BYU took us to Stratford Upon Avon, where we were able to visit Shakespeare's birthplace and childhood home. We were literally walking in his footsteps, because the stone floor is the same floor that has been there since before he was even born.
Then we went to a Shakespeare play, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company: King Lear. I have never seen a professional Shakespeare show before, unless you count Olympus High with its pitiful drama department... It was long, but way cool! The acting was phenomenal, and the stage had really cool effects.
Borough Market. A massive food market. It used to just sell fruits and veggies. Now it is a strange collection of food from all over the place. I saw Damascan food there... I hear they even sell alligator burgers. We went for one of our classes and split these funky grilled cheeses that everybody was talking about. They were pretty good, but definitely unlike any grilled cheese I have ever had! It was so crowded!!
And I finally took the time to walk across the Tower Bridge! It's such a sweet looking bridge.
Monday we had class in a dissenter's graveyard. It was nuts! English people plant gardens and little flower patches on top of the graves! And some of them were suuuuuper old. I saw so many that had been completely eaten by vines and ivy, others that had been completely moved by the plants, and the creepiest: graves where the ground had caved in and the headstone was floating about a huge pit. SICK!!! It was freezing, too, since we were standing there in the graveyard for two hours for class.
We had a guest lecturer in our Creative Writing and Young Adult Fiction classes. He's a professor from BYU's Children's Literature classes. For those of you who have heard of "Mailing Mary" or "The Candy Bomber," he was the author of those. He has also been on the Newberry Committee twice, so he has been on a committee of 15 people that read hundreds of books and selected the Newberry Award winning books those years! NUTS! The book he selected his second year was actually part of our curriculum, so we were able to talk to him about it. Wild!
BYU also took us to see Billy Elliot this week. I never knew that such a little boy could be such a freaking amazing dancer. He was seriously as good as the ballerinas in Swan Lake by the Royal Ballet Company! It was so funny, entertaining, hooking, and captivating. I loved it! Seriously though, it was like a ten year old kid doing the most incredible tap, tumbling, jazz, ballet, and modern dancing EVER!
And Finally........
BYU took us to see the England v. Ghana football game tonight at Wembley Stadium. That's where they're going to have the track events for the 2012 Olympics! It holds 80,000 people. Just imagine trying to take the tube there. It was soooooooo crowded!!! I swear, there were only 6 caucasian people on our tube cart, because there were so many Ghanans on our train. I've only been that crowded once before- on the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was nuts!!!! Everyone was dressed full out. Red and White for England, and Red Green and Yellow for Ghana. There were flags waving and horns blaring and signs, shirts, scarfs, jerseys, etc. The fans were so into it and cheering like crazy. I LOVE going to sports games! And the soccer was way fun to watch! I mean, football. It kept making me think of my childhood neighbor, Katie Crosland, because she's such a soccer pro! It was RAD.
We had to be decked out in full red, because England colors are Red and White. We rocked it!
love you girl.
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