My First Week in Brighton!

So, I have been in the UK for a week now, and I am getting settled and use to life here. I flew out of the Ottawa airport in Canada last Monday at 6:40 pm and arrived in the UK at around 6:30 in the morning. The flight was 7 hours long, and there is a 5 hour time difference between the United States and England. I am studying at Brighton University while I am abroad, in the city of Brighton. Brighton is located about an hour south of London.

My parents took me to the airport on Monday where we had a snack, and they then waited until I made it safely through security. After that, I was on my own! On the plane I sat next to a girl from Canada who was going to be studying in London for the semester. It was nice to sit next to another student and I hope to see her sometime while I am studying here. After I got off the plane, I got my luggage and then met people from Brighton University where they put me on a bus and sent me on my way to the school. At the school they gave me some information and then put me on another bus to my residence hall. It was so difficult to carry all of my luggage by myself to my residence hall, but somehow I managed and got my room all set up before 11 am. Just a note – residence halls are called “flats” here. I didn’t sleep at all on the plane so after my room was set up I took a nice long nap, and then went to the library to let my parents and boyfriend know that I had arrived safely. I actually haven’t had any jetlag from my journey! I didn’t sleep at all on the plane, and then the long nap I took must have set me straight. Later that night, the international orientation began and I met a lot of new people from different countries all over the world. As of right now, I have only met 2 Americans and everyone else has been British or from another country.

The orientation program was really great and helped me to get to know both the town and the campus. We were given lots of useful information and also shown a tour of the campus. In order for us to know the town, there was a type of treasure hunt where we worked in groups and had to go around to all different places and answer questions. It was a lot of fun but also very tiring because we walked all around town for 3 hours.

I have already been able to do many things in Brighton such as walk along the beach and pier, have fish and chips, ride a double decker bus and drink a cup of tea! The link below takes you to a slideshow of my journey so far in the UK (Blogger wouldn't let me post pictures to my blog for some reason, so this was the best option). I hope you enjoy it!

Jen



http://cmd.shutterfly.com/commands/pictures/slideshow?site=jensjourney1&page=jensjourney1&album=26