A Quick One Before I'm Off!

Ok- so I'm leaving for Scotland in a couple of hours, but I still have breakfast and class before then. But I thought I'd try to write a quick little blog to tell you what I've done these past 3 days!

Monday was a big school day. I didn't do quite as much schoolwork in Ireland as I was hoping I would, so I had to catch up a bit. Mostly reading  Mrs. Dalloway by Woolf and Winter's Tale by Shakespeare. But, the best part of the day was, having the 'Brasenose Boys' perform for us the play within a play of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We had been watching them rehearse for about a week now, and it was absolutely hilarious. I was actually really impressed with their line memorization, although they were pretty terrible actors. And I highly doubt their interpretation was the one Shakespeare had intended on...

Tuesday was a field-trip day. The Jane Austen class went down to Lyme Regis where Persuasion took place, and knowing me, I'm never one to turn down an excursion, although many non-Austen people did. And looking back, I probably should have too... We were told it was suppose to be a 2.5 hour drive down; but our driver apparently really like scenic roots, so ours actually ended up being 4.5 hours. When we got to the popular seaside resort, it was pouring. I'm not kidding you. Pouring. Cats and dogs. I put the hood of my rain jacket up and tried to bear it, and I did for about 30 minutes, and then I stopped at a coffee shop with one of the girls and hung out there while everybody else went out to walk on the Cobb. My jeans were SOAKED! They were getting heavy and started sticking to my legs (it didn't help that they were skinny jeans already) and so Christina and I decided to see if I could pick up a souvenir sweat pants or something. I actually was able to stop by the 'Rainbow Supermarket' which was looked basically like a surf shop, and found some leggings on sale for 4 pounds. Let me just say- best purchase since I've gotten here! I got back to the bus, changed, and everybody was jealous! I actually started a mini-trend. About 4 other girls quickly ran down to the shop to pick up some leggings for themselves too, so we were all able to be dry when we got home!

Yesterday we had class, but we went to Warwick Castle afterwards. I had been 7 years ago, but I definitely did not remember it being as cheesy and young as it was now... It really did look like some sort of Medieval version of Disney World. But I still had fun! I even got to watch a little video about battle pointing out the 2 houses of Lancaster and York. Woot woot! Lets go Red Roses! After we got done with the cheesiness we were off to Stratford once more to see them perform Winter's Tale. I have to admit, this was my favorite play that the Royal Shakespeare Company has performed, even rivaling it to the Globe Theater. It was very well done. I loved how they used the props and the scenery and how they used the motifs of books and pages throughout the performance. I know, it's hard to explain, but it was pretty awesome. Plus, I absolutely love how they did the most famous stage direction in Shakespeare history: 'Exit Pursued by Bear.' I'm really excited about going to class and discussing the play!

So I'm all packed up and about ready to leave for Scotland. It'll be about a 5.5 hour travel with 2 quick train switches (including one in Lancaster!) and then I'll finally be there. I'm going to be spending most of my time there alone, so it'll be interesting. But I do feel as if I'm a fairly independent person, so I'm pretty sure I'll do well. My main concern is just getting on all my trains. But I have everything written down, so I should do fine. Plus, I have somebody meeting up with me right as soon as I get off, so I'm very lucky about that. I have no real plans for Edinburgh, just experiencing the city as a whole. I'm sure I'll just end up wandering and finding myself in some sort of (safe) adventure.

And yes, I am determined to get a picture of me next to at least 1 person wearing a kilt.

Catch y'all on the flip side!