TGIF

Made it to another weekend! ( :
Had a very good week!
Monday: Art class and Shakespeare class.
Tuesday: Math in the morning,then ....wait...I can't remember what I did after math.
Wednesday: Shakespeare class. In British Life and culture (BLC), an MP (member of parliament) came to speak to us and then we took a tour of the House of Parliament and the House of Lords. THEN I ran home to drop off my heavy backpack and went to see Henry iv part two. It was raining and I got my feet soaking wet / : Then , I got there and oh yeah...the Globe Theatre has no roof and I have a standing ticket in the yard! So, I went and paid ten pounds extra to get a seat with a sort of awful view ( ; But I was able to stay for the whole show! Brian Massey-Todd stayed too. Everyone else (including our Shakespeare teacher!!) left at intermission.
Thursday: Yesterday was nice ( : I went to math class, then to the train station to order train tickets to visit my family! (accidentally bought the wrong ones, oops). Then, I went and got tea and scones and a really yummy sandwich (cream cheese, walnuts and bell pepper) at a little shop called "The Muffin Man" with my roommate, Emily. We went shopping for a bit and then split up. I took a very long walk in Hyde Park because it was warm and sort of sunny yesterday! Then, I went shopping and got really cheap, nice sweaters at H and M and bought boots at ecco (finally, no more wet feet!)
Friday: today, I will go get new tickets at the train station, hopefully do some homework, hopefully read too. Probably make a cake for Corbin's birthday and I think we are going to the Science Museum for it!
Thinking of you all at home with the nice California weather ( ;
<3

One of my roommates, Emily

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Stratford was lovely, but the weather was not ( : No rain, so I can't really complain, but it was bitterly cold. Even my new pea coat didn't do much for it!
It was amazing to see Shakespeare's home. I could just imagine him growing up there. It was so exciting to see that the walls in his bedroom (which he shared with his brothers) were covered with cloths patterned with elves and fairies, which made me think of A Midsummer Night's Dream and imagined him running around with his brothers and sisters into all of the nooks and crannies or else sitting in his father's glove-making workshop.
We saw a great monologue by one of the people who works at Shekspeare's home. He asked if we had any requests and Will asked for Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech. The actor was actually so spectacular that I almost cried. (well, I DID cry in a kitchen , so maybe you all won't be taking me seriously anymore), but it was so moving!
We also got a very bad cream tea and learned to avoid places that aren't packed. The good places are full to bursting with long queues outside! After the horribly dry scone and bakwell tart I had, I was overjoyed to find a cute little place called "pasty presto" which had the most delicious, warm pasties. Well worth the wait in line. I found myself thinking that whoever invented the pasty should have been made a saint. I had one with Indian curry inside. perfect

We went to Anne Hathway's cottage, which was very nice and there were gardens and orchards which made all of us giddy. Corbin, who is from Sebastopol started robbing the apple trees and a lot of other people did the same. I felt like it was very wrong to do this, so I just took a bite off one and left it on the tree (#: Which may have been worse. I left an offering on the tree of a shiny nickel out of guilt, not wanting the ghost of Shakespeare to dog my steps for the rest of eternity.
I also saw Shakespeare's burial place, which was very cool too.

Phrases of the day:
"curfew"- from the French, "couvre feu", to 'cover the fire'. When the bell rang, people had to put out their fires for the night so that no fires would start.

"the stinking rich"- when rich people were buried, they didn't want to be put in the churchyard, they wanted to be buried right inside of the church. A few days after the burial, the church would smell very bad as decomposition began to happen (sorry if that upsets anyone's stomachs) and that's where the phrase comes from.

"turn the tables"- tables had a shiny side and a dull side in Shakespeare's time. When fine guests came over, you would display the shiny, polished sisde, but if you disliked someone or didn't want to impress them, you would leave the tabletop unturned and dine on the rough kitchen surface.

I learned a couple more, but I can't seem to remember them at the moment ( : I'll have to update this later!

<3

The church where Shakespeare is buried