Ahh Britain.  The UK.  Its weird!  I’m going on week two now, and I guess I’m slowly getting used to its oddities…but not really. I still roll over laughing every so often when a British person says something weird.  I still forget to look the wrong way and almost get run over.  I still forget to walk of the other side of the sidewalk and almost plough into people.  And British accents still make me smile. 

So it’s cold and its damp here.  I don't think the streets ever dry properly.  And even if you look outside and hey!  It’s a wonderful sunny day, you still pack the umbrella.  But I like it.  The first week was so-so.  I’m not going to lie there!  It was orientation so yeah, there wasn’t a whole lot going on.  Plus, I got sick towards the end, so I had to miss the last day (like I shed many tears over that!) They threw a lot of info at us, some of it good, some of it useless.  I still don't know some of the people who I talk to everyday’s names. 

Right, so the places.  Bath itself is pretttty much what everyone told me before I arrived.  Old, pretty, nice.  I’ve learned that when it comes to getting descriptions of something, don't ask the Brits.  They aren’t so great at that.  But it IS old and pretty and nice!  The streets are cobblestone, and the buildings are limestone.  It’s small, and definitely geared to tourists and shopping. The center of town in the Abbey, a beautiful old church that once witnessed the crowning of one king, and the royal marriage of another.  Down the road, in an ordinary, slightly worn-for-the-wear brownstone, affectionately called “number four” is Jane Austen’s old house, the place where she lived as a child.  As with any European city, it’s old and tied to history.  I don't know a lot of Bath’s history, but I’ve got 4 months.  I’ll get there! 

I live in Prior Park, in a section called Widcombe.  It’s a decent sized townhouse with 4 bedrooms, a roomy kitchen and a nice parlor.  No piano though, that was a disappointment, thought it almost makes up for it with its extensive VHS collection.  My roommate Sophia and I made a pact to watch ALL the movies (except the really weird ones) before we leave!   My room is nice enough—its big, warm, the windows open, and the beds are even covered with bright, flowery hippie-esque coverlets.  My favourite (see what I did there??) part of the room though, has to be the shower.  I guess they were worried that we might not all be able to shower in the other two showers, so they put one in our room.  But the kicker is that its just a shower! I mean, it has a semi-opaque glass door on the front, but that’s it.  It’s so odd!  We mostly just use it as an oversized sink and a great place for line-drying our clothes.  BUT we did make another pact (lots of secret pacts here!) to each shower in it once this semester.  Not sure how that’s gonna go down, but whatever. 

Our center of everything is about a ten-minute walk away, in Nelson house. Basically, it’s a 6-floor townhouse with creaky floorboards, drafty windows, and a stone cellar filled with wicker furniture where we eat our takeaway lunches (its a lot cheaper than eating in!).  It’s stuffed with offices, kitchens, a library, seminar room, and a computer room, plus the cellar.