A blow by blow account of a weekend with Nicole and Erica, and the following week with Nicole!
Friday: Nicole got into Norwich around 5. Rather than go back to the Village, drop her stuff off, and then come back to the rail station at 8 to pick up Erica, we decided to head to the Queen of Iceni for a pub dinner (yay real food!), then walked around Norwich until it was time to get Erica. I can't tell you how excited I was to see them both. We caught the bus back to campus and walked to the Village. We dropped Erica's bags off in Leah's room, and then we went back to my room with Leah to hang out until we were too tired to go on.
Saturday: Erica, Nicole, and I spent the day walking around Norwich. We went shopping on St. Steven's St., I took them into Top Shop, Primark, and Accessorize. We walked through the Maddermarket area and through the covered market. At one point we stopped at the old St. Gregory's Church (one of 87 million old flint churches in Norwich) because it was having a rummage sale. At this sale, Nicole and I found the most entertaining thing ever. A romance novel entitled Virgin Slave, Barbarian King, which has provided us countless hours of amusement. If I ever laugh at the word "ellipsis," it's because of a conversation that stemmed from ths book. With romance novels, before the "plot" actually gets to the explicit sex, the author has to establish some sexual tension, so she will usually write something like "And Julia thought of what she wanted. She could feel his hands caressing her all over, his hot kisses consuming her as they fell into bed and..."
It always stops at the ellipsis, but obviously the thought is leading toward sex. So, Nicole and I wer reading this and she asked, "Where do babies come from?" Our answer: The ellipsis. It's funny. Trust me. (Now Chad and I have taken this even further to include the grammatical term of "bracketing an ellipsis" to also mean something sexual. The other day I shouted "Bracket your ellipsis, you skank!" and we bursts into fits of hysterical laughter.)
In the evening we hung out with my friends Matt and Alex. Alex entertained us with more puns and we played Jungle Speed in my kitchen for a while. Eventually we ended up in my room doing dramatic readings from Virgin Slave, Barbarian King and watching Labyrinth, which neither Matt nor Nicole had seen. I hope they both feel enlightened now. We also discovered that Alex is even more ticklish than Matt. Mwhaha.
Sunday: Nicole and Erica went into town while I wrote my Medieval Writing paper. I can't say that it's a paper I'm proud of, but I have a feeling it will be better than what many other people turn in. In the evening I went took them to Circus and taught them poi. They both caught on remarkably fast. Then I nearly died on a human pyramid because for some reason Jak decided it would be a fabulous idea to make a human pyramid out of a bunch of people who are either weaklings or living in a state of perpetual intoxication. And poor Sophie, a wonderful girl who is our self-proclaimed Circus cripple and the most fragile person I've ever met, was on the top of the pyramid and, when it inevitably came crashing down, twisted her ankle. After Circus, Nicole, Erica, Alex, Matt, and I went to the pub and got a drink, as we usually do. Then, also as usual, we migrated to Alex's flat to play Jungle Speed, but left rather early since Erica had to get up to catch her train in the morning.
Monday: I said good-bye to Erica and Nicole took her to the train station while I went to class. I was in my Shakespeare seminar pretty much all day while Nicole went to a cafe in town to do work. I'm sure something else happened, but I forget. This may have been the night we watched The Chipmunk Adventure on my computer.
Tuesday: Nicole and I slept in, did nothing. At 4 I went to my Medieval Writing lecture for an hour. We're reading The Regiment of Princes by Thomas Hoccleve, which is terribly boring, and the lecture made no sense, so that hour was completely wasted. After class I came back to my flat. Then Nicole and I went to the LitSoc discussion about literature and film...which didn't go as well as planned becuase too many uninterested people turned up and there wasn't nearly enough pizza. From there we went to Circus where Nicole finally got to meet the other half of my four Circus boys, Pawel and Stephen. After Circus, we went to the pub with my Circus boys. Stephan left because he had work in the morning, but the rest of us went back to my flat to watch a movie. For some reaon, I'd been a bit out of sorts all night, and it was when the five of us were crammed on my bed trying to watch Interview with the Vampire that I got really cranky, crankier than I've been in years. It was late, I was stressed and tired. My DVD wasn't working for some reason. I'm not sure exactly what happened to me, but my crankiness mounted until I snapped and told the boys to leave. Then Nicole and I went to bed. I was sort of scared, because I haven't felt that cranky in a really really long time, and I didn't know what was causing it.
Wednesday: Nicole and I woke up late, but we eventually got a train to Cromer, a shore town about 45 min away. We got proper Fish n' Chips, played DDR EuroMix at an arcade, walked around town, and then came back. It was nice to get out of Norwich for a few hours. Around 6pm, we made dinner, got dressed up and went to the LitSoc Halloween pub crawl. Being at the pubs is usually all right because you can actually talk to people. When we got to the club, though, it was just too many people to have a nice, intimate experience, so I started getting cranky again. Nicole wanted to stay out even after we got bored at the club so around midnight we called Pawel, who lives in town. We went to his house and just chatted for a while. His house is very cool beause he lives within the Cathedral Close (within the Cathedral yard walls). Anyway, it got to be around 3am and I wanted to go home, but Nicole and Pawel eventually convinced me that it was too cold to wait for a bus that (knowing Norwich buses) might not show up, so we slept over...well, they slept. Even with a heater on I was too cold and I wasn't able to sleep at all.
Thursday: Around 7:30 we left Pawel's. I came home and slept for four hours while Nicole did homework. Eventually, let's see...Around 2, Nicole and I met Chad at a coffee shop on campus and chatted. Then I went to class. That evening Nicole and I met my Circus boys down at the bar to hang out and meet Matt's sister Marie, who is visiting from France. It was Guitar Hero night at the pub, so we played Guitar Hero and hung out. This girl Sophie, from Cirucs Soc, showed up and invited us back to her flat for tea, so we went there and played Jungle Speed until she kicked us out around 1:30.
Friday: Woke up late, went to Alex's flat to make French toast. At 3, Nicole met Pawel at the pub and they went off to do some meditation, and I went back to my flat do some reading. Mostly I posted my pictures on Photobucket. Nicole and I were supposed to get a pub dinner together for her last night here, but I didn't hear from her until around 7:30, and then the bus ran late so it took her about an hour to get back from Pawel's. I hadn't eaten since the morning and I was starving, so I grabbed some left over veggies from the night before, and decided to make some mashed potatoes. Eventually Nicole got home and we just ate the mashed potatoes. Around 10 we went over to Matt's house to hang out with him and his sister, but Nicole decided to go straight from Matt's to Pawel's, because he lives close to the train station and she could just get up in the morning and walk, instead of having to get a 5AM bus downtown.
Saturday: Since Nicole left from Pawel's house, I didn't get to see her off. I woke up late, made myself probably the most complete meal I've had in a long, long time. I stayed inside pretty much all day trying to write my paper for Prof. Rudalevige. It was Sparks in the Park at Earlham Park, though, to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day (which isn't until the 5th, but is usually celebrated on the closest Saturday). I could see the higher fireworks from my window. Around 8 my flatmate James knocked on my door, pleading with me to go with him to see the big fireworks show. He's from a very small town and has never seen one this big before. I hadn't planned to leave the room, since it was cold, raining, and I could easily see the fireworks from my window, but no one else would go with James, so I grabbed my umbrella and we found a place to stand and watch.
So that is my account of my week with Nicole. Next up will be a post about the Dickinson Humanities trip to Wicken Fen and Ely, the Dickinson/UEA 20th Anniversary Dinner at the Sainsbury's Centre, and the Dickinson election party at Andy's Diner of Democracy. Stay tuned.
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