Re-Cap of the Past Week

Last weekend (before I left for Switzerland) I had my first weekend class of the semester. My regular teacher, Catherine Alexander, has been out with the flu for two weeks, so we had different teachers fill in for her over the weekend. This semester, I'm taking two modules - "Shakespeare's Women" and "Acting and Directing." I'm really enjoying them so far! Luckily, we DON'T have to act or direct in the Acting and Directing class...we just study different performances and directors. Whew! During our weekend class, four students from the University of Essex came to join us. Guess where all four of them are from...the U.S.! They're doing a two-year Acting and Directing program, so they came to spend the weekend in Stratford and attend our class. It was SO fun getting to hang out with other Americans! I'm one of two Americans in my particular program. The other guy, Powder, went to Yale and he's really fun. Powder and I went to lunch with the Americans and had fun talking about the States. I offered them some Nilla wafers that I had brought as a snack, and they were excited because you can't find Nilla wafers in England! One girl, Laura, told me that her parents had sent her some Jiff peanut butter, and one of the other guys said that he really missed Jolly Ranchers. One of the guys, David, is from Nashville, and his wife is living here with him. Marta is a school teacher, and she really misses the American students! English children are pretty wild...I'm always shocked when I read the paper! They beat each other up, stab each other, and most of them dress very punk. It was nice hearing Southern accents. :) One thing we talked about was the word "restroom." In the States, people say, "I need to use the restroom," and in England, people say, "I need to use the toilet." You'll never find a sign pointing to the "restroom," but you WILL find signs pointing to the "toilets." At first, it was hard to get used to saying "toilet" instead of "restroom" or "bathroom," because toilet just sounds kind of...vulgar. We all agreed that "restroom" sounds more polite. This past Friday night, Marfo, Michelle, Natalie, and I went ice skating in Coventry! It was really fun! Marfo had never ice skated before, so it was fun getting to teach her how to do it. I took pictures, and I'll post them soon. Natalie, Michelle, and I are all about equal when it comes to ice skating...we're not the best, but we're not the worst, either! On Saturday night, Marfo and I went to see "The Canterbury Tales" at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It was really good! The actors dressed in period costumes, but the language was adapted from Old English to modern speech (thank goodness!), and the play was really funny. They even rapped one of the tales, and danced really ghetto...it was great! Tonight, Tooley and Mary Virginia are returning from Italy. They're spending the night and heading back to London tomorrow afternooon, because they fly out of London early Wednesday morning. Sad! And I won't get to spend very much time with them because I have to give a Rotary speech in Solihull, and tomorrow morning I have class for three hours. Hopefully my Rotary event tonight won't last TOO long. In other news, the flu/cold is going around Stratford! Both of my housemates are sick! Marfo and I have been taking care of Catherine this weekend, and last night, Marfo started feeling sick. One of our friends, Hannah, was supposed to go see "The Canterbury Tales" with us, but she got sick, too! I've been taking vitamins and drinking lots of orange juice, so hopefully I'll be ok. I hope everyone had a great weekend!