Drunkenness, Fire, and Freshers

Life's been rather eventful since my last post.

On Monday I went out on the second LitSoc pub crawl. Around 9pm I met up with Chad, Max, Siobhan, Hannah, Sam, and the other LitSocers at the UEA Blue Bar, right before they were about to head into town. By the time I got there, Chad had had two pints of beer (this tally will become relevant). I started talking to Chad, and then Sam and Max came over. Chad, once again, told the story of his gay pubbing experience in Bournemouth. We all laughed, discussed gay clubbing, and decided to head out.

We all sat at the top of the bus and chatted, waiting to get downtown. For some reason, when the bus reached our stop, and we all got up to head downstairs, the bus didn't stop. Max was the only one who made it downstairs, but we figured he would just wait down there for us. Wrong. The next stop wasn't entirely convienent, so we decided to wait until we got to the end of the line, but as we passed the next stop Sam looks out the window and exclaims, "Guys, Max just got off the bus..." We spent the rest of the trip plotting revolution.

Finally we got to Riverside, found Max, and headed off toward Norwegian Blue...which was closed. So was Squares next to it. Baffled, we decided just to go to the Queen of Iceni, where we had gone after Brideshead Revisited, and where we had met our lovely drunk townie friends. Luckily there were no such encounters. Instead, to amuse ourselves, we each got a pint, sat at a table upstairs, and played a drinking game called Ring of Fire. It's a bit hard to explain, but basically you put an empty pint glass in the middle of the table and surround it with a ring of playing cards. Each person, in turn, picks a card. If they break the circle, they have to drink. Each card has some action associated with it. For example, a black ace through 5 means you have to drink that many finger-widths of your drink. If it's red, however, you can distribute those finger-widths amongst people at the table (including yourself). A 10 means you "clink and drink" (exactly what it sounds like). An 8 is a "get out of jail" sort of card that allows you to leave the game in order to use the toilet. It also allows you to make up a rule. There are some others, but, most importantly, there's the king. Each person who draws a king gets to empty part of his/her drink into the empty glass in the middle of the table. Since everyone is likely to be drinking something different, this makes a "dirty pint." The person who draws the final king has to drink the dirty pint, and the game is over. Somehow I managed to get through the game with only one pint. I guess I take small sips. Everyone else had at least three. I think Chad might have had four. Add this to the two he had at Blue Bar. By this point Chad was already pretty drunk. Then he drew the final king and had to drink the dirty pint. Poor Chad was wasted...and very amusing. He continued with his drunk George Bush impressions, explained to Max his frightening similarity to Chris Eiswerth, and generally provided entertainment for us all.

The pub closed and we decided to head out to a club called Po Na Na for their student night, each of us helping Chad along the way. When we got there, the first thing everyone had to do was use the loo, so Sam, this girl Laura, and I grabbed hands and pushed our way through the crowd of drunk, sweaty people to get downstairs. Sam, and Max who followed, made sure to boast about how they could get in and out of the men's toilet before Laura and I had even made it to the door of the ladies'. Stupid queues. As we were waiting, Laura and I were talking, and this guy comes up to us and says, "Hey, I heard you talking. Are you American?"
"No, I'm Canadian," answered Laura. I said I was American.
The guy leaned over really creepily and said, "Ah, well...I love American accents..." Luckily the queue let up and we were able to escape into the bathroom.

Finally, after we had finally escaped the bathroom, Laura and I went back up to the entrance where everyone else was waiting...everyone but Chad (and Max, who had already made his way onto the dance floor). We stood waiting for Chad, whom our fellow LitSocer Brendan had seen going down to the toilets. At one point I got a text from him saying, "Don't abandon me!" I texted back to tell him that we would wait for him by the door. We waited for about ten minutes, but he never showed up. Brendan went to look for him, came back, shook his head, and we waited again. I kept texting him, but got no response. Eventually we decided to go onto the dance floor, hoping we would find him in the crowd. We didn't. We all danced in a corner and every few minutes someone would say, "I'll go have a look for Chad," but they always came back empty-handed. Throughout the night people trickled home, until it was just me, Sam, Max, Siobhan, and Hannah. At one point I thought I saw Chad head out toward the door, so Max and I ran after him...except it wasn't actually Chad. So Max had a cigarette while I paced agitatedly outside, trying desperately to get a hold of Chad on his phone. No luck. We went back inside and continued dancing. People managed to convince me that Chad had probably found his way home, and not to worry too much. I did actually have a really good time, despite the fact that I was terrified that I would get news the next morning that Chad had been found lying in a ditch somewhere in Norwich. I really like the LitSoc people; they're all friendly and a lot of fun. It was a good time.
Around 2am Siobhan, Hannah, and I decided it was time to leave, so we bid our farewells to the lads and headed out. Siobhan lived close enough to walk, but Hannah and I had to wait for a bus. When we did get on the bus, we were joined by what seemed like a hundred drunk freshers coming from student night downtown. Hannah and I huddled in the back, slightly frightened, while they all sang several horribly off-key rounds of "UEA is Wonderful." Hannah got off near her house and I continued on to campus, walked home to the Village, and fell asleep around 3.
When I woke up in the morning, I saw Chad online and was happy to learn that he had made it home alive. His story, as far as he remembers, is that he went to the toilet, came back, got seriously disoriented, texted me, then fell and broke his phone, so he wasn't able to get any of my or Max's texts or messages for the rest of night. He went out some side door and began wandering down St. Stephen's Street until someone stopped him and got him a cab back to the Village. Oh Chad...

After Monday, nothing is quite as interesting. On Tuesday night I went with Chris, Katie, Juli, Leah, both Laurens, Meghan, and Alex Geiger to the Farmhouse pub on Erlham Rd. before heading over to Unthank to Rudy's house for pizza and class about English identity and behaviour. After class I went to Erlham Park (the park on the way from campus to the Village that I pass every time I go to class) where Circus Soc was having its first official Burn. There really weren't a lot of people there. I played around with fire poi for a while. At one point I managed to wrap the poi around my arm, but it didn't singe or anything. Lucky me. Pawel, Matt, Alex, and some other guys had the brilliant idea of soaking a special hacky-sac ball in paraffin, lighting it on fire, and trying to juggle. Then they wondered later why their hands hurt so much. Good job, boys.
Eventually Samantha, Alex, Pawel, Matt, and I went up to the Graduate Students' bar (which is quieter than the others) to play Jungle Speed...which really is too violent to be played in public. The bar closed and we thought we'd find an empty room in Congregation Hall to continue playing. Samantha left, but the rest of us headed down to the Hall, where we were promptly thrown out by the secruity guard. Then it was off to Alex's flat for biscuits and feta. Not exactly the most appetizing combination, but apparenlty Pawel is obsessed with feta. Anyway at Alex's flat we burst into fits of hysterical laughter for no reason and consequently played a very odd game of Jungle Speed. Oh, and the boys have decided that, much like a Gremlin, I only curse after midnight. It's a really strange feeling, being "one of the guys," but I like it. I love my Circus boys.

Last night I went with LitSoc to see our friend Alan's play "Freshers," which is, as the title suggests, all about Freshers week, meeting new flatmates, awkwardness at the LCR, adjusting to university life, etc. It was all right. Funny at points, slightly disturbing at others. All in all, the incessent sexual plot elements and the scene that consisted mostly of girls in bikinis told me more about Alan's repressed sexual desires and (as he admits) lonely summer in Norwich than about Freshers week. After the play Chad, Max, Siobhan, Hannah, and I went to Blue Bar for a drink. I had a pack of tiny playing cards in my purse (which have brightly-colored smiley faces on them, so Max calls them my ecstasy cards), so we played a game of Egyptian Rat Screw (or "Snap" as they call it here) and chatted. Alan and the Freshers cast showed up later, so we invited Alan over to congratulate him. Max, Alan, Chad, and I decided to get another drink (I needed some water and Chad got a Coke. No more alcohol for him for a while, I think...) but Hannah and Siobhan headed home. Alan returned to his cast, and Chad and I went outside to keep Max company while he had a cigarette. When we returned, the drama kids decided to have an impromptu dance party in the middle of the bar, so Chad, Max, and I stood awkwardly to the side as we watched their strange rituals and chants. I've found that drama kids are the same no matter which country you go to. Anyway, after a while of this awkward standing around, Chad and I went home.

This coming week will probably be even more eventful. After I finish this post, I'll *hopefully* finish my Medieval Writing paper (it's only 1500 words...). This evening I'll be picking up both Nicole and Erica up at the train station, and then...the fun begins! I'm so excited to see them. I think I'll take them downtown to the market and to walk around the city. Definitely to a pub lunch at some point, and maybe to the LCR if they're up for it. Sunday is Circus Soc. Tuesday there's another LitSoc discussion group, and, of course, more Circus Soc, if I choose to go. Wednesday is the LitSoc Halloween pub crawl, which, as long as we don't lose Chad, should be even better than the last one. I'm excited.

Oh, and I have class in there somewhere too.