A lot has happened since my last post, but I’ll get to that later. First, I want to talk about my final trip with the school. I got to go to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. I am a theatre major, so I have learned a lot about Willy Shakes in many of my classes and I love history so seeing so many places that are historical was a great experience for me. Because it was so early in the day and the coronavirus fears there were only 10 of us on the trip, including our tour guide. On our trip up we had a Shakespeare trivia contest that includes things from “What was the name of his theatre?” to “Who played Romeo and Juliet in the Baz Luhrmann version?” to naming what plays different quotes were from. I had a lot of knowledge from my different theatre history classes and I won the trivia contest. The prize was a bag of Percy Pigs, which is basically fruit gummies in the shape of pigs, and they were very good.
In Stratford-upon-Avon, we saw the house that Shakespeare was born and grew up in and the church he is buried in. The house has been turned into a museum that you can walk through that teaches you about what life was like when he was born. The church where he is buried has a whole section in the back where he and his family are buried inside as well as a bust that was created by his friends after his death.
We also got a chance to explore the town on our own and walking around the town made me feel so peaceful. It is really a sleepy little town nestled next to a river, yes there is a little bit of tourism around the birthplace but even the other buildings related to Shakespeare you wouldn’t be able to tell they were anything other than an old building unless you saw the sign on the wall explaining what it was.
The trip back was so calming, I loved sitting and looking out the window while the English countryside passed me by. I almost felt like I was in a movie with music playing in my headphones and watching the sheep and hills pass me by.