Last night I went to a great belated Thanksgiving party in Anna's flat. Everyone was asked to either give £3 or bring a dish, so I decided to put my non-existent cooking skillz to the test and make baked apples. Happily, they turned out to be really delicious! I didn't know how many people would be there so I only made 8, and it turned out there were about 25 of us, so we ended up slicing them up and putting them in ice cream. They were a real hit. The rest of the dinner was great too: there was cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, green beans, corn, and of course turkey -- plus a lot of other stuff that I'm sure I'm leaving out.
Moments before the 15 other people arrived with a turkey in tow.
And with so many of us crammed into the tiny flat kitchen it felt very family-like. Out of everyone I think only 8 or so of us were American, so it was fun to bring that tradition to the English peeps. They all kept saying, "This feels just like Christmas dinner!" It was really nice.
Halfway through week 10 and I finally got back a piece of assessed work. Today I was able to pick up my creative writing coursework, which it looks like my professor really liked! I'm pleased about that, obviously; her feedback was really positive. The grading scale is really different here, though, so the mark that I got would actually be really terrible back home. In theory they use a 100-point scale like we do, but in practice teachers rarely give above a 70%. One person explained it to me by saying that above a 70 is like post-graduate level work; undergrads basically could never write a good enough essay to merit a mark that high. So anyway, I got a 67% on my short story, which is actually the equivalent of an A-! Here is a little UK-to-US grade conversion chart I found, for reference.
Lena and I went to Bath this past weekend! Really good times all around. We left Norwich at 2:30, so we got to London around 4:45. We then had some time till our connecting train to Bath so we visited St. Paul's Cathedral. We arrived just moments before Evensong started so we listened to the choir boys sing for a few minutes, which was very nice. Then we blagged our way back onto the subway ("You mean we were only supposed to use these tickets to get from Liverpool Street to Paddington Stations? OOPS!"), grabbed some delicious bagels for dinner, and then caught the train for Bath. When we got there we found our way to our hostel, St. Christopher's Inn, which was right about a bar called Belushi's. They checked us in, the Australian guy behind the bar gave us each a free coke, and then we hung out in the Chill Out Room upstairs with two New Zealanders, an Australian and a Canadian for a while. It was cool to hear about their travels -- what they'd done, where they'd been, how long they'd been away from home. One of our roommates, also from Australia, had been in Bath for two months, working two jobs to save up enough money to start traveling again.
Next day we saw lots of cool Bath stuff, starting with the Roman Baths. It's really pretty there, and they've set up an excellent museum in the old buildings so you walk around and learn about the history of the place before going out and seeing the big bath. They tell you not to touch the water because it's untreated, but of course we did; it was slimy and smelly (and green) but nice and warm. The weird thing is that at the end of the tour they let you take a sip of the spring water as it comes out of a pretty fish fountain, so I don't know why we can drink it but not touch it. Maybe the fountain water is treated? Couldn't tell you. Anyway, Lena took some pictures of us in front of the bath so I'll share those when I get them, but for now here's one of the smelly green water and some people.
The big bath.
"The King's Spring," from whence we drank.
After the baths we looked around at some of the pretty buildings of Bath, including the Royal Crescent, Bath's prime real estate; and the Royal Circus, where, our guide was pleased to inform us, Nicolas Cage just bought an apartment for £4 million. Bully for him, I say. Later that night we went on a ghost tour around the city, which was really fun and creepy. All the ghosts the guy talked about were from Victorian times and stuff, and they had died in duels and hunting accidents and the like, so you know it's legit.
We also visited the Jane Austen Centre, where we had tea in Jane Austen's Tea Room. I don't even particularly like tea or Jane Austen, but even I had to admit that it was very classy and fun. We also met up for a while with Jenny and Carol, who both go to UCSD (and UEA, for the semester) and who were just passing through Bath on their way back from London.
Carol, me, a Victorian man, and Jenny outside the Jane Austen Centre.
My conclusion: Bath is a lovely city, and Lena is a lovely friend and travel companion. So that made for a lovely weekend.
I love Gawker, because it makes history fun! (Well, that's one reason among many.) Here is a great "article" about Evacuation Day, the anniversary of the day (November 25!) in 1783 when British troops finally left the newly independent US of A.
Also, regular visitors (Dad...) will know that one of the best parts about the site is the hilarious comments people leave. My favorite this time is, "What's great about this post is the conclusion, unspoken but obvious, that we all lived happily ever after."
Dad was here last week! Woo! We had fun and got a little lost, but mostly had a lot of fun. Here's photo documentation of the fun stuff we did. (Minus go to the pub, that is. We never took pictures there, and we were in a few good ones! Especially the Dirty Duck.)
Failed attempts at MySpace-style photos.
Luckily we ran into Alison, who took our picture for us!
Driving on the left!
This route was the source of some agony on the trip back to Norwich.
I hear they really know how to have a good time there.
At William Shakespeare's childhood home.
Acting Shakespearean, I guess.
Hey, that's me, walking awkwardly out of a red phone booth!
At the BBC Radio office in Norwich.
Norwich City Hall and market stalls in the foreground, seen from the top of Norwich Castle.
Last night some friends and I went to the weekly Pub Quiz, and our team (we were the Bag Ladies and the Tramp) came in third place out of 22 teams! So between the six of us we won £5 at the bar, which we promptly spent on coffees and hot chocolates for all of us. It was so fun, and I'm very proud of us. : )
Proud team: Sarah, Esme, me, Anni's hand (and our prize), Alison and Nicky.
On an unrelated note, going to this website here is guaranteed to cause you inordinate amounts of happiness.
Oh, oh, see what I did there? With the title? Yeeeeeeah.
Tuesday night really was extraordinary. Historical, of course; a major victory, yes; and also a really good time. The turnout at the Union Pub was unbelievable -- at its peak close to 300 people. Interestingly, I'd guess that only slightly more than half were American, and the non-Americans were just as pumped up and enthusiastic as the Yanks. Actually they were really funny, because they (understandably) didn't have a concept of what states were guaranteed to go to either candidate, so they booed every time McCain won any state, including shoo-ins like Kentucky and Tennessee. But it was really interesting to see how involved and invested in the election everyone was, regardless of nationality, and to see the outpouring of absolutely overwhelming relief and joy that came with the announcement of Obama's win. It was really wonderful.
Fans of staying up late in pubs. Oh, and the election.
Speaking of which, here is a video I took that has since become a Facebook sensation among my friends here. It was just sheer luck that I decided to record at this moment. It was 4 AM, and there were still at least 200 people in the Union Pub. On CNN they were doing a countdown till the west coast polls closed (we're 8 hours ahead), and everyone in the pub was counting along, so I whipped out my camera. As the countdown ended, suddenly the "CNN Breaking News" graphic popped up, followed by the words, "BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT." And this is what happened.
I really could not be any more pleased. It's going to be really hard to leave England at the end of the semester, but I now have one more great thing to look forward to!
Seeing as this year's presidential election is pretty important for a lot of reasons, both good and bad, I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed I'm not at home in the US to experience the bizarre political climate first-hand. Being abroad means I have to be a lot more proactive to keep up-to-date, and I imagine that I'm missing out on some interesting talk on campus amongst the students and professors. Plus, this is the first (presidential) election where I'm old enough to vote, and I don't even get to go into a voting booth. Boo.
All that being said, though, it has been really interesting to follow the election from this side of the Atlantic. Every aspect of the election is covered by every major British media outlet. Literally everyone I've spoken to, British and otherwise, is well-informed about America's political situation, and has been following the election rather closely. Not only are people very familiar with Obama and McCain and their respective platforms, but Sarah Palin is an extremely hot item. Concrete, "UEA's only independent newspaper," a few weeks ago ran an article about her stance on environmental protection, and my flatmates love to bring up ridiculous things they've heard about her: She believes the world is 5000 years old! She thinks you can "cure" gays!! She HATES polar bears!!! All I can say is, "I know, right?!"
Everyone I've spoken to, British and otherwise, is hoping Obama's victorious. During my first week here I met a couple British guys who overheard me talking to some of my new friends about I don't remember what, and one of them interrupted me to say, "I'm sorry, but are you American? Please vote for Obama!" It wasn't until I promised that I would that they even introduced themselves.
Anyway, I sent in my ballot in the beginning of October, so here's hoping that it went through. All I can do now is sit back with my fingers crossed. As I mentioned earlier, they're keeping the pub open all night tonight, and I have a feeling it'll be the social event of the week, so I'm very excited about that. To get you in the election coverage spirit, take a look at the way the British do elections with this classic Monty Python sketch, "Election Night Special."
Tomorrow may be a big day in the U.S., but here in England the real cause for celebration comes this Wednesday. The 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Night, a.k.a Bonfire Night, or The Night Guy Fawkes Failed to Blow Up the Houses of Parliament.
In 1605, a man named Guy Fawkes and a bunch of his fellow Catholics devised to detonate the Houses of Parliament, thereby killing the Protestant King James. He came really close to pulling it off -- he managed to set up the gunpowder under the building and everything -- but someone caught wind of his plan at the last minute and put a stop to it. Fawkes and the other conspirators were tried, tortured and executed.
So now, to celebrate the fact that Fawkes and friends weren't able to eliminate the royal family, every November 5 people set off fireworks and burn effigies of the Catholic traitor. Awesome holiday if I ever heard of one!
Well, the play is done, and has been for exactly a week. Needless to say, I'm very very sad it's done, and so is everyone else. BUT the plus side is that I've made all these wonderful friends! Luckily we can all reminisce and console each other as we withdraw, and now that we're not forced to hang out with each other at rehearsals for 6 hours a day I see that we really are all friends outside of drama too, which makes me indescribably happy.
DramaSoc has updated their website a little bit in the past few days, but only to put up the poster and program (which I of course promptly snagged onto my computer). I'm told the photos are on the way, though, so I'll share those as soon as I can.
Also, on Tuesday they're keeping the pub open all night so we can watch the coverage of the US election! I'm so excited! All my American friends are going, and loads of non-Americans as well. I mean who can pass up an opportunity to stay up late with friends in the pub watching political commentary on television? I'll definitely be there, despite the fact that I have a seminar at noon on Wednesday...
For the fall semester I'm studying English literature and creative writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. I'll use this blog as a record of my stay in England, for me and anyone who's interested.
Moments before the 15 other people arrived with a turkey in tow.
Yummers!
The big bath.
"The King's Spring," from whence we drank.
Carol, me, a Victorian man, and Jenny outside the Jane Austen Centre.
Luckily we ran into Alison, who took our picture for us!
Driving on the left!
This route was the source of some agony on the trip back to Norwich.
I hear they really know how to have a good time there.
At William Shakespeare's childhood home.
Acting Shakespearean, I guess.
Hey, that's me, walking awkwardly out of a red phone booth!
At the BBC Radio office in Norwich.
Norwich City Hall and market stalls in the foreground, seen from the top of Norwich Castle.
Proud team: Sarah, Esme, me, Anni's hand (and our prize), Alison and Nicky.
Fans of staying up late in pubs. Oh, and the election.
Also, on Tuesday they're keeping the pub open all night so we can watch the coverage of the US election! I'm so excited! All my American friends are going, and loads of non-Americans as well. I mean who can pass up an opportunity to stay up late with friends in the pub watching political commentary on television? I'll definitely be there, despite the fact that I have a seminar at noon on Wednesday...
