Cider Festival and Quaker Meeting

Saturday night was the City of Bath Cider Festival. First, we went out for dinner as a house to a little Thai restaurant that is, quite literally, ten steps from our house. Everyone but Jess went, because she felt sick. The picture is of Me and Shaina, who is Jess's roommate. I had never had Thai food before, so it was an interesting experience. I split an order of pork dumplings with Annie... and it was a good thing because I didn't really like them all that much. Then I got what basically amounted to pork fried rice, which was good. We all ate and talked and just generally had a good time.

Then three of us met the people who live in another house near by to go to "Cider Fest." At the door they gave you a cup and you bought little purple and green tokens. Then, you could exchange your tokens for cups of cider. For anyone who isn't familiar with English Cider, it is basically like alcoholic apple juice. It can be made in a variety of flavors and styles, with different amounts of alcohol and such. There were 106 different kinds of cider at this festival. The one I am holding in the picture was called "Blue Orange" and was... interesting (since it didn't really taste like orange, or anything else in particular), but my favorite was "Mango" flavored. There was a band called the "Mangled Wurzles" who were playing a British form of hillbilly music. They were all dressed in overalls and suspenders, with crazy Swiss hats and were just generally really funny to watch. All in all, it was a very fun experience.

The next morning, Jess and I decided that we would go to a Quaker Meeting as part of our attempt to culturally enrich our trip. I had never been to a Quaker Meeting, and found it to be a very interesting experience. Everyone was very nice and welcoming but the service wasn't exactly what I had been expecting. Basically, everyone comes in and sits in chairs in kind of a circle around a little coffee table. At the time when service starts, everyone gets quiet, closes their eyes or bows their head, and stays that way. For the next hour, everyone sits in complete silence (to "return again and again to the still centre of our being, to know the presence of God"... from the pamphlet they gave me). I tried for a while to think on this, but ultimately I just ended up trying to plan the rest of my life : ) I want to get a puppy when I graduate. It was like the ultimate exercise in patience and meditation and I have a lot of respect for all of the people around me who do it every week. Ultimately, I think I like the Unitarian church a lot better, but to each her own right?

Today I had two classes and went grocery shopping... very exciting, I know. I did, however, find rice crispies so that I can make trail mix, which made me very excited! Now, if you'll excuse me, Miss Austen and I have a date.