With a Little Help From My Friends

What a whirlwind the last week has been! Everything has been going 100 miles an hour (that's 160km/h here in Europe) but I don't think I would have changed a thing. Monday was my first official day in Brighton and was mainly a day we used to get acquainted with the town. And when I say we, I mean the wonderful people that I've met here. Let me introduce you to them!

From left to right: Stephanie, Sabrina, Stephanie, Luis and Brandy with Kaitlin next to me in the back.

 We learned to navigate the bus system which, for the most part, is fantastic! With where the University is in relation to the city (sort of on the outskirts), we have to take the bus any time we want to get into town. This was definitely a valuable skill to master. There was really no agenda for Monday which was sort of nice because it gave all of us a chance not only to get to know the city we'd be spending the next three months in, but to get to know each other as well. As expected there are plenty of pubs and clubs. The nightlife here is incredible--more about that later. We walked along the beautiful coastline and as you can tell from the picture above, there's no actual sand on the beach but it was still almost majestic as the sun was setting.

Brighton Pier

 Monday was rather uneventful, especially considering we were all still very jet lagged. Other than running some inconsequential errands (grocery store, picking up some linens, etc.) the first day in Brighton I think sort of help us get our legs back under us for Tuesday, our first day of orientation at the University of Brighton.

The University of Brighton has an International Students Office as well as an American Office, the latter of which deals exclusively with students on exchange programs with USAC: The University Studies Abroad Consortium. The program coordinators in the American Office are Zoe Lamb and Mary Jones. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful these two are.

Zoe Lamb and Mary Jones

From the second they walked into the room, I knew it was going to be a good semester. They were both so much fun, full of excitement and you could tell they really enjoy working with students. Our orientation was pretty standard as far as orientations go. There was some general housekeeping and information on what we'd be doing in the next couple days, and an overview of the field trips we'd be taking. It was also the first time I met the rest of the USAC students. There are almost 30 of us in total, and with the way we're spread out in the residence halls, our different arrival times, etc. it was rather hard to try to meet everyone on the first day. We went to a few introductory meetings; one with the president of the Student's Union, another with a staff member in the library to get us acquainted with the University's library system, then met Mary and Zoe again for lunch. Can you guess what we had for lunch? Click here to find out. It was like being in America all over again.

Tuesday was also the first big night out in Brighton. I met a lot more of the guys on the program (I think there are 9 or 10 of us) and 6 of us went out on the first pub crawl of the semester. We left our flats shortly before 5:00 and by 5:30 we were at our first pub, sitting outside of the mall in Brighton enjoying a pint and the weather, which to this point had been incredible. We made it to 3 or 4 other pubs before some of the girls decided they wanted to join us as we made our way to one of Brighton's many nightclubs. The first nightclub was more of a Salsa club. Not exactly the experience this rowdy group of 20-somethings was looking for, so we kept on moving. Last top of the night was a place called Yates. It was a bar/nightclub that played popular music like most clubs do back home. It was mostly pop and hip-hop so this was much more appealing to us. I've been known to bust a move or two from time to time, and tonight was no exception. I'd say Tuesday was an overwhelming success. I can already see myself being friends with a lot of these people for a long time to come. I can't say I am shocked, really, to be saying that. I am a little surprised that I can say it this early, though. I guess the fact that we're all new to this place means we instantly have something in common that is much more pleasant a challenge to face when you have people right there beside you. At this point, I don't know that I'd rather have anyone beside me than some of the people I'm here with now.

Wednesday's event started off at a local pub and included a free drink for the Int'l students (you could tell we were Int'l because we wore those stylish wristbands they give you at Chuck E. Cheese when you're 6). After the pub, the party moved to a nightclub called Oceana. Oceana is Brighton's largest nightclub and usually charges a cover to get in, but Wednesday would be cover-free for all international students. We skipped the pub, but made it to Oceana and had a blast. There are two different stories to the club, and the downstairs is where we stayed.

Oceana's downstairs.

The pictures don't really do it justice. It's much larger than it appears. All around the dance floor are large private seating areas with wrap-around white leather couches, there are illuminated stand alone bars that change colors with the rest of the night club. The music was more a mix between pop/hip hop with some electronic/house music mixed in. Very cool atmosphere and very cheap drinks. None of us wanted to stay out too late, though. Thursday was our biggest day to date: the day trip into London!

We met Mary and Zoe at the train station on the edge of campus. The train would carry us from campus to Brighton Station, where we'd hop on another train to London's Victoria Station. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Mary and Zoe on the train into London. I do like them both an awful lot, so it really was a pleasure. I think we laughed almost the whole way there. It is a pretty short trip from Brighton to London. All-in-all, about an hour, I think. We re-grouped in Victoria Station and made a quick pit stop. On a side note, they charge 30 pence to use the loo in Victoria Station. The bathrooms are quite clean, and rather nice as far as public restrooms go. I think the idea is to keep some undesirables from over-nighting, but I really don't know. Just thought that was sort of interesting. London is already so bloody expensive.
We knew there was a threat of rain, so most of us were prepared and sure enough, the first thing that greets us in London is a lovely rain storm.
Buckingham Palace was first on the itinerary and is just a short walk from Victoria Station. I'm glad we were with people familiar with the city, though. I don't know that I would have figured it out if left to my own devices. Buckingham Palace was really impressive. We missed the changing of the guard, which apparently takes place every other day. And without further adieu:

In front of the Queen's residence, otherwise known as Buckingham Palace. From left to right: Brogan, Greg, Lars, Christian, Steven, Luis, yours truly.

Andrew, myself, Christian, Luis, Steven and Greg in front of the passing Royal Guards on a sunny London morning. :)

This trip to London was very much a surface-level introduction to the city, so I don't have much to report. We saw all of the major tourist attractions: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, number 10 Downing Street, Leicester Square (also where we had lunch), Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus and even took a few trips on the Tube. It is a gorgeous city, but with what little we got to see (all of which can be found on the face of any postcard) I probably wouldn't have much of interest to say.

I will admit that the rain kind of put a damper on the day, and it was such an easy trip that I can only imagine we will all be back at some point in the semester. Hopefully the weather will cooperate next time. Most of the guys headed back with Mary and Zoe around 4 p.m. with the girls hanging back to do some shopping and explore a little more. We probably would have stayed if we weren't so miserable and soaked from the rain that plagued our trip. The train trip back was just as much fun as the trip to London and my stomach was hurting from laughing so much by the time we got back to Brighton.

After giving ourselves a chance to dry off and get warm, the guys went outside to play a little footy (British slang for football/soccer). I've never played a game of organized soccer in my life, so naturally I am terrible at it, but I never let that keep me from having a good time. Most of the girls were back by the time we were finished playing, so we all freshened up for yet another night out on the town. Stops tonight would include The Honey Club (the salsa night club I mentioned before) and club we'd never been to called Revolution. The Honey Club was the location of the Int'l students party tonight. International students could choose three songs from a play list and be the guest DJ for their chosen songs. I don't know if anyone actually took advantage of that, but it was a neat idea. The music selection tonight was definitely less salsa and more electronic/house music for which we were all thankful. Revolution is a much more swanky, hip nightclub with a bar upstairs and a large dance floor downstairs. Once the dust settled and peace fell back over the land, it was another incredible night out with incredible people.

Friday and Saturday were both pretty relaxed. Friday was my day to register for classes, and also brought the first bump in the road. Apparently one of the classes I wanted to take starts a full week before every other class. This means I start classes on Monday (tomorrow) while everyone else gets to wait a whole week longer. It's not really a big deal because in a week everybody will be in classes anyway, but it would've been nice to be able to start with everyone else. Oh well. So yeah, that's the first bump in the road which as you can tell isn't much of a bump at all. More like a stick laying there that you barely have to dodge, not because you think it'll damage your car, but just because you don't really want to run over it. And if that's the biggest problem I've had so far, I'd say I'm doing pretty well for myself.

Saturday I went to a bar with some of the others to watch Manchester City defeat Chelsea. This was a pretty big upset and it was neat to watch my first football match in an English pub. Speaking of football, we're thinking of going to see England vs. France in a little over a month. There are student packages available that include transportation and tickets to the game. How great would that be? The game is being played at London's Wembley Stadium.

I already know, without having read over the post that I've missed a few things. It's plenty long already, though. Expect a follow-up shortly with some of the things I know I missed and some observations I've made regarding the differences between England and the US.