The Third Day… the last one

This B&B starts serving breakfast at 8:15, so we got up at about 7:30 to be the first down there (since we were definitely on a schedule today). The shower in the closet had the same odd water-contraption as the sink: pull the cord so the little red light comes on, get in the shower and turn a dial. However, the line between scalding hot and shrivel-inducing cold was a bit elusive. You had to ride the dial like a sound-engineer at a heavy metal concert. Getting too cold, turn it up one millimeter; getting too hot, turn it down two millimeters. Let’s just say, it was one of the more “eccentric” bathing experience I’ve had (right up there with the coin-operated shower at the Renaissance Festival in Arizona… but that’s another story entirely).

Arbor Linden house had a little more of a varied menu. But, being a fan of the “Full English”, I had to go for it again. This time I ordered the typical “fried bread” which customarily accompanies this already artery-clogging breakfast. Fried bread is kind of like toast soaked in grease (fried in lard maybe?). Kristen had the scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, on a bed of toast-points. And, of course, English tea.

We checked out as soon as we were done eating, but they let us leave our car in the parking lot while we toured the University of East Anglia, which was a 10 minute walk from the B&B. Luckily, it was another day of clear skies and sunshine, though the weather was quite a bit more brisk. Some patches of ice here and there. Norwich is a lot more enticing during the daytime, even as a pedestrian. There is quite a bit of nature out in this part of England. It is much flatter and the landscape is more akin to the moors of Scotland, but the secluded feeling was quite welcoming to hermits like ourselves. So, that’s something to like about Norwich.

Now we come to an interesting point in this little tale: how to describe the campus of UEA. The B&B lady had mentioned something about its 60’s concrete-block cruddiness, while lauding the educational value of the university. So were slightly prepared for it, but it was “interesting” nonetheless. The entrance road passes along some nature-walk areas and a brand new sports center (anyone can get in for 58 pence per visit to use all of the facilities). However, the core of the campus is a very drab. Every surface is poured concrete. Vaguely cell-block/institution/communist. It had the feel of those sci-fi movies about “the future”. I kept having visions of “Sleeper”, “The Man Who Fell To Earth”, “2001” and so on. Our potential department building was less than inspiring. One of the campus dormitories was very… well, let’s just say "odd". This place was so dull, but at the same time captivating in some sense. While we were initially a bit turned off, the more we wandered around, the more the place took on an inspiring sort of strangeness. Spending any length of time there would really put you in a “mood”. But, depending on what you’re doing, it could be a good thing. Personally, my imagination was running wild after the first 10 minutes. The other good thing about it is all the surrounding nature. I’m not sure how many acres they have, but I’m sure it stretches far. At one point there was a group of people walking a motley collection of dogs (one of the big, gangly ones came running up to me, but took off when it realized I wasn’t scared). Anyway, the campus sure had a lot of “personality”. We’re just not sure how quickly this type of “personality” would get old. Its one thing to be immersed in a concrete fantasyland on a sunny, windy day, but what would it be like on a cloudy rainy one? The fact that there was hardly a soul around on this Sunday morning added a lot of oomph to the desolate, futuristic surroundings. Kristen imagined classrooms of students being taught by video-professors instead of living, breathing people or Big Brother making announcements from strategically placed speakers.

After this giggle-inspiring tour of the campus, we headed back to the B&B to pick up the car. It was about 10:30 and we still wanted to take a drive around the city, before heading down to the airport to catch our 4 o’clock flight. We had set a “hard out” of no later than 1:00 pm because Norwich is about an hour and half from Stanstead. Our opinion of the city definitely improved after our drive. The surrounding neighborhoods were nice and the feel of the city in the daytime was definitely positive. Should we end up here, though, a car would definitely be close to being tantamount.

Before heading back to the highway, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some goodies to bring back with us. Then we made our way out of “the moors”, getting a bit lost after taking the wrong road out of one of the roundabouts. Fortunately, we realized our mistake early and got back on track soon after. We got to the airport much earlier than expected because everything went very smoothly. Dropping off the rental car was as easy as giving the keys to the attendant and there was no line at check-in. Before we knew it, we were taking off over English farmlands and then the Channel. We landed in Charleroi not much later and took Charleroi-Brussels bus back to town. The ride took about an hour and then we had to take the metro to our neighborhood. We were back home by about 7:30, a bit sad to be back in reality, but still happy to be back in our apartment.

We’ve got some thinking to do. One of us is clearly leaning (almost to the point of falling over…hmmm, who would that be?) towards Exeter and the other is trying to maintain an ambivalent opinion. Of course, we haven’t been accepted to either university yet, so the decision could be made for us. That would be much easier!