February Sunbathing

Life’s a beach and I’m just playing in the sand. Or, should I say pebbles.

I went to Brighton this past weekend with a group of friends. A fun and vibrant city along the beachfront, we had lots of things to do in such a short time. The first place we headed off to was the Royal Pavilion, which is a palace built for George IV. George really must have loved Chinese decoration, because the entire place was built off this theme. It’s a beautiful palace, though seemingly only George and Victoria have used it before. A staple of the city, it is right in the center near the Lanes, the shopping and restaurant hub of Brighton. After exploring the place, Riley and I headed off to yet another football match. This was a Premier League contest between Brighton, who sit at the middle of the table, and Burnley, who are dead last. Expecting a Brighton thrashing, we sat front row to witness just the opposite. Burnley won 3-0, with one of the goals scored right in front of us. It was a rainy and windy game, a day after the huge storm, but was really fun to go to.

That night we played glow in the dark mini golf with friends at the Brighton Marina. Riley and I walked 2 miles along the pebbly beach to meet up with everyone else. I even touched the English Channel. Soon I’ll be training to swim it, but I’m taking it one step at a time. After golf, we went to a club called Chalk. Once again, modern day music was nowhere to be found. I really don’t understand why.

The next day was a chill(y) Brighton day, as we took our time to go to breakfast. I finally got my first full English breakfast, consisting of eggs, toast, sausage, bacon and beans. It was delicious. Already in the Lanes, we strolled around the shops to look around. After that time was up (which didn’t take long, considering our patience for shopping), we headed to the Brighton Pier. Essentially a fair on a pier, it had rides, an arcade, food stands and more. Most of the rides were closed because of the wind, but we got some cool pictures (one of which you’ll see blow with my friend Adam) and got to imagine how busy this place would be in about 5 months' time.

After a nice 2 day trip to Brighton, I had classes the next day. In my British Mass Media class, the political cartoonist for the Guardian, Martin Rowson, came in to speak to our class. He was a very interesting guy with some cool stories, and I’ll be posting a reflective blog assignment on him in the next few days if anyone is interested.

On Tuesday I learned about corruption in sport, and although I find it an extremely interesting topic that’s making me partially reconsider the direction I want to go in sport, I won’t bore you with the details. So after class I went to Notting Hill, a very colorful and fun area of London which includes Portobello Market, where I got my first falafel. It was so good and…interesting? I can’t even tell you what I ate in that wrap, but I’d go back for seconds (Falafel Point is the tent in which I got it, if you ever find yourself there).

And inevitably I find myself bringing the blog back to football. Riley and I watched Chelsea defeat French side Lille in a Champions League game at the nearby pub, Oxford Arms. They played incredibly and will hopefully keep that performance up. Although, ironically, yesterday night I went to a match of one of their London rivals, Fulham FC. Remember Craven Cottage? That’s them. They played Peterborough, who were with an interim coach as their coach resigned a day earlier. However, Fulham only won 2-1, despite absolute domination the entire game. Forward Aleksandar Mitrovic set the record for most goals in a season for the league, netting his 32nd and 33rd goals, with 14 games still to go. 14. Is it okay to support rivals? Probably not, but maybe if I keep it on the down low. Shh.

This game was cool for other reasons too: it was paid for by the program, Riley and I had our photo in the matchday programme, and there was tension between our stand and the rival fans. I’ll back it up a second: Riley and I had our photo in the programme because the Craven Cottage tour guide told us we could email him a picture of us from the tour we had taken and have it put in the programme for a match we attended; I figured I’d take him up on that offer. As for the tension, our stand was directly next to the away fans stand. Football fans can get pretty intense, but if Americans are known for anything, it’s for being rowdy and not backing down. There were other Americans from a different program sitting by us and there were some obscene gestures and remarks coming from them and the away fans, but it was all in good fun. Even one of the security guards who stood between the sections could not help but laugh, looking back and forth between the two sides.

Before the match yesterday, though, I learned about British theatre in my British Life and Culture class. We had a guest speaker who told us about the charity she works at, Scene and Heard, where children living in poverty write plays for professional actors and actresses to perform. It sounds amazing, but tickets are very difficult to come by as it is such a hot commodity. After the speaker, we visited Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. A replica of the original brought to life by American Sam Wanamaker in 1997, it was a beautiful circle building which lacks a roof. Our tour guide told us that there is in fact no mention of a balcony in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; this has only been added on by editors in later years. Sorry to ruin your Shakespeare experience. Anyways, I am excited to go to a 5 pound standing-room only play in April.

Well, I have to go and make an egg bagel with ham and cheese. At this point, I’m pretty much living off that meal but I won’t complain- I toast a mean cinnamon raisin bagel. After that I’m off to a Chelsea Academy match at Stamford Bridge to watch kids younger than me succeed more than me. C’est la vie, I guess.

Tomorrow’s Stonehenge and Salisbury, so be ready.

Cheers