It's been over a week since my last post and so much has happened; I'm not sure where to begin (or if I can remember everything in details) but I will start off with last weekend when we went to a play Friday night called The 39 Steps, based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie.
The plot itself is really complicated but it's a mix of mystery and comedy where a guy must find out what the 39 steps are and clear his name of murder. The cast consisted of only four actors who played over 100 characters (which is really impressive) and it was really funny, even though the corniness of some parts made me uncomfortable. Anyway, afterwards my group decided to find some place to go for a drink and found a guy handing out vouchers for half priced drinks at a nearby bar. We thought, why not? The place had a bar on the first floor that was pretty chill and then a set stairs leading to a large but cramped room that was filled with fully fledged adults that were sloppy drunk, a DJ playing decent music, and some pretty tasty drinks. The key moment of the night that you need to know about though, was when Brandon jumped into a nearby group that was dancing off to the side and I followed right behind. It was an impulse of the moment kind of thing but I regret nothing!
The next day we had a trip to Bath. The day was supposed to consist of a trip to Stonehenge and then onto the town of Bath. Unfortunately we had two days of consistent snow fall, so Stonehenge was cancelled due to road conditions but Bath was still on. I will admit I was pretty disappointed because it would have been cool to have a picture in front of the infamous groups of rocks and rub it in peoples faces. Still, Bath was a very pretty town but it almost felt like I wasn't in England; it had more of a continental Europe vibe. However that was probably because of the Roman Baths we visited. Hence, my next point of interest.
To start off, the legend of the Roman Baths is pretty cool (a lot cooler than how it was actually found). It was believed that those who bathed in the hot spring were cured of whatever illness they had. Although I can't remember the King who was in power at the time of the legend but his son, Bladud, had lepresy and was forced into exile with pigs that also suffered from the disease. The pigs ended up wallowing in the mud where the spring was and he saw that they were cured. Therefore he decided to do the same and soon he was cured as well and returned to claim his throne. Like I said, pretty cool right?
Now let me say one thing first before I continue: the Roman Baths only had one big bath that is full of water so I think the plural is unneccesary but that's not the point. It also had some really interesting artifacts including this giant Celtic head of a Gorgon and the Head of Minerva, who was the God for which the temple was dedicated to (for those of you who do not know your Roman gods, her Greek name is Athena). Our tour was also one that we kind of had to do on our own because so many people were visiting. So they have these audio cassettes that look and act like one way phones. Signs in each exhibit had a number that you press into the contraption and you were told the history of whatever you were seeing or interesting tidbits.
After we left the Roman Baths, we were given free reign to look around the town until we had to meet back up with the bus. The gist of what my friends and I did was we got pizza at a pretty good Italian place and I had gelato for the first time at the next door ice cream parlor. I know it's crazy to get gelato when there is snow on the ground and you're freezing but it was so good and so worth it.
We got back later on and we were all so tired. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. However, Brandon told us that we were invited to go out with a few people he knew from his sports class. As tired as I was, I'm pretty sure if I didn't go, I never would have heard the end of it from my mother, my sister, or anyone else I know. So I went and the girls were from Marist College (not too far from my hometown in New York). They were all really nice and we had a great time but I swear the craziest part was finding out one of the girls in the group was dating a guy I knew in high school. Still it was an awesome night (although I feel so bad for one of the girls who lost her camera and gloves) and hopefully we get the chance to repeat it, but minus the whole pick pocket situation.
On Monday I had a tour of the Houses of Parliment, which was fantastic! It was absolutely gorgeous, even if the main foyer was completely freezing. We got to see the House of Commons and the House of Lords and we even got to see the path the Queen goes on when she comes to Parliament. Also there is a copy of the Magna Carta in the first hallway you walk through and I stood there for two seconds with my jaw dropped. The architecture was amazing because of all the mosaics, the gothic and classic themes, and painting of famous monarchs or events on the walls. You couldn't take pictures on the tour unfortunately (but my camera was dead anyway so I didn't really have to worry about that so much).
The last thing I will say about my week was I joined the running club at Imperial College. It's hard to motivate yourself when your teammates and coach are over 1000 miles away from you so I figure this would be easier for me to do especially since the club does a lot of workouts and even long runs on Sundays, which I'm supposed to be doing anyway.
I couldn't make Monday due to class and Tuesday was cancelled due to weather. However I went to the run they have in Hyde Park and that was definitely a change for me. It was honestly a legit run. When I think of a run, I think of an easy run, conversational pace and whatnot. That was not the case here. I might as well have been doing a tempo run, they were freaking fast! One of the girls explained that a lot of them are training for the London Marathon or other races and therefore have a different regiment than me, who just needs to stay in shape to make sure I don't die when cross country season rolls around. I haven't met that many people yet but the club captain, Sophie, is super nice and has helped me a lot. Today we had intervals and it was just me and her but we didn't mind and she was cheering me on which was nice (it also made me miss my Mama Cash, the loudest cheerleader I know). Also believe it or not, I actually enjoyed the work out. That hardly ever happens for me but I felt really good afterwards and was so glad I turned up.
I'm going to try and make it to the long run on Sunday but it depends on how much homework I can get done, not to mention the pile of laundry that is collecting in the corner of my room. Hopefully I will have the chance to meet more people on the team and who knows, I may get faster through this experience and will end up making the Guilford guys have to chase after me.
I wish I could put up pictures I took from my Bath trip but like I said, my camera died and for some unknown reason the ones I took on my iPhone will not upload here. So if you would like to see pictures they are up on Facebook plus a few from my day at the Natural History Museum. However I have bought batteries and my camera now lives once again so I'll try to use that as much as possible. A few things to look forward to in the next post are my trip to BBC Studios on Tuesday and my first football match on Wednesday. As for right now, I hope this has assuaged you on how I've been doing. As much as I would like to be back in the States with everyone I love and the brands of food products that I miss, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world.
Cheers!
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