....Hopefully.
Friday was another orientation day, and after our two-hour session we were allowed to walk back to the dorm through the town of Cheltenham. First off, it was a BEAUTIFUL day: the sun was shining pretty enthusiastically for the first time since we'd arrived, and it was around 70 degrees.
PAUSE: We were taught to Celsius to Fahrenheit ratio. If you want to convert C to F, you take the C and divide it by 5, then multiply that number by 9 and add 32. Example: 15*C divided by 5 is 3, times 9 is 27, plus 32 is 59*F. Just in case you were curious.
Anyway.
The other bonus of Friday was that it was the once-every-fortnight (fourteen days - another English thing we've picked up) open farmers market in the middle of the promenade. There was one point when we were approaching a fruit stand and I could smell the fresh fruit before I saw what it was. HOLY COW.
The rest of Friday was spent just poking around Cheltenham: taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi in Starbucks, getting used to looking the opposite direction than the American way when we cross the street, getting sausage and mash for lunch for less than a pound, checking out the incredible three-story bookstore, picking up enough food to feed six people seven meals for less than 20 pounds. In theory we would work on homework last night to give us some time to travel and explore during the weekend, but I wound up Skyping my family and my roommate for almost four hours. Which was still pretty grand. : )
We were instructed by our professor to get out of the dorm and see things this weekend, but we started freaking out about how much homework we're facing down and how we couldn't plan a trip anymore in only a few hours to be ready to leave by this morning. So three of us chose the best of both worlds and took homework into town, starting at a small coffee shop for an English breakfast. I got black coffee, a scone, and clotted cream and jam.
It literally made me want to sing. I have never tasted anything like the cream before, and it was fantastic - combine the texture of melted cheese and whipped spread (a.k.a. fake butter), and that was the consistency of this thick cream. And the coffee was so rich on its own without any kind of added flavoring. It was, I venture to say, a beautiful breakfast.
In the middle of High Street (a major shopping street downtown), there's this awkward triangle area with a fountain next to a Starbucks. This was decided to be our study hub, and we camped out there for a few hours to do homework, get a little sunshine, watch the people, and hack the Starbucks' free internet. We went back to the dorm after a little while to do laundry and presumably get more homework done (guess how that worked out), then grabbed some really interesting smoothies for dinner. Mine had oatmeal, a banana, honey, and cinnamon. Interesting texture, but surprisingly filling and wonderful.
At 6.15 we headed out again, this time heading for one of the coolest theatres I've ever been in for its closing performance of "Beauty and the Beast." I've seen it twice before in small local theatres, and another girl with me had seen it on Broadway. But we all agreed that it was well worth the 15 pounds for nose-bleed seats. My gauge is tears: if I cry during a show, whether it be "oh my word, that's so sad" tears or "oh my word, that's so awesome" tears, it's done its job.
I cried a couple times. Mission accomplished.
When we were leaving, I realized that this was one of those rare unplanned moments that will stand out as a highlight of the trip. This morning we didn't even know that the show was being performed - we just noticed it as we were walking past the theatre after breakfast. And we debated whether or not we wanted to pay 15 pounds for a seat of a show that could be hit or miss, judging how some community theatres go. But we figured that we didn't have anything else to do for the rest of the day, it was relatively cheap for a ticket, and it was less than we were told it would be. And I realized also that if we had super-quick whipped a trip together, been gone this morning, and probably straggled back later all frustrated that we didn't plan far enough ahead of time, we completely would have missed it! Tonight was the closing performance - we wouldn't have had another opportunity to see it! It was so worth it: I would definitely count it as a highlight of the trip so far!
Tomorrow is another sit-around-and-maybe-think-up-something-to-do-but-probably-sit-around-and-do-homework day. I'm looking forward to my first official day to sleep in, and if it's open I might head downtown to a music shop where I saw a "sheet music for one pound" sign.
Because there's no such thing as too much sheet music. : )
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