English Downs on a Bright Weekend

A chapel and cemetery in the center of Seaford town.

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My first week at university was a busy, exciting and exhausting one. I met classmates and professors for the first time, attended department socials and walked back and forth across the campus trying to distinguish one brick building from the dozen others.

This term I am enrolled in two courses: Anthropology and Development (with Dr. “Buzz” Harrison) and Understanding Processes of Social Change (with Dr. Filippo Osella). One is considerably more philosophically grounded than the other (perhaps evident by their titles?) and both tutors are well regarded in their respective regions and concentrations.

The highlight of the weekend was catching up with my host Rotary counselor Janice Vince from the Seaford-Martello club. Janice is a secondary school teacher of arts and technology and lives in the town of Seaford.

Janice leads the way along a path on the Downs!

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We took a driving tour of the English Southern Downs, checked out Beachy Head (a scenic point in the national park as well as a popular site to commit suicide), and visited Janice’s friend who lives in a cottage that pre-dates the Domesday Book! (When William the Conqueror arrived in England from France in 1066 and decided to stay, he commissioned the Domesday survey to record every settlement in England and obtain a record of lands belonging to the Crown and its tenants, most likely for tax purposes). Needless to say, the cottage is old, but very well preserved with its original thatched roof, oak beams and cement walls!