ne of the perks of going to an overpriced institution of higher learning like USC and going abroad is that they organize free trips for you to go on so you can “experience” more of the UK. Dr. John Sharkey is the guy who organizes all of this for us. He pretty much gets paid to take college students around the UK, spend as much of USC’s money as possible, and make sure we don’t fuck up too badly. So Friday I traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon for my all inclusive weekend of fun. I left Friday afternoon and met up with my sorority sister, Katherine, at the Marylebone train station where we took the 5:30 to Stratford-upon-Avon. What’s so special about Stratford you ask? Well, for starters, it’s the birthplace of Shakespeare. And that’s about it. Unless you count it as also being the birthplace of the Teletubbies. BIG bragging rights with that one. So why did I chose Stratford over the other two trips (the Scottish Highlands and Newcastle)? Well mostly because it was the one I was supposed to choose. I am a theatre major, and therefore required to worship William Shakespeare. I was going to have to make the pilgrimage to Stratford eventually and figured I might as well do it for free.

Left: Memorial celebrating 800 years of being a town. Right: The Avon River

The oldest pub in Stratford

The train ride took about 2.5 hours and when we got there we made the short walk to the B&B we were staying at. It was adorable. Wayyyy nicer than my room at school and with a very comfy bed too. I shared it with Katherine and another girl who had been on the train with us. Soon after checking in we all met downstairs for the meal of the night. After the meal we went to the “oldest pub in Stratford” and then headed back to the inn. The next morning we all awoke at around 9:00 and went down for a home cooked English breakfast. Beans, toast, eggs, sausage, and coffee. Yum. At around 9:30 we finished breakfast, and then promptly realized we still had another hour and a half before out tour. So I went back to sleep. Our tour of the town started at 11:00 and we were taken to some of the most memorable sights of the city. We visited the grave of William Shakespeare and a couple of the theatres in the town. We also saw some of the places he had lived and studied. There were also a lot of swans. Be careful, they can break a man’s arm with their beak. The tour guide also pointed out the building where the lady who invented Teletubbies lived. That was thrilling.

Our room at the Lindhill Inn

Left: Statue of William Shakespeare. Right: Window from the church where Shakespeare is buried.

The place where a house once stood that Shakespeare lived in

Grave of Shakespeare

The first folio (collection of Shakespeare's works)

Where the Teletubbies were born

After the tour we pretty much had 4 hours to do as we pleased, so after grabbing our allotted 10 pounds for lunch from John, we all headed our separate ways. We and a few other people went to lunch at a pub. Katherine and I shared a plate of Nachos. Not the same. Not the same at all. It was my first foray into Mexican here and it was kind of a mistake. Still, it was only 2 pounds. After we finished we headed to one of the museums in town: the Birthplace of Shakespeare. We bought the season pass ticket, which was good for all 5 of the museums for a whole year. Why do this if we were only going to be there another 24 hours? Because John said USC would reimburse it as part of the trip and hey, who knows, I might end up in Stratford again. The exhibit was pretty interesting and we learned a lot about Shakespeare’s home life. Did you know his father was a glove maker? Well he was. We got to tour the house, which was full of furniture from the time period. After the birthplace a couple people in my group wanted to go to the Hathaway Cottage, which was the house his wife, Ann Hathaway, lived in before they were married. This sounded nice, so I thought, hey, why not? Well let me tell you why not. As soon as we exited the birth place it started pouring rain. My boots are in serious disrepair and I desperately need new ones. This resulted in some very wet socks. The cottage is also a mile away from the center of town. A fact someone neglected to tell me. On top of that, there isn’t actually much there. Sure it’s pretty, but there really isn’t a whole lot to see. After trekking a mile in the pouring rain, we spent a total of about 20 minutes there, before starting to go a mile back towards town. Thank god it had stopped raining by that point. I was not the happiest camper I have to admit.

Birthplace of Shakespeare

The Hathaway Cottage

Bed in the Hathaway Cottage

For dinner we went to this Indian restaurant in the center of town. I don’t even like Indian food and usually I just get naan, but since USC was footing the bill I figured why not, go crazy! So I ordered a diet coke, lamb samosa, garlic naan, and chicken korma. The samosa was pretty good and the naan was DELICIOUS. One of the best I’ve had here. The chicken korma was ok, not something I’d seek out, but since I had to choose something it was a decent choice. After dinner we made our way to the theatre to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform “King Lear.” The actors were phenomenal. They really played the roles well. That being said, I was bored out of my mind. I am a theatre major and I wanted to gouge my eyes out. The play is sooooo long and sooooo depressing. I found it hard to stay awake. There was also some weird WWI influence going on. Like half of the costumes were medieval and the other half were from WWI. I was so confused. After the play we went back to the inn to get some sleep since we were taking a 10:00 train back to London.

The boys came back from their journey to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Berlin last night so I got to hear lots of good stories today. For those of you worried about my partying and drinking during reading week, let me tell you, it was NOTHING compared to these boys. However, I do have, Belgian chocolate now, so all in all I’d say everyone wins.