shakespearean

today's blog will be relatively short, due to the fact that i didn't do very much today. i woke up at the usual 745 time ... the 3rd time my alarm rang. i set my phone -- yes i use my cell phone -- to go off at 740, 742, and 745. the reason i use my cell phone is because my alarm clock, when plugged in to the wall, even through the converter, goes double time! for example ... the first day i set the time and then went to dinner. when i came back, the clock was 2 hours ahead! i was so confused and so i reset it ... but the same thing happened again! drat! so then i thought i had left my watch at home, so i started using my cell phone for time and for an alarm. i did find my watch, but i still use my phone. i figure i'm used to having it in my pocket and i'm not used to having a watch on, so it's all good, right?

anyway, went to breakfast and had my yummy nutella. then we had political economy of g.b. and we're starting margaret thatcher week ... should be a good time. actually, i do find the subject matter pretty interesting. then, in between classes, we took the 3-block walk to the alternative tuck shop. i try to vary what i get to snack on each day ... today i got a croissant and an apple juice. yum. then we went to international economics and basically drew graphs :-P

after class i took a 20-min power nap before lunch ... and then after lunch we left immediately for stratford-on-avon...one of the most gorgeous towns in england, and of course the home of shakespeare. we got there and walked by a canal (saw how a lock system works), past a butterfly farm (£5 to go in = £5 too much) and eventually ended up at shakespeare's birthplace. admission was something like £9.50 ... ($17ish), and i decided to skip it and just photograph the outside. then we walked to the church where he is buried. it was a gorgeous church and all the gravestones were so old and weathered that you couldn't hardly tell what they say. it was serene, but almost saddening. anyway, after that we were all hungry -- and wanted to go to H&M -- so we headed out again. stratford isn't very big, so it wasn't hard to get around the city. like everywhere else in britain, though, everything closes early. the shops close at 1730 and it was nearing 1800 by the time we got there. so that plan was scrapped, and we went for fish and chips. yummy. afterwards we went by mcdonalds and got ice cream cones ... yay!

we met our group outside the royal shakespeare theatre at 1900 for the 1930 showing of "The Comedy of Errors." i had never read/seen the play, and it was really good! i did fall asleep for about 10 mins at the beginning, but after i woke up i really got into it. the actors that played antipholus of ephesus and antipholus of syracuse looked like real twins ... as did the two dromios. very funny. anyway, that took about 2 hours and by the time we got back on the bus it was almost 2200. then another 1-1.5 hour ride back to lovely oxford. and that takes me here...it has been a crazy past few days and i'm exhausted. i hope you'll understand if i cut this off in favor of sleep. anyway, i hear it's really hot over there. haha.

shakespearically,

grant