Shopping

Well today I didn't have class (surprise surprise) so I decided to spend a large chunk of time wandering around Brighton and shopping. The chunk of time was not as long as I had originally planned but I should have remembered that whether in the US or the UK, I have a low tolerance for shopping and can only do it for so long.

Anyway, there were three main shopping areas I had wanted to explore; Churchill Square, the Lanes and North Laine. I started off in Churchill Square where there is a mall among other bigger chain stores. I briefly went into the mall but decided I had no desire to be in a mall so I quickly left. However in the same area there was H&M, Topshop and Primark. H&M was pretty much the same as home, just more expensive (simply because of the exchange rate). I had heard a lot about Topshop, but it didn't amaze me as I expected it to. The store was pretty small; perhaps the large store on Oxford Street in London would be more wonderful. Primark, however, was pretty great. From it's website, I've gleaned that it's a subsidiary of JC Penney's but it's the same sort of thing as H&M and Topshop. Of course because it's January there are all these massive sales going on, which is great. I had originally been looking for clothes to wear out at night (since I had not sacrificed that valuable real estate in my luggage), but unfortunately I couldn't find any that suited my fancy. However, I did finally find replacement leggings for the ones that have that currently have huge holes in them (suprisingly difficult to locate back home...not so much in England) and this cute zip up hoodie that is dark blue with all these different colored stars on it. Of course it took me a while to figure out the actual size that I needed since I hadn't thought to check the conversion from sizes I'm used to, but after a couple trips to the changing room, I succeeded.

I then went over to The Lanes and North Laine, although I didn't end up buying anything there. The Lanes and North Laine are both really cute, small areas with cobblestone streets crisscrossing through each other with all these different kinds of stores. I would say that The Lanes is more on the higher-end side; a lot of antique stores and expensive clothing boutiques. North Laine is much funkier; a lot of secondhand stores (I wandered around this huge one for a long time, it had anything you could possibly want in it), little coffee shops, incense and candle stores, etc. It even has a store called "Vegetarian Shoes". It kind of reminded me of a British version of the Haight-Ashbury or Telegraph Avenue. The same sort of people and stores but in a much cuter location.

After wandering around the shopping areas for about 3.5 hours, I decided I was done and headed off to Sainsbury's to do some grocery shopping- always fun. I got most of the same sort of basic food necessities but I also got some scones which I am excited about and these things called tea cakes which are like a soft cookie with gooey marshmallow on top encased in a chocolate shell. Very delicious and since I was shopping while hungry, I couldn't resist. I also was excited to purchase wine and cider from the grocery store, but I didn't even get carded which took some of the fun away! There are all these signs saying "if you look under 21, don't be offended if we card you" blah blah, and a lot of people that I've talked to here get carded when they buy alcohol, but I suppose I look like an old person. How sad.

So yeah, that was my adventure for the day. I'm probably going to do some reading for class right now and then who knows what else.

Oh also, I figured out how to change the settings on this silly thing so that it accepts anonymous comments instead of needing a google account to do so.

One more thing. I've noticed Britishisms and semi-British accents creeping into my day to day vocabularly. Quid, saying 5 pounds 50 instead of 5 pound 50 pence, queue, mate, other things like those that I hear on a day to day basis from my school mates are coming out of my mouth. And I've found it hard to say "cheers" or "sorry" without sounding somewhat British since that's what I hear ALL THE TIME. You just can't say those things with an American accent. Impossible.