Me Day

I figured that the best way to find balance would be to take a day off and sort things out.  So today I had a “me day.”  I got to say I’ve really enjoyed it so far.  I started my morning off by sleeping in, or as my Dutch friend Will would say sleeping “out.”  Then since I was feeling lazy I watched Pitch Perfect – a very funny and enjoyable movie.  After that I convinced myself to go for a run at the nearby gym.  I’m pretty much healthy again so I could no longer use being sick as an excuse.   Next on the agenda was laundry, which I am still in the process of doing.  I have feeling though that before I finish writing this I will have to go collect my laundry from the dryer.

My plans for this evening are to write this blog post, finish putting away my laundry, maybe read a few things for school, and research trip options for my Easter Break.  I’m not sure if I mentioned this before or not but I get 3 weeks off for Easter.  I’m definitely planning to take advantage of that time off school.  My little sister, Amanda will be visiting me for the week before and the first week of my break.  I’m really looking forward to showing Amanda around England and parts of Europe.  I just haven’t decided which parts.  There are so many things that I would love for her to see but two weeks in Europe goes surprisingly fast.  Hopefully I will be able to plan an amazing trip for her.

Poster of the Royal Pavilion I bought for my room!

This past weekend was great.  It was unintentionally centered on the Royal Pavilion – the palace of King George IV.  On Saturday a group of us intended to go the neighbouring city of Eastbourne for a daytrip but the weather was crummy so we opted to stay in Brighton.  Since the weather was so cold instead of wandering around the city we chose to take a tour of the Royal Pavilion, which happened to not be properly heated and felt just about as cold as it was outside.

The Royal Pavilion is a strange palace.  The exterior has Indian influence and evokes images of the Taj Mahal.  The interior has Chinese influences and makes one think they are in China rather than England.  It is beautiful for sure but it seems out of place somehow.

Unfortunately photo taking inside the palace was prohibited so I can’t show you what I saw.  Instead I will tell you how it felt to wander around the palace.  With the cost of entrance we were given an audio guide to listen to.

King George IV was the epitome of a selfish monarch.  He liked parties, being the center of attention and spending excessively to indulge his every desire.  As you walk through the various rooms of the palace you can’t help but marvel at the grandeur and extravagance.

Sometimes I think how different the world would be today if monarchs of the past had spent less time and money building and feathering their castles.  But then I stop myself and think how sad it would be to not have those palaces to visit.  Their beauty wouldn’t exist for future generations to draw inspiration from.  There would be no Versailles and the Hall of Mirrors, no Sans-Souci Palace, no Tsarskoye Selo (Catherine’s Palace near St. Petersburg)… just to name a few that I have been fortunate enough to have visited.  I love visiting palaces!  I can’t tell you why exactly but I do.  I’m glad they exist.

Sunday was the last day that there was an ice rink on the lawns of the Royal Pavilion.  I felt like going skating at the Royal Pavilion was one of those experiences that one needs to have while in Brighton.  I went with a group of friends – Amanda, Charlotte, David, Justine, Melissa and Will.  Justine came along just to watch us skate and hang out afterwards.  We had a lot of fun. See…

Charlotte, Will, Amanda, Melissa, Me, and David!

When I was younger I was in a figure skating club so I was excited to get back on the ice.  The others were a little more apprehensive.  I remember correctly but I think David had skated only once before and the last time Will skated was like 10 years ago.  Charlotte was the most anxious though since the two times she skated previously she ended up with broken bones - a fact that she didn’t mention until we were on the bus heading to the rink.

It didn’t take very long to re-accustom myself to wearing skates and enjoy being on the ice.  I think it took a little longer for the others to feel comfortable.

Charlotte spent the first 20 minutes or so slowly making her way around the rink desperately clinging to the handrail.  We suggested she use a penguin that was designed to help children learn to skate and even managed to steal one.  Unfortunately it was too small for her given she isn’t a child and the rink staff took it away.

I tried to help Charlotte whenever I could but her fear was like a barricade.  I broke it down eventually though.  I was persistent and I think it helped for her to see how steady a skater I am.  With much encouragement I convinced her to hold onto my arms and skate with me.  For the first little while I was more or less pulling her along as I skated backwards near the rail.

She improved slowly but surely as I continued to encourage her and give her advice on how to stay balanced like “bend your knees” and “butt out.”  At one point she realized we were in the middle of the rink and almost freaked out.  When her confidence built she managed to move from holding my elbows to my hands and finally to holding only one hand.  In the end she did 6 full laps of the rink.  I was so proud of her!  I guess third times the charm because she didn’t break any bones!

After skating we went to a cute little shop in the South Lanes called Cloud 9.  They had warm drinks, cakes, cupcakes and gelato.  I chose a delicious gluten free cupcake.  Ever since I arrived in England I told myself I’d try to avoid wheat since I have a sensitivity to it and I’m astounded by just how widely available gluten-free options are here.

We chose to stay in town for the couple hours before dinner since there wasn’t enough time to go back to halls.  Since it was a Sunday most businesses close at 5pm so we had to move to a pub.

I was very pleased to discover the pub we ended up at the Prince George serves Kopparberg – a Swedish brand of cider.  It was so good and every sip reminded me of when I lived in Sweden.

I’m not sure how it started but I ended up quizzing Will and Amanda with how to spell challenging English words.  It is very difficult to think of hard English words off the top of my head so I looked up “hard to spell English words.”  Amanda was surprisingly good and Will was surprisingly bad.  Amanda had the fact she speaks Swedish, Italian, English and some Spanish I believe on her side.  And in Will’s defense most of the words he’d never even heard before and they were words most English speakers would spell incorrectly.

For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant called Lucky Star.  We were supposed to meet up with Nicole, the Canadian girl who first showed me around Brighton, who was back in town for one last night but her train was delayed.

Dinner was delicious and at the end of the meal we got to see Nicole briefly to say goodbye before heading home for the night.  It was a long but good day.

So that was more or less my weekend.  Hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my adventures in Brighton :)

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PS. For those interested I finished my laundry, made myself dinner, and did a number of other things before I managed to finish writing this post.  For some reason I always feel the need to write exactly what I'm doing when I start writing and usually by the time I'm done it no longer applies. Weird, eh?

Balance

There is so much happening here in Brighton and I am failing miserably at balancing everything.  It seems that every day or every night there is something different going on.  On the one hand it is great because there is no time to get bored.  On the other it means I pushed myself to join in a little too soon when recovering from being sick last week and thus fell ill again.  This time I had horribly dry, sore throat and Wednesday I even had fever like symptoms.  Good news I’m on the mend again and this time I’m trying to take it easier so I can recover fully.

Another thing I haven’t been very good at is writing posts regularly and thus I have much to catch up on.  I will probably just have to mention the highlights otherwise it would take me all day to write this.

Last weekend the weather here in Brighton was gorgeous.  I took advantage of all Brighton has to offer shopping, nightlife and hanging out on the seafront.  It was a good weekend.  Check out the some of pictures I took below.  Brighton is really quite beautiful.

On Monday I went to London.  I slept pretty terribly the night before so when I fell asleep after my alarm and woke up with only half an hour to get ready I definitely debating skipping out on the day trip.  I’m really glad I didn’t.  It was a great day!

Eight of us went and the countries represented were Canada – Justine, Melissa and I, Germany – Christian and Mario,  The Netherlands – Willem, and France – David and Geoffrey.

We caught the train into Brighton then got another train to London.  The train to London only takes about an hour.  So for me the commute was very similar to going from Tsawwassen to downtown Vancouver.

The train from Brighton arrives at London Victoria station, which is near Buckingham Palace so that was our first stop of the day.  Having been to London before I didn’t have anywhere specifically that I wanted to go.  It was nice to let the others decide where we would go next.

My second time seeing Buckingham Palace and my impression of it was much the same.  As far as castles/palaces go it’s not all that impressive.  But I have a feeling that the inside probably fully makes up for the outside.  All the same it is still cool to see it in person.

The guys

The Canadians

From there we walked through Green Park to Piccadilly Circus – London’s mini version of Times Square.  It was a nice walk and it was an area of London I didn’t see on my previous visit.

Our next pit stop was M&M World.  Basically it was a massive four-floor store filled with the delicious chocolate candy and merchandise stamped with the M&M logo or cartoon characters.  There were also cartoon M&M statues pretending to be the Beatles crossing Abbey Road and even an M&M bobby.  It was way better than the M&M World in New York.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Chinatown, Soho and Oxford Street stopping at a few shops here and there.  It was very chill.  The pub we stopped at for lunch was terrible though.  First of all, it was cold inside. Second, 45 minutes after we ordered and some peoples' food had already arrived the waitress came up to us to tell us that some of the things ordered and already paid for were unavailable.  It was quite ridiculous.  But really it is the only negative I have to say about the day as a whole.

After shopping on Oxford Street we jumped on the tube to see Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey.  Much like the Eiffel Tower, those are sights that never get old no matter how many times you see them.  I got really lucky with one of the shots I took – I got Big Ben, a part of the London Eye and a red double decker bus all in one picture.  I think it’s almost a postcard quality shot.

Next we zipped over to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, which is often mistakenly called London Bridge.  The sun was beginning to set and it was just beautiful.  It was a nice place to wander around as the sun faded from the sky.  A helpful passerby kindly offered to take a group photo for us.  I was glad to get a memento of the whole group.

The whole gang! Left to right: Christian, Melissa, Geoffrey, David, Me, Justine, Will, and Mario.

Trafalgar Square was our next stop.  There was still some daylight when we went to catch the tube but when we resurfaced it was fully night-time.  Having seen the Square in daylight previously it was cool to see it at night.  From there we walked back to Piccadilly Circus to see it at night.  It wasn’t quite as impressive as Times Square but still pretty cool.

At that point the group split.  Mario, Christian, Melissa and Justine headed home and Will, David, Geoffrey and I went in search of a restaurant for dinner.  We ended up at this little, apparently Italian place.  I say apparently because the menu was more or less Italian but I had a prime rib dinner with Yorkshire pudding and that is definitely not Italian.  It was a delicious meal.  But I have to say my Uncle Don’s prime rib dinners are much better.

Once we finished dinner we went to catch the train home.  We arrived at London Victoria station with only a few minutes to catch the train we wanted and had to run across the station.  It was kind of funny.

The best parts of the day are the hardest to convey.  I’ve told you all the places we went but I couldn’t share all the good conversations and shared experiences.  Oh and it was nice not having to constantly be wondering how to get to the next place.  Will had brought a map and took care of directions.  Usually I tend to end up being the one in charge of getting the group from one place to the next.  Actually one of my nicknames here is “mental map” which I’m not particularly fond of but somehow it stuck.  I have a really good sense of direction and when asked about how I knew where certain places were I responded that I had a really good mental map.

Anyways, this post has already gotten long enough just talking about London so I’m going to cut it off there for now.  For all the London pictures click here.  Shortly I will start writing a post about this weekend - touring the Royal Pavilion and going skating on the ice rink right beside it.  Hopefully I will have it up sometime tomorrow.

RIP Grandad

 It wasn’t until I put up my earlier blog post that the significance of today’s date hit me.  Consequently I am putting up a second post for the day.

On February 13, 2006, my Grandad passed away.  He went for a nap on the couch and never woke up.

If you ask me that is a pretty good way to go.  I’ve always thought that dying in my sleep would be the nicest way to go.

Although it may have been an easy way for him to go it did not make it any easier on his family.  Grandad’s passing was unexpected.

I do not know much of the specifics surrounding that day and the following week.  I was half a world away living in France on a Rotary Youth Exchange.  The day Grandad died I was heading off on a bus tour of Southern France and Spain – a tour that he and my Gran paid for.

I did not learn of his death until I returned from my trip and the funeral had already happened.  So in a way I feel like I’ve never properly said my goodbyes.  I will attempt to do so now.

This might sound cliché but I would not be who I am today if not for my Grandad.

I remember very vividly the day my Grandad told me about Rotary Youth Exchange.  He was driving me home from elementary school.  I was in Grade 7 and since my older siblings had moved on to high school near our house I got the front seat.  We were talking about travelling and how I would love to travel all over.  He told me that if I was serious about travelling I should think about doing a Rotary Youth Exchange.

Being 12 years old I had no idea what Rotary was or even what an exchange was.  My Grandad was an engineer and he did many trips down to Brazil to help teach engineers there some of the techniques he perfected in Canada.  Many of his Brazilian friends were Rotary members and they were the ones that told him about the program.

Rotary Youth Exchange is a program that allows youth aged 15-18 to live abroad for a year.  You stay with host families, go to a local school, and learn the culture and language of the host country.

I was fascinated by the idea.

With his encouragement, as well as others, I pursued the idea.  I was 14 when I applied and was accepted to the program.  By the time I left for France I was 15, the youngest possible age you can be when doing a Rotary Youth Exchange.

Looking back now I feel like my parents must’ve been crazy to let me leave and go live abroad at such a young age.  I’m guessing my Grandad probably put in a good word for me.

I don't know who or where I would be today if my Grandad had never told me about Rotary Youth Exchange.

I owe him a lot.

I miss him more than I care to admit.  I miss driving in his car listening to classical music and eating travel candies.  I miss the advice he used to give me.  I miss the various history lessons he’d teach me.  I miss the wealth of knowledge he possessed.

Sometimes I wonder what he would tell me if I saw him today.  I’d like to think he’d be proud of me and all that I’ve accomplished.

He was a good man and I will be eternally grateful for everything he did for me.

Until we meet again Grandad...

Ill

I have most unfortunately fallen ill.  I blame a lack of sleep from a busy week, damp and rainy weather, and poor central heating.  The above picture depicts how I plan to rid myself of my chesty cough and congestion.  That and getting lots and lots of sleep.

When purchasing my cold remedies today I was most surprised to be offered wine samplings while I was wandering around the aisles in search of the various items.  For one thing alcohol is not available in grocery stores in Canada and for another liquor stores almost never offer samplings.  It is little things like this that make travelling to new places interesting.

As a result of my cold the first half of this week has definitely been less eventful than the last.  However, Sunday before I got sick I made a Canadian brunch for a dozen of my new friends.  I served them pancakes with maple syrup, eggs, bacon and orange juice.  I believe that all who ate enjoyed my cooking and I enjoyed sharing a small bit of Canada with them.

After brunch a few of us went to a vintage fair in town.  It was sadly lacking.  It was like the church bazaars back home only instead of the old, worn things being like $5 they were like $50.

Sunday evening a large group of exchange students went out for a nice dinner to celebrate Johanna’s birthday.  Johanna is a lovely Swedish girl who pronounces her name Yo-Hanna while I pronounce mine Jo-anna.  By coincidence not only are our names the same but we are both blonde and our birthdays are very near each other.

Charlotte, a wonderful British girl from the area, selected the restaurant where we had dinner.  She drove some of us to the restaurant in her car.  It was really bizarre sitting on the left hand side of the car and not being the driver.  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to driving on the opposite side of the road.  Another thing I learned on the car ride home is that in England the speed limits and speedometers are in miles per hour.  I found this rather shocking as I thought the British were the inventors of the metric system, which Canada and most of the world use.  Why then do they use MPH like the Americans?  I think that's another unanswerable question.

Well that’s all I have to say for now.  I’m going to have a nap now so I can do my best to recover as quickly as possible.

23

My first week here in Brighton has been amazing!  I have done so much.  It feels like I have been here much longer than just a week.

School started on Monday.  There was an induction session where all us exchange students found out our class schedules and fixed any clashes in our timetables.  This semester I will be taking 6 courses – the equivalent of 5 classes back of home.  The courses I am doing are:

       1.   Understanding Contemporary Britain (all exchange students have to take this one)

       2.   Political Economy in Europe

       3.   Emerging Financial Markets

       4.   Public Relations: Practices & Principles

       5.    Consumer Psychology

       6.   International Human Resource Management

I’m looking forward to the classes I have.  Here in Britain the style of teaching is slightly different so I’m not worried about studying so many topics.  The classes are self-directed or active learning based which means there are no graded assignments throughout the semester.  How much you learn is based on how much you read or study on your own time.  Then 100% of your grade for the course is derived from either a 2-hour written exam or a final paper/essay.

I think I’m going to like this style of learning.  Another perk is that I have Mondays and Fridays off so every week I have a four-day weekend.  And in total between Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I only have 11 hours of class.

Enough about school for now.  Even though school is the reason for being here in Brighton it really does seem like a side-note to everything else that is going on.

There has been something going on every day this week - parties, gatherings, dinners out, adventures walking around the town center, shopping trips, sports, etc.

The highlight of my week was Wednesday.  It was my 23^rd birthday!  If this week has been any indication 23 just might be my best year yet.

All day at school all my friends and the new exchange students I met wished me happy birthday.  My friend, David from Paris, took it upon himself to tell me almost every hour, “Johanna it’s your birthday! Happy Birthday!”  It made me smile each and every time.

In the evening I was invited to a party in another flat here in Paddock Field before going out in town.  At one point the entire group about 50 people, a mix of exchange students and Brits, spontaneously broke out in a round of “Happy Birthday!”  It was slightly embarrassing but mostly it was really nice.  Then later on the bus into town they all sang to me again.  I can honestly say I’d never had an entire bus sing “Happy Birthday” to me before.  I liked it.

It really was an awesome birthday.  But it didn’t end on Wednesday.  On Friday my friends surprised me with a birthday cake.  It was really sweet of them and I had no clue what they were up to.  We were all having dinner together in the other flat and once I had finished I meant to go back to my place because I was pretty tired but they wouldn’t let me.  They kept telling me I had to stay and I couldn’t figure out why.

At one point, thinking out loud I said I was craving a piece of chocolate so Justine was like I have some and literally dragged me to her room.  She is amazingly strong for someone so little.  When we got back to the kitchen the others had the cake ready and a champagne bottle full of confetti that unfortunately didn’t pop like it should have.

It was a great surprise!

I had been planning to continue writing more about things like playing volleyball today and doing a major clean of the kitchen in preparation for the Canadian brunch I’m cooking for roughly 15 people tomorrow… Oh and the Contiki trip I book for St. Paddy’s Day in Dublin and a day trip to Oxford, Windsor & Eton… but I’ve been convinced to join my friends at the pub for a drink.  So I guess that’s it for now. Enjoy some pictures of this week below. Cheers all!

Out for dinner in a typical British pub.  I'm not sure what was going on with Alessandra and Justine..