History Extravaganza

Hi everyone! It's just Nicole writing today as I had a Big Day, while Stefanie had a lot more free time. This morning started off with orientation (unfortunately, mine was at 9 am and Stef's was at 11 am). On my way back, I stopped in one of the campus cafes to buy a scone and a hot tea (for just under 2 pounds!) to enjoy back at my room.

I love this country so much.

I worked on decorating my room, went through paperwork, and figured out how to use the ethernet cable while watching an episode of The Tudors (I discovered that British Netflix doesn't have The Borgias, which made me quite sad). I met Stef for lunch at Dhaba Cafe, the vegetarian restaurant on campus, which was interesting but yummy.

Stefanie's Vegetarian Street Food Masterpiece

Then, it was time for my first class! Our schedules had the class as 2-5 pm, but apparently it was marked as 1-4 pm on my professor's schedule. I showed up around 1:15, intending to find the classroom and then sit and read in the hallway. However, I ran into my teacher so we ended up chatting for about 45 minutes until everyone else showed up.

My professor, Robert Hutchinson, is absolutely incredible. Three of our books for class were written by him and he's worked on several documentaries, in addition to starting out his career in the newspaper field before moving into history writing. We crammed the entire reign of Henry VII into a few hours (from the Battle of Bosworth to his death of TB) and discussed our upcoming field trips. I'm so thrilled for this class and have already picked out my essay topic (we have a choice of three) for our paper that's due next week. Also, I have to mention that my professor told us that he lives in a thatched roof house that was built in the 1500's and there's a little castle at the end of his street. It sounds so cliche, I couldn't make it up if I tried.  

There's an adorable drink machine in my class building

You can even put milk and sugar in your tea or coffee!

Stef and I met up for dinner at Eat Central (for the third night in a row!) before I went to the lecture the school offered on Brighton & Hove History. I learned a lot of great stuff, but the lecturer also showed us a bunch of pictures of Brighton and recommended places to go. He was born in Brighton and lived here for most of his life, so it was really nice to get an insider's look and see how proud he was of the city.

Now, I'm off to the school pub for the first time to watch some World Cup with Stefanie (also a first for me). Wish me luck surviving amidst the sports fans...I don't even know what countries are playing! Oops!