La Gente de Mi Casa

 

And as for the people here—well, there’s 7 of us.  We all get along well enough, though I rather think I’m on the outs with some (mostly because I tend to dislike going out and getting drunk on a Tuesday night).  We tried to set up house rules on the first day—dishes, sharing food, overnight guests, parties, etc.  Basically, this is what we came up with:

-Do your dishes immediately after you use them (I don't think this has ever been followed)

-We’ll share some food, but other than that, we each get our own shelves (only the things nobody likes get shared, and literally every bit of food here has somebody’s name in permanent marker on it)

-Family dinner on Sunday nights (which turned into everybody but me and my roommate)

-Overnight guests are okay, even though its strictly against ASE policy. Oh well. 

I mean, they’re mostly okay.  A few of the girls can get a little snooty, and can be knd of selfish, even to each other.  (like a watered down Mean Girls before the practical jokes started) So far, it’s all working out though.  Ben (the only boy) is a real trooper and has embraced his inner…I don't know. Self. (Horror story: his original roommate died a few months ago because he was uber depressed and killed himself!  Gahh!  And I think I’m still FB friends with him…) And my roommate Sophia is pretty cool.  I mean, she’s got nothing on Mara, best roommate ever, but she’s still nice.  Very studious, very quiet, and very bookish.   We get along very well, and we’re both similar in that we don't get out much.  And we’re both a little nerdy, but that’s always okay! I watch more TV than her, I eat more than her, but then again, that’s true at home too.  I also wake up earlier than her (big surprise there!).

 So far though, Bath has been pretty great.  Everyone else is sitting around deciding where they’ll run off to—Italy, Prague, Paris, Spain, Germany.  But I’ve been to all those places.  I’ve been there as the tourist.  And its okay.  But I’m slowly discovering that traveling as a tourist isn’t nearly as great as really getting onto it, traveling as a local. All I want to do is go down to the nitty gritty, and experience things as the locals do. I want to make British friends, keep and visit the ones I already have, and see the UK.  I’m here for 4 months, and I actually want to be able to say that I saw it before I left, instead of saying that I filled my passport with places I “visited” for a day.  I’ve done that before, and you just never get that local flavor.  Living in Costa Rica, living in Barcelona, that was the way to go. I left feeling connected to the place, and I truly hope that happens with the UK. But to do that, I need to actually stay here and SEE it!