Well, there’s almost too much to update on now. It took me a while to get my internet in my room, and my days have been so jam-packed, that I've only just been able to get to this. The London Orientation was fun, and I really liked our group of fellow UC students. We bonded while doing things like visiting Hampton Court Palace, having meals together, and especially a scavenger hunt where we teamed up and ran all around London getting things and taking photos as specified by a list that we got. Our team won.
Of course, during all this time I was also thinking about Sussex, and really wondering how that was going to be. On Sunday, we finally arrived at what we’ve been working toward for about 10 months (more like 2 years for me, since I went through the process twice).
This is where I have to say that I really lucked out: my flatmates are really, truly, completely fantastic! Not everyone has been as lucky as me on this front. I think all of us at this flat feel the same way. We’re all different from each other, but meld really well. One of them is vegan, as well! What are the chances of that? There’s already about a group of 4 of us vegans who hang out regularly.
It has made me feel comfortable already, which I didn’t expect to feel for at least a month. There’s no sense that I don’t belong here. If anything, there’s just confirmation after confirmation that Brighton and University of Sussex was just the right place at the right time. To be honest, it wouldn’t have been this good if I had gone last year. I’m just mentally and age-wise in a better place to appreciate it. Oh, and financially as well.
My days have been social to the max—so much so that, as I said earlier, it’s why I haven’t had time until now to write on this blog. It’s basically been waking up, going out, staying out until late and coming back ready for sleep. This is what’s called “Fresher’s Week,” where it’s all just fun events and no academia. It’s just about getting to meet new friends and the people you’ll be spending the year with. Classes start next week, and I think I’m pretty ready for that. It helps that I already know how to be a university student, whereas I can tell the freshers still have a big learning curve ahead of them, as I did at the start of UC-Santa Cruz. I will have a learning curve as well, but from what I can tell, it won’t be very steep. I’ve also signed up for some groups and such, like the Drama Society, Film Society, and other things that sounded interesting. Should be a good year.
Brighton is an amazing city. It’s just beautiful all over, as you might expect from a place where people travel to holiday. The weather was perfect for the first week (it’s just begun to go bad), so we did things like sit by the beach and wander around. There’ve been a few music gigs on campus that we’ve been to, and a few down in Brighton as well.
Probably the main thing I have to mention is that I won a dance competition at a pub in Brighton. A group of us were doing our own little pub-crawl, and we ended up at the top level of a pub well known for having music nights. We started dancing and before we knew it, we were in a dancing competition. So I closed my eyes and just let my body respond to the music. Then they announced the winner: “Mr. Californ-I-A!” The prize was a bottle of champagne that a group of about 8 of us went down to the beach at night to drink. Is that not ridiculously idyllic?
I do have pictures, but not the time to upload and post them now. Anyway, I am doing very well—better than I could have imagined. I must say I don’t think I shall be getting homesick.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Ah Oui
Third morning in London, just past 8am. Back in the same Italian café, same drink, same seat. This afternoon is when my UC Study Center Orientation starts.
Yesterday was fantastic. I met up with some people from the online vegan forum that I frequent, and we went to Camden Market. We ate at a place called InSpiral Lounge, and remained there for about 2 hours while a couple more people from the forum joined us. It was a nice, relaxed pace to the day. We then walked around the market, which is really much like the markets in parts of Asia (maybe Shanghai in particular, and what I understand of Hong Kong). I’d say San Francisco x (Shanghai ÷ Hong Kong) + English Accents ≈ London.
It was fun looking at all the trinkets and such, and recognizing areas that I had seen in movies. Then in the evening we went to a pub right around where I’m staying, and a few more forumers joined us. Lots of good laughs, good drinks, all of which is incredibly helpful for me at this point. By the way, everyone agreed that what happened the night before with the cops was completely bizarre, and not a problem of cultural difference, as they, too, would not have believed that these were police. It made me feel better to know that the “cops” were entirely in the wrong. The best conclusion we could reach was that, IF they were even cops at all (one of the friends at the pub thought they may not have been), I must have matched some description that they were given, so they approached me with an, “Ah HA! Gotcha!” state of mind rather than a, “Would you mind showing us some identification?” state of mind. But I still think that they realized their mistake halfway through and didn’t want to admit to it. Anyway.
So now then, pictures:
Right before I left the US:
My hostel room:
Views from the bus to Camden:
Camden Market
Part of Camden Market that was on fire a few months ago
New friends at the pub!
That's all for now. The photos will be larger in the future.
Yesterday was fantastic. I met up with some people from the online vegan forum that I frequent, and we went to Camden Market. We ate at a place called InSpiral Lounge, and remained there for about 2 hours while a couple more people from the forum joined us. It was a nice, relaxed pace to the day. We then walked around the market, which is really much like the markets in parts of Asia (maybe Shanghai in particular, and what I understand of Hong Kong). I’d say San Francisco x (Shanghai ÷ Hong Kong) + English Accents ≈ London.
It was fun looking at all the trinkets and such, and recognizing areas that I had seen in movies. Then in the evening we went to a pub right around where I’m staying, and a few more forumers joined us. Lots of good laughs, good drinks, all of which is incredibly helpful for me at this point. By the way, everyone agreed that what happened the night before with the cops was completely bizarre, and not a problem of cultural difference, as they, too, would not have believed that these were police. It made me feel better to know that the “cops” were entirely in the wrong. The best conclusion we could reach was that, IF they were even cops at all (one of the friends at the pub thought they may not have been), I must have matched some description that they were given, so they approached me with an, “Ah HA! Gotcha!” state of mind rather than a, “Would you mind showing us some identification?” state of mind. But I still think that they realized their mistake halfway through and didn’t want to admit to it. Anyway.
So now then, pictures:
Right before I left the US:
My hostel room:
Views from the bus to Camden:
Camden Market
Part of Camden Market that was on fire a few months ago
New friends at the pub!
That's all for now. The photos will be larger in the future.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Upon Arrival
Well I’ve successfully left California. So it can have that earthquake now. You know the one I mean.
Sorry, was that in bad taste?
Anyway, I’m here in London. Right now it’s my second day, 7:40am. It wasn’t difficult for me to convert to London time because I didn’t sleep on the plane over here, and thus was up for 27 hours straight by the time it was regular bedtime here. I’m in a café having a coffee. There’s actually no free internet that I can find, so I’m writing this as a Word file and I’ll open up a blog and post it later.
Well, the flight was very smooth. They had something like 60 movies and 50 TV shows to watch, so it went by quickly. Getting on the tube and over to Central London was very easy. There was something already familiar about all of it—maybe from movies or just from being in other big cities before—so the weirdest part of it all was how not-weird it was.
After checking into my hostel and dropping off my stuff, I went out for a walk by myself. Apparently the police don’t like this, because… well, I’ll tell you the whole story:
I was walking along the Thames, looking around at everything, when suddenly two big guys come up behind me, display something that they said was a police badge, and started digging in my pockets. They were dressed in street clothes, and I don’t know what an English police badge looks like (for the record, it’s a tiny piece of paper that anyone could easily print out and scam tourists with). They had pulled out my passport and wallet, and I was afraid I was getting robbed here by some random people pretending to be police, so I struggled and asked people on the street if these were really policemen. Apparently, they were, but they either pretended not to believe that I didn’t think they were policemen, or they were just a bit stupid. Personally, I think that they just didn’t want to appear soft, so they continued to talk to me like I had done something wrong, even though my stamped passport, driver’s license, plane ticket stub, all proved that I was an American who arrived here two hours ago.
As far as I can figure from what I overheard, there were two kids who were maybe stealing stuff from tourists, and the police thought I was a third member of that party because I was alone and looking around at stuff. They said that I was looking around to spot the police, which is silly considering that the police don’t wear uniforms (this was later confirmed by a sign I read that said that un-uniformed police were monitoring the area). As I said, I think they didn’t want to appear soft, so they basically said something like, “We know you’re lying but you can go.” I’m pretty certain I saw in their eyes that they didn’t want to admit their mistake. To an extent, I can understand, because I imagine that there are probably several British youths who would lie and be wily—but, the cops were still jerks.
I know that this was a bizarre incident and I don’t believe it to be indicative of London or the police here. I’ve written it all out now and would like not to think about it anymore.
Oh and I forgot to bring my camera out while I was walking around so I don’t have any photos yet. Today I’m going to meet up with some people on an online vegan forum that I’ve been a member of for a long time. We’re going to go to Camden Lock Market and eventually to the pub. I’ll bring my camera for that.
Other than the cop thing, I’ve felt very comfortable here. Probably because it’s so international in London, with so many people visiting and also a lot of people who live here that I don’t feel like the only one figuring things out, while at the same time the casualness of how the locals deal with the tube and walking around gives me a sense of how I’m supposed to behave around here.
Oh, and it’s not very cold here at all. It’s almost exactly like Bay Area weather, except for the looming clouds.
Sorry, was that in bad taste?
Anyway, I’m here in London. Right now it’s my second day, 7:40am. It wasn’t difficult for me to convert to London time because I didn’t sleep on the plane over here, and thus was up for 27 hours straight by the time it was regular bedtime here. I’m in a café having a coffee. There’s actually no free internet that I can find, so I’m writing this as a Word file and I’ll open up a blog and post it later.
Well, the flight was very smooth. They had something like 60 movies and 50 TV shows to watch, so it went by quickly. Getting on the tube and over to Central London was very easy. There was something already familiar about all of it—maybe from movies or just from being in other big cities before—so the weirdest part of it all was how not-weird it was.
After checking into my hostel and dropping off my stuff, I went out for a walk by myself. Apparently the police don’t like this, because… well, I’ll tell you the whole story:
I was walking along the Thames, looking around at everything, when suddenly two big guys come up behind me, display something that they said was a police badge, and started digging in my pockets. They were dressed in street clothes, and I don’t know what an English police badge looks like (for the record, it’s a tiny piece of paper that anyone could easily print out and scam tourists with). They had pulled out my passport and wallet, and I was afraid I was getting robbed here by some random people pretending to be police, so I struggled and asked people on the street if these were really policemen. Apparently, they were, but they either pretended not to believe that I didn’t think they were policemen, or they were just a bit stupid. Personally, I think that they just didn’t want to appear soft, so they continued to talk to me like I had done something wrong, even though my stamped passport, driver’s license, plane ticket stub, all proved that I was an American who arrived here two hours ago.
As far as I can figure from what I overheard, there were two kids who were maybe stealing stuff from tourists, and the police thought I was a third member of that party because I was alone and looking around at stuff. They said that I was looking around to spot the police, which is silly considering that the police don’t wear uniforms (this was later confirmed by a sign I read that said that un-uniformed police were monitoring the area). As I said, I think they didn’t want to appear soft, so they basically said something like, “We know you’re lying but you can go.” I’m pretty certain I saw in their eyes that they didn’t want to admit their mistake. To an extent, I can understand, because I imagine that there are probably several British youths who would lie and be wily—but, the cops were still jerks.
I know that this was a bizarre incident and I don’t believe it to be indicative of London or the police here. I’ve written it all out now and would like not to think about it anymore.
Oh and I forgot to bring my camera out while I was walking around so I don’t have any photos yet. Today I’m going to meet up with some people on an online vegan forum that I’ve been a member of for a long time. We’re going to go to Camden Lock Market and eventually to the pub. I’ll bring my camera for that.
Other than the cop thing, I’ve felt very comfortable here. Probably because it’s so international in London, with so many people visiting and also a lot of people who live here that I don’t feel like the only one figuring things out, while at the same time the casualness of how the locals deal with the tube and walking around gives me a sense of how I’m supposed to behave around here.
Oh, and it’s not very cold here at all. It’s almost exactly like Bay Area weather, except for the looming clouds.
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