Wednesday, January 27th

Today we went on a field trip! We left the center around 7:30am, boarded our coach, and drove to Brighton. I absolutely loved Brighton! I could totally imagine living there (or at least retiring there)! Brighton is on the coast, and although it was cold, it was beautiful. The beaches are covered in smooth round stones – no sand. When we first arrived there, we went into The Royal Pavilion, King George IV’s pleasure palace. It was amazing… inspiring! It is nothing like any of the palaces or cathedrals we have seen so far. It looks very similar to an Indian Palace, complete with domed white turrets. The inside was fantastic! It has a very strong Chinese theme, and is decorated with ornate chandeliers, lotus flowers, dragons, pagodas, and beautiful wall paintings. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos inside, but Google images of it!

After completing our tour of the Royal Pavilion, we were given an hour to wander around Brighton as we pleased. Allyson and I headed off to the beach with some friends, and walked out on the Brighton Pier. It was completely freezing – the wind went straight through us! Most of the shops on the pier were closed, because it is the off season (and mid-week), but it was still a lot of fun. At one point I lost Allyson when I went off to take a photo at the end of the pier. Neither of us could find each other, and I feared she had jumped off and I would’ve have had to go jump in and look for her. Thank goodness she was just wandering around looking for me as well, so we were basically just circling each other!

After Brighton we got back on the coach and headed to Battle Abbey in Hastings, the site of the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Battle of Hastings was the most famous and important battle in English history. A small group of us went on the Battlefield Walk, which took us though the battlefields, as well as some very pretty scenery and a lot of sheep poop! It was freezing!!! My boots got covered in sheep poop. I’d much rather be writing sheep sh*t, you know to make it an alliteration, but I will keep it appropriate! We came across a huge herd of sheep, and a few people chased after them/herded them. I chased after them a little too, but mainly ended up just getting my boots covered in more crap! I was in the middle of a sheep stampede though, so that was pretty cool. Haha! Sheep are very cowardly creatures. I was trying to approach some, and thought maybe I could blend in if I too started bahing. Ya, not so much. They just run away. They are so exclusive, it’s kind of mean! Bah ram ewe! I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to be looking at there, because there was no actual church anymore, it was just the outline of where it was once upon a time.

*** Allyson is possessed!  She would never try to stab me otherwise!  We call this side of her, Amy.

We left Hastings and drove to Rye. I have no idea why we stopped there. I think it was just a small town where we could go find dinner if we wanted to. I really liked the town though. It was really cute.

We arrived back at the Centre around 8pm, and then a group of us went to Kahn’s, an Indian restaurant. It was soooo good! I ordered vegetable korma. So good, and the prices weren’t bad either. Now I have a food baby though. I am extremely stuffed!

Today was a great day! Brighton was my favorite city! Love, love, love it!