Adventures at Drew University

It has been a while since we had an official "Aubrey Adventure," and so we had to make sure this one was a good one.
I got a text yesterday afternoon from Becky asking if I wanted to go see her friend Charlie at Shakespeare camp. Charlie was doing his final performance in a play they had been rehearsing all summer. Excited for the opportunity, I jumped on it and told Becky to rally up the troops, and we would head up there. This Shakespeare camp was being held at Drew University up in Madison, NJ. I had never been there before, so this was going to be an adventure all right! I quickly printed out the directions, and it seemed fairly easy to get to - right off of Rt. 287 North.
An hour later, I picked up Becky, Alge and her boyfriend Steve to head up to Shakespeare camp. It took us about 30 minutes to get there - Mapquest predicted 45 - and we pulled into the parking lot near the theater. Or, so we thought. We walked up to the Kirby Theater at the University and saw all these elderly people milling around the entrance. We weren't sure if we needed to buy tickets, so we went up to the window to find out. We thought maybe all the elderly people were the grandparents of the students in the play. We overheard someone saying that tickets were $10 for the performance. I was stunned. It was only to be a 45 minute play...$10 seemed outlandish! But we found out that the play was going on at another theater across campus, and it was free....phew! So we trekked over there and were immediately greeted by a smiling woman handing out programs. She somehow knew we were there to see Charlie, and another girl named Rachel who they were also friends with. So, we walked in and took a seat in the top row.
The play was called "Troilus & Cressida," a little known Shakespeare play, and the team was doing a 45 minute version of it. Charlie and Rachel were Troilus and Cressida, respectively. This was basically a play about the Trojans and the Greeks, and the battle between their two camps. The love story is interwoven between Troilus and Cressida, and she ends up betraying his love by running off with someone from "the other side." The acting was very good. You could tell the students worked really hard to get the play to what it was. I was very impressed by how well they interpreted the words of Shakespeare. Charlie had the last line in the play, and he did an exceptional job, as did Rachel. We went down afterwards to hug Charlie and he was so happy we came! We pretty much had to scoot out of there because they were doing reenactments of some of their scenes so the parents could take flash photos.
After the play, we took a slight detour because we found this AWESOME tree on the University campus. It was one of those trees where the branches hang down like a weeping willow, but it wasn't a weeping willow. So we poked through the leaves, and Steve, Alge and Becky tried climbing it. Steve got really high, and then had a hard time getting down. It was a really cool tree. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures because my camera battery was dead :(
After the tree, we stopped at Friendly's for lunch - even though it was practically dinner because it was already 3:30. I forgot how good Friendly's was. I got my old standby - a chicken quesadilla. And then for dessert, another old standby - the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae. We had lots of fun hanging out and talking. Sadly, Alge is moving away in August, so any time we get to spend with her is valuable and sweet.
We headed home, and Becky mentioned that she still had not seen our new house, so I took them all over to the house. The last time Alge and Steve were in the house, it was completely empty, so they were remarking how different everything looked now that we have stuff inside. We hung out on the front porch for a little while after they "sampled" all of my herbs. They said the basil numbed their tongues, the rosemary tasted "piney," the parsley tasted like breath freshener, and the thyme tasted a little lemony. What possessed them to eat raw herbs, I will never know. But it was still fun!
This certainly was an Aubrey Adventure for the history books. I am so glad these students are part of my life. We have so much fun together! Who knows what's in store for next time...