Once when I was scrolling through instagram while on this trip I saw a post by a person form the US and they were talking about the differences between the US and the UK. It was very clear that the person came from a small town in the US and had only been to London and thought that London was like the rest of the UK. As you can imagine they got called out a lot in the comments. I have traveled all over the world but always to big cities and while I understood that city life is completely different from town life I had never experienced that difference. I’m really grateful for our short stay in Stratford because it gave me that experience of town life. One thing I noticed is the cars and walkability. Stratford was still walkable because it was built before cars and while not as walkable as London it is still extremely walkable, that being said I saw a lot of personal cars in Stratford which I did not see in London. Another thing I noticed about Stratford is the fact half of the shops have Shakespeare in the name which I thought was funny. Also seeing the Shakespeare related buildings was awesome because while royal palaces are cool, seeing cottages where more normal people lived that were built before the founding of our country is insane. Seeing how there were only two rooms and everyone slept in the same room really showed the great difference between royalty and peasants in pre-modern times.
I think if I wanted to completely wrap up this trip I would write more than anyone is ever willing to read so I’m going to try and keep this pretty short. I want to start off by thanking the University of Arkansas for giving me this opportunity. I also want to thank Shawn, Courtney, Susan, and Tim for all their amazing help on this trip. I know I’m going to look back on this trip as some of the best days of my life and I have you all to thank for this amazing experience. When I try to think of a favorite moment I really can’t. I had so much fun watching all the shows, going to museums, getting to know the city, and getting to hang out with all these amazing people. I can’t place a specific moment as my favorite. As a theatre student of course Broadway and the West End are my big goals so getting to be in London for almost a month was a great experience and I learned so much. This trip has changed my life and opened my eyes so much to things you can do with theatre. I cannot wait to return to working on theatre with all this new knowledge I have gained. Once again thank you to everyone that helped me get on this trip, I am so grateful to all of you and also thank you to my fellow students on the trip for being the wonderful people you all are, this trip wouldn’t be nearly as fun as it was without all of you.
Theatre in London U of A 