its not a hill, it's a mountain when you start out the climb

well heavens. Explaining my Saturday is sort of a hilarious endeavor, but not quite as hilarious as the actual events. My good friend Hope (from UT) is studying abroad in Worcester, England, a city relatively close to Swansea. So we decided to make an excellent memory and go to Bath to see one of Jane Austen's precious cities. my train was due to leave at 6:30 yesterday morning, so friday night I called a taxi, thanks to the advice of my smart roommate, to arrange for a taxi to pick me up at 5:30 sat. morning. So as I was getting ready Saturday morning, I notice the taxi pull up around 5:20. I think, well, how kind, but it's not 5:30 yet. so I wait until 5:30, finish getting dressed, and go outside. My cab driver, that jerk, is gone. Well. plan b. I wake up my girl room mate, borrow her cell phone, call about 7 cab companies, all of which are on a 30 minute wait (ok, but who the hell needs a cab at 5:30 in the morning, besides crazy american girls going to bath on a saturday morning?) until FINALLY, i find someone who says he'll have a cab over there real quick. Actually, as is often the case here, I have to ask two times for him to repeat himself, because it kind of sounds like "o'll'aveeeovadareralequake". I go outside to wait (p.s. I'm not dressed warmly enough, just side note), and lo and behold a taxi pulls up. I think well man are they punctual and run over to flag him down. he sees me, stops, and a guy and a very inebriated young lady get out. I say to the cabbie "oh! is this taxi for me?" And he, confused says, "um...sure if you need one". So I hop in and realize, oh, my taxi is probably still on the way. Oh well, it doesn't matter. This guy is so nice and flies to the train station, making my taxi fare less than it normally is for such a trip. He asks me all about my trip and where I'm from and wishes me well, and I go catch my train. It is an uneventful ride, I finish my Anne Lamott book that I got from my sweet grandparents for Christmas, and I am further convinced of my dear love for her writing. Anne Lamott loves her dog, and this quote from her book made me smile so big, "Lily [the dog] ran off with her stick, bounded up the steep hillside, then doubled back to check in with me. She loves me the way I love Jesus, falling into a trance of dispair when she can't feel me." Another amazing quote by her: "And yet, having confessed this, I know that humans want and need exactly the same thing: to belong, to feel safe and respected. I also know that we don't live long. and that dancing almost always turns out to be a good idea..."

So, feeling lighthearted, warm, and mellow, and deeply missing my dogs, my train arrives in Bath at 8:30 am. I get off, get a latte, go the bathroom and fix my hair, and continue to read. I know that my friend Hope isn't due to arrive until an hour after I arrived. Well, it gets to be around 9:20, and I go to the information desk to make sure the Worcester train should arrive at 9:30. He says, no, but it will arrive at 10:07. I figure Hope must have messed up the time she told me, so then I continue to wait in the waiting room until about 10. I go outside and Hope doesn't come off the 10:07 train. mmmmmk. Well, there's supposedly another train at 11:07. I think "oh, I bet the 9:30 time she told me was the time she was supposed to LEAVE worcester". so I wait, and then at 11:07, no Hope. I'm freaking out at this point. The sweet train worker people let me use their phone, and I try to call the only place I know to call, Worcester University, thinking maybe they could try to call her room and see if she even left for the train. By the way, neither Hope nor I have phones yet, so we have no way to communicate. We obviously didn't think things through as well as we should have. It's a Saturday, so the University is closed, and no one answers on the phone. The train worker people tell me another train is due from worcester at 12, and maybe Hope missed a connecting train and will be arriving on this one. Ok, I say, feeling sort of scared. What if she didn't come? The train man directs me to an internet café that only charges 1 pound per 20 minutes. I pay, get on facebook, hoping Hope had left me a note or something about missing her train or not coming after all. nothing. So I leave a note on her wall, basically like "i don't know where you are, but be here please". Not helpful. I go to an old lady café nearby and watch all the old people drink their tea and eat their soup including an old lady with i'm supposing her grand daughter. I wanted to live in bath. Then I go back to the train station and, of course, hope doesn't arrive on the 12:00 train. I start to cry. I'm so woeful sometimes. I felt like a 3 year old who had slipped out of mommy's sight for two minutes and couldn't find her again for those miserable 2 minutes. I decide to go back to the internet café, pay for twenty more minutes, and leave another note on Hope's wall. I say "ok, i'm going to see the city. if you somehow get this message, let's meet at the Roman Baths at 3 pm. I hope you get this". So I go on a sad jaunt around the city. I only wanted my friend, and the beautiful sunny day would have been sunnier. Still, everything is gorgeous, and I take lots of pictures, eat lunch, and find a cute shirt that I don't buy, because i was too hesitant.

Finally, it's near 3:00, so I start to head to the Roman Baths, thinking there's no way she's going to be there. God wants to teach me something, I just knew it. He's not gonna let me find this girl. But maybe. So I go anyway, praying the whole way. As I'm walking there, I literally run into a girl walking, and she brushes me off, not looking at me, and says Oh, sorry. I look up and scream. It's Hope. Her mind doesn't register that it's me, so she just kinda stares. then she gets it and freaks outs and yells "holy crap!". We hugged and laughed, and everyone stared at us. Apparently, she had gotten in on her 9:30am train, but it came from Newport and not Worcester. and so I'd been waiting for the wrong train. We had simply missed each other. She'd EVEN been to the same internet café as me. We kept passing each other. Oh, how wonderful. She had actually never gotten my note to met at the Bath's at 3; she was just going to the Gap. We link arms, and saunter off, suddenly renewed, ready to see Bath and seriously craving chocolate. We shop and see the stunning streets and Jane Austen's old home, which is now a dentist's office, and the Circus (it's in my pictures on facebook) and the GORGEOUS Royal Crescent in front of the Royal Victoria Park at sunset. It's stunning. We find an old used bookstore and peruse the dusty smelling treasures there before going to a cute café to have a piece of chocolate and Guinness cake with a beer (for her), and some wine (for me).

(Bath Abbey)


(book store)



Afterward, we went to the Bath Abbey and see the beautiful church at night. It's even more handsome, because there aren't a million people milling about. We sit down in the middle of the courtyard and then lay down and look up at the Abbey and the stars. It's sensational. My heart soars. No other way to explain it. Then we sneak into a lovely park and roam around there before going back to the train station to catch our trains. With a hug and promise of more adventurous trips to come as well as a better planning method in the future, I get on my train and head back to Swansea.

(Me and Hope in front of Jane Austen's old home)


This is long enough that my story should really end here. So, if you're sick of reading, stop here. If not, I'll tell you about my trip back. Ugh. The train ride was insane. It wasn't heated, so by now I'm absolutely frozen, from a day of walking in freezing weather and then waiting outside for a train and then being on an unheated train. What's more, about 25 Swansea students are completely drunk and yelling at a constant loud pitch. I literally felt like I was at a UT game and we had scored a touchdown. Perpetually. A continuous touchdown. Upon arriving in Swansea, I'm exhausted from being awake since 5 am, freezing, annoyed even after my beautifully redemptive day, and hungry. I wait for the promised bus for 15 minutes before realizing it probably isn't coming. But, stubborn and completely unwilling to pay another 8 pounds for a taxi, I ask for help. I'm told by the train security guards to go to a bus stop about 6 blocks away. So I go on a 20 minute walk, find the bus that is to take me straight to the student village, and sit down with a sigh of relief. An old drunk man decides to talk to me. He asks me where I'm from, and I tell me, and he says "oh yes, chattanooga is in TN". and I say yes, and he says "and so is fairview isn't it?" And I say no i don't think so, and he says "oh no, that's from that Housewives show". And he says "what about the simpsons?" and I say "no, that's springfield in IL". "oh, yes, yes, yes...right." I had had enough of drunk people, but I decided to let this man be drunk and talk to him like a normal person. Putting on my determined mind cap is always helpful, and I felt better. Then he asks me what I'm doing the next day (sunday). And i say I'm going to church. And he laughs, "oh, God. That's what you're talking about. there really is no God, you know? You know who God is?" I look at him questioningly, and he answers by pointing to himself. "We're god." I smile and nod, "well. I don't know. If I was a god, maybe things would turn out in my favor more." He mumbles something, pats my hand, and says that this is his stop. And he gets off the bus. I decide as I'm riding home that it's really great when you realize you can't convert anyone. and everyone is entitled to their own. then you can be great friends. I like to talk about what I believe without having any sort of convincing tone in my voice....I got tired after that and stopped thinking about serious things.