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!!!