"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!

The safest place in the world

Thank goodness I write in a regular journal, too, or else I would never remember all the details about my break.

On Friday, April 10th, I took an early train (the Eurostar) from Paris to London. There were no direct trains from St. Pancras (the train station where the Eurostar goes in London) to Brighton, so I had to take the tube to the London Bridge station instead. That was a little frustrating, but it was also good to be "home" where I understood the language, knew how the subway and train worked, and I saw several posters for Spring Awakening, which was exciting.

On Easter Sunday I decided to go to church, since Kara and I had found a Unitarian church in Brighton when she visited. The service was at 11:00 and I got there fairly early since I wasn't sure how long the bus ride would take. It's a very small and, unsurprisingly, old building - there is a stained glass window from 1888 and another to commemorate members' service in WWI. There weren't many people there, and only one person was even close to my age, but people were friendly and I liked the service. I hadn't been to church since I was home in December. I've been back a couple times since then and plan to go more in June once I don't have so much work to do.

When I got back Aoife made hot cross bun pudding, which is a traditional British Easter treat. You basically take hot cross buns, slice them, spread them with marmalade (which is what the Brits use as a general term for jam & jelly, so you can use any flavor you want), cover them with custard, and bake. Yum. I also ate some of the Sour Patch Kids my parents sent me. All in all, a good British Easter.

On Wednesday morning I had an early flight to Copenhagen to visit Kara. She met me at the airport and we took the train to drop my stuff off at her host family's house. Then we went to Christiania, Copenhagen's very own hippie commune. They've literally declared themselves independent from the EU (the sign at the entrance says "Christiana" on one side and "You are now leaving the EU" on the other), made their own "laws," etc. It's a funky place, with tons of very artistic graffiti, shops selling homemade clothing and antiques, and cafes. We had coffee at "the safest cafe in Copenhagen," which is actually called that because there have been 6,000 armed police raids there since 2004. haha

After Christiana we met the other students in one of Kara's classes at Tivoli Gardens, a really old amusement park. The layout was very classy for an amusement park, nicely landscaped with lots of pretty lights that lit up once it got dark. I rode the roller coaster, which was a short but fun ride since I hadn't been on one in a long time. Kara, one of her friends, and I ate dinner while waiting for the lights to come on and then Kara and I walked around taking pictures. At one point we asked a passer-by to take a picture of the two of us, and he happened to be British. When I explained that I was at Sussex, he said he had just been in Spain having drinks with some girls who said that they were also from Sussex. Turns out they were some other American students, friends of mine, who had planned a trip to Spain! Small world!

Thursday was the Queen's birthday, so we went to the celebration. On the way we stopped at Nyhavn, which is a picturesque harbor, and I got a Danish, for which I forget the real word in Danish. People had made a big circle around where the Queen was supposed to come out and wave to the crowd, and Kara and I snagged places near the front. A band played and then the Queen and her family came out three different times and waved to the crowd. The Queen of Copenhagen is really cool - she even designs opera sets! The country obviously loves her, too (or at least they do a really good job of pretending on her birthday). There were lots of people there waving Danish flags. It was a neat experience and I'm glad that the occasion happened to coincide with my trip.

Our next stop was Rosenborg, where the crown jewels are held. There were a lot of other fancy artifacts, too, like intricate ivory carvings and a Colt revolver given to the king by Abraham Lincoln. The jewels themselves were very impressive, though I can't imagine wearing something like that on my head. There was also a humongous purple diamond on display - I imagine it was a necklace, though your head would probably fall off if you wore it for too long.

We spent the night with Kara's host family, though her host mother was having a "clothes party" (like Tupperware but with clothes, so their house sort of looked like a shopping mall) so it was an atypical dinner. We sat downstairs with her host father and brother, watched TV and got the leftovers from the dinner party. Though I met them only briefly, her host family seemed really nice, and of course I was grateful that they let me stay with them.

On Friday we took the train to see Helsingor, aka Elsinore, aka Hamlet's castle. There was an exhibit about the history of Hamlet - I had no idea that it was originally a Danish story and that there was another version staged even before Shakespeare wrote his. We wandered around the castle and the chapel and saw the plaque of Shakespeare himself near the entrance. They still hold open-air performances of Hamlet on the grounds every summer, which would be really cool to see.

Then it was time for me to leave to catch my 8:00 PM flight back to London. It was odd because the last time that I had an 8 PM flight to Gatwick was when I came here in January, so it made me think about how much had changed and happened since then, which is a LOT. It was also hard to believe that my trip was over, after all the planning that it took, but I think I was ready to stay settled in one place for awhile again.

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I'm baaack!

Three weeks ago today I left on what would end up being the most adventurous, incredible, unbelievable trip of my life. Four countries later, I am back in Brighton for a few days before ending my break in Copenhagen.

There is no way I can possibly begin to tell you about my trip. Brief summaries would not do it justice, and trying to tell every detail would result in marathon entries that still probably wouldn't do it justice. So, I am going to attempt neither, and this is where you, dear readers, come in.

There must be a reason that you have been faithfully reading my blog, or at least skimming an entry or two, for the past three months. There must be specific things that you want to know about. Therefore, I am going to base my writing about my trip on your questions. Feel free to leave a comment, send me an e-mail, etc. with your questions about what I have experienced over the past three weeks. To get you started, here's a summary of my travels:

-I started with a trip to Greece and Italy with four other study abroad students at Sussex, Rachael, Deepa, Jill and Reva, three of whom also go to Wash U. We spent a day in Athens, about two and a half days in Santorini, four days in Rome, three days in Florence (with a brief trip to Pisa), and a soggy day in Venice.

-from Venice, I became my own travel buddy and went to Germany. There I stayed in Hamburg for four days with Marieke, German girl who was an exchange student at my high school for a year and her family. From Hamburg I went to Darmstadt, which is close to Frankfurt, to visit Jennifer, a friend from elementary/middle/high school who is studying there for the semester. She and I took a day trip with a few of her friends to Heidelberg.

-After Germany I flew to Paris, where I stayed with Maryse, a friend from Wash U and her host family. I took the Eurostar from Paris to London and another train from London to Brighton this morning/afternoon.

I took 542 pictures, which my dad will be amused to know actually does average out to a little more than 25 pictures a day. For those of you who have Facebook, the pictures will be up soon. Now it's your turn. Ask away about my adventures, and depending on how soon I hear from you/how many questions you ask, I'll start writing in the next few days.

The world is not enough

Having Kara visit was so much fun! She arrived Friday night and we spent awhile talking before resting up for our big day in Brighton on Saturday. We admired the Pavilion and walked all along Brighton Pier, which is bigger than I realized. There are a couple of restaurants, lots of stands selling snacks and souvenirs, carnival game booths, an arcade/casino, and a midway at the end with rides (including one that swings you over the ocean. I haven't decided whether I would enjoy this or not.). It was fun to see the whole thing. We had fish and chips for lunch, which was delicious of course, and explored/window-shopped in Brighton for awhile. We also discovered a Unitarian church! It's at a really easy place to get to by bus, so I think I'm going to try it over Easter weekend, since I'll be back in Brighton briefly. I'm excited! Anyway, we were debating whether or not to go to Rottingdean for cream tea (we wanted to be back in time to go to a comedy show in Brighton at 7) because the bus we were planning to take was late, and then lo and behold, another bus appeared! It took the long route, but that's the one I prefer because you get great views of the English countryside, especially if you sit up top. Cream tea was food bliss as usual, even better than the first time I went to Rottingdean. I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I can't have clotted cream anymore.

After cream tea we went back to Brighton and poked around in some shops before going to Komedia, the comedy club. There was a huge line and it turned out that the stand-up show we wanted to see was sold out. However, there were (cheaper) tickets still available for something called The Treason Show, which was basically political satire (it was a British clone of Second City, for those of you who are familiar with that group). We had about an hour to kill before the show, and shops were mostly closed, so we just sat in the club and drank Strongbow blacks (cider with blackcurrant juice, aka delicious) and played Hangman to keep ourselves entertained. I got more of the British pop culture references in the show than Kara did, but we both enjoyed it, especially when the actors made each other laugh during the skits.

Kara had to leave fairly early on Sunday to meet another friend in London, so we didn't stay up too late after the show, but we did talk awhile and share some good YouTube videos. Needless to say, I laughed a lot that day. It was great to see Kara. I've made friends here, but there's nothing like having history with someone, and Kara and I have known each other since about middle school.

Well, after my seminar tomorrow I will be done with spring term! Next term I will only have one class (The Look of America), but I technically pick up another class and I have four assessments. The "technical" other class is Independent Research, so there's no lectures or seminars but we're expected to spend a chunk of time writing a critical response to a journal article in psychology (we can choose from three articles, all of which are very meaty - one is 80 pages long, but that's because it includes a couple dozen critical responses and the bibliography for the original article and all of the responses, so the actual article is about 20 pages long). Then I have papers for Art as Psychology and The Look of America, and an exam for Social Psychology. All of this will be done by June 4th, and then I have until June 24th to write the report for my research internship. In other words, I'm going to be doing a LOT of writing in April and May - about 21 pages, to be exact (though they assign papers here by word count, not page numbers). At first I had visions of spending the entire month cooped up in the library, which was enough to make me despair, but after doing some calculations I figured out that I'll be okay as long as I just work hard during the day and do some reading over break.

Speaking of break, I leave at the crack of dawn (literally... our flight is at 6:30, so we're getting a cab at 4:15... ouch) on Friday for Greece! Easter break is a month long, so I'll be traveling most of the time. Here's my schedule:

March 20-23 - Greece (Athens & Santorini)

March 23-29 - Italy (Rome, Florence & Venice)

March 29-April 6 - Germany (Hamburg & Darmstadt)

April 6-April 10 - Paris

April 10-April 14 - Brighton (taking a break from break, haha)

April 15-April 17 - Copenhagen

I'm very excited but I'm also getting nervous. After Greece and Italy I'm basically traveling by myself, meeting friends in the different cities, so I just hope everything goes smoothly. This time to travel was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Sussex, and though planning the trip was MUCH more stressful and took MUCH more time than I had anticipated, I think it will be worth it. It still hasn't really hit me that at this time on Friday I'll be in GREECE!

I really have no idea if/when I'll be able to update this blog while traveling, so you can just imagine me taking lots of pictures and eating lots of food wherever I am. :o) See you in April!

I found him!

I have a lot to catch up on, don't I?

Last weekend was sleepy but great. I say sleepy because it involved two early mornings: the bus left at 7:30 from Sussex for Stonehenge, and on Sunday we had to meet the rest of the Wash U group in London at 9:00, which meant another early train. I think I slept more during the week than I did that weekend.

On Saturday the International & Study Abroad Office sponsored a trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge is both frustrating and intriguing for its mystery. The audio tour went something like this: "These rocks are really old [they were abandoned the first time over 3000 years ago]. They're really heavy [some weigh as much as 45 tons]. We think they may have been used for worship or practical purposes [sundial]... but we don't really know. We think hundreds of men transported them over land and sea... but we're not really sure. OOH MYSTERIOUS." You listen to this audio tour while walking around Stonehenge in a large circle, all the while taking pictures of the exact same stones from several different angles because you think that they will, in fact, look like different pictures.

From Stonehenge we went to the city of Bath, aptly named as it is the site of the Roman baths. We toured the baths and then had a few hours to explore. The baths were a holy place for the Romans because they didn't understand hot springs and thought that only the gods could have created something like that. The hot springs are still operational - they heat the gift shop (Mom, you would have liked it). My favorite part was learning about the "curses" that have been uncovered during excavations. Disgruntled Romans would scratch their grievances on pieces of metal and offer them to Athena in hopes that she would take care of whoever had wronged them. The Romans must have had a lot of anger and not many problems to take them out on, because the curses included things like, "So-and-so stole my cloak. Please make sure that he loses an eye and an ear." Really, guys?

Bath is a lovely city that felt much older than Brighton, probably because it was. One of my group's last stops of the day was the Sally Lunn House, the oldest house in Bath, built in 1482. Yes, this house was built before America was discovered (ok, "discovered"). Apparently Sally Lunn makes famously good buns, but we didn't try any. We did, however, go into a chocolate shop that felt and smelled like you were walking into a mug of hot chocolate. I also resisted buying anything here. I did not resist buying a Nutella milkshake at Shakeaway later on. Nutella wins every time. Anyway, back to Bath being old and pretty. We walked along the river, passed a rugby team, and climbed up to the bridge to meet another group only to discover that they had climbed down at the same time. The area around the river was pretty well landscaped, and it was especially scenic with the abbey in the distance.

The next day Wash U sent us to Blenheim Palace and Oxford (thanks, Wash U!). Blenheim Palace was where Winston Churchill was born and spent a lot of his boyhood. It was also ridiculously large and elegant. There are three "entrances" before you go into the actual house (if you could even call it a house), and the very first entrance was covered in gold. Every room had intricate carvings in the walls and ceilings, sculptures, tapestries, the occasional organ, the largest private library in England, its own chapel, you name it. The grounds were gorgeous - there was a view of the river with a bridge over it as we first drove in that made me gasp. There were also some awesome gardens a la Versailles (but smaller) in the back, but unfortunately it started to rain around the time that I would have gone to explore them.

After Blenheim Palace we continued to Oxford. First we had lunch at a pub where CS Lewis and some other authors used to write, and then we took a walking tour of Oxford College. Oxford College is actually made up of 3o-something colleges (Harry Potter-style) and most of them are not open to the public, so we only actually saw about five and went into one, Christ Church. Christ Church is where portions of the Harry Potter films, including the Sorting Hat scene, were filmed. We visited the dining hall where it was filmed, and it looks pretty different because there are portraits on the walls of all the famous people who have graduated from Christ Church, including several Prime Ministers. However, the staircase leading up to the hall looks exactly the same. I swear I would have recognized it even if Angie hadn't pointed it out to us. The Harry Potter geek in me freaked out a little bit. OK, maybe more than a little bit. Not gonna lie, one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Oxford was to see this. (Some of you will be amused to know that I was really tempted to start reciting Harry Potter's lines from the Potter Puppet Pals "Mysterious Ticking Noise": "I'm Harry Potter, Harry Harry Potter...")

The courtyards or quads that we saw at Oxford were somewhat reminiscent of Brookings, though significantly older (as everything in Britain is compared to in America) and, well, more impressive. (Sorry, Wash U. I still love you!) The place inspires prestige... or would inspire me to just sit in the courtyard and stare at the pretty views. Oops. Oxford is pretty formal - at least at Christ Church, students have to dine in their caps and gowns!

I decided to stay in Oxford after the tour group left for two reasons. Well, three. One, a couple other people decided to stay (I wouldn't have wanted to make the journey back by myself). Two, a Wash U friend of mine who is studying at Oxford and I had been talking about meeting up at some point, and I figured I might as well seize the opportunity when I'd already had my train and one bus paid for. Three, one of my closest friends at Wash U studied at Oxford for a summer in high school and suggested places for me to go, none of which I had been able to see on the tour. Unfortunately St. Michael's Tower was closed, but I did make the most important stop: G&D's, an ice cream store. ;-) Believe it or not, it was the first time I'd had ice cream (other than store-bought stuff once or twice) in England, and it was delicious. The place was packed, even though it was still fairly cold outside (luckily it did stop raining for our tour). Then I met up with the rest of the Wash U group and we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was a fun night, but getting back was a pain because the trains are less consistent on Sundays, which means longer train rides, so after a bus, two trains and a taxi I didn't get back to my flat until about 1:30 in the morning.

I have my first assignment (yes, first... the stories I've heard of Wash U students readjusting to "work" abroad would make you laugh) due on Wednesday, so this week has felt a little more like I'm back at Wash U. ;-) (Ironic, perhaps, since they're on spring break.) I was also working ahead because I have a friend from home coming to visit tomorrow (she actually arrives late tonight) and a choir concert on Monday night. I also originally thought the assignment was due on Tuesday.

Random thoughts: my parents are officially coming to visit in May! and we're going to Stratford-upon-Avon and seeing Romeo & Juliet at the Globe. I can't wait! They also sent me a care package including some American candy (Sour Patch Kids and fruit snacks... gummies here include gelatin because the Brits don't have corn syrup, which is tragic for a vegetarian like me), which I'm excited to share with my flatmates. Yesterday in my Look of America seminar my professor announced that next week we're having a party to celebrate the end of term... with alcohol. I just had to laugh. Never again will I drink in an academic setting. "I'll bring cookies... I'll bring chips... I'll bring some BEER!" ALL of my flights and trains are booked for my sure-to-be-epic EUROTRIP 2009, which commences a week from today with a flight at the crack of dawn to Athens! I'll put my full itinerary up later. I'm doing mostly homestays, so hopefully I'll be able to update my blog as I go instead of writing multiple entries to catch up when I get back (because there's no way that I'll be able to describe four weeks of traveling in one entry).