We went to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the penultimate official outing as a study abroad group. It was interesting, I suppose, but I had no idea what I was actually going to see at any of the places we went (Anne Hathaway’s cottage, Shakespeare’s birthplace, Nash’s House and New Place, Hall’s Croft). Being in places that are that much older than me and so distant from what my life is like makes it difficult to connect with the experience. It’s still interesting and aesthetically pleasing, but when I’m on these sites it doesn’t feel like a house but like a museum. It’s funny that old artifacts (or even replicas), though they may look similarly to what they looked like then, always look like a museum display, i.e., not like someone ever did or could have lived there.
One of the best parts of the trips, aside from the trips being free, are the spicy chicken sandwiches. I think they’re a sort of chicken salad made with curry powder. I get an orange soda and a banana with the sandwich, and I’m the happiest boy in the world. The assistant to the director of OPUS (the program through which I’m studying at Oxford) and her husband make them the morning before the trips. (Unrelated to the sandwiches, we’ve determined that this woman is M from the Bond saga. She’s older, has short, whiting hair, is rather austere, and she’s British. Furthermore, while we know she does a lot of the technical stuff for OPUS, no one can really pinpoint what it is that she does.)
Anyway, Shakespeare is interesting and sandwiches are delicious.
I always forget that Shakespeare married a woman named Anne Hathaway, so when I read this I thought, "I didn't know Anne Hathaway lived in Europe, but her last movie rocked!" Then I remembered and felt like an idiot... ha. I admire Europe for being substantially older than anything I have ever known. That inspires a sort of wonder in me. A wonder of what life could have been like back then: how life had to have been simpler and morals much more finite and concrete.
ReplyDeleteInteresting way to view the past, but I understand it. It certainly had to be infinitely different than how we live, that's for sure.
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