European Nightlife: A Minor Introduction

The clubbing experience is definitely something I could get used to. Like a lot of things over here, it seems to make a lot more sense than the way we do things in America. To better explain, lets review how we go out in Madison. Everyone gathers at an apartment or house until about midnight to get sufficiently wasted and then goes out to the bars until they close. It does make sense financially but once the 'club option' is introduced it really is illogical. On a side note, not having a dollar bill is incredibly cumbersome. It is necessary to carry coins pretty much all the time and I constantly finding myself just wanting to leave the change on the bar only to realize I would be leaving 3 or 4 quid (5 or 6 dollars). Lets now move to the British style of out. Everyone gathers for a bit and has a few beers and then goes out to the pubs which tend to be much more rowdy than our bars for unknown reasons - just culture I suppose. The pubs close at about midnight in most cases, plenty long for everyone to get nice and pissed up, and then there is a mass migration to the club. We had to wait in line for about an hour last night which was not ideal but once inside it was totally worth it. As much as I can't listen to techno by itself, when it is remixed with other tunes and the bass is turned up it undoubtedly has the ability to cause widespread euphoric hysteria. Nothing like an electronic mash up of 'Last Resort' by Papa Roach to get the party started.

The club we went to is pretty much exclusively for Warwick students and Tuesday nights are their big night, mostly because I think they offer 1 quid vodka/Redbull. I know that when social venues have specials on drinks there is normally some sort of a catch but I have never seen a 'deal' as bullshit as what I experienced last night. For that pound you get about 90% Redbull 10% Vodka in a half-full oversized Dixie cup. Most of the times when I went to the bar I would buy 3, take one like a shot and then pour the other two together in hopes to take it out to the dance floor. Unfortunately by the time I fought through the crowds the drink was always gone. I don’t think I ever successfully got something all the way from the bar to where all of the people I was with were. Consistent with a lot of my drunken evenings, especially those filled with very poor interpretive dancing, the middle of the night sort of blurred together. At about 2, we went from the upstairs room to the downstairs room that was playing a lot more hip hop. Me and the 4 or 5 people I was with rocked out pretty hard (probably looked absolutely ridiculous in the process) on a raised platform to a variety of popular American hip-hop hits. The closing three tracks were Tik Tok, Lose Yourself, and Gangsta's Paradise, a perfect mix of my contemporary and nostalgic favorites. Pretty much completely drenched in sweat, 6 of us hopped into a cab and came back to Uni for the ceremonial post-club cup of tea around the kitchen table. I felt like a complete tool because, unknown to me, I bought tea leaves instead of tea bags at the store and realized I have absolutely no idea how to make tea properly. Got laughed at for that one pretty heavily.

Going to bed at 5 naturally makes getting up for a 10 o'clock class a bit difficult but I managed to roll out of bed and trudge to what was supposed to be my first class here only to find out that the 2 inches of snow we got overnight had completely shut down the country. My professor couldn't make it and 10 minutes after class was intended to start the 4 other students in lecture and myself decided there was no point in staying. I also had an appointment with my advisor scheduled for the afternoon that she was not present for due to her inability to get to campus. There was a great deal of solace in watching all the lovely Brits play in the snow and throw snowballs at each other. I guess I forget how charming snow can be when all I can associate it with are the negative 30 degree wind chills we so often get in Wisconsin. I came back from running my errands to find my flat mates building a snowman and having a dorm wide snowball fight in which I quickly asserted my dominance! It was particularly amusing to watch them all circle up and decide how to arrange the facial accessories with an assortment of vegetables. I laughed real hard when one kid asked if the snowman needed hair! For the rest of the afternoon I took a solo mission to Coventry to do some exploring and find myself a cell phone. To be perfectly honest Coventry isn't much of a place for having a population of 350,000 people. I image a lot of that is due to the fact that, during WWII after the U.S. had stolen the Enigma machine and decoded German code, FDR decided it was necessary to let Coventry be bombed so the Nazis would not know we had stolen their signals. And when I say bombed I don't mean a casual thrashing. The city was essentially leveled to the ground. So much, in fact, that for some time a slang term arose; to be 'Coventried' is essentially to get completely demolished. Despite the lack of things to do I took some neat pictures (see Facebook in the next few days) and got fish, chips and ale at a local pub. Probably the most authentic thing I could think of doing and I'm not going to lie, it was incredibly enjoyable. Pub atmosphere in general is just very foreign and remarkable to take part in. Everyone is so relaxed, so happy and the accents don’t get old. It’s comical how many communication gaps there are between people who speak the 'same' language. I think it was Winston Churchill who juxtaposed America and Britain as "two great countries separated by one common language" or something like that but I digress. One cell phone and a few pints later I headed home to what would become a nice low key poker night with some mates on the floor. Not sure what Thursday will bring but headed to London to visit Noah on Friday and I'm incredibly excited! Round trip bus ticket for 6 quid. Incredible. A trip of similar distance in the States costs about $50 at a student rate.

Stay tuned for the chronicles of my first London visit and some pictures eventually. I hope everyone is well and is looking forward to starting next semester in Madison :p