So many pictures...way too lazy to upload.

Day 19

We went to drink high tea today. Apparently high tea is different from afternoon tea. From what I understand, Afternoon (as it sounds) is the traditional 4 o’clock tea. It’s a small meal with scones (jam first, then cream), cucumber sandwiches, assorted pastries, and of course – tea and milk. It reminded me so much of bubble tea, I miss that taste! High tea is traditional 6 o’clock tea, this was for the working population of Britain that did not have the opportunity to sit down and have afternoon tea. High tea is pretty much a meal after work or as people call it now: supper. High tea is usually served with scones, cakes, buns, breads, cheese, eggs, cold meat, etc. Although what we had was called “high tea”, it was pretty much an afternoon tea.

We first toured the Royal Pavilion. The inside and outside of the palace was amazing. The place is a mix of Indian and Chinese culture, though some a bit fake. In the dining room, there was a gorgeous 1 ton chandelier with dragons and lotuses; it was honestly a really breathtaking view. I never thought I would like visiting places like that, but the Royal Pavilion was awesome. Renting a simple room in there for a night costs 2000-3000 pounds, amazing right? Too bad I couldn’t take pictures inside.

Day 20

Last day of classes!

Today was a total fail day – in a good way. I rode the 12 bus to go take picture with Susana at Seven Sisters Park. We dressed up in an attempt to take professional picture. However, a small dilemma occurred as we didn’t know where to get off. We rode the bus from Brighton all the way to Eastbourne (another city)!! It was a 1hr30min ride and the same back, so that day we spent 3 hours on a bus haha. Luckily, the buses are all double decker here and sitting on the top deck we pretty much got a free 3 hour tour of amazing England scenery. I love having nothing to do and riding the bus was so calm and relaxing.

Then, I bought an Aero chocolate candy thing, which is supposed to melt in your mouth. The inside of the circle chocolate was really foaming and just disappeared when you ate it, very interesting haha.

Day 21

Wooo, turned my paper in! Bye bye Sussex in September, I will miss you.

I got my hair cut at a place called Venus and it was 20 pounds. I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I wanted to try bangs or “fringes” as they call it. At first, I was really unsure, but the lady said that straight fringes would look nice and you can wear it different ways, so why not? It’s so hard to get used to! I’m not sure if I’m just bias towards new hairstyles, but it feels so awkward and weird. Hopefully it doesn’t look as bad as I’m imagining in my head, I just can’t get used to it I guess.

At night, we went to a club where they played ‘disco’ music with 1 pound cover. They actually played 80s and 90s which was kind of fun. I heard Spice Girls lol. We then got bored because we were missing our American R&B. Since we came with such a big group, we kind of lost each other at the end and a lot of people went home due to tiredness. Hyeji, Wen, and I went to a karaoke place called 9 Rooms. The rooms were free except each person had to order 5 pounds of drinks. We stayed there from 12:30-3am and it was awesome. I had so much fun…but I mean it’s karaoke, who doesn’t have fun at karaoke? It was definitely worth the 5 pounds. Karaoke > clubs all the way for me, it’s like having your own private dance/sing party!

Day 22

Manana Espana!! ß Total Spanish fail right there.

I’m so excited! Today we pretty much prepped for Spain. Susana, Hyeji, Wen, Laura, and I are going to Madrid and Barcelona for 6 days and 5 nights. The 3 plane tickets was about 150 euro and the hotels for 5 nights was 80 euro. I think 250 dollars for pretty much a week trip is really worth it! Susana and I planned everything out, where we're gonna go, what we're gonna eat, so it's pretty much what we want to do haha. We ate all the food in our fridge and it's already 1am, we're meeting up at 4:30am. I think this whole week will consist of no sleep. Spanish people are crazyyyy, the clubs open at midnight and close at 6am, so including that and going to tourist areas, I guess I'll catch up on sleep later.

Cheers England! Hola Espana!

Pasties, not pastries.

They are amazing.

Day 14

We had a potluck today and there was so much food, especially carbs! Everything was delicious (yumm to dessert). Susana and I made fried rice haha, we’re so Asian. I think I just lost my voice randomly which sucks but I guess being mute for a few days is fine J

Day 15

I stayed in today to hopefully get better and started on my essay. And then I got sidetracked and started watching Korean Drama haha, story of my life.

Day 16

These days are all starting to blur together and my posts are getting shorter and shorter…was expecting it of course. I went shopping today and bought a dress and flats! It was such a good deal because that store was closing down or something, so everything was super cheap. To add on top of that, it was buy one get one 50% off, so my purchase was only 7 pounds haha, yesss!! (I’m a cheap Asian…)

Anyway, after that I went to two Chinese grocery shops and I miss home food now so much. I mean, what I cook can be considered Chinese food but I really don’t have the right seasoning besides soy sauce. My rice is also the cheap, crappy kind. I need to get better rice, but it’s so expensive here! And I’ve pretty much became vegetarian because I’m too lazy to cook meat haha. I bought a pair of chopsticks and tapioca milk tea, it was amazing!

At night, I went to celebrate three people’s birthdays. We were going to go to a club that had really cool stuff but the cover was 10 pounds, so instead we went to another club that played weird techno music. All in all, it was a fun night. I’m glad I’m not sick anymore.

I haven’t been taking many pictures! Must.continue.being.a.tourist…

Day 17

We went to a standup comedy show at night at Komedia. I’ve never been to any comedy shows in my life so it was quite an experience. There were three guys and a main guy to introduce the three in between. The setting was a bit like a pub where people just eat and drink but with a stage up front. The place was crowded. It was a bit hard to understand the first two because of their accents, but the third was funny (he was from Canada). All in all, it was a great time although I do prefer the Asian comedians because they make racial jokes that I can relate to and understand.

Day 18

I’m halfway done with my essay! Wooo!

Today we had an interesting discussion in class about the Queen and England. The royal family costs about 70 million pounds a year, and this is directly from the tax payers. The question brought up was if they really needed that money or if Britain needed a royal family. It was interesting because the Queen is a tradition and the pride of the country. Without her and her family, I feel like some traditions will be lost and the symbolic connection with England and the Queen will be gone. However, the money could definitely be spent as where. If they take first class seats instead of private jets, they will be put lower on that pedestal. If they live like high class people and not royalty, they won’t have that “power” or “glamour” that always surrounds them. Apparently the country is split 50:50 on this long going debate. As someone brought up in class, the Buckingham Palace can be compared to the Forbidden City. Once it’s opened up, all the glory about it is gone. It just becomes another tourist attraction that locals would never want to come near. The locals would not be proud of it anymore as they are now (Buckingham Palace). I guess only time will tell!

Now back to my essay!

Keep It Cool

Day 11

I am so tired.

We finally did our group presentation today, hopefully it turned out well. Now, all there’s left is a paper and an individual presentation which shouldn’t be too bad at all. I can’t believe the September program is halfway done.

We went to Azda again and bought some more random things, fruits, and veggies. I think by the end of the semester, I will have tried a lot of the snacks in the biscuit isle. They all look so yummy! We each bought 17-18 pounds worth of stuff and lugged it around the streets. It was so tireing! My arms were about to fall off.

Afterwards, we went to eat Chinese food and it was pretty authentic tasting. Each dish was 5.20 but the portion was small. However, they did give us a lot of rice, so we pretty much got full off of that.

Not really an eventful day, but I saw so many casinos and REALLY want to poker. Another thing on my to-do list here haha.

Day 12

Oh noo! I’m getting sick, I NEVER get sick zzz this sucks…must be karma.

We went to the karaoke place again at night and this time sang some random songs like the Titanic song. My throat hurts so much now; it was such a bad idea. But, I did have a ‘screaming orgasm’ LOL.

Day 13

We went to watch Henry IV part I today at the Globe Theatre, which was full both the seated and the standup section. I was so excited because it’s Shakespeare and I’ve always loved his work. The only problem was that I haven’t read this one. I briefly looked up the plot summary on Sparknote haha, it seemed a bit boring compared to the others I read but then again, it was a page summary of a whole play. The Globe was amazing; it amplified the actors’ voices and overall was just such a great experience. However, It was a bit hard to understand some of the lines because of British accent on top of old English.

I’m kind of dying right now so gonna head to bed.

一首简单的歌

写一首简单的歌,

让你的心情快乐

爱情就像一条河

难免会碰到波折

这一首简单的歌,

并没有什么独特

好像我

那么的平凡却又深刻

Day 7

The fruits here are so sweet, organic, and cheap. Love it.

It’s so weird that the September course is only 3 weeks, I feel like everything is due already. Our project on gender/social roles in popular culture is due Monday and I haven’t really even started it yet. There’s just been so much going on every single day that it’s hard to focus on school.

Our on-campus pub

There was a pub quiz tonight where my team and I pretty much failed so we gave up at the end. However, it was nice chilling at the East Slope bar. It had a nice atmosphere, I definitely want to go there when sports or soccer is playing, just gotta find someone who likes that as much as me haha.

After that, we went to a club called Oceana. I think the place had about 8 lounges and 2 dance floors so it was massive. I drank from a fishbowl LOL. The music they played, however, was British techno for the most part, which was a bit awkward to dance to. I like that the clubs here no one grinds, you just kind of do your own thing and it’s lots of fun. Note for the future (because we were a bit dumb): Never wear heels to that area again, the roads are horrible.

Day 8

Procrastination is so bad, especially when the weekend is planned with trips.

We went around Brighton to go shopping today and I bought a cute dress but it was 17 pounds = 30 dollars, so not too happy about the price. We wanted to go to more small street shops but we’ve been wondering around the mall and primart so much that it was already 6pm.

We were going to go to a “strip” club tonight, but it didn’t work out. Haha, guess I’ll get to see what it’s like when I turn 21 and go to Vegas…but now I have to add on more things to my list: gay bar and casino.

SO GOOD

Day 9

Stonehenge and Bath

Not much to be said but I’m glad I finally got to see Stonehenge! I’ve always wanted to go after seeing a documentary about it on Discovery Channel (I know, I’m a nerd).

Bath was okay, just because I’m not huge on architecture/art or anything like that, but I enjoyed that as well.

We got audio guides on all the tours, but I didn't listen to them. I'm so uncultured...

We went to a pub for lunch and this is what I got. I suck at trying new foods but I figured it was just pork. The meat was so fresh that some pieces had hair sticking out of it, which was a bit gross haha.

Shakeaway (http://www.shakeaway.com/subsites/uk/menu.htm) is pretty sweet, they have probably 100 flavors and you can pretty much make it with anything! I had one with Ferrero Rocher, they literally just put that and some other stuff it came with and blended it together. Honestly though, it's so cool. For the apple pie flavour they just put a slice of pie...

This was probably the highlight of my day.

Day 10

Seven Sisters

This is one of the most beautiful places I've been to in the world. With the ocean, sky, and green hills, I couldn’t have asked for more. The sight was just remarkable. In a way, it reminded me of Hawaii from what I've seen on TV. The history behind the seven sisters is that each of us can be traced back to one sister. We climbed seven cliffs and it was amazing.

We were basically hiking where the cows and sheep lived. I saw so many and they were just roaming around, minding their own business.

The walk was probably around 5 miles and I loved every part of it.

I want to adopt a British accent...

Seriously though, even the 5 year olds sound more sophisticated than me.

Day 4

I’m supposed to be reading 40 pages of the definition of popular culture but I feel like writing this instead. Today was the first day of class. Well, I wouldn’t really consider it class because it’s 2 hours a day, 3 days a week. Our teacher is really nice and cute; she has the softest voice so we have to listen really carefully to understand her.

I pretty much feel at home already, it’s not too different from my life at Rochester except for the way people dress and talk LOL. I made my first sandwich in England for lunch today; it was with breaded ham and cucumber. The only problem was that I didn’t have a knife so I had to bite the cucumber while eating the sandwich…hahaha

At night, we went on a tour of Brighton. All the shops there were so small and cute. I definitely have to go back and try a lot of places; nothing was that expensive so it’s going to be amazing. For dinner, I had Indian food, but the way that restaurant made it was a bit different from how I had it back in the states.

Booked my ticket to Spain at the end of the month :) Six days, five nights, flight + hotel only about 220 euro, sooo excited!

Day 5

Azda is amazing.

It’s like a Wal-Mart but they call it Azda. I bought so much interesting and cool looking food there, but it was so tiring. Also I had an “M” burger at McDonalds which was kind of like a big mac but the bread was different.

If you want to cook paella but lack the skills, here's pack of everything already premade!

At night, we went to a pub for their karaoke night. The place was two stories with a really chill atmosphere. We obviously filled up the whole place because there’s so many of us. You probably already know, but karaoke is one of my favorite things in the world. I’ve never done it at a pub before but always have wanted to. Susana and I sung Take a Bow by Rihanna and it was lots of fun. Of course, I still like KTV better, but this was just a good time to hang out with everyone and watch them make a fool of themselves :p

Why have I never seen these in America? Apparently they're a lot of calories zzz...

Day 6

Today was a food day from lunch to dinner. I went to the local food event they have at the town square every week. There was a cooking demonstration every hour with starters, entrees, and dessert. We get to eat the food they cook afterwards. We stayed through 2 hours of that and the food they made was amazing. Also, I had dragon’s blood. It’s made from one of the hottest peppers in the world. I dipped a toothpick in it and tasted it. It was not as spicy as people said but with just a small drop it burned my mouth for a few seconds. Also, there is a chili eating competition that I really want to try next week, but I’m not sure if my stomach can handle it. If not, it won’t be worth it at the end of the day.

At night, we went on a “food tour” of Brighton, I guess you can just say we all split appetizers at each of the restaurants. We started with a Korean restaurant where I had pa jun. Then, a Lebonese restaurants and got a platter of everything. Their hummus and a sauce that looked like hummus but made with eggplant (forgot the name) was amazing. We then finished off with tiramisu and ice cream. All in all, this was one of my favorite days. I love eating and have never went around to three different restaurants for dinner. I wish places were close enough to do this in the states, because it was lots of fun. We ate from 7pm to 11pm and I only spent about 10 pounds!

Awesome Korean pancake!


Yummy Lebanese platter!

Massive tiramisu!