So, yeah, I know, it's been a while. I've been busy! I've had class for two weeks and no internet in my room, and I've been doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Let me tell you about more of my travels.
So last time you heard from me, I'd just had a busy day in London. My friend Rachael and I get up Friday morning and catch a bus from London to Essex, where my friend Colleen is studying. The bus ride isn't bad, although we're both disgusting because we forgot to bring shower shoes to the hostel and hadn't showered in a few days. As soon as we arrive, Colleen runs out to greet us and we run towards her in slow motion as dramatic music plays. It's all very epic.
The University of Essex is located on the outskirts of the city of Colchester, which is northeast of London. The university is sorta... drab-looking. It's surrounded by what I can only call the moors of England, and the buildings aren't very attractive looking. Colleen walks us to her building, which is a towering dorm of black stone that looks more like a something from the Lord of the Rings or the Communist bloc than a dorm. We take the elevator (man I hate stairs these days) to the 5th floor and are greeted in the kitchen by a gaggle of crazy brits. The drabness of the buildings is easily made up by the personalities of the people, and, after the best shower I've ever taken, we head to the local grocery with some of Colleen's friends.
Though I am always fascinated by grocery stores, and would love to tell you about the subtle and not-so-subtle differences of all the groceries I've been to, I will only tell you that the grocery stores in England do give you free bags (unlike in Germany, if you've been paying attention). Still, we'd walked there, so we load up our backpacks and try to buy as little as possible. We head back to the dorm and make ourselves pizza for dinner. Here, everyone seems to cook food instead of going out to eat, probably since it's cheaper and since town is far off. Essex is almost like a little town in and of itself. All the classes and dorms are there, so the students don't have to use the buses (and don't unless they go into town). There's a diner, a little grocery with the basics, a rec center with a rock climbing wall, etc, etc. And, most importantly, it has a bar with 3 floors where there always seems to be something going on.
So we hear tell of some parties going on later, but the big event on campus is at said university bar. A DJ named Tim Westwood is playing, and everyone seems to have the same opinion of him– he's a wanker. Apparently he's a popular radio DJ that a lot of people (at least the ones Colleen knows) hate. So, naturally, I'm interested to see why they hate him so much, and when it's determined that there's not much else to do, we decide to go see him. Yes!
We start off at the 0 level bar, where we get a few drinks. I get a few sugar British specialties (Snakebite, Cider and Black) and they are delicious. But of course it is soon time to dance, so we check our coats and stand outside in line for the bar downstairs. There we see Tim Westwood's touring van, which is sponsored by Durex and has written in obnoxious lettering "Tim Westwood says: Strap it up before you slap it up." Er... Yeah. Apparently this isn't a common phrase or anything in England, it's just Tim Westwood being classy.
So we go inside, get a few drinks and attempt to dance. The fifty-something year old Westwood is doing his thing, which is actually pretty horrible. He plays about 1/3 of a song and immediately changes it to another 1/3 of a different song, all the while speaking like a teenager that just discovered cursing. After about 15 minutes and Tim's question, "How many girls out there tonight have a clean pussy?" we decide to leave. Even without the constant onslaught of moronic comments the music changed too often to even be danceable. So we leave, do a bit more drinking (naturally), and go to bed.
The next day is Valentine's day. Colleen, Rachael, and I decide to hit up the town during the afternoon. We go to the castle, wander the parks around it (which are quite nice) and tour this old house-turned-museum. I've got pictures of all that, so I'll post them soon. The park closes at like 5:30 or something, so we spend the rest of the evening walking through the city, which is pretty neat. We stop at a few shops and search for the creepiest place to have dinner. We finally decide on a restaurant named Clowns, which, naturally, is filled with tons of circus memorabilia. It was kind of ridiculous, but we had a lovely Valentine's day barbeque dinner there.
The big buzz on campus that night is the Traffic Light Party, where you wear red if you're taken, green if you're available, and yellow if you're available but not a slut. Just kidding, people who wore green, you're not sluts! I don't have any of those colors, anyway, so I wear black. It is in the same place as the Tim Westwood set and much more fun. We dance until 3am. Good times. A lot of the music that was played was American pop and rap music, which I found interesting. In fact, pretty much everywhere that I've gone in Europe I've been surprised at how much American music I hear. It's obviously not all they listen to, but it's got a big presence over here.
Anyhow, on Sunday Rachael goes back to Nottingham because she has school the next day. Luckily for her, someone had found her wallet and returned it to her with all things intact! Hurray for things working out! I'm leaving on Monday, so Colleen and I decide that the best possible activity for Sunday is rock climbing! Way more fun than stairs! Colleen has friends on the rock climbing team who've offered to show us the ropes (HAHAHAA!!), so we check it out. It's fun, but I can only take so much exercise. The rest of the day is pretty chill. We make dinner and check out a few things around campus, including the paternoster elevator in the library. I've made a really stupid video for your viewing pleasure, so check that out if you want to ride the elevator with me and Colleen.
We finish off the night by watching a movie with Colleen's flatmates. In the middle of the movie (at about 1am or so), someone decides that it would be hilarious to pull the fire alarm. Reluctantly we walk downstairs, but about halfway down the alarm stops, so we can go back up. We watch about 10 minutes more of the movie, and then the fire alarm goes off AGAIN. This time we have to stand outside for at least 30 minutes in the cold. Of course, this is the perfect opportunity for me to get a picture of all the friends I've made!!! So be sure to check out the picture of everyone waiting outside at 1am!
Anyway, we finish the movie and head to bed. It's been a long weekend. I manage to squeeze a few hours of sleep in, and then Colleen walks me to the bus stop at like 6am. England's a pretty legit place, and it's been awesome to see old friends and make some kickass new ones. Also, it's nice being in a place where I know the damn language. We bid our adieus, and I head off on a bus to London-Stansted airport, where I'll fly to Salzburg next.
Well, that's it for now. Soon you'll get the story of my 5 days in Salzburg, and then I guess I can tell you more about life in Marburg. I really like it here, despite there not being internet in my room. Speaking of room, you'll also get a video tour of my room! How exciting!
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