I left Chicago at 9:45 pm on July 3 and arrived at the University at 5:30 pm making it one hell of a travel day. I was traveling with six other ISU students who are studying abroad with me which made the trip a little more enjoyable. The flight wasn’t too bad, there were no screaming babies or loud people which was nice. It was just long, really long (6 hrs). Arriving at Heathrow Airport at 11:30 (England time) and only having a few hours sleep made trying to find the bus depot very interesting. Getting through customs didn't take long and before long we were on the long trek through several tunnels and flights of stairs to the place where we were to catch the bus. We thought we needed to wait for another friend that was traveling by herself so we could take the bus together but it turns out that she was in a different area of the airport and caught the bus from some where else arriving at the campus hours before we did.
We finally boarded the bus close to 2pm and were ready to be on the bus for the next 2 hours. It ended up taking longer because our bus had problems and we had to wait for another bus to come so we could continue onto Brighton. When we arrived in Brighton we had to catch a taxi to take us out to the University of Brighton Falumer Campus were our flats are located. Because we arrived on campus at 5:30pm there was no one in the housing office to give us keys to our flats. We ended up calling the night manager and he was able to get us keys. I'm living in Flat 30B with six other girls from my program. After dropping our stuff off in our rooms we went out to dinner with the rest of the members of our program because we had missed the run to the grocery store earlier in the day and had no food to cook. That night for dinner I had my first fish and chips dinner, which was really good. We then spent a couple of hours exploring Brighton and the beach on the English Chanel.
The City of Brighton
Brighton is what we would call a smaller city but is pretty large for an English city. It is known as London by the sea because there is so much to do here. Brighton has a large population of young people because of the several universities in the area. There are many different bars and night clubs that make for a great and entertaining night life. One bar that we have been to several times is called the King and Queens, which has great karaoke on Tuesday nights. The Brighton Pier is a famous landmark in Brighton. The pier reminds me of Navy Pier in Chicago. It has several different rides, an arcade, an area of slot machines, food stands, , among other things. Its fun just to walk around and people watch. Another attraction is the Brighton Pavilion. It was built by King George the IV as a summer palace. It is beautiful inside! The dinning room has a chandler that weights 1 ton! There are also lots of great pubs, restaurants, and bakeries to eat at. The shopping is great as well which is not a good thing for my pocket book.
My Flat
The flat is very similar to a college dorm. Our building has three floors and I am on the second floor. There are eight rooms on the floor and we each have our own bathrooms which is really nice. The bathrooms are very interesting because the shower, sink, and toilet are all in the room together. The shower is separated from the other things by only a curtain. In our rooms we have a desk, a small dresser, and closet. The bed is better then a cot but worse then my bed at school last year. When you lay in certain spots you can feel the springs. We were given two pillows but you would never know there were two by looking at them because they are so thin they look like one medium sized pillow. Each floor has its own kitchen with two dorm fridges and two dorm sized freezers. There is a microwave and a stove that heats up really fast. We also have a small TV that gets a few British stations. The outlets here are also very different. Not only are the three prong holes square and upside down, you have to turn on the outlet in order for what is plugged in to work.
