Moo-ving to the Beat in Leamington Spa.doc

In contrast to the academic nature of the previous posting, today's catchup with the Doc (isn't third person narration pretentious?) is more of the social nature.  This is for two reasons:

1. As per what I expressed on Saturday, I needed to get my head out of the books and take care of final 'settling' details and generally just explore the surroundings.

2.The weekend just passed. Weekends should be social.

I sent out for Leamington Spa ('The Spa' from here on out) mid-morning on Saturday.  I had researched the bus schedule pretty intensely to ensure I was able to get there and back, but more importantly to give the impression that I knew what I was doing when exchanging pounds and navigating my way. Luckily, buses depart from campus every 15 minutes and return fare was a reasonable 2.60.  I took my place in the upper portion of the bus, is there any other way to travel, and looked forward to seeing some more of the UK.

You'd maybe think that having been here for 10 days I would have explored some of the city and gotten my bearings - not so.  In addition to the initial workload, the geography of Warwick campus has limited such exploration.  On campus, or at least within walking distance, are located two grocery stores, a top of the line arts centre, restaurants and cafes, an athletic centre, and four different banks.  The abundance of these types of services is a direct result of Warwick being essentially in the middle of nowhere.  Now, that may not be fair - the city is surrounded by Coventry, Kenilworth, The Spa, and Leicester but it takes a bus to get to each of these places.  Those who know me know I am a walker.  My industrious housemate and I didn't TTC to school once while at UofT.  This isolation has taken a bit of getting use to. One could spend a month solely on campus and not have to leave, but aside from the British charm Warwick could be placed anywhere and it would feel similar (This feeling will be the complete opposite I imagine when I am studying in the heart of Amsterdam)  It was with 10 straight days of campus living that I set off for The Spa.

What a difference a change of scenery makes.  The Spa is a really beautiful and posh old market town featuring a lot of Georgian and Victorian buildings.  You might picture a market town to be quaint, subtle, and quiet, but The Spa is anything but. 'The Parade' is The Spa's High Street which covers the length of the town and features high street shops, department stores, restaurants, and art stores. The uniformity of the buildings on this street, in creams and off white, give the impression that window shopping and weekend strolls are what this town has been designed around.  Upon first arriving I walked up and down the main strip snapping pictures and inventorying the commercial options: Topman, yet another Tesco, Woolworths, and two Marks and Spencer shops among many others.  

It's the shopping that the students all mention about The Spa so I felt it was necessary to indulge in the local culture.  I purchased a mobile, which you've heard about, with an 'Orange' sim card.  I tried my best to 'search out all options' but got tired of comparing five different companies - struggles with cell phones seems to be an international experience. However, as opposed to their Canadian counterparts, who seem to always wrestle clients into three year contracts, the European companies are happy to lock you into 'pay as you go options' which is what I got.  Fast forward two hours and I was carrying around a pair of Nikes for the gym and jogging around campus, an in-between fall jacket lined with a soft kind of fur, and a few essential kitchen items.  I'm sure there is an article out there about the temporary pleasures that come with consumerism, but I have no shame in stating that spending made me happy.  This feeling was probably related to the stabilizing features these items brought but also the opportunity to feel like I accomplished something off campus.

I collected my purchases and had time for a Starbucks before heading back on the bus.  I eagerly lugged my purchases to Heronbank, made some dinner, and blogged about the week. Now I know most of you are expecting 'The Spa' adventures to have concluded, but not so fast there assumptative reader - I think it's acceptable to make up words in a blog.  Around 9pm I headed back out to The Spa to experience some of the nightlife.  Up until then my pub experiences had been of the on-campus variety and the sight of intoxicated freshers was getting a wee bit tiring.

This is where the connections get complicated.  The only other Queen's student I know who has attended Warwick is a girl named Rebecca Legg who graduated in '06 and then did her MA in Theatre and Education here.  We have been in contact, having shared the Queens-Warwick connection, and she happened to be back in the city visiting her school friends.  She invited me out for an introduction to The Spa with her friends Rachel, Astrid, and Olli and a girl from my program named Lotte, a fellow Brit also knew the gang.  We began at the 'White Horse' which was an upscale pub. Rachel and Astrid are doing PhDs in Theatre related studies and completely like to let loose when not chained to research - they're totally in the 'know' in the department and have already invited me to future Spa events.  

We shared a few drinks there, and got to know one another better, before heading to a dance club called 'Moo'.  Anyone who happens to visit while I'm still at Warwick, which may be few as Amsterdam seems to be the attractive spot, will be taken to 'Moo'.  The combination of chill pub with hip Brit dance club made for the best night I've had in the UK thus far. Not only did the club play classic, I'm talking like classic, dance beats that everyone knows, but the atmosphere reflected the new 'modern British' image that has come to replace the tight-collar stiffness that came before. The music had a real Queen's Players kind of feel to it - completely eclectic but also the type that you know the verses to off by heart.  Sweet Home Alabama, which was a hit for the two Canadians even though it's not a song remotely connected to our nation, went largely ignored by the Brits.  I was told that it sounds too American, and thus not fun?  We closed down the bar and then Rachel and Astrid were nice enough to invite the crew back to their place where we all stayed over for the evening.

A traditional big English breakfast followed complete with pancake waffles and beans.  We watched Hollyoaks which I'm told is a popular soap opera over here.  They have this great concept where on Sundays the show runs all day and people can catch up on the events of the week (Innovative, no?  As far as soap operas can be innovative)  Observation one: while North American soap operas seem to feature middle to upper class families with sensational story lines, the British soap operas, like H.O. and Coronation Street, have more middle to lower class characters that seem much more gritty and raw.  Observation two: the whole episode was narrated in sign language by a woman in the corner of the screen.  Why don't we have this in Canada?! The narrator was equally as expressive as the characters which proved to enhance the Hollyoaks experience.  

Olli invited me to his US elections party in November.  I eagerly accepted. He reminded me that with the time difference the party would start around midnight and reach its climax around 4/5am when the ultimate decision would come.  I'm game.

Sunday was a day of reading on the Olympics as the performance of cultural identity. Fascinating.  One of the students from Singapore made a great curry dinner for some of us in the flat and then I played poker with six other guys.  I wasn't the first out by any means, but I was a bit out of my league - online poker playing on campus is popular.

A long entry but I finished four hours of class today and did two readings on Semiotics so I was energized to let you know about my weekend.

Doc's Prescription of the Day: For reading to the end of this extremely long-winded post (I feel like Joe Biden) you should reward yourself with one gold star.  Now I know this star may not give you any immediate satisfaction, but every time throughout your day you look down at this sign (the signifier being the gold star and the signified being the concept of accomplishment) it should provide you with some feeling of worth. How's that for semiotics - and whack medicine?