Okay, I think today (Sunday) is day seven but I could easily have lost track. This email is really about the weekend as a whole, even though it's not over yet and day seven (if that's today) hasn't really begun yet. All that said, read on!
Friday was lovely since I was sick and therefore got to spend the day alone on campus alternately reading and sleeping. I felt pretty rotten but the sleeping helped immensely. Everyone got back around four and was very nice about my sickness. I gathered up some energy and a bunch of us headed out to the Turf Tavern for dinner. There I had some overpriced four-cheese pasta and a glass of water. Courtney had the most vile beer imaginable (we all tried it and all agreed about its wretchedness) and everyone else seemed relatively pleased with their orders. The best thing about the Turf Tavern was the atmosphere. The food was mediocre and overpriced, but the atmosphere was great. Getting there is like walking into a Harry Potter book. You turn down a side street and then down a little alley you wouldn't even see if you weren't looking for it. Down this alley is a little hotel and, next to the large sign for the hotel, is a tiny blue and gold sign that reads "Turf Tavern" and has a little arrow pointing to the left. Only once you get up close to the sign do you see that there's a little passageway leading off to the Turf. You go through it (cobblestone, of course) and then it opens up and you're out in the open air and surrounded by friendly signs and people everywhere. In the middle of all this outdoor jocularity, there's a little sort of ramshackle building that is the actual tavern. It has the expected low ceilings and a feeling of extreme rush about it. We had to wander around for quite a bit before finding a table that seated all of us (and I was still sort of perched on the end of a bench) and then we ordered at the bar. It was mass chaos, but fun.
Then, after dinner, Mike, Yuan and Amy decided to go to this ridiculously expensive concert tenor concert. Courtney and I decided it was too rich for our tastes and headed off to grab some ice cream. It was delicious but then we were completely stuffed and stumbled in a rather slovenly fashion back to Trinity. We were completely full and just collapsed into my room where Amanda and Lauren were already talking. Since we were too full to move at all, we ended up getting an approximately two-hour lecture from Lauren about eating problems in American society. Courtney has compared her to the show part of dinner and a show or a wind-up toy, both of which I would agree with. Amanda, Courtney and I occasionally added things to her lecture and that was enough to keep her going.
Suffice to say, we were pretty gleeful when Mike and Yuan returned from the concert and Amanda and Lauren left. I went to change out of my dinner dress and, when I came back out, there were these two other girls there! One was in my Doug Patey class so that was cool but I don't know the other one. Anyway, we watched this goofy late-1990s teen/Shakespeare movie I'd never seen before (it was a take on "Midsummer") and that was fun. Then Felicia and the other girl left and the remaining four of us decided (really the three of them decided and I can't say no to West Wing) to play the West Wing Drinking Game! I'd never actually played it, but the rules always looked fantastic. So we broke out the OJ and the vodka and watched "Take This Sabbath Day." (It's the one where Josh gets drunk and turns up hung over in the office to meet with Joey so we thought it was appropriate.) With rules like "Take a drink whenever there's a blue folder. Two drinks if Josh has it rolled up." and "Take a drink whenever someone speaks Latin," there was much jocularity to be had. It's a thinking man's game, though, since many of the things you couldn't possibly do if were drunk. Like "Take a drink if someone quotes the Constitution." You have to be pretty sober to recognize a passage from the Constitution.
Everyone finally took off after "Take This Sabbath Day" and I went off to sleep. Saturday was spent in the room reading various things. Lauren was lying in wait when I woke up since, as she said, she just couldn't wait to talk to me. It's like Laura redux. I'm just so darn fabulous a roommate! Anyway, she basically didn't stop talking all day which made processing my law readings a bit difficult. She went out a few times since she was "antsy" but came back quickly from most errands. Abruptly, in the middle of both of us reading for class, she piped up with, "I'm so glad you're my roommate!" It's nice that she likes me so much and she really doesn't annoy me as much as Laura did, so that's good.
I was pretty giddy when Mike came to get me for dinner. Lauren was on the phone with someone (her mom?) and I had retired to my room in an attempt to read about Thomas Hardy. Mike and I collected Courtney and found Yuan and we all headed off. Unfortunately, none of us knew where we were heading to so we had to stop after only a few paces to figure that one out. We ended up at a pub called the Eagle and Child which was where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis hung out in their
We spent hours there talking, going around the table getting to know each other. We'd start with some kind of base question and each of us would have to answer it. It was interesting to purposefully sit down and get to know someone like that. One of the things was "what do you want to do with your life?" kind of thing and everyone was so supportive of everyone else. It was great. It's nice to just be able to talk with these people. And they don't really know anything about me so it's all new and they're all equally interesting to me. I like this period in knowing people where all your own stories are new again and you're just sharing everything you've got. It's fantastic.
After dinner we all went for ice cream and then wandered around trying to find this independent film theater Courtney had spotted during Friday's hike. Finally we found it and Yuan misunderstood Courtney's interest and went straight up and bought our tickets. So we ended up seeing The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which is a film about the beginnings of the IRA in 1920s
So, all thoroughly dejected, we headed back to Trinity. Mike, Yuan and Courtney decided to go play cards but I was pretty beat so I went back to my room and called you guys. Lauren had left a note that she was asleep so I quietly padded around. Once in the bathroom and in the middle of doing my business, Lauren calls out from her room sounding pretty wasted. (But then she always sounds kind of wasted and that's just Lauren.) Turns out she was feeling unwell. This didn't stop her from engaging me in conversation through the bathroom door for another half hour.
Anyway, I got up this morning, showered and, when I came out of my room, Lauren immediately emerged from hers and informed me, on the verge of tears, that she was feeling horrible. Her throat hurt and she ate too much earlier and it didn't feel right but she couldn't stop because her throat hurt so much...Well, gee Lauren, sounds a lot like what I had and didn't gripe about. So she's in misery and feeling rotten and occasionally groaning. I told her to drink up on the orange juice even though it doesn't feel very good going down and sleep a lot. She doesn't really listen to anything I say, so she's up and drinking water. But she did thank me for being her surrogate mommy and helping her with it. So apparently she noticed that I gave her advice but chose to disregard it.
So that's Sunday so far. I'm sitting here, emailing you and listening to a capella music. I've been here a week now. Weird, isn't it? I can't believe it's only been a week. It feels like I've been here forever. I think that's how it almost always goes, though. You plop me down somewhere and within a few days it's like I've always been there. I have pretty horrible grasp of time, anyway, just ask Katie, but it just feels surreal. The two things I've noticed that are radically different from
Thank you so much for giving me this experience and being wonderful people (just in general). I love you both and hope to talk to you soon.
Love,
Corey
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