Whole Grain Cheddar Cheese Crackers

This weekend was long and exhausting so sorry for not posting this blog sooner as I have been in recovery and catch up mode. Thursday afternoon we took a bus to Stratford Upon Avon. By the time we arrived we had less than an hour to unpack, get dinner and arrive at the theatre.

Needless to say, we were a tad rushed. We found this pub that sold two meals for £5 so Ingrid and I decided to split the deal. Of course, of the six people at our table, we were the only ones whose meal got lost. By the time we got our food, we had less than five minutes to eat and get to the theatre. I shovelled down my salad as Ingrid gnawed on her fish and chips. Stomachs full and nausea setting in, we ran, yes ran, to the Courtyard Theatre where the Royal Shakespeare Company was performing that night’s performance of Romeo and Juliet.

The theatre and production were incredible. What stood

out to me the most was the lighting and the actors ability to really ACT out the lines as opposed to simply delivering them. The only problem I had with the show was its adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic. The adaptation had Romeo and Juliet dressed in modern clothes while everyone else was in period clothes…though what period, I’m not quite sure. After the show I was very excited because we had the opportunity to talk with the actor who played Mercuito.

His name was Jonjo, and he was a crack head. This is not a figure of speech, everyone is the group is pretty sure of it. He was crazy and animated and talked in circles, just like his character. I was disappointed with his response to the director’s thought process behind the modern clothing.

“Well um….Juliet came in wearing a hoodie one day and Rupert [the director] was just like, ‘I like that’ and that’s how it came about.”

I was really looking for some deeper meaning. He later went on to say that it was Romeo and Juliet against the world, which I understood but still thought more planning should have gone into the idea. I think there’s two ways of interpreting R&J, 1) Romeo and Juliet were madly in love and their death was terribly tragic or 2) Romeo and Juliet were two hormone-driven teens who were silly and killed themselves over nothing, but their deaths woke up their angry families. This play took the second interpretation, which I think put off a lot of people in the audience.

Unfortunately, that play was the best part of Stratford. The next morning we got up and took a bus tour with a horrible guide. He cracked awful jokes and treated us as if we were in elementary school. We passed all of the interesting stuff on the bus like Shakespeare’s statue and the statue of the angel who was flicking off the world and stopped at places with little historical value. The first being Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Yes, she was the wife of Shakespeare, but there was nothing really to where she lived, and he may not have even lived there. The gardens were nice but not worth this tourist trap waste of time.

We then travelled to Shakespeare’s grave. It was nice to see where he was buried, but the guides jokes about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and other pointless topics were not enjoyable. Our final stop in Stratford was Shakespeare’s birthplace. My problem with the town was that it was based off of a place where Shakespeare may or may not have be born, lived, or died. There was nothing concrete enough to validate my time there. For example, the ring with the initials W.S. which they think MAY have belonged to Shakespeare…or it could have belonged to Walter Scott, or Wesley Smith, or ANYONE with those initials.

After Stratford we travelled to Oxford, the oldest university. I can’t comment much on this because after last weekend, I became far too bias toward Cambridge. There were some cool sites such as where the Hogwarts library and infermiry were filmed, but we weren’t allowed to see them from the inside so that was a big downer. After the tour and some souvenier shopping, a group of us stopped in for a drink at the Eagle and Child Pub where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis used to hang out.

When we returned to London, thirteen of us decided to take on a daunting feat, the Westminster to Picadilly Ale Trail. This five-pub pub crawl cove

red an intense track of land and hit some of London’s most famous pubs. Though it was a race to the finish, most of us made it in time and got free t-shirts!

The next day the Williams who I visited in Cambridge came to visit London. I met them for lunch at the British Museum and they surprised me with tickets to go see Oliver, the show I’d been trying to see for over a month! We spent the day studying the different cultures of shopping. In the early afternoon I took them to Camdentown Market and then they took me to Harrods. Having studied fashion magazines from an early age, Harrod’s was my earthly version of heaven. Around every corner was a new designer, each more glamorous than that last. I tried on a pair of Jimmy Choos and vowed to make an appointment with the wedding dress section just to try on designer gowns! I even saw the gown that Vera Fermiga wore to the Oscars this year!

Horror of horrors, in the china section Mr. Williams picked up a piece, its top feel off and it broke. I was mortified and slowly backed away from the scene. The salesman was really nice though and didn’t charge them for it thank goodness.

After that incident we promptly left Harrods and headed toward Covent Garden to get dinner before Oliver. We found this great restaurant called Maxwell’s and each had a delicious meal. Oliver was wonderful! Though the accents were great, each performer had a great voice and presence on the stage. I was really excited to see Kerry Ellis as Nancy because she played Elphaba the first time I saw Wicked on Broadway. After the show we said goodbye and the Williams took a train back to Cambridge.

I went out to a pub with my friends because it was Elizabeth’s friend Shannon’s last night in London. We were really excited that Sam came out with us because she rarely does. The next morning Elizabeth, Vikki and I visited Camdentown again so Elizabeth could pick up some stuff and then we went to the Spitalfields Market. I was less impressed with Spitafields, but I'm glad I went because it's only open on Sunday and that was our last Sunday in London!

Monday night we went to see Enron the musical for theatre class. Everyone who knew the background really liked it, but for some reason I found it really offensive toward America. Maybe that's why it only lasted one week on Broadway.

Last night we went to one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while. It was called Four Lions and it was about Islamic jihad. Doesn't

sound like a funny topic, but trust me it was great: http://racheldozier.blogspot.com/2010/07/four-lions.html.

The past few days in London the weather's been my favourite. It's been breezy and damp from occasional rain showers, which I love! When I walked downstairs today, I went through my usual ritual of checking my always empty mailbox. This time I found a surprise, two postcards from both of my parents! Then when I came home my whole mailbox drawer was sticking out with a giant package from my parents again! Twice in one day. Inside the package were Whole Grain Cheddar Cheese crackers, my favourite! Precious parents :)

Well, that's all for now. If you got through that, you're a champ. Titanic's on for the Leonardo DiCaprio marathon.