First Day Of Classes!

I had my first day of classes in London today! My schedule for the day was: 9-10:30 Topics in Theatre: From Shakespeare to the West End, then 11-12:30 was Shakespeare I (a literary class, going to read 6 of his works), and then from 2-5pm I had English Country Houses and Palaces.

Topics in Theatre was very interesting! My teacher is a British woman named Anne Sullivan. She is very friendly and energetic. We are going to see EIGHT plays this semester! I'm so excited because that is so many. Each of the plays are at different theaters as well and span various genres. She said she tried to pick an array of theaters, writers and genres so that way we could experience a wide variety of theater.

My first play, called "Punk Rock" takes place in present day England, inside of the library at a college. I will be seeing that play on Monday. The following week we are going to see a Shakespeare play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, at the GLOBE THEATRE! Our teacher told us that the best way to experience the Globe is to pretend you are a GROUNDLING and stand! The play goes on rain, shine, or hail so she told us to wear a rainjacket and comfortable shoes!

That will be me!

My next class was Shakespeare One, which focuses on 6 of his plays. We will be reading 5 romantic comedies and 1 tragedy. The first play that we are reading is "Twelve Nights." I was able to attain a copy today for only £2, (or 2 quid as they call it here,) which is a fairly good deal. I need to have the first act read by Wedesday. My teacher for this class was a short, older British man. He speaks slowly and quotes Shakespeare and other authors a lot. He seemed witty though and willing to put down America (in a teasing way) even though he's teaching study abroad students. Ah, oh well, it's true I agree England's better! He's very witty and funny though, so I think learning and reading Shakespeare with him will be "huge fun" as the British say!

My last class of the day was British Country Houses and Palaces. I learned that many of the privately owned giant estates in England make an income by renting out their property to movie sets. I saw slideshows of some of the rooms and houses that appear in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice! It was exciting for me, haha.