Friends - part 2

... & new friends

These first few months of 2015 brought me a bunch of new friends, met in different places and for a number of reasons. I couldn’t be happier (pun fully intended) to have met several people from the Wicked fandom, whom I originally only knew on twitter, and become friend with a few of them. Some other friends came thanks to uni, either because of Open Days or because of the Ecology fieldtrip over Easter. 

Cecilia – She was the second person from the Wicked fandom that I met, back on the 16^th of January before the Wicked show when I saw Emma Hatton for the first time. We bonded nearly instantly over our shared love for Emma and the amazing performance we witnessed together did the rest. The next time I saw her was the weekend of Jennifer DiNoia’s last shows, and since then we’ve met up lots of times, either for shows, or simply for dinner, or a sleepover. Aside from Wicked shows, we’ve been to a cabaret night together, we have organised and put together a beautiful birthday present for Emma, we’ve been to the theatre cafè and to a number of places in Victoria Station to eat (right, about that... about 80% of the time it was McDonalds, but we’ve started varying a bit lately) :D In such a short time that we’ve known each other we’ve already shared so much, including two amazing double-show days at Wicked and the most beautiful moments with our idol Emma. I’ve grown to love her so much and so quickly! She is sort of another me, a bit older and German, as we have so much in common that I couldn’t believe it at first: for example, apart from the obvious Wicked-related things, we both love writing, we have spent months in Australia (and always miss it) and neither of us eats most of sweets and chocolate. Oh, and we are so good at fangirling together! I always have so much fun when I’m with her and love spending time in her company, as is pretty obvious every time that we have to separate when we have to take different lines of tube and we spend a long time at the station where we have to change just chatting and dragging time before we go :)

With Sophie, the first time we met

Over the moon with our tickets for Emma's first show as lead

Beginning a double-show day

Happiness after our first double-show day

Sophie – I met her on the same day as Cecilia and she was actually the very first Wicked friend I met, with whom I spent a couple of hours alone chatting in front of stage door before that show on the 16^th of January. She lives in Birmingham for university and therefore I don’t see her very often, and to be fair I haven’t talked to her much lately, not even through messages. We’ve been together to a few Wicked shows, to stage door, to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (another musical) and she has slept over at my place a couple of night. Our time together is always loads of fun, but it hasn’t happened in a while! For my own records: her favourite Elphaba is Jennifer DiNoia (no need to specify the Glinda, as it’s Savannah Stevenson for all of us unless otherwise specified).

Twin Elphaba necklaces

First show together

With Sophie and Jen at the camping for Jennifer's last

Before a Natalie McQueen show announced last minute

Amy – I met Amy for the first time at the camping for Jennifer DiNoia’s last shows in London, she was one of the “crazy” (as we were called) people who decided to camp out to get front row tickets. To be fair, I didn’t talk to her much that time and I suspect I wouldn’t have gotten much of an impression of her if she hadn’t saved me from freezing at 5am by offering me her hot water bottle to warm up under my blanket. Thanks goodness! She is such a kind person and so lovely :) I am not saying this only on the basis of that one meeting, but also from what I could see the next Monday and other times I’ve been with her. Until last week I had never seen her on my own and hadn’t spoken to her too much, even though we have daysat at Wicked together a few times, but last Wednesday we spent over an hour hanging around Victoria Station, chatting. She is lovely, I repeat myself :) 

Jen – Our Scottish hilarious friend. I met her at the camping for Jennifer’s shows and it took us very little to become friends. I suppose these crazy experiences are a good way to bond, isn’t it?! Especially when you are the only two who need frequent trips to the pub’s toilets and when you find yourselves squished together to sleep in the warm at night. Literally, we were cuddled together to keep each other warm, so I’m glad she is such a nice person! After that, I’ve seen her during my second double-show day with Cecilia for dinner and the evening show and then... there was a surreal moment a couple of weeks ago when she suddenly flew down from Edinburgh as soon as Natalie McQueen (understudy Elphaba and her favourite) was announced on for two shows on that very same day. Cecilia and I were at my place after a sleepover and we went to meet her at the station to give her some essentials (like toothbrush, etc) and keep her company while she was freaking out :)

Camping for Jennifer

Camping for Jennifer, with Jen and Cecilia

Show with Cecilia and Jen

Martin – He was the first Wicked person I ever interacted with, as he runs the original twitter fan page for Emma Hatton (I run the second one, he was there months before me!), so we started talking on twitter and facebook and eventually met on the 16^th of January. Yep, I met quite a few people that night! I have seen him several more times since then, at a number of Wicked shows and at Alice New Musical. We have become friends, but sometimes things are not as easy as I wish because there have been a few problems in our friendship. Oh well, we’ll see how things evolve, if everything gets sorted out or not. Obviously, his favourite Elphaba is Emma.

Wicked with Sophie, Martin and Bailee

Bailee – the American of the Wicked group. She is from the USA and I only met her at the end of January and for a week or so, when she was here in London for Jennifer’s last shows. She is such a lovely person, quieter than most of the others and we talked less, but lovely nonetheless. And I have messaged with her quite a bit since she’s gone back to America. I hope she comes back soon for a visit! Her favourite Elphaba is Jennifer. 

At the Wicked stage door with Bailee and Sophie

Camping with Jen, Sophie and Bailee

Lauren is the one I’ve seen the least out of my Wicked friends. I have met her three or four times at Wicked and Alice, with our first meeting being on the 16^th of January (again – I promise she is the last one I met that day). I don’t know her that well, to be fair, even though I do find her very nice and friendly. Every time I saw her she was with Martin, with whom she is best friend. Her favourite Elphaba is Emma.

Lina – getting out of the section regarding Wicked friends: Lina is in my tutorial group, but throughout the year we barely spoke to each other and always only for practical reasons... however, we ended up in the same group on the Ecology fieltrip and spent four days together for most of the time. I never thought she was such a fun and friendly person! I am so glad we had that fieldtrip, because now I’ve become friends with her and next year’s tutorial will be even more fun.

Measuring shells

Zanna – I had never ever seen her at a single lecture, despite the fact that we have exactly the same classes, but she was in my same group on the fieldtrip. We bumped into each other randomly and then she joined me and Lina for the rest of the trip, since the two of them are the only Scandinavians in our course :P She is so funny, and sparkly and fun to be with!

Me, Zanna and Lina

 

Zanna and Lina on the beach where we measure molluscs

Anita – I’m not sure I can exactly call her a friend, since we’ve spent very little time together, but she is definitely the Biology Ambassador I have talked to the most during Open Days. Also, she was on the fieldtrip with me and we had a few chats over there as well – with her saving my life by lending me a towel, seen as I had forgotten mine at home!

With Anita, Zanna and Laurana on our Ecology fieldtrip

Bio – until a couple of days ago I wouldn’t have included him in this list, because he is just one of the many people I have met on the fieldtrip, but he has been messaging me these days and he is really lovely. So I thought it would be nice to have him appear on here. He is such a cool and funny guy to have around and he keeps the fun up in any group meeting, as I saw on the fieldtrip! He is American and is going back to the USA in May after the end of his exchange.