I feel like so much time has passed since the last time I posted on here. I guess I have to go back to Wednesday to catch everyone up. Wednesday was pretty fantastic! The class went on a tour at the Globe theatre and it was really interesting. Our tour guide was named Mary, she was an actor, but now spends her time doing tours about theatres and acting. She was very passionate and friendly, fun to listen to. While we were standing on the Globe stage, she gave us a line to speak from a Shakespeare play, it was "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears". After we had all spoke that in unison, these kids from a school tour walked by and said "No!", which Mary was excited about because it allowed her to tell us about actor/audience interaction back in the time of the Globe. She said when the actors would ask a question in the play that sometimes the audience would answer, and they would have to improvise for a minute until they could lead back into their lines. We also got to sit in the stands to get a better view of the stage, and I could really imagine the history that happened there, I really loved it there.
Okay, so now Wednesday night. Jenna, Rachel and I left the Globe, got on the tube for the Victoria station, searched around for a restaurant for dinner. We originally wanted to find this Greek restaurant called My Big Fat Greek, but we couldn't find it anywhere. We even asked at a visitor place, and the man had never even heard of it. So we asked for recommendations and ended up at this Mexican restaurant. Yes, we ate Mexican while in England, but it was really good! After that, we decided to continue the American evening we seemed to be having, and went to Starbucks. And after that was Wicked!! It was so great, even though I had seen it in NYC when I was 16, I still loved every minute of it. It's just a powerful musical, and the actors/singers were phenomenal. I pretty much sobbed after "Defying Gravity" this time around. Jenna and Rachel had never seen the show, so seeing their reactions was a fun experience as well.
Now onto Thursday. We left for Stratford at 8:30 am and arrived there at about 11:30 or so. We checked into our bed and breakfast, and then went to eat our packed lunch in the park. It is so cute and quaint in Stratford, I really could live somewhere like that. The first play we saw on Thursday was The Taming of the Shrew, which is one of Shakespeare's comedies. The stage was set up to look like a big bed, and had a sloped part at the top to look like pillows. There was a huge fitted sheet that went over the stage and was the floor for the actors. It was kind of strange set-up. Anyway, this play was rauchy for its day, and even in modern times, was pretty vulgar. I didn't really expect it. A lot of sexual references, innuendos and gestures. There was even a character who at one point took his pants off and ran around the stage with his butt exposed for quite a while. And let me just say that he was not attractive, so I really could have lived without that part of the play. Oh well I guess, I lived through it, haha. After the first play we went and ate paninis for dinner and then went back to the theatre for The Heresy of Love. My expectations for that one were not super positive because it centered around the archbishop and nuns in the 17th century, and I didn't know if it was going to be boring. But, actually, it may have been my favorite play so far. The story was about a nun who was a playwright, and who was persecuted for it. It was basically about women's rights, in the context of religion in Mexico during that time. It was a very powerful story.
After our last play that night, the whole group of us, including my professor, Natania, and her husband, all went to a pub called The Dirty Duck. It was a really cute place actually. The official name is the Black Swan, but apparently when American GI's used to come there, they nicknamed it the Dirty Duck, and the name has stuck. The sign outside has two sides to it, one with the real name, and one with the nickname. It is where the actors from plays have been known to come after shows. Unfortunately, we didn't see anyone famous or anything, but it was still fun. They fed us a buffet of fried foods and we all talked.
The next day, Friday, was spent wandering around Stratford. We went to Shakespeare's birthplace and then to the church where he was buried. We also went into his daughter's house, called Halls Croft, basically a classic Tudor house. They were cool to go through, surreal that such a famous man came from this tiny little town. After that, Jenna, Rachel, Alyssa and I went out to lunch at a fantastic Italian restaurant named Bella Italiana. We were on the bus to Oxford after lunch, because we had a walking tour set up there. I really loved Oxford as well, every building is just beautiful. Our tour guide was named Jane, and she was the cutest, prim and proper British woman I've ever seen. She had on a turquoise hat and a matching scarf, with a very professional, long wool coat. She even had a pin on her coat that said Official Guide. I really enjoyed listening to her for our hour and a half tour. She had so much knowledge about everything in Oxford, from pop culture to architecture. We were able to go into one of the Colleges in Oxford University, the Balliol College. There are apparently 38 colleges in the University, and when you apply, you pick which college you want to live in. She explained it well, using the U.S as an example. She said the University would be the United States, the federal law, and that each college is like a state, each one having their own rules, like state law. It is a very interesting system, very different from ours in the states.
I took so many pictures inside of the college, we were able to go into the Chapel, the dining hall, and the garden. We walked by most of the living halls as well as the library, and all of the buildings look like museums. I can't imagine going there, it seems so unreachable to me. A lot of students walked by while we were there, and I just couldn't put myself in their place, they didn't seem like regular college students like the group of us.
After the college tour, we walked around other parts of town. We saw a lot of goverment buildings and libraries, and also saw a lot of places that were used in Harry Potter films. Of course I was very excited about that, and so was Jenna. We saw one building that was used in the first film as the infermary, and that same building was also used in the fourth film where the HP characters learned how to dance for the Yule Ball. It was really great. And Jane told us that she went to high school with Maggie Smith, the actress that plays Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter! She said she doesn't really remember her, but that Maggie won't give any money or return to the school because her teacher back then didn't encourage her acting dreams. They apparently told her she wouldn't make it as an actor, that women didn't have a chance. Well she proved them wrong!
After the wonderful tour around Oxford with Jane we had about a half an hour of free time before we had to be back on the bus. So Jenna and I went to the first shop we saw that were selling sweatshirts, and bought ourselves Oxford University sweatshirts. It seemed like a necessary souvenir. That was pretty much the end of our mini-vacation from London. We just drove back to Earl's Court and settled back into our room. Our bus driver for the two days was named Paul, and was this very funny, middle-aged Irish man. He was really entertaining, very sweet to all of us.
I can't believe this is my second weekend in London! It really is going fast. I am going to start seriously planning for my spring break, getting things figured out.
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