Weekly blogs

On Saturday, 23 June 2019, I woke up early and met with 2 friends in Sargans so we mustn‘t travel to Brighton alone. Being excited and nervous at the same time, Janis' Mother drove us to Basel Airport. The check-in and everything went pretty smooth. The flight afterward also. Getting out of the airport also. I didn’t believe we would come this far. But it all went downwards when I stepped into the train to Hove, believing it goes to Brighton too. So I had to take the next train back to Brighton which happens to leave 40 mins later. Killing the time without Wifi was annoying.

Arriving in Brighton, I visited the office of tourism to get myself a 4-week bus ticket. The guy working there sent me to the 1stop-travel office. I had a really hard time getting there and met more strange people than I wished, but eventually I arrived at my destination. Many struggles later, I found myself on the bus to my host family. On this bus I saw a crime scene, with what I assume a was a dead person. The bus driver was yelling at me and I met another guy with some sort of mental illness. So yeah, that was my first impression of Brighton. Arriving at my host-family 2 hours late, because I wanted to get this 4-week bus ticket, I realized I just could have taken a cab. And it turns out, the school is providing bus tickets as well. So that was 80£ down the drain.

The host family and the school are really nice. Despite the 40min-way to school, I’m feeling quite comfortable here. The people here are kind and friendly, the food is remarkably cheap, the weather is nice. Nothing to complain about. I haven’t really done as much as I had liked to, I was just tanning and eating the whole time. What I find interesting is that I don’t feel like I’m in Brighton, more like in a small italian coastal town. The wind blowing through the streets, the climate, the friendly people. All the street-musicians just add to this feeling.

Conclusion of the week: I hate seagulls.

First up, the school is arranging activities every day. Last week I wasn’t interested in any of them, but Bowling and BBQ had me coming. The bowling hall was enormous. Meeting other students while dropping pins was entertaining and enjoyable. The same day I went to see the new Spiderman movie.

By and large, there was a majority of swiss people. At the BBQ however, I made contacts with people from Belgium, Spain,Italy, Sweden and some lads from Saudi-Arabia, with whom I had a pretty amusing football match. New shoes dirty and me being washed out, my friends and I gathered up at the beach, as we usually do. The water is freezing and the cold breeze makes it worse. I’m still eating a lot. I need to go jogging or just something that gets me back in shape, I don’t want to be struggling in football when I come home.

On Saturday, I went on a day trip to London. It was pretty spontaneous, we had no plan or anything. Little did we know that exactly that day was the day of the Pride Parade. We all agreed on not going there and rather do some sightseeing. On our own. This wasn’t really a good idea, because we underestimated all the distances and eventually, after a long walk through Westminster and the City of London, we got tired. Last-minute decision, we went to take a look at the parade. It was okay I guess. The trip overall wasn’t very pleasing. We spent the rest of the evening, as always, at the beach.

Conclusion of the week: I’m getting fat.

This week was really relaxed. The only exception was the evening when my friends and I went to play Lasertag. Since this was my first time playing it, I was surprised of how exhausting it is. Expecting it to be more of a team-activity, I was tired after just a few minutes. But that finally brought me to realise that I need to do more sports. So I started to go jogging once a day, before I go to bed, hoping it helps me to get back in form.

Friday, I took the bus to see the ‘Seven Sisters‘, a series of chalk cliffs. You could have travelled with the school, but I decided to go on my own. The landscape with its grassy hills and sheeps and the cliff itself was amazing.

The rest of the week I spent with sunbathing, playing football or washing my clothes, which were full of seagull excrement. Also, I stopped trying out new restaurants, since I had some unpleasant experiences with a few of them.

Sunday, I visited London again, but this time with the intention to take a look at the ’Imperial War Museum‘ and the Tower Bridge. What I think is nice is that all museums in England are completely free to enter.

On the way back to the train station was a huge TV-screen streaming the final of the Wimbledon, which was slowly coming to an end. After seeing Roger Federer loose so close, my mood was off, and later having laptop-problems didn‘t help at all.

Conclusion of the week: I miss my dog.

Last week, I haven’t really done anything different than the other weeks. We’ve played some Lasertag again, this time with 22 people, which was a bit of a mess, but I managed to get first place. One evening, my friends and I had a BBQ at the beach. The wind coming from the sea made it difficult to make a fire. The meat wasn’t very delicious, the marshmellows were.

I can’t believe that these four weeks are already over. Time passed so fast. I just started getting used to the around life here, the morning routine, the bus times, things like that. Leaving Brighton had me getting mixed feelings. I can go home, to my dog, but on the other side I probably never see some people I met ever again.

Brighton is awesome. I’m glad that Raphael persuaded me to come to this place. I like the restaurants, I like the beach, I like The Lanes and I like the atmosphere. Things I wasn’t quite happy with were the teacher at my school and the seagulls. We had huge luck with the weather. Sun all week long, except the last 2 days. Not the typical English weather at all. The four weeks here actually changed my mind on big cities. Before my stay here I hated them, now I like them. In spite all this, I’m excited to go back to Switzerland, where the milk isn’t terrible and there are no seagulls.

Conclusion of the (4) week(s): I had a great time.