I Went to a Pub!
I woke up this morning to my alarm at 6:45 and thought about whether or not I wanted breakfast. I had gotten enough sleep since I fell asleep so early and I wasn’t really that tired, but I decided I would still rather sleep. So I rolled back over and slept until 8:30, at which point I did get up. Then I talked to Kyle because he couldn’t sleep again. His sleeping patterns since I left are getting to be psycho. Of course mine aren’t that much better I guess. After this I read journal articles online for my tutorial until I left to walk to Regent’s for lunch.
I stopped in a store, Boswell’s, on the way to see if they had any good things to bring back for people because they were having a sale. They did have a sale thing for tea so I think I’ll go back tomorrow and get some tea for myself. At lunch I had the salad bar, but they also brought out onion rings for the regular lunches, so I ate some of them too. I love onion rings, so this made me very happy. They weren’t the best, but they were still good.
After lunch I went by Boswell’s again because I had considered getting something that was on sale that I thought there was only one left of. I found out there were many different kinds of that thing so I’m going to wait on that. I then went to the library, read a journal article online, and then read my poverty book until time to leave for dinner. I only have 65 pages left, so I’ll finish that and my three journal articles that I have left tomorrow. Yay! Then I’ll type up a few things either tomorrow or Wednesday before I go to see my play.
I walked back to Regent’s and went to dinner. I sat next to Ruth, across from Marshelle, and near a bunch of guys whom I’ve talked to quite a bit but usually just small talk. I have no idea what I ate for dinner. The regular meal was chicken lasagna, which looked sort of good. Mine was sort of like a, yeah I don’t know what it was like. It tasted all right, but there wasn’t much to it. No vegetable sides or anything, just some salad. And the only dressing they have is mayo, so I now just eat my salads with salt and pepper because, as Marshelle said during dinner, “Mayonnaise is for sandwiches, not salads.” I did get dessert this time, which I’m glad because I wouldn’t have been filled up. I have no idea what this was either. It tasted sort of like a granola bar and had raisins in it. So dinner was interesting to say the least.
Tonight was apparently the night for the girls’ drinking society, the Rabbits, to go out and drink, so there were, I think, five girls at dinner. I actually think I might have joined the Rabbits, but I didn’t know about this thing so maybe I didn’t really. They just asked me, said I didn’t really have to drink, so I said sure, but I didn’t write anything down or anything. Anyway, the guys were talking about going to a pub after dinner. They asked me what I was doing, and I said I didn’t know. Rhys (pronounced Rees/Reez) said, “Oh you’re not going straight back to Stanley Rd. are you?” And I said I didn’t know. I asked Ruth what she was doing and she said she didn’t know. So we considered going to the pub. She doesn’t drink either. So I said, “Well let’s just go for a little bit. You should come so I won’t be the only one not drinking.” So she said okay. They said they weren’t going to get drunk, just talk and stuff.
So after dinner, we met in the JCR. I checked my mail and I got my paper back from Mark, my tutor, and it was marked. I got an A-!! Which I think is pretty good, though I don’t know if he graded me on the Oxford scale or on a visiting students scale. Jon (or Johnnie as he is called to distinguish him from the other Jon) said it would probably be too much trouble to have 2 different grading scales so surely it was on the Oxford scale, so that made me feel good. He didn’t have too many comments, mostly checks and “good” so I feel pretty good about it. Yay! Gives me a little more confidence for next time.
While we were waiting to leave, Rhys said that we should have a Halloween party for the Americans and then Thanksgiving too. Although he had no idea when Thanksgiving was. So then he said we should do independence day too. I told him that had already past. But anyway, hopefully we’ll do something, which will be fun, and then if we do Thanksgiving I can either have 2 or go to one with people I actually know, rather than going to the American-Anglican thing where I’ll know Dan but nobody else. So yay again!
Then we walked to the Eagle and Child (the E&C, as the cool kids call it), which is the pub where C.S. Lewis hung out. We got a room near the door so it wasn’t very loud or smoky or anything. I had my water bottle so I just drank that. Ruth had cranberry juice. Marshelle might have had coke, I couldn’t tell. The rest had beers. It’s crazy because I think I was older than all the English people. Ruth was the oldest of them, I think. She’s 20. But I guess they’re used to drinking, and they drank slowly.
We talked for a while. The others talked about other nights when they had all apparently gotten drunk, which Ruth and I weren’t there so we didn’t know what they were talking about so we talked. At one point they were talking about a club and Ruth asked me if I danced. I said no, sometimes if I’m feeling really crazy at a friend’s house. She said yeah, definitely if she did it was in privacy (except she said privacy with a short “i” so it was British). Then when Ruth was done with her drink, she and this other guy (whose name I’ve forgotten) who is her tutorial partner and I decided to leave. As we were leaving she asked me if I would want to go get tea or coffee some evening. I said sure, that would be fun. So I guess we’ll do that at some point. So I think I’ve made a friend. She said she has called her parents every day too. We’ve got a lot in common.
Anyway, I walked quickly home and called Kyle to tell him that I went to a pub and made a friend. Then I went downstairs to wash my face and there were guys there. I just glanced and assumed they were the guys from the house so I waved and then I actually sort of looked and I’m not sure if I know the guy I waved to, but he had a hat on so I couldn’t tell. But oh well, I may have waved to someone I don’t know. They weren’t there when I came out of the bathroom. So that was my day, ending on a very good note. One more yay!