Shakespeare and Oxford

On Monday we went to Stratford upon Avon. It was a really cute little town. All decorated for Christmas! There were big Christmas garlands and stars strung from building to building across the road. It's actually like that everywhere we've been in England! I love the Christmas spirit.

First up we went to Anne Hathaway's house- Shakespeare's wife. He was 18 when they married, she was 26 (and pregnant). This was quite a scandal and as the guide in Anne's house said, "How high can your eyebrows go???" She was wealthy, and Shakespeare would not have been able to become what he did without her. I think they said he visited here once a year when they were married. Otherwise he lived in London (in the immoral southbank district where The Globe now stands) without his family. Sketchy.

Crazy mushrooms in the woods on Anne Hathaway's property.

Church where Shakespeare is buried. And where he maybe got married. The exact location is unknown.

Shakespeare's birthplace

Now, onto Oxford...

The Eagle and Child- cafe where 'the Inklings' hung out and had regular meetings/discussions. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are the most famous members.

Building in Christ Church College: Oxford. I loved the red vines, with the yellow tree and green grass.

Courtyard of Christ Church. This was the only college at Oxford that I saw. They are all spread out around the town, so you can't see them all. And you have to pay. But I wanted to see this one because they filmed scenes from Harry Potter here! I also just read on wikipedia that it's also considered the most aristocratic. It has produced 13 British prime ministers. Lewis Carroll also went there. It has its own cathedral, not just a chapel, and we went to evensong there that evening. It was cool.

Stairway where McGonagall greets the new first years in Sorcerer's Stone!

Here is the great hall of the college. They used this room to film the Hogwarts great hall! After filming for a couple weeks they realized that it was just too small to fit the four house tables. So they built a replica in an airplane hanger. Some of the close up shots of students eating in the films were still filmed here though! A tour guide told us all this, we were lucky enough to be near when one came by!

They have two dinners here every night. The first is an earlier dinner, where students can get food buffet style. The other is a formal dinner later in the evening, where students have to wear their dress robes and everything. The cooks here must keep very busy. There are portraits of all the past deans (and the current one) of Christ Church all over the walls.

I don't know which I like better between Cambridge and Oxford. Oxford has a little bit of a bigger city feel to it. I thought after Cambridge that I would like Oxford better, but now I can't decide.

Guy Fawkes Day

This is really late, but November 5 was Guy Fawkes Day, and so there was fireworks! He tried to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. He failed. Thankfully cause I like the Parliament building. We went to Bethnel Green to watch fireworks, and it was fun! They played funny music including the finale song being "Firework" by Katy Perry. When it came on we all said, 'seriously?' And, as Americans, we then all sang loudly along.

Remember, Remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot

I see no reason, why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

BUT the coolest thing happened on the way home. As we were coming down Moscow Road- a smaller road behind our house, I see something like a cat sitting in the middle of a perpendicular side street, staring at us. But it just doesn't seem right and I say out-loud, "what is that animal?" And I look closer and it is none other than a fox. In the middle of central London. Staring at us. I'm amazed and baffled at this point, until I realize, IT'S GUY FAWKES DAY! And I'm even more amazed. I know it's a different spelling but still, so cool. I just could not believe it.

And Happy Thanksgiving! We had a really great meal that we all pitched in to make. I also went to a ceremony for Americans at St. Paul's cathedral that I really liked. And ended the night with Wicked! My life is slightly ridiculous.

Hamlet

On Friday night we went to Hamlet!! It was at the Young Vic theatre, which is kind of an interesting theatre. Half of it is a bar, so there were a lot of people there that weren't even seeing the show. The stage reminded me of an old youth center auditorium. The setting was an insane asylum, and they walked you through the back hallways (set up like an asylum- but kind of discreetly) to the main area, and then up to your seats. Our seats were stool seats at the very very top. There was a railing we could lean on. For ten pounds, they were plenty good for me.

And I didn't even know this when I got the tickets, but Hamlet was none other than this guy!

Michael Sheen! He acted Hamlet as absolute cray cray from the get go.

See- a little youth center gym feeling. The play just happened on that middle carpet area.

The guy that we asked to take this picture thought we were really weird that we left a space between us, but we wanted the poster in it. He acted confused and then his girlfriend standing by said, 'oh I get it!'

BELLER IS ALIVE!!!!!

Chelsea Walk

Last Monday John took us a on a little walk around Chelsea to see where some famous authors lived. It was so nice. It was just a nice day, and Chelsea was such a nice neighborhood! I want to live there. The London Centre is in just as nice a neighborhood too though. The more I see of London, the more I'm amazed at how posh a neighborhood the centre is in.

Here's old Mark Twain's old London flat.

George Eliot- who is really a woman.

Robert Falcon Scott- an Antarctic explorer! His party made it to Antarctica barely too late, someone beat them out. And then they died something like a mile away from help. Sad story. I saw his records at the British Library. Which by the way, is so cool! They had old manuscripts from writers like Jane Austen, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Virginia Woolfe. They also had Da Vinci notebooks and stuff from the Beatles!! Like lyrics written on napkins and old birthday cards.

I saw this after the walk, but George Orwell lived down the street from us in Nottinghill!

A.A. Milne- Winnie the Pooh!!

Wouldn't it be so funny living in a building with one of those signs on the front of it. Oh and we saw Oscar Wilde's, but I forgot to upload that picture and I don't feel like doing it now.

Ceremony of the Keys

Last night some of us got to go to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. My first time at church here, the American Relief Society President told us that we had to do it. Thankfully, Megan (who's in the picture with me) had heard about it from her chemistry professor and took initiative to get us tickets. You have to mail an actual letter to the people telling them you'd like to go, and which dates you're available. You have to do it months in advance, and if you're approved for your dates, then they'll mail you a ticket. So we mailed a letter in back in September, and we got to go last night. It was so cool!

The ceremony has taken place every night at the Tower of London since the 1300s. It takes place at precisely 9:53 pm and it's a ceremony to lock the gates at the tower of London. I did find this little fact on wikipedia though

As with many events of ceremony in the United Kingdom, it takes some significant outside influence to interrupt the Ceremony of the Keys. The one time when the ceremony was interrupted was during the Second World War, when there was an air raid on London, and a number of incendiary bombs fell on the old Victorian guardroom just as the Chief Yeoman Warder and the escort were coming through the Bloody Towerarchway. The shock and the noise of the bombs falling blew over the escort and the Chief Yeoman Warder, but they stood up, dusted themselves down, and carried on. The Tower holds a letter from the Officer of the Guard apologising to King George VI that the ceremony was late, along with a reply from the King which says that the officer is not to be punished as the delay was due to enemy action.

At 9:53 a man comes down the lane with a lantern in one hand and the keys in the other. There are four guards standing underneath the Bloody Tower, three armed with weapons, one not. He takes the lantern and gives it to the guard that is not armed, and they all walk back down the lane and lock up two of the gates. As they come back down the lane, a sentry walks toward them and this goes down:

Sentry: Who comes there?

Chief Warder: The Keys

S: Whose keys?

CW: Queen Elizabeth's keys. (identifying the keys as being those of the current monarch)

S: Pass Queen Elizabeth's keys. All's well.

After this we followed them through the Bloody Tower archway (where the princes were killed in history) into the fortress and halted at the bottom of the boardwalk steps. On the stairs are the guards, and under the commanding officer they present arms. The clock strikes ten and one of the guards plays a song on the trumpet. And they all say

God Preserve Queen Elizabeth. Amen!

We also learned that 130 people live at the Tower of London, and those guards have 48 hour duties at the Tower, Buckingham Palace and somewhere else that I can't remember.

They said it is one of the shortest and oldest ceremonies. Glad I could witness it! Cause the beefeater that led us was making fun of America the whole time- he said that some random American guy buying the London Bridge and putting it in Arizona finally gave our country some history.

Brick Lane

The Saturday before we went to Portugal we went to Brick Lane to get a Bagel or Beigel- as they use the true spelling here. This place called Beigel Bake was so so cheap. I have not seen food that cheap any other time in London. A whole beigel sandwich was only 1.60 pounds. If you got a nice slice of beef on it though, then it was about 3 pounds. The cakes and pastries were all under a pound! So much cheaper than everywhere else. I got a tuna, sweet corn bagel, which maybe wasn't a good idea. It wasn't gross, but it wasn't albacore tuna so that's not my fave.

There's a lot of cool graffiti. And unfortunately, vintage shops. There was a cool vintage shop though that had stuff from the 20's. I like looking at that stuff more than any other era I suppose.

I guess that's why they call it brick lane...

Ballet in Paris

I forgot to post this! While in Paris we went to a Ballet!! It was one of the greatest things. A Parisian Ballet. Earlier that day we got falafel. I'd never had it before, and boy was it good. We went to a place someone on the Paris study abroad told us to go to. The sign said "best falafel in the world." That may be a lofty statement, but who cares cause it tasted so so good.

We had gone vintage shopping for 2 1/2 hours before this. And something that I found out is that I despise vintage shopping. Maybe 4 years ago I would've liked it. But definitely not now. I was not a super happy camper. So I was very happy to sit and wait in line for last minute tickets at the opera house for the ballet. We took some pictures to document our waiting. We were first in line and got tickets for 12 euros!

Katie: "Brooklynn, you really shouldn't sit like that."

Our reaction

The inside was absolutely gorgeous. I was just so happy to be there. It was the perfect thing for me to do that evening. Also- my camera had died, so I only have horrible phone photos.

Other girls from our program had gone the night before and could only see a quarter of the stage. But we got these cool chair seats!! I had to lean on that railing to see the whole stage. Totally happy to.

Sorry, that was kind of a lot of just really crappy pictures.