Archive for October 2007
Sunrise over Stonehenge
It’s always a bit odd visiting archaeological ruins; unless you know all about the history, it just looks like a big pile of rocks. Stonehenge is different, though, because what makes the whole site so fascinating is that we don’t know exactly what it was all used for. It was built, fell apart, rebuilt, rebuilt again, and continually fixed up for two thousand years, then promptly abandoned in 1600 BC, and is included in everything from Arthurian legend to pagan rituals. But it’s all just speculation, and the uncertainty is the whole reason to see it. Sure it’s just a pile of rocks, and yet somehow, it isn’t.
Bath is much more clearly historical, as much of the city was built under Roman rule, and it’s still visible in the architecture and heavily elaborate public baths (no bathing allowed anymore). They’re fueled by the only natural hot spring in the country and the whole site has been built up into a glimpse at Roman life, which is really cool. The rest of the city is beautiful, but not as historical unless you’re into Georgian architecture, which I’m not. But your mileage may vary.
The view of the seafront from Brighton Beach on the south coast of England
It’s 9:20 here in Brighton, England, and I have two papers to read on Gaia Theory before tomorrow morning’s seminar. After that I’ll have another few hours of class before heading to the labs to try (and probably fail) to get some advance reading done, before heading out to kung fu classes at the sports center. The advantage of having most of my classes on one day is that it leaves the rest of the week open for things like Halloween parties, trips to Stonehenge, movies, pub nights, and all the things I missed out on living in the middle of the Japanese country side.
I think I’m gonna like it here.
Let’s rewind back to the last week of September, when my student visa arrived in record time and ensured that I would be able to attend the school I had been psyching myself up for since I was accepted in May. After all was said and done I only got to spend a month back in Canada, but that took me from coast to coast, going through Vancouver and Toronto to help my brother move into his own university adventure in Halifax, then back through PEI, New Brunswick and Quebec to home sweet home in the suburbs of T.O. for some much needed R & R. Seeing my family and friends for the first time in 12 months was just what I needed to seal the envelope on my time in Asia, but sadly our time was cut short by my move-in day at Sussex. With nothing more than a single suitcase of clothes and a backpack full of other random things I deemed necessary to live, I headed back to the too-familiar sight of Pearson International Airport to ship out for my next overseas journey. Next stop: Heathrow, London!
For some reason I wasn’t nearly as nervous about coming to England, probably because I knew the culture and language would be far less of a hurdle to overcome before I could get truly settled. Meeting the international welcome teams from countless universities certainly helped, and I was quickly pointed in the direction of the bus that would take me to Brighton, and then to the university campus. The place I had arranged to stay in was actually a new residence that had just opened this year, which means neither I nor anyone else had actually seen it from the inside yet. The first official other student I met was appropriately enough also from Canada; my first flatmate Matt, from Ottawa and studying international relations. That would turn out to be a common program, as Sussex is apparently one of the best schools in the world for international development studies and related programs. Eventually Pauline and Marcella, both from the States, would show up for other international-related programs.
Unfortunately, while the people I met in the residence were all friendly and cool, the residence itself left a lot to be desired. It turned out to be so new, it wasn’t actually finished yet; one of my first experiences in the room was discovering sewage backing up through my shower. The orientation week that I planned my move-in around turned out to not start until Wednesday, as the first half of the week was set up mostly for the undergrads, even though I could have gone if I’d wanted. I chose not to be “that old guy at frosh week” and took the time to go out and buy all the stuff I couldn’t fit on the plane, or that I’d foolishly forgotten in a box or in the dryer. In those few days I started to realize the downsides of being a post-grad in a building full of undergrads; loud parties, 3 AM fire alarms, the isolation of being on the far end of the building and the first floor, and the inability to find out where the other post-grads in the building were. Clearly, an alternative would have to be found.
When our orientation began properly, I just happened to find one. The international office had plenty of opportunities for us to meet all the other expats coming over to study in sunny England, and that gave me the chance to see where the other side lived; in a block of flats 10 seconds away from the pier and the English channel. I immediately put my name in for a transfer, and since so many people were trying to move closer to campus, it was no problem finding someone else who wanted to swap. Within the week I was living in a flat surrounded by bars, movie theatres, clubs and restaurants, and sharing the space with people from Croatia, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Germany, and the Isle of Wight. Everyone in the building is a post-grad, and almost everyone is from somewhere from North America to Europe to Africa to Asia. After all, if I wanted to live with North Americans, I could’ve just gone to school in Canada, n’est pas?
And so began my actual university experience. It’s a one year super-intensive program; I do four courses in the fall and spring, then my masters dissertation over the summer, so there’s no time to sit back and relax; seminars require readings every week, and even the non-seminar courses have workshops and assignments to do. Not to mention not one, not two, but three projects due at the end of the year that comprise 100% of the assessment of the course they correspond to. It’s more than a little intimidating, but in exchange for that, the professors are internationally known for the work they do, and the program itself has produced grads who have gone on to make huge advancements in the field of evolutionary systems. The program (Evolutionary and Adaptive System, or since we computer scientists love our acronyms, EASy) is some kind of insane combination of computer science and biology. Can studying intelligence in insect and birds show us new and better ways of building robots that emulate them? Is it possible to “evolve” solutions to problems the same way evolution occurs in nature? Does modeling natural systems in a computer simulation give us any new information? And why the hell would anyone care about this crap? All good questions, and all of which will hopefully be answered by the time next term rolls around.
As for the city, it’s more beautiful than I can describe. Walking the streets takes you from outdoor cafes and street sales to shopping malls to flats to shouts from the pub denizens watching the sport-du-jour, which seems to be more rugby than football here. We’re situated beside the beach and boardwalk; heading north takes you to Churchill Square, the clock tower/shopping mall and pseudo-official middle of the downtown. Further than that is Brighton station, the main transportation to and from anywhere else in Southern England (including the campus, as the bus system here is the most expensive in the country). Even more north of that is the North Laine, a maze of vintage clothing stores and bakeries and coffee shops and shops selling everything from instruments to bongs to fabric to books. One day I’ll make it up there with a camera.
And myself? I’ve spent the past month reading and programming more than I have in a very long time and finding my self horribly out of practice. Thankfully several of the other people in the program (who are intelligent and social and outgoing and not computer nerds at all, amazingly) are stuck in the labs as often as me in case anyone gets stuck. The incessant drinking and high-quality beer has made me aware of my gut yet again, and I’ve joined a gym and started a diet as of today, to complement the Nam Pai Chuan kung fu that I’m hopefully starting as well. Two weeks ago I took a trip to Stonehenge and the Roman baths and buildings in the appropriately named city of Bath, and the pictures from that will be up as soon as I figure out this god-cursed batch uploader. If all goes well, in the next few weeks I’ll be starting squash again, going to Lewes for the biggest Guy Fawkes party in the country, heading out to Stratford-upon-Avon to get my dose of Shakespearean history, and having a massive Thanksgiving feast with the other canucks and yanks in the building. No word yet on Christmas, as it largely depends on how quickly I get my essays finished, but I’ve heard Edinburgh is one hell of a place to go for New Years. I can’t say it isn’t tempting.
Now for the good stuff; pictures! I decided my website’s gallery program wasn’t cutting it and opened a Flickr account, which is where you can see a quick glimpse at the area where I live.
I’ll probably end up moving a lot of my old Asia pictures there too, so the albums may be going up out of order, but either way, that’s where they’ll be avaiable. I’ll probably be putting a lot of them on Facebook as well, if you’re signed up there.
And with that, I draw this update to a close. I am great, school is great, Brighton is great, and my door is always open to anyone who feels like taking a trip to the place where the history comes from.
Cheers!
