"Out of the jaws of death."

Thursday was a day of firsts for many reasons. It was the first time I got up before 7 a.m., for I awoke early to do my laundry. It was also the first day on this trip that I really wasn't looking forward to what was on the schedule. On Thursday, we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Now, I know all of you will think me stupid and petty for complaining anything on this trip but let me just point out the two things that weren't exciting me. One, we were going via bus and I really am not a huge fan of buses, especially when you're on them for over two hours. Second, we weren't going to return until after midnight, and the thought of that was just unpleasant. And since I had already risen at 630 to get my laundry done for the upcoming trip to Scotland, the prospect of being awake for 18 hours was not getting me all excited.

Nonetheless, I boarded the bus at 1030 and spent the next three hours on board. I did finish a book, which was a plus, but the fact that it took an extra hour to get to the town put me in a bit of a foul mood. There was nothing planned for us during the day and we didn't have to meet up as a group again until 7:15, so three of us went off and did some exploring. Another bad thing about Stratford-Upon-Avon: nothing is free. They really like to milk the crap out of the whole Shakespeare thing so you have to pay to do pretty much everything. Thus, we just visited the local public library and then wandered around the town itself before heading to the church where Shakespeare's grave is located. We had to wait about a half hour to get in because there was a funeral in progress (oops!) but we finally got to see the church and the grave. That was worth the 50p it cost us students to get in.

Then we wandered back into town to get a very late lunch/early dinner at the oldest pub/inn in the town, the Garrick Inn. They had some great food, amazing chips, and finally a well-pulled Guinness. Success! By the time we were done there, it had started raining, which ruined out plans to go sit along the Avon River and read. Thus, we found a Starbucks and settled in for an hour or so of reading. Before that, however, I broke down and finally purchased an umbrella. I had lasted almost two weeks with either my rain jacket or not caring about it. But I finally hit that breaking point and needed to get one. I really wanted to last the entire month but I just couldn't. I'm ashamed.

We then met up with the rest of our group and headed to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. We had tickets to go see them put on the Twelfth Night (and we actually discovered later that it was opening night!) I was excited to do this but I had already been up for so many hours and the prospect of being up for several more was really putting a damper on my spirits. However, I rallied and sat through a great performance. I'm very glad that we had the opportunity to see it but would have enjoyed seeing it when I was more awake.

After the performance, we booked it back to the bus and were on our way by 10:34. We arrived back at the dorms by 12:36 a.m. and I attempted to go to sleep. Alas, the stupid and drunk undergrads proceeded to yell outside my window until 1:30. If I had had the physical power to actually remove myself from my supine position, they would have gotten some strong words from me. Alas, I did not have the energy and they eventually dissipated to their own rooms. This, my friends, is a faithful narrative of what I did on Thursday July 12., 2012. For the truth of everything here related, I can appeal more particularly to the testimony of Jenny Collins and Melissa Proulx. (Borrowed and adapted from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.) And it turned out to be a pretty okay day in the end so no more complaining here.

- Kate