brighton up my day

went to brighton and seven sisters cliff on saturday! it was a program-wide trip so all 40 of us piled in a big ol' bus and took to the country. the cliffs were beautiful and white and ridiculously dangerous- there's no rope or fence or anything so you can just slip off the edge if you're not careful. keiran, christine, and i have been trying to hug more (we're just not a touchy group of people) so we scheduled a hug at the cliffs and it went down fairly smoothly. still need some practice.

after exploring the natural splendor of the coast (i always forget we're on an island. so stupid.) we drove to brighton- awesome sea-side town that's not nearly as trashy as the east coast beach towns i'm used to. we toured the royal pavilion (no pictures allowed = super lame. i snuck one of the awesome carpet though.) where king george IV hung out. it was seriously decked out. used to be a barn but he transformed it into his 'pleasure palace' and did the place up real nice with an ornate, oriental decor theme. incredible dragon chandeliers and lotus blossoms everywhere. they had gilded snake curtain holders too. i was dying. so good. apparently when queen victoria came to visit she described it as "all weird and chinesey" and george's brother hated it because of george's "knick-knackery". (the audio tour was hilarious though i don't think it was supposed to be . . . ) i bought a sweet "keep calm and carry on" tea towel in the gift shop too. (love me some gift shop.)

we had a couple hours to chill in brighton so we got lunch then walked around the pier. lots of arcades but no skee ball! it's a cryin' shame! we got waffles on sticks and cotton candy and took pictures with the strange cut-outs. unfortunately, it was drizzly but i would love to go back to brighton when the weather is actually decent. it had such an old time-y feel to it. huzzah for field trips!