A Day of Health in Bath

Yesterday, everyone from AHA (both the semester students and the quarter students) went on a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.

Fortunately, I've been to Stonehenge before; my camera batteries decided to die right as we arrived at Stonehenge, and I was unable to take pictures of the stone monument. I spent 6 pounds (that's $9, folks) on two double A batteries at the Stonehenge gift shop to ensure having batteries for my camera at Bath (where I had never been before). So I have absolutely no pictures from Stonehenge this go round. Luckily, the only difference between last year and this year is that the grass was green this year. Everything else was exactly the same; so, for your viewing pleasure, I have attached a picture of Stonehenge from last year's excursion to the ancient construction.

After an hour there, we moved on to Bath, where we were given a walking tour of the town. I can't say that I saw much of it; it had just begun raining during our walk, so my eyes were focused on the ground, trying to keep my glasses from getting speckled. After the walking tour, we went in to the Bath Cathedral, which has the most gorgeous fan-vaulted ceiling.

After roaming around the cathedral, we went in to see the Roman baths. We had audio guides, and many of us were listening to the children's commentary, because it was short and to the point (and kind of silly, too). At the baths, we met a Roman gentleman who called us barbarians (because we are from outside the empire). As you walk around the bath complex, you occasionally see hologram videos of Romans bathing. In the men's private baths, there are holograms of naked men walking around and toweling off. We were highly entertained there.

After seeing the baths, Annie and I decided it was necessary to try some water from the baths. Heck, I tried haggis in Scotland, I can try anything (except blood pudding)! So we payed 50 p each (that's around 75 cents) for a glass of the water. It was warm and tasted very sulfuric. It wasn't awful, as most people say, but it was certainly far from refreshing. I had two sips before I decided I just couldn't have any more of it.

After this, a group of us decided to try pastys (pronounced pah-sties, not pay-sties), a traditional food in England. They're basically like pot pie, only portable.

Finally, I concluded my day in Bath with a quick visit to the Jane Austen Center with Corrinne. You pay 5 pounds to go in, listen to a speech about Jane Austen and her time living in Bath (she hated it there), and then wander around the little exhibits downstairs. It's not much, but it's a cute little thing to go see. I also learned how to flirt properly with a fan, as proper young ladies did during the Regency period. As we were leaving, I bought myself a fan to go with my growing European fan collection (I have fans from Russia, Greece, Spain, and now England), as well as to practice my fan flirting. I wasn't a big enough Jane Austen fan to justify buying the "I heart Darcy" bag, but I was pretty amused to see the the gift shop sells Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. That's pretty cool, even if those books were disappointing.

After Bath, I went out to Harrow briefly with Annie, where we found a pub and split a bottle of wine. We spent the evening chatting before going home to bed. Today, the plan is to do laundry and work on my mid-terms. So far, only the laundry has been done.

In closing, for your viewing pleasure, here is the book trailer for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I showed this lovely work to my Book in Society class last semester, as part of my presentation on my paper about Jane Austen and monsters (known as Monster Mashups).