Apr 11 2011
Happy April Fool’s Day!
On April 1, 2011, we visited the south coast city of Brighton, its Pavilion, and walked around the hip and funky town that was the home of the ‘Mods’ of the 1960s. It had tons of shopping and places to eat. Liza, Chelsey and I ate at a fish & chips place because I figured it would be the last time I would have this famous type of British food. Although, no mushy peas for me!
That night, Liza, Ali, Chelsey and I got on the tube to depart for Paris. We met the man in charge at Victoria Rail Station and got on a bus back to Brighton. Yes, none of us had any clue but we went to Brighton, came back to Brighton, only to return to Brighton later that evening. After our hour train ride to Brighton, we got on the bus and started our journey to Paris, France. We went with Discovery Tours and it was us 6 Americans (well, one Canadian being Liza) and we were with 22 other International students. We went to sleep in London and woke up in Paris. It was unreal to think that just in less than 11 hours, we were in France! In the span of 1 day and a half, I saw The Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Towel, Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees. We then spent some time exploring the village-like streets of Montmartre and saw the legendary Moulin Rouge. Also, Chelsey and I visited Disney Village! We were two kids in the candy shop. We got some food, saw Pluto, bought some souvenirs and our ngiht in Paris was a success! On Sunday, we visited The Palace of Versailles and its gardens were gorgeous. The weather was a bit dreary but it was still so beautiful.
Apr 11 2011
On March 24rd, I saw Knot of the Heart by David Eldridge. It was, by far, one of the worst plays I have ever seen. The acting by Lisa Dillon, who the play was written for, was atrocious. That’s all.
March 25-27: This weekend I went to Wales and tested my limits. I went with 5 of my friends and it was a fun weekend with no make-up and comfy clothes. I climbed and jumped cliffs, kayaked and hiked for 7 miles. I got too nervous to jump the 20 ft. or 30 ft. cliff but I think jumping one that was about 15 ft. was good enough and required a ton of bravery.
Apr 11 2011
On March 17, my weekly show was The Heretic. It followed the story of a mother, Dr. Diane Cassell, who is the lead academic in Earth Sciences. The play discusses how she doesn’t believe that climate-change exists, except her anorexic daughter is a Greenpeace activist. It starred Juliet Stevensen, who was fantastic at the role and is most famous for being in Bend It Like Beckham. In the audience was Alan Rickman but I never got to see him face-to-face. On March 18, I visited Stratford Upon Avon with IES for my Shakespeare the Dramatist class. It was really neat to visit the birthplace of Shakespeare, but now it has turned into a museum and his house was rather boring. We also visited Hall’s Croft, the Holy Trinity Church (where he was baptized and buried), and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. The following Friday morning, Chelsey and I slept about 2 seconds and departed for Rome, Italy at 3:00 in the morning. We both had previously been to Roma but we figured it would be nice to return and visit a few friends from Wagner. Everywhere you turn in Roma is another Piazza, Fiat, or historic building. It was difficult to capture everything but in the span of 6 hours, our friend Emily showed us around Italy. Literally, we visited The Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, Campo dei Fiori and Trastevere, The Spanish Steps, and more. My feet were in so much pain but we traveled all over the city and accomplished so much. The next day, Emily, Chelsey and I bought cheese, bread, nutella and cookies and splurged in the Gardens of Villa Borghese. We even took a boat ride in the garden and basked in the sun. It was incredible! We also visited The Vatican and walked up The Cupola - about 300 stairs even with an elevator ride. The view was breathtaking! Our hotel was right by Termini (the Grand Central Station of Rome) and Chelsey and I got so familiar with the Metro Station. However, I honestly think London’s Tube wins the award for being the cleanest and the nicest. Italy’s trains were too claustrophobic and dirty, except I will give them that it was not difficult to follow the directions and signs, even if they were in Italian. The next and final day in Rome, Chelsey and I visited The Roman Forum, The Collasseum and made sure to eat more gelato and pizza. I forgot to mention thus far, but I consumed gelato and pizza on average 3 times a day. There are 3 meals in a day but literally, I ate so much gelato and pizza. Chelsey and I fell in love with one of my pizza places, we even visited it before departing our favorite trip. If you have never been to Rome, the pizza is delicious (as it should be!). It’s so funny because there are pizza restaurants every 2 blocks, and you can go in and tell them exactly how much you want, the chef will cut it, it is weighed, and then you pay. It was pizza heaven! Oh, and coffee gelato was a favorite! When trying to get home, the bus that we were supposed to get on to return to Ciampino Airport was quite the production number. Before we got on, the driver punched one of the passengers (or so I think) and therefore, the bus was shut down and it was no longer running the normal route to the airport. Chelsey and I had bought tickets, were ready to board, and we had to make our flight. Long story short, we got in a taxi and made it to the airport on time. If I included the rest of the story, all you would understand is a bunch of Italians screaming at one another. Luckily, we made our flight and happily returned to London. Funny story: Chelsey and I put on our acting skills. Basically, since on RyanAir you choose your seats, Chelsey took the isle and I took the window seat. Chelsey pretended to be sick and I pretended to be sleeping. Why would any person want to sit next to a sick girl and bother a girl sleeping? The game plan worked and we had the entire row to ourselves. SCORE!
