Nikki Jagerman, 20, is a UCLA English major from Mission Viejo, Calif. For her first trip to England, she writes that she's especially looking forward to the group's time in London: "I anticipate spending every free second wandering through the city."The Shakespeare program, from start to finish, has been absolutely wonderful. Lacking both a computer and good source of Internet while traveling, my first blog post is being reported after the fact as a retrospect on the entire experience.
Highlights (in no particular order):
1. Open mike night at The Dirty Duck in Stratford. On one of our last nights in Stratford before returning to London, I went out (on the night before our exam) with some of the other students — Natalie, Megan, and Skandia — to see some live music. With Jojon (the actor who played Orlando in As You Like It) tap dancing to Mr. Bojangles and singing a song of admiration about Tom Cruise, actor Greg Hicks (who played Julius Caser) bringing his Mick Jagger persona to the harmonica, and the whole pub singing along to '90s classics, it was the highlight of Stratford (well, that and the RSC productions). We were sad to leave, but made our way back to The Duck the next night to hang out with our new friends — and, incidentally, become movie extras.
2. The Tube. The beauty of the Tube is that you can wander around London aimlessly for hours, get completely lost, and then get back to your original starting point in about 20 minutes. As soon as you see the Underground sign, you know you'll be fine because you can just take it back to your stop without any problems. The only real flaws in this system are a) swine flu, and b) not running 24 hour service.
Read on: My popular American accent, the museums, and the British media.
