May Day!

So yesterday was May Day, which is a huge deal here in the lovely U.K. It's basically New Year's, Spring style. People stay up all night on May Eve and party like crazy. The highlight of the day is at 6 am when everyone is gathered on the bridge and the choir sings from on top of a tower. This si when all the families and people come out. Part of the attraction that I heard about was college students jumping off the bridge in the morning. I got to see a few guys and girls jump off into about 3 feet of water. I was actually amazed that I didn't see any ambulances or anything because that sounded kind of dangerous. But this morning I read an article in the newspaper that said there were about 100 students who jumped off the bridge this year compared to like 12 last year and tons of people got injured this year. So they might actually close off the bridge next year. Kinda crazy and it reminds me of Full Moon on the Quad at Stanford.
But the whole event was pretty neat. I definitely couldn't stay up all night, so I went to bed at 2:30 and then woke up again at 5 am to get a spot near the tower and bridge outside. The streets were loud and crazy all night.
We started off our night at a college "bop"--the second one we've been to this quarter. I expected bops to be like Stanford frat parties and they're definitely... not. They're just very... interesting. I remember a friend of mine from Cal who came to visit Stanford called our parties really "wholesome" and he should take a look at these parties. The kids are so good! The girls are way more covered at the parties than American girls are. Guys don't come up to you and just start dancing-- they actually don't really approach girls at all. And there is very little hooking up/ sketchy business on the dance floor. I was very surprised. They also play a lot more techno music, but I think that's Europe in general. So that's the Oxford college party scene. I think bars and clubs are probably the way to go, but I think it's cool that they still offer on-campus options.
Next topic: British election on May 5! Stay tuned...