Updating

Well, the internet was out again, so I haven't been able to detail the last two days. Here goes.

Friday

I was going to go to the Imperial War museum but I needed to get to school and deal with my check situation, so the museum was out. It didn't take anything more than a bit of my time, but I finally got the check deposited. God only knows when the money will be there. I asked the teller how long it would take and she said "4 days". So, being that it was after 2 on a Friday, I replied, "then will it be next Thursday or Friday?"

"Yes, that's right."

No, really. Which is it?

"Yes, that's right."

Obviously this conversation was going nowhere, so I left. I should have a pool going on this.

Anyway, after the bank, I went back to school. (For those following at home, that's home-school-bank-school.) There was a new student meet and greet which involved free drinks, so who was I to argue. It actually turned out to be pretty lame. Well, not entirely lame because there were free drinks and I ended up hanging with several of my mates. It's just that it was supposed to be for the "old" students to meet the "new" students and only one new student showed up. That's weak. I plan on ridiculing several of my IR classmates on Friday.

The Prototype and I had plans to meet up after that event, so I left at 8 and headed back to Earl's Court. We met up around 9 and had a great time. We ended up at Scream again and even went downstairs and danced a bit. She owed me about 8 pounds, so I didn't have to spend much money at all. At some point, she asked me if I wanted to go to Brighton on Saturday with her and I leapt at the opportunity. She used to live there, talks about how great it is all the time, and I will pretty much always say yes when she invites me to spend the day with her. Plus, London can be a bit claustrophobic at times and I wanted to get the hell out of there for a bit and see something new. We called it a night about 1. Neither of us was in the mood to rage and we needed to get up at a decent hour to catch the train.

Saturday

We met up at the Tube at noon and took that to Victoria Station. The round trip (return) ticket to Brighton was 16 pounds - not too bad. The bus is about 9 pounds and it takes 2 hours minimum each way. The train down took about 50 minutes. Plus, at the Prototype's advice, I'm probably going to buy a national rail discount card. It costs 20 pounds and you get 30% off of every trip you take. Since I know I'll be going to Brighton at least once more (5 pounds) as well as doing some traveling with my friend Maria, it will be well worth it.

Brighton, in short, is essentially a New Jersey shore town located on the southern tip of England. And I'm not just being funny here. I'll post some pics in a bit, so you can see what I'm talking about. But there are essentially two things there: the shore and "the lanes".

The Shore

The beach is a rock beach, not a ton of sand. It also has garish tourist attractions like skee ball and things of that nature. The really nice thing about it though is that it has a wide walkway that people bike and run on. I'm sure in the summertime (as the Prototype mentioned) that it's amazing to run on. The weather doesn't get "hot" there (no matter what the Brits think "hot" is - 75 is awesome) and it's right on the English Channel. She used to run there when she was living down there.

There is also a very large and long pier that has New Jersey all over it. It's basically one of those carnival type deals - rides, games, pubs, cotton candy, etc. Instead of funnel cakes, they had crepes. They play American hip hop on speakers all over the pier and it has the feel of something entirely un-European. The whole thing is totally awesome in the sense that you feel like you're stepping into this bizarre world of yesteryear that for some reason still manages to survive even given increasingly sophisticated tourist tastes. Apparently, the French love the place. Go figure...the French frolicking in Americana.

The Lanes

Much like Amsterdam, Brighton has many twisty, narrow streets that are overflowing with shops of all kinds. We didn't do much shopping (except when we went to the first shopping mall I've seen in this country), but we did walk through it a bunch. This is where Europe comes in. It's more authentically European than London which, aside from Covent Garden/Soho, has a distinctly different feel from the mainland. We walked around a good bit and I got to witness the incredible power that shoe stores have on women. Pretty much every time we passed a shoe store, the Prototype went to the window and just gazed at the offerings whispering sweet, desirous nothings to herself. Women clearly love shoes.

Anyway, the primary reason she wanted to go down there was because she wanted to get her hair cut. This is quite amusing to me. She goes to a Supercuts down there that has the best hair cutter she's ever had. He's some Greek guy who works at the salon because "money isn't everything" and he hated working at the Toni & Guy salon (I think that's the name). I'd have to say, after seeing the before and after, he did an amazing job. She looked fantastic (and yeah, I'm biased - deal with it).

The Supercuts was located in a "mall", or at least as much of a mall as I imagine they have over here. It was smaller than the Wheaton mall (which means nothing to about 95% of you), but it was definitely a mall and the Brits were eating it up. The place was packed. While there, I saw that they had a Quizno's. I resisted the urge to have a sandwich. Totally bizarre to see a Quizno's there and gave me hope that maybe I'll turn the corner someday and there, shining like the Holy Grail, a Chipotle will magically descend from the heavens. It's ok to dream.

While she was in the Supercuts, I went to Borders for this book I need for school. Damn thing costs 23 pounds! I may have to buy it anyway, but I couldn't spend that much on Saturday, so I just sat there and read it for awhile.

Eventually, we got hungry and found a place to eat. The food wasn't too bad and the company was great, so we had a good time. We were talking about going out to her favorite club, but the last train home was at 11, leaving us with no time for that. Instead, we had a drink at a posh pub right near the train station. I was totally exhausted on the ride home and even managed to sleep a bit. She had brought a book, so it wasn't rude of me to pass out. I wouldn't have been much conversation anyway as I get pretty grumpy when I'm that tired.

The train home was delayed, so we didn't get back until almost 1. From Victoria, for some reason, there are no night buses to Earl's Court. You either have to take a bus to Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square and neither of us were keen on that idea. My cat nap had perked me up, so I suggested we just walk. It's a good ways, but we always had the option of hopping the N74 or N97 once we got to Brompton Road (15-20 minute walk). She was amenable.

We ended up walking all the way home. It took about an hour, but it was fun. The fresh air and good company kept us interested and alert. Plus, we were walking through Belgravia, Chelsea, and Kensington (in that order) which are all really nice neighborhoods (and safe).

Today I've just been doing errands and things of that nature. No matter what you do in life, laundry still has to be done, rooms have to be cleaned, and cupboards have to be stocked. Sigh. At least I had a good weekend. Much preferable to just going clubbing as usual. That's pretty much my mission - going places that is. When I first got here, I went clubbing a lot and had a good time. But I want to spend my free time this semester traveling and seeing what there is to see. In that vein, I think I may go to Paris in between quarters. We have a week off from school at the end of March. I have to investigate that.