En amerikaner i København: End of Hull

Tuesday

Tuesday morning Jayne and I were met by Alex once more, and we headed to The Deep – the world’s only “submarium”, or, underwater aquarium and research center. It was cool, and the coolest part was the sawfish. I don’t think I’d ever seen one in real life before that.

The Deep

Oooh, lots of me!

I tried English Mexican food. It was alright – it had refried beans, which I’ve been greatly missing – but of course can never compare to American Mexican food. The plate was small and consisted of two miniscule enchiladas – like the size of my first two fingers and maybe a little longer. Now, I know we Americans get huge portions, but when I get Mexican, I want the whole experience – filling up on complimentary tortilla chips (not offered anywhere else, by the way) and then getting a plate twice the size of your head. I explained to Jayne and Alex that while yes, we do get huge portions, the normal American does not, in fact, eat the entire plate, but takes it home and has leftovers for a week. Or at least a day or two. (Notwithstanding the Italian place I went to in the North End from which I really did have leftovers for a whole week – amazing).

Johanna joined us in the evening for tea (note – in English lingo, tea is both the drink and the meal, which is what we would call supper) and a girl’s night, watching Mansfield Park because Jayne had to convince me that Billie Piper made a decent Fanny Price.

Wednesday

I was kind of dead all day, for some reason, but we didn’t do too much that day. We were originally supposed to go to a farm, but the weather had been bad and it would have been really muddy, or so they told me. It was actually a fairly sunny day, though, so maybe we could have gone.

We ran errands – Jayne picked up the Hull Archaeology Society hoodies, and so now I am the owner of a pretty new hoodie as an honorary member of the Hull ArcSoc. It’s so comfy, I’ve been wearing it constantly. Then, I bought me some new headphones, since the base had died in one of the ears of my old pair…and since I figured it would be cheaper to buy them in England than in Copenhagen, which I’m fairly confident it was.

I ended up taking a much-needed nap in the afternoon and woke up nice and ready for the evening. We picked up Alex and headed to the pub that is usually infested with students because it’s cheap but today was just locals and us, since everyone else had gone home. Turns out, Jayne has realized in retrospect, it’s not such a good idea to go to that particular pub when other students aren’t around.

The boys were having their own tea at home, so they were going to meet us when they were done, which meant it was just us three girls at the pub. We had ordered our food, and were waiting, when a ratty-looking guy comes up and sits down at an empty seat in our table. He asks, “Hey, mind if me and my buddy sit with you guys?” Jayne, very politely, I would say, replied, “We would really rather you didn’t, thanks.” He shrugs, and leaves. No big deal.

Five minutes later, his ‘buddy’, a larger guy with a bad black eye, comes over and says that they had some extra money in the jukebox and we should come pick out some songs. We politely decline, and he starts getting upset, wanting to know what our deal is, and why we can’t just walk over and pick some songs. We keep declining, and he singles each of us out (except Jayne, who has received a call from Dom after texting him about the first guy, and she’s trying to convince him without being too loud to hurry up and get here). He’s closest to me, and he actually hits my shoulder when he says, “Come on, you, why don’t you come pick some songs?”. I’m rather offended and I tell him that I wouldn’t know any of the songs because I’m music illiterate…so he moves on to Alex, who says no, and he replies “Come on, you’re fit and you know it, but you’re not too fit to pick some songs” (which, fit, means ‘hot’)…which apparently was his way of trying to be clever and quote a song, and the fact that I didn’t get it thus proved my point about not knowing songs. But he won’t leave, and finally tells us to just pick a genre of music. Alex says ‘indie’ and he leaves, thank goodness. He does not pick indie music, though, and instead pick that “fit and you know it” song, tells Alex it’s for her as he sits back at his table, and when the next song comes on, it’s “American Boy” which he says is for me. Not impressed – American Boy is about an English girl looking for an American boy, so, not exactly applicable.

However, the night’s excitement is still not over. A few minutes later, he comes over again, sits down, and starts to harass us about being rude. Someone needs to teach him the definition of rude, but he asked us “What’s your deal?” and wanted to know why we were so rude to his friend…we told him we weren’t rude and politely declined, and he said that would be fine, but his friend said we told him to “F-off”…which we didn’t…we tell him that, very level-headed, mind you. We’re remaining calm, and this guy is off his rocker…he said something like, “Okay, so are you telling me my friend is lying?” Well, yeah…anyway, Jayne tells him repeatedly that we really just want a quiet night and can we enjoy our night in peace? but he’s there for a good 5-10 minutes saying the same stuff…Alex calls up Sam and pointedly asks “Are you guys on your way?” Finally the black-eyed man leaves. We get our food, and suddenly, though we were starving half an hour before, none of us have an appetite. The boys finally arrive, earning a few not-nice yells from the other corner. Then, when that doesn’t incite a fight, they start yelling “Text message! Text message”. Which, honestly, just made me want to laugh. So calling names doesn’t make us angry, but by accusing us of text messaging the boys will? Some people’s idiocy frightens me…

None of us are in the same mood as we were, and though a few rounds of pool are played (one in which Alex, Jayne, and I “join forces” because we’re all terrible, and of course, does not stop us from losing or Jayne from turning turncoat and quitting our team and cheering on Joe), we eventually decide to leave early and have a movie night. And no matter what happens before, Up! makes every day a good day.

And we got free lollipops!

Thursday

I had a lovely afternoon with Johanna at her place. It’s a really cute home. We talked and caught up and had tea. Pete, who is sharing the apartment with Johanna, came home, so I got to see another Brodsworth member, so wonderful. And then Jayne returned after running her errands with brownies and other goodies. It was, all in all, a wonderful afternoon, and it was extremely upsetting to leave. I have done my best to plant the idea in Johanna’s head to come visit me in the beginning of June, but, at least I will see them in August for Brodsworth again. After that…well, I won’t think about after that.

I also played "Super Spy!" with Jayne's niece, Lucy

My trip to Hull ended with a night of Disney movies, and then, in the morning, another sad goodbye to Jayne, a train ride to London, a bus ride to the airport, and a plane ride to Copenhagen. Home again, home again.