July 12th

Very busy day today. I started by going back to the Fashion Museum to see their brand new movie costumes exhibit which was great. I especially liked the rather sizable showing from The Duchess. All the costumes were accompanied by some sort of set piece, whether it be a painted backdrop or some mirrors or even a little throne room set up which gave a great sense of atmosphere. There were also some renderings on display. Another really nice touch was that they had music playing from the soundtracks to all the movies represented.

Then I headed over to the Roman Baths which are insanely crowded. I bought a combo ticket for the Fashion Museum and the Baths while at the first museum, which I highly recommend as I could skip the lines. The Baths are open until late at night so I'd be interested to see them in the evening and without the crowds. As it was, I saw them during the day. The accompanying museum was interesting but I didn't really stop to look at much as I was trying to beat this insanely large group of students through the tour (because I started out behind them and that is an experience I did not want to repeat). After the museum you got to explore the actual Baths which were really cool. At one of them they had these film bits projected onto the wall of Romans hanging around and doing things, so you got a sense of what the Baths were like in history, which was really interesting. It's just so fascinating to think that people had been swimming in those very waters for thousands of years. I left the Baths through the Pump Room, which is now a super fancy restaurant.

Then I wandered around the city a bit more, seeing some of the architectural sites, before heading back to the hostel to meet Charlie and go back to her and Jason's place for another home cooked meal. This time it was delicious spaghetti and home made meatballs. And, as I'd talked to my mom on skype plenty of times but hadn't actually seen her because I was only using my ipod touch, they were kind enough to let me borrow their computer with a webcam so I could talk to her face to face. And I also took the opportunity to talk to a million other people face to face and it was wonderful. Getting to see your friends and family is so nice after being gone for so long. I'm leaving Bath tomorrow, so saying goodbye was sad. It's crazy how you can make such good friends in such a short amount of time.