The odyssey is only beginning

Whenever I pictured my term at Sussex, I always skipped ahead to an undesignated point in the spring, when the campus was green and pretty, when I had friends and could hop on a bus with confidence, and when I would call my dorm “home.” I never imagined the first few weeks, and in retrospect, that’s probably a good thing.

My first and last night in London was delightful, complete with a trip to an authentic pub, good conversation and an episode of Mad Men. The next morning, I set off in a taxi to Victoria Station on my way to Brighton. My driver was very friendly and gave me a tour of the city as we drove by. Unfortunately, I was so absorbed in the conversation that I did not notice when he dropped me off at the coach station, rather than the train station. In fact, I did not realize the mistake until after I bought a bus ticket and had been sitting at the terminal for ten minutes...Yep, I am definitely qualified to live in a foreign country.

After a frantic call to the International & Study Abroad Office, I asked for directions to the train part of Victoria Station and crossed two streets to get there. I wandered through a building and saw an office marked “National Express,” the name of the train company, and foolishly figured I could buy a train ticket there. After waiting ten minutes in line, only to be told that I had to go to another building, I raced across one last street into the correct part of Victoria Station.

I’ve decided the British don’t believe in labels, because Victoria Station is buried in what appears to be a mall and there are few indicators of its precise location. I took escalators up and down before finally figuring out that the trains where on the lower level. None of this was made any easier by lugging around my two suitcases, which together weighed 81 pounds. If it wasn’t from the help of kind strangers who held my bags, I quite literally would have killed myself or someone else by tripping down escalators. Have they never heard of “lifts?!?”

At this point, I had ten minutes to go until my train left. I decided to try my luck with the ticket machines, rather than wait in a long line for a ticket agent. After two machines failed to accept my credit card, I was just about ready to cry and was only comforted by the thought that this would be a hilarious story once I finally made it to Brighton. So, I waited in line, bought my ticket and raced to the platform. Just as I arrived, the doors swished shut, and I really thought I was going to lose it. Luckily, before I completely broke down, someone opened the door. A big thank you to all the strangers who helped me survive yesterday!

The train ride was lovely, and I’d ride trains all day if I could. The countryside didn’t look quite as quintessentially English as I’d expected because of the snow, but it was one of the best parts of my day. I was actually disappointed when we arrived a bit less than an hour after leaving London.

With no more mishaps, I took a taxi to the university and checked into my room, which is on the third floor. After dragging my suitcases up three steep flights of stairs, I have resolved never, ever to pack so much. Next time I move to a foreign country, I’m winning the lottery first and buying everything I need when I get there, no matter what the exchange rate is.

After some fiddling with the lock, I opened the door and...sort of wondered what could possibly have compelled me to ever consider leaving Wash. U., where I have been spoiled with nearly-new, clean and shiny rooms for the past three years. The room is spacious enough, but I was greeted with a spider hanging in a corner (which got away when I tried to assassinate it), a dried contact lens stuck to the wall, and what I believe are toenail clippings under the desk. You can imagine just how happy I was at this moment in time. However, I do appreciate having a sink in my room. That’s got to be the best idea in dorm construction history, right after clean bathrooms, which this university hasn’t quite gotten the memo about...To all my friends who have or have ever had hall bathrooms, I now feel your pain.

The first thing I wanted to do was plug in my computer and set up my internet connection. I’m pretty sure I electrocuted myself in the process. When I plugged the surge protector into the adapter, there was a flash, and my arm felt sort of funny for the next few hours...I also managed to blow a fuse or something because after that, neither outlet worked until the office called an electrician for me. Naturally, even with my computer running on batter power, I could not get the internet to work and will have to wait until Monday for tech support to help me. I should have known.

I barely had time to drop my suitcases and get electrocuted before heading off to an academic meeting with my advisor, who is perhaps the nicest person I’ve met so far. She was incredibly patient, and after we figured out my schedule, and I raced off to another meeting. And by raced off to another meeting, I mean wandered around campus, completely lost because I’d forgotten my map. So far, even when I’ve found the right buildings, I can never find a door into the building. Plenty of locked doors, but no open ones...

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get all of these problems sorted out, with very little to show for it. Defeated, I schlepped through the snow (despite my earlier resolution to never bring anything to a foreign country ever again, I sort of wish I’d brought my snow boots) to the campus bar, where there was free food for Visiting & Exchange students. I ran into some girls I had met earlier as well as two others from Wash. U., and we had a really nice dinner.

We made a quick stop in one of the convenience stores on campus for dessert, and it was so surreal to see alcohol being sold right next to Kinder Eggs. (Yes, Kinder Eggs!!! So excited.)

I returned to my dorm and unpacked while visiting with my new neighbors (as I typed that last word, the spell check tried to correct it by adding a “u,” just in case you were wondering). Now that everything is in its place, my room is slowly growing on me, and hopefully I can find some posters, a blanket that actually covers my feet, or some other little things in Brighton today that will make it feel more like home.

In the meantime, I’m off to have breakfast (you see Mom, I am eating!) before heading into the city with some of the other students to go shopping. Tune in next time to see if I ever find that runaway spider...