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.