Bob Log #2: Week Three Update

I was wrong about Colchester.

Sort of.

It actually has a pretty decent downtown, with all the side alleys and nook shops you'd expect from a British town center, as well as the obligatory chains such as an i-Store and a Waterstones (that's their version of Barnes & Noble, to you lot back home). All in all there's a decent amount to do. Of course most of the shops close by 5, and once that happens the place becomes a ghost town. Only options are pubs and clubs.

This town, much like the county of Essex itself, isn't exactly the crown jewel of England, but they've attempted to hip it up a bit. Fancy stores and clubs, and it honestly has the feel that you would expect from a merry British vista. But at night when it's all quiet except for a few drunkards, you can see this city is still a work in progress, with a lot of mixed social issues under the veneer of college life.

Ultimately they've taken a post-industrial and military town and have tried to glam it up for a certain crowd (e.g. the 'Girls of Essex' types). Clubs and pubs. That mindset is of course very popular with the uni crowd. So I suppose it only makes sense.

I'm not saying it's bad either; the pub atmosphere is very interesting. You can get that slice of British culture here

. I watched some soccer fans- and my God are they true fans in ways that 90% of the idiotic NFL fans could never understand- on a Saturday night at the Yates pub here, whilst enjoying British breakfast for dinner. That my friends, was quite nice.

However. Pounds pending, I simply need to see more of England. Saturday I will embark on what may turn into a weekend stay in London, with a museum gauntlet run and a possible rendezvous with a friend from school in the evening. That will merit an update here. For the weekends to come, the university has a pretty decent travel program with a lot of options. Next Saturday I will make my heralded return to Stonehenge and -yes- Bath. A few weeks after that will be trips to Cambridge, Canterbury, Rochester, and elsewhere... my goal is, again pounds pending, to use weekends on this first term to see as much of this country as I can. Because next term and the summer, I will be tempted to

stretch my wings further... to St. Andrew's, and to a certain continent just an hour away.

One step at a time.

In regards to Bath, I remember when we visited during the Rutgers class trip 3 years ago how enamored I was, and how I vowed to return there on my now defunct facebook... it's not exactly how I envisioned it, but now I finally will. Hard to complain about that.

My friend Divya has let me procure her camera for the weekend, so expect some London photos. Stay tuned.