"43 P, Please!"

Two of my favorite people here, Chris and Juliet at The Victory Pub
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After I wrote my last entry, I met up with Carl (from New York City) and we headed to the International Students reception at Falmer Bar in Falmer House. Free drinks and food were served! My kind of night. I hadn't eaten much all day so the drinks went to my head REALLY fast. Drinking is SUCH a social lubricant! I made some good friends that night--Carl, Greg, and two students from Wesleyan University. All of them live in Holland House except Greg. Supposedly, Holland House is THE place to be. Not to mention the fact that the floor I'm on is THE place to be within Holland House. The kitchen, which is right across from my room is the hang out place too, so I'm sure I'll be spending many a night listening to laughing, talking, and music till all hours of the night. The English people on my floor are ridiculously nice--somehow, they all knew my name before I met them too. When I walk down the hall to my room, guys keep calling out my name and I'm like "umm...do I know you?" It's a good time, though. I've met a guy named Kirk, who is a drama/film and video concentrator, a guy named Rich studying biochemistry, and a 27 year old first year named Dean. Also, I met someone named Ema last night. All of these people are British and extremely nice. It seems to be that British students are way nicer than many of the international students.

Jen and Greg on the tour bus around Brighton/Hove
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Anyways, after I left the reception, I went back to Holland House thinking that I would just go to bed since I was exhausted. However, everyone else had other plans for me. We ended up going out to the pubs that night. We walked around the lanes, which is a pedestrian cobble street area where a lot of pubs, restaurants, night clubs, shops and bars are located. We had such a huge group of people that me, Juliet (a 29 year old from USC), and Chris decided to break off and make our way around by ourselves. I'm so glad we did this because we found this great dive bar called The Victory where the atmosphere was great. The music was modern, the style of the pub was very English, and the bartenders were very cool. We decided that this was OUR bar. :). However, once we hit up that bar we figured we'd go looking for the rest of the group, and we ended up finding them at a pub right around the corner from where we live called The Biscuit Factory. It was more so a bar than a pub in that it played loud, pumping music and it was big on mixed drinks rather than beer. However, it was a great place. On the way to the bars, though, we were stopped by this random, beat up woman asking Chris, "do you have 43 p, please?". We weren't sure if she was propositioning him or she just really needed that specific of an amount of money. I've noticed that in Brighton the women are rather white trash/slutty looking, and here they call these women "chavs" (sp?). Think Britney Spears, and you'll see what I mean. I finished the night off at Holland House with some leftover KFC, a wonderful shower, and a few phone calls to home.

When I walk down the hall to my room, guys keep calling out my name and I'm like "umm...do I know you?"

Me in front of the austaciously and ornately designed building in Brighton known as The Royal Pavilion
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Yesterday, I slept in FINALLY. I slept until about 1pm, after having gone to bed at 5am. Delightful! When I woke up, I rung up my Aunt Celia and Uncle Ray to find out if they wanted to get some lunch. We headed to George Street to a tavern where I got fish and chips (of course!). It was nice seeing them since I hadn't gotten a chance to see them since I've arrived. After lunch, I sat around my room reading and putting away some more things. Then, Chris knocked on my door to see what I was up to since there was a scheduled dinner going on around 7pm for the international students. We headed out later on that evening to meet up with everyone and ended up at an AMAZING Thai restaurant. Really expensive, but honestly, the best Thai I've ever had. I had this amazing coconut rice and chicken stir fry meal that just blew my mind. Juliet and I shared it, so you'd think it would have been less expensive but for my half of the meal it came out to be TEN DOLLARS. Ridiculous! I won't be splurging like that again. During dinner, though, I met another student named Ryan who lives in California, and he was a really down to earth, chill guy. It turns out he lives on my floor too like right down the hall from me. We all ended up going out to the bars later that night too. Ryan got sick, though, because he's not used to this type of food all the time, so he ended up heading home after his first beer at The Biscuit Factory. So, Juliet, Chris, and I headed to the Farm Tavern where it was really packed, so then we decided to go the Victory bar again. It was a good time, and I found out a place to get pierced from the bartender, so that's a good thing too. He was a cool guy (the bartender), he had his lip pierced too, so we had that in common. Plus, he's British, so you can't go wrong there! Ha! :)

Me unaware of the picture being taken on Brighton Pier
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After having a sufficiently amazing time, we headed back to Holland House where I hung out with some of the British students and international students in the kitchen on the third floor for a few minutes. I then realized how exhausted I was, so I went to my room, made myself a PB&J, ate some pretzels, called some people, and crashed around 1am.

I got to sleep in again today, since I had nothing until 2pm. At 1, Chris and I headed to campus to meet up with the Brighton/Hove coach tour that would be taking us around. The tour was GREAT. We were able to see gorgeous views of the South Downs (rolling green hills/countryside) as well as views of the Channel and the cliffs. Also, we travelled through an area known as Rottingdean where there are pubs that are 500 years old, and where Rudyard Kipling lived as well as a charming medieval church and a small, quaint village. I am DEFINITELY heading there very soon. I also plan to walk the South Downs on a nice day with a picnic with Chris and Juliet. The tour was nice because it gave you some great ideas for things to do that we might not have otherwise known. Also, we were shown where all the good night clubs are down by the beach underneath the streets as well was where NOT to go (such as West Street on a Friday or Saturday night). Our last stop on the tour was the Royal Pavilion where Queen Victoria lived for awhile as well as King George III and his family. The Royal Pavilion looks like the Taj Mahal in the middle of Brighton. It's almost ridiculous looking because it is so ornately decorated and the architecture reflects that of Chinese and Indian inspirations. Fascinating! Because I'm so interested in history, I really enjoyed walking through the rooms and seeing all the beautiful furniture and decorations. The audio commentary really gave me a look into how the place was built, why it was built, and what it was like living there.

After taking the tour of the Royal Pavilion, Chris, Bryann (a girl from Sioux Falls), Jen (a girl from Seattle), Chris, Juliet, Greg, and I headed to the Lanes to see if we could find a good place to eat. We ran into some other people from Holland House as well as Leanne (the girl from Amsterdam) who said that they had found a good place to eat called Font. The place had a really great atmosphere--it had couches to sit on, a football game going on on a big screen TV, a bar, and two levels of seating. The prices were extremely reasonable too, and the food was delicious, but HEAVY. To walk off all the food, we all decided to walk our way to Brighton Pier and take in the carnival atmosphere and the Brighton scene. I have to say that I LOVE living so close to the channel because despite the cold wind, walking around the pier is beautiful and eerie at the same time.

Tonight will be pretty low key. Classes begin tomorrow, so I will not be going out even though Kirk asked me to go bowling. I also am planning on getting my laptop set up sometime tonight if Chris can get it working. I'll write more soon! Safe travels, everyone!

Tips for nightlife in Brighton: Fridays and Saturdays are BAD for going out; Wednesdays at The HoneyBar/Club are excellent, Mondays are good at The Beach Club by the pier, and Thursdays are good at Font; Avoid West Street because it can get way too crowded and fights break out a lot. These are all tips from the bartender at Font who is originally from Whales but has lived here for years. Oh, and a good place to get pierced around here is called Punctured in the North Lanes.