Sun, change and making new friends

Week 2 is at its end and quite a lot has happened.

I haven’t felt very comfortable in the student house for the first 10/11 days and I didn’t feel welcome with a lot of my housemates so I talked to the school and the student house coordinator about what would be the wise thing to do here. This is when I decided to go to a native speaking host family, mainly due to the fact that I don’t think that I’ll be able to improve my English while speaking to my housemates (which sounds so arrogant, but I feel like I have to do what feels right for me here). I’m moving to the host family on the 10th of March, I’ll probably write more about this in a next post.

Moving on to the positive things, last week during my first day of school I met a very friendly girl from Belgium called Marine, she’s staying in Brighton from February until June just like me so she’ll probably be returning in my blog stories throughout the next 13 weeks to come. The sunny weather was a nice distraction from how I was feeling in the student house, I went on a little hike through the countryside with Marine and we spent a lot of time walking along the beach and watching the sunset there.

Watching the sunset at the seafront is something I can recommend to anyone who wants to visit this beautiful city. The sky turns into the most amazing colour pallet and the birds do their last ‘dance’ before going to sleep. This swooping spectacle of starlings in the sky can be viewed between both the piers. On most winter days, around 20 minutes before sunset, thousands and thousands of starlings perform a spellbinding aerial show known as “murmuration”.

During our first trip to Brighton together I guided Marine through the narrow Lanes and the colourful and alternative North Laine. Charming and unique, North Laine is an area in Brighton teaming with quaint shops that perfectly coincide with the retro, beachy vibe of the city. Pink, blue, and yellow pennants are strung from the buildings, creating a cheerful, inviting atmosphere. North Laine has it all: the edgy tattoo parlours, the vintage clothing stores, the delicious eateries, and plenty of English pubs. You could spend hours wandering up and down the streets of North Laine and find something eye catching everywhere you look. Many of the shops are painted bright colours and have many items you could not find anywhere else. Customers sit outside enjoying the lovely scenery with mouthwatering dishes and drinks, tempting you to order something from one of the countless restaurants. It's clear that tourists and locals alike can appreciate the charm of North Laine.

During the last sunny day of the week, Marine and I wanted to do something different, I read something about Brighton’s smallest and most secret library hidden up a little-known alleyway off the main high street in Kemptown. Supposedly there would be a small white fridge sitting beneath a cottage window. The words painted in black on the frond read ‘Little Fridge Library’. Marine and I searched for it the entire afternoon, we even asked the people who were working in the shops and café nearby but no-one could tell us where it was. Pity. The picture below is what we were looking for.

Some other exciting news, I have a new housemate from the Netherlands since last weekend. I was sitting in the garden with Nadia, one of the Italian housemates when we saw an unfamiliar face walking around so we introduced ourselves. Her name is Lisa and she’s from Utrecht. It’s nice to be able to talk about things from the Netherlands with someone who understands and knows what I’m talking about if I’m watching ‘Wie is de mol’ for example.

Yesterday I went to London with four other girls from the BSC, Cara from Germany, Claudia from Spain, my friend Marine and my new housemate Lisa. We took a tour along all the touristic hotspots from the tower of London to Piccadilly circus and everything in between. In true Japanese tourist style we took a picture of everything and moved on quickly.

I’ve made quite a few new international friends here in Brighton over the past few weeks and I’m enjoying my stay here tremendously. For the upcoming weeks I’ve got some exciting blogposts planned including some (for NHL students and teachers) familiar faces included in them so stay tuned.

Lots of love,

Esmee