All the World's a Stage

On April 23rd Lena, Anna, Daniel, Aubrey and I traveled to London to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform King Lear in The Globe Theater. For those of you who are not Shakespeare nerds, April 23rd is Shakespeare's birthday and it also marks the beginning of the Globe's season. So it was a really big day for Shakespeare fans all over the world. The play opened with traditional music, which I captured on video before the play really started. The play was AMAZING!!! We bought standing tickets and the play lasted about 3 and a half hours. So by the end our feet hurt SO badly, but it was totally worth it (for me at least). The acting was superb, it is the kind of acting that I aspire to be able to achieve someday. This was my first experience seeing King Lear staged and it was a wonderful first experience! At the end of the show the actors did a traditional dance. In the olden days they did a dance at the end of a show to show that no one was really dead and to uplift the audience as they left the theater. After seeing King Lear, which is arguably Shakespeare's most tragic play, I was really glad they chose to keep with tradition because I needed to be uplifted! At the end, as the cast took their bows I looked around and saw the three levels of the audience and it was an amazing feeling that canceled out any soreness from standing! It was an amazing feeling and probably one of my favorites of the plays I have seen so far, and I have seen some amazing plays thus far! I look forward to being able to see a few more plays while I'm here.
That has really been one of my favorite parts of my study abroad experience, being able to travel up to London for a day and see a play. I have really enjoyed every piece of theater I have seen here and learned a lot from each one and this has been a wonderful opportunity to live in a small city but benefit from being so close to a major city! I am now in my last month of my study abroad experience and I am starting to be torn. Some days I can't wait to be back home, back with my family and back to driving and normal food...but other days I can't imagine leaving. I have made some really great friends and memories and I have loved my time here! This last month will be a whirlwind, I have a feeling. I can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

In the Land of the Danes

Well I have returned safely from my adventures in Denmark! I am tired but it was a really fun trip and it was so wonderful to see Carrie! Carrie is studying abroad in Aalborg, Denmark which is a beautiful town in the north of Denmark. It was really fun to meet all of her friends from all over the world! She lives in a big building that’s kind of like a dorm with about 50 students. So the first day was spent settling me in and meeting all her friends. The next day we slept in, as college kids are known to do, and then we went for a walk in the countryside! I’ve included some pictures of our walk. Spring is just now budding in Denmark so there were some beautiful flowers that we took pictures of. Also, the path was lined with frogs wearing crown…so we kissed them to see in they would turn into princes! We also found a playground which was AWESOME!!! We played for a little while but then we had to get back to campus because it was CAKE DAY, which is a day where everyone baked a cake and then we ate pieces of lots of different kinds of cakes from different places! It was really fun! The trip was somewhat disrupted by the fact that my tonsillitis came back which was no fun. So one of our days was spent journeying around Aalborg trying to find the doctor’s office and get me a prescription. But we found the doctor and got me some antibiotics, so it was successful! The next day we explored the town of Aalborg and that night we went to see a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest which was thankfully in English and very good! Now I am back in England for a bit and then I will head to Belgium! I am looking forward to it! I love and miss you all!!!

Oh Hail no!

Yes, another England weather story. I am beginning to understand why weather dominates much of the conversations here because it is always doing something new and unexpected. Before leaving for Denmark I spent two nights at my friend Will AJ’s house right outside London. Will’s family lives about 5 minutes walk away from Kew Gardens, which are beautiful English gardens with green houses and a palace. So Will and I decided to go explore the gardens one day while I was staying there. I woke up and looked outside and it was a beautiful day! I was very excited because the weather can really make or break a trip to gardens. So Will and I got ready to go and ate breakfast and set out on our way to the gardens…..it started HAILING while we were walking! Like you could see the line where it started hailing and still see blue sky in the distance....and so we retreated back to his house and played monopoly. Then, about an hour later it was a beautiful day again so we went to the gardens and spent a few hours there perusing the gardens. The weather here baffles me on a daily bases.

But, it was so nice to be in a house again! I didn’t realize how much I miss couches and common areas, but it was really nice to have them again! My house on campus has a kitchen as the common area but there’s no area to stretch out and relax except in each others’ rooms. It was really nice to be with a family and Will’s Mum and Dad were very sweet to play host to me! I hope that I can play host to some of my friends here at some point in the future to repay their kindness!

SNOW!!!!

Well! I did not see this coming! Let me paint you a picture of the past two day's weather in England...yesterday it was upper 50s into the 60s here and sunny, I could wear short sleeves outside and it felt lovely. It was really nice because it was finally starting to feel like spring and I was excited! The I woke up this morning and looked out my window and there were snow flurries! I was astounded, but it was just flurrying nothing was sticking! I enjoyed watching the snow for a while and then sat down at my desk to work on my paper....I worked for about two hours and then went downstairs to make some tea. I looked out my window and my backyard was covered in snow!!!!!!!!! Its crazy!!!!!!!!!! Its also really exciting! The snow offers an excellent study break! Well, I had better get back to that paper! Miss you all!

The Last Week of First Term

Well, I am officially done with attending class until I return to the states! Isn't that crazy? You can be a little jealous if you want....Today marks the first day of Easter Holidays, which means that for the next four weeks we are on break! Almost everyone is traveling or, in the case of the British students, going home. I was supposed to be in Scotland for the next 4 days, but I came down with a case of tonsillitis which prevented me from going....which was very sad. I am feeling better now though and looking forward to the rest of my adventures for the month off. For the next week I will hang around Canterbury and probably travel to London for a day or two. Several of the guys who were in the play with me live in or around London, so I hope to meet up with them! Will AJ, who lives in London, even offered for me to stay at his parents house if I want to make a weekend out of it! Which is really nice! So I am looking forward to playing the next week by ear. On the 12th I leave for Denmark to go visit my friend Carrie Branch! I am very excited to see her and visit her university! I will be there until the 16th and then come back to Canterbury for more time to work on a paper which is due by the end of the month and visiting friends in London. Then, on the 23rd of April (Shakespeare's Birthday) I am going to the Globe Theater to see King Lear!!! I am very excited to see another show in the Globe! We bought standing tickets....which should be interesting since King Lear is quite a long show. The Next day (April 24th) I leave with Lena, Anna, and Daniel to meet Claire in Belgium! We will look around Claire's home country a bit until the 28th! Then Tonya gets here and she and I will play for the next two weeks!!! I am looking forward to that very much!!! So I have a very exciting month ahead of me! I will keep everyone posted on my adventures! I am starting to feel that my time here is picking up speed.....before I know it I will be home! I look forward to cramming as much fun and learning into the next two months as I can! I miss you all!