You Have A Baby! In a Bar!

So when we went to Bath yesterday, we decided to get some lunch at the local pub, Sam Weller's. We went and sat down in the back and waited (forever) for our food and this guy walked in with this adorable little baby girl. She had this fleece onesie of penguins on, looked totally content, really just cute. Her dad put her down on the table and ordered a ton of food.

When his wife and other daughter (also very young) got there, he put the baby on the floor to roll around and cry a little bit. And it was really just cute to see this guy with his kids.

But there was a baby. In a bar.

Polish Video Games

They can't win a war, but they can play Snake.

5 Cities in 2 Days

I have been to some of the most beautiful towns that no one cares about in England.

So first up on the tour was Avebury, which is this ancient rock formation made at the same time and on the same plain as Stonehenge. Which begs the question "Why two random rock formations?" but whatever. At that point, we didn't really get it and it was pouring rain and cold, so as we slipped through the mud and froze our asses off, we were taking joke pictures and mocking the fact that we went to go see big rocks. Woo hoo, right?

The rocks there weren't as smooth as the ones at Stonehenge, and were dragged a longer distance by another Celtic tribe hoping for fertility from big ass rocks in circles with ditches. I wonder if it worked out.

Next up was Glastonbury and the remains of its Abbey (church where the abbott lives). It was burnt down, rebuilt, then knocked down by Normans, then rebuilt, and then knocked down again, but there are still remains there. We had the best guide ever, this hobbit dude that told us everything we wanted to know about the place, and some we didn't. Apparently they faked King Arthur being buried there, and there's rumors of Joseph of Arimethea and Jesus and Mary going there, but if you look at dates, someone did some crap math.

We got to climb the Tor, AKA the really big hill in the town, and got to see the entire outlook of the area, which if my Facebook loads it, is GORGEOUS. The view was fantastic, and even though it was a crazy long walk, it was totally worth it.

Wells was after Glastonbury, where we saw yet another church (absolutely beautiful) and shopped around a little bit. Saw dog that looked so much like Zeus I teared up a little bit, and then we were off to the Bath YMCA for the night. Sarah made a joke that it would snow when we got there, and lo and behold, it totally did. Not for long, but the whole time we were waiting outside to get into the place it did. Thanks, Sarah.

We got to tour Bath the next day and look around the Roman Bath ruins still in the town. The baths were still hot to this day (albeit untreated), and it was really tempting to escape the 30 degree temperatures and jump in. We also got to see other stuff around the town, like the Royal Circus and Royal Crescent, as well as a family with a baby in a bar (more on that in another post).


Stonehenge was last, and I gotta tell you, it was more impressive in pictures than up close. We of course took the photos where it looked like we were carrying it (me and Steph) or placing stones in certain places (Sarah and Carrie) or jumping (Sarah and I) or grinning like an idiot really excited to see more rocks (Elise). But you aren't allowed to get close to it at all, and it's a much smaller circle than I thought it would be. And by that point, it's built up and something of a disappointment. Still cool, though.

Overall, it was a great trip. The bus was comfortable (except to sleep on), my iPod held out miraculously through the whole ordeal, as did my camera (others weren't so lucky). And I got some fun photos and such out of it.

Get Up On The Dancefloor!

Sabina and I need to learn how to Vogue properly. Observe us at the BWE, more on this later when I have time to write. And it's not midnight.

Pardon Me, Have You Seen A Group of Americans?

So last night was the first time I got to go to Imperial College's pub just around the corner on Prince Consort Road. Didn't know if I had to get cute or not, but I gotta tell you, that was an experience.

I went with the girls downstairs (Kaitlyn, Katie, and their roommate whose name escapes me), which was nice because I usually never hang out with them. Oddly enough, I was with them for maybe a half hour before I tried to join the table of guys. They were playing some drinking game which I didn't get, so I took like 2 sips of my drink and left. I made the right decision, ended up at the bar talking to this guy named John. Turns out he's one of the higher ups in their student union, really sweet, and has good taste in music.

That was around the time I lost the people I came with. So after grabbing John's number and saying goodbye, I had to go through this packed college pub, filled with drunken sportsmen trying to get laid by American girls, to find my group.

Unfortunately, the "Have you seen a group of pretty American girls?" didn't work out too well.

Please God Let This Not Be True...

I'm really hoping that this doesn't happen while we're here. We and most of the people I know live on District, and just using Picadilly, Northern, and Jubilee is really inconvenient.

Jack The Ripper

So don't worry about me or anything, I'm totally safe and all. But I just talked to Elise and she told me that Hyde Park was all shut down because someone was found dead. She was running and wasn't allowed in the park, and heard a rumor that someone's throat had been slit the night before. Then we found this on the BBC's website.

Police have closed a central London park after a body was found.

Kensington Gardens has been sealed off after the discovery was made by a member of the public at about 0725 GMT on Friday.

Police said the discovery was made by the Round Pond and they are treating the death as unexplained.

Kensington Gardens adjoins Hyde Park and is home to Kensington Palace, the Albert Memorial and the Serpentine Gallery.

This park isn't too far from where we live (it's aaaaaaaaaaall the way down Queen's Gate, which is quite a walk as Elise and I discovered yesterday), but geez. Way to ruin a run, punks.

Blue Eyed Brits

I want to tell everyone here that the stereotype of the Blue Eyed British Boy (BEBB) isn't for no reason.

I too thought this was a myth perpetuated by handsome ones like the Hughs Grant and Laurie, but it's totally not. Elise and I noticed that in the last few days.

Literally every other guy we walked past (unless they were from Asia or the subcontinent) were blue eyed. I want to know how this happened. Is it the inbreeding? Is it because it's an island with not many people? I want to know why, and how this can happen in the USA. I would like to take that secret back through customs and apply it back home.

Get Pissed, But No Knives!

I was tooling around my new city (already in love, more about that later) for the last few days and went to dinner with the roommates: Elise, Marin, Allie, Nikki, and Alanna. We decided to get sandwiches and fish and chips, and to enjoy the fact that we're allowed to have a drink. I got some advice from Amanda to go with the cider rather than the Guiness, so I did and was very pleased with results.

We were looking around today for a grapefruit knife for Elise. We found them in the same place as where you can get keys made and get postcards (expect some fun ones soon!). As it turns out, Elise got carded. Apparently there's a law in the UK which prohibits people under the age of 21 from buying any sort of knife.

Now I totally get this, because over here there's a ton of knifing around as the main form of assault with a weapon (the gun laws are WAY strong). But I find it really amusing and interesting. In the US, I could buy a knife but not a drink. In the UK, I can buy a drink but not a knife.

Shocker! Our Government Has A Sense of Humor

I was tooling around the TSA website to see if there were any new airline restrictions or whatever (there are), but I found this little gem about what to do.

Cheesy as Velveeta, people.

The 4th Layer of Hell

So like every college student on a break, I had a dentist's appointment this morning. It was a different hygienist than usual (and I didn't see Alex's mom there today, although she usually is and he was there the day before me with the same hygienist).

I was sitting in the chair, trying not to grip the arms as she poked and prodded at my teeth (see example at right), and I couldn't change the radio station. It was the cheesiest pop music ever, and I was stuck listening to "Party in the USA," in its entirety, as she polished my teeth with this nasty stuff. Then she kept polishing as the song changed to "Touch My Body." It was unbearable.

Irony Alert!

So everyone knows that my high school football team wasn't great. Let's just be blunt about it. When they played AI, people called it the "Toilet Bowl" because both teams sucked so hard.

Sorry, Dave.

But I just found out today that if our family had never moved to DE and had stayed where we were in NJ, we would've gone to a high school with the 2008 state football champions. Way to go.

Hugh Laurie on Family Guy? Giggedy Giggidy.

So I was looking through IMDB as I'm prone to do and happened upon this tidbit: apparently, Hugh Laurie is a big Family Guy fan and has done voices for two episods. In one, he was at the bar as a patron. In the other, he plays House. And then I found the clip, which pretty much made my night.