Life in a Sleepy British Beach Town
I'm in England!! I arrived here on Sunday night, after a pretty uneventful flight (that's how I like them). It was cool, because I was able to see the Tower Bridge and the London Eye (that big ferris wheel thingy) from the plane as we were circling. There was a bit of a wait in line for immigration, and I made friends with a guy from Australia and a woman from Sri Lanka. We talked about all sorts of things from housing prices around the world to travel to school and teaching. I've always learned so much by meeting people from other places, especially ones from so far away.
I've spent two days in my company's Worthing, England office so far. I had Monday off, so I ventured into Brighton to do some shopping and check out what was rumored to be a pretty hip city. I checked out their shopping area and headed down to the boardwalk on the beach. Although my boot search was fruitless, I was entertained by the beach. The beaches here are pretty hillarious. There's no sand, just rocks… Kind of like the ones that you would find in a gravel driveway, only smoother. My B&B is great too. The people who run it are extremely nice and the beach is in view of the house. The office is a quick 10 minute walk away.
The Brighton Pier:
Here's what the view from the B&B looks like:
Worthing Beach:
The people in the office are extremely nice and have gone out of their way to make me feel at home. It's pretty cool… A couple of times a day, one of the developers grabs a tray and collects everyone's mugs (there are about 8 or 9 people in the department). They then go and get everyone tea or coffee and then bring it back. How sweet and friendly is that?
I was hoping to be able to head up to Edinburgh, Scotland this weekend to meet up with my friend Andrea, but I think the cost of the airfare is a little prohibitive. I'm disappointed, but it will be nice to get a little relaxation. I'm going to spend some time with Jim, someone I work with's, family in the country. I was really touched by such a hospitable offer. He also brought in a bunch of DVDs and the Starsky and Hutch video game so I can entertain myself.
It's also really neat because there is a national election here tomorrow. They're even voting for Prime Minister, which only happens every 5 years. I've seen some anti Tony Blair ads around, which I thought was interesting. The rules are different here. Each party can spend the same amount of money to advertise and campaign, so it's a little bit more of a level playing field. Here's one of the ads that I saw:
I'll try to update more while I'm here, but I only have an internet connection at work (torture… I bought a video game for the hotel room).
Cheers!
