a little detour

Right now I'm in between flights in Detroit. You may be wondering why I am back in the States... Well, my big brother Dan is getting married on Sunday. So, I took a little detour from London to come celebrate. Finding Gatwick Airport outside of London was a bit intimidating. I packed my backpack then walked to the nearest underground which cost me 4 pounds ($8)! I got off at Victoria to board a train to the airport which cost me another 9.50 pounds! I spent about $30 just to get to the airport. That would sound reasonable to me if I took a taxi or a nice coach or something... but I wandered around London to find my way. At least it was an adventure and I feel accomplished for having succeeded on my own!

My connecting flight to San Diego takes off in a few minutes and then I will spend two days in US. Just enough time to go to the rehearsal and the wedding before I turn around and join up with my group again in London. Please pray that I recover quickly from jet-lag! Thanks!

Two nights ago, we were in Stratford, the birthplace of Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway. We visited her home and charming garden and had class at Holy Trinity Church where their remains are. We saw Taming of the Shrew and enjoyed dinner at the Black Swan (AKA the Dirty Duck).

Apparently, some say that Shakespeare intended for there to be an induction for some of his plays that consisted of actors tricking a drunkard into believing that he is a lord. They then put on a play for this "lord" and try to trick into thinking he actually is royalty. The version that we saw had such an induction that was set in modern times, bookending the original. The show was enjoyable most of the time but by the end wore on us. The general sentiment is that it was really chauvinistic and crude. Percutio's main purpose was to break Caterina's spirit and make her submit to his every whim. He succeeds and turns a free-spirited woman into a slave. The storyline of "10 Things I Hate About You" is loosely based off this work, so you may know the premise. However, it is a bit different. When I return to London, we will be seeing 3 more plays on consecutive evenings. I have never before spent so much time at the theater!

Well, I'm about to board the plane... more to come later.