last update from Stratford!

Well it’s been another whirlwind few days. Tomorrow we leave for London, and I’m supposed to be packing now, but obviously I’m not making much progress.

Points of interest since I last updated:

Monday we went to Blenheim Palace, and I was beating myself for forgetting my camera because although you’re not allowed to take photographs inside the palace, there were gorgeous gardens, including one called the Secret Garden, which you must find if you’re ever visiting this site. It’s also interesting that the Duke of Marlborough still lives there (you don’t get to visit his private wing though). There is also a connection to the USA: The 9th Duchess of Marlborough was Consuelo Vanderbilt, of the Biltmore House family.

We spent several hours in Oxford after we left the palace. We just had lunch and wandered around town. I got an official Oxford hoodie--because I really wished I’d gotten one when we were there before. We also found the Best Bookstore in the World, known as Blackwell’s, where I may or may not have spent way too much money. They had a very large section of French literature—IN FRENCH!!! Which is nice because while one can buy French books online from the States, the shipping costs are quite exorbitant. Of course the overweight fee on my luggage is going to be quite exorbitant as well.

I did manage to sell 4 Shakespeare books today at a used bookstore and got a record-breaking 4 pounds for them. But at least I don’t have to carry them around anymore.

At any rate, Tuesday we saw King John, which was significantly more interesting than I was anticipating. Richard McCabe was probably the best King John I could imagine, and overall it was a well-done production. After the show we had a backstage tour of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (aka the “main house”) and the Swan Theatre, which share a backstage area. I got to walk on The Tempest stage!!! And the King John stage, though I wasn’t so excited about that one. And I stole a pocketful of fake snow off the Tempest set, though I haven’t figured out where exactly to put the snow, since it’s currently zipped up inside the pocket of my heavy coat.

On the coat topic: it’s been much colder here the past few days, which is nice because I’m finally wearing those sweaters I packed.

Wednesday we sat through over 6 hours of history plays. We had a discussion of King John in the morning, then King Henry parts 2 & 3 in the afternoon/evening. It was quite exhausting.

Thursday consisted of discussion and lectures, then seeing Antony & Cleopatra (with PATRICK STEWART!!!). It was an impressive show, surprisingly minimalist, as most productions feel the need to more or less create Egypt on a stage, rather than just implying Egypt. Anyway, it was entirely compelling, I only looked at my watch once before intermission, and that was only because I was in need of the toilet (which is what they call a restroom here). A great show, I stood around at the stage door afterwards in an attempt to get the great Mr. Stewart’s signature, but no luck. I’m going back tonight though—I’m truly an optimist at heart.

At any rate, I direly need to get some packing done—by which I mean I’m about to sit here and try to do a Su Doku puzzle that Wink gave me. Who wants to bet I’ll be a complete failure at a puzzle of numbers?

Looks like another late night ahead! Cheers!