Greetings from England!

I'm here! It took over 24 hours of traveling but I've finally arrived! My first flight leaving from Boston on Wednesday got canceled so I had to reschedule for Thursday flying from JFK in New York. Luckily Jesse was with me so I wasn't alone (don't worry Nanny) but we had to take a four and a half hour bus ride from Boston to Port Authority in NYC and then another hour and a half bus to the airport. We then waited for five hours in the airport, got on the plane, landing in London at 11am London time. Upon arrival in the bus station at the airport I was warmly welcomed to England by a lovely pigeon pooping on me. Our next bus was two hours from London to Brighton and then finally a taxi to the University. I slept very well and very long Friday night to say the least.

Here in Brighton they've gotten a lot of snow in the past few days which has caused a state of chaos. Of course the snow they have is no more than a foot but it's expected to keep snowing for the next couple of days. They just don't know how to deal with snow because they so rarely get it. All of the pathways have been shoveled to be about six inches wide and I'm pretty sure they just poured salt everywhere hoping for it to melt. Already almost all of the international student orientation programs have been canceled and my roommate got an email today saying her class on Tuesday is canceled. I thought I wouldn't see snow while I was here but I was wrong.

The flat that I'm living in has eight people; four boys and four girls. There's a kitchen and a small dining room, two toilets, and one shower. It’s pretty small but quaint. I have however, definitely been spoiled by Blackstone living. All of my flatmates are first years at University of Sussex and they informed me that after first year most students move off-campus. My roommate Julia is very nice and she took me in to Brighton on Saturday to do some shopping. The train from campus to Brighton took less than ten minutes and was very scenic. Brighton is very cute and reminds me a bit of Boston. There are a couple different sections that really reminded me of the Haymarket area of Boston, complete with cobblestone walkways. I had to buy some essentials like a pillow, a hairdryer and groceries and getting those things brought me to some interesting stores. One of the stores we went to was the coolest store ever. You walk in and they have a bunch of stations with big catalogues that have to be at least eight or nine inches thick. You search through the catalogue for what you need and write down the number on an ordering form. Then you bring the slip to the cashier, pay for it, and pick it up at the back. This catalogue had everything from mattresses to fridges and even hairdryers. I guess since storefront property can be so expensive, it’s cheaper to have all the stuff in storage at the back. Regardless, it was so cool. We also stopped and got cell phones today. My phone is free to call people through skype so if you have a skype account friend me! My address is annaweitzler, pretty simple. Our last stop before returning to campus was the grocery store. All of the card swipers in the store were out of order which caused mass chaos. It really made me think about how reliant we have become on credit cards and electronics in general.

Here are some things that I’ve noticed so far about England:
-the carts in the grocery store are about ¼ the size of those in the states
-they don’t use fitted sheets on beds
-they smoke a lot of cigarettes
-new words: squash is a juice concentrate never to be drunk without mixing with water first

Today I spent relaxing and organizing some more. Classes start tomorrow, which will be interesting. My classes range in size from 30 to 250, much larger than any classes at Clark. I’ve heard that there’s not that much work and I hope that turns out to be true. It would be nice to have a light semester. That’s about it for now, but I’ll update again at the end of my first week of classes.