Days 5-6

Day 5:

So we didn’t do a whole lot today…

·      I went to the only single’s ward in Europe, The Brittannia Ward, which was mostly Americans, Brazilians, and Asians.

·      I did dishes for 50 people for the last time!

·      I chatted with all of my cute siblings and my parents and figured out why everyone can see me when I chat and why I can see no one! Not a whole lot.

Jaden’s been making fun of me because I always start sentences like this, “Do you know what I’ve noticed?”

So here are some things I have noticed about London…

·      People do not talk on their cell phones when they are walking around here.

·      People try and stay out of your way. They don’t talk to you or look at you. It’s understandable when you are around people all the time and never get a moment to be alone.

·      If you don’t watch for cars you are a goner. People zoom around corners and cars definitely have the right of way.

·       

Day 6:

Shakespeare Day!

Today was all Shakespeare! We went to Anne Hathaway’s cottage where she grew up. The gardens were so beautiful, and it was a cute little Tudor house. We also learned some neat things about Tudors. Wives had to be in the house at a certain time each night to put the fire down so that the house wouldn’t burn down at night. They would put something over it literally called “cover the fire” in French. Over the years they shortened it into curfew, and that is why the time we have to come home each night is called curfew. Fire was a very important thing in Tudor culture. It kept the family warm, cooked their meals, and it was the wife’s responsibility to keep track of it. Husbands were allowed to beat their wives if they let the fire go out as long as they used a stick thinner than the width of their thumb and only if it was at night so they wouldn’t wake the neighbors. That is where we get the phrase “rule of thumb.”

The house had very low ceilings and small rooms. During Anne’s life it had only two rooms. The floor in the kitchen was the original floor which dates back to King Henry the VIII’s time. The grounds had hundreds of tulips and beautiful trees. They had little vegetable gardens as well.

Next, we went to Shakespeare’s birthplace. We walked around his home and I actually got to stand in AND take pictures of where Shakespeare was born! They were a pretty well off family, and their home was much larger and more spacious than Anne’s. I think it was also built more recently than Anne’s. When we left his home we got to see someone perform an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet through the window of his home. It was fun to Shakespeare performed in his home.

Shakespeare’s church was our next destination, and it has been the only church so far that I have been able to take pictures in so I went crazy! I took tons of pictures! I took pictures of their graves and the stained glass windows. I think I was more excited that I could finally take pictures in there than that I was actually seeing Shakespeare and Anne’s graves. The grounds of the church were beautiful! I love how green it is here!

That night we went and got Italian food before we saw our performance of Twelfth Night. We saw Twelfth Night in Stratford just a couple blocks down from Shakespeare’s birthplace. Our professors warned us that would probably be pretty risqué knowing the other shows that they had seen there, but that it was important for us to see some Shakespeare while we were in Stratford. The set was incredible! They had water under the stage, so that when Viola and Sebastian got shipwrecked they came on the stage out of the water. The floor bent upward and made the floor seem to go even farther near the back of the stage. They had an elevator also. It was so neat. The setting was England in the 40’s or 50’s. It was a pretty risqué in some parts, but from things we heard we were really happy that it was as clean as it was… The acting was phenomenal!

Little from Today:

It’s been really fun to get to know people in my group here! There are so many cute girls. They are all so fun! A couple of them are trying to plan my wedding for me while I am here, asking me my colors all the time and asking to see my dress and asking about the food. They’ve all been giving me ideas and telling me about how they want their wedding. One even made a pinterest board on her pinterest for me. It’s been way fun! I love having Jaden here. It’s so great to be her roommate again!

Steven sent flowers to the center for me today which was so sweet. We all came in at the same time, and everybody clapped and waited around to see them.

More about today later! We went to Hampton Court and we are seeing Lion King in a few so I want to get that all in there!