Pub Quiz: English vs. Americans Edition

It's like Chanukah's come early this year, folks.  A double posting today-- after a week of scattered and overdue posts.  Crazy stuff.

I realized that I forgot to tell you about the pub quiz last night!  Ok, so our student helpers, Hadrian and Beth (they go to the local university, and they hang out with us and help us make British friends), organized a Pub Quiz Night on Wednesday.  We took the upper room in a local pub, and spent a few hours with a whole bunch of Hadrian and Beth's friends competing in a (slightly modified) traditional pub quiz.

Pub quizzes are a staple over here-- they usually test one's knowledge in sports and pop culture, and you compete for a bar credit or something.  However, we Americans don't usually do very well, because we know surprisingly little about British sports and pop culture.  So Beth and Hadrian wrote their own quiz that combines British and American pop culture with lots of random trivia, and we competed for food (because that is some serious motivation for us college students on a food allowance).  We met lots of cool British people, listened to the musical stylings of Hadrian's singer/songwriter friends, and got to see Hadrian in a suit (he cleans up splendidly...not that he was hard to look at before, mind you).

I was on a team with Ali and the crew from Flat 4-- Sasha, Kate, Sarah, and Rachel.  We called ourselves "Team Awkward Turtle".  And we were an impressive team, if I may say so myself.

We dominated such questions as:
-What was Dr. Frankenstein's first name? (Victor)
-Why are Hershey's kisses called "kisses"? (Because the machine "kisses" the conveyor belt)
-What is the hottest planet? (Venus)
-Where are a cricket's ears located? (Its legs)
-And a whole bunch of other ones that I can't remember anymore.

We had a bit more trouble with:
-Theme songs to British television shows
-Identifying the Queen's eyes (we were shown a picture... we thought they were Charles'!)
-What sport are you watching if you are a "kibbitzer"?  (Which I, of course, got tripped up on because that's a yiddish word, and Jews don't do the whole sports thing.... the answer is 'Tiddlywinks'!)

Anyway, we took SECOND PLACE (we only lost by one point).  And we were actually happier with second than with first, because first's prize was 30 pounds for the whole team at Pizza Express (which doesn't get you very far), but we all got vouchers to Shake Away, the world's greatest milkshake shop!!!  We intend to go for celebratory milkshakes when we all get back from break.

Speaking of break... IT'S MIDSEMESTER BREAK!!!  And I'm off to London tomorrow with Clay, before heading to Dublin on Monday with my uncle Daniel, and then Edinburgh on Thursday with Liz and Dylan.  I'll be bringing my computer, and will hopefully be able to keep you well-informed on all of my adventures.  Get excited.

I should probably go pack.... ten days, three countries, and one suitcase does not equal an easy packing job.  Signing off from Bath-- see you next in London!