England: Time to Take a Bath
Wednesday, May 18th
Remember what I said about sabotaging the shower? Yeah... today was the day! I don't know what I did, but my shower was fine... and then Mike's shower putzed out on him so that he had to take a bath. Ha ha... bathing... how apropos for the day!
Our full English breakfast was made all the more interesting that morning because of a young man who decided to join us. Since I will most likely be talking about him in a derogatory manor, he shall be named "Squidward." Actually, if you knew him, you'd know just how appropriate that nickname was... the way he talks, his attitude, it all fits my friends. He's a big D.
After the interesting breakfast, the group was off to the fabulous town of Bath. The first stop once we got to Bath was the Roman Baths (for which the town is named). They were somehow both beautiful and gross at the same time.

Notice the beautiful tint of green to the Roman Bath water. That's from literally thousands of years of algae growth... and very little chlorine, if you know what I mean.
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But it was also quite an interesting place. In addition, I was treated to something new and interesting: a self-guided audio tour. We were given these electronic tour "phones" wherein all we needed to do was punch in a number, and we were treated to an audio description of whatever we were looking at. Still too difficult to imagine? How's this...

Here's Morgan, Jill, and Justin listening to the audio tour phones... notice the large number in the upper-righthand corner. Punch that in, hold up the phone to your ear, and hear everything there is to hear about something boring and old!
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There you go! Someone once said that a picture is worth a whole bunch of words... like twenty words. But, to be honest, the audio tour was too long. I listened to the first few audio tour points... but then decided that they were too long, and I didn't want to listen to all of them. After picking up a few interesting facts about the Roman Baths, I was very ready to leave them.
And leave them we did... to find lunch. A group of us and I decided to stop at a French bakery and we got these delightful (did I just say delightful?) baguettes. They were fabulous!
After a sensational lunch, it was off to the Bath Abbey.

Absolutely GORGEOUS! Perhaps the most beautiful building we saw in the entire country. Breath-taking!
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Mmm... the greatest! And then we went inside. WOW! WOW... it was amazingly beautiful on the inside as well. How beautiful, you ask? Stop hounding me, I yell! Oh... I mean, let's look at some inside pics, shall we?

Here's a pic from my seat before the concert. Ooo Ahh!
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And then...

Check out how artistic this pic is... mmm, the arts! Interesting architecture, no?
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And would that I could have taken a picture of the sound! Oh the sound in this building... was incredible! It was so acoustically amazing, I dare say it had better acoustics than Carnegie Hall. It was the most acoustically beautiful place I have ever been. So acoustically amazing, in fact, that if one were to say "Oh why don't you shut the phuk up," everyone would hear him. Remember Squidward? Yes, he did just that. I don't know the full story, but I do know that he said that quite loud and was pulled aside for being an idiot.
Nevermind that... the concert was so incredible! We sang amazingly. It was a beautiful concert, seriously. And it made me so glad I was there.
After the concert, we were given walking tours of Bath. Our tour guide was named Felicity... and I wondered to myself if she had ever watched the show. My guess is no, as she was a 60 or 70 something British woman, but you never know. It doesn't behoove one to stereotype... and now you know (and knowing is half the battle!). Anyway, we toured around Bath, which is an absolutely gorgeous town. I loved it there. And one of the reasons it was so nice was the walking tour, as Felicity had that infamous dry, British wit. She, however, was not hip to American lingo. What do I mean? Well, she was telling us about the Royal Balls which were held in one of the beautiful Bath buildings... you can see where this is going. Mike asked, "How big of balls can be held here?"... and two other ball-related questions were asked to Felicity. She was looking at Mike, Kent, and Justin and I was behind her... so I got to laugh freely while those three guys had to stand dead-pan. Ha ha to them!
But Felicity was great... and our tour seemed to be over all too soon. We then went on to do a little Bath shopping... and ended up in a bar called The Rat and Parrot. The food was good, but Mike and I found the most horrendous smell in the world when we went downstairs to the bathroom. It smelled like a combination of sulfur and urine. It was horrible.
That night at the hotel, I had a decision to make. I was told by Second City that I could either take a 1A class again for half price or I could just wait until the next audition. If I wanted to take the 1A class again, I could take it on Sunday or on Wednesday... but they needed to know by Wednesday. Well... it was Wednesday, and time to make a decision. I actually called Keith and asked him which 1A class he was in. He called me back on Wednesday and let me know that tonight was his class! That solidified it. I would take the Wednesday class, and reunite with Keith! But here was another kicker. The instructor of his class? A Mr. Holly, the head of the program and the guy who was responsible for me not making it into level 2. Would I be a big enough man to let bygones be bygones? Only time (and this blog) will tell...