Shakespey and Me

Day Trip! First stop, Warwick Castle (...To be pronounced Warrick. The English occasionally pronounce words way different than they are spelled, resulting in me looking like a touristy fool quite often). Ok, in MY opinion, Warwick castle was a let down, because it was reeeeeally touristy and they tried to make it like disneyland by putting wax figures in all the rooms and by labeling things like, "Princess Tower!" and "Haunted dungeon!" and so on. As you can see, we got a little too carried away with the wierd wax people. But then again, a castle is a castle, and castles are just really cool. Warwick actually has the WORLD'S LARGEST trebuchet, (giant war sling-shot thingie) which I thought was interesting. It looks tiny in the picture, but it was big. They also had a lot on birds, because I guess hunting with birds was really popular. So they had all these birds of prey, and we even accidentally found to this guy David in a field who was training the owl, Louis. I got a picture with him. Not so much for Louis, more so I could be close to a David: an actual human being that isn't a female. It's exiting these days you know. My favorite part of Warwick castle was the peacock garden, which was a garden with tons of peacocks roaming about. For the first time in my life, a peacock actually opened it's feathers for me! It made my day. We could like, sit on a bench and they would just walk all around us. I think I'm obsessed with peacocks now too. I reeeeeally like their feathers.
Next we drove to the wonderful town of Stratford-Upon-Avon, the home of Shakespeare! It was a SPLENDID day. Firstly we went to Anne Hathaway's (No not the actress,you dummies) cottage where she grew up, and where Shakespeare courted her before they got married. It was adorable, and it was the first time I've seen a roof like the ones I make on gingerbread with wheat at Christmas! Exiting. Anyways, they had some furniture from the family, and the kitchen was all intact and original. Pretty crazy how different their lives were back then, I'm glad to be able to look forward to being a houswife in the 21st century... it doesn't look as if it was very splendid back then.
Shakespeare lived his life in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and we first visited his birthplace. I was in the room where Shakespeare was born and where he grew up. It's SO crazy. He is SO important. As I got thinking about it, I thought of so much more than plays, but of modern movies, musicals, political speeches, church talks, paintings, sculptures, ballets, (and so much more) that his work inspired. And that's not to mention all the writers that he influenced, he was a genius and I think he changed the literary world for sure. His birthplace was really cool, they had his ring there, which means it used to be on his hand, which is what he used to write. And they had his original first folio of all his plays, (the one at the british library is just a later version I guess?) and of course we were walking on the grounds he used to walk on. And they had actors that would randomly burst into scenes from his plays. haha. I liked them a lot. There was also a sign in book, because the house has been a tourist attraction ever since the 18th century, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had their names in there. It was dated 1786 or something, which I thought was interesting because that was after America, so like.. what were they doing in Britain? There was a huge list of famous writers that had visited too. Also, I thought it was interesting that Charles Dickins (among others) fought really hard to keep the house in it's original state and keep it a tourist attraction instead of letting it rot and die. Kinda neat- if your into that sort of thing I guess.

Next we went to his death place. He got rich so he was able to buy his own house around the corner from the one he inherited from his dad. He retired and died there, and there isn't much more to say about it, other than that it's really cool because it's Shakespeare. It is called the Nash house, sorry, I can't remember why.

I then went off to visit the dear old man's grave! I stood only feet away from Shakespeare's bones, and for some reason I was really tempted to dig them up and hold his skull high in the air and boldly say, "TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION." Anyways, uh.... he's buried at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Stratford-Upon-Avon, right down the street from where he lived his life.

Remember how I said that Twelfth Night was the best production I'd seen yet? Well I was WAY off. That night we got to see King Lear in Stratford, and not only was it amazing seeing Shakespeare's play in his home town, but the play was just all around amazing. I just finished reading King Lear for my class, and I honestly expected to be SO bored, and I was already so tired that I thought I might die, but I was completely alert for all 3 1/2 hours (uh huh, equivalent to Lord of the Rings.) The play was SO GOOD, so good. Mom, I wish SO bad you were there to see it with me. It was full of metaphores and underlying messages, and was beautifully coreographed, and the acting was impeccable. I am just a huge fan. I LOVED it. Finally I saw a play here that I loved. I've been waiting to leave a theater feeling that satisfied this whole time.

Then we drove back home and got back reeeeally late, (or should I say early) and they STILL made us wake up for class. Woe is me.