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.