My Art Pieces and Hobbies from Abroad

While I was interning and studying in London, I had free time to continue some of the things I love doing in the US. I also started a couple new things. Here are a few of my art pieces and hobbies from the trip.

One of the pieces that I had, which you have seen if you read my other blogs, was The Adventures of Tic! This started with a stuffed animal crocodile from the Disney store back home. My sister and I both loved the character, so I bought two. The idea was we would send pictures of our crocodiles to each other a couple times a week. I was busier everything than I thought I would be, so it turned into a Snapchat story feature for my friends and family. I kept doing this because it's a cute way to show everyone what I am doing in London.

Another one of my hobbies is seeing performances, movies or theater productions. I love getting lost in the stories that theaters provide. Some of my friends and I went to see a few movies and West End theater productions (pictured below). Out of the five movies I saw, Spider-Man Homecoming was the best. Tom Holland was a perfect Spider-Man. I loved the plot line too because it continued from the Captain America Civil War.

The musical Kinky Boots was a fantastic show! I loved the up beat music and fabulous wardrobe. As for Les Miserables, I loved the turning stage. I had never seen anything like it before. The director used the stage's ability well when changing scenes and showing the characters traveling from place to place. I have seen the musical many times, and even performed in with my high school. I just love everything about this show. I am glad I got to see it on West End! 

My love of theater goes back to my love of music. I have been playing my clarinet since fourth grade and singing since forever. When I performed in the chorus of my high school's production of Les Miserables, I started singing more showtunes. While I was abroad in London, I took to memorizing three new solo vocal songs. The first was "Watch What Happens" from the Disney musical Newsies. My sister and I learned mos of the vocals from this musical. We also had the opportunity to learn part of the song "Sieze the Day" from one of the original Broadway performers! I practiced the vocal solo "Watch What Happens" since the beginning of my abroad experience, and now I can say I have it completely memorized!

As for the other two songs, "Once Upon a December" and "Journey To The Past" I have memorized from the new Broadway musical Anastasia. I started learning the lyrics to these songs because of my sister's dance recital. This summer was her final dance recital of high school, and she had a solo as Anastasia in a ballet section of the musical Anastasia. For a majority of my time in London, I thought of my sister's solo as Anastasia, so I decided to learn a couple of the songs from the musical

The songs are attached as YouTube videos if you would like to listen to them.

Like I mentioned before, I spent a lot of time in London thinking of my sister's ballet solo. This lead me to use another one of my other hobbies, Photoshop, to create a tribute to her last high school performance. Here I edited in my sister as Anastasia in the Anastasia musical poster. I created two versions of the poster for her: one landscape and one portrait. I sent the finished posters to her, and she loved it. I was actually asked to send the choreographer of the Anastasia ballet section the posters I made. I am not sure what he wanted with them, but I do know that he loved it too. 

My sister's tribute poster was not the only Photoshop image I did while I was in London. I also created picture that I've been wanting to do for a while. Since the live action Beauty and the Beast came out, I've wanted to make a picture that shows Emma Watson as Belle. The inspiration for the portrayal of Emma and Belle in was the song "Reflection " from Disney's Mulan. The pictoral inspiration was from the same movie, when Mulan's face is reflected in her father's sword. I decided to put the faces in Beast's magic mirror as if he is looking for Emma and/or Belle. 

Reflection over internship experience: My internship gave me the opportunity to think about what I might want to do with my career. I learned different aspects of the marketing side of businesses and other parts of a business. Being able to pursue my hobbies while working allowed me to develop my skills, visual and vocal. I can't thank you enough to everyone in the program for this great experience. If any of you have the chance, you should intern abroad as well.