Finals, Final Tea, Final Goodbyes... Is this a hint that they want us to leave?

Hello, my dear readers.

Before backtracking to tell you about my final week at ASE, I should preface this post by informing you that even though I was supposed to be home on Saturday, I am currently stuck in London until Thursday at the earliest due to the snowpocalipse that has hit Heathrow Airport.  You'll hear about the travel saga in the next post.  Actually, this is all very lucky for you, because it means that you get bonus posts.  Also, I have nothing to do today, so expect absurdly long stories (sorry).

Ok.  Where was I?  Right-- finals week (good grief-- it feels like ages ago!).  Tuesday, I had my tutorial final, which went fine.  After finals that day, Rachel, Sasha, Kate C, Cullen and I went to Afternoon Tea at the Pump Rooms (the super posh restaurant attached to the Roman Baths, which used to be where people in the 18th and 19th centuries milled around during the day to see and be seen).  We were originally going to wear our Regency dresses, but it was cold and rainy, and decided to simply look nice instead.  The tea was delicious-- there were little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, fabulous scones, and some marvelous little pastries, including the best cream puff that I've ever had. 

Om nom nom... finished all of our food.  

The Pump Room fountain, where you can "take the waters" (ie, drink the icky mineraly water that supposedly has healing powers).

I went home after that, though I honestly don't remember what on earth I did that night.  I definitely 'studied' for philosophy, probably ate some random things from the fridge, and tried to figure out how on earth to get all of my stuff home.  Terribly exciting.

Wednesday morning, I had my philosophy final-- again, no sweat.  Then I got my dissertation back-- and... (drumroll please)... I GOT AN A, with the comment that "if ASE allowed for the giving of A+'s, I would have given you one."  HUZZAH!!!  Yay for me.  Not to brag, but I was pretty pleased with myself.

Then I went out for a final pasty lunch with the crew, after which I headed back up to my house.  On the way there, I stopped at the Jane Austen Center for a few more gifts, and I passed Martin at the door.  He didn't recognize me when I went in (as usual), but on my way out, he stopped me and said, "Wait a moment, aren't you the girl who goes to Jane Austen Dancers?" to which I excitedly replied affirmatively, and he said, "I thought I recognized you from somewhere!", which then started an awkward conversation about the Christmas party that night, which ended even more awkwardly (because Martin is a pretty awkward guy).  Anyway, I walked back the rest of the way on a path that I knew existed, but hadn't actually found until then-- a little walkway behind the circus which leads to the Royal Crescent--which is the path featured at the end of Persuasion, when Capt. Wentworth and Anne finally confess their continued love for each other.

The picture is actually from Thursday, when it snowed, but you get the idea.

I got all sentimental and stuff and took some pictures of the iconic phone booth and Royal Crescent.

I spent the afternoon baking a cake for the Jane Austen Dancers Christmas party that night-- an apple and cranberry cake which wound up being unbelievably good.  I hung around the common room with Ali for a while (we ate string cheese, which turns out to be even more fun when you're older than when you're a kid), ate a piece of cake for dinner, and then headed to Flat 4 to get dressed.  We buttoned each other into our Regency dresses, and took some pictures...

Cute picture.

 Silly picture.

...before marching out into downtown Bath to get to the church where the dancers meet.  We got some odd looks-- not sure why... it's not like full-length white cotton dresses aren't in fashion this season or anything.  Anyway, we got there and everyone was so excited about our dresses-- we got lots of compliments, and were generally not short on partner offers that night.  We did some excellent dances that night-- mostly Christmas-themed, but they were fairly easy and lots of fun.  We even did my favorite waltz, which made me very happy.  Then we took a break for tea and food-- everyone brought things to eat, and they were sooo tasty.... and my cake was a total hit-- people were telling me to stay in Bath and open a bakery there (which was a rather tempting suggestion, and something that I had definitely already thought of!).  We finished the evening with a few more dances, and people gave out Christmas cards-- we even got a few!  Martin gave us postcards of himself that were signed with "best wishes," which was excellent (and hilarious)-- I had thought about asking him to sign the one that I bought before. 

So then I went back to Flat 4 to change, and since it was pretty late, thought about staying over, but since I had nothing with me, decided to just head home instead.  I called Clay, who happened to be nearby, and he walked me part of the way, until we ran into the other boys from my house, by total chance.  Clay then headed off to the bar that he was originally going to, and I went back with the boys; however, they decided that they wanted a pint at our local pub first, and all but dragged me with them.  This one pint of course turned into three, and Clay actually met us there, strangely... long story short, we were there until closing.  I spent most of the time complaining about how much I had to do at home, nursing a half pint of cider, and trying to keep Clay from doing anything embarrassing (he had had a bit much that night).  

Eventually, we went home, and I tried to get a bit of studying done (to no avail) before going to bed.  I got up earlier the next day and actually sort of studied for my last exam (I had really lost all motivation to do work by that point) before going to take it.  That one was of course harder than the others, and totally wiped me out (three essays in two hours?  not so easy).  Anyway, I was finally done!!  I headed home, by way of the suitcase store (I needed another suitcase-- I bought too much stuff!), and did a bit of packing before Ali and I headed out to meet Flat 4 plus Kates C and Six for a last dinner together.  We went to a nice Italian restaurant, had some wine, some good food, some dessert... 'twas lovely.  Then I headed back to Flat 4 for a last sleepover *sniff*.  We watched "Love, Actually" (one of my favorite movies, and very appropriate for Christmastime in England), chatted for a little while, and made breakfast in the morning-- which was really nice.  I then headed to Nelson to sell back a few of my books (I got practically nothing for them, but oh well) before heading home.  On my way there, however, I passed the shoe store that I have walked by every day and saw the pair of shoes that I had been coveting since day one, and decided to finally walk in and try them on.  There was one pair left.  And it was my size.  So I took this as a sign that I was supposed to buy them, which I did.  This improved my depressed mood slightly.  

The programme's Final Tea was that afternoon at three, so I spent an hour chatting with Clay and Ali before I started getting ready.  This process took longer than usual, as my roommate was doing my hair in a Regency style and I had to get my dress on again.  In the end though, it was pretty fantastic-- she did an amazing job with my hair. 

We all walked down to the hotel where the Tea was being held-- me in my rather unusual dress, and everyone else in more normal "posh frocks".  Once we arrived, everyone was commenting on our dresses (Rachel and Sasha wore theirs too-- it wasn't just me!), and taking pictures of us, which was kind of funny.  We had a great picture with Jonathan, the programme director, who was pretending to be our Mr. Darcy (and as he is a rather good-looking Englishman, this was pretty fitting).  He also got himself into trouble by saying that we looked rather "feminine" in those dresses... which, when we asked him to clarify, simply said, "I should probably walk away now".  Oh, Regency dresses and their rather, um, deep, necklines...

Johnathan as Mr. Darcy.

 

 Andrew Butterworth as Mr. Darcy.

I sat at a table with all of my Nunes friends and Ali, and we convinced Claire, my tutorial tutor, to sit with us, which was great.  The tea itself was wonderful-- there were endless pots of tea, piles of delicious sandwiches (cucumber and cream cheese, egg salad, and lox and cream cheese), fantastic scones, and plates of little pieces of cake at the end (but our table got a 'meh' selection of cakes, so we stole from other tables). 

Tea and scone prepared the proper way-- tea with milk poured into the cup first, and scone with clotted cream spread first, then spread with jam.

Once we finished eating, Jonathan gave a really nice speech about how wonderful the semester was, and thanked all of the staff, as well as us, for making it possible.  He then finished with a slideshow of pictures that we had taken over the course of the semester, which was really cute.  And once that was over, we spent at least half an hour milling about taking pictures in all sorts of combinations with various people (once they go up on facebook, I'll steal them and put them on here).  No one wanted to leave, and everyone wanted to put off saying goodbye... we were all just barely keeping it together (though some started to cry).  Jonathan announced that some of the staff would be going to the Huntsman for a pint afterwards, if we wanted to join, so we made that our plan.  

Claire and her (self-proclaimed) favorite students-- Sasha, Ali, and I.

Ali and Sarah and I went back to Northampton-- me to change, and Ali and Sarah to carry Ali's luggage down to Nunes, as they were leaving that night.  We all walked down to Nunes together, and then over to the Huntsman, were we hung out with a small group of students plus Jonathan and Claire for a little while before we had to say goodbye to them for the last time (so sad!).  I refused to say goodbye to my Flat 4 friends yet, so I went back with them to have some dinner before we saw Ali and Sarah off (and when I had to say goodbye to Ali, I started crying uncontrollably.... I had been doing so well before that).  I stayed for a little while longer before saying more tearful goodbyes to Rachel, Sasha, Cullen, and Kate C, and then I began to walk home through Bath for the last time.  I was still sniffling a bit when I left the flat, but once I reached the Abbey Square, one of my favorite places, I started sobbing again, and spent the rest of the walk crying, which was really awkward whenever I passed a group of pub crawlers.  Anyway, I got home, grabbed the last of my wine and dessert from the fridge, and proceeded to finish it off whilst finishing my packing, before having to say goodbye to my housemates (which again, we put off for as long as possible-- Clay and I waited until 2 am just to avoid having to acknowledge that it was really time to say goodbye). It was a rather depressing evening.  

It was difficult and upsetting to say goodbye, but I realized that it was only because I had had such an incredible time and gotten so close to these wonderful people and beautiful city that I was so sad, which helped me to curb the depression a bit.  And I know that I'll get to see my friends again somehow-- we will make it happen.  And of course we'll keep in touch (hurray for the marvels of modern technology).  And someday, I'll get back to Bath (maybe for the next Regency ball?).  So I know that this isn't goodbye forever-- only for now.

I was going to launch into a very long final reflection on my semester, but the story isn't over yet.  This post is way too long already, so I'll tell you tomorrow about the epic travel saga of Saturday (and Sunday....and through, well, I'm not sure yet).  And hopefully I'll also have a few more fun posts about my doings in London whilst trying to make the most of being stranded here!  So stay tuned. 

"And... always look on the bright side of life (do doo, do do do do do doo)." (Monty Python)