Cheers!

Hey there! I haven't been updating much mostly because the last week and a half, I have been prepping for this final week of the first session. It's crazy how fast time flies by here. When your sessions are only 4 weeks, that changes a lot of things. It makes me wonder how we can learn so much from just having class three times a week for an hour and a half. Apparently it is possible, though, since I just wrote a 7 page paper.

Last week, I saw Wicked with some friends, which I was happy about. Although, I have to say I was actually pretty disappointed. I loved the British accents and the different funny lines that they dropped within the musical, but the Elphaba we got wasn't that good. She didn't have as much power in her voice and was constantly off pitch a lot. I guess I'm kind of picky for someone who isn't a singer, but regardless, it's hard when you've been so involved with music your entire life. Intonation is drilled into you and you never listen to music the same way for the rest of your life. The most disappointing part of the musical was that she struggled to hit the high F in Defying Gravity and couldn't hold on to any of the notes before her voice would slip. The second act was better, though, I'll give her that. I dunno. I suppose I just expected that when someone pays money for something and this musical is held in such high esteem, they'd expect them to find someone who can get the job done. :/ Then again, everyone probably has off days and maybe that just happened to be one of them. At least Glinda was good!

Anyway, after I give my group presentation in class today, I am going into town to "drink" with my tutor and some classmates... especially since some of them are leaving after this session. I haven't decided whether I'm going to have a drink, really... but I am going because I'd love to spend time with my tutor outside of class. He's quite the character regardless of how tiny he is. He's still very intimidating, but I think outside of class, we'll get to see what he's really like. :) Then after that, I'll be taking a 3 hour train ride around 9pm tonight to Luton airport... on my way to Paris, France!

I'm a little sad my friends will be leaving since they are the ones I do just about everything with. That means I'll have to push myself again to make new friends, but I think it'll be easier this time around. :) Plus, I have things to look forward to. The day after I get back from Paris, I am going to London to watch Giselle and Serenade!! :) I cannot wait! I have never seen Giselle and Serenade is one of my absolute favorite ballets. So I suppose until I get back from Paris, you'll just have to wait for a post with pictures :)

Ta.

That best explains me yesterday and kind of for the rest of the week.

A lot of people in my class who did class reports had them sent back with the tutor tearing their papers to shreds, basically... so they all had to do it over. When it was my turn yesterday, I got such crazy anxiety attacks, that after a day of working on it, I just sent it in.

One friend who had edited hers got the report sent back a second time! At that point, I was ready to throw up from worrying. I waited until 12:45 am while working on my essay to see if he would send me something saying I had to re-do my report, but no. I got a terrible migraine for the second day in row from stressing myself out so much. Luckily, when I got home from a day out in Brighton, I got a pleasant email that said I had done "a very good job." :)

I was also stressing out because I wanted to get my 2500 word essay done by tonight as it was originally due Monday. Saturday, I would be going to London all day so I needed to have it done by tonight. I was a big pile of anxious-ness. I was exactly like that little bunny up there (which is a picture I took today in town!). Fortunately, he moved the date to Thursday. Phew! But I still want to get this done by tonight since I want to edit my paper and still have a group presentation to do in the coming final week. I'm off to work some more! Cheerio.

Let's have a looksie shall we?

It's quite clear I have nothing better to do than blog, right? Actually, quite the contrary unfortunately. :/ I should really be working on my report which my tutor so graciously piled onto me today when I already have a final paper due on Monday. That final paper requires a lot of research and reading out of books we weren't assigned over the last two weeks. One session here goes by so quickly!

A week from now, I will be in Paris, France! The only trip I have really planned outside of England. Everyone here is going on crazy trips one right after another like Spain, then Germany, then Moscow, then Italy, and so on. I would love to go to the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and Moscow... but I feel so bad spending my parents' money. Plus I'd like to enjoy what I can out of England since I am studying here after all. Musicals, ballets, and other castles are good enough for me. :)

This past weekend, I went to the Isle of Wight with a friend. I woke up at 5:00 am, took a shower and packed for a long day. I met my friend at 6:15 and we caught a train earlier than we had booked it for. Once we got to Portsmouth, we caught a ferry to the Isle of Wight. The first thing we did was figure out how to catch a bus to Newport, which is basically the center of the Isle.

Once we got there, we decided to go see the Carisbrook Castle. We hiked on up to the castle which probably took 45 minutes. The wall we had to walk around was a mile long, but it was absolutely beautiful. Above is a picture from when we were walking up on the walls around the castle. It was absolutely beautiful and I loved that much of it went untouched unlike the other castle I visited with my parents. The Carisbrooke is known for being not only a home but a place to hold royal prisoners such as King Charles I and his two children. A side not, that picture is one of a few cottages I saw; they are so rare and SO quaint and cute! I had to take pictures of it on our bus ride to our next destination. :P

(I also have to mention that around the time we had begun hiking to the castle, I started to get hayfever and didn't think much of it. It seemed relatively minor. As the day progressed, I began to sniffle more and sneeze almost every 5 minutes. It was terrible! More on this later, though.) Eventually, we made our way back to Newport by bus and caught another one to see the Needles! It was a wonderful sight to see, especially making our way down to the little beach. It was such an ease on the eyes despite my allergies and the harsh sun. The little cruise that took us out to see the Needles was pleasant but a little over-priced for a boat ride in my opinion. It was 5 lbs. Anyway, after that, we figured it would be a good time to go home. Good choice. We got home by around 9:00 pm.

Well, later that night, I thought my pesky sniffles would go away and my sore throat would disappear. Instead, the next morning, my nose became stuffy, my sneezing was more constant, and my sore throat worsened. My hayfever medicine didn't work and just for your information, it really is useless to use the hayfever medicine in stores. It doesn't work for me or my friends. You should bring prescription nasal sprays or get them at the pharmacy here if possible. Also, hayfever is not as bad as it sounds. Well... it is but it's not a disease or anything. Every time I talk to people about it, they give me the stink eye and slowly back away from me, haha. It's really just another term for allergies in Europe. Hayfever is just known to be really bad here in England. Anyway, my hayfever turned into an actual illness. I was coughing up a nasty, nasty storm and still am sort of. It has died down a lot today, though, which is a plus. Everyone is so sweet and asks if I am feeling better every day.

That Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:30 for my Stonehenge and Roman Bath trip. The Stonehenge was a beauty and wonder to behold, but truthfully after walking around it, it was almost anti-climactic. It's just because it was in the middle of nowhere but next to a long freeway road, too. If it were way out somewhere in a grassy field isolated from a road, it might seem more mysterious that it already was. Don't get me wrong, though. I was completely fascinated with how heavy and big those stones were! It was absolutely stunning, and I am so happy I got to see something so few get to see with their own eyes.

This is a jam and cream scone that was absolutely delicious! It was my breakfast and helped ease my allergies. I don't know why, but it did. :) I love scones! We then headed to the Roman Bath and I have to say I was excited for this because when I was in Davis, I watched a NOVA documentary on Roman Baths. This documentary blew my mind at the complexity of everything that went into making these baths (such as how they preserve the heat, build certain things, and place certain baths in certain places). I was very happy to go and see the actual bath and the techniques that were discussed in the documentary. I also was so happy to see the heated bath still working as lame as that sounds. I am just completely in love with the history and everything that went into this amazing bath begets my curiosity about all the other Roman baths...
Sunday I went to Cambridge. **See end of blog for a description of what a university is .** I was particularly excited about this for a different reason. I went to Oxford University with my parents when we were staying in London and I absolutely fell in love with the place. Oxford has a complicated history of sorts. There were a lot of tensions between the people and students which led to Oxford University becoming a very student-like town. It has become secluded from the rest of the town and is mostly student inhabitants with students running the stores and such. I fell in love with all the different colleges Oxford University is comprised of and all the amazing courtyards, libraries, architectures, and the entirety of Oxford student university town's aura. That's my crazy tangent. Anyway, needless to say, Oxford set the standards very high in comparison to Cambridge. My preconception of Cambridge fell short before I actually went.


Cambridge actually was very charming to say the least. I am not in love with the colleges as much as the ones in Oxford. But where town life is quiet and absent in Oxford, Cambridge has all the hustle and bustle. It's lively with a sort of Farmer's Market in the center of Cambridge in front of the town hall. It also has shopping very near the colleges. While I do love the placidity of Oxford's secluded student-made town, I would love to partake in some things that entertain my eye. I'd love to browse, meander, shop and exchange congenial conversations in a vibrant setting such as the one provided in Cambridge.

Also, while Oxford has beautiful colleges, courtyards, architectures within the University, I loved that Cambridge had beauty outside of its university. There is punting and beautiful green parks with ice cream around every corner. Anyway, that is that. I don't know why University I like better now. I've concluded that both Universities have something that the other lacks. Some days, I regret not applying to Cambridge- King's College. :( But I am very happy with Sussex as it is one of the best and few critical schools in the UK!. :)

Anyway, we went punting and our punter was the great great great grandson of Lord Byron!!! For those of you who do not know, he is a very famous romantic poet. :) And this great great great grandson had just recently graduated from Cambridge University, himself. All the ladies on our boat had taken quite a fancy with him, haha. It was really cute. As for me, I was just fascinated with the fact that he was directly related to Lord Byron!! Besides, I was fantasizing about the day my boyfriend would come back here with me and be my punter. I would definitely fancy that and him. :)

** Oxford University and Cambridge University

-- After seeing Cambridge, my friend turned to me and asked, "So are we going to actually see Cambridge University?" to which my other friend and I replied, "We just did!" So let me explain. A university is comprised of different colleges. For example, Cambridge has 31 colleges that comprise Cambridge University. Cambridge University sets and issues the exams to the colleges as well as hands out the degrees to those colleges. So if one finishes at Trinity College, King's College, or St. Paul's College, then the University confers a Cambridge University degree to that student. When you apply, you apply to a college and if you get accepted into that one, then you are attending Cambridge University! :)

Also, the reason why people don't mention Oxford in Cambridge or vice versa is because firstly, there were tensions that I mentioned above between the townspeople and the students. Well, at Oxford, someone was killed and while one student fled the incident, the other two who participated in this were put to death for their crime. After this, a professor and some students decided to go to Cambridge. The professor from Oxford taught so well and the students enjoyed it that they eventually made a home out of Cambridge. They took delight to it so much that they started to make it much like Oxford, just in a different setting. And there you have it-- Cambridge University developed!

Oh Dear...

I think my body has adjusted from the jet lag, but it might just be because I have been forced to sleep at around 11 and 12 now. Friday, we had an ice cream party where everyone who attended could have four ice creams total! I could barely finish one, so I don't know what I was thinking when I grabbed two. I forced myself to eat a little bit of the second one. Whew, never doing that again. Too bad Roger, Jeku, Ryan, or my two roomies from back home weren't around to help me finish that ice cream. After the ice cream party, I went to the pub to watch the game: Ghana v. Uruguay. I was rooting for Uruguay if you must know, and they won! Feels good to be on a winning time when everyone is on the team predicted to win. That was intense being in a pub on campus, although I'm sure it was like that in the city as well. The one game I watched in its entirety was the one that had crazy overtime! It was well worth it, though. It made for a good pub experience minus the drinks or food, haha. Anyway, that's the reason I got home late.
The next day, I went back to London with my school. I had seen everything already with my parents, but I absolutely love London and wanted to go back so I did. That day happened to be the day London Pride was going on, so in a way, I got a better view of London with my parents since streets were blocked off. I did enjoy getting to see the London Parade. I only got to see a few hours of it, but I loved it. I loved that the churches and cathedrals had notices within their glass cases supporting the London Pride and the many forms of love which can be portrayed through the LGBT community. Loved it.



We visited St. Paul's Cathedral, the Big Ben, some food markets, Buckingham Palace, Horse Guard's, and to a huge courtyard where BBC films all their major celebratory sections. (That court yard was probably the only thing I didn't really get to look at when I was with my parents.) Oh, and we also went on the Thames River cruise from Westminister to Greenwich Pier. Can you spot me below? Hehe




The black and white probably doesn't help in the very bottom picture, especially because it isn't very big. :) Not much to update on since my visit to London was basically a repeat of what I'd done with parents. Then again, I haven't blogged about my visit to London yet... maybe I'll do that at the very end of my study abroad session or when I have more free time. Right now, I have to do some reading for tomorrow. (And I am meeting someone to hopefully buy their Cambridge ticket off of them!!) Cambridge was a school I was going to apply to, by the way, but the GPA requirement was a little out of my reach :(

Anyway, that's all from me and unless I think of something else... have a lovely day!

'Ello There Bloke

I still haven't figured out how to post pictures within my entires. You would think that I could just naturally post it after a paragraph or something, but it automatically posts my pictures toward the beginning of my post... so if any of you know how to change this, let me know please! It makes me thankful for my original wordpress blog in that respect. Anyway, moving on!

Yesterday was a relaxing day. I didn't have any class because as I mentioned earlier, for the first summer session I only have class from Monday to Wednesday for an hour and a half. What better way to start a 4-day weekend than go back into the lovely city of Brighton? I met up with some new friends I got to know in class to do some grocery shopping. One of them apparently knows someone back home originally from Fresno but who now goes to UCLA. Small world!

We first went to a mall that I didn't even know existed in this city! It had an H&M, McDonald's, Quizno's, Borders, and some other stores I can't remember. I definitely didn't expect to see Quizno's or Borders here, though. We didn't do any shopping, unfortunately. The people I had gone along with needed some phones like me since I already had one, so that was the first thing on our agenda. One guy told me he was going through culture shock because he realized that people in the store don't come up to help you. I guess again, we can see how spoiled we are with people always at our feet asking whether we need anything. I think this only happens in some places here, though, because another phone store had a kind gentleman who asked us if we needed help picking out a phone. I was also wondering, what exactly is culture shock? I don't think I've gone through it, really. This guy I was hanging around was telling me how he went through all these culture shocks like people not offering help, people driving on the left side of the road, the food not being good, etc. These seem like small things that I either expected or didn't think was such a big deal. To me, it seemed like just seeing a bug with a missing leg, but I could imagine it as something natural in nature. Isn't culture shock something where you struggle to cope with something drastic?? I'm not sure I'm describing this too well.

My dad was telling me that after leaving Brighton and going back into London, he and my mother had gone to have some tea at the Saint James Hotel where they were obviously segregating Asians on one side of the room from all the white people. My dad sounded a little upset and confused and shocked. This is something that would catch me off guard if it was as obvious as he made it sound. Now, isn't that something like culture shock? I mean, perhaps it's just racism and segregation in a different category itself in its entirety rather than culture shock, but wouldn't culture shock be something to this effect? Something that makes you unable to cope with something so different you aren't used to?

I don't know... what are your thoughts on this?

Anyway, we ended up getting some lunch at a buffet. I ended up not getting the buffet and just spaghetti because my tummy can't take very much and I needed something that I could take home for money worth's sake. I was expecting my spaghetti to be more tomato-ish tasting, but it was very watery. I'm getting used to food here being bland and flavorless. (Naturally, I'd do the british spelling: "flavour" but I think I should retain some American things in this blog :P ) After debating about whether we needed to leave tip (which we didn't think was necessary), we wandered around and found our way to the bus stop to get to the grocery store.

When we got back to campus, I tried to get some tickets for the "Pub Crawl Tour" which is where they take you on a pub tour across the city and you eventually end up at a night club. I was debating on whether I wanted to do this since I don't drink and club, but I figured since England is known for pubs (among many other things, of course) I should try the experience. It turned out that 400 students had already bought the tickets and 50 students including me could not get them. So instead, I went to Brighton Marina for some bowling. Now this was interesting.

Apparently, bowling isn't a common thing and they don't do it very often as we do in the US. We had some fish and chips before bowling :) By the end of bowling, I had won! I was so surprised because I'm used to bowling with people who bowl far over 200 points, and I had only bowled 120! That was an experience if ever, and perhaps you could say it was a good ego/confidence booster for me, haha. I consider it a good thing since I don't have much confidence to begin with. Before we retired, we went to McDonald's for a 75 pence soft-served ice cream cone. :) Got home at 11, and I slept peacefully. That was my day yesterday... tonight I am going to an ice-cream party so I have been doing lots of reading since I have to sleep early to go to London tomorrow. Woohoo! Sorry for such a long post, I'll try and keep them short in the future. :)

Some other things I learned: Students go to "college" for 2 years which is what we take naturally as 4 years and then go on to a "university" for a certain degree, and that is 3-4 years. Also, they don't have the terms "freshman," "sophomore," "junior," or "senior." They just use the terms "first year," "second year," occasionally "third year," and rarely "fourth year." For words like Norwich or Warwick, they don't pronounce the w in the word so it is actually said like "Norich" and respectively, "Warick." Leicester is also said like "Lescter." Kind of like... molester, haha. Lastly, I heard a lady say "Just sign your scribbles there!" Interesting, huh? Over in the U.S., we'd say "Sign your John Hancock!" :P

Lovely Jubbly!

I'm not sure how much more my brain can produce British phrases off the top of my head for titles, but hopefully I'll be able to think of at least one for every day. (That's probably not likely, though.) I'm finding that I talk in a more British manner everyday. I've always been inclined to speak in a more proper way, but when I hear other British speakers around do it naturally, it slips off my tongue more easily. Things like "Lovely to meet you!", "Oh dear!", and "Quite fascinating!" are all small things that I've found myself using. Stick me in the right environment and my inner British flies!

Yesterday was actually very interesting. I ended up feeling very discouraged and depressed from having not found any real friends that I could pal around with. I had gone on a supermarket run with a group of people, and all of them seemed to know each other. (Again, I wasn't surprised.) While grocery shopping, I got really lonely as I had no one to pair with so I was practically on the verge of tears. After buying some water, fruit, and few other small snacks, I made my way back to the bus stop where I talked to one of the Sussex staff members and about two other students. They all agreed that all the California people (mosty so-cal) were very clingy to each other and excluded other students, which didn't make me feel much better. The staff member told me to weasel my way in to those large crowds or just force myself onto them, but that just isn't my personality no matter how hard I try. I'm not good with forcing myself onto them. Normally, I end up introducing myself and chatting a little bit, then getting the shaft. I suppose I'm not as annoyingly persistent as other people are more experienced at doing.

Well, I went to class and finally met a girl who hadn't made any real friends to hang around with, too. She was really sweet and offered to go on the Brighton City tour with me. Things got a lot better from there. Anyway, I'll talk about my tour of the city now!

While in the city, I didn't realize how much I would love it. It's different from London and reminds me a little bit of Beauty and the Beast settings in the village (once you get past the hustle and bustle of the main centered city). It's a little similar in that all the shops are so close to each other. The buildings were so cute and quaint! I absolutely loved it. They were all placed in a way which made every little business in an intimate setting with all the other ones. Something I also absolutely loved was the alley ways! I didn't think one could enjoy walking down an alley way, but as we got farther into our tour of the city, there became more little alley ways with simple but elegant walls and trees or flowers peeking over them. There were doors within the walls and sometimes more alley ways where the doors would have been placed. The restaurants all have seating outside, it's relatively peaceful and quiet with amazingly lovely weather on the sidewalks. Even though people are seated on the sidewalk right next to roads, not many cars pass by and everything looks like it's all surreal. I mean, it looked like a romantic little village! I fell in love with everything so much! It made me want to go on a date so badly... It made me feel so happy. Unfortunately, there was one particular spot that is printed into my mind and I didn't get a picture of that place. :( One of the pictures above has one picture I took of an alley I loved.

We then took a walk down the pier and it was absolutely beautiful! The weather got cooler, we saw the ocean and the water was pristine, the mist farther out blended with the sky perfectly, and it captured my heart along with the Brighton pier board. It's another place I would love to go and do on my date-filled day! :) It was wonderfully breath-taking. All of this filled me with so much happiness and joy in my heart that I could burst.

We ended the tour with some traditional fish and chips (so all of you nagging me, I finally got it!) Then some headed to do some karaoke at one of the pubs in town and others headed back. I had originally planned to go to karaoke to get my head out of the sad little atmosphere it was in, and as I felt better I wanted to go. However, all the walking made me a little sleepy so I decided to retire. On my wait for the bus back to school, I met another girl from Davis and another girl from Germany who were so nice. I really enjoyed their company and I think we might start doing things together since we're all suffering the same problems with making friends. :) Once we got back to school, we went to the school pub and watched the end of the game. I know some of you were probably rooting for Spain, but man I saw some ridiculous things by that team that I had to root for Portugal. :P Anyway, that was my eventful day.

A few things I learned: they call jelly "jam" although I think some Americans say jam, anyway. They don't have toilet covers, which again makes me think of how spoiled we Americans are. Also, holding the the peace sign with your thumbs facing toward you is equivalent to the "f-off" middle finger. The UK has their own The Office and X Factor. University students have to pay to use their campus gym for membership, and Sussex students are a lot like Davis or Berkeley students in being "forward thinking" and participating in eco-friendly things as well as student activism.

That's all I can think of for now... my parents are leaving from London to go back to the US, today. For me, I think I'm going to finish some homework. :) Hope you enjoyed reading this long one.

Pip pip!

For starters, here are some pictures of my room and the bathroom. I have quite a few pictures, but I picked a few for this post. Maybe I'll post other ones later.

This is the shower. Quite small, and kind of nasty as people don't pick up after themselves.

The small and kind of not-so-clean toilets I mentioned in the first post. The lights for this particular toilet room doesn't work.
Here is a view of (most of) my entire room.

Here is a picture of my desk and my bed. They provided the pillow, blanket, the covers and such.

The sink is the picture on the right right next to my desk.

My body is definitely having difficulty adjusting, but I suppose it's turning out to be a somewhat good sort of thing. Ever since I got into London, I have been sleeping at 10:45 to 11:00 and waking up at 5:30 or 6:00. It's definitely carried over to Brighton. The only bad thing is my body has been getting very "knackered" (or tired to the point of death) at around 7 and 8 'o clock so I have to struggle to stay awake until at least 10. Then I sleep and wake up at 5:30-6:00. I've never been to bed so early in my life on a regular basis like this, but then again it has just barely been a week. I do, however, like waking up really early with the sun and getting peace because I still have homework to complete before class. Which brings me to my next topic worth mentioning.

After orientation which was nothing special I assure you, I had class. So in the US, we grace those that teach us with the title "professor" quite easily. Here, those that we would call professors are called teachers or more specifically, a tutor. Quite a modest thing if you ask me. I find it fascinating for some reason. Maybe it is because they are so humble and are given the term "professor" in a honorary manner. Anyway, my tutor's name is Andrei, and he is from Columbia. He said he's also from Austria, lol. I love that he has an accent. It's not one I am more fond of like Irish or other English accents, but I do like listening to it.

Our class is very small because this university prides itself as being one of the most critical in all of Europe. There are 12 people in my class, the same as the number of people in my dorm. We do presentations daily on our own and while I am not used to speaking up in class, I think this is a good thing. Especially for me. I can't be just an active listener so forcing me to speak daily will be interesting and hopefully make it better for me when I'm back in the US. The reading is just as much as the things in Sociology and Political Science, if not more. I also have lots of time to do it, though, so unless I'm traveling, I think I should be able to devote lots of time to my studies to get good marks. Anyway, the gist of the class is seminar style to an extent. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of class to see how all this goes.

Oh, and just for a random side note, we have lots of seagulls on campus. No pigeons or anything like that in London, and I bet it's most likely because we are by the sea with a beach somewhere. It totally throws me off when I see them normally as the birds screeching outside my window. Their screeches, for that matter, or very different from any other seagulls I've heard. Haha, maybe I'll try and catch a video of them making crazy screams at me. :)

Also, do any of you know how to get pictures within your posts and not just at the beginning of the posts?