"But will we have enough P?"

Taking a shot at "playing" the piano at the Arthouse
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Well, since I last wrote, a lot has happened! Thursday I had class 11-1 (a seminar) where we spent the entire time discussing in nauseating detail the intricacies of the words toleration and persecution. It pretty much killed any remaining love I might have felt for philosophy or the English language. After that horrible seminar, I went and had a disgusting meal at the local cafe on campus. Thereafter, I moved to the library to get out a book for one of my classes. The library here is NOTHING compared to the amazing libraries we have at the University of Michigan, but supposedly, the Sussex Uni. Library has the largest collection of social science and humanities books in the nation. To the point, I found my book quite easily. Then, I headed back to my place. I spent most of Thursday doing nothing except hanging out with Chris and Juliet. Juliet and I went out for Thai at the same restaurant we went to the week before. Still delicious! :) All in all, Thursday was a relaxed day.

Mmm! Cream tea!
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Friday, I missed my seminar from 11-1 because my alarm never went off. I had stupidly not remembered to actually turn it on. I emailed my professor, and she hasn't written back yet, but we'll see how that one turns out. After I'd gotten over the shock of the fact that I'd missed a class already the first week of school (ha!), I went and met Juliet in the Lanes to do some window shopping (for me) and real shopping (for her). We found this great place for me to get my hair done at, so I made an appointment there, and then we went to a bunch of vintage shops as well as trendy shops that were having great sales. I, unfortunately, could not afford to buy a thing, but it was nice finding the places that I hope to buy items from later. We found this great little bagel place too that sells bagel sandwiches for super cheap. Yum! After a long day of window shopping, we headed back to Holland House to relax for a bit. Later on, we hung out in Chris' room with Rich (a kid from London) and watched the movie Memento. Ryan ended up joining us later. The funniest thing about hanging out with some of these Americans is that we just don't get it--we are oblivious to how silly or ridiculous we sound when we say certain things. For example, Chris has developed this lingo for things; he calls pence "P", and when he said that in front of Rich--the look on Rich's face was CLASSIC. Chris also tends to call every girl who walks by a "bird" and he shortens names of towns around here to for example, Rottingdean was called Ro-dean. I find it charming and hilarious, though.

Beautiful Rottingdean!
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I thought that that would be the end of my night because I am horribly broke and didn't want to spend any money on the pubs. However, we ended up in Dean's room later where everyone was going to the pubs, and despite my protests, Juliet said that she'd buy me a drink. So, we ended up at the Biscuit Factory where I got to know James (a guy in my hall from Oxford). He is super intelligent and really nice, so that was cool to get to know another Brit. I was going to go back to Holland House after my drink at the Biscuit Factory, but then Dean and Juliet wanted me to go to this placed called the Arthouse down the road from The Biscuit. This place was SO cool. It was lit completely with red lights strewn around the room, it was small and crowded and smoky, with art hanging all around the walls. The vibe was very underground and beatnick. The place even had a piano! I fell in love with it immediately. After having one drink there, I decided that I was going to end the night there. On the way back, however, you KNOW I got the munchies and ended up at this place called Casba's kebabs that served super cheap burgers, falafels, chips, and all sorts of deli/vegetarian meals. It was amazing! I think the guy serving us liked Juliet and I because he kept smiling at us and he gave us the most enormous amount of chips I've ever seen! We ate all of it back at Holland House while listening to a classical music station on the radio. I even got three Phillip Glass CD's out of the night from Dean. All in all, Friday was a blast.

Yesterday, we (me, Chris, Juliet, Ryan, Michelle and another Asian girl on my floor) all got up early around 10:30am and headed to Rottingdean. A charming, quaint, village outside of Brighton on the South Downs. The weather was incredibly nasty the entire day, but it just made the town more interesting to me. It's right on the seafront with beautiful countryside surrounding it. First, we stopped at a small place called The Trellis, which we had heard served excellent cream tea. We all ordered mini teas which came with a scone each and a pot of tea. The scones could be served with jam, lemon curd, or butter. It was a delicious and EXCELLENT breakfast. The restaurant itself was small and very country, but it just added to the charming atmosphere of the town, I think, and the experience as a whole. After breakfast, we decided to walk around the town and see what else is out there. We stumbled upon an art gallery/museum/library near a medieval church where they had an entire exhibit on Rudyard Kipling (author of The Jungle--one of my favorite books) as well as an exhibit on the town history and WWI and WWII.

Once we finished at the museum, Michelle and the other girl headed back to Brighton while the rest of us went to a 500 year old pub in town called Ye Olde Black Horse. This place was exactly what you'd expect--very typical Old English pub with the odd locals inside. We all ordered a Guiness and sat around watching a football game on TV. We then decided that we were starving, so we wanted to go to this place called Smugglers where ages ago, real smugglers used to hide their loot in tunnels that ran from under the beach right into their homes, and this place is named after that. Supposedly, it has really good fish and chips, but the place was closed. So, we just ended up going back to the pub we were at and getting fish and chips there. It was an unfortunate meal, but at least we got SOME food.

We headed to the beach down by Smugglers after we finished eating, and I think that this was one of my favorite parts of the day. The waves were huge and crashing on the rocky beach and the wind was whipping rain and saltwater around our faces. We couldn't stay there long because it was ridiculously cold, but I still loved it. Then, we just headed back to Holland House.

After we got back, I had to rush and take a shower and get ready to go to Celias for Davina's birthday party. It was cute because I got to meet her friend from across the street plus it was nice seeing Davina. Usual family gathering and such. However, I was anxious to get back because my friend Isaac and his housemates were throwing a party that night that started at 7. When I got back, I met up with Chris and Juliet. We stayed at Holland House for awhile eating cheese and apples (how sophisticated, haha), and then headed out to the party. We couldn't find the place at first--it's so out of the way, but when we did, it was actually a really nice place. I had my first Irish Carbomb (a cup of Guiness with a shot of whiskey, bailey's cream, and/or kahlua dropped into the cup and chugged). It was disgusting, but oh well. I got pretty smashed that night, and ended up leaving the party with my friends Juliet, Ramsie, Jen, and Lauren. We were going to head to Event 2, a nightclub in town to find my friend Carl, but instead Juliet and I found some random guys who were getting a cab to a party in Brighton and shared the cab ride with them. We then ended up at this members only club with Dean and his friends. It was his birthday, so he was having a little "party" at this club. That's where my night ended. It was exhausting.

I woke up this morning with a killer hangover, so I got washed up and headed to Casba's kebabs to get a cheeseburger and chips. That really did the trick! Then, because it was a beautiful day, I walked around the pier area. I even bought a book from a local book shop, which I unfortunately finished about an hour ago. I read way too fast! The rest of my day was incredibly relaxed--I did nothing but read in bed. I went out once with Juliet to help her find a present for Dean and to buy some food and supplies for my room. After that, I have just been hanging out in my room reading and eating hummous and naan from this local market called Taj.

Tomorrow I have class from 10-11, and then I am getting my hair done at 1:45. After that, no plans. Most likely I will be spending the day doing homework and/or doing some more grocery shopping. I'll write more in a few days, once again. Safe travels, everyone! :)