Campus Conversations

Oxy to England!

October 31, 2012

Blogger: Abby Chin-Martin

I’ve been in Brighton, England for a little more than a month now! I’ve had sufficient time to become quite situated and I’m having the most incredible time!

Brighton is a little city one hour south of London on the seacoast. It’s a perfect town for college students and is well known for the Brighton Pier. I’ve already been to the pier a couple times and always have a great time riding the rollercoaster or playing arcade games.

Just the other week, my flatmates and I went into Brighton (a 15 minute bus ride from campus) and had fish and chips while sitting on the beach. It was a perfect day!

The living situation here is really fun, too. I’m in a dorm with freshman students. Which means it’s pretty crazy. I also have a room to myself, which is such a luxury!

The English University system is different from the American system in many ways, but most notably is the amount of class I have to attend. At Occidental, I will probably have about 2, maybe 3, classes a day.  Here, at University of Sussex I only have 5 classes all week! There’s a lot more responsibility put on the student to stay up to date with the readings and lectures. And almost all of my grades will be based on a huge final assessment. Because I don’t have very much class, I have had time to join a lot of different societies and clubs around campus. My favorite so far is Art Society. Each week we do a live drawing of a model. It’s a fun way to practice and enjoy art while away from Oxy! I’ve also joined Badminton club. It’s super fun as well!

Just yesterday, I took the train up to London with my friend Jocie (who also goes to Oxy and is studying abroad at Sussex).

To anyone entering his or her junior year, I can’t recommend studying abroad any more highly! It’s an amazing experience.