The worst pies in London

Hi guys! Miss me? I'm sure you do, which is why I am writing this blog post. It has been a whole week since my last post, but unfortunately, I don't have much exciting news.

Aren't we precious?

We took a trip to the Cotswolds last weekend, which was scenic, beautiful and tranquil. Not exciting though. The girls in my house and I got sentimental and took a group picture, so I'm including it for your perusal and inevitable enjoyment.

Oh, pancake day happened! That, ladies and gentlemen, is an ACTUAL BRITISH HOLIDAY. Pancake day, aka Mardi Gras, aka Fat Tuesday, is the day on which British people gorge on crepes (they're pancakes when they're British, but they're really crepes). So in the interest of cultural exploration....we made delicious crepes and ate and ate and nutella and clotted cream and berries and and and yummm. I love pancake day. I am bringing this tradition home you guys.

I booked tickets for my spring break trip to Spain! Okay...get ready for some ridiculousness. Are you ready? I'm warning you ahead of time so that you aren't startled in any potentially dangerous manner.  I am going, with two other girls, from March 31st to April 8th, to Spain. We are spending 3 days in Barcelona and 4 in Madrid, once you take out the days on either side for flying there and back. Waiiit for it...my travel companions, you ask? Just Hannah. And Hannah. Except, I mean that in the literal sense, not in the third person sense, as in: Hannah and Hannah are joining me (Hannah) for a week long adventure in a foreign country. I am the only one with any experience speaking Spanish, which means I will have the pleasure of doing introductions to anyone we meet. "Hola, nos llama Hannah." Uhhhhh....no, oiste correctamente....Soy Hannah, y ella es Hannah, y ella es Hannah. GOOD GRIEF CHARLIE BROWN. I don't think we are going to make many friends.

Really though, I could not be more excited for this trip. It is going to be so much fun! And I am going to get to attempt to speak Spanish! AY YA YAY!

As a last note, I ate a Lovett pie for dinner the other night. If you have seen Sweeney Todd then you are in on this joke. If you haven't...Lovett makes perfectly normal pies with perfectly normal ingredients. Don't worry about it.  Seriously though, there is this stand at the farmer's market that sells Lovett pies! And it was really good! I got the vegetarian one...I hope.

FAIRIES!!

FAIRY GODPARENTS! ( I wanted this to be the title, but apparently you can't link things in the title, but I want all of you to know that this is what I was thinking of when I titled this blog post)

Since my last update, I have had many fine adventures.
Laura and I went to volunteer and the Bath Organic Garden. It was very fun, everyone was so welcoming. It was spring cleaning basically, which meant all of the 'thorny bits' that were being cleared out to make way for the next season had to be burnt. So we spent the whole time feeding sticks to a fire, and went home pyromaniac-ly satisfied and smelling like wood smoke. Of course in between the burning things there was a tea break. What kind of people do you think we are at the Bath Organic Garden? Not savages, who light things on fire without tea and fruit cake, certainly not!

I took a picture! :D

Yesterday, Laura, Maddi and I went to Wells and then Glastonbury. Wells is a very nice little English town, with a MASSIVE cathedral smack in the middle. It is the head location (I don't know what the technical term is...capitol?) of the diocese of Bath and Wells, hence the MASSIVE cathedral to make the Bishop of Bath and Wells feel appropriately important. It was gorgeous though. Not as impressive an interior, I thought, as some of the other cathedrals, but the facade was absolutely breathtaking.

Seriously you guys...

After the cathedral we took the bus to Glastonbury, home of the Tor, the Abbey, fairies, and elderly hippies. Unfortunately, we had a dinner date, so we were on a tight schedule. We were completely blown away by Glastonbury Abbey. I'm sorry St.Augustine, but your abbey really just doesn't hold up in comparison. Literally and figuratively.

Fairies

We had late lunch at a vegetarian cafe...because hippies+England. After wandering around the crazy magical combination book, crystal and candle shops, we hopped on a bus, then we trampled on another bus, and eventually we arrived safe and sound at home in time for dinner. We plan on making a second trip, because it was so cheap and because we did not get to see everything we wanted to.

Sundays are house dinner days, because we are the best people, and we prefer our own company to the absolute exclusion of anyone else. This is why we had to be home early. Kaylee was making pasta. Delicious pasta. And we had fruit salad and green beans. Mothers of the world, rejoice!

After dinner a few of us adjourned to the living room for some fun with Sally Sparrow. As any expert could tell you, it was very important for Kaylee to see Blink that very night, if she was to continue further in her Dr.Who studies.
 
Also, this happened:


Farewell, my wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey friends!

Spirits are not finely touched but to fine issues...

Hello everyone! My last update was on Tuesday, but Wednesday and Thursday were pretty normal days so I won't say much about them. Thursday night we did have a good time at the Porter, where they were having local bands play in the basement.  We got to talk to some of the guys from one of the bands after, which was pretty cool.

Friday was my Shakespeare class's trip to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Measure for Measure done by the Royal Shakespeare Company! We got to spend the whole day walking around Stratford first, which was quite pleasant, and we had very yummy scones with jam and clotted cream at a cute little patisserie. The play itself was, I thought, wonderful. I thought that the actors were magnificent, the funny parts were hilarious, and the serious parts were very well done. I am no theatre critic of course, but sometimes I prefer it that way, because I tend to enjoy whatever I see, even if other people don't think it was well done. In this case though, everyone thought it was great.  It was very interesting, because Measure for Measure is very much a play about human nature, sexuality and morality, and where lines should be drawn between government and personal lives. (A very contemporary topic) This director chose to put it in an S&M theme, so it seemed to be the more leather your character was wearing, the more sexual and "bad" your morals were.  It is very ambiguous though, really, with none of the characters being "evil" and none of them being perfectly "good."  My favorite character was in fact Pompey, one of the pimps, who was dressed in all leather. He isn't a bad person, he is just "a poor fellow that would live," any way he can. Plus, he was definitely the funniest, my friends and I were cracking up when he was at his best. And I found out later it was his first RSC production!

Here is a youtube video where the director talks about the play, which I found fascinating, and if you are interested in Measure for Measure you may as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZPvfKcuRGs but if you have never read it or have no idea what it's about, it might just confuse you.

Before the play,  ASE arranged a visit to the Shakespeare archives, which is a really big privilege, where we looked at reviews, prompt copies of scripts, and photographs from past performances of Measure for Measure. It was really interesting to look at each script and see what individual directors had cut or rearranged, and how the set was designed. In two of the versions, they had one of the prisoners, Barnardine, do his scene completely nude.  In our version, he came up through the bottom of the stage (he was in the prison below), and for a couple lines he was just halfway up, so we could only see his shirtless upper body.  We collectively let out a sigh of relief when he revealed his leather pants.

This post title is a quote from the play that NOBODY in past performances ever left in the script, because the full quote:
 "Spirits are not finely touched
But to fine issues: nor nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use"
As it is is rather inscrutable, and it is in the very first scene of the play. Past directors must have decided that it was too confusing, and they didn't want to lose their audience right from the beginning. Or they just thought their audience was stupid. In the version that we saw, we were careful to notice that they DID leave it in. We were glad they did, because we had studied the play, and were rather fond of that passage. Also, we felt like it was a mark of confidence in the audience, which we appreciated.

That's about it for today! (I'm trying for brevity!)

Daniel Radcliffe Makes Poor Decisions: The Movie

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I went to see the Woman in Black with a few friends last night. We went to the Little TheatRE, which is this adorable and diminutive independent theatRE, where the tickets are about 1/3 the price they are at the big theatRE.  (Liza, my friend Maddi did get a little bottle of wine for the movie, so that's another thing to check off the list!) Also, Monday is vintage night, so everyone is dressed up in '40's style, and there is an intermission and its so cute! My friends dressed up, so they got free ice cream, and I did the 'MY FRIENDS GOT FREE ICE CREAM I WANT FREE ICE CREAM' thing, like a toddler, and it worked, so I also got free ice cream! No regrets. It was a very strange movie, in that we were all actively TERRIFIED for almost the entire film, while simultaneously realizing that there were several things that did not make sense, and that Daniel Radcliffe was being a complete idiot through most of it.

*Spoilers* For instance, the premise is that in this little town there is a ghosty lady who makes children die every time ANYONE sees her. Discussing the movie very loudly on our walk home, our main problem with it was this: WHY LIVE THERE?! YOU KNOW THAT YOUR CHILD WILL PROBABLY DIE, AND YOU ARE LIKE OKAY, NO BIG DEAL? NOT OKAY! MOVE FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! We couldn't figure out how the town was populated at all. Other issues included why the townspeople were so vague, and why the ending was so dumb.
MOVING ON *end spoilerville*

I've decided that I have reached the point in my journey where it is no longer necessary for you to follow me on EVERY day. I'm sure that you are just as relieved about this as I am. So, I can skip the uninteresting or unimportant bits. I should however, tell you about Saturday.

On Saturday, Liz, Hannah C., Hannah B, Laura, and I went to Canterbury. We woke up extremely (and as we quickly realized, unnecessarily) early, and took the 6:15 train. When we arrived at 9:30, we first went to Canterbury Cathedral, which was gorgeous, and we feasted our eyes upon the sights and sounds of the place where St. Thomas a Beckett was martyred, and where Chaucer was so intent on sending his pilgrims. In the crypt, you can still see some of the original wall paintings. It was haunting the way that these scraps defiantly remained, shouting that yes, all of this time actually did pass, and this place has seen more life and death than you could ever comprehend. I loved being confronted so blatantly by all that history.

That took about 90 minutes. Next we went to St. Augustine's Abbey, where there was a free audio tour (I freaking love audio tours) of the extremely ruined remains of the place where it all began. St.Augustine was the man who originally brought Christianity to England in the late 6th century (disregarding the sporadic and faded attempts by the Romans), and the first Archbishop of Canterbury, so for me that was a really wonderful place. I would have just loved to stand there and imagine it all for hours, if it hadn't been FREEZING COLD. We did however, enjoy sampling Mead in the gift shop before we left. It was really sweet and honey-like, but also very strong.

Mead in one hand, drinking horn in the other...?

So we moved on, after about an hour, to St. Martin's Church, the oldest continually in use church in England. Sadly, since it is OLD, as in, 6th century,* it was not very architecturally impressive. It was cool though, just to be in a place that was so OLD. Did I mention its age? OLD.
After those three landmarks, we realized that we had run out of things that we could afford to do in Canterbury. Nothing else was free, and we didn't want to spend more money to go to the Canterbury Tales Museum or the Museum of Canterbury. So. We went to a cafe. And sat. And ate the sandwiches we had packed. And sat. And read Shakespeare. And sat. I took a nap. We sat some more.  We spent 2 1/2 hours sitting in that cafe.  At about 4:30 we finally got off of our butts and walked around for a while, before taking our 6:25 train home. NOTE to anyone who is planning on going to Canterbury ever...plan for a quick trip!

Swooshing back to Monday I think you all should know I went for a WONDERFUL run along the canal in which I was running for 45 minutes and did not get lost :) as a result my calves are sore (from my silly five-finger shoes) but I feel a lot better about the excesses that are about to take place in honoUr of St. Valentine. Also the countryside along the canal is gorgeous.

My roommates and I are baking Brie (which is a thing that Maddi does that is heavenly), and eating said Brie with fresh baguette(s). Also there will be copious quantities of cider, chocolate, jelly babies, and Mr.Darcy. I LOVE MY HOUSEMATES! Best Valentine's day ever, and it hasn't even happened yet.

I had my second internship day this week, which was considerably more enjoyable than last week. I know the door code now, so I got into the building without a fuss, which should not be something I am celebrating. I was also much more comfortable chatting with all of the people, so while I was researching Australia, New Zealand, and Vietnam all day, I also talked with the people around me, and got their advice on traveling around Europe, which was awesome! You gotta think that if anyone knows about traveling, it's these guys. Plus, I got to research three different countries instead of just one, so that was cool.

Things I learned at my internship today:
1. There is a place in Vietnam called "Dong Van"....giggle
2. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are NOT, I repeat, NOT a thing anywhere outside of America. I was dumbfounded! The people I work with actually seemed to think it would be a pretty gross combination.
3. There is a guided tour through Vietnam especially designed for Vietnam War Veterans. WHAT?! How is this a good idea? "The wartime flashbacks I've been having, what with all my PTSD, just weren't realistic enough, so I thought I'd go back and see the real thing, maybe jog my memory a little bit."-Imaginary Vietnam Veteran, excited to take this tour.

Sorry that all of my posts end up HOURS long. I just have so much to say! MY LIFE IS INTERESTING AND EVERYBODY SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN IT.

* Hannah's quick history lesson for the day: King Ethelbert's wife, Queen Bertha, was Christian, but he wasn't. (she was foreign) Luckily, he was a pretty nice guy, so he built her St.Martin's Church, even before Augustine and his Abbey were in town.

Australia. I now know way too much about it....

Because all I did during the 8 hours of the first day of my publishing internship was research tourist destinations in Australia. Honestly it was really interesting, so I wasn't upset. Basically, I was trying to figure out which cities were the most popular, for a new line of mini-handbooks that Footprint is beginning to develop.

I was a little nervous about getting there this morning, but since I had walked it twice previously, I made it without any problems. Getting in the front door was an issue I hadn't expected to have, on the other hand. I pushed on the bell, and the voice came through asking who was there. I wasn't sure how to answer, so I pushed the button again, which naturally sounded the bell again. Flustered, I just spoke into the doorbell, which seemed to be the right thing to do, and I was promptly buzzed in. Or at least, that was the intention. I pulled the door instead of pushing it, and alas was stranded outside. So now these people up the stairs are thinking "our new intern can't even open a door."  Great first impression Hannah. Spoiler Alert: I eventually made it inside.

I was a little bit upset by how timid I became once I was introduced to everyone in the office. It is really hard when you are the new kid surrounded by people who know what they are doing! And to be fair, I was pretty embarrassed by my door-opening troubles. Everyone was really nice though, and we went out to lunch at the pub around the corner, as a goodbye party to one man who was leaving. I'm hoping and expecting that in a couple weeks I will feel comfortable there, and start to make friends with the people around me.

This internship is a lot different from my New York internship in a lot of ways. One, it is only 8 hours a week compared to 40. Two, I am the only intern, as opposed to the 15ish of us there were at Skyhorse. I really miss having the company of other interns. I feel so exposed! But as I said, I'm sure I'll get used to it. The only similarity is that in both places I've felt like I'm doing important stuff, that will actually matter to the company. I really appreciate this, because I think that this type of learning experience is definitely the most valuable in setting me up for success in the publishing world.

After my internship I felt really antsy, so I went to yoga! It cost 6 pounds, but was well worth it. I felt so happy and relaxed afterward. It wasn't as sweaty as some of the yoga I've done in the states, but it definitely was stretchy and good-feeling.

That was all yesterday. Today I read 105 pages of Bleak House (35 short of my goal), since I neglected good ol' Charles Dickens yesterday ( on his 200th birthday of all days). I also took a wonderful tour of Bath led by Andrew Butterworth, which ended up in a pub that we all had a quick drink in. I ran back to my house to skype my sister, which was very fun, and now I am waiting to skype Annelise before bed! I'm sleepy.

Jane Marple: nice old lady who knits by day, super observant sleuth by night!

Today was the first day of classes, and boy oh boy was it grand. First I had British Detective fiction which...lets face it...is the best thing in the history of ever. We literally...literally...spent almost two hours talking about the characteristics of classic detective stories, such as the "quirky detective," the "picturesque but limited setting," and the way that the author disrupts classically safe places, like the home, or the church, in order to get the reader's attention and challenge their feelings of comfort and normalcy. We also watched a clip of BBC's Agatha Christie's Miss Marple's Murder at the Vicarage, which I, being a complete weirdo, had already seen. It was really fun, and completely up my alley, interest-wise. The only unfortunate part of this is class is that I have to read Bleak House by Charles Dickens in two weeks. It is 985 pages. Yikes. That is 70 pages a day. I'm 45 in, and it is actually a lot more readable than I thought it would be. Considering the last time I read Dickens was freshman year of high school, that makes sense.

Right after BDF (British Detective Fiction), I had Mythologizing Shakespeare. So, you may remember that three girls in my house are named Hannah. Well. We are all in that class. As are three other girls from my house. There are eight of us in Clarendon Villas.  Two people in my house are not in this class with me.  There are ten people in the class. So. In summary. My Shakespeare class is 60% my housemates, and 30% Hannah. Alright. Moving on. The professor is a kindly and excitable gentleman who knows absolutely EVERYTHING about Shakespeare. As an introduction, we all went around the room and said one thing that we knew about the famous playwright. He took that tidbit, and talked for at least five minutes about it, exploring various factoids and tidbits as if they were of the utmost importance. I brought up the fact that Shakespeare only had a grammar school education, and how many people in academia latched onto this fact and proclaimed that there was no way Shakespeare could have written such amazing work, and therefore it had to be someone else. Much to my satisfaction, he declared quite forcefully that that particular back alley of academic theory was complete and utter rubbish. It was a fascinating two hours, in which I immensely expanded my knowledge of Shakespeare in all areas. Did you know that there are some words in his plays which people to this day have no idea what they mean? They may not even be the words he intended! Between the handwritten copy and the printed versions there was often confusion and error, so some words might actually have been wrong this whole time. Of course professors spend hundreds of pages debating these minute details about this word or that word, because that is what professors do, but THERE IS NO WAY OF KNOWING.  Crazy, huh?

After classes I walked to my internship and back, to make sure I could get there by myself...I only made one wrong turn! Hopefully tomorrow I can cut that down to zero. I read some Dickens and Shakespeare, and had some Jammie Dodgers. Now it's about time for bed.

The Pig and Fiddle, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Just kidding about the Narnia thing...but I did go to a pub called the Pig and Fiddle.  Also a quick plug for my roomie, I've just linked her blog in the sidebar of mine...so if you feel like hearing all about this again but from her perspective...check it out. Haha but seriously go read it. So without any further ado:

FRIDAY

I went on my first (and so far only) jog in Bath this morning. There is a really beautiful path along the canal, which of course I got completely turned around on, but it was so cold that I couldn't even really tell what was going on in my body. I guess it was a workout? I ended up having to ask directions to get back home, but hey, I got home! Anyway, I don't think I'll be going on any more jogs until it warms up.

Today I went on an Tower Tour at Bath Abbey, where you climb alllll 212 steps up the tower, and get to walk along the ceiling, and look out on the beautiful city of Bath. We also got to learn about the bells, and a few of my friends and I got to ring them! It was quite exciting. I definitely giggled, and I might have clapped my hands and jumped up and down.

After that we had a 'smart dress' aka fancy dress* reception at the Victoria Art Gallery, where we got to meet all our tutors aka professors. Mine all seem really cool. I'm afraid I scared away my British Detective Fiction tutor with my enthusiasm...oh well. My Tudor and Stuart history teacher is an old man with a fluffy gray beard and spectacles. He is every inch the classic British professor, and that...well it made me happy. He found out that he was the only professor who still uses a projector, and his response was literally "oh dear oh dear oh dear." Is that not the most British and adorable thing? (or maybe a thing Anna would say)

AFTER After that some of us went to a pub called the Pig and Fiddle for a pint, and just hung out there for a while. We were heading home when we ran into a tourist taking pictures of the Abbey at night. It turns out he had gotten separated from his friends, so we found out where he was going, and very generously badgered him until he would let us help him find it! It didn't hurt that his name was Ryan, and he was from blueeyesImeanBristol. Ahem. So we helped him find his friends, and then we ended up hanging out with them for a while at this place called Circo which was really fun. Oddly enough, they were all married or in relationships, but we all just had a good time talking about Americans and British people. We made them do American accents and laughed at how terrible they were, and they did the same with our British accents. All in all, it was a really awesome night, and I've been really happy about how easy it has been to make British friends so far! Fell asleep as soon as I got back of course, around 1am, and that was the end of Friday!

SATURDAY

Definitely the laziest day so far. Went to the farmer's market in the morning, which was fun, but the freezing cold was really discouraging, and made me vastly prefer California farmer's markets. I did buy a Bath bun for breakfast, which was yummy, and Kaylee and I shared a Bakewell tart as well, which was Marzipan-y and delicious. Apparently they don't really do cinnamon rolls here which made me really sad. Took a two hour nap upon returning home, because lets face it the past week was more activity than I have had in the past two months combined and I was exhausted. I'm pretty sure at one point, around 2 or 3, everyone in my house was napping. We made delicious farmer's market mushroom-y pasta for dinner, and stayed in because we were all still tired (some of use more than others). We watched Little Red Riding Hood, a terrible movie, just to laugh at it, and then we watched The Eagle, which was a little more credible, although for some reason I can never take Americans seriously as Romans...they just seem so...bro-ish...expeshally Channing Tatum.

So there you have it! You are all caught up until today, which was a long day and I should probably include in this post anyway because classes start tomorrow uuuurgh. Okay. Here goes.

SUNDAY (aka today)

Today was our big field trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Lacock. You may find my detail in this post lackluster as I am feeling rather tired at this point, but my day is nowhere near over.
First of all, we were scared that our field trip would be cancelled or postponed because it actually snowed yesterday (another reason none of us left the house after the farmer's market). Luckily, it stopped snowing in time, and the bus picked us up on schedule. First we went to Stonehenge which was...well...Stonehenge. There honestly aren't words to describe it. It is just in a completely different category. Despite the freezing temperatures, we were still able to appreciate it. We seriously contemplated buying a blanket in the gift shop, but decided against it on grounds of it being too bulky.

I had this really deep moment as the bus drove us through the beautiful English countryside, with the Avett Brothers pumping through my ears.  There were sheep grazing out the window, and birds flying alongside us, and green grassy hills as far as the eye could roam. I just felt every fiber of my being longing to be out there in the grass and meadows.  It was like this aching comfort, knowing that I was right here where I needed to be, and yet I needed to be everywhere here.

A strange side effect to this profound feeling was the desire to throw myself into the ground and burrow into it until I was literally part of the English soil. I don't know why, but at the moment I felt like that was the only way to be everywhere in England, where I would be absolutely and forever at home. Thankfully I did not indulge this particular temptation.

Anyway...moving on...Salisbury was great, I'd been there in junior year of high school, so I'd already seen the cathedral, but hearing Andrew Butterworth's commentary on it was pretty awesome. Then Lacock was really pretty as well, a very quintessential British medieval town, without painted lines on the roads or telephone wires in the sky. They film a lot of movies there actually, including but not limited to HARRY POTTER...ahem...so I posed for a picture in front of what I think (fingers crossed) is Slughorn's house! The Abbey there was home to a Potions classroom, a corridor that was walked through a few times, and the original location of the Mirror of Erised. Unfortunately the Abbey was closed for the season. But the book Liza gave me (three shout outs in three posts!) called Harry Potter on Location, was very helpful. We had a traditional English dinner at a pub called the George, and I had my first taste of sticky toffee pudding, which was delicious! On the bus ride home we sang traditional Disney songs such as Zero to Hero, I Won't Say I'm in Love, and Be Prepared. I learned that after the line "You won't get a sniff without me!" Jeremy Irons really hurt his vocal chords, and couldn't finish the song, so the rest of the song is sung by the voice of Ed the Hyena! Crazy, right?

So now I'm back in my room, and I'm about to embark on what will probably be a very dumb but very fun adventure. The super bowl is tonight, and as we are Americans, some of us feel obligated to watch. We found out that some British people do indeed watch the super bowl, and we're pretty sure they're showing it at a pub called Belushi's. The upside: we know where the pub is, and it will probably be really fun to watch the super bowl with British people. The downside: It probably doesn't start until like 11pm and we have our first day of classes tomorrow morning. Oh well, who said I came here to learn, right?\

UPDATE: It was Slughorn's house! Check this kid out!  And then check this wizard out!














* In Britain, "fancy dress" means in costume, so if you go to a fancy dress party, it is not actually fancy. "smart" on the other hand, does mean fancy-ish.

This is the week that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends

Hello again! I am going to take up the tale of orientation week where we left off, which was Wednesday, Feb 1st, I believe.

WEDNESDAY

Today we had more orientation of the being talked at variety, and got our syllabi for classes! I am so excited. The syllabus for my British Detective Fiction class looks awesome. Two Agatha Christies, P.D. James, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, and so much more!  I'm a little intimidated by the 5 plays I have to read for my Shakespeare class, four of which I have never read (the other being Hamlet).

We also started 'diagnostics' today, which are these tests that every student has to take for every class she has. They are supposed to give the professors an idea of where their students are in their knowledge of the subject and their writing ability, but it doesn't count towards your final grade. They were a pain, but not very stressful or anything. My first one was Shakespeare, which was not so bad, and then when everyone else was taking their second diagnostic, I went to go meet with Footprint Publishing, who I have my internship with! Fiona is the other student who is interning there, so I met her today as well.  Andrew Butterworth (and the award for best name goes to...) walked us to the office to meet Alan, the head of the company, who is Scottish by the way.  He was really cool, and we decided that my schedule would be 9-5 every Tuesday, and I would work on an editorial project, which is great because that is really where my passion is. Further good news: I do not have to dress up to go to work. Hooray for small businesses!

Later we had a welcome reception at Bath Abbey, where they put out tea and cakes for us, and gave us a quick tour. Below is a picture of some of the beautiful stained glass in the Abbey.

After the tour, or before, I'm not sure, but the when is not important, the point is we discovered the absolute best hot chocolate ever. It is at this cute little cafe thing next to the Abbey, and it does not even have a name, it just has signs on the windows that say "chocolate," "ice cream," and "champagne." It is a wonderful world we live in, ladies and gentlemen. (edit: I have discovered that it is in fact called Minerva's)

That night we went out to a pub called the Porter. Right around the corner we met this man who was looking for the Porter as well, so we walked together, and it turned out that he was in the British military, and he was meeting a group of friends who were all also in the military! Umm, yes please? So we spent about an hour in the pub just talking to a whole bunch of awesome military guys! The one we talked to the most, we realized after we had no idea what his name was, but we thought maybe Nigel was a good fit. So we talked to Nigel anyway for a really long time about American politics, and it was absolutely fascinating to hear an outsider's point of view! I found I actually agreed with mostly everything he said. For example, we were talking about how the USA tends to just bomb other countries willy-nilly, and it makes everyone hate us. His metaphor was that "the USA is the big kid on the playground just flailing his arms around and hitting other kids at random," and nobody really likes that kid, do they? One thing I did not really agree with was that he said it was weird that we call our soldiers "heroes" all of the time. I mean, they pretty much are. I guess in England they don't say that about their military. He was probably just jealous that nobody ever called him a hero!

Well after about an hour we decided to leave, since we had to be up early, so we said goodbye to our new friends, and went back home. It was a great night though, and I was so exhausted when I got home that I slept all the way through the night for the first time! Yay!

THURSDAY

Today, for any of you who were in high school band with me, a very exciting thing happened. This is what it was:

Now ThisWater doesn't mean anything to most of you, but for a few of my readers it was our drink of choice throughout our entire England trip junior year of high school. We were absolutely obsessed with it, and couldn't stop talking about it when we got home. Years later, I have to admit it is not as good as I remember, and definitely was not worth all of the giggles and obsession. But it is still yummy, and a very fond memory.

Anyway, besides that exciting thing, we had our two remaining diagnostics, and book collection. Getting my books was the most exciting thing, especially for my detective fiction class! I absolutely cannot wait to get started! I can't believe I am actually taking a class that requires me to read Hound of the Baskervilles and Murder on the Orient Express. Guys....this is seriously the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I had soup at Jacob's for lunch (Liza you were right again), and we made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. We decided to stay in, since we'd gone out the last two nights, and we watched Leap Year and the first two hours of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. Colin Firth IS Mr. Darcy. I LOVE MY LIFE, and everything and everyone in it!

Okay so I think that will be it for this post. I hope you are enjoying following my adventures as much as I am enjoying living them! (I doubt it though)

The Lamb and Lion, The Porter, The Huntsman

...are all names of pubs I have been to this week.

MONDAY

I arrived thoroughly confused about what day it was, if I should be hungry or tired, and why I was so cold. I found out that it was indeed Monday afternoon, and that I was extremely tired but not allowed to sleep until at least 9pm to avoid jet-lag. I was also informed that having been built in the 19th century will give a house a real disadvantage when it comes to central heating.  We have one bathroom, the one closest to my room unfortunately, that is literally the same temperature as outside, about 30 degrees. We keep the door closed, but that just means that the cold builds up, so that when I go to brush my teeth at night I am greeting by the freezing cold air of death. My roommate and I have independently started brushing our teeth just outside of the bathroom, crossing the dreaded threshold only to spit and rinse.  For those of you wondering, yes, that is my biggest problem here in Bath. Poor Hannah, her house is a little cold.

Anyway, since I was the last to arrive, everyone else was already gathered in our living room.  I introduced myself and met my 7 other housemates, 2 of whom are named Hannah. One of my housemates, Hannah C., was here last semester too, so she has been an invaluable source of information and directions to places. They all seem like amazing and interesting people, and I am really excited for the coming semester!

At 4:30 we met with Jonathan for our housing orientation, and he basically explained why we were so cold, and showed us around the house. It is four stories, with three-ish bathrooms and five bedrooms, and it is really cute and wonderful!  (I say 3-ish because our bathrooms seem to be split up rather strangely. For instance one room just has a bath in it. No shower, no toilet, just a bath.) I have an adorable little room on the first floor with my roommate Liz.  I think we may have the warmest room in the house, which I am extremely pleased about. I don't need to worry about layers in here!

After Jonathan left, we decided we were all exhausted, and went to a nearby Thai place for take-out, or take-away, as they say here. We came back home and watch Stardust as we ate.  Throughout the movie we yelled at each other to stay awake, and counted down the minutes to 9, when we were allowed to sleep. What a supportive group, right? Thankfully we had timed it perfectly, so the movie ended right as 9pm rolled around. Woohoo, sleep! That is, until 5am when I randomly woke up for an hour or so. One of my housemates, Smitty, had told me that this would happen, but I didn't believe her! I guess I didn't want her to be right. It turns out that one reaction to this sudden shift in time zone is randomly waking up in the early hours of the morning. That was fun. But I got back to sleep eventually, to wake up at 8 the next day for our first real day of orientation!

TUUUUESDAAAAAY (you know who you are)

We were supposed to meet Jonathan at 8:45 sharp at the White Hart, a pub just down the street, where he would walk us to Nelson house, our main academic building. Unfortunately, 2 girls' alarms didn't go off, and as we wanted to wait for them, we ended up...well...late. It wasn't too bad though, as Jonathan seemed pleased by our, in his words, "I am Sparticus" attitude about the whole thing.

The whole day would not be a too exciting story, as it was a lot of meeting new people and getting talked at by British people. I did learn a lot though, and it sounds like there are some really cool volunteer opportunities available. There is an organic garden that I can volunteer at! I could get free, fresh, organic produce! I also found out today that my internship is only going to be 8 hours a week...so one full day a week basically. This was a little disappointing, as my internship last summer was 40 hours a week, and I was expecting the full 20 that my visa allows this semester.  I am sure I will still learn a lot, but it seems like I'll be more of a visitor than an intern.

I bought a British pay-as-you-go phone today! I have a British phone number, which is 11 numbers long! I solemnly vow to never memorize mine.

We made a giant bag of pasta for all of us in Clarendon Villas (my house) for dinner, and as we hadn't eaten since lunch about seven hours earlier, we were starving, and ate the entire bag. It was really fun cooking and eating a communal meal, and we have agreed to eat dinner together every Sunday if possible.

After dinner, Liz, Hannah B., Kaylee and I went out in search of our first legal drink! Every pub seemed pretty empty, possibly because it was a Tuesday night...but we eventually went in to a place called The Lamb and Lion. I got a cider & black, which is cider with blackcurrant juice in it, to make it sweeter. It was delicious, just like Liza promised! We just chatted it up for a while, and once we had finished our drinks, we headed home, satisfied with our first pub experience, if not thrilled.   (see facebook for a picture) We were exhausted when we finally got home (that is a theme here), and went to bed pretty much right away. Again I woke up, this time at 4:30am, and stayed up for an hour before falling back asleep.

This blog post is monstrous, so I am going to cut it off here, and resume later. I realize you probably haven't gotten much of an idea of what Bath is like yet, and that is because at this point, I hadn't either. They had kept us so monopolized, we had hardly gotten past the phone store a few blocks form Nelson house!

A rather amusing sidenote about Tuesday was that as we were walking around looking for a pub, two British guys asked us if we knew where the Ram was. That was the pub right down the street from Clarendon, so we were actually able to tell them where it was! We, American girls who had been in Bath less than 3 days, had given British people correct directions to a pub.  NBD