Trip to Brighton Pier!

Chelsea, Lindsay, and I finally took a trip to the Brighton Pier on Thursday.  It was a pretty sunny day, but still cold because we were on the sea.  The pier was a lot of fun!  There were rides at the end and arcade games in the middle.  I tried my first crepe at one of the food stands, and it was good!  Not as good as I am sure they are in Italy- I will have to try one when I go!  After we walked around the pier for awhile, we had tea and ate fish and chips (of course!) at a cute place across the street.  The tea was nice because we were so cold.  I lost my gloves on the bus a week or so ago and my jacket didn't have pockets, so my hands were freezing!

Some good news: Lindsay, Chelsea, and I are going to the Justin Bieber concert in London on March 16th!  Chelsea's birthday is the day before, so it is going to be so much fun!  Don't make fun of the fact that I will be 21 years old and going to a 17 year old's concert.  Justin Bieber is amazing and I mean that in a strictly platonic way.  You can't argue the fact that he has great music...

I can't believe Tuesday is already March 1st, and my 21st is only 10 days away!  The weekend after my birthday, we are going to Bath and Stonehenge for 2 days, so that will be a great trip.

There isn't anything else really going on over here, so I will update more when I have more fun things to tell you all!  Have a great last few days of February!

East Sussex Trip!

Hey all!
Yesterday, we took our field trip to East Sussex and it was beautiful!  It was difficult to see how pretty it really is though, because it rained ALL day!  We took a 40 minute bus ride to Beachy head, where we were supposed to see chalk cliffs and the sea, but it was too foggy to see anything! :(  We left pretty soon after we got there, because there was nothing to see, and it was freezing!  The wind was horrible and it was spitting rain.  It was an awful weather day for our trip.  Our advisors from the University who took us on the trip said they would bring us back some day when the weather is better so we could actually see the cliffs.
Next, we went to Alfriston, which is a cute little village in East Sussex.  We had some free time to go into the shops.  The town is preserved so everything is so old and pretty!  We had tea and crumpets (first time trying crumpets- they are SOOO good!!) in this cute little tea place.
After that, we headed to the Six Bells Pub for lunch.  I of course had a cider (which is becoming a favorite thing!) with black currant (a type of juice) in it which makes it taste sweeter.  I ate something called Paul's Special (Paul is the owner).  Is was this french bread with a spicy tomato sauce on top with cheese melted on top of that.  Soooo good!!  I love pub food!
After lunch, we headed to the town of Battle to Battle Abbey where the Battle of Hastings occurred.  The Battle of Hastings was the last time England was successfully invaded, in October of 1066.  We spent the rest of the day looking around on the battlefield, in the museum, and the gift shop.  It was so cool to be somewhere so old!  I took a ton of pictures, and they are all on facebook, so go check them out!
It was a very long, tiring day, and getting into warmth felt amazing!  It is a good thing my mom got me the leather Uggs for Christmas!  It was so muddy and wet- and my feet were nice and toasty!  Also, it is easier to clean the mud off of leather rather than cloth, so they were a good investment, Mom!
I am doing laundry for the first time since being here.  It is the longest I have ever gone without doing laundry- 3 weeks!!  I pretty much ran out of everything...  I am also cleaning my room today and doing homework.  A good Sunday spent on getting everything ready for the week.  Oh, and also catching up on some of my TV shows!  We found a couple websites where we can watch shows from back home so I can watch my favorites: Pretty Little Liars, Glee, Gossip Girl, 90210, and Desperate Housewives.
Update: As many of you know, I told you that my roommate for 2 and a half years is getting married this summer.  Well, they found out that Scott is probably going to be deployed before their wedding date...  So, they got married yesterday!  It was sudden, but so exciting!  I haven't seen pictures yet, but they just had a small thing with their family.  I am so happy for them and please send some good luck prayers to them for their marriage!!  I know they are going to be very happy together. :)
Also, I should share with you that we celebrated my dad's birthday here in jolly England.  The two new best friends I made here surprised me with a little cake that we had in memory of him.  It was so sweet of them, and it was so good!  They tried to find cherry pie (his favorite) but couldn't find one.  Even though he might not have liked the cake we ate, I thought it was great and he appreciated the thought. :)  I still miss him every day, and know I always will, but I know I will see him again some day and am living my life to the fullest!!
Well that is all for now, I hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week ahead!

First week of classes... done!

So I am done with my first week of classes and they weren't too bad.  I was actually done on Wednesday after 12pm!  My schedule changed a little bit.  I couldn't get into the Critical Addiction Studies class on Thursday, because it was already full, which I am not really surprised about, because the class sounded really interesting!  So instead, I am taking Social Context of Health and Illness on Mondays from 9-10am then the seminar from 10am-12pm.  This class will probably be dropped though.  I am in the process of talking to my study away advisor from back home to see if I can get away with only taking 12 hours instead of 15.  It looks like it is going to work out! :)  So my schedule is looking pretty awesome!  I love not having classes on Thursday or Friday.  4 day weekends all semester are going to be fabulous!
I am learning way more outside of going to classes than I thought I would!  Even though we speak the same language there are so many words that are different or used differently it's crazy!  There schooling system is even way different.  They have high school from age 14-16 then from 16-18 they go to college.  Their college is what we would do as general education requirements in our college.  After that, they go to a university for three years.  So for them college and university are two different things.  So, they pick an area (what we call a major) and are on a set path for the three years they are at a university...  Since I am a foreign exchange student (feels so weird to say that), I can pick whatever classes I want.  I am all over the place in classes with first years, second years, and third years.  It has been an interesting experience so far.
We haven't done anything exciting really except go to pubs and clubs- it's all British people do!  I am definitely not complaining though.  They seem to stay out later than we do back in the States so we are trying to get used to not getting home until 4am or later...  Rough life, right?  Next weekend, we are taking a day trip to East Sussex, which I am very excited about!
Well this is all for now.  It is nice and sunny out (YAY!) so we are going to go shopping in town.  More later!

First day of classes

Well today was my first day of classes, and as you can see by my schedule, I only had one class today.  It was very interesting.  It seems more laid back here.  We call our instructors (called tutors) by their first name.  Our discussion was fun- I like having small groups to talk about questions with the lecture material and getting to know people in my class better.
I was super tired for my class today, because I was out until 4am watching the super bowl.  It was awesome to still be able to watch the game while I am over here!  We did miss all of the commercials so if any of you have any favorite commercials from last night- tell me what they are so I can look them up on youtube and watch them!  I was very excited that the Packers won- I figured I would root for them since I live closer to Green Bay than Pittsburgh... and I have some family friends who are big Packers fans...
This week, there isn't much going on besides going to classes but I will keep you updated if anything exciting happens.
Cheerio!

My Schedule!

I just got my schedule for the semester and I thought I would share it with you all!
Mondays: 1-2pm & 3-4pm: Developing a Therapeutic Relationship
Tuesday: 9-10am & 10-11am: Care, Well Being, and Interdependence
              12-2pm & 2-3pm: Critical Psychology Theories and Methods
Wednesday: 9-11am & 11am-12pm: Developmental Psychology
Thursday: 2-3pm & 3-4pm: Critical Addiction Studies
No class on Fridays!
I am pretty exciting about my schedule!  The first time is the lecture and the second time is the seminar which is like a discussion.

London Trip!

Yesterday, all the USAC students went on a day trip to London.  It was amazing!  We took a tour of the city given by our two advisors from USAC.  We walked by Buckingham Palace, London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, the River Thames.  For lunch, we had fish and chips, which is now a favorite and I had my first glass of cider!  After the tour, Chelsea, Lindsay, Laura (another girl from my program who lives in the flat above me) went shopping in downtown London and I got two great dresses.  When we came back, Lindsay, Chelsea, and I went out for our British friend, Ben's birthday.  We went to this awesome club downtown.
Sorry I don't have much more to say, it was really just a day full of sightseeing!

I AM HERE!!!

Well I have actually been here for two days now, but internet explorer is absolute CRAP and wouldn't let me post anything.  So sorry it took me so long to update you all on everything going on in the UK.
With that being said, I have a lot to talk about...
First of all, I realized I hate traveling long distances by myself.  The plane ride wasn't awful except I couldn't fall asleep!  Which was really frustrating!!  I arrived in London-Gatwick 45 min. ahead of schedule.  Getting on the train with my 48 pound suitcase, a carry on suitcase, and my very heavy backpack was awful.  I suggest if you want to travel anywhere for 4 and a half months, travel with someone!  The train to Brighton was only 30 min. but the whole time I was thinking, "What did I get myself into?"  Why did I think it would be fun to travel to a new country by myself for an entire semester??  Am I crazy?"  I have now realized I am not crazy but when I was thinking these things, I was sleep deprived which made me a little emotional.
After that, I had to catch another train to Falmer.  From there, I got a very short taxi ride (with the nicest taxi driver ever) over to my campus.  I got to my flat at 8:30am and we have the farthest flat away from the middle of campus (and where I had to check in to get my key).  So that was a pain!  Our flat is like a small floor in a dorm.  There are 8 rooms, one person in each room, with a lounge/kitchen for all of us to share.  We each have a tiny bathroom with a shower in each of our rooms.  The shower consists of the corner of the bathroom with a curtain over it.  (Pictures are coming.)
By this point, I am stressed, extremely tired, and just want to talk to someone!  But, everyone was asleep because I got here so early and I didn't want to wake anyone up.  So, I called my mom and Kevin on the minutes I bought on skype to call cell phones and told them about my tiring experience.  This only made me miss home even more.  I had gotten here and had no one to talk to, my room was freezing and I couldn't figure out the heater, and I also couldn't get my adapter into the socket so my computer was dying.  It was a rough day, to say the least.
Finally, I heard some people in my flat moving around so I went to go introduce myself.  The rest of the day went well.  We went shopping in downtown Brighton to get some essentials and had dinner at a Japanese restaurant, which I didn't like very much.  I think I just got the wrong thing...
Moving on to my adventures from yesterday!  We had orientation in the morning and talked about the school and all of our field trips.  I absolutely LOVE our program advisors!  They really know what they are doing and are very friendly!  We spent the rest of the day shopping for food to bring back to our flat.  We went out last night with some British friends Chelsea and Lindsay (two of my flat mates) made the night before who go to our University.  We went to two pubs/clubs downtown on the coast.  It was so cool to be right near the sea!  Madison (a girl in my program) and I ran on the beach (not a sand beach but a pebble beach) and went up to the edge to touch the water.  It was freezing but so much fun!!  After the two clubs, we went to eat our first fish and chips in England which were INCREDIBLE!  Definitely going to be eating that a lot.  And along those lines, I am planning on getting a membership to the gym on campus so I don't gain weight from all the grease!  After the fish and chips, we went to a casino, which was pretty small, and I didn't gamble at all, just watched others.  We finally got home around 4:30AM and were so exhausted we went straight to bed.  What a great first night out in Brighton!!  Well there is probably something I forgot, but I am going to end here since it is so long already.
Cheerio!