Back-dated England entry #2: Sunday

[jaala]

On Sunday morning, I had my first (and rather unfortunate) encounter with Nattie and Ben's shower. I didn't realize it at the time, but the water heater needed to be turned on beforehand, and no one had thought to do that the previous night. I emerged with as serious a case of numb legs as I can recall ever getting from a shower, but at least somewhat cleaner.

As I left the bathroom, I was greeted with the... ahem... rear view of evershed and soubrette, who were lying on their stomachs on the living room floor, singing along with a CD. I was introduced, and they continued their sing-along until I was ready to go--probably a bit longer, actually.

The order of the day was "cheesy tourist" stuff, apparently, so we wandered around Cambridge a bit. Not a whole lot of actual "cheesy tourist" stuff was seen, for various reasons including my spending too much time trying to find an open camera shop in which I could buy a new cable for my flash. We had lunch at the Bath [Ale House?], where I found my goat's cheese sandwich to be a bit much after a while but had a pleasant time nevertheless. I got to see the outside of King's College Chapel, and I was treated to a visit to and short photo session with Clare College's (in)famous "big balls". There was a brief picnic at which I drank ginger beer for what I think is the second time in my life... so I took a dorky photo of it.

I didn't realize how little time there was before my companions had to be at Evensong rehearsal, so we ended up running for the bus with formal clothing in hand. Again, not really knowing what was happening, I rushed to change, then proceeded to sit around while the rehearsal happened. (I should have brought a book.) Things got quite a bit more interesting once the service started, of course. I was shocked to discover that the congregation's hymnal included only a tutti soprano line. (My identity as an alto felt a bit a threatened.) The liturgy was a little bit unfamiliar to me, as this was only my second or third time attending an Anglican service so as with almost all "foreign" religious practice, I found it fascinating. Being used to United Church services where every piece of music but one involves the congregation, I did feel a bit removed from it all; on the other hand, there was more well-performed music (*g*) and I appreciated the elements of mystery and ritual not found in a lot of United Church services.

Thence to Hall; I wasn't sure whether the dress, service, and food were always this formal. (I found out a couple days later.) We had lamb, which I'm not entirely comfortable eating, but it was more than edible. I met choir people. The customary trip to the Bun Shop followed. Tony very kindly offered to introduce me to "real ale" and was roundly dismissed by Frank for buying IPA. Anyway, I got a sip of both their beers (being unable to drink alcohol myself), and one tasted rather sharp while the other seemed a tad soapy. I met more choir people and had a very nice conversation with evershed while he and soubrette finished their pints.

(See soubrette's entry and evershed's entry about same day. I can't really add any more details without being terribly boring.)