Quiet Days

The past few days I've been working on feeling motivated to do schoolwork again after my two-week break, thanks to Stratford-Upon-Avon. I wrote an entire paper about Sir Robert Walpole over Sunday and Monday; I finished the footnotes this morning. Last night was Student Night at the Huntsman, so around 10:00 I decided my paper was finished enough to go out for a pint. There, where many of my friends were wasted, I heard tales of Frank and Martin swimming across the River Avon and almost getting fined 50 pounds, and I heard tales of forty-five page stories written the night before their deadline (thus why I should have no fear for my Walpole paper which is due Wednesday, and should have more than one pint, an argument I wasn't quite buying last night). Today we got our grocery money, so we went to Sainbury's for all sorts of food-- butter, cereal, dried apricots, bread, yogurt, basically anything edible since we had absolutely no food left in our fridge or pantry. We were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Later tonight my flatmates and I are going to have an ice cream sundae party, then it's back to the paper-writing, because I want to have all my work done for when Jacob arrives in just two and a half days!!!

Oh, and a side note: Shea cut my hair the other night, and it's absolutely gorgeous! I'm so happy with it! It's much shorter than it used to be. Also, I thought I'd leave you some Stratford pictures. The first is of the Dirty Duck pub, the second is the Courtyard Theatre, and the third is me wondering how the hell that sculpture is supposed to be King Lear while Jon cleans mud off of his shoes.

Shakespeare Country

Hello all! Sorry it’s been awhile since my last blog post; I’ve been away from Bath without internet, and then, frankly, I spent a very lazy weekend doing nothing but baking (though I should have been writing a paper about Sir Robert Walpole). I made a loaf of sultana and walnut bread and a French apple tart.

Last Tuesday morning, at 9:30 a.m, a coach came to pick up everyone in ASE to take us to Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was about a two hour drive through field and dale, and a couple of highways. A note on highways: they are strange to look at, because you can almost imagine you are in America when you see them, except then you do a double-take and realize that they are backwards. It’s always a bit trippy. It’s the same thing on a two-lane road; I can’t count the number of times I’ve thought another car was going to crash into me because we were in the left lane, or the amount of driverless cars I’ve imagined I’ve seen on the road. Or the number of four-year-olds I’ve thought were driving.

We arrived in Stratford around 11:45, and Claire walked a group of us to our B&B. I was staying in Cherry Blossom Guest House in a room with two girls I had never met before. The program may be small, but that doesn’t mean that I actually know all 55 kids. The girls, Kathryn and Annalise, were really nice. They were great to talk to and get to know. Our B&B was nice, too, if a little cramped. Christine, the owner, had put a tea-maker and teacups in our room, so of course we made ourselves a cup of tea that afternoon. At 12:15 we met Barbara in “The Park.” There was a large park across the street from the row of B&B’s which we occupied, and it was the meeting point of the entire trip. Barbara took us on a brief introductory walk of Stratford-Upon-Avon. The city (for our purposes) is a three street grid—three going down, three crossing. It’s slightly more complicated than that, but you get the drift. A little bit outlying the grid is Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried, and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage (Shakespeare’s wife, not the actress). Within the Grid you can find basically anything you want relating to Shakespeare from his birthplace, to his deathplace, to the RSC theatres, to Othello’s Brasserie, to Mistress Quickly’s Real English Eats, to Titus’ Pie Shop. Ok, that last one was a joke… but maybe not, actually, because I didn’t see all of Stratford and I wouldn’t put it past these people. Shea, Andrew, Kathie, and I decided to eat lunch at a fish and chips place—it was AMAZING food and a real local place. It wasn’t a cheesy pub or anything, just a (somewhat bare) dining area and only old Brits were eating there. After lunch we went to a Drucker’s for “the best hot chocolate in the world” (it was ok). On the walls of the patisserie were paintings of Shakespeare plays… except with cakes in place of key props, like Yorrick’s skull. There was even one of Winter’s Tale, where the Bear chased a man holding a cake offstage. Quite the paintings.

At 2:30 all of ASE met at the Town Hall for a lecture about the play we were seeing that night: 1 Henry VI. Ruth Hazel, one of the professors in the program, explained everything about the plot and play, as well as giving us a lot of background about Shakespeare that I really didn’t need. It was an interesting lecture, though, especially her explanations of Stratford before Shakespeare. After the lecture the afternoon was spent trying to nap and drinking tea. Around 6:00 a group of us went out to try to find dinner, but didn’t before it was time to go get our tickets for the show. That was fine with me, I wasn’t really all that hungry.

For I Henry VI I had a seat in the Circle of the temporary Courtyard Theatre. They were amazing seats. The show was even amazing, despite the fact that it was probably not pure Shakespeare but a collaborative effort, and possibly not even written first. The actors were great and it really kept my attention. I decided that my new life goal is to become an actress with the RSC. After the show, everyone went to a pub called The Dirty Duck, which is where the actor’s hang out after the show. I was talking to Claire and a student named Kiki, and they are planning to go to London in April to see 1 Henry IV and I’m dying to go with them!!! I love that play!!! After Kiki drifted away I mentioned how unfair it was that Kiki got to meet the actor who plays Hotspur last semester (Kiki is a year student). Claire was like, “Well, he’s right there if you want to talk to him—he played Young John Talbot tonight.” He was at the bar ordering beers for himself and other actors, and having a conversation with the barman. After a bit of protesting that I couldn’t POSSIBLY talk to him and a dare, then a double-dare, I went up to the bar and ordered a half-pint of Strongbow. While it was being poured I sort of non-chalantly said to Talbot/Hotspur (who’s real name is Lex Shrapnel), “You were really great tonight.” He said, “Thanks.” Then we started a conversation about where I was from, what my study abroad program was, and about how he plays Hotspur in Henry IV and how I should come to London in April or May to see it. Amazing.

The next day we had to wake up early for breakfast at our B&B’s, then we had a two-hour lecture about the play we had seen and the play we were to see (2 Henry VI). That afternoon we walked around, went to Shakespeare’s birthplace (but just saw it from the outside—it was ten pounds to go in, and from what I could tell it was a recreated house museum—we have plenty of those where I come from), went to Trinity Church to see his grave, looked over the River Avon, and got a pasty for lunch. That afternoon we went to see Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. It was… pretty much a recreated house museum… but it had an awesome maze in the backyard and some really weird sculptures which in someone’s twisted mind apparently represented Shakespeare plays. We were all really, really confused. We also got 20% off at the giftshop there, so I got a few things, including my cookbook, with which I made my loaf of bread and French Apple Tart. After we got back from the Cottage, I got ready for the play, then met up with Alli, Shea, Danielle, Jon, and Andrew for dinner. We went to an Italian place called Carduccio’s. It was good, but it was SUCH a rip-off. The guy asked if we wanted bread, we said, “ok,” they charged us 2.95 pounds for it—and they brought us two without asking. They also brought us olives (without asking) and charged us for those. It was ridiculous. We were not happy campers, but oh well. The sad thing, as Andrew pointed out, is that you can’t even not tip them, because they aren’t expecting a tip in the first place in Europe. Grrr.

The show, however, was great. Even better than the one from the night before. I think 2 Henry VI might be my favorite of the Henry trilogy (I didn’t get to see Richard III for the tetralogy). This one had a nice love scene between Margaret of Anjou and Suffolk, an amazing rebellion by Jack Cade, a scene of sorcery with Eleanor, wife of Gloucester, lots of deaths and dying and ghosts, and all of it so wonderfully done. For this performance we were two rows back from the stage, in the Stalls. I was a little worried during some of the fights that I was going to be hit and killed. One slipped sword and it was all over for me. It was an awesome view.

This night, we again went to The Dirty Duck. I talked to the man who had played The Dauphin in Part 1 and Jack Cade in Part 2. Andrew, a girl named Katie, and I had a bet going on (which a lot of people got into, but in which no money was actually exchanged) about the planting of a bag in a certain scene, so we asked the actor. Turns out I was right—the bag was a plant, the boy pulled haplessly onto the stage was not: his fear was real. Again, the actor asked us about our program, where we were from, how we liked the show, and assured us that we would love Part Three.

Thursday was our final day in Stratford. We had another lecture in the morning, but I pretty much zoned out… we were all exhausted by this point from late nights, long days, early mornings. Shea, Alli, Sylvia, Danielle, and I went to H&M; I got a 3 pound night-robe, which reminds me of the turquoise silky robe that Kay wears (and that she’s currently wearing in her Facebook profile picture). That afternoon we all went to Warrick Castle. I had thought it would be more like visiting a medieval castle than like visiting King’s Dominion. However, after pushing our way through the turnstalls, I realized that this was much more theme-park-like than historical. The Castle, of course, was real. Warrick was a real historical figure (and one in the Henry VI trilogy) known as “The King-Maker.” He was pretty badass, actually. I’m sure if he’s seen his castle lately he’s rolling in his grave.

First, we went to “Ghosts Alive” which was like Hallo-A-Scream at Busch Gardens. Then we went through “King-maker” which was essentially a wax museum (it was really creepy, Shea and I had to leave Sylvia and Danielle behind). We talked to some men at the archery booth (who called themselves Robin and Little John) and we climbed up the ramparts and battlements, and the view was great. We passed by Ye Olde Food Stand, and looked out at the summer Jousting Grounds. We went into the lavish dining room and hall of State… which were more like a glorified house museum than anything. We could even get our picture taken with a cardboard cut-out of Queen Elizabeth II!!! The Castle was fun and hokey for about an hour and a half… then we were ready to go… but we still had another hour and a half to go… Jon, Shea, and I sat in the Undercourt Restaurant for the next hour just gossiping. Danielle and Sylvia showed up later. It was a nice time, good conversation… it was warm in the restaurant. Finally, we went back to the bus. Once we got back to Stratford it was about 5:00 and we had until 7:00 to get dinner and then to get to the theatre. Shea, Jon, Sylvia, Danielle, Liz, and I all hit up the McDonald’s (though Jon, Shea, and I were the only ones who actually ate there, the others had brought pita and hummus from the grocery store). I got chicken McNuggets and fries. Heavenly. I don’t remember the last time I ate at a McDonald’s, even in the States. This McDonald’s was strange though—they had deli sandwiches on ciabatta, fish and chips, Cadbury donuts, and, my personal favorite and the one I ordered, A CADBURY EGG MCFLURRY!!! It was amazing. There can be no greater McFlurry than that of the Cadbury Egg.

After that, we went to the theatre. We watched the actors practicing fight choreography and ropes on a screen in the lobby. We got our seats and they were terrible, so a bunch of us moved around until we were spread throughout the theatre in some pretty nice seats (I was about three rows back stage right). 3 Henry VI was really good, but I think I preferred 2 Henry VI. Nevertheless, it was another amazing performance. As soon as the show was done we got on the coaches and headed back to Bath. Good-bye Shakespeare Country!!!

In other news: I booked half of my Spring Break plans (Ryanair booking system is down, so the Ireland part can’t be done yet). Also, I told you long ago that I would count the stairs I have to climb to get to my flat, and I did, but forgot to put it in my blog. 63. There are 63 stairs up to my flat. And finally, I have an awesome job volunteering for Bath Abbey: I’m making interpretive panels for thirty-five contemporary diptychs of the Life of Jesus to go on display and to travel when on loan to other churches. How cool is that for volunteer work? Plus, they gave me tea and biscuits.

Ancient Customs, Modern Twist

The past couple of days have been really rather lazy here, and I’ve been a bum and not written any blogs. Partially, this is because I haven’t had any classes since Wednesday and won’t be having any for another week. However, dear Blog Friends, this is no reason for me to neglect you.

I suppose I can start with Friday afternoon. Shea, Alli, and I decided to go to the Thermae Bath Spa, a new spa which opened about two blocks from our house. We didn’t get any actual treatments (although Shea and I tried—they were booked), but we instead got a Spa Sessions pass. We got two hours in which to take the waters—all of it naturally heated from the thermal springs which feed the ancient Roman Baths only a few feet away. It was amazing!!! On the bottom level we found the Minerva Hot Baths, which was basically an indoor swimming pool of spring water. It even had a lazy river current going through it. A level up we found the steam rooms and thermal springs shower. The steam rooms were amazing, though not so pretty as the steam rooms in the Rainforest, the Turkish Baths on the Disney Cruise. They were much more powerful, though. The first one smelled of mint, the next mint and eucalyptus, the third lavender, and the fourth frankincense. The frankincense and lavender were the best. In the middle of the room was a large, extremely powerful… waterfall. It was a thermal shower and all of the water comes from the springs. Along the edges of the rooms were personal foot baths, and cold showers and hot showers. Also on this level was the Springs Café and Restaurant, which we didn’t go into, but it looked very delectable. Up one more level was the outdoor pool. Despite the cold day, the pool was still piping hot, due to the heat of the springs. The views were amazing at the topside pool. We could see the whole of Bath, and we were comfortable and warm in this large (if somewhat crowded) pool. Steam was rising off of the top of the water due to the cold air blowing over the pool. It was amazing.

All I could think of was the Romans and their baths—we were essentially in a new Roman Bath. Lots of people were just sitting in steam rooms or lazing about pools, socializing and relaxing, and I realized that what we had was a modern twist on a very ancient custom. Obviously, we all had bathing suits instead of birthday suits, and the facilities were sanitized and looked much more technologically advanced with sleek shear lines instead of Roman architecture, but there we were—a block from the ancient Roman Baths—enjoying the hot springs.

Saturday was day-trip time!!! My friend Andrew and I went to Glastonbury, a city about 31 miles south of Bristol. Glastonbury is the reputed home of the Isle of Avalon, from the King Arthur legends, and Glastonbury Abbey is the (reputed) site of King Arthur’s grave. Andrew and I left for Glastonbury pretty early in the morning, but what with train schedules and bus schedules we didn’t get into the town until a little after 11:00. We had a quick lunch in a pub (a pub with two cats; one of them slept on the heater behind me the entire meal), then headed for the Tor, a large hill rising out of the flatness of Somerset. There are the ruins of St. Michael’s Cathedral at the top, and I read that the ancient Celts believed that the portal to the underworld was located at the top of the Tor. It was also a pilgrimage site in the early 1^st millennium—the land around the Tor would flood and pilgrims would take boats to the bottom of the hill and climb it. The views were amazing!!! The whole Tor experience was amazing, really. I could feel my muscles working to climb it, and if you looked forward you could see the beauty of St. Michael’s Bell Tower, and if you looked back you could see an entire county—miles and miles of cultivated land and villages. At the top I realized, so many have seen this. Some have seen it as I do, others saw it waterlogged and praised God at the top. Just across the way was Wearyall Hill, where Joseph of Arimathea rested his staff after his journey from the Holy Land, and a thorn tree sprouted. The thorn tree is definitely there; people have tied ribbons to it, and at the bottom sits a picture of Jesus. It was also a pilgrimage site, but now it is a hill through a neighborhood and a sheep field (the sheep were awesome!). The rest of the town was kind of hokey, touristy, and too new age-y for my taste. There was a place called The Chalice and Well, which holds an ancient well and an ancient spring. I really wanted to go, but it cost 3.50 pounds to get in. Then, as we were descending the Tor we saw a little water runoff behind the Chalice Gardens. A woman was filling up her waterbottle there-- then we noticed that she was filling up about fifteen waterbottles, all which bore the label "The Chalice and Well." A few minutes later, as we passed the entrance to the Chalice and Well, we saw two tourists carrying out half-filled bottles of "spring" water... bearing the label "The Chalice and Well." The place was filling their bottles at a runoff grate behind the gardens! What a rip-off!!!! Then there were some interesting looking shops, but also some which sold prosthetic elf ears, and all I could think was, why on earth would that even be a practical purchase, even if you did believe in the Goddess and Avalon and Magic? Seriously? Plastic elf ears?

Saturday night was slightly crazy, but less so for me than for all of the single people on this trip. I got slightly drunk at a party at the Northhamptons, came home, talked to Jake online for awhile (I remember a conversation about 1 Henry IV, by William Shakespeare), and then fell asleep. Apparently much more excitement happened after I feel asleep, however.

Sunday was lazy. So lazy I didn’t even bother with a blog entry. So lazy that I bought a pasty for lunch from the good pasty place. The only productive thing that happened was that Emily, Andrew, John, and I worked out our Spring Break plans tentatively, and we should have it all finished by the end of today!!! So far, we plan on about four days in Ireland and three days in Germany. The two places I most wanted to visit while here! It’s perfect! “Nien, das auto ist kliener rot!” That’s all I know how to say in German. It means no, the car is not red. Thank you, Rosetta Stone. Nevertheless, I’m excited for today, for Spring Break planning, paper-writing, exercising, and packing for Stratford-Upon-Avon!!!

England is for Lovers (And Flatmates)

So, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. To tell you the truth, I’d been a little apprehensive about the whole thing. First of all, I’m not with Jacob right now, and I miss him quite a bit, so having a day for couples seems depressing at the moment. Secondly, I’ve rarely had a good Valentine’s Day, much less a memorable one. Thirdly, Bath has more Valentine’s advertisements than any other place I’ve been, and that’s distressing, since Valentine’s Day is essentially a made up holiday. But Valentine’s Day in Bath was the absolute best day I could have imagined, especially considering the circumstances (that I’m far far away from Jacob).

I woke up with nothing to do. Not one thing on my schedule. I have no classes on Thursday, so I decided just to stay in—it was also cold and gray outside. I wrote Valentine’s cards to my flatmates, postcards and letters to my friends and parents, showered, then took a little catnap. Then the Valentine’s presents rolled in!!! Alli had gone out and gotten each of us a bouquet of flowers, and Shea bought all of us little chocolate truffles, and I got a letter in the mail from Jacob!!! I was feeling pretty spectacular after all of that. Then I went shopping, first with Shea, then by myself, and I got two new shirts and a skirt. Plus, I found the most beautiful pair of shoes for only twenty-five pounds—I got them today. After I got home from shopping, all of us decided to dress up and go out to dinner. We were going to go to a place called Strada, but it was already booked with couples. The same thing at a Firehouse Rotisserie and at Café Rouge. But then we stumbled across The Litten Tree, a pub, which was having “Singles Night.” We went in and secured a table for four, then we ordered a pitcher of a very girly mixed drink. The atmosphere was fantastic. The Litten Tree isn’t cramped like most old pubs, but neither is it “modern,” like the King of Wessex. They had even set out little pink candles on each table in honor of Valentine’s Day. We ate dinner (I had Chicken Balti with naan bread), had a shooter each, then had dessert (I had three scoops of ice cream, because I cannot resist ice cream, although the toffee was really good and I’ll probably get that next time). After what had been the most wonderful dinner with the most wonderful people, we returned to Nunes house and met up with other ASE-rs going out to The Huntsman for Student Night. Student night was good—I had a cider, then a drink called a Snakebite (cider, beer, black currant). It was really good. A bunch of people went to some club with the English, but that was a much drunker crowd than I wanted to hang out with last night, so I stayed at the Huntsman with Alli, Martin, and Andrew. We talked forever, even though Andrew had to get up at 6:00 in the morning for a study trip. Alli and I returned home to Nunes where we promptly crashed into sleep, and all I could think was what a lovely day it had been.

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

I had the second day of my tutorial at Oxford this afternoon, and I must admit that I spent all of yesterday dreading it and all of this morning wishing I had opted to take just the regular four classes so as to avoid the stress of the tutorial system. Today, however, was much better than I could ever have expected.

First, a note on the past few days. The weekend and Monday and Tuesday were spent primarily in reading for my classes and writing for my tutorial. Monday was distinctive for being half-full of finishing my Whig and Tory paper, for the creation a wonderful chicken and rice stir-fry, and for the discovery of Monday Student Night at The Huntsman (in addition to Thursday Student Night). Additionally, I began reading The Wind in the Willows (my roommate is reading it for a class, so I decided to peruse it) and discovered that, indeed, they are along a towpath: After Mole tips the boat Rat says, “Now then, old fellow! Trot up and down the towing-path as hard as you can, till you’re warm and dry again, while I dive for the luncheon-basket.”

Tuesday was exhausting. I had two hours of Tudors and Stuarts in the morning, followed by a hodge-podge lunch, then two hours of Irish Literature in the afternoon. Both of those classes turned out wonderfully. I had been rather worried about Irish Lit, but yesterday seemed to portend greatness ahead, and I must say, most of my fears are allayed. I love all of my classes—including my tutorial.

At any rate, I woke up this morning rather terrified and without having revised my paper to the degree that I normally do, and in general quite unhappy with the state of the world. Plus, it was extremely foggy (but the fog burned off into a gorgeous day). We left at 9:43 instead of 11:43 in order to have some time to look around the city before meeting with Leslie. Greg and I got to Oxford no problems; we looked around at the Oxford Castle, Nuffield College (one of the many Oxford colleges), and into shops and I was having such a pleasant time I almost forgot that I had a paper to present later that day.

Nuffield College.

We had lunch at a nice Malaysian place called Makan La, and I must say it was nice to get a change of cuisine from pasta and sandwiches in the flat. After lunch I called my old friend, Eric, to see what he was up to (he’s studying abroad at Oxford for the entire year). We made plans to meet in front of University College, where Greg and I study, and in the meantime I looked into a few more shops. I considered buying an Oxford hoodie, but maybe I’ll do that during the ASE week in residence. The best thing I saw that I most wanted to buy was a hat that said, “Oxford University: Est. 1231”.

Around 1:10 I met Eric in front of University College. It was so nice to see him again after over a year!!! It was like we’d never missed a beat we picked up talking again so quickly. He’s studying math and philosophy, which is fitting for him, and he was asking me if I had done any acting recently or if I was writing anything new at all.

Me and Eric!

He took me and Greg into a very pretty park-like area behind Christ Church College at Oxford, which he explained is one of the richest colleges, and one that his college—Pembroke College—absolutely detests. Apparently long ago the Pembroke college boys went over to a meadow owned by Christ Church College and painted a cow, but the paint was lead-based and the cow died. The boys of CCC were extremely angry and stole the Pembroke Mascot, the Pembroke Cat, and threw it out a window and it died and now the two colleges hate each other. This probably happened in the 1600s. Then Greg and Eric got into a spat about whether or not English food is any good, which was absolutely hilarious! I think my favorite quote was when Eric said, “Blood pudding is great, fuck you!” and “Don’t knock English breakfasts!” to Greg. Anyways, we had a lovely walk and it was a gorgeous day. The colleges at Oxford are all so pretty and picturesque!

Shortly though, it was time for our tutorial. We met Leslie at the gate of University College, and he led us to the classroom. I had to read my Whig and Tory paper aloud to him today (next tutorial Greg will read his aloud). I got a very decent grade!!! I was surprised and quite pleased!!! Then we discussed the appropriations of war money during the late 1600s and into the 1700s, and the creation of the London Season, and how some profited and others went under financially due to warfare. Overall, I felt quite happy and light about the whole tutorial thing today. And now no more class for two weeks! Next week the whole program goes to Stratford-Upon-Avon, so classes are cancelled! It’s like a little Spring Break only two weeks into classes! “O rapture!”

Various and Sundry

The past two days have been rather uneventful. Well, except Friday night was pretty fun; Danielle and I attended a belly-dancing class at the gym-- it's much harder than it appears. My abs still hurt. Later, we all went to a pub called Cork and Bottle for some karaoke. I sang "Genie in a Bottle." We also met some Brit named Jonny with crazy hair who seemed pretty nice. A native! Wow! Next Friday we're going to go back and eat dinner there and sing some more. I'm pretty excited.

I returned to the towpath on Saturday morning to take pictures for you guys; here are some of the best. It was really different Saturday than Friday in lots of little ways. On Saturday morning barges were moving up and down the canal, and people seemed more active. Also, it was a bit colder and as the day wore on fog rose over the waters; it was really beautiful. It's nice to see that there's a way of life there and that I wasn't imagining it. There are more pictures of the towpath in a Facebook album, should you care to look.

While I walked the towpath my flatmates and some other ASE people headed to Wales. In retrospect, maybe I should have gone, but I'm really stressed out about homework and my tutorial, so I decided to stay in Bath and hit up the library. It turned out to be a very productive day-- I got a lot of reading done. I even have half of my paper done as of today! Plus, they didn't go into any castles in Wales, they just walked around one, and then watched a rugby game in a pub. Still, they came home raving about Wales. Oh well. I feel academically secure today, and that peace of mind probably is worth more than Wales at this point.

I also grocery shopped and today I made a really great chicken dish for dinner! All of our cooking is improving and anyways nothing can be worse than those pancakes. Alli and Danielle made Oatmeal Raisin cookies tonight for me and Shea! It was pretty fantastic. I love my flatmates. They are so wonderful-- I could not have asked to live with better people.

Back to paper-writing for me, so tomorrow I can work for my other classes, and maybe have a little but of fun in Bath to boot!

The Wind in the Willows

This morning I found the most beautiful place in all of Bath-- the towpath. I woke up to find the sun shining and the weather warm enough for a tank-top (provided I was keeping active). I remembered the other day Jonathon mentioned that a great place to run was the towpath, so I went to his office in Nelson House to ask him how to get there. It's about a two minute way to the towpath from Nunes House, which is excellent. I had to go up some steps and through some mud and I was beginning to mourn for the cleanliness of my shoes when I emerged at the most quaint little area full of bargehouses and ducks and swans all sitting and swimming gracefully along the canal. I have never seen anything so extraordinarily beautiful in my whole life-- or maybe I have, but nothing that looked straight from an English children's book. It's an eight-mile loop, so I only went about a mile and a half or two on the path before turning back, but I plan to go the entire loop before I leave here in May. I also plan to go for a leisurely walk with my camera soon, instead of a run. I really never thought I'd find any place for running that I liked more than Duke of Gloucester Street, but I was mistaken.

I wish I could describe everything more vividly to you in words, since as of yet I have no pictures. All along the path are rushes and barges and lots of people out running, or walking their dogs. There was a little old English man with his dog and he looked so picturesque. The barges are low in the water, and they have little pipes on top, and several of them were sending out puffs of delicious smelling steam-- people cooking their breakfasts on their barges. The canal was completely calm, save for the v-shaped ripples left behind by the swimming ducks, who always look so determined. Here and there a swan glided silently by. Occasionally I passed a little house or small pub area. At one of these I got off the towpath and went down into the little village area-- called Bathhampton, in this case. There was an old pub called "The George" by the towpath and a small Anglican church, probably dating from the 1700's, across the street. I went over to the church and wandered among the gravestones for a moment; it was so peaceful in the sun with the birds chirping and a slight breeze. A man tending the flowers around the graves told me that the church was open, should I care to go in. I did. It was the most beautiful small parish I've ever seen. It's like a great cathedral on a mini-scale, and something about it feels so joyous. I wish it was closer to Nunes House so I could attend regularly, but it was quite aways down the towpath. I continued past the little town and out past all of the houses into the rolling hills surrounding Bath. Here even the spread of barges grew thin, and fewer people were walking, and there were fields of sheep across the canal. I decided I should probably turn back, or I would never make it back to Nunes House in a reasonable amount of time, and I do have a lot of reading to do today for my classes.

I want to live along the towpath. I want to write along the towpath. I feel that one's imagination could really spark in such an environment; I really thought that sort of place existed only in the past or in the rose-colored imagination of an author. But there it was, just waiting for me. And there's still so much more of it to explore, and so many paths branching off of it.
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I had my tutorial at Oxford the other day. Oxford is a much different city than I imagined it would be. Instead of a slightly bigger version of Williamsburg, Oxford feels more like New York, except behind the walls of the colleges, where it looks like you've stepped into the early Renaissance, owing to the architecture. I was at University College, where Leslie teaches. I have my tutorial with another student, named Greg, so he and I managed to find our way to the college and Leslie met us in the main courtyard. The tutorial itself was alright-- easy this week, because we hadn't a paper to present. Next week either Greg or I will read our papers and discuss, and then Leslie will collect the unread paper and grade it himself. I rather wish I had my tutorial alone, though. Greg is nice, but I feel like that isn't the point of a tutorial. Oh well, at least I get to experience Leslie Mitchell, and that is an experience. Last week he argued why democracy was a stupid system of government, and I must say he made some excellent points.

In other news, they want us to get involved with the City of Bath by volunteering or going to the Uni and meeting people, which is all well and good, but the things for which I want to volunteer don't want me-- you have to fill out an application to cat cuddle! Seriously? I'm waiting to hear back about volunteering in the Bath Abbey shop or at the Heritage Vaults, both of which sounded nice. I'm thinking if it doesn't pan out I'll just do Bath my way, instead of trying to fit some criteria that I've never fit very well.

Well, that's all for now. Off I go! Time to read!

Tuesday is Pancake Day!

Apparently, Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras is called Pancake Day in the UK. I went to the grocery store the other day and they had a display of different pancake batters, lemon juices, and sugars (which is what they top their pancakes with instead of maple syrup). I bought a package of batter. After eagerly awaiting the gloriousness of pancakes, they turned out to be crap. The English make neither fluffy buttermilk pancakes nor thin French crepes. Instead, they make a conglomeration. They make pancakes like colonial pancakes, except worse (because I’ve tried colonial pancakes and they were pretty good). They are too thick to be crepes, but not fluffy so they end up being rubbery and kind of doughy and a little gross. Although, the thin parts did taste quite good with the lemon and sugar. We took our creation down to the boys’ flat and let them try the glory of an English pancake. Brian refused to even touch the thing, but Greg and Jon bravely tried a bite, and Gabe even liked it. Seriously, they weren’t that terrible, but I think we had a preconception about what a pancake should be, so we made them too thick instead of thin and papery. Oh well, I guess we know for next time…if there is a next time. Hmmm… In other news, I decided to give up soda for Lent.

Today was also my first day of classes since December! I had The Tudors and Stuarts and Irish Literature. Tudors and Stuarts seems like it will be really spectacular. The professor looks so typically Oxfordian, and he’s very kind and knowledgeable and all around he seems great. Irish Literature…not so much. The professor is young and scatter-brained, but I think the real killer was that he showed up late then kept us twenty minutes after class should have ended …and the classes are already two hours long. He said that that wouldn’t happen again, so maybe this week was just strange and things will look up by next Tuesday. I hope. I’m considering switching classes, but there’s nothing that I want to switch into, so I think I’ll stick it out. It has some potential, and the kids in the class are all really great.

Tomorrow is my first tutorial with Leslie, who I’ve met once, and of whom I’ve heard so much. I should get some reading done for that before I fall asleep (though I plan to read more on the train to Oxford—eeee!). I’ll keep you posted on that one.

And finally, I saw a rainbow today out my window; it was joyous.

Playing Tourist, or Let's Take a Picture!

The past two days have been all about being tourist-y. Yesterday, we spent the morning touring the farmers markets and flea markets which are open on Saturday here in Bath. All I bought was a sugar and cinnamon crepe. It was quite tasty. A boy named Andrew was eating a strange food that he bought at the market—he said it was called a “Scotch Egg.” Essentially, it’s a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in a sausage and onion mix covered in breadcrumbs. It looked… convenient to transport.

Nearly immediately after discovering a Scotch Egg, we ran into a street performance in front of the Abbey. Two men, probably about 45 years old each, were wearing thongs and carrying torches. They proceeded to dance around with them, set their hair on fire, build a little stand, stand on the stand then—GET THIS—stick a sparkler between their butt cheeks, light it on fire, and do a handstand. They probably would have gotten arrested in America.

The rest of the day was spent relatively quietly. Danielle, Shea, and I got lunch at a cute little Panera-esque restaurant. I ordered an Earl Grey Tea and it came out as an entire tea service, complete with tray, milk, and sugar cubes! It was adorable.

My Tea Service

Later, Shea, Alli, and I wandered around Bath for a little while. We found a bridge that looks like the younger sister of Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Really, the whole town has an Italian feel, which is how it was designed… so well done City Planners from the 1700s. I googled Bath a lot in order to discover things around here that I want to see and found some plays, museums, etc. I also googled plane tickets to Scotland and Ireland and, oddly enough, Stockholm, Sweden (they are running a special at Bristol airport). Some people are thinking of going to Spain, which would be amazing; others want Italy, which I refuse to even consider.

Ponte Vecchio? No...

Today was even more tourist-y. ASE organizes a trip on the last day of orientation for all of the program participants, and today was the day! They arrived with a bus (called a coach) at 9:30. We all boarded and headed off to Stonehenge! Shea and I on the "coach" before leaving for Stonehenge.

Stonehenge, I discovered is a very cold place in the middle of winter. It wasn’t particularly warm in the middle of summer, but this was terrible. I had on layers of clothes and I still thought my hands were going to be frostbitten. A girl named Sylvia commented that she thought, “This is it. My body is going to shutdown right here. I’m going to die at Stonehenge.”

My flatmates and I in front of Stonehenge! (Shea, Me, Danielle, Alli)

Personally, I just wanted Kay or Callie around so that when I said, “Ah, building a henge, are we? Very nice, I’ve seen the plans,” and “Before Stonehenge there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but uh, the Big Bad Wolf came and blew them down,” and finally, “Two-hundred miles in this day in age, why, we don’t even know where we live anymore! I wish the Christians would hurry up and get here!” someone would understand that I was quoting Eddie Izzard and would laugh. I mean, hey, Kay could have even said one of those and saved me the trouble of remembering all three! Still, it is pretty impressive, when you consider how long the stones have been there, and how far they traveled in order to reach the very windy hill upon which they have stood for thousands of years.

A picture in front of picture of "What-Stonehenge-originally-looked-like-we-think."

After Stonehenge we went to a town called Salisbury. I’ve been there before, but this time I saw it from a different angle! A colder angle. We went to the Cathedral and I found a very sweet little chapel along the side. I stopped in, prayed, and lit a candle, which made me happy. Even more, the whole time I could hear the music from the end of the service playing. It was beautiful. After being there for a little while my flatmates, Sylvia, and Kathie went to a little pub for lunch. I had a cottage pie, which was excellent. Very traditionally English. Also, very warm, which was a welcome change from the pervasive cold of the day. After lunch we stopped in at the Costa Coffee next door. Danielle and I ordered a selection of mini-biscuits for 2.20 pounds and we each got three cookies. ‘Twas lovely.

Pub for lunch! (Kathie, Danielle, Shea, Me, Sylvia)

Finally, we ended up in a tiny medieval village called Lacock. It was very picturesque, except that both the Abbey and the Church we were supposed to see were closed (the Abbey for the season, the Church for a Christening). The Abbey was used as a location in one of the Harry Potter films.

The exterior of the place where Harry Potter was filmed.

The whole town has been used for over fifteen blockbusters, including Pride and Prejudice and some new Judi Dench film. Exciting! We ate dinner there at a pub called The George. We had a traditional English Sunday Roast Dinner. I had a fantastic stuffed chicken for dinner, a great hard cider to drink called Scrumpy Jack, and a raspberry apple crumble for dessert.

A note on dinner: Kathie and I ended up being separated from our regular group by accident, so we were at a different table from our friends. The girls we were sitting with were… interesting. They seemed nice, except that they were discussing the different camera angles used in Bridget Jones’ Diary versus Bridget Jones’ Diary 2. THEN they started talking about their foreign language skills, namely elvish, as in Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, ELVES! One girl asked the other if she knew any elvish curses; one girl talked about how she has written several poems in elvish; another girl told about how she and her friends used to pass notes in elvish during high school. [Jaw drop]

Kathie is awesome. We had a very nice dinner together in our little corner of the table.

A sign in Lacock, which I thought was kind of cool.

Now we are back in Bath, eagerly awaiting the 10:30 p.m coin toss and 11:00 kickoff of the Superbowl! Exciting! GO PATRIOTS! We’re going to the Northhamptons to watch it with those kids (it’s on BBC2, so we all get it in our ASE houses). I haven’t been to the Northhamptons yet, nor have I seen the Circus or Royal Crescent, so this is exciting, though I’m told the houses are up a mountain, so it will be a lot of walking. I'll say hi to 29 Northhampton for you, Melinda. :)

I’m a little sad, though, because I’m dying for some chips and dip and a Superbowl party American-style, but that probably isn’t in the cards, considering I still haven’t seen salsa or Velveeta in the stores. Grrr… Oh, well—nachos and cheese probably looks tourist-y anyways. :)

Of Pubs and Clubs

Yesterday was our last day of real orientation stuff. We have a little more today, then a reception with our professors tonight, but really orientation is over and we’re now on our own in England. I didn’t have to write any diagnostic papers yesterday, either, which was fantastic. I got in a nice long nap, then Danielle, Alli, and I went to Orange and got our English cell phones! My cell phone. It's pretty blinged out.

Afterwards, Danielle went to write her last diagnostic paper, and Alli and I went shopping. We basically just walked around the center of Bath to see what we could see. There is a long main drag of shops, of which we made an extensive tour, then we dropped into some side streets and shopping arcades. We found the most beautiful little shop on a side street called Uttams London, but all of their clothes were ridiculously expensive, especially when considering that the prices were in pounds and not dollars.

A little shopping arcade containing beautiful but expensive shops.

We also stopped at Whitehall Cornish Pasties and I got a chicken and vegetable pasty for lunch. It was funny, though, because we went in and they had different flavors—one called “Traditional”—and I had to ask the man what a “Traditional” was. I felt like an idiot; I’m probably the only person on the island who has to ask that question. It was something with beef and onion or what have you. Anways, pasties are excellent and not very expensive, so there’s what I’ll survive on while I’m here. As we ate our pasties, Alli and I continued to scope out the main area of Bath. We passed a pub called The Saracen's Head, which seemed wildly inappropriate; we passed a club called The BlueRooms that I want to go to with Jacob (but I want to check it out first, to make sure it's worthy); we passed a cafe called The Parisien which looks darling and we both are dying to eat there; we passed a Strada, which is I guess a pizza chain, because the Strada in London is FANTASTIC. We stopped in a store and we each bought a dress. She wore hers last night and looked fantastic, but I’m saving mine.

Later that day we met up for an ASE tour of Bath Abbey. Basically, they just wanted to welcome us to the church and let us know that we were welcome to worship there. They were really friendly. They gave us tea and coffee and homemade cakes from the women in the parish. It almost makes me want to consider going on Sunday mornings for services, especially since it’s only a few minutes walk from my house. The Abbey itself is beautiful; it reminds me of some of the great cathedrals in Italy, except not as ornate (since it’s an Anglican church and has always been an Anglican church, rather than a Catholic church).

Top: Outside the Abbey, Bottom: The Altar in the Abbey

As for last night…Last night was the first night that everyone in ASE went out, because Thursday’s here are student nights. First, basically everyone in Nunes House (all fifteen of us) gathered in the dining room of Flat 4 for some pre-gaming action around nine o’clock (the Brits go out really early—pubs normally close between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning). We played a very lame game of Kings without Never Have I Ever or Hot Seat. What was the point? I don’t know. After we were done with that and the Kings Cup had been drunk (by poor Alli) we headed off to The Huntsman, which is a pub right by our house.

My flatmates and I, minus Danielle, at The Huntsman

We had been told there was karaoke there, but that was a lie. There’s karaoke on Friday nights at a different pub called Cork and Bottle. That’s where we’re going next week, because Danielle and I want to sing. Anyways, The Huntsman serves cheap drinks to students on Thursdays, so I had several vodka lemonades whilst there. After we had been there for a bit, we decided to try to find the Cork and Bottle, and from there we ended up at a techno-club called The Second Bridge. It was PACKED. We could hardly move there were so many people—it was student night there, as well. It looked a bit like Yab Club in Florence on the inside, except grungier and with more VIP rooms, plus it was full of dancing people, unlike Yab. I wasn’t really wearing the right outfit for a techno nightclub, however, and after awhile techno music just becomes the same beat over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, so my friend Jon and I left pretty quickly. We walked back to The Huntsman to meet up with some ASE people still there, speaking in a British accent the whole walk back to see if we could fool anyone. I’m not sure it worked, but no one called us out on it.

There were still a few people at The Huntsman, so we each got beers and sat down for a chat with them before last call, then we headed back to Nunes House. I must admit I wasn’t entirely sober at this point, so the British accent thing seemed like such a good idea. Once we got back, my flatmates and the guys downstairs sat out on the landing for awhile talking, but finally we all retired to bed, contented with the nightlife scene in Bath. Now, we just need to meet some Brits!!!