I haven't even started packing, and I am almost positive I will be sleeping for the first half of the day tomorrow, seeing as it's almost 6am and I haven't even posted this yet. Which reminds me, I should probably get to bed.

Thank you for reading through my senior year....I left out a lot of things...more than I even know of....but if I left anyone else out...I'm sorry and I'm sure I'll remember soon.

I will be updating this blog (hopefully daily) from my new iPhone on the trip, but if I can't get WiFi, you can forget about that! There is no way I'm paying 20 dollars per megabyte just to write a blog. I would start charging my readers....ha.

Anyway, I shall now go to bed and I will fill everyone in tomorrow!

Have an Excellent Day!

-Matthew Wofford


NEW UPDATE:
I forgot to add in there somewhere, I recently became an avid fire spinning enthusiast. I have a video on my facebook of me spinning fire, and you can check it out HERE. Thanks! Sorry!