After spring break, there was only about a month left before finals ended and we flew home. We managed to squeeze in a few good things in between – a trip to Amsterdam, a visit to the Wimbledon stadium (no games though; I was really disappointed), and a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the Globe Theatre (excellent!) – but the rest of my time was spent studying for finals and completing end-of-the-semester projects and presentations. After all that, I wanted to go on one last epic adventure, and my friend, Kevin, and I planned to go to Brighton Beach in England and Belgium after finals.
I really enjoyed Brighton. We went last Thursday and Friday, and we were very lucky to have timed our trip so that it coincided with the Brighton annual festival held in May. Local artists display their work in selected galleries, and people coming to the festival will buy them. They had a diverse selection, from digitally created prints and paintings that pop out in 3-D, to abstract post-modern art and erotica inspired pieces. In addition, the festival displayed a good amount of performing arts, which Kevin and I saw.
Of course, there was also the whole city to explore. The beach was a bit rocky, but the pier had a Santa Cruz Boardwalk style amusement park which we walked around. In addition, they had streets filled with interesting shops such as a recycling inspired store and a “Vegetarian shoe” store. I noticed there was a smorgasbord of sub-cultures in Brighton – gay, goth, hippie, and artsy. Brighton is known as one of the gay hubs of England, but it was less flamboyant than I expected. There were, however, several posters advertising a “Ladyboys from Bangkok” cabaret show and plenty of ads promoting gay bars. The pier, the subcultures, and even the architecture of the houses reminded me a lot of San Francisco.
When we came back to London, I was able to see a lot of the things we had not managed to get around to during our four-month study abroad time. Our last days here, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Camden Market, and finally the Portobello Market and Brick Lane. I wish I had been able to spend more time in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Camden Market was so expansive and so interesting I would have loved to go back multiple times. For example, they had a rave-themed where the workers wore neon dreadlocks, rave music was pumping, and even go-go dancers were dancing in cages at the other side of the main entrance. They even had a very interesting 18+ section, where they sold ‘sexy’ board games, tins with used Japanese panties, and everything in between (is this what 3008 looks like?). I could not believe I failed to visit a place as interesting as this before these last few days.
And so we come to the theme of these last few days: ‘Why the hell didn’t we do all of this earlier?’ For example, Brighton is only an hour away by train from London and relatively cheap. Even as a day trip, it would have made a good weekend getaway, especially if we had gone with everyone else. Looking back at all the things I saw in London that weekend, it sounds ridiculous that I failed to go to these places during the semester. Sure, there was school, and travelling, and the terrible London weather which discouraged us from going out, but I slightly regret that I didn’t spend more of my time exploring everything that London had to offer.
As a whole, I suppose I could have made better use of my study abroad experience, especially in terms of getting to know England better. After all, I didn’t do HOST (a program where you get to stay with a British family for a weekend), I didn’t participate in any pub quizzes, and I didn’t make any local British friends. I didn’t feel immersed into the culture. I partly blame the NYU study abroad program for this, but I suppose at the heart of it I only have myself to blame for failing to take more initiative. But other than that, I made great friends, and the friendships I already had only grew deeper with the study abroad experience. It was good and fun while it lasted.
-Emoinacloset
