A Canadian Girl in England

I'm living it up in Brighton England this year and I've been here for too long to have not posted so here goes!! First I've had to get used to the fact that I'm thought of as American most of the time because they can't tell the difference in accents and there are a lot of Americans at my school. But luckily they realize that I'm definitely not American after talking to me for about 5 mins!!

Speaking of English traditions I experienced Bonfire Night last evening which happens on the 5th of November (well 4th this year) in Lewes a small pretty town a train stop away from UniSussex. It was crazy!! They burn public figures (giant recreations) in response to the political situation of the time, but mostly its a traditional night to commemorate the burning of Guy Fawlkes who plotted to burn down parliament and the commeration of his death burnt by the Catholics. I think that's the gist of it anyways.

I'm slowly getting used to living in Britain, I've been really lucky as the weather in the South has been unusually sunny and warm so I haven't had to experience too many gloomy rainy days. The people are a little bit strange; they use different words, they like different bands but underneath we're all similar. Students are students, rez is rez, school is school. The English are great people at parties because they like to have a pint and talk your ear off! I'm so lucky being here because I'm so close to London and the rest of Europe and I have to say I've been able to see a lot; Oxford, Canterbury, Bath, Cambridge, Much of SouthEast England and I'm going to Ireland in December.

My housemates are mostly English but I also live with some exchange students from France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Malaysia and Angola. Everybody loves that I'm a Canadian because they assume we're such friendly sociable people (luckily I am otherwise I might give off a bad impression of canada!). It's always funny to hear them try to speak 'Canadiana' because they always end up sounding like valley girls. They get me to say typical english expressions in a very bad english accent. Living in a completely different setting from at home has been a real trip! I've been meeting people from all over the world because we have a lot of international students which has been fabulous!