The last few days have been pretty hectic, but hopefully now that classes are starting this week I can get into a pattern and post more regularly.
Last Wednesday I played in my first lacrosse game in about two years, and it was a long one. Instead of playing 12 or 15 minute quarters and stopping the clock when the ball goes out of bounds or someone scores, they just play 20 minute running time quarters. This sounds like it would be in my favor, and, if the field we played on wasn't in swamplike condition, it probably would have been. However, with the ball not moving much when it hits the ground, and therefore not going out of bounds anyway, the game seemed to go on forever- It probably didn't help that we only had one sub for the entire team either. But, we won and it felt great to get back on the pitch (that is British for field)!
We finished up our orientation class about British culture and politics on Thursday and now all I have to do for that class is write a 2,500 word essay on one of six specific questions the professor has given us to choose from. He was also very specific on how we should write our paper while answering the question. Apparently here each essay question they give out has to be approved by 3 different people before they can use it in a course. I think thats because in the school system here most classes don't have homework and base most, if not all, of the grade on exams and essays at the end of the semester. I have until the 7th to get it done though so I imagine I'll be doing that throughout the week.
On Friday I started registering for classes. I'm only allowed to take 50 credits total this semester (which is similar to 15 or so back home) and 10 of those were already used up by my orientation class. As of now I am taking 3 classes (which account for my other 40 credits) and only actually have lectures on Wednesday and Thursday (I think I'll be taking some long weekend trips!) The classes I am taking are: Control Systems, Marketing Management and American Word-American Image. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the California Dreamin' class, but, in the last class I listed we will be reading about eight 20th century American novels and relating them to film, art and pop culture so it seems like it will be just as cool.
Saturday we had our last group excursion with the study abroad program and we went to Bath. Bath is an old Roman town that was well known throughout the empire because it has a natural hot spring that the Romans deemed as a sacred and very holy place given to them by the gods. They made a huge pubic bath house and temple there and the city became a place that people from everywhere in the empire visited to worship or relax or whatever they felt like. I thought the city was absolutely amazing. The bath itself is the most well preserved Roman spa in the world and it would have been so cool to be alive 1,500 years ago to see everything still standing and painted and taken care of. The rest of the town was very cool as well. There were a lot of street performers and little tea houses and restaurants and shops that gave the city a really cool atmosphere.
Later that night, my roommates and I all went out for the first time since I've gotten here. It was fun to be able to hang out with all of them at once and we ended up going to a club in town... On the way into town I met 3 British kids on the bus who were all majoring in American Studies and wanted to live in the USA when they graduate- smart kids! They said we have the best tv shows and food and music. Most of the people on the bus were really drunk and started some weird chants on the way into town. The English and the Welsh don't get along too well here, and after everyone had done chants that included Sweet Caroline, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song, ABBA and some other random pub chants, the English started singing their national anthem and the Welsh responded the same way. It ended with all of the English people baa-ing like sheep by the time we arrived at the bus stop (the English call the Welsh "Sheep Shaggers" because they have so many sheep here).
The club itself was pretty fun, but I'm not much of a club person and I probably looked really awkward the whole time we were there. Also, drinks were pretty expensive and it took 45 minutes to get one, and you had to scream your order to the bartender because it was so loud in there.
Sorry for the length of the post, as I said, hopefully I'll start getting on here more regularly and then you won't have to read a 4 page entry every time.
Be safe, be kind and be responsible.
Lacrosse team after the victory!
The sign outside of the Roman Baths.
The Roman Baths- this is the natural spring that still feeds the main one, it also used to feed all of the other smaller baths too.
Floor Mosaic. They used to be everywhere at the baths this is one of the more well preserved ones.
The main bath from above.
A statue of some lady. The numbers on the stand below her are for these little walkie-talkie tour cell phone things we got.
The main bath. It was a cold day and the baths were steaming the whole time, it was really cool!
The main bath with the Abbey behind it. This picture is better than the one I got on a postcard. No joke.
Me with my walkie-talkie/cell phone tour guide.
I took this picture because of the archway over the street. Normally I wouldn't put it in the blog because its really not that cool. But, the best part about this picture is that there is a sign above that girls head, and it looks like she just fell in love in The Sims. I did not plan this, but just got lucky with a well timed picture. It amused me, and hopefully it amused you too.
The Abbey. The two kids in the hats and backpacks are Alex and Kyle. They're from ISU also.
One of the street performers. He was juggling flaming sticks while riding a 6 foot tall unicycle at this point. He was pretty funny too.
Part of the Circus. A place where rich people live in bath.
Look how big this tree is!
One of my favorite parts of the baths. This was on the front of the temple back in the day. Nobody really knows who it is of- some say Neptune, others a Celtic god and some a male gorgon. One theory is the face and hair look like that of someone (in this case Neptune) at the time when they are laying back into a bath (hair going all around and wild, etc.). I don't really care who it is. I think its cool.
Goodnight all!
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