A Week at the Theatre and The List!

Hello there!

These past couple weeks have been busy for me, centered around going to five different theater shows, all very unique performances at the Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and the Phoenix Theatre in London!

The first performance was Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeare's earliest and bloodiest plays. My entire Shakespeare class took a field trip to the Globe to see the performance and we were able to get a tour of the Globe beforehand. Although I thought the performance was well done... the play is essentially a slasher flick on the stage, so I didn't really appreciate the vomiting blood and chopping off of limbs. Let's just say that so many people died that only four characters were left alive at the end... not my ideal play. 

For three days lastt week, my whole ASE programme headed over to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. We saw Henry IV Part I and Part II (two separate plays, but the second part is obviously a sequel to the action in the first) in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and then Arden of Faversham in the Swan Theatre, the smaller counterpart to the RST. I loved Henry IV Part I with its epic sword fight at the end, but Part II was more of a subtle mind game and the jokes weren't as funny the second time around. Both were very well done, though!  

On our off time in Stratford, the ASE staff was kind enough to buy us all-inclusive tickets to go see all the Shakespeare related houses in Stratford, including Shakespeare's grave, Susanna Hall's house (the posh house Shakespeare bought for his daughter, Susanna), his birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage (Anne Hathaway was his wife) and the Nash House (Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth, married a man named Thomas Nash).

Gettysburg girls in the Nash House gardens!

Susanna Hall's house. The supports that the renovators had to install a couple years ago can be seen in the background. The house gave a very good picture into the lifestyle in the Elizabethan and Jacobean time period.

Kenilworth Castle--a ruined fortress that we visited on our last day in Stratford.

The day after we got back to Bath, Melanie and I decided to head into London to see the show Once. I am so glad that we picked that specific night because we managed to see the second to last performance that the original award winning actors were performing in! It was an absolutely amazing show and one of my new favorites; I immediately went back to my flat and downloaded the entire soundtrack on my computer. Now I can't wait to see the movie!

And without further ado, I present my list of American to British words and sayings that I have picked up in my time in England. If I left any out that I think of later, I'll include them in the next (and last!) blog post that I'll make in Bath!

American--> British lingo!

pennies--pence

yield--give way

T.J. Maxx (the clothing store)-- T.K. Maxx

trash can--rubbish bin or just "bin" for short

apartment--flat
to braid--to plait
Mack truck--lorry

professor--tutor

bathroom/ restroom--loo/ toilet

diaper--nappy
pacifier--dummy

paper towels--kitchen roll

dish or hand soap--washing up liquid

pants--trousers

underwear--pants 

(this one can be really embarrassing to confuse...)

eraser--rubber (...as can this one)
soccer--football
football--American football

trapezoid--trapezium

rectangular prism--cuboid
the letter "z"-- pronounced like "zed"
the letter "h"--pronounced like "hay-ch"
paper shredder--guillotine
certified--insane
 (I made the mistake of saying that I needed to get certified before I could teach in an American public school and my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Ovigne, started laughing at me.)

cup of tea-- cuppa

dessert--pudding

pudding--dessert 

crepes--pancakes
pancakes--American pancakes

cookies--biscuits

biscuits-- don't exist in the UK as we know them

...for that matter...

...graham crackers cannot be found anywhere in England either, believe me I have looked in at least three different grocery stores.

Other popular British phrases!

"Pop over" (ex. I'm going to pop over to the store and be back in a bit!)
"brilliant" (You could say "that's brilliant" to describe something amazing or really funny)
"stonking"-- immense, looming, impressive (i.e. a castle or a cathedral can be considered "stonking")
 ...and my personal favorite...
"tits up" (a British phrase equivalent to our American phrase "belly-up," meaning something has gone wrong or is a complete disaster; needless to say that all seven of my female classmates and I burst out laughing when our tutor, the only male in the class, blurted out this lovely phrase in the middle of class)

I hope these made you laugh!! Because I sure did when I heard some of them for the first time!

Cheers!