Day 2: Tours and Playwrights

On our first full day in Stratford-upon-Avon we were able to take a walking tour with one of the town's natives, Allen. We were privy to many interesting facts about the town, but the majority of our exploration surrounded William Shakespeare given the fact that Stratford is where Shakespeare was most likely born and where he is most likely buried. We visited the Holy Trinity Church which houses the immediate Shakespeare family including William himself, his wife Anne Hathaway, his daughter Susannah, his son-in-law John Hall, and Thomas Nash, the first husband of Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth. After viewing where Shakespeare was buried, we took a trip to the house where he was most likely born and learned about what his life would have been like during that time in history. (Fun fact: Shakespeare was not known as a playwright when he died, but simply a wealthy businessman. It was not until after he died that his works were published and he became well known, similar to most artists we admire today.) (Other Fun Fact: It is believed that Shakespeare died because he went out one night, drank too much, fell in a ditch, caught some sort of illness, and died a few days later.)

Later in the evening, we went to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and saw the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of Cervantes' Don Quijote. Having studied this story in almost every Spanish class I have ever taken, it was nice to be able to see a live production and compare how I viewed the story in my head versus how it was perceived by others. In my opinion, I thought the production was extremely funny and loved it!

Something I learned today: When the English make any sort of typical American cuisine, it does not at all taste like actual American cuisine. This is probably not surprising, but the main problem is that they tend to leave out ingredients. I had a ham sandwich the other day and that sandwich consisted of ham and one tomato slice. That was it. They also put butter inside almost all of their sandwiches and I have no idea why.