First Day of Class!

Happy American Independence Day! Not too many people celebrating here. I didn't sleep much last night between the scary, scary show and the excitement about the first day of classes. We are on an AB schedule with one four hour class each day. Yesterday, we only had two hours of each class where we got our module, or syllabus, and had a short lecture. All the OCU students met up at 9:20 a.m. and walked to campus along the Thames, which takes about 15 minutes. Class started at 10 a.m. so we all went to the cafe in the library beforehand to get breakfast and coffee. I only got a cappuccino, but it was incredible. In Advanced Shakespeare, we jumped right in and reviewed scansion. We learned that Shakespeare's main actor, Richard Burbage, would have had about the equivalent three full plays of Hamlet, which in full runs about three and a half hours, memorized at any given time. After class, we went to lunch. We had a buffet of more sandwiches and candy bars with fruit and some really tasty strawberry juice. Calllie, Nina, Dagny, Tanner, and I ate on the benches outside, between two of the school buildings. Then we headed to British Culture and Society. Our professor, Dr. Elly Bavridge, began by reviewing the module and the many field trips we will be taking. Class started out with small group discussion on American perception of British culture. We all shared our lists as a class and many of us expressed London-centric views of the country. Elly's lecture touched on the other countries in the United Kingdom and the effect the large English population has on outsiders views of the country. She told us about the upcoming Scottish vote for independence and what that is doing to the UK as well as issues over flying the Union flag. Tonight we are going to see an interactive show called The Drowned Man. It should be very cool.