Stratford Upon Avon!

Good afternoon! (which is still morning in the states, since it IS 7 am there)

I woke up this morning humming the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, and I knew it was a good day! I am so happy over here. Classes are challenging and fun. The sight seeing is fabulous! I would LOVE to attend Oxford University for graduate school! (gotta love those pipe dreams!)

Anyway, on July 4 (Sunday) I met up with Monique and her sister and grabbed dinner and went to The Eagle & Child. This is the pub where JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met together and read each other's first drafts of stories! Fun facts: 1) C.S. Lewis despised the elves of middle earth and considered them annoying and extraneous. 2) C.S. Lewis generally published books after writing a 'quick and dirty' first draft. So, his Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe (among others) did not have many drafts (if even a second!) Then we went to see Oxford Castle, which used to be the place of incarceration! They have now turned the prison portion of the castle into a French hotel, with the meaning "the bad place." The Castle has awesome architecture!

Mo and I at Oxford Castle! :-)

Mo and her sister at The Eagle & Child! It's a quaint pub around the corner from Regent's Park. Makes the best Pimm's & Lemonade in Europe! (...or so it claims)

Yesterday, Monday, July 5 was so much fun! Well, Bob the Builder (our repair man) made me give up the extra bed in my room, so my room now looks empty...but he gave me a quaint table to partly fill the room! I now have a quaint little sitting area in my room! :-) I went to Breakfast in the morning about 8:30am. Then, I read for my history class and met with my literature teacher about our blog postings for Alice in Wonderland. I'm writing about the wise caterpillar :-) (my favorite character in Alice in Wonderland!) Class began at 2pm. For the first hour (and what turned into the hour and a half) we took a walking tour around Oxford to see how all of our books for this course tie into Oxford! and here is what I learned:

This is Exiter College. This is the college that Richard Pullman's Jordan College is based upon. (Although Jordan College is the richest college, which is more along the lines of St. John's, but on the map it is located at Exiter College.) In her parallel universe, Lyra would have run around the rooftops of Exiter college, which GORGEOUS! Here, I am facing the dining hall. Below, Jackie and I are facing the chapel.

Richard Pullman attended Exiter College in his Oxford University days. He is originally from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Our class snuck into the quad so we could see everything!

This is the Radcliffe Camera. I don't know if I've pictured it previously. It has lots and lots of history books inside! I can't wait to explore further! I will keep you posted. This "camera" is MASSIVE! "camera" is latin for room, thus the Radcliffe Camera instead the Radcliffe Room (that isn't quite as cool).....This is the courtyard leading to the Bodleian Library, which I also want to investigate more! Apparently, if I talk to our trip leader, Dr. Cavanaugh, I might be able to get an official letter to visit inside the Bodleian library to check it out some more! The Bodleian Library is entitled to a free copy of every book published in the UK. All it has to do is ask! (Think about how many books that is!!!!!)

This is the History door, where you enter if you're looking/ordering books pertaining to British or any other history. This would be a cool place to spend the summer, writing and focusing a thesis!

This is Madalen College! (pronounced Maudlin as in Mary Magdalen shortened.) It is overwhelming!

C.S. Lewis taught here after earning his degree down the street at Oxford University. C.S. Lewis was involved in trench warfare during the first World War and survived. He didn't gain his famous sense of piety until after World War I. During World War II, Oxford was still considered part of the countryside and thus not at risk for bombing. It was also later discovered that Hitler planned to used the different colleges as Nazi headquarters in England. Anyway, Because Oxford wasn't bombed during the Battle of Britain, it was a destination for many kids who had parents who shipped them out of harms way. Lewis in fact housed several children in these circumstances. This influenced him so much for him to write his first Narnia book- The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.

C.S. Lewis spent a comparatively longtime writing The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe (about six years) to the 6 years it took him to write the other books in the Narnia series. He lived here while he wrote these. He still taught as well. He was married 7 years before he died! How tragic for his wife!

Here is our teacher telling us all about C.S. Lewis and his life story. Dr. Middleton is an awesome teacher!

Hidden symbols moment: the Tudor Rose at Queen's College. Coincidence? I think not!

This is the MASSIVE archway leading to the botanical gardens in which a sweet parting takes place between Lyra and another character in the Golden Compass series in the last book, The Amber Spyglass. The Botanical Gardens are BEAUTIFUL! and they smell so fresh! I tried to capture pictures, but they didn't do the garden any justice, sadly. I want to go here for a picnic lunch eventually. Maybe next week. (This week is booked solid! Thursday is London!)

This is Merton College. JRR Tolkien taught here from 1945 until Retirement. Here He finished the Lord of the Ring series. He started with The Hobbit after World War I, when he first taught at Pembroke college.

This College was sadly closed to the public, but the outside was beautiful! Below, I got a sneaky picture looking into the courtyard.
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This is Christ Church College! However, College is a misnomer. You attend "College" here if you are interested in joining the ministry. Christ Church is where Charles Dodson befriended Alice and wrote her fairytales. Yes, Charles Dodson is the real name of Lewis Carroll. Scandal shrouds Dodson, because he was bosom buddies with the Dean of Christ Church College and his three daughters, one of which was Alice. It is clear that Dodson loved Alice. However, several key diaries are missing at an imperative time, which makes it unclear as to why several years after Alice in Wonderland was written, Dodson and the Dean were no longer friends. When the camera was invented, though, Dodson took many naked photos of prepubescent girls. I personally believe he is a creep...but I wanted to share the story!

If you enter Christ Church College (which I hope to do at a later date!), you enter Hogwarts Great Hall! J.K. Rowling and Christopher Columbus originally filmed the Main Hall here. (fun fact!)

This is Pembroke College behind me, located across the street from Christ Church College. JRR Tolkien began his career as a professor here. He wrote The Hobbit here and The Fellowship of the Rings after he returned from WWI. On a more tragic note, after his service in WWI, Tolkien discovered that after the war only one other of his fourteen close male friends had survived the war. That really hits home how a whole generation was lost in such a tragic event. No wonder it was called "the War to end all Wars".

Another image of Pembroke college. This is the cathedral. I LOVE the Gothic architecture with the flying buttresses...can you tell??


Here are a few streets we crossed over on our adventure ( I found these names too interesting to pass up):







After our tour in Lions, Wizards, and Orcs! Oh my! It was straight on the bus to Stratford to go see King Lear, the tragedy!

We had plenty of room to stretch out! (Thank goodness! The seats here are tiny! My legs take up three seats alone! We stretched out in the back and gossiped and talked about everything going on in the program. I am loving every minute over here. I feel like there's always something to be done, yet I have the time to take a breath, unlike the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.) This provided me with enough down time to re-energize for Stratford!

We've decided that an Emergeny is a much more dire situation than an Emergency. This is how the English tell the difference. (just kidding..but this sign did entertain us for a bit)


We ate dinner at the Dirty Duck! Many times after a play or theatre event the actors come to the Dirty Duck to grab a drink. Beatrice (in the yellow behind me) saw Romeo & Juliet on Saturday night with our program director Dr. Cavanaugh. They came here for drinks afterwords and held a conversation with a couple of the bit part players in the tragedy! We just ate and people watched and strolled along the Avon until time for the play.



We found this dock on the river with all these boats! Unfortunately we didn't have time to go for an adventure, BUT I did think it was cool each rowboat was named after a female heroine from Shakespeare. Ophelia was my favorite of the ones that were there, such a tragic heroine.

The RSC's (Royal Shakespearean Company's) theatre is under construction, so this is where they perform until the renovations are done. Sadly, this theatre will be torn down when the other one reopens. It's a more modern theatre, but really cool!

....always the musician, I instantly picked out the orchestral pit in the theatre. This is above and behind the stage. I could slightly see the bass drum. And the lighting effects were completely sweet! (Christina *cough, cough*) It was very simple yet intense and effective!

King Lear was tragic, but done well. They tried to put a WWI twist to it with time period clothing, but the daughters and the King and the knights still wore medieval clothing. It became curiouser and curiouser. The actor who played King Lear was especially entertaining when he went mad. There's and Elizabethan tradition for the audience to heckle the actors. At that point in the play, however, the actor heckled the crowd! It was an entertaining Monday night. We didn't get back to Regent's Park until about 12:30am. Upon entering my room I promptly finished my history reading....until 2:30am- when I passed out!

This morning, I grabbed breakfast to take to class with me. Breakfast ends at 9am, when my class begins, so it was perfect timing! We had a lovely discussion(part I) about the British Empire up until right before WWI. I felt accomplished having finished all of my work for both classes before their respective deadlines! Now, however, I have 200+ more pages to read for my history class on Friday. I have a blog post (mini essay) to write about The Hobbit due next Monday by midnight. I must start thinking about my first big essay due in Lions, Wizards, and Orcs! Oh my! soon....so there is some intense class work occurring over here with all this fun! (Don't let my pictures deceive you...)
I have class on Friday this week instead of Thursday, because Thursday we are going to London as a program! I am going to see Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives), The War Room, and the War Museum! I am so excited! ( a couple of my guy friends are surprised I am not going to the Globe to see Henry IV....but here's to breaking gender roles and enjoying as much of England as I can!)
Today I am going to the Pitt's River Museum, which should be interesting! I will explain later! :-)

Cheers from Stratford Upon Avon!
J.