Brighton

Hey Everybody!

I finally have the internet in my dorm room now, so you can contact me via Skype. I also can update things more often.

I spent the past two days mostly in downtown Brighton. It's a really fun city with tons of things going on and loads and loads of shopping! It's right on the ocean, so it has some shore-like characteristics to it. It's very large with tons of bus transportation throughout it, so I've gotten pretty acquainted with the bus system. It's somewhat overwhelming, since there are so many buses to choose from! Even though I've explored the city for two straight days now, there are still sections of the city that I haven't seen yet, if that gives you an idea of how large it is. There's an event called the Brighton Festival that goes on every year for almost the entire month of May, so there are a lot of random events going on all over the city as well. It's really fun to hang out there.

I have been bonding with my fellow classmates really well. We've been getting along for the most part, and have become quite close despite the fact that we barely knew each other before we came. It's amazing how quickly you get to know people when you're immersed with them for several straight days in a strange country.

There are many little things that are different about England than I expected. There are a lot of phrases that are different. Examples are asking for the "toilet" or the "loo" instead of the bathroom or restroom, "having a lay in" means sleeping in, a "lift" is an elevator, and many more. It's sometimes a bit difficult to communicate when we use different terms, and it's also a bit of a challenge to understand the accents sometimes. Today someone English told one of my classmates that her accent was hard to understand, which made us laugh. It's been fun trying to figure out all of the little differences.

I need to get some sleep now, so that's all for today. If you want to check out the first of my pictures, go to these links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185834&id=30308465&l=f82265f0ba
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185858&id=30308465&l=a441777c8c