Much Ado About SHAKESPEARE!

Stratford-upon-Avon: Holy Land for Theatre Geeks. Just a couple of hours north of London, you can find Shakespeare's birthplace which has turned into a huge tourist attraction at any time of the year! For someone who used to not be the biggest fan of Shakespeare, I have found that my love for his work has grown since I've been in England (I guess I could have predicted that one).

Personally, my favorite Shakespeare plays are Richard III and MacBeth. Shocker? Not if you know me and how much I love those "dark plays". Refer to earlier blog post about seeing Richard III with Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic!

Our first stop of the Stratford Shakespeare Marathon was Shakespeare's Birthplace. I was surprised when we first got there because it doesn't look very legitimate. They begin the tour by taking you through an interactive visual experience that talks about the time in which Shakespeare lived and how his plays were performed. I did enjoy the montage of famous Shakespeare clips (especially the Doctor Who episode). We then moved on to the less popular but still interesting attractions such as Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Nash's House.

That night, we visited my favorite place in Stratford, The Royal Shakespeare Company. I've been doing a lot of research this semester on the development of the RSC and how they have transformed themselves recently. I saw King Lear here last summer and this time, we were seeing Taming of the Shrew. Shrew is not done as frequently as other plays because it is about "taming" a "bitch" and in this day in age, is a very difficult play to stage effectively (Slings & Arrows anyone?). The play was set in Italy in the 80's and was directed very well which makes sense because the director of Shrew directed my favorite production of MacBeth that was at the Globe last summer.

Needless to say, Shakespeare and his birthplace are becoming favorites on my list!

Marissa and I "jesting" around! 

Dickinson in England Humanities 2011 -  2013! 

David Tennant, he's a friend of mine. 

Shakespeare's grave.

Marissa and I "upon the Avon".

The Royal Shakespeare Company!!!

The newly renovated part of the RSC including the "tower". 

Marissa, Ariel, and I in front of Anne Hathaway's cottage. And no, not that Anne Hathaway.

Even though the day started with a lot of rain, it was beautiful by late afternoon!

Cheers!

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens!

Once I turned 21, I started to feel old. One reason may be that I live with "freshers" who are all about 18 or 19. Another reason might just be that 21 is old. It's not as old as 200 though. On 17 February, Charles Dickens turned the big 2-0-0. All over England, there have been celebrations for one of the most well known English authors. As good Brits, my friend Marissa and I decided to CELEBRATE! We headed to Dickens' birthplace, Portsmouth.

Saturday was filled with mostly Dickens related events. We visited a lot of museums and special exhibits. We even saw a performance of David Copperfield. On Sunday, we took a little break and visited the Isle of Wight for the day since we were so close! It was cold and overcast but still beautiful. It was quite a busy weekend!

The couch that Charles Dickins died on. 

The Portsmouth Guidhall

You may have heard of this guy, his name is Nelson and he is kind of a big deal in England. Everywhere.

Walking along the Portsmouth Harbor that goes into the English Channel. 

View of Portsmouth and the Spinnaker Tower. 

Portsmouth Harbor.  

A great fish and chip shop on the Isle of Wight.

Beautiful Anglican Church on Isle of Wight. 

We had to take a Hovercraft over to the Island. We both checked it off our bucket list!

Cheers!

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Finally, my first "proper" snow in England! I was so excited but a little worried since I was in London visiting a friend for the day! It's also so cold that the snow is still here and it is supposed to snow for the rest of the night tonight!

Outside of Liverpool Street Station on my way back to Norwich! 

Outside the Norwich Train Station waiting for the bus.  

View from outside my window! 

...again.

Cheers!

Back in England!

After a wonderful winter break at home, I'm back in Norwich for spring semester! It's great to be back as the fall semester was such an amazing experience! I just got back from London visiting a friend from High School who is studying abroad in Lille, France. We saw a great show at the National Theatre called Collaborators. It was a lot of fun just walking around London again!

I've also started an internship working at a small theatre, the Norwich Playhouse! I'm doing both technical and administrative jobs and really enjoying it! It's a great experience to be able to have an internship abroad!

My classes at UEA are great this semester! Both my classes, Political Theatre and Comedy in Drama, are classes that wouldn't be available at Dickinson and it's great to have a different perspective of theatre!

More to come as the semester progresses! I'm really excited for this semester and I have a lot of traveling planned. We are going to Portsmouth for Charles Dickens' Birthday this weekend and then Stratford-upon-Avon! I also have a lot planned for Spring Break as I'm planning on traveling to Switzerland, Austria, and Germany!

Cheers!

Ely Cathedral

As a student on a Dickinson Program, we take a lot of Dickinson sponsored trips to "academic" areas around Norwich! One of these trips was to Ely Cathedral, about 45 minutes from Norwich. It's a beautiful Cathedral and we were able to walk to the top and see the quaint little town of Ely from an ariel view! The Cathedral was also used during World War II to help guide the air force to their base. 

View from inside the Cathedral.

View of Ely!

Cheers!

Catch up...

Even though the new semester has started, I'm going to do a quick catch up of what happened at the end of last semester. I know I haven't posted in so long, but here goes nothing!

For "Week 7" a couple of the Humanities students had the week off to catch-up on readings and work. So a couple of us decided to visit some of our friends on the Dickinson program in Bologna, Italy. I was there for about 4 days and was able to see a little bit of Bologna, Venice, and Florence. It rained all week but we didn't let that stop us! We saw EVERYTHING.

On my first day there, I met my friend Kate at a statue (yes, a very reliable meeting spot) and we walked to her apartment. Bologna was such a change from Norwich and it was a lot of fun comparing programs.

The next day, we went to Venice and again, it rained ALL DAY. I thought I was going to drown in the "city of water". We explored the city by just walking around and turning where we saw something interesting! It felt like we walked every inch of the city!

On our way to Venice!

Singing in the rain? 

Too much rain to handle.

BEAUTIFUL VIEW. 

 The next day, some of the other Dickinson people from England continued traveling to other destinations and Jimmy and I decided to head to Florence. It was raining again, but we didn't let that stop us. Since we went on a Monday, most of the museums were closed but we got to see the Duomo and walk to the top! The view was absolutely breathtaking but quite the hike up there. I hadn't been to Florence since High School and I always wanted to make it back and I was so happy to be there again!

In front of the Ponte Vecchio!

View from one of the Duomo Terraces. 

View from the top of the Duomo! It was worth the hike up there and the rain cleared just in time!

All in all, the trip was amazing and we got to see so much in such a short amount of time!

More to come,
Lizzie

30 Miles Across Suffolk

For the Dickinson Humanities 210 class, there was an optional trip to hike across Suffolk for 3 days and for some reason, unknown to me, I decided to sign up. In the end, it was an incredible experience! We had wonderful weather, walked through beautiful landscapes, and saw classic “English” towns. The first day, we were dropped off at what seemed to be an “undisclosed location” and were told to start walking! At first as we were walking though field, after field, after field, I was a little concerned that this trip was going to get really old really quickly. But in a way, it was quite relaxing just walking through the English countryside. I also had some great company and got to know people on the program a lot more. That day, we stopped at the cutest pub in a random town (I don’t even remember seeing a sign for the town’s name) and had some lunch. Todd and Jimmy played some darts and then we were off again towards Clare. The first day was also a little rough as we did 8 miles in the morning and then 14 after lunch but we finally made it to the small town of Clare.

The group on top of probably the highest "hill" we climbed. Suffolk is pretty flat. 

Todd and Jimmy playing darts at a Pub.

Again, we were excited to have finally reached our destination.

The next day, we continued our journey to Long Melford. This was personally my favorite town. For a small English town, there was quite a bit to see. First, we stumbled upon Kentwell Hall, which was stunning! We stopped here for a bit to feed some ducks (and greedy fish) and walk around the grounds. We then continued to walk into town and while most of the group went to look at a church, a friend and I decided to tour Long Melford Hall, which was a beautiful estate! That night, we stayed at another cute Pub/Inn and sat in the Pub all night talking!

Kentwell Hall

 On Sunday, we were to finish our trip with a shorter day, with about 8 miles but things started getting iffy. We got lost a couple of times, figured out that we were walking on private land, and almost got shot. But in was worth it because we ended up in THE CUTEST ENGLISH TOWN EVER for lunch. Lavenham is a small town in Suffolk that has the most original Tudor structures of any town in England. The Guildhall was the most famous but just walking around, they were everywhere! We ate at a cute tea shop and then finished up our journey. We got really lucky with the weather and just as we reached the bus, it started raining! I can speak for the whole group that we were glad to get on that bus after an enriching but EXHAUSTING weekend.

The "Crooked House Gallery" that was indeed, very crooked. 

The Guildhall

We encountered a lot of wildlife on our journey.

It always made our day when we ran into some friendly faces!

 Cheers!

Weekend in Bath

Living in Europe for a year gives you the opportunity to travel all over on weekend trips and such! In attempts to travel not only Europe, but also England, a friend and I decided to travel to Bath for a weekend. We looked into what there was to do in Bath and made a pretty long list that we ended up We had researched things to do in Bath and came back with a plethora of places to go!

We left Saturday morning from Norwich and unfortunately, they were working on the railroads so getting to London was a little more difficult than usual. We finally got to London Liverpool station but then they were working on the Tube as well so we were a little worried we were going to miss our train from London to Bath. Luckily, we got to London Paddington just in time and got on the train to Bath, which is only about an hour and a half. When we rolled up to Bath, both Marissa and I got so excited because it looked so beautiful even from the train station! We walked to our Hostel, dropped our bags off, and then hit the town to explore!

We ran into a Wedding Reception! 

Our first stop was the Roman Baths, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Bath, but we were there to be tourists! The Baths were amazing and I couldn’t believe how warm the water was and how beautiful all the architecture was. It was also amazing how close Bath Abbey was placed to the Baths and how elaborate the structures were. It took about 3 hours to do the Baths so after we found a cute Italian restaurant with amazing food!

Standing on the Terrace of the Bath with Bath Abbey in the background!

The main bath.

On Sunday we woke up super early and made our first stop the Jane Austen Center. We did some shopping and had tea at the Regency Tea Rooms! The tea was amazing and we felt that Mr. Darcy was going to walk in at any moment! We then walked to Bath Abbey and attended their choral service, which was beautiful! For lunch, we went to Sally Lunn’s Bakery and tried her famous buns, which lived up to their expectations! We then made our way over to the Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens and crossed the Pulteney Bridge, which is a “twin sister” of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

On Monday, our last day in Bath, we did some shopping and went to the Fashion Museum. The museum was quite interesting and their collection was impressive. We then caught our train home and didn’t have any travel problems on the way back!

An Alexander McQueen Wedding Dress

Trying on a corset at the Fashion Museum!

Cheers!