When we left off, I was headed to the Welcome Meeting to meet up with friends.
We got over there and we sort of disappointed to see finger foods instead of “real food.” Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, we dived right on in (I was partial to the mini egg rolls). There were a couple of bus trips to the local grocery store, but we missed out. Anyway, I here the store closed at 4PM on Sunday anyway.
Much to the delight of the students, our little reception featured free beverages...which not all of the students could purchase legally in the states (i.e. booze). We were welcome to free wine, beer, cider (Yea!) and this drink which tastes like a Smirnoff Ice type beverage, but I’m not sure if it was a malt beverage or a legitimate vodka beverage.
I finally saw Meera, my good friend from the dorms at Berkeley. She’s the one who turned me on to the Summer at Sussex program in the first place. She took off for Europe at the end of May and spent the month before the program traveling through Spain, Italy and France. (See http://www.livejournal.com/users/meerarocks to read about some of her adventures). We proceeded to hug and squeal with excitement. I think the girl I had met at the train station eventually left...an I really don’t know if I’ve seen her since... Hmm...
Later that night, we caught one of the tour buses that were arranged to take students around Brighton. At the end of the ride, we were on our own for an hour until the buses came back to pick us up. We walked around Brighton Pier which is sort of like a mini-carnival or fair. Little food stands, bars, casinos, and even a few amusement park rides at the end. We walked around, gambled away a few pence and then got some fish and chips before heading back to the buses. It was a nice little night. VERY COLD because of the ocean breeze. We went back, I unpacked and crashed in my freezing room.
Yesterday, we finally went out and bought food. The program doens’t include a meal plan and it’s sort of “every student for his/her self.” They say that it’s cheaper if you cook cummunal meals with your house, but my house isn’t really like that. We aren’t so chummy...at least not yet. And so, a group of us took the long-bus ride out to the Brighton Marina to shop at ASDA which we kept saying was “like”a Wal-Mart until we learned that ASDA was a part of the Wal-Mart family! It was sort of overwhelming. You’re in this huge store full of people who know what they are going to buy and know where it is located. Just think about the last time you were in Wal-Mart or a Costco on a Saturday afternoon or like, during the Christmas season. And this was like midday on a Monday and it was crazy. I dunno.
And now, the major lessons I’ve learned about shopping in England:
1. READ LABELS, which is very closely related to 2. DO NOT STOCK UP!!!
Again, I was overwhelmed by the store, I didn’t know where everything was and I didn’t have my grocery list made out. I knew I needed lunch meat, so I went to the meat section and grabbed the cheapest stuff I could find, which is called “Chicken Roll.” Imagine my surprise to see that it has added milk protein and lactose...being lactose intolerant and all. I imagine there can’t be THAT much lactose in a slice of chicken meat, but who knows?!? Anyway, once I open the container: I have 2 days to consume the entire package (30ish slices)! The majority of food here doesn’t have preservatives (and it’s not as sweet as food in US...which is disturbing when you think about it). As a girl who rarely makes it to grocery stores, I am the queen of buying in bulk because I never know when I’ll make it back. I bought two loaves of bread at ASDA for only £0.23 a piece (just double any £ price and that’s a safe way to gauge what you spent in American dollars). Once I got home, I learned that it has a shelf life of 3 days. Basically, I’ll be inviting people over for chicken roll sandwiches for the next two days.
One thing you can purchase in bulk is long-lasting milk that comes in unrefrigerated cartons. Well, I bought 3 liters of the soy milk. It’ll keep for a year, but once I open it, I have 3 days to consume it.
Well, everyone! I have my first class in about an hour and a half. I need to go have some breakfast (cereal with soy milk and toast -- lots of toast!) Oh man. I woke up at 7 and now I’m getting tired. I guess I better find a “liter” of Coke or something. You know what’s weird. Soda is one of the few things that the US sells in liters and over here, it’s a 1.5 liter instead of 2. Basically, I guess Americans are pigs....
Talk to you later. Email me if you need my address or phone number here at Sussex.