Well life has been a little more scholastic than usual this week, owing to the fact that we had midterms on Wednesday and Thursday. Add to the studying the kitchen duty, which is at least 3-4 hours every day, and you'll see why I didn't go any where all of Tuesday, and Wednesday I didn't get out till almost 7pm. Yes, I know we're all here on an academic trip, and we have to do school work, but it still makes us sad when we've come all the way England, and then spend all day inside doing homework. As you can see, we were quite exhausted with all our studying.
Wednesday night I finally let myself get out. I went down to the Singles Ward Elder's Quorum activity. A little unusual, I know, but in this case, the activity was a dance lesson, so ladies were invited. We learned merengue (basically the easiest partner dance in existence) and bachata (probably the second easiest). They're from the Caribbean, and you see them at Salsa clubs a lot. I've done them once before, but it was still fun. I just enjoy the atmosphere of dances. To tell the truth, I'm feeling a bit dance deprived. I danced a ton over the summer, and then the past 2 months I haven't danced at all. But I still get weekly emails from the dance clubs at BYU about the activities, so then I miss it even more. So it was fun to dance again, in whatever form.For those who are curious, this is what my bed looks like. I'm on the top bunk.
And my closet.
And my room. My bed's on the left, and that window is the fire escape.
Thursday we were off for a day in Stratford-upon-Avon, the town where William Shakespeare was born and grew up. This is a view of the English countryside and highway.
Anne Hathaway's cottage. Named after Shakespeare's wife, who grew up here. You can tell this is a real timber frame house because the wooden beams in the house are "wonky" (as our bus driver would say). I got a cool "mangle penny" here (that's what they call the penny squashing machines here). It has the entirety of Sonnet 18 in very tiny print. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day..."
Cool archway and wood.
In fact, it's quite possible that Hathaway and Shakespeare spent time here.
This is a willow cottage. It's very popular for wooing couples. Shakespeare makes reference to one in Twelfth Night.
Shakespeare's birthplace. His father was a glove maker and quite well to do, as well as holding several positions in the town.
The town of Stratford.
The house Shakespeare bought after he was rich and famous. We made it here 4 minutes before it closed and asked if we could just run in real quick. The guides were really nice and let us take a quick look, and even gave us a shortened version of a private tour about the history and some of Shakespeare's works. Very very nice of them.
Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was christened, and where he is buried. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go in, but it was a very pretty church.
The graveyard of Trinity Church.
Coolest tree I've ever seen in a graveyard.
The river in the town (possibly the Avon? I don't know).
Stratford at dusk.
We found this in one of the shops. I've seen the magnets, but I didn't know they made mugs.
In the evening we went to a play (Shakespeare, of course). We saw Love's Labour's Lost with David Tennant. He's a fantastic actor, who does film as well as plays. He's currently Dr. Who in the British television show of the same name, and he played Barty Crouch, Jr. in Harry Potter 4. In Love's Labour's Lost, he played Berowne, and he totally made the play. They say this play is "hard to read, but easy to play," and I'd have to agree. It's not my favorite Shakespeare play, but his character was just so witty, comical, and humorous, that it was great fun to watch. In fact, he's made Berowne my favorite of all the Shakespeare characters I've seen acted. This is what the stage looked like before the play, with the main male characters down at the fore. The stage was a tree with pieces of colored plastic hanging down from the cieling as leaves.
Friday was a free day, but I didn't go anywhere special. I did what I've been wanting to do for a very long time: I went to a park just to sit and read. It was beautiful. Here is St. James' Park.
Buckingham Palace
London
I'm reading Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. Really an excellent book.
St. James is noted for it's waterfowl. This very large bird sat on a bench and posed for like 15 minutes.
I managed to snap a picture just as the flock was coming by.
On the trip home, we had live entertainment on the tube. There's also a fiddle player, but he's out of the shot.
