Bianca's Farewell/Shakespeare Play

Last night (Wednesday), my host counselor Mike picked me up and we headed to the Coventry Phoenix Rotary Club meeting for Bianca's farewell speech. Bianca is leaving on Dec. 9 to return to Brazil, so the Coventry Phoenix and Coventry Jubilee Rotary Clubs met at a conference center in Coventry. It was fun getting to see some familiar faces, including the Littlefords (the people I stayed with in Coventry) and Gustav, the Swedish exchange student. The tables were decorated for Christmas, and each plate had a Christmas cracker on it. A Christmas cracker probably isn't what you think...it's not edible! I can't really describe what it looks like, so I'm posting a picture. Anyway, they're very popular Christmas gifts in England. You hold one end and someone else holds the other end, and you both pull. Whoever gets the biggest half when it breaks (it makes a loud pop) gets the prize that's inside. The prizes are usually a little charm or comb or toy, and a paper crown. Gustav and Mike and I popped about 5 of the Christmas crackers! Some of the Rotarians wore their crowns, and it was funny seeing old men with paper crowns on their head. For dinner, we had porkchops and applesauce (again), yorkshire pudding, carrots and potatoes (big surprise, huh?), and apple crumble for dessert. Bianca gave a beautiful speech...her English is wonderful! I'm the most impressed with Gustav, though. His English is flawless, with hardly a trace of a Swedish accent! At dinner, we were talking with Paul and Lorna Beedham (his host family) about the words "pants" and "trousers." The English call pants "trousers," and underwear "pants." So Tooley and I have to be careful when we go into store and talk about the clothes. If we talk about a cute pair of pants that we want to try on, the English people might think we're talking about underwear! But Gustav has had American English teachers as well as British English teachers, so he says "pants" for pants, too. Also, suspenders are called "braces." In England, women's garters are called "suspenders." So don't tell an Englishman that you like his suspenders...you might offend him! The meeting was nice, but I didn't get back to Stratford until almost 11:30 p.m.! Today I went to Leamington Spa to run errands, and then Natalie, Marfo, and I met for coffee before our lecture this afternoon. Tonight, Tooley and I tried fish and chips for the very first time! We felt really English. The people at the restaurant poured salt and vinegar onto the fried fish (cod) and fries, wrapped it in newsprint, and we took it home. It was pretty good! Very greasy, but good. I don't know if we'll eat it too much, but it's just something you have to try when you go to England. After supper, I went to see our school's production of "Julius Caesar." I've never read it before, but it was SO fun watching some of my classmates act! Cat was a townsperson, and she did a great job! I was very impressed, and actually enjoyed the play! Afterwards, American Natalie, English Natalie, Michelle, Emily (also English), and I went and hung out with everyone at The Windmill, which is a pub right across the street from my school. I had a fun night! This weekend I have my last class of the semester...hooray!

Me and Bianca saying goodbye!

A Christmas cracker. ALL of the stores sell them! They're very popular Christmas gifts, and nobody could believe that Tooley and I had never heard of them.