Life lessons

On the eve of my last day of studying abroad, I would like to say that even though this experience was almost nothing like I expected, I think it may have been exactly what I needed.

Operation: Seduce a British Prince

This may or may not be the last time I write (in England, at least). The countdown is in the single digits...

When I got back from spring break, I was thinking about planning another international trip, and this past weekend is the weekend I would have done it. However, I ended up having a perfect British weekend, so I'm very glad I stayed.

On Friday afternoon I left Brighton to go to London and visit my friend Kristen, who is interning there this summer. It was my last trip to the city and I couldn't have asked for better company or weather. On Friday we explored Kensington Gardens, including the Peter Pan statue, which was the last thing remaining on my must-see in London list. We also saw the Princess Diana memorial fountain, which is less like a fountain and more like a small river contained in concrete. After the gardens we had dinner at a pub, where I introduced Kristen to Pimm's. It was a proud British moment for me. We went out to a bar/club (we thought it was a club, but people weren't really dancing in the room we were in) with her flatmates, who also go to Purdue and were all really friendly.

On Saturday morning we got up fairly early so that we could get a good spot to see the Trouping of the Color, the Queen's birthday parade. There were lots of guards and you could tell what was going to happen based on their positions ("attention," "at ease," and our personal favorite, "royal salute"). After a lot of soldiers playing instruments, a carriage came by and it was only in the midst of furiously taking pictures that we realized, "OHMYGOD IT'S PRINCE WILLIAM AND HARRY!!!" (which then resulted in taking even more pictures, of course). We were all hyperventilating and missed the majority of whatever happened in the parade between the princes and the Queen's arrival (who didn't even smile, sheesh!). Standing that close to them is enough to make any girl go weak in the knees, I think.

After the parade we walked around, ate lunch and looked in some shops. Then Kristen and I went to Regent's Park, which is right across from her flat, and ended up walking from one end to the other! There was an open area with plenty of space for pickup football matches, then a river framed with more trees, and then Queen Mary's Rose Garden, which had tons of gorgeous flowers and at least two wedding receptions. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, even by non-British standards, so it was great to just be outside.

Next stop: Brighton. :o) We ate dinner at a cute Italian restaurant and saw the Pier lit up, but we were tired from the late night/early morning, so we went to bed and saved most of our adventure for the next day.

Sunday was the perfect day in Brighton. Weather: unbelievable. (I wore shorts!) Company: fabulous, of course. ;-) We went to a restaurant called the Mock Turtle for cream tea, Kristen's first and my last. :o)/:-( It was delicious, naturally, and I was so sad to consume my last bite of scone with clotted cream and jam. Kristen and I are already planning to have tea parties in Indianapolis when we're both back and missing England. I was really glad she liked it so much.

Then we spent the rest of our day on the pier/at the beach. There were lots of people but it still didn't feel overly crowded, which was nice. We rode the Crazy Mouse on the pier, which gave a good view of the ocean (at least, when it wasn't whipping you around corners), had ice cream on the beach and fish and chips for dinner, and generally basked in the amazing sunshine and warmth. I wish Brighton Beach could always be so close.

A few study abroad students had birthdays this week, so I went to a cocktail party Monday night and a birthday dinner on Tuesday. They were fun, but in general I feel more connected to my flatmates than most of the international students here.

This week: replication of psych experiment: finished (at least, my portion). Final paper: will be finished tonight and handed in tomorrow or Monday, depending on what time the psychology office opens. This weekend: road trip to Dover and Canterbury with Aoife (so excited!!), last visit to church and traditional Sunday roast with my flatmates. Next week: Drusilla's, Komedia, beach, and surely lots of delicious food and time spent with friends. And, uh, packing?? So much to do, so little time... where did the last six months go!?

A side note for Mom and Dad: when I come back to the States, I want pancakes for dinner. :o)

18 days!?

Well. It's been awhile. I should number things so that this entry is less overwhelming.

1) Cambridge! I went to Cambridge for a day. Our tour guide was entertaining but questionable. It was graduation day, which made me think of being at Yale for my brother's graduation two years ago. Except Cambridge is 800 YEARS OLD.

2) Eurovision! When I got back from Cambridge I watched Eurovision, which is sort of like a condensed European American Idol. Basically all of the European countries who want to have a participant, who sings a song that is unique to that country. There are three rounds, but we just watched the finals because otherwise you see a lot of repeats. All of the countries performed (there were over 30!), and then there was a sort of intermission while they waited for all of the countries to call in with their votes, during which Cirque du Soleil did a weird performance in some sort of plastic portable swimming pool, but it was flexible so as they jumped in it morphed to shape their bodies and the audience could "touch" them as it was lowered down. Yeah, it was weird. Then representatives from all the countries call in to award points to their favorite performers, and it's basically political, like oh surprise, Cyprus voted for Greece! If you want a taste of Eurovision, search for "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak on YouTube. He was the winner and that song was the theme song in my flat for awhile.

3) Summer term = death! I had three papers and an exam in the past month. Now, I've gotten through this amount of work and more at Wash U, but the difference here is that the material was stuff I hadn't looked at since March, and in all cases it was either the only or one of two grades in the class. It was easy to get out of my good study habits, and I pretty much went through academic culture shock because I have always cared too much about school. I just didn't handle the situation well and it was an ugly time. But I got through it and regardless of what marks I get they can't say I didn't try. Moving on to happier things...

4) Visitors! My good friend Katherine came to visit after she finished her program in Rome. Though she came at a time when I had to study a lot for my exam, we still got to hang out in Brighton and Rottingdean. She got GORGEOUS, completely uncharacteristic English weather - sunny, in the 70s, and no rain until she was getting on the train to Gatwick. In Rottingdean we had cream tea (obligatory), crashed a wedding (aka people-watched outside of a church), and sunned on the beach. Glorious. In Brighton we sunned by the Pavilion, finally (for me) sang karaoke at the King & Queen, and discovered RedVeg and Lick. RedVeg is a vegetarian fast food place (hamburgers, hot dogs & falafel) which has pictures of Communist leaders on the menu and fat potato wedges covered in spices which are perfect with their accompanying sweet sauce. Vegetarian food + Communism = delicious. Lick is next door and has natural frozen yogurt. Literally, it just tastes like cold yogurt, but you cover it in toppings like honey and fruit. mmm. We also discovered a delicious Indian restaurant, saw a production of My Fair Lady, and sampled doughnuts on the pier (thanks for the tip, Mom and Dad!). 'Twas a good visit.

5) The final countdown! Now I am balancing writing my last paper with enjoying my last days in England. I have a "Sussex/Brighton To-Do List" that is posted in my flat's kitchen. You will probably not be surprised to know that many of the things on this list involve food. Successes so far include a visit to Stanmer Park, a nearby nature preserve with a cafe that sells DELICIOUS scones (these scones might be better than the ones in Rottingdean. I'm not kidding.) and dinner at La Tosca, where we used a 50% off coupon to get drinks, bread, tapas (about four each to share) and dessert for 15 pounds! yummy. My flatmates are determined to help me accomplish at least most things on my list, so that's exciting. This includes day trips to Canterbury, Dover and Drusilla's, a zoo mostly housing small, adorable, furry animals.

6) Babies! We have a birds' nest outside the front door of our flat. Somehow, even though we just noticed the babies two days ago, they have all already flown the nest. One of them flew the nest a little too early and was hopping around the entryway for awhile looking and sounding thoroughly confused. SO adorable. Now most of the others have followed suit but the rest of them were better at flying.

7) London! I am taking my final (!) trip to London this weekend, to visit a friend from home who is interning there this summer. The Queen's birthday is on Saturday, so she gets a proper celebration with a parade. We're mostly hoping to seduce Prince Harry and William. Wish us luck. ;-) Then she'll be coming back with me to lovely Brighton on Saturday night and Sunday. The weather is supposed to be pretty again, yay! I'll be introducing her to cream tea - I know you're surprised.

In short, please explain to me why I have to leave. It's not that I don't love my home in Indiana. But if you could figure out how to bring my house, my family and Wash U here instead, that'd be fab. 

It's official:

Either I'm never going back, or I'm taking Brighton with me.

Just picture me breathing.

A quick note to say that I will probably not be doing another big update for awhile. Sussex decided that it was a good idea to have all assessments due during summer term (I'm not a big fan of the British educational system), so I'll be cramming for the next month and then I still have another paper due at the end of June. It's been much more stressful than I anticipated juggling all of this work and dealing with a different educational system that is much more research-based and where grades for entire courses depend on one assignment.

That's not to say I'll only be working. I'm going to Cambridge on Saturday, and Eurovision (think European American Idol, with a contestant from each country, or at least each country that made it through the semifinals) is on TV on Saturday night. Katherine, one of my closest friends (we've known each other since middle school and now go to Wash U together) is coming to visit at the end of May/beginning of June when she finishes her program in Italy. However, I do have a lot of work and it's hard to just keep pushing, stay focused and not panic. In other words, putting the "study" back into "study abroad" is not fun. Positive vibes appreciated.

"I don't read your books, but I think you're a cool guy."

First, an apology for not updating my placeholders yet. The fact that people have mentioned that they are actually waiting for them to be filled, though, is encouraging. It's nice to know that I have faithful readers. ;-)

In the meantime, let's talk about what I like to call "parental units abroad." On Friday afternoon I left Sussex and took the train to London, where I then took a bus and walked to the hotel without getting lost and met my parents at the British Museum down the street. I'd been to the British Museum before, but since it's massive I went to exhibits that I hadn't seen before. Then I met up with the other Wash U students at Pizza Express for our "farewell dinner." The bill was on Wash U, so we got appetizers, mains and desserts. Unfortunately having about 25 people order pizzas at the same time meant that we had to wait awhile for our food, but it was delicious. For dessert I had banoffee pie, a British delicacy I had been wanting to try. (Banoffee is bananas and toffee, in case you were wondering.) Afterwards Deepa, Audrey and I met up with Maryse, who was visiting from Paris, and Stephanie, another Wash U-er who has been in London for the year, to go to a bar in SoHo.

On Saturday morning we went to Borough Market. I love markets in London. This one was outdoors and had pretty much any kind of food or drink you could want. We wandered around getting as many free samples as we could before deciding on our purchases. I got a veggie fajita, sweet potato and butternut squash fritter, and chocolate and banana muffin. Then we lounged around in the grass in front of the church next to the market and enjoyed our food, the glorious sun and each other's company. The rest of the day I spent with my parents, who had been at Westminster Abbey in the morning. We went to the Globe to see Romeo & Juliet, which was wonderful. My dad had bought seats so that we didn't have to stand for the whole performance, but he and I wanted to get some of the experience of being a "groundling" so we stood for the second half. I got pretty close to the front and was completely swept into the story, even though I'd seen the play. It was incredible to have the actors so close - they carried out Juliet almost right next to me -  and I got such a rush during the curtain call. I have seen some amazing theatre this semester. It probably also helped that Romeo and Benvolio were attractive. I mean... what?

On Sunday we took the train to Stratford-upon-Avon, which is actually a lot bigger than I expected. We went to Willy's (William Shakespeare, for those of you who have a less personal relationship with the man) birthplace, gravesite, wife's house and... uncle's house? Actually, I don't know if the last guy had any direct relation, he was just a doctor and a lot richer. I think my favorite part was Anne Hathaway's house, because 1) it was beautiful and romantic, with a thatched roof and huge garden and 2) my middle name is after her! So, I have an entirely Shakespearean name (Olivia is after the character in Twelfth Night). There was a giant birthday card that people had signed for the Bard, and some of the comments people wrote were just hilarious, hence the title of this entry. (Note to person who wrote the title: Shakespeare didn't actually write any books, per se...) Unfortunately I was a little distracted and ended up dropping my camera and breaking the lens. Oops. Luckily, since my parents were there we just used their camera and then they left theirs with me when they went back to the States. Looks like I've now gotten my parents two new cameras. ;-) I also realized that if I can't be happy in a place without taking pictures of it, then it probably isn't worth going there, right? You can't capture everything in a photograph.

When we got back to London we had dinner in an awesome pub called (I think?) the Duchess of York. I tried Pimms for the first time, which is a popular summer drink here, and it was delicious. I also had VEGETARIAN bangers and mash, which was very exciting.

On Monday we explored London: Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, and Platform 9 3/4. There were some important-looking people processing out of Buckingham, but unfortunately none of them looked like Prince William. Covent Garden had some great street performers: a "wizard" who let you "make a wish" if you gave him money, another human statue who gave people bunny ears when they posed for pictures in front of him, a Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean look-alike, and a guy who rode a unicycle while juggling knives and eating an apple. What crazy lives those people must lead. Platform 9 3/4 was on my list of must-see things in London, so I'm glad I finally got there. For those who don't know, this is the site where Harry Potter and friends take the train to Hogwarts. Kings Cross Station is an actual train station in London, and in homage to the books they have "created" a Platform 9 3/4 - basically a plaque on the wall and a luggage cart that looks like it is "disappearing" into the wall. There were a surprising amount of people there taking pictures - as one guy declared, "It's irresistible!" If only it actually went to Hogwarts...

On Tuesday I did some work during the day and met my parents for dinner. We went to Wagamama, an Asian fusion restaurant that is really popular in the UK. We all really liked our food, and I would definitely go back. Afterwards I sang at an open mic night on campus, which was also on my study abroad to-do list. I sang a song that I had done for voice lessons called "Meadowlark," from a musical called "The Baker's Wife." I thought I did pretty well, and it was well received even though there weren't a lot of people there. Two of my flatmates came, which meant a lot to me. I feel like my flatmates are some of my closest friends here.

On Wednesday I took my parents to Rottingdean, where I insist on taking all of my guests. We rode on the top of the double-decker bus for the scenic ride there and then had cream tea, which was scrumptious as usual. We also walked around the town for a little while and sat by the beach, which was really nice though a little cold. Also, if you think I take a lot of pictures you should meet my parents. I'm pretty sure they could have put together a coffee table book about Rottingdean after just the few hours we spent there. We came back to Brighton and relaxed at their hotel for a little while before eating dinner at a pub and saying goodbye. :-(

Now it is work, work, work (I have three papers due in May and an exam the first week of June), coming to grips with the fact that I don't have a lot of time left here, and trying to decide how I want to spend that time, which is a LOT harder than it sounds especially given that I have to spend a significant chunk of time writing papers and studying. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that I trust myself enough to make decisions and know that they will be the right ones instead of just feeling in limbo all the time. Here we go...

"Summer term" is a deceiving phrase.

I would first like to say that I am alive and well, and I apologize for taking a ridiculously long time to update. As you can see, I plan to write about my spring break trip... sometime. But rather than just keep waiting and try to write everything all at once, I thought I would keep up with writing about what has happened recently and then go back and write about my trip whenever I get a chance.

I'm halfway through the second week of "summer term," which is really not a phrase I think should exist. It's very deceiving. Personally, I got back from my trip feeling revived and really wanting to experience more of Brighton and life on campus in general, especially now that the weather is great (apart from the occasional rainy day - it wouldn't be Britain without them!). I realized that there were still a lot of things I hadn't gotten a chance to do - going to certain clubs and restaurants, singing karaoke at a pub and at an open mic night on campus - that I definitely wanted to do before I left. I knew that people would have work, but I figured that the phrase "work hard, play hard" would come in handy.

The problem is just that, however - everyone has work. A lot of it. Sussex somehow decided that it was a good idea to have 99% of assessments during summer term, and for the British students this includes assessments from courses they took in the fall. One of my flatmates has six exams in June. Making social plans is proving much more difficult because everyone has different assessments and different schedules, so it seems on any night of the week you'll encounter a friend saying, "I'VE BEEN IN THE LIBRARY ALL DAY BUT I STILL CAN'T GO OUT AAAHHH!" It's rather depressing. And people are going to start going home in May. I just really hope that I can cross off all of the things on my to-do list, and I don't want to do them alone. I don't want to feel like this experience passed me by in many ways. I think I'm going to make a list of all the clubs and restaurants I want to go to and other things I want to do and post it in the kitchen so that my flatmates and I can make plans together.

On a lighter note, I went to Isle of Wight on Saturday and it was lovely. Brighton is a popular vacation spot, but it really only feels beachy when you're at the beach itself. Isle of Wight felt like a beach resort on the entire island, with the quintessential fudge and postcard shops, outdoor cafes/tea rooms, and a relaxed, breezy feel in the air. The only unfortunate part was climbing up and across some hills to get the view of the whole island. It was pretty, but incredibly windy and a long walk, so I was exhausted and not really paying attention to the view by the end. It would be nice if panoramic views didn't always involve climbing. We also lucked out weather-wise - it was raining when I got up, which almost prevented me from going, but I'm glad I decided to risk it because it stopped raining as soon as we boarded the bus and didn't rain for the rest of the day.

As you probably guessed, I also have lots of work during summer term. I've been working on a 4,000-word essay (they only do word count here, so I've tried to wean myself from page numbers, but if you're wondering that's about 11-12 pages double-spaced) that's due on the 18th so that I can relax when my parents are here (and because I have a 3,000-word essay due three days after that which I haven't started writing... but I've been researching, at least! one at a time!). Before I started writing this I was up to 3500 words without a conclusion. yay!

Yes, as I mentioned, my parents are coming this weekend! Actually, their flight leaves the U.S. at 8:00 tonight, so they'll be in London tomorrow morning. ACCENT, the company that does programs for all of the Wash U students studying in and around London, is hosting a "farewell dinner" for all of us on Friday night, so I'll either go with my parents after that or on Saturday morning. We have tickets to see Romeo & Juliet at the Globe on Saturday night, and on Sunday we're going to Stratford-upon-Avon. Then they'll come back with me to Brighton for a few days. I CANNOT wait. This is the longest I've gone without going home or seeing my parents. As much as I love traveling and my independence, there's also something really comforting about familiarity, and nothing is more familiar than home.

All right, back to the grindstone. Friday, come quickly please!