A Curious Girl: A Brighton sunshiney day

Want to hear about another university open day? No? Well, tough. :-)

Sussex today - 10am to 3pm. Spotted more lookalikes - mainly teachers today, for some reason. On the car on the way up, I saw someone who looked just like Dr. A, and then when we went past him I saw that although he did, he also didn't look anything like him. Does this make any sense? It was a bizarre optical illusion. Like I couldn't describe what was different about them, but I could say with certainty that they were different. Hmm. I also saw someone who for a second I was sure was Mrs. P, the careers teacher, and Mrs. L, Saz and Abi's English Lit. teacher.

Anyway, enough of that! I came in early rather than late, so I felt much more confident about finding the place - it was also clearly signposted, and unlike Southampton they had arranged stands in a function hall for each subject. I was nervous at first, but at least confident enough to wear my Morgan bag the right way around (which is of course, the wrong way around, exposing some scrawlings in lipstick). They weren't quite set up as I came in, so I went down to the refectory (the road to the building was called 'Refectory Road') and after some deliberation, bought a coffee, as I was in dire need of waking up. The lady at the counter couldn't take a ten pound note, but I found that I luckily had the 80p she needed in change. After adding my usual two sugars, I read through the programme and made notes. I planned to go on the 10:45 tour of the School of Biological Sciences (BIOLS). A suitable time for lunch was not particularly clear, so I scribbled that I'd either meet the faculty for BIOLS or tour the campus, and then decided to go for lunch before taking a look at housing. Then I scribbled down a few desks to visit, and to look up the chaplaincy.

Plan made, coffee drunk, time spent, I went back up to the function room, and spent about the first five minutes wandering aimlessly. Picked up some stuff for the Student Union - sounds like they do a LOT! Talked to someone about spending time in Europe. Apparently biochemists usually visit Sweden, but it's possible to go to other places. Meant to talk to the studying in America lot, but never got around to it, as I spent ages queuing to talk to the biochemist. Down to just me in the queue, with a pretty girl in 3/4 length trousers and her incredibly suntanned mother talking to the person I assume was the admissions tutor, I found that numbers of people accumulated behind me. It's funny how simply being hot and kept waiting can alter your perceptions of people. A girl moved in from the other side to grab the seats for her and her mother, but as I was holding on to one seat, it was obvious that we had pretty much equal claim, so the man asked us if we were doing the same thing. She said, 'I don't think so.' How presumptive is that? Or presumtuous. I always use long words when I'm annoyed, comes from writing angry essays. She turned out to want to do Biochemistry, so we both sat down, and he kept reasonable eye-contact with both of us, which has got to be a talent. Then she asked about something to do with her A-levels, and left, leaving me to ask about the Art/Science thing. He said that it was a quarter of the 2nd year - not necessarily arts subjects, but a different style of teaching in order to extend skills. I liked the sound of that very much. They are also very flexible.

I hung around that desk a little longer, wondering whether to go to the Biology Lecture Theatre (Or BLT, as they like to call it. I later discovered I wasn't the only one who thought of sandwiches when they said that.) Someone finally came along to collect up the gathered people for the tour, and we followed a Spanish-looking woman outside. There were only three people interested in Biochemistry - two boys from Sheffield, and me. Our tour guide was a third year - just graduated - called Alex, and he was dressed in a 'trendy' manner, if you'll excuse the stereotyping - football shirt, streaks of his gelled hair bright bleach blond. He was also quite goodlooking :-). He was German, and for some reason I really like (geniune) German accents. Maybe because they remind me of holidays, and sitting next to Susann in English Lit. He was also really enthusiastic. He loved Sussex, and everyone in the department was friendly, he said (also adding that the Chemistry department had rather aloof Nobel Laureates). And he asked us our names - the two Sheffield boys were Ewan and Andrew. We admired the campus, which is a beautiful green with plants. You've got to admire it, even if it is missing squirrels. As we reached the BLT (the place where you find your sandwiches, Alex explained. Tired of the joke yet? :-) ) we were joined by the girl in 3/4 length trousers and her tanned mother from earlier. We got a demonstration of the electron microscope. Although when a strange picture flashed upon the screen and the man demonstrating said, 'Hmm, I'm not sure what this is,' I very nearly felt the need to burst out laughing. Quite. Very interesting though. Can't wait until I can do electron miscroscopy. Up the stairs, as Alex went to check what labs we could go through, we briefly discussed AS-levels. It was comforting to know that although we were strangers, we could still discuss shared experiences, even if these were only exams.

We walked through sparkly white beautiful labs filled with strange chemicals and instruments. We took a look at the reference library - it was smaller than Southampton's, I noticed, but I had also noticed that the campus was more attractive and I'd taken a liking to our tourguide, even without his obvious cuteness. Sorry :-) I'm seventeen.

At the tour's end, we went to the Biology Lecture Theatre (the place were you find your... all together now!) for the talk. We were the first there, so we sat together at the front, chatted awhile, and then Alex left, finally saying, 'I hope you choose Sussex, it's really good.'

What can you say to that?

We chatted for a bit more - the girl was on her first Open Day, her mother asked me a little about Southampton - the boys told me a bit about Leeds University, how its nightlife was good, stuff like that. The talk was by a biologist, who didn't handle biochemistry or psychology, he said, although he covered them in his talk, and went on about how the teaching is excellent and there's good student support. It was a good talk, covering nearly everything you need to know about doing the course, including that they've got student employment schemes. Excellent! Better than this headache I've got searching for a job, as the working times will suit a student and they'd be more sympathetic about exams etc.

After the talk we were invited down to a porta-cabin (renovations etc. taking place, which can only be a good thing. Ł12 million!) to have drinks and cakes and meet the faculty. Actually, a biochemist never turned up, but I spent some time talking with the girl and her mother, comparing Open Days for their interest. The mother actually seemed more excited than the girl about the whole thing! I liked the drinks and cakes, but really wanted to talk to a biochemist. A psychologist came up to talk to us, and the girl talk to her because she wasn't sure - psychology or biochemistry. It seemed that for every good point for psychology the psychologist picked, she managed to find the equivalent bad one for biochemistry. It was quite annoying, especially as I was pretty sure she didn't really know what she was talking about when it comes to biochemistry. And when she used the example for research, she said about perhaps discovering the length of time an item stays in short term memory, I had to stop myself saying, 'Eighteen seconds.' Much as I like psychology, I'd much rather be able to spend time mucking around in a laboratory :-) perhaps annoying whatever Mr. JE equivalent I get...

I wandered away from them, and looked at the drawings of the new buildings, and an American woman with a wooden beaded necklace (I noticed everyone's clothing today) came to talk to me. She enthused about Sussex's grounds, and when I told her how Alex had said everyone was so friendly, she nodded so violently I wondered briefly if she was all right. But she was, so don't worry.

She recommended a tour of Brighton, and so I decided to do that right after lunch. Ate only a slice of hot onion pizza. Not sure why I wanted hot pizza when it was so swelteringly hot already, but it's already fairly obvious that I'm mad :-). I wandered on the grass a little, admiring the grounds. Spotted the Mrs. P and Mrs. L lookalikes. I also thought about how I'd seen so many non-white people - black people, Asian people, it was cool. Like being in London. Where I live doesn't really do multi-ethnic apart from Chinese, I think. Actaully, it's probably why I occasionally thought I'd seen Nadine - she's black. It's really quite revealing of my background that my reference point for Nadine is the colour of her skin. I see so few black people, and not many Asians either. It'd be nice to live in a more mixed place.

Finally found the place to go to for the bus tour - it had taken me a while, as it wasn't put clearly on the programme. I had to wait ages in what Clive calls 'oppressive' heat. No, it was just hot, and humid. A coach came at last, and it had some air-conditioning - wasn't bad. The tour was given by a girl called Jane, I believe, who was Scottish, although I can say that my ethnic ignorance also extends to accents - couldn't say which kind of Scottish accent. Maybe Edinburgh. We came out of the campus, and into Falmer. I spotted a headline in The Argus; 'Sussex Police Chef Quits'. That's the news? Phew, I thought. We have to put up with such exciting headlines as 'Security stepped up after attack in school'. And it was my school! It was only some Howard boys who threw a stone at the headmaster, however. Nothing terrible. Although Chris reckons that outer perimeter now looks like prison walls.

As we entered Brighton, we were greeted with shops, the Pavilion, and the sea (plus a nudist beach, but no-one saw anything). It's a gorgeous place. Place, it has countryside too. A perfect venue, plus or a minus a few miniscule things!

When I came back, I tried, unsuccessfully, to find Christian links - it made me quite uneasy, to be honest, but I suppose as the students are all on exams, the chaplains are off on holiday. Walking around the Student Union building, I also felt uneasy at the direction to 'Women's room' and 'Black Students' room'. I can't believe that positive discrimination will neutralise negative discrimination - like acid and alkali, it'll probably end up corrosive either way. I like the fact that they're sensitive to equal rights issues, but I don't really like the idea of different treatment for those prone to discrimination - maybe it'd be better to have a general place to go to for advice. Also in the library, I saw a sign that said 'Thefts have been reported', and thought about Alex saying that there was hardly any theft, as they were all students. So maybe that's not absolute.

Still, it was a byootiful campus, town, country, and I enjoyed myself. Although I feel like I spent my childhood convinced I was an adult, and I'm going to spend my adulthood discovering just how much of a child I really am. To quote the Unfinished Novel, 'We're just babies - there's a lot to go yet. We're at the end of the beginning of our lives.'

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