The Day Commemorating My Birth

Last night we didn't end up going to the Nottinghill Festival because we heard that it continued today (and we were all still pretty jet lagged). Instead, we found a new pub, this one called The Angel (The College Arms is the one we visited the first night and, I'm fairly certain, will become our regular hangout due largely to its proximity). It was a beautiful pub, all hung with velvet curtains and squashy, cushioned chairs, but the barman was not the friendliest. We hung out for a couple of hours anyway, and made our way back to the flat. Everyone came downstairs to my basement flat, and we hung out for the rest of the night, generally bonding. I had a long conversation with Hayes about Notre Dame... was extremely pleasant. But it ended up being a late night, and we had an early morning today...

This morning we had a meeting at 9 with Dr. King about travel dates for our day trips to Bath and Stratford upon Avon and... somewhere else. I forget. Was lengthy and fairly boring, so most of us went back to bed afterwards. Rolled out of the sack sometime around noon and hung around the flat. It's really fun getting to know new people... sometimes I think I forget that. But we hung around and had a very intense conversation about alligator garr, and then alligators vs crocodiles, and then a "would you rather" conversation concerning death by alligator vs death by shark. Typical college kids, I guess.

Alligator Garr. BIG FISH. With some SERIOUS chompers. AKA a good reason not to swim in Arkansan rivers.

Left the flat to check out the Carnival (the more common name for the Nottinghill Festival). CRAZY. We were looking at stats about it before we left, and there were HUNDREDS of thousands of people there. It's this huuuge Caribbean festival, so there were jerk chicken stands all over the place, and Red Stripe everywhere. Literally, I have never seen more trash in my life than what was littering the streets around Nottinghill. Shops boarded up their windows (I assume that they've learned some risks are just not worth it, and protect their windows. This tendency leads to Nottinghill looking like some Great Depression-era Hooverville for the Carnival, but judging by the cars in the area, it's pretty swanky typically. Worth a visit once the trash gets cleaned up at least), people were dancing on roofs, police presence was LARGE. I think every cop in the country must get called into service. Hundreds of cops. With funny hats. All looking pretty  miserable, actually. British cops are very serious. I was playing the smile game today (stare at someone til they CAN'T avoid looking at you, and then smile nicely at them. Creepy Kate idea of fun), and cops were the best targets. Because it took extended smiling to convince them that I wasn't going to pull a knife or something as soon as I walked past.

Had a really excellent jerk chicken, and then we headed back to the flat (we had split up halfway through; my flatmates were ready to head back, but four of us stayed... John, Chase, Hayes and me). Lots of walking, but a good adventure for the birthday. It actually didn't really feel like my birthday even though my phone has been blowing UP all day (SO sorry I've been not answering, all you non-answered calls. Too expensive to talk... email instead!) and the other Hendrix kids have been reminding me about it all day. I think it's just that today would have been a great special birthday thing to do, but since we've all been hanging out so much, and because our responsibilities up to this point have basically been nil, today was just another day. In a great way. Does that even make sense? So maybe it's more like EVERY day has had that birthday specialness, so it's even better. That sounds about right.

First day of class tomorrow, bright and early at 9:30 (ugh. I like sleeping til 11 much more). Thanks for all the Birthday lovins, and especially for the email loving! It's nice to still feel connected, even being so far away.

OH! Forgot. Got my crappy local cell phone today. 12 of us got the same one. It cost 4 pounds, plus 20 more for the plan. So we're planning on investing in some stickers in order to differentiate, but at least we can get in touch at things like today if we get separated. Comforting. Anyway, that's another night down. And it's still not old :)