technically today is day 3.
current time: 4:03 PM
Yesterday:
Orientation was like any other school orientation...welcome...have fun...ACADEMICS IS IMPORTANT...have fun...stay safe...useful info...IT stuff...have fun...welcome.
I also learned that many places [aside from the grocery store] give student discounts...all you have to do is ask.
After orientation, we went to the Student Union store to get dibs on merch because they don't get new stock of clothing until the next school year. YAY ME! i got a sweater! Also got ONE adaptor, I need 2 more for the external hard drive and my chargers. So, I've been hearing that US hair driers get messed up in the UK, so I havent even tried using it. Kathie, Jeany and I met up with other girls to go get ID cards. Freakin' A! T'was a journey up several sets of stairs, then a hill, then more stairs! It took a while, but it's ok...my ID is cute! hahahaha [again...pictures later]
speaking of cute...there were cute british boys getting their ID's too...well, actually, they were getting replacement IDs.
Got a pay-as-you-go SIM card. 10 bucks! not pounds, dollars! yay! it's T-mobile and it kinda sucks. I don't get reception in my room or in some places in campus. I'm kinda upset about that, but it's ok. Incoming calls are free and text messages aren't that bad...I'm going to text the way I do in the US. Anyway, having my crappy SIM card is better than using my SIM from home. Over here, I've been able to get roaming via Orange, O2-UK, and Vodafone-UK networks, but I bet that was hella expensive. It was just so that my parents could call me...but it's ok, now my parents can call me[and it would be free for me] and I can have it for emergencies and keeping in touch with people I made plans with.
We went on a walking tour of Brighton with the ISS staff. It was really nice. The weather was great. NO RAIN. nice breeze. We got to see, I guess, "Downtown Brighton" where the majority of restaurants, pubs, and shops were located. We saw the mall[H&M and Borders] at Churchill Square, and the stores and pubs in The Lanes[it's kinda like a maze of buildings and the alleyways get very narrow], and all the other pubs and stores in the area. We went to the Royal Pavilion. It is a former royal residence. It was built in the 1800s by George IV. It was his seaside retreat [apparently, the seawater in Brighton is good for the health]. It was also his getaway from the Royal Court in London and he was able to "visit" his mistress, Mrs. Fitzherbert. It's really pretty. The architecture style is so different from the rest of Brighton.
It's got an Indo-Chinese [not Indo-China] influence. The outside looks Indian, and the interior is Chinese and Indian. This called the "Regency Style."We also visited the Brighton seafront. The beach here is very different. It's not sandy, it's very pebbly--and not small pebbles that can fit in your shoe type of pebbles, but the kind you use to skip rocks with. We also saw the Brighton Pier [it's got a boardwalk thing going on, but it's very small]. There are actually 2 piers, but the other one is burned down and they can't take it out because it's a historical landmark.
After all that walking, my group was REALLY HUNGRY. So we followed the ISS staff because they said they were going to a pub to eat. Go to the pub it was 8:30. To our dismay, the pub stopped serving food at 8! WTF! The only other food places that were open to serve food were Italian restaurants, and fast food. We wanted to go to the Fish and Chips shop we passed but we forgot which way it was. We ended up at The Lanes and tried to find out way to the chip shop, but we found 2 restaurants that were still serving so we decided to check them out.
First restaurant served "home cooked British food" ...they didnt have very many in their selection and we were looking for something more familiar [less bangers and mash]. So we ended up at an Italian Restaurant called Donatello. It was a really nice and cheap restaurant. Their antipasti, pasta and pizza were very reasonably priced. They ranged from 3 to about 8 pounds. The pricier dishes were the seafood and meat dishes. I had a pizza Donatello. It had cheese, mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, shrimp, italian sausage and anchioves. IT WAS THE BEST PIZZA EVER! I don't think I can look at another pizza the same way ever again. The crust was very thin and perfectly cooked. The toppings didnt fall off the pizza. OMG. IT WAS JUST AMAZING. Half of us got cocktails. A few girls got Pina Coladas. Their Pina Coladas are different...they're not slushy-like....its more of a Pina Colada on the rocks hahaha. Jeany got a Sex on the Beach. GOOD CHOICE! I got a Boozie Suzie...I've never heard of that drink before...could be a British thing? It had gin, appletiser(sparkling apple juice) and grenadine...really good. Tasted very light. hehe...very pink. I think Italians ran the place. Our server was Italian, by the way. Jeany thought he was cute but was not feeling the Italian accent. I thought the accent was cute. HAHAHA. Who would have thought that my first meal outside the campus would be at an Italian restaurant.
Today:
School started today. I didnt finish my reading [UH-OH!]....good thing about a philosophy class is that you can bull shit your way out :D hahaha. My teacher ?[he's a grad. student, but not a teaching assistant] is cute! hahahaha. ACCENT <3...in words that end ing -ing, be doesnt pronounce the "g"...he kinda reminds me of Colin Firth but he doesnt look like him. He's got curly hair and he's scruffy and dresses well...hehehehe.
After class, Kathie and I went to Brighton to go shopping. I got Maddie's present and I got something cute for Mary. We went to the mall so that Kathie can buy some clubbing clothes because she didnt bring any. We got to Brighton around 5 so we didnt get to explore many of the shops because a lot of them were closing. We found a 1 pound store and a 99p store. We finally had FISH AND CHIPS for dinner. It was really good...the fish was really fresh and it was HUGE [we ordered a medium]...their chips were kinda weird because the potato was not white on the inside like American fries, they were yellow on the inside too.
We went exploring after...just for a little bit. We went back to the pavilion to take nicer pictures. We also learned that the Brighton Museum is free [coming back for that one]. Then we went to Karaoke Night at Ye Ole King and Queen Pub at Brighton with ISS. That pub was how I imagined pubs to look like...historic looking [the pub is historic....something about it being an old farm house and royalty or something like that] and kinda dark...it sorta looked like the Green Dragon from Lord of the Rings [minus the hobbits]! Drinks: 2 for 6 pound cocktails...Kathie: Cosmo, Ann: Screaming Orgasm. Our RA sang SEX BOMB...funny shit! Kathie and I didnt stay that long....we were getting really tired so we caught the 11 PM train at the train station and went home.
I WANNA GO TO WIMBLEDON! I'LL GO BY MYSELF IF I HAVE TO!
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