T-E-A-M

This weekend has been very (or v. vair) British indeed.
I went with three girls in my house to tea on Friday. And it was sooo delicious. Quite possibly one of the best things ever. We went to Sally Lunn's, which is a big tourist place because it's one of the oldest establishments (" permanent, floating..." Sorry - I just think of Guys and Dolls whenever I say that) in Bath, but it was really quite cute. Sally Lunn's is also famous for its Sally Lunn buns, which are essentially these giant plate-sized buns. So we got tea (with brown sugar sugar cubes!), scones with clotted cream and jam (which my roommate is obsessed with), and Sally Lunn buns with delicious, melty cinnamon butter on top. All and all, we felt quite classy. Before we left, we made sure to "read our tea leaves". (The whole process of getting the tea leaves in the cup prepared to be read is more difficult than one might imagine.) I kept hoping one of us would see the Grim, but none of us did. I saw an animated moose in mine. But I couldn't tell you what that means.
Yesterday a big group from ASE went to the opening game for Bath Rugby!! (They were playing the London Wasps, which got me thinking that I might have enjoyed the game more if they had been playing on broomsticks.) We met in front of the Huntsman, the pub right by our study center, which is also conviently close to the rugby field. It was astounding to see all of the people mobbed around the Huntsman wearing their Bath Rugby jerseys. We walked over to the field and got situated in the terrace - aka the cheap spot where you stand on steps for the entire game. The terrace also tends to be the rowdy section, and lo and behold, directly to my left was a group of slightly drunk middle aged men who were quite passionate about Bath Rugby. One kept cheering "Go Bath!". At least, I think that's what he was saying. You couldn't really hear any consonants, so it usually sounded more like "Ooo-aaahh!" And really, it wasn't cheering. It was more like the most intense combination of yelling-screaming that I've ever heard. (He would challenge my dad in terms of loudness. And if you know my dad, that's saying something.) My left ear was still ringing for awhile after the game ended.
And as for the game itself, it was definitely interesting. Rugby is one of the most bizarre games I've ever seen in my life. We decided it was a combination of American football, soccer, cheerleading, and UFC. With a little bit of free-for-all thrown in. I was trying to remember all of the things that my friend Krissy, who actually plays rugby, has told me about her own rugby experience, but I couldn't remember too much. Thankfully, Ian (a British student essentially hired by ASE to be our friend - but it's alright because he's really awesome) was at the game with us and really loves rugby, so he helped us kinda understand the game better. The stadium itself wasn't much help in helping us figure out the game. While American stadiums have lots of screens to look at that can help clarify everything as well as lots of buzzers and noises to alert the crowd when something happens, the Bath stadium had one litte clock showing how much time was left in the half and a little scoreboard hidden in the corner. That's it. Maybe they don't want foreigners to follow the game. Anyways, despite (or maybe because of) all these difficulties, I had a great time. I don't feel the need to go to another game, but it definitely was a British experience I didn't want to miss out on.
And to finish up my thoroughly British day, my roommate and I went to see The Jungle Book at "the egg" (the children's theatre at the Theatre Royal and the department I'm working with this semester). The show was brilliant. It was so well done and innovative and had such a cool concept. We both had a great time. Seeing the show made me even more excited to get started on helping out with rehearsals at "the egg".
Unfortunately, with all this stuff going on this weekend, I had kinda forgotten about the homework I had to get done. Oops. So no adventures today (...probably). I'm just planning on spending today with my good friend Richard and his hunchback.