This above all: to thine own self be true

You'd think after such a hectic week of traveling, all we would want to do is sleep for a week. Wrong. Casey and Andrea headed to Greece for a few days while the Christina and I went with school to Stratford-upon-Avon. Well, actually, we first went to Oxford, but whatever. 

The day started off in a less than stellar way, when we got to West Kensington station only to be stopped by a guard and told there was no train. It was 6:45 am at this point, and we got to walk to school. It was misting and cold. Thank goodness for my warm Italy sweatshirt! When we got to the ICLC, we found out that there were, in fact, trains, and that they had started running less than 5 minutes after we got there. 

 

We hopped on the bus and headed for Oxford. There, it was pouring, which sucked because I wasn't wearing Wellies but was okay because I had not one, but two umbrellas! Two of my friends got to use the extra. ( *note:  I don't usually carry two umbrellas, I just had one in my purse and one in my backpack) We walked around a little and got to see Christ Church, although we couldn't go inside the actual church for some reason or another. 

The biggest quad a Christ Church, supposedly the flying lesson scene of HPSS was filmed here. 

The Great Hall at Christ Church 

The entrance to the great hall, scenes from HPSS were filmed here.

After Christ Church we found a nice covered market and hung out there for a while. I mostly chilled with my friend Rachel. We got some yummy lunch and delicious hot chocolate, which I drank whilst eating the cutest cupcake ever. It was either a pirate or a promo for Red Nose Day, I'm not entirely sure. 

not as delicious as it looked, sadly

After leaving Oxford, we visited the grave of Winston Churchill. 

Churchill and his wife are buried here

Finally we made it to Stratford, where it was (surprisingly) sunny and gorgeous. Most of the buildings were in the Tudor style (they look white with black stipes- sort of). We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast, which was a nice change from all the hostels we've seen. Anyways, the point of this trip is Shakespeare, so we saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform Romeo and Juliet. It was pretty good, with the exception of the actress playing Juliet. I was not a fan. She had outbursts and her death(s) were excruciating to watch/listen to, and she was a little too modern, independent, and grown up for a Juliet. Romeo was amazing, as was Mercution, although he sometimes went over the top with innuendo. We had front row seats, and were level with the stage; I could have rested my chin on it had I leaned forward. In Act 1 Scene 1 Benvolio (Romeo's BFF) talks to him about loving a girl Rosaline, and I was included (as was Christina) in the scene. Here's how it played out, with script and stage direction:

*also, Romeo was modern and had a camera, which Benvolio is fiddling with at this point. that's kind of crucial

Benvolio: Be rul'd by me: forget to think of her.

Romeo: O, teach me how I should forget to think!

Benvolio: By giving liberty unto thine eyes (walks to edge of stage right [where we were sitting], points camera and snaps a picture of Christina and I) Examine other beauties. (holds camera out for Romeo to see)

Yeah, it was cool. Then in a later fight scene (which was nerve wracking, because of multiple swords swinging just feet from my face) a chain got ripped off one of their costumes and flung onto Christina. She kept it as a souvenir. Also, in the scene where Friar Lawrence is talking about potions, I was involved again:

Friar: ...Within the infant rind of this weak flower

Poison hath residence, and medicine power:

For this, being smelt (holds flower out to me to smell) with that part cheers each part:

Being tasted (holds it out again, I shook my head to say 'heck no!'), slays all senses with the heart. 

See? Prime. I love school trips. 

That night we headed back to the B&B to get some sleep. We were settling down when I stopped midsentence and stared in horror at the wall. There was a giant spider above the closet door. I mean giant. Like, holy-crap-if-I-don't-kill-it-it-might-eat-me-in-my-sleep big. 20 minutes, several bouts of squealing or almost tears and a solid whack of a shoe later, the spider was dead. Sorry if you are opposed to killing bugs and now think I'm a terrible person (not naming names here), but it needed to go and there's no way either of us was going to keep it close enough to us for long enough to get it outside. There would be photos, but I was basically paralyzed with fear and Christina's camera was in the closet, under the spider. 

The next day was gorgeous! We went to Holy Trinity Church and saw Shakespeare's grave, which has the best writing on it ever. 

Good friend for Jesus' sake forbeare,
to digg the dust encloased heare.
Blese be the man to spare these stones,
and curst be he who moves my bones

We also saw the birthplace of Shakespeare!

We later walked around Stratford (see above pic), seeing cool stuff. I bought a copy of the complete works of William Shakespeare, which I am pretty excited about. I also stood and watched this cool band while Christina bought a milkshake. I bought one of their CDs. 

The last thing we did was take a boat out on the river. It was only 7 quid for a four person boat, and split four ways it was super cheap. I was a champ and rowed the boat the entire time, using my backwards directional abilities to steer while Christina yelled "Port!" "Starboard!" and even the paradoxical "Portstar!" We still aren't quite sure what direction that means.

What a pro