These are my friends, this was my weekend and I am thankful for all of those things.

My acappella group, Treble in Paradise, had our first meeting of spring semester last night! Crazy to think this is my last semester, though… [note: there’s really 17 of us in the group, it’s just that one of the girls just posted this cute picture from an end-of-fall-semester event]

My acappella group, Treble in Paradise, had our first meeting of spring semester last night! Crazy to think this is my last semester, though…

[note: there’s really 17 of us in the group, it’s just that one of the girls just posted this cute picture from an end-of-fall-semester event]

another picture from the O St. Mansion, with all my favorite people! photo by Rachel

another picture from the O St. Mansion, with all my favorite people!

photo by Rachel

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

this is me singing with my acappella group, Treble in Paradise— if you’re curious and can tolerate one more Christmas song :)

My blog passed 250 followers this weekend— thanks y’all! This is me. I’m a DC-er from the Chicago area. Feel free to say hi! I love sharing music/film/book recommendations and chatting in general with fellow Tumblr bloggers!  Happy Monday! xx, Nora

My blog passed 250 followers this weekend— thanks y’all! This is me. I’m a DC-er from the Chicago area. Feel free to say hi! I love sharing music/film/book recommendations and chatting in general with fellow Tumblr bloggers! 

Happy Monday!

xx,

Nora

It’s my BADA-versary! One year to the day since I arrived in London, at the British American Drama Academy. Lucky for me, I got to celebrate the occasion with a familiar BADA face who was visiting DC for the weekend! Can’t believe all that time has gone by already (cheesy sentimentality, sorry). Also, we’ve had 2 Londoners staying in our apartment all week, and I still struggle with slipping into the slight accent I picked up over there. HOW EMBURRRRUSSSING, but it’s been fun hearing them slip silly British slang into conversation :-) Cheers, y’all.

It’s my BADA-versary! One year to the day since I arrived in London, at the British American Drama Academy. Lucky for me, I got to celebrate the occasion with a familiar BADA face who was visiting DC for the weekend! Can’t believe all that time has gone by already (cheesy sentimentality, sorry). Also, we’ve had 2 Londoners staying in our apartment all week, and I still struggle with slipping into the slight accent I picked up over there. HOW EMBURRRRUSSSING, but it’s been fun hearing them slip silly British slang into conversation :-) Cheers, y’all.

natural disaster/move-in week (no internet in my apartment yet) has made it difficult to blog anything lately, but I’ll hopefully be back soon! Treble (I’m on the right in the photo) performed for a freshman Welcome Week event last Friday— we were working on only 2 days’ rehearsals and a smaller group than usual (some hadn’t moved back yet) - but it was still a fun and pretty solid show!

natural disaster/move-in week (no internet in my apartment yet) has made it difficult to blog anything lately, but I’ll hopefully be back soon!

Treble (I’m on the right in the photo) performed for a freshman Welcome Week event last Friday— we were working on only 2 days’ rehearsals and a smaller group than usual (some hadn’t moved back yet) - but it was still a fun and pretty solid show!

A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life. - Coco Chanel *************************************************************************** Maybe a wee bit dramatic, haha, (though it’s DEFINITELY true sometimes; I think Coco was a wise woman) but freshened up my hair today and got a gift of a mani/pedi (I’m cheap— I always do my nails myself, so ‘twas a lovely surprise!) from mi madre for back-to school! I dressed up a bit too (in this sheer/summery lemon-yellow buttondown I bought recently, military-green cuffed shorts and one of the few pairs of wedges I would ever consider wearing) just for fun, because your hair always looks its best/healthiest leaving the salon anyways, so it’s great to leave knowing you look completely put-together :-) I’m moving back to DC in a week and a half- new apartment, new major, new activities— feels like some major changes might be on the horizon after all. Excited. (Annnnd I already have tickets to two concerts and a play with some of my favorite actors/musicians!) Also, it’s raining (which I love), so I’m pretty happy right now. Wishing you a great weekend too! Nora

A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life. - Coco Chanel

***************************************************************************

Maybe a wee bit dramatic, haha, (though it’s DEFINITELY true sometimes; I think Coco was a wise woman) but freshened up my hair today and got a gift of a mani/pedi (I’m cheap— I always do my nails myself, so ‘twas a lovely surprise!) from mi madre for back-to school!

I dressed up a bit too (in this sheer/summery lemon-yellow buttondown I bought recently, military-green cuffed shorts and one of the few pairs of wedges I would ever consider wearing) just for fun, because your hair always looks its best/healthiest leaving the salon anyways, so it’s great to leave knowing you look completely put-together :-)

I’m moving back to DC in a week and a half- new apartment, new major, new activities— feels like some major changes might be on the horizon after all. Excited. (Annnnd I already have tickets to two concerts and a play with some of my favorite actors/musicians!)

Also, it’s raining (which I love), so I’m pretty happy right now.

Wishing you a great weekend too!

Nora

Recently one of my friends told me her study-abroad blog somehow got deleted. I blogged a lot about my experience in London. I wanted a wonderful journal about my unique time studying at the British American Drama Academy.

Realizing that things like accidental deletion happen, I searched for a way to make my blog into a book, something I’d be much more likely to return to later anyways (and a great way to share it with grandparents/others who don’t use the internet much).

I came across Blurb.com, which allowed me to download a free program called BookSmart which provided a few awesome services.

1) I could easily return to it day after day to fix the layout of my book before uploading it to blurb.com to be printed/purchased.

2) It connects directly to several blogging platforms including Wordpress, which I used for my London blog, and automatically loaded ALL of my blog posts into the program! From there, I just had to re-arrange pages and photos until I was satisfied with the outcome.

My finished book turned out to be 67 pages, which looks like a decent-sized children’s book- it’s pretty cool! I’m really proud of the finished product (which came at a reasonable price for great quality), and excited to have a professional-looking ‘scrapbook’/souvenir of one of the greatest times of my life, thus far.

Paid another successful visit to Goodwill today! Among other things, I found this tailored linen/rayon orange dress with a swingy skirt (and subtle shoulderpads that look cute/Mad-Men-esque enough for me to keep ‘em in!). I then found out I was headed to a fancy restaurant this evening for my brother’s 28th birthday, so I got to don it immediately with a new pair of retro-inspired brown heels I’ve been waiting to wear! Did I mention it was $4? WOOOOOO what a good day.

Paid another successful visit to Goodwill today! Among other things, I found this tailored linen/rayon orange dress with a swingy skirt (and subtle shoulderpads that look cute/Mad-Men-esque enough for me to keep ‘em in!). I then found out I was headed to a fancy restaurant this evening for my brother’s 28th birthday, so I got to don it immediately with a new pair of retro-inspired brown heels I’ve been waiting to wear!

Did I mention it was $4? WOOOOOO what a good day.

200 followers now??? Fancy! I don’t know where y’all come from, and I’m convinced a handful of you aren’t even human because I look at your blog and it’s a “Tumblr IQ test”… BUT for those of you that are, I thought I’d introduce myself. ****************************************** Hi! Nora here. I’m 21 and living in Chicagoland (I love that term—makes the suburbs sound like a mediocre theme park!) until I head back for my senior year of college in DC this August. I study musical theatre and public communications and would love to perform or work in the full-of-secrets PR world of the entertainment industry! (or both, ooh la la) We’ll see where things take me. I don’t just listen to showtunes. [I rarely do, actually, though I could watch old Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire films for days.] I could go on and on with a list of artists I like- but today I mostly listened to Beirut, Eliza Doolittle, The Tallest Man on Earth and my ‘favorite oldies’ playlist. However, my hands-down all-time favorite musician is Bob Dylan, and The Beatles are right up there with him.The most played song in my iTunes library, which just exploded at 17,263 songs (no seriously, my computer can’t hold more), is “What I Got” by Sublime (I’ve got brothers…). I really appreciate it when people send grammatically correct text messages. I’m also quite fond of gallivanting around cities, the color emerald green, reading, black coffee, crafts, foreign languages and gathering useless knowledge/fun facts from conversations with people. Fashion, too, but I try not to post too much of that on here (Tumblr isn’t short on that stuff). I’d love to get to know you! Shoot me a message, say hi, send me a cool/funny/completely irrelevant article or a song you found! (I love being introduced to new music!) ~Nora

200 followers now??? Fancy! I don’t know where y’all come from, and I’m convinced a handful of you aren’t even human because I look at your blog and it’s a “Tumblr IQ test”… BUT for those of you that are, I thought I’d introduce myself.

******************************************

Hi! Nora here. I’m 21 and living in Chicagoland (I love that term—makes the suburbs sound like a mediocre theme park!) until I head back for my senior year of college in DC this August. I study musical theatre and public communications and would love to perform or work in the full-of-secrets PR world of the entertainment industry! (or both, ooh la la) We’ll see where things take me.

I don’t just listen to showtunes. [I rarely do, actually, though I could watch old Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire films for days.]

I could go on and on with a list of artists I like- but today I mostly listened to Beirut, Eliza Doolittle, The Tallest Man on Earth and my ‘favorite oldies’ playlist. However, my hands-down all-time favorite musician is Bob Dylan, and The Beatles are right up there with him.

The most played song in my iTunes library, which just exploded at 17,263 songs (no seriously, my computer can’t hold more), is “What I Got” by Sublime (I’ve got brothers…).

I really appreciate it when people send grammatically correct text messages.

I’m also quite fond of gallivanting around cities, the color emerald green, reading, black coffee, crafts, foreign languages and gathering useless knowledge/fun facts from conversations with people. Fashion, too, but I try not to post too much of that on here (Tumblr isn’t short on that stuff).

I’d love to get to know you! Shoot me a message, say hi, send me a cool/funny/completely irrelevant article or a song you found! (I love being introduced to new music!)

~Nora

hey y’all :-) (and thanks, new followers!) My weekend is off to a fantastic start— I hope the same for you! On top of Chicago deciding to finally warm up (relatively- it is now 60 rather than a rainy/windy 45…), a new sundress and a fun lunch date with a friend- I’m off to Northwestern for the weekend to reunite with my former London flatmate for Dillo Day festivities, which will also include concerts by The New Pornographers (chYEA Neko Case) and Peter, Bjorn and John! And THEN I have an audition this weekend as well, which I’m strangely excited for, sooo fun fun. Happy Friday!

hey y’all :-) (and thanks, new followers!)


My weekend is off to a fantastic start— I hope the same for you!

On top of Chicago deciding to finally warm up (relatively- it is now 60 rather than a rainy/windy 45…), a new sundress and a fun lunch date with a friend- I’m off to Northwestern for the weekend to reunite with my former London flatmate for Dillo Day festivities, which will also include concerts by The New Pornographers (chYEA Neko Case) and Peter, Bjorn and John! And THEN I have an audition this weekend as well, which I’m strangely excited for, sooo fun fun. Happy Friday!

Just got the professional photos taken during our dress rehearsal for “The Canterbury Tales” (our semester-ending production) this past December at the British American Drama Academy! This is my classmate Andrew, and me, as Chauntecleer and Dame Pertelote in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. December 10, 2010Directed by Steven DexterOval House TheatreLondon, England

Just got the professional photos taken during our dress rehearsal for “The Canterbury Tales” (our semester-ending production) this past December at the British American Drama Academy! This is my classmate Andrew, and me, as Chauntecleer and Dame Pertelote in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.

December 10, 2010
Directed by Steven Dexter
Oval House Theatre
London, England

I got to play tour guide this weekend! Still ended up seeing sights I haven’t seen yet. So much left to do, so little time!

Nora. 22, DC by way of Chicago.