Brewfesten...
Despite the mounds of concert and event posters thrown up, dropped at doorsteps, and taped to dorm walls around campus, there was a serious lack of information about the Norwich Beer Festival head a couple weeks ago in the city center. It hasn't really permeated this blog post, but I've got a thing for nice beer that's only been spoiled by the incredible brewing environment in the US Northwest. When I touched down in England, it was rather sad to see most of the pubs around here don't sport much of a selection on tap aside from your regular lagers.
The idea of a beer festival was simply too good to pass up. Call up the troops and hop in a cab! We arrive downtown in the doom and gloom of an uncharacteristically dark late afternoon in the center, 4 of us (including one of my University of Oregon compatriots) and immediately saw just how long the line was. I had stupidly assumed it wouldn't be very hard to get in since if there was so much support for real ale, you'd see it on tap. Boy, was I wrong. The line curled out of the entrance to St. Andrew's Church (yeah, it was in a church) back around the side and down the block. Not wanting to have wasted the cab fare, we trudged back over a footbridge and to the back of the line.
The line looking like it would take over an hour (which it did), we sent off a couple of our group to grab fish and chips from a local Take Away joint to fill our stomachs before we assaulted it with beers. It ended up taking them so long we had almost made it into the building by the time they returned, and we all popped the packages open and forced down scalding hot fish and big fries before dumping whatever leftovers we had to go inside.
It was a glorious scene of a wide range of different kinds of beers, ciders, and even a little barley wine. There were 3 separate rooms; the largest was British beers, smallest being other European imports and a third housing Norfolk and Suffolk beers (the area of England where Norwich is). Using the token system, I was able to sample quite a few different sorts of beer from loads of different breweries. The import stuff was far too expensive for its own good and so I stuck mostly with the British fare and was certainly not disappointed. It ended up being a good night with the lads and I came back to the flat before heading back downtown for a bit of dancing. All in all, fantastic night.
Reading week...
One of my favorite aspects of the British University system is Reading Week. A week off to work on our big assignments for the term, meet with advisers, and enjoy a little breather before diving into the final third of the term? Yes please. I do have a couple big essays I need to write, so I'll probably maintain the same schedule I would have if lectures and seminars were still meeting. Still, this will help alleviate some of the stress as deadlines creep closer and I realize I should probably have a little less fun to get some stuff done.
Amsterdam-bound...
Reading week also means that my trip to Amsterdam is coming ever closer. This Thursday evening I'll be hopping on a bus with a bunch of other international students on our way to get to the ferry which will escort us, overnight, to the city of Amsterdam. It didn't really seem like something that was actually happening right up until this morning, and the realization has made me both excited and kind of frantic to research the best possible places to see before our very short trip comes to a close on Sunday.
Of course, I'll be snapping loads of pictures and will assault the blog as well as my Facebook with them upon my return, not to mention a detailed report of everything that happened while on this trip. Next week's post will be sure to entertain far more than this one but at least this'll tide over until then. The Amsterdam trip also means I need to get on my travel a little better. I could potentially set out to travel every Thursday and come back on Saturday or Sunday, so now all it is is selecting locations. Edinburgh perhaps? Only time will tell.
