Get uncomfortable. Run at top speed from familiar walls. You are not who you think.I haven't experienced enough to give any other advice, but this little life-nugget has forced its way into my brain through an ear and is furiously redecorating.
Before the first week of January, I had never been off of the East Coast; never out of Philadelphia for more than a week at a time. For the next 3 months, I’ll be in London, studying abroad and living in a flat that is housing thirteen people. No, I said thirteen. But I’ll get to that. Stagnancy is a slow death. I’m grateful beyond words to be living completely out of my context. There’s no other way to know yourself.
I can’t find any of the cameras yet, but at this point I’m fairly certain I’m a part of some social experiment in stuffing a large group of people in a tiny space, in a strange land to see how long it takes for them to go Lord of the Flies.
As much as I had wanted to record everything that happened since the plane ride, it’s kind of interesting to begin writing three weeks in, after the honeymoon.
But darling, wasn’t it a grand honeymoon? We floated on air along the streets of Kensington, thirteen pairs of linked arms just to go to the supermarket like an interracial Brady Bunch (the episode where they all get inebriated and make bad sexual decisions).
It’s a tricky thing to live with a lot of people, but to be honest, we have an interesting lineup of characters and I’m harboring no bad feelings. It’s a tense kind of situation to throw so many people in one flat, but through that, I am picking up beautiful things from some of them. As a writer of character-heavy screenplays, I appreciate all sides of these personalities. What better way to analyze human behavior than to be immersed in it?*
*The answer is: "With a fourth bathroom"
