Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford

So in case you didn't know, this weekend consisted of another awesome ICLC trip. This time, we visited Stratford-upon-Avon, which is Shakespeare's hometown where he was born, raised and wrote a good number of his plays. The town itself is a quaint and cute one, although we learned that we are not allowed to use the world "quaint" for some reason. It's probably yet another innocent American term that has dirty British connotations...much like fanny.

We got up early on Friday morning and got to the London Centre around 8:00. I managed to down a cup of tea before leaving the flat, so I was unusually perky. As many people who have lived with me or around me can attest, my disposition in the mornings is not exactly that of a morning person; I tend not to talk much, which unfortunately gives off the air that I am angry at the world...which I sort of am because it's giving off light much too early, but that's beside the point. I was perky and happy to be taking a bus trip. Luke, Mallory and our friends Jenn and Kathleen talked for the first hour and a half of the ride, trading odd queries including my personal favourite, "Would you rather eat a baby or have to wake up every morning and club a baby seal for the rest of your life?" Friends are awesome.

We made a four-hour stop late that morning at Warwick Castle, which was beautiful and filled with many towers, gardens and wax statues. Sadly, hail and rain punctuated the visit at unexpected times, so our feelings about the castle weren't quite as stellar as they would have been on a perfectly sunny day, but it was still quite fun to wander the Ghost Tower and various halls. The Peacock Gardens were probably the best part about the exterior of the castle because of the many peacocks filling the blossoming gardens that were already full of various shades of green; the best part of the interior was by far the wax statue of Queen Elizabeth II in the Great Hall. Actually, a tie for the exterior would have to be the launching demonstration of the trebuchet at noon!! It started raining more then, so we went inside and got hot chocolate and Ben & Jerry's to pass the time. After leaving Warwick Castle, we traveled a bit further before arriving in Stratford-upon-Avon. We ended up going to The Dirty Duck for dinner and ate some fish and chips before heading to the Courtyard Theatre to see a production of The Merchant of Venice, which was quite good, although the costumes and set were pretty modern. Oh yeah, we ended staying at a bed and breakfast. Luke and I had the girliest room out of everyone, I swear, with pink flowered sheets and comforters and lilac patterns stenciled onto the wall. But we got a full English breakfast the next morning, so it was all good.

The next morning, we went to the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford to listen to a talk by Dr. Kidd, who told us about Shakespeare's life in Stratford. Apparently, the word 'avon' means river, so when you say the River Avon, it's redundant. NICE. The river is still beautiful, though. There are willow trees along the edges and a park sprawling on one side, while the Holy Trinity Church borders the other side. It gives an age to the river to see the moss and stones on the banks of the river, so you get an idea of how old the town actually is. A tour of the church followed the talk and Shakespeare's grave, alongside his wife's, was inside there, which was pretty cool to see. From there, we wandered off from the group and toured the town ourselves. Along the way, we saw Anne Hathaway's cottage, Shakespeare's original house, went to the farmer's market and got chocolate at this fantastic shop in the heart of Stratford's shopping strip. Their 'shopping strip' is actually a cobblestone street, come to think of it. After collecting our bags from our B&Bs, it was off to Oxford, which was actually one of the highlights of the trip. Everyone descended upon the university clothing stores to purchase some form of clothing. I snagged an Oxford Crew t-shirt for myself, as Jenn had told me the previous day that I looked like I did crew. *shrug* We toured the town, the streets of which were filled with Welsh-English dancing, which was fun to watch. We also got to go through the grounds of one of Oxford's colleges, Christ Church. The stately buildings and gardens around were breathtaking...and of course I took pictures!

Last night, we hosted an Office party in our flat to celebrate the resurgence of The Office after its hiatus due to the writer's strike. Only Sara and Alexa came out of the five people who originally said they would come, but it was still a ton of fun. Hopefully we can make it a weekly occurrence! And now it's back to working at my internship.



Here are some more of the pictures from this weekend:
'Speare and Oxford