O.O

This…looks…..freaking…AMAZING.

12th Night Character Relationships Explained by Yours Truly

Yes, you read that long title correctly. Here I’ve taken the time to explain in the simplest way possible (which, as it turns out, isn’t that simple) all of the characters from 12th Night and how they are all related. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Viola loves Orsino who is her boss, who loves Olivia who loves Cesario who is really Viola in drag.

Sebastian is Viola’s twin brother who marries Olivia which causes Orsino to fall for Viola (while, I might add, is under disguise as Cesario.)

Malvolio is the only serious one in the play who is tricked by Maria who is Olivia’s gentlewoman. Malvolio loves Olivia who loves Cesario who Malvolio attempts to battle when he really mistakes Sebastian for Cesario who is still Viola in drag.

Feste is the clown who is really smart but dresses up as a priest and imprisons Malvolio for madness even though Malvolio is not mad. Feste also sings a lot.

Sir Toby and Sir Andrew are the two men who remain drunk the entire play. Sir Toby is Olivia’s uncle who marries Maria. Sir Andrew loves Olivia but doesn’t stand a chance between Cesario/Viola, Sebastian, and Orsino.

Antonio is the man who never admits it but really loves Sebastian. He rescues him from the shipwreck and goes with him to Orsino’s house which is where Viola is, in drag as Cesario.

Viola and Sebastian think each other dead. Antonio later mistakes Viola for Sebastian and gets his feeling hurt.

But don’t worry, this is a comedy, so everyone gets married and dances and sings at the end.

Let’s call this one… Exciting.

For my Psychology of Education class I have to have 18 hours “in the field.” This is just another way of saying I have to go to a high school conveniently located in the next state over (even if it is just 20 min away… next state over sounds more dramatic) and observe a teacher. I have to continue to go back until I have a recorded 18 hours of field experience. I’ve done this before so I (kind of) knew what to expect. I mean, the teacher I had before had recently been in the ARMY and now he was teaching 6-8th graders. Let’s just say the man knew how to yell. I should also tell you this is the same man whose best piece of advice for a new teacher was, and I’m not even kidding these words were straight from his mouth, “Don’t date the parent of one of your students. Or a colleague. Don’t date someone you work with.” Words of wisdom, words. of. wisdom.

So yeah, I was pretty anxious to see who I was paired up with. I was put in an English classroom so I knew I was on the right track. (Last time I was put in a history class while the history major was put in an English class and they wouldn’t let us switch.) My teacher is freaking awesome. I won’t mention her real name, so let’s call her… Mrs. Adams. And I have been emailing her back and forth and figuring out a time to meet up with her and she seemed nice. Well I met her Tuesday and she is exceptionally nice. I have come to realize that she is my teaching twin; very similar to the kind of teacher I want to be. Is is crazy, fun, sarcastic at times, jokes with the kids but still hold’s their respect and she really makes learning fun.

When I first got into the classroom the kids weren’t there yet, she was just showing me around the school and her classroom. She stepped out to make some copies before all the kids came in, and I took a moment to take a few pictures of her classroom to show you how AWESOME she is.

First, she has LITERARY ACTION FIGURES. Snape, Shakespeare (with removable quill and book!) and Jane Austin:

Next she has a poster of STEPHEN COLBERT:

And the last (and the absolute best) thing I took a picture of was…. A BOBBLE HEAD SHAKESPEARE:

Yes, I know. I could hardly believe it myself. So the class filed in and she introduced me and they looked a little disappointed because I think they all thought I was some sort of special guest coming into class to talk to them about something, but when they found out they would still be doing all of their original work and stuff they got sad. Oh well! The first class I am observing is 10th Grade Honors and they are pretty much your typical honors students except ohmygosh they are SO TINY!!! I couldn’t believe they were 10th graders! And let us just discuss a select few of these kids for a moment. First I should say I don’t think there is any sort of dress code other than you must be wearing clothes and if you wear a skirt it has to reach the bottom of your fingertips. That is it. No more rules. So there is this one girl with (I’m not going to lie) kind of a bad perm (I can’t tell if it is naturally frizzy or just a bad perm) and her whole head is HOT HOT PINK. But that isn’t even the oddest thing about her okay… So she has no eyebrows. Completely shaved them off. Instead of normal eyebrows she has some sort of (semi?)permanent tattoo of a design above both her eyes. It threw me for a second. Then, then we have this kid who I don’t know his name yet, but that is okay because I prefer to call him Van Halen. He looks like he could walk onstage during a Van Halen concert and just fit right in, no problems, no questions asked.

On Tuesday they worked in groups dissecting a poem and whatnot then presented in front of the class. Pretty basic stuff. I go in the mornings from 7:30 to 9:05 than race (but not speed mom!) back to campus for my 9:30 class. Then I go back to the high school from 12:50 to 2:30ish and then race back to campus for my 3:30 French (ugh) class. I will be doing this every Tuesday and Thursday for like… the next 18 hours of observation time. HA.

The second group of kids I observe are actually in an inclusion class. What this means is they all have some form of a disability anywhere from ADD to Autism to CP to anything really. Because there are more than five of these kids in this class the state requires a specialized teacher to work with Mrs. Adams and help out around the class because they can be a little unruly at times. I have to say these are the most hilarious kids ever, but you can’t really laugh at what they say because they are being disruptive. But you just can’t help it! Looking at the class you would not be able to tell any of them suffered from any type of disability. There is really only one kid in particular that I can tell, and that is from the way he talks. They all, for the most part, get along quite well however Tuesday was a “good day” meaning a lot of the kids have emotional and behavioral disorders and can be really mean or have attitudes a lot. They were all quite well behaved for the most part, though I was told that three of the absent students were absent due to suspending, and they will probably be back today. As they are the most troublesome of the group I’m quite interested to see how today will play out.

So that is just a basic overview of what a large majority of my posts will be about in the near future. I already have a few funny stories of things said in class and things that they have done, but this post is already way too long, so I will save them for another time!

BEDA 6: Imagine Me And You…

Welcome to what I like to call “Lauren has agreed to do BEDA and very well can’t give up because she has entirely to much homework to do and nothing remotely interesting to talk about.” I can’t be bothered to go look up stuff or make this thing witty and charming, so for today enjoy what I like to call “Six Things on Lauren’s Desk.”

1. SHAKESPEARE Bobble Head

No, I am not even kidding. I got this lovely little thin whilst wandering the streets of Shakespeare’s birthplace. Whenever I need help studying for an exam and I have given up all hope, I shake Shakespeare and everything works out for the better. I must sound insane to you people.

2. LOVE Flask

I got this because it is awesome. I got my sister one that is green and says PEACE and together we are going to use them on my 21st birthday because WE CAN. In other news my mother slowly shakes her head in disappointment.

3. TWO Quote books

This is perhaps the most random (or possibly not) but as I was looking on my desk for interesting items, I found these little gems. I don’t even remember what year this started, but I do remember that my friend Caleb would occasionally write movie quotes on a sheet of paper and people would guess them. I suppose I was the best at this? Or something? Anywho, I remember we were sitting in Pastor Elvis’ Spanish class, not learning anything as usual, and I said to Caleb, “Why haven’t you done any more of those movie quote games?” (Or something to that effect, I’m SURE he will correct me if I am wrong.) Somehow it turned into Caleb writing down quotes in this notebook and then passing it off to me between class where I would guess the movie, then me write down quotes and pass it back to him. It was a great way to get through horrid classes. By the time we graduated we were on our second volume and the last quote to be answered was number 1,851, a little quote from My Fair Lady. Also, I do remember Caleb ALWAYS made fun of my music notes. If we were quoting a song we put little music notes around them to distinguish them from the regular movie quotes. Lets just say I can’t draw them anymore- it is phycially impossible from all the awful things he said about them.

4. STOLEN Pint

This is a pint glass I stole from a pub in England. It is filled with delicious Wint-O-Greens which is quite a silly name to say out loud. Would you care for a Wint-O-Green?

5. HORSE of a Normal Color

I purchased this little beauty with about 85 tickets I won at The Family Fun Center in Lakeland, Fl. Lets just say I ROCK at ski-ball. I’m not going to tell you why I got this horse over say, a really cool slap bracelet, because it is simply too embarrassing. Although if you were to guess, I would admit to it. And if you know, I trust you will NOT guess and keep it to yourself or die a painful death. Also, this poor horse has no name. Someone name him please!

6. THE Bard

My lovely sister got me this little finger puppet magnet thing of William Shakespeare and I am completely in love with him. I decided early on that Shakespeare needed to see the world, and boy has he done just that. Already he has been to NYC, dined with American Girl dolls, posed in front of Trump Towers, been to D.C., posed in front of the White House, been to the WWII memorial, attended a funeral at Arlington, and he has even seen a few lacrosse games. I say he is quite enjoying his time here in the States.

So there you go. I hope you enjoyed “Six Things on Lauren’s Desk” well enough, because I will most likely do this again. Now I am off to do homework and enjoy the rainy weather!

Have a happy April everyone! See you tomorrow.

David Tennant can doctor my who anytime…

Tonight was unbelievable. Simply amazing. I have the best friend in the entire world.

Okay… starting from the very beginning. For our Shakespeare class we were required to see three live performances of three out of the five plays we were studying. These plays were A Midsummer Nights Dream, Timon of Athens, and my favorite play of all time- Hamlet. We go to the Globe Theater and see the first two plays. Midsummer was so very funny and entertaining and one of the leads had a GIGANTIC butt so it was quite entertaining considering how tight his pants were. Then Timon was downright dreadful and you would have to pay me lots and lots of money to see that or read that again. Sorry Shakes. It was awful. But tonight… tonight my dear readers, we saw Hamlet and HOLY COW it was unbelievably amazing.

So our tickets are for the balcony section, whatever I’m over it. I was just so very excited because playing the title of Hamlet, my loverly Prince of Denmark, was David Tennant. Now if you do not know who this lovely man is, don’t worry, I shall tell you. He is currently on the British sci-fi show Dr. Who though he is retiring from that this year. You may also know him if you have seen the Harry Potter films- he was Barty Crouch Jr. in the fifth movie. Patrick Stewart was also in it as Claudius, Hamlet’s “uncle father” (go read the play right now if you do not get that) and he did a fabulous job. But it was David (obviously) who stole the show. Lets get the fan-girl stuff out of me first. This company decided to do the play in modern day attire meaning David was in a suit for a large part of the play. HOT (I melt for guys in suits, it’s a well known fact). Then when he was in jeans and a t-shirt every single female in the audience edged forward in their seats to get a good look at his yummy tummy when he raised his hands and his shirt went up. With those low jeans on. HOTT. Then, and yes- it gets better. The whole background of the stage was ceiling to floor mirrors which served as doors and props and such throughout the play. I should point out when Hamlet sat down you could see the back of him through the mirrors. And lets just say lover boy was not wearing any underwear. At all. YEAH. Our conversation went like this:

Macie (whispering): “Dude- you can totally see his ass in the mirrors.”

Me (whispering): “Um what do you think I’m staring at? Duh.”

Macie (whispering): “That-a-girl”

Okay, fan-girl has been put away. For now.

His acting was absolutely fantastic. A little Shakespearean trivia for you: Hamlet has the most lines out of any Shakespearean character reaching just at 2,000. Also, with the exception of back in the Shakes days, Hamlet is rarely performed in its entirety. Tonight was cut down and the performance was still 3 hours 30 minutes. And David never messed up (not even once- that I recall anyway) and never even seemed tired. His comic timing was so funny and put Mel Gibson to shame, just saying… everything was just wonderful. But I’m a little biased. But it really was.

Overall I really liked this company’s interpretation of the play. Everything was perfect and having seen Hamlet before I do not remember it being this funny. I laughed so much, especially during the scenes between Hamlet and Polonius. They were so funny together! (p.s.- If you are basing your judgments on the play off of the movie version with Mel Gibson and Glen Close please, please, please just forget everything you saw and start from scratch. Trust me, it’s better this way.)

And now for a random little chuckle during the performance. One of Claudius’ speeches requires him to state the following lines: My words fly up/ My thoughts remain below/ Words without thoughts/ Never to Heaven go. The play is going on quite nicely and this scene comes along. Claudius (Patrick Stewart) starts saying the lines and gets out “My words fly up/ My thoughts remain below” and then took what was one of the LONGEST dramatic pauses I have ever witnessed. So I filled in the gap by whispering the rest of the line to Macie. She looked at me like I was crazy, which happens more often than not…anywhore, Patrick FINALLY finishes the line and Macie looks at me with this look of utter amazement mixed with a hint of disgust. And do you even know what she says to me? “Duuuuude. You need to get a life.” I’m not going to lie- I totally started laughing and couldn’t stop. And she was laughing at me and we were such messes. It was fantastic.

Eventually the play ended and I was sad and Macie and I made our way back to the tube station. I really wanted to go to the stage door but Macie isn’t as big of a nerd (or shakes obsessed) as me, so I didn’t want to make her wait in the freezing cold. But we passed the stage door on our way to the tube station and she knew- felt it in her heart of hearts- that all I wanted to do was stand outside and wait for David. So she told me that she would wait with me and let me be my nerdy self. And so we stood. And stood. And took very random pictures. And kept standing. And then a mini-van pulled up, aka David’s get away car (totally hot, I know) and then… David came out of the stage door. And people are clapping and he started signing a few things and I don’t know if you know this, but I am a tad on the shorter side of life. Macie? Not so much. She grabbed my camera and pushed her way towards the front of the crowd and got pictures for me. I was so happy. And then it got a little quiet and David was on our side of the crowd and so I saw it as my opportunity to be bold (aka not myself), and I shouted “David! I really liked you in Dr. Who!!” and then he shouted back “Thank you!” AHHHHHHH. I was so happy, dare I even say ecstatic. I’m waiting on Macie to step back, by this time David had gotten into the van, and when she turned around she handed me her ticket. And I just looked at her. And she said “Merry Christmas!” and I looked down and she GOT HIM TO SIGN HER TICKET FOR ME. And then we came home and I am still just freaking out.

Internet, I have the best friend.

In the theater waiting for the play to start!

This is how high up we were. It was really scary.

Mmmmnerd.

Sexy can I.

Heck yes I took a picture. Proof baby.

The one where Lauren mentions drugs of the illegal nature. Oh and SHAKESPEARE!! OMFG!!!

So this past Friday I went to the loverly Stratford-Upon-Avon aka home of my lover Shakespeare. And it was LEGEN-wait for it…and i hope your not lactose intolerant because the next word is- DARY (five points for the how i met your mother reference! anyone? just me? mmmk). So I met up with my friend Macie at the ungodly hour of 7:40 in the morning, loaded up on Starbucks, and we set out to find our bus station and embark on a three hour and forty-five minute bus ride. Let the fun begin.

Our first step of the journey to the bus station called for us to get on the tube and ride to Victoria station. I had to top up my oyster card (a pay as you go type of card instead of a tube ticket.) So I went to the little station for cards and went through the procedure and it declined my card. Oh hellz no. I tried it again and it declined it. I went to a different machine and it was there that I realized I forgot to 1) select the option to top up my card and 2) press the amount for how much I wanted to put on it. And the most smartest award goes to…. A wonderfully exciting trip was bound to happen if this is how things are starting off. The tube ride was unbearably awkward as everyone was so so super quiet and all reading the same newspaper. “The London Lite” that these annoying people hand out as you walk into the tube station. Yes I have read one before, don’t judge me. So we finally reach Victoria station and have no idea where we are going from that point. Thank the Heavens above for signs or we would never have found it.

And there we are the Victoria Coach Station. We finally find our bus and I hand the bus driver (whose name we later learn is Steve) my ticket and he says, “Ah Stratford. Goin all the way love?” To which I reply, “Yes.” And he comes back with “You must really love…uh…whatshisname…that Shakespeare guy.” To which I enthusiastically reply, “YES!” and he just laughs and rolls his eyes like, “omg what an educated nerd.” I take my ticket from him and find a seat on the bus not too far in the back but not too far in the front. I have to be a good distance between them, though not in the middle. What can I say? This educated nerd is weird. And proud of it. Moving on. Here is a picture of us on the bus.

We get on the bus and Macie and I are still pretty wired from the espresso trip we took before we left so we are chatting like fiends about such topics as what type of houses the Buckster and Richard live in. (Buckster- a cottage all decked out in Shakespeare stuff and Richard in a loft with a bed on the floor and books everywhere.) Then our bus driver, Steve, tried to KILL US by making a turn and going into the other lane which happened to be occupied by another huge-ass bus. We get to a red light and both drivers open their doors and are shouting things at each other. It was thrilling. Then we make our first stop of the journey where people get off of the bus and others get on and Steve checked on everyone to make sure they were okay and that they were wearing their seat belts which I totally wasn’t and I was instructed to put it on. Grrr. Then the best part of the trip (well…so far) happened. Stevey decided to ask the entire bus if anyone wanted to try driving “this beast” for a while. No one accepted his offer. Then he held up his bottle of coke and said, and I am not exaggerating/making this up because it is far too good for that, “Does anyone have a bottle of Bacardi to go with this Coke? I’ll totally share with the first person to give me some!!!” Yes he was totally serious. And we still had about 2:45 minutes of a bus ride to endure with this guy. ‘Twas going to be an awesome trip indeed.

Then we made another stop, then endured about two more hours on the bus. I think there is some sort of gene in my body that hates me, and doesn’t ever want me to sleep on bus rides or car rides. Unless I am seriously drugged up. On legal drugs of course. I save the illegal ones for the dorm room. Only kidding, calm down internet. Anywhore (what the buck reference!! anyone? anyone? buller??) , it was pointless for me to try since it wasn’t going to happen. I even put on soft music to fool myself into thinking I could fall asleep. No such luck. Usually I am a morning person, but I got NO sleep the night before on account of all those drugs. JKJK. I was just coughing up my lungs because I am sick. The ride did turn out to be sort of fun I suppose. Well at least for the other people watching me, because we went through this really weird patch of intense white fog. Think of that scene in The Others where Nicole Kidman is going to Church or whatever and ends up finding her husband but all this creepy white fog is happening around her. Yea, that’s what was going on here. Except we were driving and I was in the window seat and suddenly a HUGGGGE truck or bus would come out of no where and BAM! I would jump a mile high in my seat because I never saw it coming. It was a little game I played… “will Lauren get freaked out by the next vehicle to come along?” and every single blasted time I would. I bet I looked highly (interesting choice of words) amusing.

Finally, twenty hours later, we reached our destination of Stratford. Stevey just dropped us off in the middle of no where and said “have fun!” Thaaaaaanks ya wanker. (I’m in such a weird mood while writing this. Shot out goes to Britain for the excellent terminology. Wtf??) Anywhore, (nothing? really?) Mace and I go into the little information center thing and find a map and figure out our way to town. We head straight to Shake’s birthplace but along the way find a little statue/ not so creepy shrine thing for Shakes. After all, it IS his town. I mean, duh. So we stopped to take some tourist pictures that Richard would most certainly be embarrassed of. Don’t worry, we plan to put them in a scrap book and leave it for him in his office. Aren’t we terrible students? Please don’t answer that. So we pose with Hamlet (my other lover when Shakes is busy doing his play writing thing) and Lady Macbeth who totally tried to kill me, and some fat guy who I don’t think was ever in a Shakespeare play but there was a statue of him being all fat and drunk and it was too irresistible not to take a picture with him. Coincidentally I appear to be drunk as well, so at least we had fun in our short time together.

Then we made it to the birthplace of Shakes which was his childhood home. We bought tickets to go inside three of the five houses (I was overly happy about this. and two of the houses were out of town, hence the no ticket to those) and it was wonderful. We learned that you are not allowed to take pictures inside any of the houses (booo) and that when Shakes was born they wrapped him in cloth really really tightly and his mother would hang him on a hook in the kitchen to keep an eye on him while she was cooking or on a tree branch while she was gardening. And people wonder why some of the characters have issues in his plays. Next we made our way to his grave, stopping at the other two houses along the way because we ran into them. But first I have to tell you about my AMAAAAAAZING purchase, and declare my nerd status once again. Are you ready for this? Okay. I’m totally loving my new… SHAKESPEARE BOBBLEHEAD. Yes, that you read that correctly. I mean, my life is now complete because I have a Shakespeare Bobblehead. I hope that when I get married my husband will just come realize there is and will always be a slightly bigger space in my heart for Shakes. Was that a horrible thing to say? Probably.

So back to the thrilling story. On to the grave of Shakes! What? You want to hear about the other houses? Okay, they belonged to his daughter and granddaughter? Something like that. Shakes didn’t really have much to do with them, so my attention didn’t really have much to do with them. All I know is Shakes was rollin in the cash. Then we made a pit stop in a cafe and got some hot chocolate because mylanta! It was cooold outside. We walk and walk and the hot chocolate is really hot, so we take off the lids to let it cool down but then it burns my hand, so I put the lid back on and menacingly look at the cup and “dare it to spill on me again” which it doesn’t. So thoughtful. And Holy Trinity Church!! There is Shakes grave! So we make our way into the scary graveyard in front of the church and people are looking at Macie all weirdly. I mean, what is their deal! Then we find out she has spilled hot chocolate down her jacket and I didn’t even notice. So once I stop crying I’m laughing so hard, we sit down on a bench to wipe all of it off her jacket. And since we were there, we decided to just sit and people watch and drink our drinks. In the middle of a graveyard. Okay, not in the middle but at the beginning and it was not too creepy. If you don’t mind extremely old above-ground coffins. But whatever. We were laughing so much at everything and occasionally we would say something like “is it weird we are having so much fun in a graveyard?” but who cares we were having a blast.

And now I should mention I don’t believe in haunted things. Ghosts all that stuff- people coming back to get their revenge… that stuff is only real in Hamlet and no where else. For some reason I just generally don’t fall for the “scary stories” of ghosts coming back and harming people to leave their home alone or whatever. But may I just say I have never been so scared in my life as when I visited the grave of a Mr. William Shakespeare. Let me set up the scene. You had to walk into the church passing all of these old old old decaying and decrepid graves. Then you had to go to the very front of the church and pay this guy 50 pence to even see the grave. So there they are: Anne (Shake’s wife), Shakespeare, Thomas Nash (Shake’s son in law), John Hull and Susannah (John’s wife, Shake’s granddaughter). I’m snapping pics of Billys grave when I hear this muffled noise. I think nothing of it because, as you might recall, I don’t believe in haunted things. So I’m clicking away and I hear what sounds like someone buried alive, banging on something, shouting “help me.” Okay, I’m not even making this up. And I sort of froze, unsure if it was all in my head or what. So I said nothing and took another picture and I heard it again. Okay, so now I was pee-in-my-pants-scared. And I don’t ever get that scared. Ever. So I turn slowly to Macie and just look at her and she says, “Please tell me you hear that and it’s not just me” and I say, “thank God, I thought it was just me” and then we heard it again and then I took one more picture and we were out of there faster than… well think of the fastest thing you can and multiply it by twelve. Thats how fast we left. I’m still creeped out by it. We even walked around the entire church to see if they were doing construction. Yea, they weren’t. *double shiver*

Then we made our way around town and did a little shopping and I got these incredibly adorable boots that I have been wanting foreverr. Soo freaking cute. I’ll post a picture. Then we did a little more shopping and wondered around town and realized we had seen every single Shakespeare thing, gone all over town, and STILL had about an hour to kill. Because we were soooooooo freaking tired we walked back to the bus station and waited for our bus. Then we found it and the bus driver wouldn’t let us on for another 20 minutes because he was “cleaning the bus” when in reality he was smoking in the bus. LIAR!!! So we waited in the freezing cold and I took a bunch of random pictures that I will not be posting ever and finally we were allowed to get on the bus. It soon filled up way more than when we came to Stratford, so by the second stop Mace and I had to sit by each other instead of two seats to ourselves.

When we stopped in Coventry four French guys got on and because of the seating arrangement they were all forced to take end seats. Two were lucky to sit in the rows by and behind Macie and me. So we attempted the whole “sleeping on a bus thing” but we all know how well that doesn’t work out for me. So when Mace finally woke up we played a thrilling game of MASH and then I drew her portrait about three times and lets just say I should stick to teaching English. But Frenchies caught a glimpse of what I was doing, mainly because they kept staring at us. Maybe it was because we were lauhging loudly the entire time because of my horrid drawing skills. I was going to draw bald Frenchie but he kept looking at me so it would have been totally awkward. Then he started talking to us and finally just asked me to draw him. Macie was all embarrassed sort of but I was all “bfd I’ll so draw you” so I drew them together. And they managed to come out looking sort of human. I did have to label certian things in the picture like Frenchie #2’s hat, so they knew it was an actual hat and not a bad hair job. And the other guy didn’t even have hair, which I consider the ‘framework’ of the portrait, so he sort of turned out like an alien. But such is life. I signed it and titled it “Two Strangers on a Bus Ride to London” and gave it to them. Then they asked me to pose for it and who am I to deny an adoring fan? I posed and they took my picture and attempted to talk to us in broken English and they kept looking at the picture. It was all so adorable and stuff. I still don’t know there names and suppose I never will, but it was a brilliant ending to a major (again with what the buck! Im on fire!!) day. Since I posed for Frenchies it was only fair they pose for me. This was taken shortly after we all snorted a line of cocaine. OMG Internet! I’m totally kidding. It was crystal meth. I’m a total badass.

It’s literally a metaphor.

Today was notsome. Although I am sooo happy to be in London, I was sad I couldn’t be with my family for Thanksgiving. But I come home in about two weeks, so I refused to let myself get too depressed about it. We still had classes today, because the British don’t celebrate the holiday, and the Buckster came into poetry class all ready to give us a lesson about poetry. Well I really couldn’t be bothered to listen, so I thought it would be fun to distract him. So this is how it went. Oh and I should mention about six people (from the usual 12-15) showed up today.

Buckster: “Well, you decided to show up didn’t you.”

Girl one: “Happy Thanksgiving Professor Buckingham!!”

Me: “Happy day we decided to leave the British!”

Girl two: “Are you serious? Please don’t tell me this is all the people that are going to show up today.”

Boy one: “You might as well cancel class.”

Girl three: “I agree. No need in having a lesson. Besides, it’s a holiday.”

Girl one: “Yea, in America no one has classes this week.”

Buckster: “Well you are not in America now are you?”

Girl one: “Well, technically no.”

Buckster: “Well, alright then, lets get started.”

Me: “So how many different countries have you taught in?”

Buckster: “Oh, how many different countries have I taught in? Well let me see…”

**about 10 minutes goes by. I have distracted him from the lesson!**

Buckster: “…And I suppose that’s it. Why do you ask?”

Me: “Oh, I was just curious. You always talk about being in other countries. I just wondered.”

**the Buckster goes on another rant about his life for about 2 or 3 minutes**

Buckster: “Well now, about the lesson”

Me: “Oh, I passed Katie on the way over here and she said she is printing off her paper and will be coming to class, but she will just be a little late.”

Buckster: “Oh, well I suppose we should wait on her then.”

**about 5- 10 minutes pass and Katie comes in.**

Buckster: “Well, I’ll just give a short lesson and let you out early.”

He then proceeded to talk about poetry for a while, and let us out 30 minutes early. I mean, it was the best poetry class ever. Then me, girl two and girl three were walking back to our dorm when we walked by Buttercup, the really amazing cupcake shop we always pass on the way to class. So girl two said she would buy us all cupcakes and so we went in and talked about missing our families, crazy drunk people who always manage to find me and tell me they can not remember their room code or find their key (it has happened more than four times) as if I can really do anything about it, and other girl topics.

Then I went to Shakespeare class (soooo boring), then did laundry (soooooo boring), then watched What the Buck (soooo funny), then ate Thanksgiving dinner in the cafeteria (sooo interesting), then helped Jess develop her film. While she was mixing the developer I played the 50 States Game and both times got all 50!! And now I can even do them in semi-alphabetical order. I say semi because they are in alphabetical order in that all the “A” states are grouped together, all the “C” states and so on, but within those groups they are not necessarily in alphabetical order. Once I master that, then its on to adding capitals. We tried tonight and let me just say, I suck at capitals. I couldn’t remember over half of them.

We also played an invigorating game of MASH and even though I got the husband option I wanted most, turns out he is a stripper! And I work at Krispy Kreme. I mean, gross. I HATE Krispy Kreme. And though we do have our honeymoon in London, my result of spw (if you play the game with this you will know what I’m talking about. If not, I don’t feel like telling you. Go find out for yourself.) was 2. I mean, how awful is that. Just pretty awful if you ask me.

And I am having back spasms again. You would think living with constant back pain almost your entire life would make you numb to the new pains, but I finally got the spasms to stop before I left for England. They are just so annoying… I can barely even turn from the waist up. But such is life I suppose.

But now I must go to sleeps so I can wake up oh so early and get on a bus for three hours so I can see my lover SHAKSPEARE!!!!!

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

I can not go to sleep. I am sooooo extremely tired but I can’t fall asleep. Also, I feel like throwing up. So I started looking up Shakespeare quotes online, because lets face it. I am unnaturally obsessed with the man. And then I remembered all these wonderful monologues.

To die, to sleep, —

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, — ’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; —

To sleep, perchance to dream: — ay, there’s the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come…

I mean, the man had a way with words. That one is from my favorite play of all time- Hamlet.  Maybe one day I will create a page with all of my favorite monologues and quotes and rarely anyone would ever look at it, except for me. Because I promise you internet, that I am going to learn a whole new slew of monologues this coming year. I already know a few, yes, but I need to know more.

I’m such a nerd. It’s fabulous.