Captain Jack Remains Elusive in Bath

So, Bath Abbey. As I mentioned last post, our time there was woefully short and unfortunately this summary of it will be even shorter. When we arrived we were served tea and desserts which I thought was an especially kind gesture considering it doesn't feel like the sort of place in which you should be eating. Once we were welcomed we were quickly split into five tour groups. Our guide was called Jeremy and he was very funny and entertaining, able to put on Scottish and French accents in the blink of an eye, though he lamented the fact that he'd have to shorten his lengthy spiel to half an hour.

The Abbey is the third church to stand where it does today. The first was destroyed by the Norman conquerers and the second was in ruins until the construction of the current building. King Edgar was crowned "King of all England" in the first building and there's a stained glass window depicting that event in the current one.

My favorite part of the Abbey is probably the fan vaulted ceilings, which are much more incredible in person. Though they were originally crafted by a pair of brothers, the ceiling remained unfinished in part of the Abbey until the late 1800s when it was restored and recreated by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

The last thing we were able to see was an American flag that hangs in the church. It originally hung outside of the American Embassy in England but was given to the people of Bath after World War II and put in the Abbey as a token of friendship. It's kept in an area that also houses the body of U.S. Senator William Bingham. Bingham died in Bath, rather suddenly I believe, and was interred in the Abbey. Pretty kind of them, I think.

Jeremy had to end our tour there but invited us to come back and take his extended version, as well as one of the famous Tower Tours. From there we were whisked away in groups to meet with our mentors for the semester. Each meeting was in a different ASE house; mine happened to be in one of the houses at the north end of the city, about a 20 minute walk from the city center. The walk was beautiful, of course, but I'm still very thankful I don't need to make that trek to get to class.

This is the view when you enter the Circus, which is made up of three segments of townhouses that look like this one. It's also pretty close to the Royal Crescent, which I haven't gotten to see in person yet, but both seem to be major hubs for celebrities. According to Jonathan, when Nicolas Cage lived in the area he took the number off his house for privacy reasons, inadvertently making himself more conspicuous. Johnny Depp apparently also has a house somewhere in Bath and has been seen in certain pubs around town. (We've actually been to one that's supposedly one of his choice spots. Though there were no Depp sightings, there were plenty of British boys who were very pleased to meet us: "Americans? AMERICANS!" Oh well. We're keeping up the search.)

My meeting was in a house on this very steep road called Northampton Street. This area is definitely more residential than where I live. I suppose these students feel more like tourist-hating Bath residents, but we are conveniently closer to the hub of the city.

Today was sort of a down day, so we're spending it by getting ahead on schoolwork. There's also a big rugby game going on, and since our house is right across from the field there are a ton of people in the area. We can hear the announcer as well. It reminds me of living in my apartment at F&M, where we could hear the sounds of football on game day. And as the British say, "American football and rugby really aren't so different...except rugby is manly". Fair enough.