Alright, so the average temperature here is 45 degrees and rainy. Average temperature Yuba, Wisconsin, 70 degrees and sunny. Mother nature is an evil bitch. But! on to more important matters!
Bath! Beautiful little town about 2 and half hours outside London, emphasis on the beautiful. Every building is made of this yellow stone that makes the whole place look sunny, even though it poured down rain for a majority of our time there. We took a tour of the ancient Roman bath houses, which were unbelievable. The whole idea actually grosses me out, but to see it and walk on 2000 year old stone floors and see the water steaming out from the earth was an amazing experience. They advised us not to touch the water so as to eliminate the chances of contracting nasty bacteria, but of course hardly anyone listened. Did I listen? Of course I did! Recall the incident with the Blarney stone- I'm not an idiot. I also sanitized my hands and everything my flatmates touched. Hygiene is not a joke people.
We then ate lunch at Sally Lunn's, which is the oldest house in Bath and home to the famous Sally Lunn Bun. What is a Sally Lunn bun you ask? It's a lot like sourdough bread. Made a great bacon and cheddar sandwich and goes quite well with the house blend hot tea... in case you happen to venture there.
Things have been interesting within the flats. Besides the water going out, the power randomly flicking off and on, and some dodgey guy robbing the third floor (he just stole some cash from purses and wallets- oddly enough most of these people were home when this happened... no judgements, I'm just saying), the flatmates have lost their damn minds. We all went to this great place down in Leiscester Square the other night called O'Neil's and had a hell of a time. We danced all night- this guy in my program kept buying me drinks. I'm pretty sure it is his mission to hook up with every girl here, which is disgusting, but who am I to refuse a free drink? I was raised better than that. Plus, I may or may not have been milking this situation since Barcelona. Drinks are expensive. Stop judging me. You'd all do it too. Anyway, everyone had a great night. Great nights should just be left alone, never try to repeat them. But, alas, two nights later they tried. Lucky for me, I ended up taking one of our friends home because I am just an amazingly sweet person (which I will emphasize even more later). Unfortunately, the others got absolutely pissed, in the drunk sense not angry, and my little flat family became an incestuous mess. Everyone was making out and grinding on one another- in the club, on the street, riding the bus! The stories and awkward looks in classes the next day were phenomenal- especially because I wasn't in them! Oh I love other people's poor decisions. It's like having an ugly friend to make yourself look better. And it works.
Now for the real drama. One of my flatmates had been sick for about a week- really sick. So the other day she is in the kitchen trying to make herself some soup when she passes out and hits her head on the counter! One of the guys was in there with her and helped her up and asked if she was ok. She wasn't. She passed out two more times on the way to her room. There are four of us home. We freaked out. After calling one of our directors, we took her to the hospital. Oh the National Healthcare System! We waited maybe a half hour before someone saw her and hooked her up to an IV for some fluids. The two guys I was with are both insanely rich and thus were very angry and critical of the way NHS runs. It's amazing. There is a reason the rest of post-industrial world has socialized healthcare. Although most of the people in my program do not like this part of the story. Conservatives confuse me. Then again, they have all had insurance their whole lives, unlike yours truly who was insuranceless for the last six months until the healthcare bill passed. That however is another story, well rant. One I would love to debate- please feel free. Anyway, they admitted her for the night and she is as good as new! She was severely dehydrated and needed 8 bags of fluids (so she told me). Then she was discharged and left, free of charge. FREE. That's all I'm saying...
Ok, so next up is the Oxford v. Cambridge boat race! I've never really been into crew, but it's a huge deal here, so a bunch of us girls went down to Hammersmith Bridge to watch the race and catch us an Ivy Leaguer. We arrived to find a billion people lining the riverbank drinking, grilling out, and having a great time. Day drinking- there are no words. To make it even better, Cambridge and Oxford both have rowers from Wisconsin! Go Badgers! I was rooting for Cambridge, seeing as they had just one guy from Wisconsin I felt like he needed my support (Oxford had two). Of course there was a wager, which always makes things more interesting. Get it Cambridge!
Later that same day, just as I was beginning to sober up from the day's activities, my friend Caitlin invites me to go out to East London with her cousin and brother who are in town visiting. How could I say no? Well, I probably could have I just didn't want to. So we pre-gamed here a bit and headed out east. East London is a different world from Kensington. We partied with the commoners that night. Actually we partied with three Swedes. It was a bazaar night, full of tequila. Quality friendships were formed.
Happy to be in East London! We were even happier to make it out of East London.
So that brings us to Easter morning. Yes, this all happened the Saturday before. I went to bed at 5 and still managed to wake up at 8 for Easter mass. We went to the Brompton Observatory, which is gorgeous. Mass was short and less than inspiring, but the children's choir was amazing! After mass my little group went out to a girl's Easter brunch at this nice restaurant across the street from Harrods. It was a lovely Easter considering we were all away from our families.
Next weekend is horseback riding in Wales!
