Photography, Cinemas and Pubs! Oh My!

I’ve grown accustomed to sleeping in on Wednesdays since I don’t have class (it’s like a mini weekend in the middle of the week), but for a day in London, I suppose it was worth waking up early for! I met other members of the Photography Society (fondly known as PhotoSoc) at Brighton Station a bit after 10 a.m., and we set out on the train for a day choke-full of photography sightseeing. Although it wasn’t supposed to be our first stop, we started at the National Gallery, where we saw more pictures of Twiggy than I ever needed to see. Twiggy on magazine covers, Twiggy in a parade, Twiggy pretending to cook, Twiggy crouching in a corner…Still, it was an interesting little exhibit and kind of cool to see how Twiggy’s hair styles have changed over the decades. And I definitely need to get back to the museum at some point, because there is so much more to see there than supermodels.

Next on our list was the Getty Images Gallery, which we did eventually find, despite the handicap of my presence (although I didn’t go anywhere near the maps, I swear!). Their current exhibit featured portraits of 20th century Hollywood actors and actresses. It was all very glamorous, and I think I want to be a 1950s movie star when I grow up. Some of the portraits were really well done, and it was one of my favorite stops.

We had a quick and very familiar lunch at McDonalds before moving onto another gallery that we just happened to stumble upon. There were some really creepy photographs of people with grotesque make up, and a rather absurd one of a television in wheelbarrow, but the best exhibit was pictures of an artist’s scrapbook about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. He juxtaposed newspaper clipping about violence and depressing photographs of jails with pictures of birthday parties, advertisements and things that make you think of normality. Very interesting, minus the freshman year flashbacks. (Remember, I studied Irish literature and culture all year? And then I went to Ireland over spring break? Talk about history repeating itself...)

Everyone was pretty tired by that point, but we trudged on and a few Tube stops and a long walk later, we found ourselves at the National Geographic gallery. This was my other favorite spot. During the 19th century, a woman named Isabella Bird traveled all over the world and took some primitive photographs along the way. This exhibit traced her journey and supplemented her pictures with modern photographs of the places she went as well as excerpts from her books and maps. It was very well put together and made me even happier that my own travels are just around the corner.

After that, I returned to Brighton with a few others. It was a great afternoon, and I know I wouldn’t have gotten to these galleries if I hadn’t gone with PhotoSoc, so I’m so glad I had the chance. I came back to my dorm, had time for one deep breath and then went back into town with my friends to see Alice in Wonderland. I was really torn about whether or not I wanted to see this movie. On the one hand, the animated Disney version seriously creeped me out as a child. We’re talking repeated nightmares starring the Mad Hatter and a disappearing cat. It sounds more like a bad acid trip than a children’s movie, and Tim Burton is not exactly known for his conventional storytelling abilities. On the other hand, Johnny Depp. Need I say more? Naturally, Johnny Depp (and maybe the chance to spend time with friends and avoid studying) won out.

However, my adventures in the wonderland that is British cinema began even before the movie started. I cannot emphasize enough how different and (I feel like such a snob as I write this but I will anyway) inferior the movie-going experience is here compared to back home. Cinemas (movie theaters—thank you to Fran for kindly pointing that out to me!) are open far fewer hours and consequently each movie has fewer showings per day. There may be one during the afternoon, but the rest are in the evening. So, everyone queues (lines up) long before shows start (or, if they’re smart, they buy their tickets online, which is much more common here). This was my first clue that the British have an amazing talent for queuing at absolutely everything that could possibly require queuing, although I should note that I discovered this habit a few weeks ago after unsuccessfully trying to see Avatar. We arrived at the cinema more than an hour before the showing we wanted to go to, only to find out that it was already sold out. (Do keep in mind that it was a Wednesday night, and it was definitely not the movie’s premier.) We were lucky to get tickets to the showing an hour after that, which ended up working out just fine since it gave us more time to eat at a restaurant nearby.

We returned to the cinema about fifteen minutes before the movie at 9 p.m. If this was America, that would have been perfect timing. We’d have waltzed into the theater (theater, not theatre, and not cinema), found good seats, maybe bought popcorn with tons of butter, put our feet up and made fun of the stupid trivia questions on the screen before the movie started. But this is England, so instead, we waltzed into the lobby past the ticket counter and found an already long queue of people waiting to enter the cinema. Ten minutes later, the queue finally began to advance, but by the time we made it in, we couldn’t find seats together and had to split up (To be fair, there were twelve of us). And if you thought there were too many previews before American movies, I challenge you to see a movie here. There were fifteen minutes of commercials alone before the standard fifteen minutes of previews. It’s a good thing I don’t mind the previews.

Still, it was all worth it. Alice in Wonderland far surpassed my expectations, although admittedly that was not too difficult to do. The acting was superb, and most of the actors really fleshed out the familiar 2D children’s characters and turned them into compelling, deep and interesting people. At the beginning, Alice in particular struck me as an airhead who was unable to function in even an imagined reality, but by the end when she—oh, I probably shouldn’t say in case you haven’t seen it yet—anyway, she was almost competent! And of course Johnny Depp did great things with the Mad Hatter, and I didn’t have any more nightmares. Bravo. The story was far more interesting than the animated version, perhaps because despite the movie’s name, it’s really based on Lewis Carroll’s sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. Speaking of animation, perhaps I shouldn’t be so quick to say that this version wasn’t animated. The blend between live action and computer animation was another unique feature. There were instances when I really couldn’t tell if something was animated or not. It made me uneasy and a little bit nostalgic for good old ‘90s Disney, but it was well done nonetheless.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I probably attended my last Psychology of Self and Identity seminar on Thursday. (Yay!) At the end of class, the teacher announced that the lecturers’ union had voted to go on strike next Thursday in protest of the cuts, which I have written about before. He said that the university wouldn’t listen to them and refused to go to arbitration, which is the course of action he would prefer, but the union had voted, and he said he would support them. Do university professors in the U.S. even have unions?

On a similar note, there were riot police on campus last week when students decided to occupy another building in protest of the cuts (I can see why some students are more than a bit jaded by this point). Only this time, they may or may not have advertently or inadvertently prevented staff members from leaving the site, which the administration believed boiled down to a hostage situation. So, large numbers of police, clubs and dogs arrived and prevented anyone from getting in or out of the building until the middle of the night. Police surrounded the building with their dogs and their big riot shields, while singing, dancing and musical instrument-playing students surrounded them. It was a sight straight out of the ‘60s. And I thought an afternoon in Regency Bath was the only time travel I would be doing…In the end, six students were suspended indefinitely, and since then there have been demonstrations almost every day to “reinstate the Sussex Six.” Also, students have lost the ability (privilege? right? moral imperative?) to occupy buildings for the purpose of protesting. Not that this minor technicality has prevented them from occupying the building where I normally have class on Monday morning. You can read a rather biased account of the incident at the student newspaper: The Badger.

Anyway, back to the present. On Friday, we had a celebration for Francesca, who returns to Italy on Tuesday and will not be returning for summer term. Not that that’s a reason to celebrate, but in Brighton, you’d be hard pressed to find a situation that would not merit a night out. We started out wandering the seafront looking for a pub she liked back in October, but we discovered it was closed, so we found The Fish Bowl instead. More people showed up, and I met even more Italians. Seriously, I doubt there are any Italians in a 20-mile radius who I have not yet met this term! I also received my first “Al Capone” reaction when I told someone I was from Chicago. I was told to expect this response before I left, but no one had verbalized the connection until Friday. Another touching American abroad moment. After enjoying our long-sought after table for an appropriate amount of time (it turns out pubs are a wee bit crowded on Friday nights), we moved across the street to the Piano and the Pitcher (don’t you love English pub names? I do.) A few tequila shots later, the lights turned on and the pub closed, so we wandered around looking for apple pie, but there was no apple pie to be found at 2 a.m. Shocker. It was at this point in the evening that I decided to call it a night (morning?) and headed back to campus.

Walking back from the gym on Saturday (not that I’m bragging, but considering what time I got home on Friday night, er, Saturday morning, you would be impressed too!), I observed a seagull (which are as common here as squirrels are at Wash. U.) dive from the air, viciously attack a student, grab a sandwich out of his hand and fly away. I was warned about this risk during Orientation, but I didn’t believe it actually happened. Moral of the story: never carry food outside. Seagulls are far more vicious and assertive than squirrels.

I think it’s about time for a moment of reflection about Brighton, don’t you? I’m very slowly becoming more comfortable in the city. The panicky moments when I see the city flying by out of the bus window and have no idea where I’m going are slowly being replaced by the moments where I step off the bus, look around and instantly know where I am and what direction I have to go in. It’s not Chicago, and I would be (and am already a little) bored if I was here after June. I’ll never know the city like a local and I doubt it will ever be home, but at the very least, I’m on my way to being a well-informed, long-term visitor.

On another semi-related topic, I’m amazed at how safe I feel here in Brighton. The city has a low crime rate to begin with, and I’ve seen a lot of police around, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. I have yet to step foot in a neighborhood that makes me uncomfortable. At night when I’m on my way home, there are always people around; it might as well be the city that never sleeps. And even when the streets are deserted, well, there’s no one around, so why would I feel threatened? One big difference in the UK is that no one is allowed to own guns. You can argue about inalienable rights until you’re blue in the face, and I know that my experience with guns is different than others’, but I feel safer walking alone here in the middle of the night than I do at noon in Chicago or St. Louis, though not just because of the no guns thing. (But I’m always very careful, and aware, and cautious, and not taking any risks whatsoever, for the concerned relatives who I know are reading this!)

After a fun Friday night and close encounters with seagulls on Saturday, the rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. I went to a student magazine benefit at a pub earlier this evening with PhotoSoc, and it was a lot of fun. There was an open mic, with some good music performances and poetry readings, as well as tempting baked goods. I was also advised to hug a chicken at the earliest available opportunity, because apparently it’s a worthwhile experience. The evening reinforced for me how big hipster culture is with young people here. In Brighton anyway, being edgy is mainstream, and there are certainly no sports jerseys or polo shirts to be seen! My perceptions may be slightly distorted because I’m at Sussex, so I will look forward to comparing notes with fellow UK study abroad participants. In the meantime, I should probably go think about doing some studying in preparation for spring holiday, which begins Tuesday or Thursday, depending on whether or not my lecturers decide to strike…