Wednesday we got up early for a program sponsored field trip to Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon. I had a lot more fun than I expected at Warwick Castle. I wish we would have had more time there, because there was an exhibit I wanted to see but didn't have time. :( The rest of it was still cool though. In one section of the castle there was a set up that recreated this "royal weekend party" from the really early 1900's (I think) that was hosted by the Earl and Countess of Warwick. Lots of future kings were there, and so was a young Winston Churchill. They had all of the people as wax people. Then a few of us paid a little extra to see the "Ghosts Alive" thing they had - it was SO scary!! Basically this creepy guide took us through a few rooms in the castle and it was really dark, and some actors staged the murder of this guy who lived there. He was fairly high class and his servant murdered him for not leaving him enough in his will, then the servant felt bad and killed himself. In the first room there was this kid (12ish) who burst into tears and had to leave. Actually I think only about half of our group made it the whole way through, it was that scary. After that we spent a lot of time climbing a million stairs to get to this really high tower, where the view was great. Then we got lost on the way down (I have NO idea how) but we spent a lot of more time climbing long, narrow, dark spiral staircases. It was exhausting, but really cool.
Then we made our way to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we went to Anne Hathaway's cottage first. (She was Shakespeare's wife.) I found out some interesting stuff that I didn't know. The Hathaway family lived in that cottage up until 1911. We also went to Shakespeare's birthplace. Since a lot of info isn't actually known about Shakespeare himself, there was a lot of information about the Hathaway family and Shakespeare's family (most his parents and first daughter). It was quite interesting. Then it started pouring rain so we stopped in a pub. Once it let up a bit, one of my friends (Laura Beth) and I decided we weren't going to let the rain stop us from going to see where Shakespeare is buried. I hadn't thought to bring an umbrella or raincoat, but braving the rain was definitely worth it. Seeing Shakespeare's grave was really cool. His wife is also buried there, and a few of his family members. There's a huge old graveyard outside the church, most of the graves are unreadable and even more are unmarked. But apparently Shakespeare's son (Hamnet, died at age 8) is buried in there somewhere.
Then we went to the Courtyard Theatre where we saw the Royal Shakespeare Company do Taming of the Shrew. The actors were fantastic, the costumes were pretty, the set pieces were cool... But they turned it into a dark comedy, which Shrew isn't really supposed to be. It made it hard for a lot of people to follow, and it wasn't funny. Shrew should be funny. It was worth seeing though, and I got what they were trying to do (they did weird things with the time period it was set in, which changed the meaning) but it just didn't all come together right. Oh, I haven't seen the Darjeeling Limited, but apparently the girl in that movie played Bianca.
Yesterday was kind of a lazy day. I did laundry... which really really sucks over here. I spent 12 pounds (24 dollars). All the big washers were taken, so I had to use two smaller ones, which were 4 pounds each. Then I had to buy detergent. I didn't dry most of my clothes, but I did want to dry a pair of jeans and my pajama pants so they would be dry in time for me to wear them, so that dryer cost 2 pounds. It was ridiculous. But we had a delicious dinner at Zizzi's, which is this Italian place down the street from us. Yum!
Today I went with some people to see a 5:30 show of Avenue Q. We got the tickets for a really good price, otherwise that's probably not a show I would have chosen to see because there are others I'd much rather see. But it was a lot better than I expected, and I'm glad I went. Actually, it was pretty awesome. It definitely should not have won the Tony for Best Musical over Wicked.... but it was still good. The two main people were amazing, because each one of them had more than one puppet they had to voice/operate, and sometimes they were on stage with one puppet, voicing the other while someone else operated it. You would think that would be distracting, but it really wasn't.
In other news, I'm going to Greece a week from Sunday!! I found out that our break between session 1 and 2 is a lot longer than I thought, and my friends are either going to be starting their internships or going home, so I don't want to be here with no one to do anything with. My roommate (Emma) and her friends were planning this Greece trip, and I asked if I could tag along. I don't know Emma's friends terribly well, but they're very nice and it's going to be an awesome trip!
That's all for now. Tomorrow I'm off to Stonehenge and Bath for a day trip!
The Globe stage for Midsummer at intermission.
At Warwick Castle, really high up!
View of the castle and courtyard.
Anne Hathaway's cottage.
2 comments:
One thing I've heard people to when they travel in Europe is wear silk underwear that can be cleaned in the sink and then hung on lines set up in the bedroom and then wear their outer clothes a couple of days in a row. It may be that getting a tub to do your laundry in at your flat may be cheaper for the duration of your stay there.
Spamity, spam, spam.
I don't know if you'll get this before you head off to Stonehenge but you might want to read this NY Times article about how Stonehenge was a cremation burial ground.
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