I feel so much better today! Stephanie observed that my color (in my face) looked better. To be safe, I ate more soda crackers for breakfast. My class went to Bristol to take a walking tour. It started out sunny, but it quickly clouded over. When we got there, the group decided to get lunch. Shanti, Jon, Victoria, and I decided to go to the Chicago Rock Cafe.
Shanti, Jon, and Victoria are all considerably younger than me, so during most conversations I sat, listened, and mostly just shook my head in exasperation. These conversations were...I don't know...were just crass; for example, Jon brushing up against Shanti's and Victoria's "tits" (their word, not mine) and stuff like that. Those three did all the stuff during the lunch conversations that give the rest of us Americans a bad name, hence, the Ugly American. They talked too loud, laughed too loud, used crass and profane words and so on. It's no wonder why the middle-aged ladies, sitting in the booth next to us, wanted to kill us. If looks could kill, Shanti, Jon, and Victoria would have been dead and buried. They're British though, and the British were not secure enough to confront us to tell us to shut up. I could really sympathize with those ladies...
Our waiter was a riot though. First off, he had the best British accent I've heard. Secondly, he gaged our personalities well. The other three were boistrous, loud, laughing, and joking so he adjusted himself to fit in with their behavior. When he addressed me, he responded to my reservedness and he adjusted well to that as well; "What can I get for you, love?" Wow, I know that "love" is just a common everyday expression that is used (just like how Stephanie refers to me as "darling"), but it's the first time I've heard it used in reference to me. It's British culture shock!
He was definitely flirting with Victoria. He purposely used the wrong name when talking to her (he called her Catherine multiple times), and when she asked for more tortillas (Brits call them pancakes), underneath the last one he slipped her a note that said "Enjoy Catherine." Victoria and Shanti cooed at the gesture; I thought the note was him giving her his phone number. Victoria kept the note like it was a trophy.
I paid my share of the bill early (5 pounds compared to their 40 pounds) and gave the waiter a 2 pound tip telling him thanks for the floor show (I never had so much fun during a meal-and it was mostly his responses to the group's silliness). I left to go over to our designated meeting spot. It was a festival with several booths that had food samples and a few had games. I got a video of me doing the fishing game, Victoria doing the knock down game, there was a rope toss game, and a pie eating contest; the winners got to take home a plant, while the winner of the pie eating contest won 1000 pounds.
The pie eating contest was a hoot. Matt was brave enough to represent us. The goal: eat a one-quarter slice of pie in the fastest time. I also got it on video (although I can't get it off the camcorder yet). Matt started off quickly out of the blocks, but then slowed up towards the end. Oh well...
Afterwords, Mari (the home stay and outing activities coodinator) took us on a walking tour of the city. She gave us whatever knowledge she knew, but it wasn't much (she's not an official tour guide and this activity was informal). By the time we got back to Bath, it was 530 pm (we left at 10 am), and we went back to our respective homes.
Tomorrow, we go to Wells for an all day event.
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