Oh goodness, what a bunch of extremely full days. Following the epic marathon of Wednesday, which lastest into the early part of Thursday, I had another full day. My Shakespeare midsem was due Thursday morning, and I then spent the afternoon cloistered in the library studying for my History exam at 4:30. I think it went pretty well, but we'll have to see. From there I went to dinner at the home of a couple of friends from church, Katherine and Leslie, who are over here with their parents and brother. It was so nice to be around a family, especially a Mormon one :). After that we went to the church to register for our institute class. It looks like I'm going to be taking a class on the New Testament on Thursday, which I'm very excited about, both in the unparalleled opportunity to learn from the amazing institute teachers, as well as because it will give me an additional chance to meet people at church.
We got up early for our Stratford trip and piled on the bus from the site. We got to Warwick Castle around lunch time. It was lovely wandering around the castle, climbing up the ramparts and exploring the grounds. The weather was blissfully perfect and it was just great to be outside and in the country. We got to Stratford later in the afternoon and visited Shakespeare's grave in Trinity Church before dinner. Vinter gave us a talk about Shakespeare's life in Stratford and it was really cool - I just love to learn things, about anything really. We ate a cheap and easy dinner of bread and soft cheese overlooking the Avon River before heading of the the Courtyard Theatre for the best theatre production I have ever seen. It was Hamlet and it was absolutely amazing. Hamlet was played by David Tennant, who was perfect ( I mean it) and Patrick Stewart played Claudius. It was kind of surreal to be a matter of yards from someone so famous (I was in the fourth row), but it was really Tennant that made the production so fantastic. He captured the beautiful intricacy of Hamlet's lines so well and made them so understandable and poignant. He also did a really good job of being a sane person acting a sane person acting crazy, which is a very difficult thing to do and not omit the middle man. (Also, for those who care, I never realized how amazing Hamlet's monologue after the players arrive is. I <3 Shakespeare!) Needless to say, I spent the reast of the evening in the most wonderful theatre euphoria. The production made me cry like four times, which even for me is impressive. It was so great.
Saturday morning we did a bunch of touristy things in a hurry, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Shakespeare's Birthplace, and the home of his daughter and son in law. We went to Merchant of Venice in the afternoon, which was by no means as amazing as Hamlet, but it was still quite good. I had issues with some parts of it, but I really liked the protrayal of Shylock, which is pretty tricky. I liked Portia too, I thought she did a good job of being the witty sharp female but also the girl in love. Last night once we got back from Stratford we went out for dinner for Erin's 21st. We went to an American-style burger joint that was absolutely delicious. I can has cheezburger! We were all pretty exhausted last night, and after a lovely conversation with my daddy-o, we flopped into bed rather early.
Church today, like normal. Next week is general conference, which is going to be weird because it's broadcast live, so that last session ends at like 11. We'll see if I'm going to be willing to take the tube that late or if I'll just listen to it online. I read part of a book today for Globo that was pretty much about the hooligan culture of football [soccer] in europe. We're going to a match next weekend, so we'll be able to do some first hand research.
There's an earfull!
I love the Office. I can't get the new season over here, so I'll have a lot awaiting me when I get home.
Nighty night!
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