And with today, my final spring term at Washington & Lee is a quarter of the way through. For those of you not experiencing the whirlwind Shakespeare party that is this term alongside me, here is a quick play-by-play of the past week.
April 22: After a final day exploring Scotland and no sleep, I arrived in Heathrow Airport for actual class time. Once the group collected itself and found our bus, we apparently set off for Stratford. I say apparently, as I have no recollection of the bus ride between the times I entered the bus and when I exited it (buses make me sleepy). We had a quick introduction to our course here in Stratford before the class was set loose on Shakespeare’s birthplace to take pictures of everything explore the historic site.
April 23: Jumping right into the deep end of things, the class spent a morning going through the same warm-up exercises as the Royal Shakespeare Company (where I learned that my mouth refuses to produce a number of sounds), an afternoon exploring the family cottage of Anne Hathaway (where even more pictures were taken), and an evening filled with Henry IV Part 1 and fireworks. We were also treated to the sight of the playwright himself going up in flames. Happy 450th Shakespeare?
April 24: Lunch today was day one of ‘Let’s Try British Food: Pasties.’ The conclusion was that while not bad, a bit of salt would have gone a long way. After the rainy morning gave way to a warm afternoon, the class spent some time at Mary Arden’s Farm, getting up close and personal with owls and making sword fighting jokes. Once we got back into Stratford proper, we had a bit of time to catch our breaths before seeing a rather loud spectacle of a performance of The Roaring Girl. The play included a rap battle in Jacobean English, a thing I never knew I wanted to see until I saw it.
April 25: With only a chat with star of That Roaring Girl and some lectures and discussions, Friday turned out to be one of the quietest days for the class yet. Which was fine as it allowed time for ‘Let’s Try British Food: Fish & Chips’ and a trip around town to buy all of the things needed for the boring parts of life, before we headed out for an evening of pub-going and karaoke in town.
April 26: Despite the early morning start to Shakespeare’s birthday, I chose to catch up on my sleep. Before the rain set in, I spent the late morning and early afternoon strolling the main streets of Stratford, people watching. I’m still not sure what belly-dancers or people dressed as strange newspaper-print clowns have to do with Shakespeare, but it was decidedly an interesting experience.
April 27: I slept and did work all day. Nothing fun to report. ):
April 28: Day trip to Oxford, which is definitely a town that likes its books. Besides wandering around the most giant bookstores I had ever seen and site that were used in the Harry Potter movies, I learned that regardless of where I am in the world, I will still find stores that have everything that I somehow need, and my daily budget will be blown.