A Christmas Carol

Christmas has come to Sussex ! I've just returned from Library Square, where an enormous Christmas tree was lit up. The University had also arranged for mulled wine and mince pies - I tried one for the first time ! A choir was there to sing some lovely carols as well.

Here are a couple of pictures I took:

Library Square

Christmas tree !

The choir

Yesterday I took the train up to London just to have some time to myself off-campus. London is one of my favourite cities in the world and didn't disappoint ! The streets were all decked out for Christmas, and people were out in hordes to do their Christmas shopping. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

New Bond Street - I was on my way to Victoria's Secret, obviously.

Selfridge's selfie

Classic Oxford Street view

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park

One of the innumerable Christmas trees in Hyde Park

I'm definitely feeling the Christmas spirit ! Are you?

Love, M

PS. In a week's time I'll be home !

Twelfth Night

In exactly twelve days, I am flying home for Christmas. Today I thought I'd share some things that I've particularly loved about my life here at Sussex.

1. I feel like I've finally found "my thing" and can see a long and happy career ahead of me in my chosen field.
2. As discussed in my last post, Brighton is breath-takingly gorgeous.
3. New friends.
4. A new appreciation for old friends and my family.
5. Getting to see my dear godson Lucas so often (he is the cutest)!
6. The whole university campus experience (which isn't really a thing in Finland).
7. Little to no snow that will inevitably turn into slush - no ruined shoes !
8. Being back in England after missing it for so long.
9. Being able to miss Helsinki.
10. Discovering the joy that is Amazon and other incredibly convenient and reasonably priced online shopping.
11. Cheap food, alcohol, clothes, make-up... We just do not have the same calibre of shopping back home.
12. Hosting visitors !

Even though the thought of going home really excites me, it also fills me with a strange, wistful feeling. The fact that this term has gone by in what feels like the blink of an eye seems incredible. What surprises me most is that I really didn't feel homesick at all. Not that I haven't missed my family and friends, I definitely have. But the thing is, I'm having such an amazing time that I just don't have the time or inclination to be homesick. I would much rather be making new friends or otherwise enjoying all that Brighton has to offer !

Here's hoping that Helsinki is blanketed in snow in time for my arrival - or for Christmas at the very least. I think I can handle a month of full-on winter, but I'm sure come January I'll be happy to return to a snow-free climate.

To help you all get into the Christmas spirit, here's an aptly named Christmas song I've been listening to.

Love, M 

Oh, The Places I've Gone!

Let's all just take a moment to appreciate the beautiful city of Brighton.

Amazing rainbow over campus :)

Autumn colours (early November)

Christmas lights at the Clock Tower

Close-up !

North Street at night

The Lanes are all prettied up for Christmas

This autumn term has been so busy ! It's a good thing the campus and Brighton are so gorgeous. Now that the end of term is in sight (only 16 more days until I fly to Helsinki!), I'm getting super excited to be home for the holidays. I can't wait to see all of you lovely people !

Here's a sampling of selfies from last night's shenanigans, featuring the lovely visitor Milla plus a couple of on-campus friends. :)

But first, let me take a selfie.

Love, M

Come With the Wind

Autumn has arrived at Sussex. Last week the wind was howling, special thanks to Hurricane Gonzalo ! Luckily Brighton and our campus were spared from any major damage.

Walking to lectures this morning

As the leaves have started falling, several of my classmates have also fallen - ill that is. The infamous freshers' flu has passed, but now new and improved viruses and other bugs seem to be making their rounds. So far I've managed to keep my nose clean (literally and figuratively) and been able to attend all of my lectures and seminars.

Heading back to my room

The campus has been gorgeous, especially today. The sun is shining and the many trees and shrubs planted around campus really brighten up the place with their vibrant colours.

Shrubbery outside my building

This week is the last week of teaching before a week-long break. I just need to return an essay on Thursday (in addition to the regular readings for the week) before a well-deserved rest.'Reading week' isn't really supposed to be a holiday, but I definitely plan to take some time off my studies. I'm really looking foward to having Mum here for a few days - but that'll be another blog post. :)

Swanborough block 1

 

 

Wish me luck on the essay, it's my very first one due at Sussex !

Love, M

Tyttö ja helMIkorvakoru

Heippis,

Ja tervetuloa lukemaan ensimmäistä suomenkielistä blogipostausta ! Tämän postauksen kunniavieraana on ihastuttava Elina "Röllö" Hongisto (helmikorvakoruineen), joka kävi viettämässä viikonloppua Brightonissa mun kanssa. :) Oli ihanaa päästä puhumaan suomea ihan koko päivä monta päivää, mistä inspiroiduinkin vaihtamaan välillä bloginkin kieltä.

Elinan junan rullattua Brightonin asemalle perjantai-iltana, kummankaan mielessä ei ollut muuta kuin ruoka. Siispä syömään ! Päädyimme yhteen lemppariravintoloistani, Las Iguanasiin, josta saa superhyvää ja opiskelijabudjetille sopivaa meksikolaista ruokaa. Kun olimme saaneet (isin sanoin) vatsat täyteen hyvää oksennusta, haimme samantien viereisestä Tesco Expressistä pari kassillista ruokaa lisää. Kun tästä kaksikosta on puhe, jääkaapissa on oltava huomattavan paljon enemmän täytettä kuin vain valo. Kämpille päästyämme loppuilta kului sopivasti "viiniä ja p*skaa" -teemalla: Netflixistä Toy Story 3, lasit (lue: pullo) valkkaria ja tietty jälkkäriherkkuja.

viiniä ja p*skaa

Lauantaina lähdimme rauhallisen aamun jälkeen Brightonin keskustaan tutkimusretkelle. Koska tämä oli Röllön ensimmäinen visiitti, nähtävää oli paljon ! Päivän kohokohtia olivat Pierin huvipuistolaite ja 2 pencen pelit, Angel Food Bakeryn kuppikakut ja The Lanesin sokkeloiden salojen löytäminen. 

Pier on jännä !

Crazy Mouse

Illalla menimme muutaman mun Sussex-kaverin kanssa huone- (ei siis koti-) bileisiin. Päivä oli pitkä mutta hyvässä seurassa... on kivaa? :D Alkaa tää suomen kirjottaminen pikkasen tökkiä.

Sussex selfie !

Joka tapauksessa sunnuntaina nukuttiin pitkään ja rentouduttiin toistemme seurassa ennen kuin lähdettiin pienelle kampuskävelylle. Pistäydyttiin myös Union Shopiin sovittelemaan erinäisiä Sussex-vaatteita. 

kaunis syyspäivä kampuksella

Ennen Elinan kotiinlähtöä suuntasimme  Jamie's Italian -ravintolaan syömään pastaa. Erikoismaininta gluteenittomasta pastasta, jota oli saatavilla Elinan herkälle vatsalle !

ei aiheuta vatsanvaivoja !

Viikonloppu meni yhdessä hujauksessa, kiitos arvon vierailijalle ! Seuraavaksi taitaa olla mun vuoro mennä Bournemouthiin visiitille. Mun seuraava vierailija on jo tiedossa: parin viikon päästä ÄITI saapuu saarelle !

Pus och kram, M 

PS: Kaikki kuvat by Elina :)

The Mysterious Affair at Sussex

I realize that most of you don't really know much of what my life here at Sussex entails. Yes, it's a student life but I think it's different from the kind of life a Finnish student would normally live. To elaborate on this, I'm going to give you a 'day in the life' -type of post today.

Monday
Mondays are usually the busiest day of the week in terms of classes. Most weeks I have 2 lectures from 11am to 1pm. The first lecture is a literature module, where we discuss a different literary text each week. Last week it was a text by Wordsworth; this week we're reading about the meaing of the author, led by Michel Foucault's text 'What is an Author'.

The second lecture is for my bigger linguistics module, which is also the most enjoyable so far. This week we are discussing lexigography, which is the 'art' of writing dictionaries. It's really quite fascinating to realize how I never really thought about how, why or by whom a dictionary I use was compiled. Dictionaries have authors too; perhaps just not in the same sense as you would think of Shakespeare as being an author. Some weeks we have another of these lectures in the evening from 5pm to 6pm.

After my lectures I come back to the flat, cook some lunch and relax. Later I usually go through my notes from the lectures and look through my calendar for any reading or other assignments that need doing during the week. I've become a major consumer of post-it notes - I like to write little to-do lists on them for the day.

This Monday I started at my new nannying job. I was a little apprehensive as the family are from a different culture and of a different faith, but the children were absolutely lovely and a joy to look after. It was really interesting to see a family flat on campus - it's small but comfy, I think ! That's another thing I hadn't thought of before - the fact that the Uni has allocated flats just for families with children. It seems obvious when you think of it, it just had never occurred to me until now.

Despite the fact that lectures and seminars only take up about 10 hours of my time each week, I'm kept busy by all the reading and assignments. There's also so much to do in terms of Uni societies and other social events - there's really no time to be bored ! 

Love, M

Paradise Found

Hello there,

It feels like I haven't posted in ages ! These first two weeks of lectures have been super busy, but lots of fun. I'm enjoying most of my modules (the less said about Reading Genre the better...) and am getting used to the workload.

During the past two weeks I have made quite a few new friends who I look forward to getting to know better. I've also been to a few societies' meetings: the Animation society do a film-screening every week and the Snow society have a lot of fun socials in store. That reminds me, I need to go and buy their pubcrawl t-shirt today !

The weekend is set to be a lot fun, starting today with the Harry Potter society's first meeting and film-screening. :) On Saturday I might do the Walking society's walk up to Devil's Dyke, although the 3,5h duration seems a bit daunting ! Then the weekend will come to a near-perfect finish with the Disney Pub Quiz on Sunday evening.

I'll try and post more now that I'm starting to get into a nice routine. Now I'm off to my last seminar of the week !

Love, M 

PS. The happiest of birthdays to the lovely Hyatt !! <3