In A Hotel Room

Elizabeth! Did you get home safely? Well...

That's right, I'm not home. But why? My flight got canceled.

You heard it here first! *badum tiss*

It's okay, my new flight is soonish. And there was chocolate cake. Wish me luck. Please.

Photos In Bristol

I LOVE BRISTOL.

Bristol is a town about a half an hour away from the house where I'm staying.

Louisa and I took a bus in. She showed me the sights, being the local she is.

I understand that everyone in the world might not be as into graffiti as I am but, as someone who loves graffiti, I thought Bristol was amazing.

Maybe, if you're into art or just knowledgable in a lot of areas, you've heard of Banksy? He's a mysterious, quite famous graffiti artist who comes from Bristol! If you're interested, you should google him because some of his work is really fantastic; he has a pleasant combination of political commentary mixed with quality graffiti that has made him famous. 

We went Banksy hunting and we found two. 

The first Banksy:

The second:

I can't wait to tell my art teacher.

Look closer, that's floating bunnies and pineapples.

A view from a hill

The historical "Christmas staircase"

Bristol was one of those places I've visited where I couldn't stop saying "Yeah, I'd live here."

Plus, we went charity shopping.

Plus, we had really good lunch.

In The Backyard

Today, I said goodbye to Claire. She's lovely and I'm fortunate to know her. She's one of the people I'll see again and again here and there. We'll probably get old and still send each other Christmas cards, which makes me happy.

(Andrew, Louisa, myself, Claire)

"Behave, this picture's going to America."

-Andrew

I leave Bristol on Thursday, but I've just found out that my people will be driving me to London to board my plane. That's so much nicer than taking a train to London alone!

Today is Tuesday, and we've just gone thrift shopping or, as the British say, charity shopping. I bought some clothes, which really says something because I'm the pickiest clothes shopper I know. Also, British clothes seem to account for curves as opposed to French clothes that were just not having any of that.

Here, it just sort of rains on and off quite a bit. When they talked about British weather fluctuating a lot, they weren't joking. 

If I remember correctly, America places great value in keeping "room temperature" homes. I'm not sure that's a thing anywhere here. This is very different, but not impossible to get used to. However, wearing layers of long sleeves to sleep here in the summer months is a big change for me, especially considering that in Toulouse I would both wake up and go to sleep sweaty.

It's okay, I'll be in Murica in 55 hours.

In Bath

I feel like I need to begin by clarifying that "Bath" is a city, not just the thing we use/take to become cleaner.

Bath is a good half hour drive from where I'm living in Bristol. It's absolutely beautiful and was somewhat crowded.

This weekend is what they call a "bank holiday" and that's essentially Labor Day in this case. This means that there is a long weekend and touristy towns turn into really touristy towns.

Louisa, my family friend who I'm living with (my mom's bestfriend) took me into town and showed me all the cool things.

This is her yard.

She lives in a quaint town that reminds me quite a bit of what I imagine American suburbs to have looked like in the 60's.

Being that I was not alive in the 60's I can't be sure, but maybe that can give you a vague idea and we're on the same page here.

 

We got to Bath and there we did all sorts of touring.

We saw the cathedral.

We saw the Fashion Museum.

We even dressed up in the fashions.

At the end of the day we went for tea.

This was complete with cakes and jam and sandwiched.

I didn't take a photo, but here's essentially the exact thing we ordered:

It was nice to have a chocolate cupcake in the middle of the day. While it's not an event I plan to make habitual, it was definitely something I was into.

Thank you, Louisa. You're terrific.