Submitted by Anne Grae Martin on the 2015 fall semester study abroad program in London, England…
This week I am writing from the Shepherd’s Bush Theatre Café. Before I came to London I was researching fun places to go and I found a list of the top 16 cafés in London. At the time I thought they looked cool, but I did not have a context for each of the places. Then this weekend I was going over my old notes and I found the list. Now that I am here, I know where all of the places are. In fact, one of them, Shepherd’s Bush Theatre Café is right down the street from me! My tube passes it every day. So here I am doing homework in one of the top rated cafés in London. The tea selection was a little limited, but the lemon poppyseed cake was amazing!
Okay, more details about this past week. I had a relatively calm week at school which was nice. Then on Saturday, we had a field trip to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Shakespeare’s grave and birthplace as well as Kenilworth Castle. I have to admit that Stratford was a little touristy. Every restaurant or shop was named after a Shakespeare character or a pun on a famous quote, for example “Ophelia’s” and “The Food of Love”. I was proud of myself for getting most of the puns though, thanks to my Shakespeare class. Kenilworth castle was a ruined castle that we got to see next. It was really beautiful. I felt like I was in Game of Thrones.
Then we had Sunday Funday. Sunday Funday consisted of attending the early celebration of Diwali in Trafalgar Square and visiting the Churchill War Rooms. Trafalgar Square was decorated with lots of Diwali themed decorations and they were playing music and people were dancing and there was food and it was wonderful. Then we walked over to the Winston Churchill War Rooms. They have converted Churchill’s underground bunker into a war time museum. This museum was very well done. They had lots of information on Churchill’s life, history of the war, and recreation of different rooms in the bunker. It was a very cultural and educational day.
