lThis is my last weekend in Cambridge! I have a 10-15 page Ulysses paper due Wednesday and a >1000 word Shakespeare paper due Thursday then I fly home on Friday, arriving in Boston that night at 7 PM EST (I think). These six weeks flew by...
For our last excursion - meaning our last 2 hour trip on buses as a cohesive unit! - we went back to Stratford-Upon-Avon to look around and to see a performance of Hamlet. We saw Shakespeare's birthplace, the Shakespeare Family Homestead, and went for a boat tour of Avon. Stratford-Upon-Avon also contains seemingly thousands of character-named places like Cordelia (a pub). We passed a horribly tacky 3d-tour of Shakespeare plays called the Shakespeariance. I could not make this up if I tried, trust me. (We did not go on The Shakespeareance. We retain some dignity.)
Anyway, there was much excitement surrounding this production, because David Tennant - the current Dr. Who - AND Patrick Stewart of Star Trek fame both starred in it. (For those of us who like scifi things, this is a very exciting moment. Also, the player in the play-within-a-play representing Shakespeare himself looked MUCH like the King of the Cosmos from Katamari and nobody else on this trip had any idea what I was talking about. The King of the Cosmos - and that player fellow - looks like this.)
David Tennant was perfect as Hamlet! Patrick Stewart was a little bit flat as Claudius for my liking, but it was awesome anyway. I know I keep saying that each thing I do is better than the last, but this performance BLEW King Lear and Merchant of Venice out of the water. The actor who played Lear at the Globe was Polonius in Hamlet, and he was absolutely perfect. I don't think anybody in that entire audience disliked it. It's getting rave reviews all over England; critics are saying that David Tennant might be the quintessential Hamlet of the 21st century (so says our Shakespeare professors). The Courtyard, where we saw it, sold out the remainder of the run, and it moves to London in the fall. Tickets are as expensive as £100 and rising...
That's about it from here really. I promise you the British Food Entry is coming this week (I've been working on it!) and upon my arrival to the states I will write the British Language & Culture entry...because I know you're all waiting for it.
I hope all is well with you, and I'm looking forward to seeing you soon.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Enter the Haggis!
This weekend we went to Scotland. You know how people talk about how they fall in love with a place the second they set foot there? That pretty accurately summarizes my feelings for Scotland. It was all so beautiful and so perfect; I could spend the rest of my life there.
Anyway. We left Cambridge at 8 AM on Thursday and drove to Haworth, where the Brontes lived. We walked around their house and the moors. The moors are presently occupied with several thousand sheep and Mr. Heathcliff and Jane Eyre were conspicuously absent. "Creepy" is not quite the word I would use to describe Bronteland - as most seem to - but rather "picturesque". Haworth was a hill-based town, with a very steep cobblestone main street and lots of fields nearby.
We got back on the bus to keep driving to The NORTH (as UK road signs read). There is apparently some rule that one may not drive for more than 4 hours at a crack, so you must stop and take a break. We stopped right on the border of England and Scotland to get something to nibble on and to stretch our legs a little before heading further north.
While in Edinburgh we were staying at the Pollock Halls, some sort of conference housing as part of the University of Edinburgh. These were really nice buildings; way nicer than I think any of us fully anticipated. Nobody had roommates, which was actually a very good move on the part of someone! After getting off the bus, we all unpacked a little bit and then went out for dinner. Some friends and I found terrible Chinese take-away, and later met up with the rest of the group at some nearby pub, where we met a Real Scottish Person and his Irish friend.
That night, I got sick. I'm allergic to shellfish and the like, so I had assumed I had accidentally ingested some at the Chinese place earlier... There were 21 of us on this trip, and 17 people were sick over the 3 nights we spent in Edinburgh. Rumors abounded: Was it food poisoning? Was it Avian Flu? Was it West Nile? What about Kevin? He was just in the States for someone's wedding, maybe he brought it back! Luckily I had a pretty mild form of The Plague, I still did everything the next few days. Some people barely left their rooms and therefore became very familiar with Baird Hall but didn't see any of the city!
So the next day (Friday) I went to Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile, and Hollyrood Palace with the group. My friend Kat and I had both been sick and were the only ones who managed to make it all day on the Mile. The castle was really cool, the Royal Mile was one big collection of shops, pubs, and advertising for the Fringe Festival. While we were in Scotland, their big theatre festival was taking place, so advertising for it was everywhere. We also went into a beyond frightening museum called The Museum of Childhood, had really good gelato, saw Parliament (more like Uglyment! it was so bad) and went through Mary, Queen of Scots' chambers. What a day! I went back and passed out for a while, then ate at a horribly named place called Absorb Cafe, walked halfway up a trail on one of the hills behind us, and went right back to sleep again.
Saturday was basically designed as a re-do of Friday for those who missed it, but in reality everyone sort of went off on their own accords. We all felt a lot better, and I certainly felt fine! If I could do all of Friday... Saturday was only better. A big group of us went down to the Edinburgh Dungeons, which were fantastically cheesy. Other than that, we basically stuck to the Royal Mile; I bought a kilt!
We went back to the Fringe Festival Leaflet Collection Zone and scoped out some shows to see.
Real names of plays going on right now in Edinburgh: Apocalypse The Musical, Plague The Musical, The Duck That Died for No Reason (their shirts said Discipline The Duck; a much better title), Dracula On a Bouncy Castle, etc...
A very enthusiastic young man talked us into seeing a HORRIBLE play called ShakesPod (I promise you, it is WAY worse than the title begins to imply. Trust me: I wish I could have that hour of my life back) and we also saw a wonderful sketch show called The Duck that Died for No Reason ("I don't eat animals that Beatrix Potter wrote about!"). That evening we had plans to meet some guys from our group and go out to a pub together, but they never materialized, so two friends and I went off. We ended up at a scottish punk club, filled with 40-something punkers, and a live band yelling "Oi!" a lot. It was AWESOME.
I DID try haggis while I was in Scotland. Our dining-hall thing in the very MUBlike John MacIntyre Center had haggis (and for our vegetarian friends, Tofaggis, though it was quite sadly not called that). I had sort of hoped to get the whole stomach shebang - haggis, tatties and neeps - and eat that, but that might have been a little bit intense. Haggis, in case you were curious, tastes much like meaty hash browns with lots of seasoning. For more fun about haggis, please see this wikipedia article!
Since you only live once, a group of us wanted to take the hike up Arthur's Seat to watch the sunrise at 4 am. 6 of us were ready to go, but 4 of them had only flip flops, which are not very good hiking shoes; I had borrowed my (still sick) friend Liz's hiking boots. The flip flop crowd weren't really prepared for very much, so they went up a very straightforward path while my friend Becca and I decided to tackle the largest mountain.
After walking around the base of it for a long time, we decided if there was no recognizable trail at the bottom we may as well start going up it and pick up the trail where we could. This ultimately turned into us crawling up the entire face of the crag, one hand at a time! Occasionally we'd stop and wonder why we hadn't found the trail yet... but if you stayed in one place too long you might also fall off the side of the wall, so we had to keep moving. We became quite intimidated by a collection of very small trees (we felt pathetic) and I still have thistles stuck all in my hands, but it was AWESOME.
We made it up to the top in about 40 minutes or so, which wasn't really so bad. There was a very big sign, warning us of our impending death by falling rocks (this would have been a little useful at the BOTTOM of the mountain too...) and a small barricade with similar warnings (NO PEDESTRIANS, IMPENDING DOOM, etc). We walked around that on the VERY well-kempt trail, which we followed to all the major nearby hills. We ultimately made it to Arthur's Peak after climbing the world's supply of stairs. Though we missed most of the sunrise, we certainly saw all Edinburgh, from the best vantage point possible. It was so beautiful, and I was so impressed that we did it and the mountain is still there. (yes! nobody died! TAKE THAT!)
After that we packed up, piled back onto the bus, and saw York in 2 hours. York was drastically different from New York! It was a city, but not a huge one, but I didn't see much of it beyond a sandwich place and a few used bookstores and the like. Another 5 hours later, we arrived back in Cambridge, where we eventually learned that all of Cambridge was sick in our absence too, effectively ruling out Kevin as a source of disease.
Despite the plague, I had SUCH a great time! I wish I could do it again! I might have been the only person who actually liked Scotland, but that's fine by me.
Anyway. We left Cambridge at 8 AM on Thursday and drove to Haworth, where the Brontes lived. We walked around their house and the moors. The moors are presently occupied with several thousand sheep and Mr. Heathcliff and Jane Eyre were conspicuously absent. "Creepy" is not quite the word I would use to describe Bronteland - as most seem to - but rather "picturesque". Haworth was a hill-based town, with a very steep cobblestone main street and lots of fields nearby.
We got back on the bus to keep driving to The NORTH (as UK road signs read). There is apparently some rule that one may not drive for more than 4 hours at a crack, so you must stop and take a break. We stopped right on the border of England and Scotland to get something to nibble on and to stretch our legs a little before heading further north.
While in Edinburgh we were staying at the Pollock Halls, some sort of conference housing as part of the University of Edinburgh. These were really nice buildings; way nicer than I think any of us fully anticipated. Nobody had roommates, which was actually a very good move on the part of someone! After getting off the bus, we all unpacked a little bit and then went out for dinner. Some friends and I found terrible Chinese take-away, and later met up with the rest of the group at some nearby pub, where we met a Real Scottish Person and his Irish friend.
That night, I got sick. I'm allergic to shellfish and the like, so I had assumed I had accidentally ingested some at the Chinese place earlier... There were 21 of us on this trip, and 17 people were sick over the 3 nights we spent in Edinburgh. Rumors abounded: Was it food poisoning? Was it Avian Flu? Was it West Nile? What about Kevin? He was just in the States for someone's wedding, maybe he brought it back! Luckily I had a pretty mild form of The Plague, I still did everything the next few days. Some people barely left their rooms and therefore became very familiar with Baird Hall but didn't see any of the city!
So the next day (Friday) I went to Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile, and Hollyrood Palace with the group. My friend Kat and I had both been sick and were the only ones who managed to make it all day on the Mile. The castle was really cool, the Royal Mile was one big collection of shops, pubs, and advertising for the Fringe Festival. While we were in Scotland, their big theatre festival was taking place, so advertising for it was everywhere. We also went into a beyond frightening museum called The Museum of Childhood, had really good gelato, saw Parliament (more like Uglyment! it was so bad) and went through Mary, Queen of Scots' chambers. What a day! I went back and passed out for a while, then ate at a horribly named place called Absorb Cafe, walked halfway up a trail on one of the hills behind us, and went right back to sleep again.
Saturday was basically designed as a re-do of Friday for those who missed it, but in reality everyone sort of went off on their own accords. We all felt a lot better, and I certainly felt fine! If I could do all of Friday... Saturday was only better. A big group of us went down to the Edinburgh Dungeons, which were fantastically cheesy. Other than that, we basically stuck to the Royal Mile; I bought a kilt!
We went back to the Fringe Festival Leaflet Collection Zone and scoped out some shows to see.
Real names of plays going on right now in Edinburgh: Apocalypse The Musical, Plague The Musical, The Duck That Died for No Reason (their shirts said Discipline The Duck; a much better title), Dracula On a Bouncy Castle, etc...
A very enthusiastic young man talked us into seeing a HORRIBLE play called ShakesPod (I promise you, it is WAY worse than the title begins to imply. Trust me: I wish I could have that hour of my life back) and we also saw a wonderful sketch show called The Duck that Died for No Reason ("I don't eat animals that Beatrix Potter wrote about!"). That evening we had plans to meet some guys from our group and go out to a pub together, but they never materialized, so two friends and I went off. We ended up at a scottish punk club, filled with 40-something punkers, and a live band yelling "Oi!" a lot. It was AWESOME.
I DID try haggis while I was in Scotland. Our dining-hall thing in the very MUBlike John MacIntyre Center had haggis (and for our vegetarian friends, Tofaggis, though it was quite sadly not called that). I had sort of hoped to get the whole stomach shebang - haggis, tatties and neeps - and eat that, but that might have been a little bit intense. Haggis, in case you were curious, tastes much like meaty hash browns with lots of seasoning. For more fun about haggis, please see this wikipedia article!
Since you only live once, a group of us wanted to take the hike up Arthur's Seat to watch the sunrise at 4 am. 6 of us were ready to go, but 4 of them had only flip flops, which are not very good hiking shoes; I had borrowed my (still sick) friend Liz's hiking boots. The flip flop crowd weren't really prepared for very much, so they went up a very straightforward path while my friend Becca and I decided to tackle the largest mountain.
After walking around the base of it for a long time, we decided if there was no recognizable trail at the bottom we may as well start going up it and pick up the trail where we could. This ultimately turned into us crawling up the entire face of the crag, one hand at a time! Occasionally we'd stop and wonder why we hadn't found the trail yet... but if you stayed in one place too long you might also fall off the side of the wall, so we had to keep moving. We became quite intimidated by a collection of very small trees (we felt pathetic) and I still have thistles stuck all in my hands, but it was AWESOME.
We made it up to the top in about 40 minutes or so, which wasn't really so bad. There was a very big sign, warning us of our impending death by falling rocks (this would have been a little useful at the BOTTOM of the mountain too...) and a small barricade with similar warnings (NO PEDESTRIANS, IMPENDING DOOM, etc). We walked around that on the VERY well-kempt trail, which we followed to all the major nearby hills. We ultimately made it to Arthur's Peak after climbing the world's supply of stairs. Though we missed most of the sunrise, we certainly saw all Edinburgh, from the best vantage point possible. It was so beautiful, and I was so impressed that we did it and the mountain is still there. (yes! nobody died! TAKE THAT!)
After that we packed up, piled back onto the bus, and saw York in 2 hours. York was drastically different from New York! It was a city, but not a huge one, but I didn't see much of it beyond a sandwich place and a few used bookstores and the like. Another 5 hours later, we arrived back in Cambridge, where we eventually learned that all of Cambridge was sick in our absence too, effectively ruling out Kevin as a source of disease.
Despite the plague, I had SUCH a great time! I wish I could do it again! I might have been the only person who actually liked Scotland, but that's fine by me.
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