Naughty Nurses & Paralyzed Rats?!

According to social norms in England, specifically Brighton though, it is perfectly ok for a perfectly normal (i know i know) heterosexual boy to wear girls clothes for a fancy dress party. Its just cuz its Halloween time right? No. It's a quite normal Monday evening actually. For how unpopular of a holiday Halloween is here a fancy dress party is, for Uni students, the highlight of a very normal week. Every week. HM interesting.

So walking along the water to The Concorde to see Against Me w/ Alex, Katie, and Mike we saw a rat. Ew right? Oh no it goes further. This rat was paralyzed from the waist down. I kid you not. It was dragging itself along. Double ew. Worst part? It would have beat any of us in a race. Talk about accepting the hardships and moving on - literally.

Naughty nurses with a side of paralyzed rat all in one night?!? A great -completely normal- Monday night in Brighton!

Cheers my dears.

Writing on a Friday Night? I bet Thomas Paine did it!

Hey! Its not like its schoolwork! PLUS, I'm about a week late getting my Lewes dally and photos up...

Ok, ok you caught me. NO social life. Sad sad me.

Anyways Lewes, spelled to sound like loos (teehee) actually pronound louis, is about 10 minutes away from school. Well at least as far as the bus is concerned its that. I think it would be East of us, but I really have no idea what direction is what anymore.

Once again I digress. Alex and I took the bus in last week. After choosing to get off at the second stop (the 1st one was the jail), we were left in a very quaint, straight out of The Holiday, countryside town. Narrow winding cobblestone roads, corner bookshops, even a castle! After perusing one of the local churches complete with graveyard -- hey, its morbid I know, but they are so interesting -- we decided it was time to eat. And get a pint. We wander deeper into town and stumble across the White Hart Hotel & Restaurant. Nothing special on the outside except a little gold plaque, which at this point makes it the 20th one we've seen. But being the tourists, or maybe its nosy Americans?, we are we stop to read it. Low and behold it is stating that Thomas Paine used to live in Lewes and worked in this very hotel, before it was a hotel of course. Now quick history lesson -- Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense which was very influential during the Revolutionary War and helped writers pen the Declaration of Independence. He also later wrote The Rights of Man (influential during the Frency Rev. War). So now, we are EXCITED about this place. We head in and it is soooo old and cool! After ordering Fisherman's Pie (salmon and cod w/ mashed potatoes and cheeses served w/carrots, yams, and leeks--best dish I've had since I got here!) and a pint of the amazing Harvey's Old Ale the bartender tells us that the front part of the building is almost 500 years old and that they have one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence in a conference room upstairs!!! So then of course he asks, before we have to, if we'd like to go see it. HECK YES! So we got to see it, and take pictures. Neener neener neener. Seriously though, it was so cool!

After we leave White Hart we head "down the hill and over the bridge", as the bartender told us to, to Harvey's Brewery. Finally we had found a local brewery. We walk into the shop where there are souvenirs and bottles of all their special beers they brew throughout different parts of the year. After talking to the guys there for a little bit we end up getting taken to the back room for a tasting of their current beers. Super cool! The guy, Robert, was telling us about the beer they brew just for November called Bonfire Boy and that it unfortunately wasn't ready for us to try quite yet. The beer commemorates November 5th. Guy Fawke's Day, England celebrates it every year as the day that Guy Fawke's plans to blow up parliament in the 1600s were foiled. There are fireworks and bonfires ALL over England the weekend closest to the 5th. Kinda like their very own 4th of July! And according to Robert, Lewes has one of the biggest festivals around and its actually on the 5th. They debut this years batch of Bonfire Boy at the Brewery, there are 2 or 3 bonfire parades, and of course actual bonfires and fireworks. Awesome. Needless to say, I'm sure you all know where I will be on the 5th.

So that's about all for now. Photos are up. Going to pretend I have a life again. Cheers!

Hey Kiddies...

ITS STORY TIME!

The uploading of my second photo album has triggered some adventures locked away in my brain. Lucky for you guys they are free for the telling now.

1. Fish & Chips Beach Date (could also be labeled as yet another (mis)adventure)

After watching Manchester United win one brisk Wednesday night, Mike, Karl, Katie, and I decided it would be a fantastic idea to be quite British. Not too difficult seeing as how 50% of the group IS British. Anyways, I digress, we decided in order to "be" British we must take fish and chips down to Brighton beach and, oh yes, eat them. The best place to do this would have to be at the blue and white painted Fish & Chips place on the water. It had the perfect corner location, decent amounts of people in it when we had walked by before, the fact that the phrase "established for over 45 years" was painted on the outer walls only helped its credibility. So we order our grub, which they serve to us in a homemade paper cone and walk to the beach. We settle comfortably on the rocks (since there is no sand) and begin to eat. First bite is Amazing because we are so proud of the fact that we are being sooo British and cool. Second, third, fourth bites I start to realize we probably could have found a better place, but not wanting to "ruin the moment" I say nothing. Fast foward through finishing our food, playing in the rocks, skipping stones, and wandering home we are all on Karl's bedroom floor gobbling Katie's fruit flavored TUMS. Ouch. Never again.

2. Take me Out to the Slot Machine...

After watching England beat Estonia (I love how all my stories are post sporting events...) Alex and Millsy and I decide that since it is quite gorgeous outside we will walk across the street from Belushi's to the pier and "check it out". The pier reminds me of Santa Monica Pier except way cooler because it is in England. We walked into one of the arcades and I realized there were slot machines! It was like Christmas come early, I was a little kid in a candy store with no prices, I was ... ok really, it wasn't that amazing. But since I've never gambled I thought it was kinda cool. We park ourselves at the closest 10p machine I can see and have a go. One 10p coin in slot, press button, nothing. One more 10p coin in slot, press button, nothing. HOW BORING! How little old ladies can sit in Vegas all day in front of those things is beyond me. If I had won after sitting in front of one of those things for 6 hours I'd probably die. This is my reasoning, after 6 hours you have accepted that your life sucks, you are only capable of doing this one mindnumbing sequence, all of a sudden there is a loud swirly type sound screaming at you, you go into cardiac arrest because the sound scares the crap out of your silly head, and you die. Woops. Bit overboard I know, but I thought slot machines were WAY cooler than that!

Aussies in the UK?

I'm an Aussie magnet. I can't help it. It's just part of my uncontrollable charm. Some people have it, some don't. I definitely do. Hm. Yes.

A Much Needed Fix

Ok my faithful blog readers, aka family, my next blog is here! There's no real theme to this blog seeing as the last two weeks have been full of lots of random, unrelated but all equally important things. That being said I'm just going to take a chronological approach with this...

So October 1st marked the beginning of Uni for all us freshers. And let me tell you its quite different! I have 4 classes and they are mostly just once a week. So my "longest" day of school ends up being monday because I have 3 one hour classes. DIFFICULT, I know. Anyway, the two hardest things that come with such a lax schedule are a) remembering that I am actually here to learn and not just play around and b) getting the motivation to go off campus and check out the area because really, my campus is in the middle of a cow pasture. NO JOKE. Assessment as they call it here, is a bit different as well. Its all based on essays and unseen exams. Lucky for me my two classes that have unseen exams take said exams in MAY. So since I won't be here my grade gets to be based on just a short essay and my involvement in the class. Now, assessment is my biggest downfall because its hard to keep motivated when all I'm going to be graded on is an essay on a topic of my choice that only encompasses a part of the course. Oh well. So far so good though, because all of my classes are really really interesting.
History of the Holocaust, Sociology of Health and Medicine (social inequality, socialized medicine,etc), The Novel (reading Dickens, V. Wolfe, Defoe, James Joyce, etc), and then Intro to Management (counts as a business class I need back at UW).

Now onto the fun stuff. My Social Life!

Generally, most evenings have been spent making dinner in my flat, hanging out with my flatmates, and maybe heading over to East Slope (campus bar) for a pint o' Guiness.

That being said some nights have been spent in Brighton checking out the nightlife there. I do like the club scene here a lot better than in America because the music is much, mucph better. Most clubs are playing either really old school fun to dance to music or electronic trance type music. Non of this "ghetto rap" junk they play in America. My top most memorable club nights in Brighton thus far have been Paul Oakenfold and last night.

So last week a group of us went to see Paul Oakenfold (really well know DJ - even in America) for cheap! 7 pounds cheap! It was soo much fun and at a great venue in town called Tru (pictures up on site). We danced and had a great great time. I even met a pretty cute Aussie (Andrew). hehe.

Last night was the opening student night for Oceana. A giant club chain would be the best (and worst) description. This is, I believe the 8th or so Oceana to open in England. The club itself has 4 themed and decorated to the theme bars: Tahiti, French classic, Alps, and then like a swanky lounge type. It also has two clubs: Icebox or Icehouse or Icesomething (during the week 18+, weekends 20+) and the New York Disco (20+ during the week - I felt special! and 23+ weekends). This disco room is amazing! The dance floor is full of multi colored tiles that light up in some sequence or another and of course tons of disco balls! Katie (flatmate) and I started off the night by visiting Andrew at the bar he works at across the street (coincidentally enough its an Australian themed bar - almost too cheesy) and then meeting up with friends at Oceana. Great, amazing brand new place with pretty good tunes. It ended up being a fabulous night for the sheer fact that I was there with friends, great atmosphere, lots of cool new people to meet.

Hm lets see what else. I'm falling in love with football (soccer) and rugby and watching said sports at different local bars/pubs in Brighton. Karl and Mike (flatmates) are teaching me the ins and outs of premiership teams and we've been usually watching a couple games a week. This past weekend and then tomorrow (wed) have been/will be exciting because they are national games (England team playing instead of teams w/in England) and are qualifying games for the Euro 2008 Tournament. Also going on right now is the Rugby World Cup (every 4 years). And England has successfully beaten Australia in the quarters and France in the semifinals and will be playing South Africa (reeeeeally good team) on Saturday to defend their champion status. We'll be camping out somewhere with A WHOLE LOT of Brits cheering England on.

Other than that just starting to square away some side trips before my time is up here. I've got the beginning of my winter trip to Switzerland and Germany figured out. I'll be staying in Zurich for a few days with a friend and his family. I'm also days away from booking a weekend trip to Ireland (Dublin) which is looking like mid to late november. Also a possible trip to Paris to visit a girlfriend studying abroad from UW.

So I apologize for the density, and lack of humor, in this blog but I can't leave anything out ya know? I'll get better about posting more frequently. ANNND more pictures are going up next!

Cheers!

Couple Things About the Photo Website

*Its really easy to navigate.
*If you look on the right hand side, near the corner, you'll see a box that says size w/ 3 different box sizes next to it. The middle one will be highlighted and if you hit the big one it gives you a good size clip of the photo and most of the caption.
*You can also click on the photos to get a large version.
*There is also a slideshow button that will (shocker!) run a slideshow and include the captions. That's all!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

A two-fer!

Part I: School Sponsored Pub Crawl

Just a quick diddy on the USSU's (student union) Fresher's Pub Crawl. I guess because drinking in Britain is such an important activity with very little negative stigma attached to it, it makes perfect sense for the school to host such an event. I mean, hey who thinks that bringing hundreds of freshman to bars all over town and then ending the night by booking out the 4 busiest clubs right on the beach isn't a good idea?? haha. Quite like my previous post on drinking here, I found the school sponsored pub crawl shocking, but of course I signed up. Great way to meet people and learn where in town is fun to go. Once on the buses we got the 411 on the evening; we would be split up into different wristband color groups, herded around town by Resident Advisors and Student Union leaders, and ultimately be dropped off on the beach and have any of 4 clubs to go to until the buses came to get us between 2 and 3am! A-MAZING! (i mean amazing that this is school sponsored -- days later I am still in awe of this)

My favorite part of the evening besides meeting all the international students (we got our own group) was the location of the clubs. It was similar to Mission Beach or Santa Monica in the sense of the layout of the beach. Ocean-Rocks (no sand)-boardwalk-buildings. Except that instead of houses it was 4 clubs. Pretty cool to go inside dance to 90's hits and jackson 5 (very big here - oh michael haha) and then walk outside and be on the beach to cool off.


Ok, Part II: London (Mis)Adventures

This past Friday and Saturday I spent time in London with Katie (my flatmate from UCSC) and her boyfriend Jesse (from UCSB-hes studying in London for the year). Friday night we went to a play called '39 Steps' in the west end (Picadilly Circus!). It was in a beautiful and very quant theater, and it was hilarious! We were cracking up the entire time. Afterwards we wandered around and marveled at the mass amounts of tourists and lights. We ultimately ended up at an Irish pub called Dublin's because of the huge flyers advertising live music. This is by far the biggest pub I've been to. 2 floors of dance music and food, and the best part, a 3rd floor room just for the band. It was a great Irish band, all guys in their 40's and 50's. The whole second part of their set was dedicated to covers of currently popular music with some lynard skynard mixed in. Great place!

The "(mis)" begins here. At 1 am we were ready to head back to Jesse's dorm on the other side of London. However, the tube stops running at about midnight even on Fridays. Sooo "We'll talk the number 25 bus" says Jesse. No problem. Except that the 25 picks up absolutely nowhere near Picadilly Circus. Woops! So we get on a bus that we think will get us to the 25 and end up going 25 minutes in the wrong direction. Thankfully we get dumped off the bus at a stop that DOES have a bus that runs to Jesse's. So ten minutes later we are on an hour long busride to his place. This ride is complete with drunk Londoners discussing the evening, lost foreigners, and random and rather intoxicated individuals trying to have civilized conversations with very sober and very tired americans (aka me, katie, jesse). I had the privelage of speaking with an Aussie boy dressed to the nine about why he had moved to London; "Well there's this little game you may have heard of called cricket..." he starts. "Well I'm actually quite good, so I've come here to play professionally..." he continues. I almost barf and think do you ACTUALLY get girls with that line?!? Regardless, he was quite pleasant and clean so he didn't creep me out. Eventually at about 3 am we successfully made it back to Jesse's and all slept better than we had in days.

Saturday was the Tate Modern and some fabulous Greek food on the Thames. Not very exciting, but a fabulous day.

School's started. So far so good. I'll be posting shortly about that. It'll make for a good one once I get a bit more material.

Until then, Cheers!


PICTURES ARE UP!