Brighton

So I went to Brighton two weeks ago with 3 of my housemates. It's at the southern tip of England. My housemate Greg lived there before moving to London, so he showed us around on Sunday. It's a beautiful town with loads of arts and cool people.







Greg had a gig that night at the Brighton Barfly. He is wicked live.




I was the only one who decided to spend the night down in Brighton, so I booked a cheap single room in a hotel. It was nice to have some time to myself away from London. I had a wicked full English breakfast in the morning as well! I first visited the Royal Pavilion, which really looks like the Taj Mahal. It was built for King George IV, who was quite excessive as you can see.







I found some wicked graffiti. Basically the best graffiti I've ever seen in person.







Found a Banksy (if you don't know who he is, look him up - wicked graffiti artist):



And finally, sorry to disappoint, but I got hitched on Brighton Pier:

Pointy

Yes, I'm obsessed...

London 1

And so at the one-month mark, here comes the update...

Well things have been great as well as crazy so far. It was SO FUN road tripping with Eric again. South Bend was destination one, and it was a drunken mess (tell me something new). But it was great seeing all of my friendsters (both seniors and SUPER-seniors). I had a great birthday too. I shot guns and had a great meal with friends, and played darts with Eric to cap the night. Cheers to Amelia for letting us crash!

Then it was on to NYC. What a great city! So many things to do. Eric and I did loads of great things. Of particular interest to me was the exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York called The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947-1957. It was contained in a small area, but had massive amounts of history, facts, and memorabilia. Anyone who cares at all about baseball should see this exhibit. I actually couldn't figure out how it was possibly so good, but then after a bit of research, I learned that it was done by Pentagram. Which sealed my fate of having to work there some day. It was equally great seeing my friendsters who are newly residents of New York (well, Brooklyn really). So much fun hanging out with them, as well as my few friends that I met a year ago, and one very special girl who graduated before me. It was also great meeting new people. Cheers to the Brooklynites for letting us crash! It was sad to see Eric go, but I was so glad that we were able to spend that time together, away from Chicago, and away from real life. It couldn't have been a better time!

Then on to London. I suppose I should start at the flight (on Air India), because before the plane even left the runway there was almost a fight (literally). There was a man (sitting directly behind me) on his mobile while we were on the runway getting ready to take off (a big NO-NO). This woman asked him to get off, because he was going to interfere with the plane's communications, but he wouldn't. Then she started yelling at him to get off the mobile, and he told her to shut up. At which point she absolutely blew up, yelling about the mobile and how he doesn't have any respect for women, and on and on. She threatened that if he said one more thing to him that she would slap him. Eventually the flight attendants came back to see what was going on. In the end, nothing really happened with the guy. But that is NO WAY to start a 7 hour flight! The rest of the flight went quite smoothly, thank goodness, and I had some wine and a Tiger beer! The meal was awesome, as it was decent Indian food, and not just lame chicken. I also got to watch Tool Time hahaaa! I landed around 8am London time, got all my suitcases, and headed to the tube to meet Kelly (for those of you who don't know, I graduated with Kelly, and she is doing the same BUNAC program that I am, and it just so happened that we found flights that got in at the same time). She showed up shortly, and we began the trek to the hostel. Little did we know we would be in that hostel for the next month (almost - we spent about 4 nights in a "bed and breakfast", which was actually just an old smelly lady's house. She was really sweet, but talk about awkward situations). Let's just say that finding housing in London is not something that's easy to do in a week's time. The second night we were in London, we went out to a pub in Camden to meet up with a group of people. These were all people who were looking for housing and had responded to an ad online for a flatshare. The people who placed the ad got a place really quickly, but passed on everyone else's email addresses to each other. So there were about 6 of us who seemed to have interest in moving to the same places, and in the same price range and such. So we began the house-hunt. It was really tough (mentally, physically, and spiritually), as we had so little luck. But finally we found a 6-bedroom house in a good location and in the price range. We decided to put a bid in on it. Well that's not just the end of it in London. The estate agency needed references, which is all fine and dandy, but being foreign, they really need you to prove you will be able to pay the rent. Eventually I had to use my Dad as a guarantor. Buuuut WE GOT THE HOUSE! And I move in tomorrow! So excited! It's gorgeous, and I will post pictures in an album soon. In case you want to Google Map it (or send me candy! :P), it's 8 Hamilton Road, Dollis Hill, London, NW10 1NX. My five roommates consist of Kelly, Duane (an Aussie who is here on a 2-year visa and is a sound engineer, but currently doing temp work until he can find a job in his field), Dave (works as an event planner, and is a really nice guy), Liffey (a uni student studying technical effects, which is kind of like special effects, but the technical side of it, go figure), and Greg (a musician [http://www.myspace.com/gregholden] who is also a photographer and does a bit of design). As you can imagine, Greg and I get on really well. But really, I like everyone I'll be living with, so I'm really excited. I also now have a job at a store called Paperchase. It is a massive (three floor) store that sells notebooks, stationary, some furniture, and art materials. I am on the art floor, which is cool because we get all the artsy fartsy people coming up asking for advice with their projects and such. On the art floor they have loads of hand-made paper imported from India and other places around the world as well. So yes, it's a retail job, but it's been really fun. And it's nice to be paid in pounds! (The one big drawback that only Vanessa will be able to empathize with me on is that every once in a while the song that goes "save a little love for me" from the Jazz Cafe comes on, and I go into convulsions!) I am and will continue to be in the process of looking for a proper design job. That will be a whole new challenge, as there are loads of designers here.

Other than all that, I have been having a lot of fun among all of the stress of the housing situation. Having my soon-to-be roommates to hang out with has been great. We have loads of fun at random pubs, and dance-dance-dancing at indie club nights! And I don't plan on that changing any time soon.

I really want to hear from everyone about what is going on in all of your lives. Please feel free to email me at any time on jeff.s.albert@gmail.com. Also please send me your addresses so I can try to send postcards! Look forward to hearing back from everyone!

I miss and love all the great people in my life who are away from me!

xx