At Sussex! In Brighton!

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.