Hello all!

Location: Bognor Regis, England

With a week off from classes, I found myself unsure of what to do. Most of my friends from my classes had gone home, and my housemates were slowly following suit. One of my international friends and I decided we couldn’t spend the week sitting at our houses doing nothing. So, on Monday morning, we hopped on a bus and bought a weeklong pass to explore the West Sussex coast.

On Monday, we stopped in the seaside town of Worthing. On the way there, I discovered that I’m still mentally 5 years old and love sitting in the front of the double decker bus. This theme would carry throughout the week, as my friend and I were constantly switching seats to slowly move closer to the front. Once we arrived at Worthing, my friend and I explored the beach and the pier. 

With hunger overtaking us, we headed to the city centre to find some food. After wondering around for what felt like hours, we settled on none other than…Pizza Hut. That ended up being the best option as all the other cheap places were overflowing with people and all the fancy restaurants were far too expensive. Plus, we got great desserts!

On Tuesday, we visited Portsmouth, which I think might be one of my favorite places now. There was a ton of stuff to visit there, both old and new. My friend and I started at Gunwharf Quays, which is a giant shopping center. After looking at all the shops and staring at the sea, we decided to grab some lunch. Most everything was crowded and/or expensive, so we settled on Burger King because we both wanted some French fries, erm…I mean, chips.

After that we went to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. The ships were huge, and I still have no idea how they float. Before I visited, my friend told me they had shot some scenes for the new Les Mis�rables movie. So, naturally, I was singing that music the whole time.

After spending time posing with statues and perusing the gift shop, my friend and I meandered over to the city centre, but with hardly any money left in our pockets, we headed home soon after that.

Does my hair look like his?

Wednesday brought a visit to Brighton. The pier here was amazing. I think the full amusement park located at the end of the pier was most impressive. I particularly enjoyed the chicken fried rice I ordered and ate there; it was far too cold to even consider riding a roller coaster.

With no desire to play any arcade games and with cold fingers, my friend and I walked over to the Royal Pavilion, a castle built by King George IV. This place was very different from Windsor. It was incredibly extravagant and didn’t look like it belonged in England. Designed as an English interpretation of an Indian Castle with Chinese decorating (no one involved in the project ever actually visited India or China), this castle completely overwhelmed me.  The highlight was definitely the giant dragon chandelier weighing nearly a ton.

Inside the castle, there was actually a sign asking spectators to take off their stilettos before walking on one room’s carpet. Yes, because I often wear stilettos to tour a historical landmark (???????) That should clue you in on just how fancy this castle was.

After once again feeling completely underdressed, my friend and I made our way down to the beach. I have to admit, I’m still getting used to not seeing sand on the beach.

For the sake of space, I’ll save the rest of my trip for another entry (hopefully I’ll post that tomorrow).  My next post will probably also focus a lot on THON. Even as I’m writing this I’m watching the livesteam. Less than 4 more hours left!

FTK,

Emily .xx

Location: Bognor Regis, United Kingdom

Not going to lie, this past week has been fairly uneventful. I basically just went to my classes and spent time with my housemates and friends. That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate it; it was nice to have a week where I felt like I was falling back into a routine. Of course, that routine will be shattered with the next two weeks. Tomorrow marks the start of my university’s half-term break. Essentially, it’s a week off from classes. While all my uni friends are at home, I’m spending the week traveling by bus with another international students to other seaside areas in South England.

The following week is when everything gets interesting. I don’t actually go back to my classes. Instead, my uni has what they call “Workshop Week.” During this week, students attend various workshops that focus in on specific skills to help students be more proficient in their work. For example, I could attend a session on how to reference works or a session specifically focused on one of my class’s final assignments. Anyway, I still haven’t decided what sessions to attend, although I feel like a session of referencing isn’t a bad idea.

Once I’m back from my break, it’ll really be time to get to work on my assignments. They’re probably going to take more work than I’m used to at Penn State. For one thing, I was talking to a few of my classmates yesterday, and they mentioned that most assignments will use upwards of 40 references. Um…what? Sorry, I’m used to a maximum or around 10. Looks like I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks reading every journal and book related to education in sight.

On the more fun side, this Thursday I went out with a group of friends to the local club. It’s the only one in the area and is actually built on the pier. This two-floored club wasn’t all that crowded when I was there, given that most students had already gone home. But my friends made sure to let me know of just how crazy this club gets. On busy weekends, if you’re downstairs, you can see the ceiling moving up and down with the jumping of all the people dancing on the second floor. That’s a situation I would like to avoid seeing.

With that being said, this week should be an interesting one, full of adventure and exciting explorations. Hopefully I’ll have some good stories for my next post.

–  Emily .xx

P.S.  I read an interesting children’s book this week for my English course. It was quite the story (the title should give that away)

Location: Bognor Regis, United Kingdom

Whew! This past week has been the busiest week I’ve experienced since flying off to England. My class schedule started up full time, and I’ve noticed several differences between my courses here and my courses back at Penn State:

1. NO FINAL EXAMS. I have no giant test to study for, which was quite shocking for me, but that doesn’t leave me completely out of preparing for a summative assessment. Instead of an exam, all of my classes have an “assignment.” Essentially, I have to write an essay or create some sort of project, either in a group or individually, to be scored by my professors.
2. The professor statement brings up a good point as well. I don’t actually have any professors. They’re called “tutors.”
3. I supposed titling professors “tutors” makes sense here, as most of my learning is self-discovered. Professors basically just assist students and point them in the right direction. There’s no one standing at the front of a classroom lecturing for 3 hours. Most often, my tutor will talk to us for a bit, then we’ll break off and do an activity, then come back together. Since our classes only meet once or twice a week, we’re assigned readings or small assignments to complete in between lessons.
4. IPads and tablets are everywhere! I’m so used to walking into a lecture hall at Penn State to find it filled with rows and rows of laptop computers. Not at Chichester. About half of my peers will use a tablet or iPad during class, while the other half just uses paper and pencil. It’s certainly been an adjustment for me, considering I’ve become accustomed to fitting right in with my MacBook in class.
5. Lastly, everything is British. I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me before, but (shockingly) everything I’m learning about in England concerns the United Kingdom. This mainly comes into play during my history course. Being schooled in American history all my life, I knew a bit about British history, but the majority of it had to do with the United Kingdom in relation to United States’ History. Looks like I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in the library reading up on the Vikings and the Tudors.

My week got even more interesting once the weekend rolled around. On Friday evening, I took a trip to the local cinema in Bognor Regis.

The Picturedrome, as it’s called, is a small cinema, with only two theatres, but so incredible. It is beautiful on the inside, and, to make things better, inexpensive. Weekdays only cost �2.50, and weekend movies are �3.50. A very manageable price, making the likelihood of me attending again very high. I watched the film 12 Years a Slave. Even though I’m an ocean away, I still found a way to learn some American history. If you get the chance, I highly recommend seeing the film, it’s extremely well done.

But the most exciting part of my week came on Saturday. The international student advisers set up a trip to Windsor. Despite having to wake up early in the morning on a weekend, the trip was so incredibly worth it. Windsor is a small city located not far from London, and incredibly rich with British History.

First, my friends and I visited Eton College, a prestigious boys’ school. Eton only accepts the best and the brightest boys in the United Kingdom. Many go on to be lawyers and doctors and more than a few have become the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, the campus wasn’t open to visitors, but I did get to see the outside, including a whole mob of boys racing to their classes (which they apparently have on Saturday). This was especially humorous to me as all the boys were in their uniforms while running along. Their uniforms are more formal than anything I think I have ever worn: black tailcoats and pinstriped trousers.

How dashing.

After that little adventure, I just had to visit Windsor Castle. One of the homes of Her Majesty the Queen of England, this castle was enormous and well worth the money to get inside.

I first toured St. George’s Chapel, which is beautiful, but no pictures were allowed inside. But it was so stunning. The only downside was trying to avoid stepping on all the grave-markers throughout the church floor. Nonetheless, the chapel exuded elegance and grace, something that is supposed to be synonymous with the monarchy, I believe.

Then, I went up to the castle. I spent probably around 90 minutes inside the castle, but I could have spent all day there. Once again, photographs were not allowed inside. But I can tell you that I was left completely speechless by the decorative nature within the castle. Everything was ornate, antique, and just stunning. I was in awe of the entire castle. Even the views from the balcony were beautiful. I didn’t want to leave after our tour was over.

After the castle, some retail therapy was due. Thankfully, Windsor is home to some great shopping centers.

After wandering through the shops and buying some delicious hot chocolate, it was time to head home. Powering through a stereotypical English rainstorm, I made it back to my house and promptly fell asleep. Busy day = a good night’s sleep. And thank goodness for that.

Until next time,

Emily .xx

Location: Windsor, United Kingdom