ladies in the laines

the pavilion. {a palace in the middle of town}

at the end of the street is the Atlantic.. yeah. artsy shops.
below: ￡200 wedding cakes. {and my favourite chocolate object in the shop heh heh}
... and a slice that ally & i shared. so sweet. almost... too sweet. {later that day we enjoyed white wine & sex and the city} a real "ladies' day" if you ask me...







FIRST ENTRY IN BRIGHTON, UK
first day here.
here's my journey in a nutshell:
chicago o'hare..
parents leave before i even truly wake-up. mom cries. ben starts to cali.
{i wanted longer goodbyes with ben, full of kissing}
my purse straps break because of the weight of it in security. i immediately wish i would've left more in my checked luggage.

i sat in the terminal for 3 hours and burned cds for kyndra, mel & audre. it rained, and i believe it does that every time i say goodbye to ben. i listened to melancholy music to mourn the farewell, but was hopeful for what was going to happen.
{it still doesn't feel real}
finally take off in a puddle jumper plane. 4 seats in width. crazy flight, the girl next to me and i looked at magazines and tries to sleep but it didn't work {i think for either of us}.
{coach class can be awkward, especially with elbow placement} hah
get into NYC jfk airport. find out where to go to the next terminal for the flight. exchange currency. $460 = 205 quid

hungry. walked to the opposite corner of jfk down long corridors to terminal 4. heavy carry-ons. my purse i'm now carrying like a grocery bag. haha. i didn't buy food because i couldn't carry it with my luggage. i know why they call it "lug"gage now. hah.
got starbucks frappe. and watched "flags of our fathers" 2.5 hour wait.

this time it was a big plane. yesss. and a girl about the same age as me sat next to me but she wasn't talkative, which was fine, because before i started watching the film in the terminal, i took tylenol pm. so i was basically knocked out.
pillow.blanket.lotion.movie. provided by delta.
i slept. and then woke up to the question "chicken, or pasta?" i ate pasta and ordered a coke. perfect. totally groggy everything was a blur, but i hadn't eaten all day..
reached for the coke, and .. spilled it all over the girl next to me! before the liquid even hit her lap, i blurted out monotonely "oh my gosh i'm so sorry" in that low voice i use. i felt really bad though, i just could express it.
she said it was fine and cleaned it up. it just got on her blanket and she got another one. but i felt crappy about it and still had another 4 hours of the trip to go...! i fell asleep promptly after/maybe during eating.

landed an hour early at 6:35am. i was afraid rob's mum wasn't going to be there, but she was. got my luggage, and shoved my carry-ons inside. we got to the parking ramp and she told me to get in on the other side. i thought that was funny because i was going that direction anyway. rob's family just got back from california, where his sister attends berkley. so she knew all about my probable confusion of being here.

1/2 hour drive to brighton from gatwick, london. she took be into brighton and drove past varley dorms, where apparently i might be living, and then to grand prix, where i have classes.. and it's a definite bus ride. or a long steep bike journey. aurelia and ally are adamant about getting me into the phoenix dorms in the city and next door to where i'll have classes. i hope it works out.


i went to ally's which is BEAUTIFUL. so posh inside, the shower is amazing. but everything is definitely small. compact. european. we ate some breakfast and then went out on the town.
we went to "the lanes" which is a lot lot lot like uptown. except better. the north lanes are all indie shops with a brick pave narrow street down the middle. and the south lanes {by the beach} look the same outside, but are much more expensive and savvy i guess. then we went to O2 and i got a sim card with 100 free minutes to call internationally. for emergencies i guess. it's a prepaid phone so i'm just i guess trying it out. heh i still have to unlock my phone though which i guess can be "pretty dodgy" so i hear. but hopefully that'll happen wednesday.
{then i'll give you a call, ben}

we met up with aurelia then and went to the beach. there's tons of pubs down there, and a little carnival out on the end of a pier. i'd like to go out there, and then there's a burned pier next to it and it looks creepy. i guess when the tide goes out you can walk out to it and i'd like to do that:)
there's also an old palace called "the pavilion" in the center of town and i'd like to see that as well. but that costs money which i haven't got much of.
anyway, while talking on the pier, i was talking about ben visiting with his band at the end of the month, and this boy, marcroy {who is aurelia's friend} asked which band it was and once i said still remains, his eyebrows went up so i asked him if he knew who they were and he was like "whoaaa yeah!" so he and his gf might come out to the show too. then aurelia asked me where stilly was playing and i didn't know. someone mentioned the "conchord" so i said yeah probably. which apparently is huge. but then aurelia and her 'flatmates' looked up the show on myspace and found out its actually at a different place which is as big as the pavilion which is bigger than the conchord i guess.

they were really excited about the show. i joked about a bunch of people on the guest list, but i hope they don't remember. heh. anyway, after that ally & i took the {double-decker} bus back to her place for lunch, tv, journaling, and naps. then we went to dinner, with andy, ben, josh, aurelia, and aurelia's sister {alexa, i think}, at this cheap asian place called "wagamama" which is a chain i guess. it was cheap like £6.50 which is still pretty expensive for me. hah, but ally paid for me. and i thanked her a lot. "loads"= a lot, in british. ha then aurelia and her sister {who smokes her own "rollies" which are tobacco, dont' worry. i thought that was cool} left and now i'm back at ally's and it's 12:26am. tomorrow i have to leave by 8:30am to get to school and sort things out..i hope it all goes well. i have to shower. and sleep. i'm taking tylenol PM again tonight i think.

cheers. hah!