Bath

Hello again! This time, from the wonderful city of Bath. (well, sort of. I'm in London again, but lets pretend I never left Bath, shall we?) 

Saturday was an absolutely wonderful day, one of my favorites in my life, It was an absolutely flawless, perfect day (except for the fact that I had to wake up early). 

On the 2 1/2 hour bus ride up there, I read and listened to podcasts. It was nice and quiet. And our guide, when she spoke, was absolutely amazing. Kind, smart, and knowledgeable, I would later learn that she had built up the business herself and was the owner*. 

But back to the trip. We arrived soon enough in Bath. 

While we did not, unfortunately, get to eat here, I still like the sign.

 Bath itself, was absolutely gorgeous. It is a city of legends and gods. Magic and antiquity. In other words, exactly my kind of place. Here was the church that was in the center square.

And the same church from the front. It is not a cathedral because there is not a bishop who lives there. 

 The weather was gorgeous.

Then, we went into the museum, to see the ancient baths. They were pretty amazing.

 They also had a museum that was rather large. They had all kinds of ancient artifacts, but my favorite, admittedly, was this display of all the coins that people had thrown in for the goddess over the years. Named Sulis-Minerva, a combination of the previous goddess of healing (Sulis) and the Roman goddess Minerva, (of wisdom), this goddess was the patron goddess of the city, and the baths.

Coins!

 And then we got to see the origins of this hot spring. It was awesome.

 And then we got to see the drain.

And the bath from the bottom level. 

And here I am. 

And here are all the old roman baths. I thought they were super amazing. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I was in a hurry, because we had a walking tour, but I did manage to get photos. 

At the end of the museum, you were allowed to drink a tap which piped water directly from the spring. This was cool, because the waters of Bath were supposed to have healing properties. It was some of the best water I had ever tasted (very pure) and it was still hot!

Then I went on the walking tour. It wasn't terribly amazing, but the day was gorgeous and it was a nice little walk. 

Here were the highlights. 

There was this really pretty pathway we walked through as well, but NONE of the pictures turned out, so I won't show them. 

After this, we headed back to the town center and I had lunch with two of the girls. They were very nice. We ate at this tea place, and they had all kinds of pretty decorations and plates. The food was decent as well. 

And then, after that, we were headed to Stonehenge . . . 

To be continued . . . in part two. 

Until next time, 

~ Emery 

 *(If you're curious, her name is Susannah, Her website can be found here: http://www.prosceniumsa.com/who-we-are/ I'm only including this because I truly enjoyed the experience and would very highly recommend her to ANYONE.)

Cambridge, day 2.

So once again, I am going to be doing a lot of words in pictures kind of thing.

The second day wasn't nearly as interesting or fun as the first, but there were highlights, for certain.

The first thing we really did that morning, other than a nice breakfast, was go and walk around the botanical gardens in the area. There were some picturesque moments.

We also went into the greenhouses, in which were showcased plants from all over the world. I felt bad for the plants,but they were pretty. 

 They also had an amazon exhibit, which was nice, but just made me miss the real thing, which is 1000 times more beautiful. It was like a wave of nostalgia. I do think too, that of all the people I've met on my journeys, those in Peru were the kindest. There's something so amazing about the wild, free, beauty of the amazon . . . which isn't to say that there isn't weird or sad things too (like tarantulas in the shower and the sheer amount of poverty in the country) but all and all . . . there is no other place that I know of on earth like it. The simplicity makes for better people. When we have no worries, we become shallower and shallower as we forget what it is to suffer and work, and forget it what really matters because we take it for granted. But yeah. Anyways. As you can see, it made me seriously nostalgic.

 Still, England has its own kind of beauty, as you will see now.

After we left the botanical gardens, we went to a museum. It . . . wasn't bad. I'm not a museum person though, with very few exception. Still, I did enjoy the exhibit on swords.  

 And the portrait of Elizabeth I.

After that . . . well, we decided to go to lunch. Lunch was decent. We were in a pub and pub food (from what I've experienced from going on lunches here) is actually really good. I think I had a BLT or something. So you should know, that from about here on out, the trip was pretty much over. After lunch, we were given free time. This part was interesting . . . I think I'll say it without mincing words. . . I wound up alone. It wasn't really what I had in mind, since I had no idea where I was or how to get back or what the name of the place we were staying was, but I decided that I didn't care and I decided to make the best of it. It was rainy, cold and windy. And yet it was still lovely.

After some thought, I decided to stay close to the town. I spent most of the time in the bookshops there, then moved to the stationery shops. I was -- and still am -- searching for the perfect notebook, like the one I had in Paris. So far, no luck, but I had fun trying. There is nothing that as good a pick me up as a bookstore or art store -- well, except maybe a candy store, which is where I went as my final stop before heading back (it took me 40 minutes in the pouring rain to find the hotel). It was incredible, as a little girl noted to her father in awe, THEY HAVE EVER KIND OF CANDY IN THE WORLD! While maybe not that many different types of candy, they did have an impressive assortment that reminded me of something out of Harry Potter. I settled on peanut butter fudge (it was amazing) and went on my way.

And that, more or less, concluded my weekend in Cambridge.

Until next time!

~ Emery

Cambridge, day 1

Well, here it is!
I'm sorry to say I'm not going to describe it much, since there really isn't much to say, but I have a lot of pictures for you all, and I hope you enjoy.

So, here are the streets of Cambridge, very old, very pretty. We wound up walking through them a lot. Cambridge is, essentially, a college town. There is one university -- Cambridge, where, to my understanding, the lectures are held, and then there are a TON of colleges, which is where all of the students live and, if asked, the students will tell you that there is where they study: eg, King's College, St. John's College, etc.

So, here is one of them. I think this was a part of St. John's (the chapel) but I'm not certain. There were some really neat things in the city though.

There were a lot of interesting things though, like the clock above. 

And just because I really love old buildings, here are a couple of photos of some of the cool buildings we saw. 

We had a very nice lunch, after that, We sat in the town square and I had this WONDERFUL Cornish Pasty. This was our view.

There were, as you can see, a lot of birds flying over. 

After that, our director showed us St. John's college, where he had gone to school, and we walked around on the various campuses for a while.

Seeing the fancy dining hall -- here set up for something special -- was one of my favorite things. 

Panorama of the Campus. As you can see, our director likes to gesture wildly. 

Then we walked into the Cambridge Gardens. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

And here, just for fun, is one of me.

And finally, an assortment of photos from the grounds of other colleges.

King's College

The roof of King's College Chapel. Apparently it was the widest of it's sort ever built..

And that was basically it. Afterwards, several of the girls and I went to the evensong, because our director claimed it was one of the most beautiful things we would ever here. It wasn't. But it was still very pretty. After that, a few of the girls and I went and went out to dinner at a pizza place and that was very lovely and fun (they had different flavored 7-ups. Yum!) and afterwards, a small number of us went and hung out for a bit in one of the rooms and talked until nearly midnight. It was, in fact, quite nice. 

All for now, more soon,

~ Emery 

Countback to Cambridge -- the two plays

So, I wound up seeing two plays a few days after I came back from Cambridge. One was Romeo and Juliet (Tuesday Night) and the other was a View From the Bridge. Rather than try to describe the amazingness that is Romeo and Juliet in a blog style, I thought I'd share the review I wrote for my Shakespeare class about it.
Hope you enjoy.

Romeo and Juliet

          “For never was a story of more woe of that of Juliet and her Romeo,” (Shakespeare, 5, 3. 310-311). To not know the story in this day in age, is impossible. To put on the play and make it original? Even more impossible. And yet, that was exactly what the cast at the New Diorama theatre did. Called the Faction, they have been around since about 2008, when they performed Richard III. Now in 2015, they are still alive and well. Now they are performing Romeo and Juliet.

As someone with a strong dislike of the show, I am here for one reason and one reason only: it is required. And yet, as the show goes on, I find myself more and more deeply touched by it. By the end, I have come to one solid conclusion that this company has made the show great. They have something that is incredibly overdone and romanticize and made it into something fresh and practical. Well. As practical as Romeo and Juliet can be, anyways. And they have done something incredible. They have converted me to the show.

When I stepped into the theatre, at the beginning of the show, I was surprised to see the cast already on stage, yet clearly, since they were just mulling about, the play had not begun. I was even more surprised to find that all of them would remain on stage for nearly the entire play, a great tribute to their acting, since they all stayed completely in character the entire time Watching them, I thought I could guess which one was which – another tribute to their acting, since, in many cases, I was right.

The lights dimmed. I seem to recall sudden music. And then then characters on stage began a full on choreographed battle that was both hideous and beautiful all at once. It was both a dance and a fight. Elegant yet deadly. The show had begun.

The most striking thing about the play was its actresses. From the moment Lady Montague, (Kate Sawyer), walked on stage, I was hooked. There was something so inherently regal and noble about her, and yet she seemed truly concerned for her son. But even more impressive was her transformation – for Lady Montague, becomes the Nurse, through a simple, back of the stage, costume change. Sawyer changes her clipped British tones to full on Cockney, her shoulders-back to shoulders slumped and her elegance changes to carelessness. And she trades her high-heels for a sweatsuit and a bag of marshmallows. Yes, that's right, marshmallows. Her transformation is unforgettable and her emotional range is spot on. But best of all? Her priceless interactions with Juliet.

Speaking of the title character herself, Juliet, played by Clare Latham, is stunning. Imperfect, yes, as her lines often dropped to the inaudible, and her american accent countered sharply with Romeo's 'cross Atlantic one, but believable as a suffering teenager? Absolutely. One could argue that the play was worth seeing for her alone, with her original version of Juliet. Unlike many versions I've seen, she did not try to make Juliet a delicate flower, who bats her eyelashes and kills herself for such a “great” love. Instead, she makes the character strong, level-headed, and rebellious, in a way that seemed to better fit the Juliet of Shakespeare's Writing. With Latham at the lead, the audience comes to understand her instead as a young woman who saw no other way to happiness than her own death. They sympathize greatly and maybe even understand her decision. She no longer looks so foolish. She looks as though she is a lion, trapped, with no other way out. All this from Latham's acting, who used both her speech and her silences well.

One of the most powerful scenes in the show – though there are many – involves an early on scene, the first with Lady Capulet and her daughter in the same room. Juliet's silence, and Lady Capulet's occasional interjections and the nurse's heavy ramblings, all present in Shakespeare's original, are made even stronger by this talented team of women. Their personalities strong, and counter to each other, set up both comedy – and tragedy. Nurse's chattering is unnerving. Juliet's silence, even more more so. But it is Lady Capulet who steals that scene.

Lady Capulet, played by Natasha Rickman, is kind, but Rickman makes clear that Lady Capulet is very self absorbed and does not have the time or energy to understand her daughter Juliet. Rickman gives an intriguing performance, in both her interactions with Juliet, and with Capulet. Her interactions with Capulet, however, take a rather distracting turn as the Faction has hyped up the relationship to an abusive level and most of this abuse takes place in the back of the stage with other scenes going on. While an interesting side story, it has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes distracting from the main play at hand.

One final note is the interestingly strong illusion of an age gap between the three main women, even though there is only a five year gap between Lady Capulet (the youngest, at twenty-six) and Lady Montague (31). Juliet, so convincing as thirteen, is 27, something all the audience would have sworn differently, as Latham captures the age perfectly.

This review would not be complete without mentioning the wonderful lighting design by Chris Withers, which, rather experimental in style, was most noticeable in the tomb scene, where all was black, save for a beam of light, lantern-like around the tomb.

All in all, a five out of five stars for a performance that was moving, bold, and original. While keeping closely to the original, it made the story new and meaningful. With a grace and flow difficult to replicate, it told its story with its humor, feeling, suspense, and great sympathy, allowing its female characters to have their story told too.  

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As for View From the Bridge? It was well done, 7/10 for me, but it didn't touch me as a story, so I won't talk a lot about it here. I simply had no resonance with it. It isn't a universal story. It's a story that only certain people can relate to, I thought. Which maybe makes me limited, I don't know. But comparatively to the Crucible? There just didn't seem to be the same amount of stakes. I couldn't sympathize. It was like there was a wall between me and the characters. It didn't help that the female characters seemed . . . flat-er. It's the story of a man and his desires for a young women . . . I couldn't understand or relate to it and said young woman? She doesn't have a lot of strength -- or intelligence. And the man's wife? She becomes a passive viewer, really, and her strength is limited to nagging. They both seemed so helpless. And I hated it for that.

SO. That is my views on the plays.

Until next time!

~ Emery