Blogs from Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 40

Today we are going to see Macbeth. I'm excited. I hated reading the play, but I think the performance will be much better. They told us that the opening scene is very violent and we may wish to turn our heads away from time to time. Interesting.. I figure how bad can it be? It's live; it's not like a movie where you have special effects and can cut things out. But I guess I'll see tonight. We're leaving at 2:30, going to Broughton Castle (yep.. I think I completely just made up that name), then we get two hours to see Stratford before the play. Everyone here is throwing me a birthday party! How nice is that! I'm so excited. We actually have 4 July birthdays, so Wednesday night will be mine and Brittani's birthday ... read more

I think I pretty much got my fair share of rocks for the rest of my lfie today. We went on our Ancient Britian tour. Sailsbury Cathedral (i'm pretty sure I spelt that wrong) was sooo pretty! I loved it. I took like 100 pictures in there alone. I wish I would have had the time to go up into the tower, but we only got an hour there since the bus was late picking us up. Then we went to Stonehenge. And yea, it was pretty cool, but essentially it was just a bunch of rocks. Then we went to Avesbury, and that literally was just some rocks.. and sheep.. and poop. I could have lived without Avesbury. But none the less, it was a fun day. Lots of driving around in the van. My ... read more

This morning was the first time I've had a sore throat since I got my tonsils taken out. Boo!! Hopefully I'm not getting sick or I am just going to be angry. I think I'm going to try drinking some hot tea with honey at lunch. That's supposed to help a sore throat. Last night was pretty uneventful. Dinner wasn't my favorite. It was pork with pineapple in the middle topped with onions. I mean, it was good, it just wasn't my favorite. Then pretty much everyone else went out to see a jazz band play, but I don't like jazz so I stayed back. Audrey, Angie, and I went for a walk then I just went back and went to bed. Yes, I am lame. Oh well, I'm over it. Today, I have nothing much ... read more

The city of Reading was only a short 30-minute train ride from Paddington station. We arrived to a downpour of rain, so instead of the ‘walking tour’ of Reading, we took a taxi to the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. We were welcomed with tea, coffee and biscuits, and a schedule that included an introduction from Paul Luna, Everyday Wayfinding lecture with Paul Stiff, Isotype lecture with Michael Twyman and a design studio presentation by Mark Barratt of TextMatters. After six hours of visiting, we walked the same route to the town centre as my own feet did during my graduate years at Reading. Along the way we passed a sign structure that I contributed too as a design student. The town centre is situated around a shopping plaza called ... read more

It is really weird to not wake up and go to a parade today. It's kinda sad to not really celebrate the 4th since it is one of my favorite holidays! We were all thinking about having a 4th of July party tonight. We were going to buy a cake and have them write "Happy Birthday America!" Ha.. I'm sure they'd just love that. The play last night was really interesting. It was at a pub in, what they called, a "library bar". There was no stage, and each actor played three or four different roles (there were 4 actors total). It was a musical too. It was about this man in England who made his own lace making machine. He underpaid his workers, so they caused a riot forcing the man and his machine to ... read more