By the Sea

As evidenced by the following pictures, I spent my weekend in the proximity of the sea. 

Brighton has a famous pier and boardwalk, which was designed in the typical Brighton architectural fashion: white, ornate, and and very unique.  The pier reminded me of the Great White City of the Chicago World Fair.  There is another building in the city that was built is the Royal Pavilion, built as a seaside resort for Prince (and future king) George IV to benefit his gout (thanks Wikipedia!). Anyways, its even more ornate, even more eccentric, and even more over the top. It was built to mimic Indian design. 

This is not my photo, but yes, there are palm trees in front. Exotic.

Brighton is bigger than I expected.  Its about 500,00 people (or so I'm told), and holds a number of festivals, shows, and other signs of a cultural big city.  Yeah, the high street just looks the same as every other city, but the small lanes (tiny narrow winding streets) are full of eclectic shops.

One night, we ventured down to the city for a good old-fashioned Fish Fry, a dancing night where they only played music from the 40's.  White people can actually dance to that stuff, which is nice.

The University of Sussex is located about 10 minutes from the city, tucked up in the hills. If you have started to have that inkling that Brighton sounds similar to Santa Cruz, you're on to something. The physical set up is similar, with a detached campus. The campus itself is pretty forward-thinking, and its favorite sports are field hockey and hackey sack.

I went to see my friends Emily and Aaron, who will be studying there for a year (for a year! I won't see them....)  They live in these funny multi-storied housing units that are terraced into the hillside and house 12 people each. That's a lot of people to share one kitchen.  But Emily's flatmates are quite nice, and would be good friends if I were living there.

Emily celebrated a 21st birthday while I was there.  It was medieval royalty/peasantry themed. I was a peasant, and found my "husband" in a girl who dressed as Rasputin

It was an awesome evening, with a live performance by Aaron and Emily's band, which includes guitar, cello, viola, and melodica.

One of the afternoons, we took a walk in the Downs, the open, preserved area surrounding the school. Its characterised by gently rolling hills, pastures, and small woods; all in all, very English. 

One of the quaintest parts of the walk was the small hamlet that was just over the hill. It consisted of a church, a pond, a tea house, and about a dozen cottages. And a small mansion. And a communal stable it seems?  Looks fit for a Christmasy setting.

We had high tea in the tea room. Large cups of tea, fresh scones, and fresh, handwhipped cream for the top.  So good.  It sounds fancy, but it wasn't; at least, it wasn't stuffy. It was more rustic cute, with country couples coming tromping in in their wellies and dogs.

The village, where supposedly people live year-round, and is not a holiday place.  It seemed almost fictitious to me, but very cute.