Recap: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday:

• Orientation from 10-12 in a nearby building--the professor leading the conversation was quirky and very British and funny, and the young people all seemed nice. There are about 55 Sussex in September students, most of whom are from America, although there are a few from Japan, four from Denmark, one from the Netherlands, two from Spain, one from Mexico, one from Canada, two from Germany, and one from Pakistan (but she goes to college in the US and hardly has an accent, so it's easy to forget that she's not from America).
• Trip to town with our SIS student advisors! We went on the bus but then were allowed to break off however we wanted from the group. One of the girls I know from Elon and I stuck together the whole afternoon--we went to Poundland, which is like the Dollar Store except it's like the $1.60 store, and to the fanciest McDonald's I have EVER seen. I'm pretty sure the guy at McDonald's thought I was either mentally retarded or, like, Romanian, because it's such a big, modernish, classy McDonald's and it was so crowded, and I was having a hard time with the fast British accents and the different choices and fast thinking in general, so my responses to him were wide-eyed, hesitant, and generally odd. He eventually started gesticulating. "Large?" Big hands. "Medium? Or--" he makes his hands even smaller, "small? Drink?" Cue an exaggerated pantomime of drinking from a cup. Haha ah, well. We also went to H&M, and a shoe store, and a store where there are catalogs only and then you go to a kiosk and place an order for something in the catalog and they give you a number like you were just ordering fries and not a couch or something and then bring the item out of the back warehouse for you, and the cheap cell phone store. We were confused a lot by fast British talking and the differences in British and American products. We also got lost a lot, although we prefer the term "exploring," I think. And hey, we made it back!

This little park is between the city and the University, and it's an all-natural Eco Park. The wood is all reclaimed and naturally finished, apparently--I think it looks utterly charming, and can't wait to go sometime and play!

The Lovely Jubbly antique store? Yes, please.

I have NO idea what was going on here--all we knew was that suddenly there were lots of very fancily-dressed people around, and there were men in kilts! There was even a boy wearing one, about nine years old. I was much more excited about this than I probably should have been.

• We even visited the seaside! It's very different...everybody wears all their clothing mostly, and pretty much always shoes, because it's a pebbly experience. Not sandy in the least. And there's a boardwalk and carousel and all sorts of bright shiny things...you don't think beach; it's definitely the seaside, the shore, the cold water of the English Channel splashing against all those rocks. I took a lot of pictures, for comparison purposes.

This was a neat little food stand. It reminded me the tiniest bit of John's back home, except John's is decidedly more American and less psychedelic. I love the yellow plus the decoration on top, though!

Ok, so yes, I posted this one last time. But it's such a good picture! Besides that, I like how it shows that everybody (for the most part) is wearing regular clothes instead of next to nothing.

This is directly across the street. The right sidewalk side segues almost directly to the beach, after you walk down a ramp. It's odd to me to not have dunes providing a natural barrier between the beach and the town.

There are lots of cool arty things here and there--look at these plants. They're right ON the beach! There's a boat! With plants! Come on, that's pretty cute. I also think it's interesting that all of these little buildings...they're permanent. They're not like tents or summertime stands; they're supposed to be there. This blows my mind, but then, I guess my beach is very different.

Yuck.

See, here you can see that the sand is pebbles. This isn't a close-up. This was taken at my head-height. They really are not fine at all; I expect that mothers taking their tots to Brighton's shore don't worry hardly at all about the mess of sand/pebbles/what-have-you that their little darlings bring back to the car, because you wouldn't have a pile of these in your swimsuit/shoe/hair and not know it ahead of time. Also, I saw several kids with pails and shovels, and I can't figure out what exactly they were doing, as one would think that there is no sandcastle-making to be done when there is no sand.

Carousel!!! Merry-go-round. On the beach. On the beach there is a merry-go-round. What a strange and utterly fantastic combination!

These are just chairs...but I like them. They're all the same, but for the colors, and I find them incredibly seashore-ish (not beachy. Seashore-ish. There's a big difference) and quaint. This is one of my favorite pictures.

• Eventually, we returned back to the dorm, and I FIGURED OUT THE INTERNET and then almost immediately had to go to a reception for the Sussex in September students at which they served us truly revolting tiny sandwich things. Try two tiny pieces of spiced chicken on toothpicks, 3/4 of a sandwich round (containing a wrap, hardboiled egg, ham, and a few unidentifiable and highly disgusting ingredients), soda water (I asked for "soda" as an alternative to the wine and beer everybody else got [drinking age here = eighteen]...apparently they don't call THAT type of soda soda. I must find out what they do call it sometime), and a cookie with what appeared to be butter spread rather too thickly on top. So far, British food is living up to its unfortunate reception. However, I met some nice people and when it was over I got to go back to the dorm and skype with people from home.

Sunday:

• Slept in. Blessed, blessed sleep.
• Worked on making my room feel homier.
• Explored the hall kitchen--it's surprisingly white, big, and industrial, yet it feels rather pleasant. I think I like it.

• Caught the bus to the grocery store. This bus thing is hard, I have to tell you. I never know exactly where the bus is going to go, and I'm scared it's going to keep going somewhere and I won't be able to get back, so I tend to get off too early and then have to walk a lot further. The grocery store is called Sainsbury's, and I'm pretty sure that you don't HAVE to get off across the street from it and then do this interesting street-hopping thing where there are two islands in the middle of the road and you have to push the crossing button and get to the first one and then push the second button and wait until you get across to the second island, and then press the third button and wait until you get to cross to the sidewalk on the side of the grocery store. There's a parking garage! For the grocery store! And because Sainsbury's is above the garage, there are moving walkways at a moderate incline leading to the front doors of the actual store. It's like somebody smushed an escalator so that people can move their carts out of the store and to the parking garage where their cars are, I guess. Anyway, I had to shop quickly, because it was around 3:40, and, unbeknownst to me until they started shooing us all out, all big stores close at 4:00 on Sunday. That would NOT happen in America, and I'll admit it puzzled me a bit. I did manage to get a bag of carrots, some soup, a fruit cup, some shredded mozzarella cheese, pasta, cereal, peppermint teabags, tomato sauce, a frozen dinner, nectarines, ham, paper towels, and blackberry/blueberry jelly (which I have a story about later), for about fifteen pounds (which is around twenty-three or twenty-four dollars). Nonetheless, as soon as I managed to catch the bus back to campus and put my stuff in the kitchen, I went to the nearest vending machine and got a snickers and a coke.

• Cooked supper alongside the girl in the room next to me, then ate with her. She actually cooked and I just made my frozen dinner, but we had a nice conversation. Hers smelled better than mine; I shan't lie about it.