Everybody Limbo!

So I think my last month in Brighton is going to be characterized by "Limbo." The problem is that I am genuinely starting to feel settled into Brighton. I'm now starting to accidentally pronounce words in an English accent and I am using new idioms with abandon.

But most importantly, I have finally, finally, found eateries that I want to return to and count as one of my "places". Before, when asked about the restaurants where I had gone out to eat in Brighton, I would usually respond, "it was alright. You know, good, not great." And it was true. Everywhere I have eaten in Brighton (that I could also eat at frequently with my budget) up until this month was decent, but never inspired a return trip.

Well, we have recently discovered a couple of places in the North Laines that I have frequented almost everyday this week. The first love is Brighton Coffee Co. The coffee is good, but not mind blowing. Its the attic that attracts me. Whenever I go up there I feel this wonderful mix of peace and creativity. The space is simultaneously enclosed--its feels isolated and private--and also expansive since the window looks out onto the rooftops of Brighton. And they play interesting, mellow music, so it is not oppresively silent and then just quiet enough to think or read. I want to live in their attic. Maybe I will make it my happy place, and revisit it mentally next year when the stress of WashU living hits.

My second love is Lick. It is froyo, but it is literally just yogurt they have frozen and is fat free and probiotic, i.e. healthy! Plus when you put honey on top the honey slightly freezes which makes it thicker and the texture is just...well, if I go on I might pass out from happiness.

And lastly there is RedVeg which serves vegetarian hamburgers, fries, falafel, and other wraps. This place satisfies my craving for an American style greasy burger, and takes away the enviromentally-concious-guilt I usually feel from supporting the cattle industry. Plus, they have this sweet, jelly-like, spicy sauce that you eat with the chili potato wedges. I was so happy to find food (especially potatoes) with actual flavour.

At long last I have found food I like in the UK! Hurrah!

But the feeling of Limbo comes from the fact that I am ready to go home in some ways. Two of my Sussex friends left for the U.S. this past Monday. And this is just the beginning of a steady stream of people leaving to go home. Other people leaving makes me think what it would be like if I left, and then I start losing the place I've created for myself, in my mind, in Brighton.

So, Limbo it is and Limbo I will learn to be comfortable with for the next month. It's not so bad, really.

Lists Rock

I am susceptible to my generation's obsession with lists (the fb notes, the countdown shows etc.) and can't think of a better way to pass the time.

I'll start with the negative so that I can end with positive.

10 Things I am Happy to Leave in Brighton:

1. The Seagulls

The Seagulls here are the size of chickens. Bigger. And they are the meanest bastards you will ever meet. I am a generally peaceful, nonviolent person, but the damn seagulls here are so infuriating that they make me want to kick them. I considered hunting one of them and stuffing it to bring home as a souvenir. I might have problems at customs though.

2. Messy Freshers (that means freshmen). Uni of Sussex doesn't have a meal plan, so everyone has to cook for themselves. Imagine what WashU might have been like if we were all given and expected to use kitchens during our freshman year. There has been a box of dirty, hazardous to your health, dirty dishes that the cleaning staff is threatening to throw out. And the smell. Oh god its bad. Plus, there is so much litter on campus. Lots of people go up to the hills around campus to drink and eat, but then they'll often just leave crumbled up cans and wrappers strewn everywhere. It breaks my heart because the countryside here is so beautiful. I might even cry one solitary tear.

3. The pound. My money is worth shit here. And I constantly feel poor and like I shouldn't buy anything.

4. Missing people I love back home.

5. Paying £3.60 to get into Brighton by bus and then having to pay an extra pound after midnight, which works out to be more than five dollars. I know someone at Sussex who drives a car because it works out to be cheaper than taking public transit. So while the public transit is much more extensive, it is also more expensive.

6. Customer service, or lack there of. Speed doesn't seem to be as much of a priority.

7. Everything closing early. The pubs will often kick you out at 11! And you can stay out at night clubs, but if you just want to sit in a coffee shop or at a bar, you're out of luck.

8. Lack of work. While I love having very little school work, I do feel really lazy and I am ready to get back to my American work ethic.

9. The academics. In my English course, it is expected that all of the opinions you express in a paper are back up with secondary sources written by scholars and critics. They really don't seem interested in just hearing your own opinion, which offends my sense of individualism.

10. Drunk and loud people. I don't know if I don't notice it as much back home, but my impression is that the U.S. is a lot less tolerant with public displays of drunkenness. And honestly I find super drunk people a little frightening.

10 Things I Will Miss About Brighton

1. DESSERTS: scones, clotted cream, the thousand different kind of biscuits (cookies), cadbury's products, and how cake is an acceptable afternoon snack.

2. The Brighton beach. The old pier is, cliched as it is, hauntingly beautiful.

3. The English countryside. I can't define it but it is definitely different from the U.S. And when the weather is nice here, it is so much more magical just because its rare.

4. Villages. We have nothing like it in the U.S. In Rottingdean the neighbourhood tea room was built in the 1500s, which is 200 hundred years before the U.S. was even created.

5. Theater/music/art/comedy. All four of those things are so accessible and plentiful here. I went up to Falmer village recently to buy some veg and someone had installed this eerily beautiful sculpture of a man and a woman leaning towards each other in the middle of the village pond. It just seems that artistic expression is more integrated into life here. You don't have to go to a museum to see art.

6. But if you do go to a museum (in London at least) it is free and phenomenal. The mark of a good product, in my opinion, is if it makes you want to create something as well. Bad sentence. I mean that, a really well written song makes me want to write songs, a really funny comedian makes me want to do stand up and the museums in London make me want to study art history and be an art curator. The picture on this post is from the British Museum.

7. Travel accessibility. London is an hour by train, and most of Europe is only a three to four hour plane trip.

8. The people. I've met some really fantastic English/Irish/Welsh/Scottish and American people here. And I feel like I've barely had time to get to know them.

9. Lack of work. Adjusting back to having more responsibilities and courses, plus senioritis, is going to be rough. And I just feel so much healthier in some ways this semester (def not in others, I've eaten too much pasta and potatoes) because I've had so much less stress.

10. Variety of Accents. Even when my lectures are incredibly boring (most of the time, in fact) I can still amuse myself by listening to the lecturer's accent and trying to mimic it under my breath. No wonder no one sits next to me at lectures, wah-wah.

Oh Hell No

I hoped that this day would never arrive. If there is one thing I am more afraid of than being attacked and/or popped on by a seagull, its that I will develop a Madonna-esque fake English accent. If I can avoid both of those, then my time in Brighton will have been a success. Its just so horribly pretentious, and SO uncomfortable when I know that someone is American and they are trying to pretend like they have an English accent. I cringe inside, and sometimes I physically shudder as well.

For example, there is this girl in one of my seminars who I am sure is a decent, nice person, but she puts on this fake English accent and I know she's from Seattle. Even more embarrassing, her "English" accent is especially strong when she is impersonating someone pretentious. I keep wanting to pull her aside and tell her, "You aren't in the states. You are in ENGLAND. We are surrounded by people with the accent that you are making fun of. We are out numbered and they could hurt you."

So I've been monitoring my accent and trying to stay as A-meRr-ican (how George Bush says it) as possible. Although with Maryse visiting I started to realize how many English-isms I've picked up, such as "doing the washing up." But today I was buying frozen yogurt in the laines with some friends and I was saying which toppings I wanted. I asked for cookies and cream (they were plain old oreos), and then, a moment I wish I could take back, I asked for "Bah-nah-nah." After I heard myself pronounce "banana" in this way I flipped out and corrected myself and apologized to the worker who was helping me. He just smiled in a conspiratorial way, which was cute. I also dropped my two pound coin and it rolled away for a really long time. All in all it was undoubtedly the most bizarre frozen yogurt buying experience of my life.

So even though it was scary for me, the frozen yogurt worker's reaction was nice. And then we went to another dessert place (yikes!) called Choocywoocydoodah (the picture is of this store). And I asked one of the workers there (they are all really cute and I have a big crush on them, the store, the whole package really) what some other customers were drinking (hot chocolate with a ton of whipped cream). He asked me where I was from and I think he was kind of impressed that I was from Missouri, which is probably a first for me. He said, "Missouri is a long way from here. Do you like chocolate, have some," and then he gave me free chocolate! So, I'm in love. He had tattoos too.

So, Brighton is really growing on me, despite an unfortunate trend on my part of adopting some of the accent.