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.. 

 

Brighton: Here I am!

Brighton Pier

My first impression of Brighton is that I am going to love living here!  They say first impressions are often deceiving but in this case I’m pretty sure my first impression is spot on.

Getting to Brighton from Vancouver was surprisingly easy. 

My friend/coworker Aly helped me finish packing and cleaning up before driving me to the airport.  Then before I knew it I had dropped off my bags and was through security.  When that happens it always makes me wonder why I bother to turn up hours in advance.  I got myself a fruit smoothie, found a plug by a comfy chair, put my feet up and watched an episode of The Carrie Diaries – a new show which is a prequel to Sex and the City, it’s decently girly and enjoyable for now.

The flight was slightly delayed which was somewhat annoying since I had been so early.  Although when boarded I was quite impressed with just how big the plane was.  There were two levels and the first class/business class areas I walked by looked deliciously comfortable.  I was only like a little jealous when I squished into my window seat and the person in front of me decided to fully recline their seat leaving me with practically no space.  Despite that I managed to sleep for roughly 4 of the 9 hours of flying time and watched the newest film version of Anna Karenina.

Once I got off the plane in Heathrow I went to the washroom to put my contacts in and freshen up.  Thus allowing me to feel a little more alive by the time I got to customs.  The customs officer was the first British person I spoke to and for the most part I totally understood his mumbling British accent.  Well except when he asked me how I was planning to support myself while I was here and I thought he said spoil myself.  Yeah that was kind of awkward.

After customs I got to baggage claim to see my backpack just coming out.  By the time I got my backpack on a cart my suitcase had arrived and I was on my way.  Finding my way to the coach buses - like the PCL or Greyhound - was fairly straightforward.   I had purchased a ticket online the day before and had given myself plenty of time so I ended up waiting for about half an hour.  The coach was delightfully spacious after the cramped plane.

I switched buses at the Gatwick airport and arrived in Brighton by about 5:30pm.  My friend and fellow uOttawa exchange student, Nicole met me at the coach station, which was basically a parking lot.  Nicole spent the Fall semester here in Brighton and graciously offered to help me catch a bus to my residence and show me around the city.  She also gave me a bunch of stuff since she is leaving today.

Coincidentally we met the other two uOttawa girls here on exchange, Melissa and Justine, on the bus coming back from getting groceries.  They arrived early Friday morning and I was impressed they had already moved in and found the grocery store on their own.

The residence I’m staying in here is called Paddock Field.  It is apparently one of the nicest halls of residence but it is a little ways outside of the city center.  It is right next to the sports complex and playing fields and nearby there are some nice looking hills that have trails where you can go hiking.  I’m looking forward to checking those out in the coming week or so.

I ended up on the same floor as Melissa and Justine is staying the hall just next door.  My room is pretty decent.  I have my own ensuite and a nice view.  My only complaint is the bed is kind of tiny and the heating turns off after 2 hours so if you leave for the day your room will be freezing when you get back.

When we first arrived at my hall we met two British guys, Nick and Neil, who are friends with Nicole and a French girl, Virginie.  It was great to meet people right away.  It left no room for feeling alone, which is quite typical when moving to a new place.

Since I had no food yet we – the four Canadians – went into town for dinner/drinks.  Nicole showed us how to take the train, which is faster than the bus but can be more expensive.  After trying a couple pubs, that were full due to it being a Friday night, we ended up at the Pump House - a quaint little pub.  The food was delicious and the two girls from Quebec tried a ginger beer called Crabbys.  Melissa let me have a sip of hers.  It was quite good.

We got back to halls around 11pm and at that point I was pretty exhausted, which was good since we had plans to meet up mid-morning so Nicole could give us a tour of Brighton.

First thing we did on our tour was go to a phone store.  I brought my iPhone with me so all I needed was a SIM card but the two other needed to by phones.  For £20 I got unlimited data for 6 months.  I thought this also included texting and calls but I think I was mistaken because my phone says I have no credit.  They said it may take up to 24hours for credit to show up but texting still isn’t working.  On the bright side I still have internet so I can Facebook chat, Skype and use a chatting app called WhatsApp.

If you want to text with me for free on WhatsApp send me a message or email and I’ll send you my British cell number.

Our tour from there on out basically consisted of us wandering around the city going to various stores people needed to go to and places Nicole thought we should see.  It was beautiful weather given it is winter, sunny and not super cold.  It was nice to walk around getting a feel for the city.

The few snapshots I took will give you a sense of our tour..

We met up with Nicole’s friends Sophie and Florentina for lunch around 2pm.  They were lovely.  They are both Dutch and are studying here for the year.

After lunch Justine, Melissa and I parted ways with Nicole as she had a goodbye dinner with a friend.  By the time I got back to halls I was pretty wiped so I had a brief nap and then spent my evening unpacking and Skyping with my parents and my Aunt Babs.

Around 10pm a party started up in the communal kitchen of my flat.  I really enjoyed meeting the other people in my flat and those from upstairs and the hall next door.  My hall and the one next door are mainly International students but there are some Brits as well.  I had a really good time getting to know everyone.

The part I didn’t really enjoy is when around 2:30am or so when I finally decided to retire for the night the party continued.  My room is directly beside the kitchen and the noise prevented me from falling asleep.  The last time I remember checking my clock was at 4:50am and the party hadn’t died down yet.  Needless to say I was pretty tired when I got up at 11am to go for groceries with Melissa and Justine.

We went to a store called Sainsbury’s.  The store was rather large and had quite a selection.  I was pleased to find an ample amount of gluten free products.  I’m not Celiac but I have a sensitivity to wheat so it’s nice to have other options.  Gluten-free products may be slightly more expensive but they are healthier for me.  I’ve decided that while I’m in Brighton and not travelling elsewhere I’m going to try and eat reasonably healthy.

The real challenge with grocery shopping was trying to avoid refrigerated items.  The fridge space in our kitchen is abysmal.  There are two small fridges and two small freezers to be divided between 8 people.  I would’ve liked one mini fridge and mini freezer each or at least ½ of both, not ¼.  It’s ridiculous.  Looks like I’ll be getting groceries every other day..  But hey that could be a good thing.

My afternoon/evening since returning from the store has been pretty low-key.  Put away my purchases, made a sandwich, read a book for a while, finished unpacking, made tacos for Melissa and I, and then sat down and wrote this blog post.

I think I need to learn how to write shorter posts because I’m just realizing how long this is.  Oh well. A lot has happened in the last 72 hours.  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my arrival despite the length J