England: Burton-On-The-Water, A Fire In The Sky
Tuesday, May 17th
It should be said here that Miss Katie pulled me aside the night before and took a real interest in trying to help me work through my frustration over my Second City situation. She was a good friend to me that night.
I wish the same could be said for the Prince Rupert cooking staff. When Mike and I got down to breakfast we found it was the first "cook-to-order" breakfast we had encountered... so we would have to order food and they'd have to, obviously, make it for us. Well, Bones and I hadn't gotten up early enough to spend that much time waiting, so we had to tell the waitress that we wouldn't be ordering any food... that we'd eat from the ready-to-eat table (cereal and bread and cheese and fruit). The response we got was "Got a late start this morning, did we?" which could be cute and playful if it hadn't been said in such a judgmental tone. You're not the one who's not going to get a full breakfast because you're late, lady... what is it to you? What a big B she was.
We finally left that terrible hotel and hit the road. We actually made an unscheduled stop that afternoon, in a little place called Burton-On-The-Water. It was a beautiful little town... with a river running straight through the middle of town.
A beautiful town that looks like this.
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We stopped unexpectedly in this town to get lunch... so Mike and I decided to try a Fish and Chips Take-Away store. I also decided to be bold and try something called a "fish burger." Why not, I figured, as this is supposed to be a country that does fish well. The dude asked me if I wanted mayo on it, and I was like "yeah"... and he proceeded to dump as much mayo as humanly possible on the stupid sandwich. He backed a truck up and dumped extra mayo on the sandwich, just to make sure I couldn't see it under all the mayo. After shoveling the mayo off the sandwich, it wasn't that bad... wasn't as good as I had hoped, but not terrible.
After an unscheduled stop, we were off to Cirencester. When we arrived, we were given some time to walk around right away. Mike, Kent, Justin, Dan, and I headed to a place called the Crown Pub. Some of us got pints, but I did not. It was too early in the day... and I just wanted to relax. We ended up walking around Cirencester for a little while, shopping and just looking in shops. I also came about this *puts fingers next to each other* close to buying Laura Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. What stopped me? Three things: 1) I didn't know if she'd want the first book or another book she liked better; 2) Something told me Laura already got the British version of that book... I don't know if that's true or not, but I got very nervous about it; 3) Men suck... and when the "guys" saw me checking out Harry Potter books, I got a little razzed. It made me flustered and then, not thinking straight, I had to make a quick decision. In my haste, my decision was 'no dice.' Sorry Laura dear... I can always go back and get it for you if you want me to.
Later that day, we headed back to the hotel. Now, not to get into specifics, let us say that there was a little miscommunication between Mike and I... and, while a lot of the people in the choir headed to Swindon, I stayed in the hotel. Which was fine because I spent a few hours that evening napping. It had been a long, tiring trip so far... and the nap was actually time well spent. I had gotten locked out of the room, and had to get two new keys... so Mike's key wasn't going to work when he came back. When Mike came back and woke me up, I had to find someone else who hadn't gone to Swindon. And wonders never cease... if Miss Katie and Miss Chelsey hadn't gone into town. So the three of us had dinner in the expensive Corus Hotel restaurant. We had a pleasant (if expensive) dinner together and headed back to our respective rooms.
Mike and I had a large room at the end of the hallway, so it was our turn to host the evening's festivities. It was fun to have a room full of people enjoying themselves... it was also interesting to have a room full of variously aged students drinking themselves silly. Interesting to me because I was sober and was able to watch people go from "hello" to "ehhgg." Mmm... egg.
Let me just say one more thing about Tuesday before I go. Mike and Jennie had various phone conversations while we were in England... and I'm not as opposed to confrontation as, say, Jim ("ahh... an argument! Run away!" heehee)... but hearing one side of an argument is very odd, and I actually did run away to give them some privacy. It was more about me feeling uncomfortable than Mike feeling uncomfortable... but, still, feeling chased from your room is off-putting. Off-putting enough for me to sabotage the shower? Stay tuned...
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