This weekend was the most fun I have had in a long time! I spend it in Stratford, Ontario with my Shakespeare class for the Shakespeare Festival.
To start the trip out I picked up my friends Kassie and Sarah. I had swapped my car with my dad because his car is larger than my vehicle but that didn’t help one other problem… I am the only one who can drive a manual transmission and both of the cars are manual so all of the driving was left to me! We only had to make two stops during the trip there; the first stop was made to use the restroom and buy some drinks and the second stop was made to use the restroom because of the drinks from the first stop. Kassie and Sarah rambled on and on for most of the trip and actually ran out of things to say and they both started to doze off. While they were chatting or sleeping I just listened to jazz music and day dreamed. I know it sounds dangerous that I would day dream and drive at the same time; it helps the time go by and when I day dream and drive, I am still alert of what is going on.
Once we hit the border everything went smoothly other than the huge line cars we had to swim through. The boarder control people were nice and one of them was funny. He asked us what we were doing we said we were going to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario he said that we don’t look like the kind of people who would be interested in that kind of thing; probably because I had long hair, an unshaven face, and a tie-dye shirt on. He also asked if we brought any alcohol from the states and we said no. He asked if we had brought any alcohol from the Duty Free shop and we said no; he said that was a shame and we should have.
Once we cross the boarder we stop immediately at a grocery store. I grab sixteen cans of tuna, Kassie buys some bread, and Sarah frantically searches for a restroom. I bought a lot of tuna because I am training for a footrace in December and need to consume a lot of protein; the main reason though is that it is a cheap meal and it is meat. Once Kassie and I check out we have to search for Sarah in another store. We go to the Drug Mart first. When we walk in it is nice and clean and it smells good. Sarah had to go here because there was no obvious sign in the grocery store like we have that says “Restrooms” and this Drug Mart is the same way. Kassie and I leave and walk back to the car to wait. I see Sarah walking towards the car and Kassie calls her. Kassie asks where she is at but she continues to walk into the grocery store again to look for us luckily Kassie noticed her and told her to turn around. I guess I could have said something when I saw Sarah but I like seeing what is going to happen without me intervening in situations like that. Once we get back together we hop back in my car and set sail for Stratford.
The only difficulty during the trip was locating the hotel. The hotel was actually part of a school’s dorms which were old hospital rooms. We looped around town a few times and finally found it but had to ask a lady at the hospital which building it was and by doing so we went through a gate which you have to pay $4.00 to get through. We had to call the lady on the intercom and let her know of our mistake so we could pass for free. We were going to just lift the gate and drive through but there was an officer who had just got out of his car. That would have been a bad mistake.
So we get there and this place is so weird. There is construction going on in front of the building were we have to walk in, we have to park in the visitor parking of the hospital, the building we are staying is connected to the hospital, and this building we are staying in is a dorm. Jason is my roommate for the weekend and our beds nearly touch. The room is warm enough to make you sweat. Since it was so warm I devised a ghetto air conditioning unit from the mini-fridge that was in the room. There is one problem with this cooling device though I forgot that the coils in the back of the mini-fridge get warm so later that night the room was even hotter than before. This place also has a swimming pool in the center of it. What kind of people in a hospital are going to be swimming? I mean they probably have open wounds and stuff. I guess the chlorine could clean it all out but still. I suppose that it was added later but it is weird. I wish Indiana Tech had a pool.
Later on we meet up with our professors Malloris and McGrade up in the lobby and hear that they met the man at the boarder who thought we were probably just in Canada to party; they knew it was him because he told the story to them and described me. Our first play was at 8:00PM so we decide to go and get dinner. On the walk I found a stick suitable as a walking stick. The stick was nice and had a knot in it which made it perfect for holding while walking but I noticed it had a nice big crack in it.
I found some weeds and decorated the crack of the stick so it would look more like a tribesman’s staff. Walking became boring and I decided that I would get a few laughs from people and assumed the role of a tribesman by walking funny.
I would stop walking and start shaking the staff over my head at objects as if to curse or praise its existence. I already look strange enough and those moments topped it off.
We stop at a place called Bentley’s. It is kind of an upscale bar where everything is expensive and since we are in Canada it taxed like crazy. We all order food and drinks and Malloris is disappointed in me for getting an AMF. An AMF is a Long Island Ice Tea but instead of adding soda or juice they just add raspberry pucker so the drink itself contains more than four shots of alcohol. This one was quite weak compared to the ones in the States; because over here we add tequila on top of it all. An AMF is definitely a drink where you are set after one or two. Once we get our food we eat and chat and Malloris sees that I am eating a cheese burger and asks if it is good; I tell him about this cheese burger I like to eat and I think I offend him because of how much meat is on it. I don’t think he is a vegetarian but I think that he thinks that you should eat just enough meat. During the meal or was it before? Some of us showed off our tattoos. I always think it is funny when I show that I have my whole side done in numbers; probably because no one expects that I have a tattoo let alone a huge one and it is numbers. Once the bill came I was not too happy about the price. I spent $25.00 on a cheese burger and a drink. In Canada they tax the crap out of everything. Probably because of their health care… somebody has to pay for it.
Once our meals were finished we headed out to the theater to see our first play Ceasar and Cleopatra. This show was a prelude to Antony and Cleopatra. Caesar finds her at the sphinx and she is a whiny girl and he helps turn her into a woman. As the play goes on though she starts to take control and makes everyone do what she wants. The things I like about the play was that I could understand it easily not knowing what the play was about from the start. The lighting was amazing how it was timed and how the colors helped set off certain moods. When the stage and props were changed I felt like it was a performance on its own from the play itself; the timing was great and it almost was like a dance when they would move things around the stage and off stage. Ceasar was my favorite character he had a way with words that could get him out of any kind of bind he was in or at least to control or manipulate anyone. I wish I could have manipulated the old Nazi women who said no photography was aloud so I could have had some photos to remind me of the experience… oh well…
After the play we met up at Bentley’s again and had a few more drinks. I had just one more AMF and I was fairly bored. I was sitting across from Jason and I could see he was bored too; so I told him I was bored. We stayed for a while longer and then decided to head on back and get some sleep for my next day. The walk home was pleasant and it was probably the most relaxing one I would have all weekend. Once we got in the room I told Jason that I wasn’t going to wake up till 11:00AM and then I fell asleep.
I woke up at 11:00AM or at least close to it and threw on some clothes to go running. No one was around so nothing was there to really hold me back. I walked outside and the weather felt good so I started to run. I ran for a couple of miles and found a grocery store which was good for me; because I was thirsty. I walk in and this place looks just like any store back home. I walked around to see what they had and grabbed a water and headed back out on my run. I saw another guy running and though about catching up to him but I decided to run alone. I ran and ran and found a ghetto part of town and ran even more… I ran till my bottle of water was gone which was about thirty minutes later and returned to the hotel. On my way back I saw a few girls walking dogs and talked to them about their dogs and continued on my way.
Once I arrived back at the hospital I saw Nate and Charlie in the lounge area and hung out with them for a few minutes. They said they had saw me walk out of the store while they were biking. One thing I was disappointed about the trip was that my bicycle did not fit in my car. I would have loved to bike around this town but I had to settle with running. I hopped in the shower and when I was done doing that and getting into some clean clothes I grabbed my camera and decided to head outside again. I went in the lounge area once more and talked to Jason. I noticed that he always rests his left elbow on his right hand and his left hand under his chin. We talked about this for a while and he was probably getting freaked out that I observe his habits so closely. I took a photo of him doing this and headed back out.
Once I got a few blocks away I saw some nice houses that I did not notice while we were walking at night. Many of the homes looked like they were big and cozy covered by a natural green blanket. I wondered to myself if they feel the same way as I do when I take a nap on a sunny day with a soft blanket. These neighbor hoods were nice and I would not mind living in a place like this in the future.
There were black squirrels everywhere. I love the way these look compared to ours. Their fur looks cleaner because of its shine and how sold the color is. Other than the looks they seemed to behave the same way as our squirrels do. These creatures were not something that is new to me though I see them out were my Grandparents live. You never see these squirrels near our brown squirrels though. Squirrels reminds me of pets that gypsies would have. Squirrels seem like they would be able to spy on people; they look like they know secrets. I wish I could have one for a pet.
I was starting to get hungry so I continued into town at a jogging pace. I came across a school with many bicycles. I thought that this was awesome that a town somewhere had kids who rode them to school. This town did have some fishy things going on. Many times when I would walk down streets I saw people reading books while walking or sitting somewhere. Everywhere I went I saw children playing outside. I saw many couples together sitting outside on porches and in the grass. I never see these things happen in the States. It was already odd enough seeing people outside. Maybe my problem is that I find where I live to be less significant and I do not take notice when these things are happening around me. Maybe many of the people were from out of town on vacation as well?
I walked just a few steps down the road from the school with all of the bikes and walked into some business building. Inside there were two woman. I asked the older of the two where I might be able to find some cheaper food and the beer store. She told me of a few places I might enjoy eating; one place was a bar and grill and the other was a sandwich place. To get to the bar and grill she said to cross the bridge out of town and continue down the road for a couple miles. The sandwich place was the closer of the two and she said I would have to go into town and walk down an alley. To get to the beer store she said to follow a red and white tower and find Wellington Street. We spoke for a while about why I was in Canada and what kind of things I do at college. I also told her about the people I have come with and had small talk for a while. I thanked her for her help and headed out on my way to get lunch.
Since I was hungry I decided to stop at the York Street Kitchen which was the sandwich place she had told me about. When I go in the place is full of bright colors, small long tables, and small chairs. They had photos on the walls from movies. They were made from the script’s text from a certain scene to make up the scene as an image by changing the colors of the characters. I notice that not many people are here but I did show up at an oddball time. I step up to the counter and have no clue what to do so a girl comes from the back and helps me out. They have an order card that has breads, meats, vegetables, cheeses, and sauces. I fill it out and order salami on wheat. She look at me with a strange look and asked if that was all I wanted. I asked her why she would not want the sandwich and told her that I like it because it is not millions of flavors taking over two of my favorite flavors.
I finish my sandwich and head towards the tower. The streets are packed and I wish I were back in the empty sandwich place. I see people shopping, eating, complaining, laughing, and doing all sorts of other things. i walk around town a few times to see if I can meet up with anyone from school but I don’t. So I continue and walk alone for about an hour because I don’t want to hang out alone but then decide to go back to the plan. I walk towards the tower and I am close so I see an Officer and ask him where the beer store is and if I would get in trouble walking it down the road closed and not in my system. He said that it is alright to walk alcohol down the road closed and not in me so I walk down the road.
I find the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. I see people walking out with brown bags and cases of beer. I walk in and they have it all.
I walk through the beer aisles and they have some of my favorites from back home. I grab a six pack and look for the rum. When I go to check out I am shy a few bucks to purchase both. The prices were actually fairly close to back home which was awesome. I chose the rum since I am trying to train for a footrace and headed out.
Since what I found was on everyone’s brain I decided to head back. I stroll down the road towards the ghetto again. Kids are getting out of school and people are returning to work so the sidewalks have people on them again. All I want to do is walk alone!
So I walk for a couple miles and see an abandoned factory with a skate park close to it. There was a boy walking around it and I would soon meet up with him later. This end of town was not as alive as the nicer sides of town and I was starting to feel more at home.
I decided to turn around once I saw the “Dead Club” called Shenanigans. I thought I had been heading in the direction that would lead back to the hospital. When I turn around the kid I saw back at the skate park is behind me and I ask him if he knows where the hospital he has no clue. I ask an old lady a block down from him where the hospital is and she tells me I am far away. I though I was fairly close since I was near the tracks that seemed to be the only ones in town. I ask her if I follow these tracks and she agreed.
This neighborhood was just like the typical Fort Wayne one. I saw people just standing watching people walk by like the average creepy guy.I heard dogs barking and people shouting.
I even saw abandoned homes. I don’t know why I found this all interesting but it was probably because everyone was saying how nice this whole place was. This whole place was the same as back home. There is a nice side and bad side of town in any town so it is really all just about the same. I wondered how many of these people have explored their own town.
I walked down the tracks and back home. The tracks went behind this abandoned factory. I still wonder what was made in that place and how many jobs were lost. I see people walking their dogs that are bigger than I am. I stop them and ask if I can pet there dog. During the trip I chatted with a lot of the people that lived around town. I wonder how many of them thought I was creepy or didn’t mind at all? Closer to home but still in the bad area I saw kids walking home from school smoking cigarettes. This reminded me of the trouble making crew back home that I see walking around town.
I make it back and the guys are lounging around. I tell them about my adventures of the day and they tell me of their uneventful day. I don’t think they had done anything since I had left. I sit and chat and finally open my bottle of rum. I bought Appleton Rum a cheap good tasting rum that I get at home when I don’t want to pay for a really good rum. I drank a lot of it and headed to my room. As I walked down the hall Malloris saw me with my near empty bottle; I am sure he was upset because of what he told me the night before.
I am going to be completely honest and say that I do not remember much of the night past this point or much of the afternoon leading up to it. I was told that I could meet up with Malloris and Mcgrade here at the Boar’s Head before the play. I go in and almost everyone is here besides the few that stayed behind at the hospital. I buy a beer and sit by Jason. Kassie and Sarah are there. I just tried to keep my mouth shut and listened to the conversations people were having all around me.
Once we get to the theater for the show I am dead tired and my body is just wore out; this is not a good sign. I am sitting by Mcgrade and I doze off many times; I wake up and laugh randomly and doze again; and I wake up when applause is going on to clap. I do remember parts of the play but I don’t know if it was from when I had seen it before. It seems as if this is a play in a play. The main guy is controlling of the girl. I did find it funny how this guy talks to people he never met as if he is their best friend. Although the play was a comedy I thought some of the scenes seemed a bit harsh when they were dunking her in water. I am dissapointed that I missed out on most of this play from what I heard the others talking about it was good.
Once the play was out I ran back towards the main drag of town and sat on the curb once I was out of breath. I saw Kassie and Sarah walking a block or so down and I decided to join them. The wanted to go out for drinks so we looked for a place to go. We found this place called Woody’s. It was not a nice place but a cheaper place. It had loud music, lights, and loud people. The men that ran the place were old guys; I thought this was weird since everyone there was young. There were these guy who were wasted and one was dancing and pointing at us the whole time; I just looked at him and gave him thumbs up or shook my head. I was dead tired. While I was there I had about ten glasses of water. I did not want another drop of alcohol. My brain felt fried not like a hangover but like it had nothing left to do or think about. While we were there a black guy walked up behind me and laid his drink in front of me while he was behind. I look over and see a dudes arm. I thought he was coming over to talk to Kassie. When he looked over and saw that I am a dude he walked to Kassie and whispered to her that he thought I was a girl. I asked him if he wanted to go on a date and he walked away. Kassie was upset cause he was checking me out. We hung out for a while longer till everyone was wore out and walked home. I guess it was a good thing I waited behind because I am about positive they would have had a hard time getting back home. Not that they had been drinking much but because they had no clue where we were at for quite a while.
Once we got back everyone was up and having a good time but I went directly to bed since I had wore myself out so early. When I was asleep I had weird dream that felt like it was almost real. I dreamed that I had to assassinate someone at Indiana Tech because they were making deals with a rival gang. I did it and later I went home to hang out with my family for a cookout. My dad and sister were grilling in the backyard. Cars drove by slowly to see what was going on but I noticed one car go past a few times. The car finally stopped and murdered my family and I got shot in the leg a few times because I dove behind a building. One of the gang members shoots me. I wake up to the sound of McGrade which was the gunshot in my dream.
I had forgot that at the Boar’s Head I told her that I would join for breakfast. I throw on my clothes in a matter of seconds, use the restroom, and brush my teeth and head out with her and Malloris. She thought it was cray how fast I was ready. We grab food at a place called Let Them Eat Cake. This place is like a small diner and we have a very nice waitress. Almost all of the food here is bread or dough based and I am not too big of a fan of that unless it is a sandwich or is covered in a sauce so I order chili. Malloris looked at me weird for my order and I tell him why. That kind of food is not too good for my diet anyway. I sit there and listen to Malloris talk about how his loves this thing, that thing, and things he has loved about the trip. It was funny watching go on and on about things he loved it was like he was romanced by the town. Mcgrade would chime in, “Oh I know!” when he was talking about things he loved, I was cracking up inside. The town was a nice town I have to admit. Later on they started asking me questions about my life and I would ask them questions about their lives. I had a fun time getting to know my professors. I got them to laugh a few times and they asked if I knew I was funny I just replied, “I know people laugh but I don’t know why.” and we continued to laugh. That was a refreshing morning to a long prior day.
We headed out towards the warehouse where they store old costumes and props. While we were driving we saw some of the others walking to the same place; there were too many of them so we didn’t stop. When we arrived we were early so we decided we would be nice and pick up more people. First we picked up Kassie and Sarah. We bailed out and Mcgrade left to pick up the large group. When she got back she said she saw even more walking and picked them up as well. When we walked in the first thing I noticed were the aisles of costumes. We had to walk done one aisle to begin our tour.
We sit down and are greeted by a friendly old man. While we were walking around he gave of the history of some of the costumes that date back decades ago. He talks about the time each costume takes and how they were all custom made for the actors who would wear them. One costume he showed was made two times; one was for acting and one was made for stunts.
After he has finished talking about costumes we walk though a few more aisles of them and start to walk through aisles of props. Some of the props include coffins, chairs, kitchen stuff, living room stuff, bedroom stuff, stuff you would find on a boat, and it goes on and on. It was amazing seeing all of those things used on stage and it was crazy how they are able to store it all. He said that they rent costumes to other places that deal with acting performances such as Disney.
Later in the tour we had a chance to put on some costumes. These were rejected costumes he said they used for seeing how something may look or fit. Everyone was having a good time trying on different outfits and goofing around. Some them who were dressing up really looked like they could have been from those times.
The next play we saw was Hamlet. I did not understand it at all. It seemed to be about a guy. His dad was a king and was a ghost. He is going mad and every time people leave the room he yells a lot. He wants to kill this guy that killed his dad but he married his mother. There were so many people and things going on but I think there was even incest. In the end everyone dies and his goal is complete. I think the play was great although I did not fully understand it. I loved how they used music during the play to give the scenes more emotion. I like the how piano in the corner was like a character; it was nearly in every scene and portrayed different emotions, I think it did as much acting as some of the human characters. The modernized look of everyone kinda threw off somethings for me because I had a hard time following who was royal and who was not. Other than the confusion I had I enjoyed the performance a lot. I loved how much emotion the actors were able to convey and they were able to make it powerful.
After the play I went directly to bed as did many others. It was only Saturday and we were all wore out. We napped till about 8:00PM and met up after we all got around. We headed out to a place called Othello’s. It was a pretty nice restaurant and was not as expensive as the other places we had went over the weekend. The booths had canopies over them and the chairs were comfortable. I felt so tired and was very thirsty I probably had ten glasses of water. Everyone was talking and stuff I just felt like I had been sleeping.
Once we get outside I have more energy and we roam around town for a while snapping photos and have fun. We head back to Woody’s bar so Nate and Charlie can see what it was all about. I was the same as the night before we had the same annoying lady as the night before who would not leave us alone and there were the usual creepy people. There was one creepy guy who had long hair and the same facial hair as i did. I wanted someone to take a photo of him with me but no one would because they were afraid. We head back to the Hotel and talk to Mcgrade for a while about her and Malloris’ day. We decided to have a couple drinks. I finish off the last two shots of rum I had in my bottle and go to bed.
Sunday was a slow and depressing day like any Sunday I would experience anywhere else. I wake up shower and head out with Kassie and Sarah. We walk around town go in some shops and sit at a coffee shop for a while. At the coffee shop there was a guy with a huge dog with beautiful colors and patterns. The dog looked as if it came from some other world. After the owner of the dog left the coffee shop I continued to zone out and just daydream about how much I hate Sundays.
We still had some time before the play was going to begin so we walked down the river side and took photos. I was mainly just walking and still day dreaming. On Sundays I just go in a kind of trance throughout the day. While we walked along the river there were many families outside enjoying their day. I kept on thinking about a painting and how everyone in this area should have been in it.
When we were seated to see Romeo and Juliet the stage seemed a bit strange. Then I remembered from our backstage tour that the lady said it started out in a mobster era. This was my second favorite of the plays we had seen. When the play started I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard these people dressed as gang members talking in Old English. Throughout the play the actors body language was always full of life. Everything they said was full of emotion. When Romeo attended the party at Juliet’s home it was a costume party. After the party the play had moved over to the clothes of the days of old. When they had switched over to the change of costume this was confusing. I wish they would have either started with the old costumes or the mobster ones; I got over it soon enough. I liked how we had read about the play and discussed it prior to seeing it. I don’t think I would have had a problem following this play unlike Hamlet. When I was watching this play I was able to enjoy the acting and other things since I knew what to anticipate. At the end of the play once everyone had died everyone went back to the mobster costumes which is something I figured they would do to show the timelessness of the play.
After the play we all gathered for a group photo. What Kassie didn’t know though was that her passport would fall out of her purse. We said our goodbyes to everyone and walked to my car. A guy that they had been checking out was still outside playing with his batons. Sarah was snapping photos of him as we walked to the car; I laughed. Before we left we were trying to take one last photo and a nice old lady happened to walk by and suggested that she take it. One thing I loved about being in that town is how nice everyone was.
So we hop in my car and make it outside of town and Kassie realizes that she is missing her birth certificate. So we check everything in the car and it is nowhere in sight. We have to drive back to the hospital and she spends a while inside looking and does not find it. So we check the car again and head into town. It is 6:00PM and the stores we had been in are closed and she is freaking out; so we head to the theater. The doors are closed and no one is there; things are not looking good. We walk down to where we took the group photo of the whole class and it is there. Out of all the things she lost on the trip it had to be her birth certificate. She is lucky that Canadians already live in an awesome country and have no use for a form of United States identification. We all spend a while talking and laughing about how lucky she is that she found it outside on the ground; it was in an envelope that looked like trash.
I feel kinda sad that I am leaving; like I do after any good trip or weekend. The ride home went smooth other than that I went on 94 instead of 69. As soon as we got out of Canada we stopped for some greasy American food; for some reason this made me happy.
Sarah had on sunglasses and had her hood up this reminded me of the unabomber and reminded me of home for some weird reason and I was glad I was heading home. We arrived back in Fort Wayne around 1:30AM. Once I got home I stayed up for a few hours and reflected on the weekend. I realized that I should go out on more adventures and hangout with more people that I don’t normally hangout with. This was definitely a fun and memorable weekend.
