Burning effigies instead of pumpkins

Apologies for being so behind in my blog updates! Halloween wasn’t too big of a deal here and there was no free candy. I did managed to get off my sickbed and make an appearance at a party at one of my American friend’s flats, dressed as a cereal killer. The rest of the week was spent recuperating and always managing to go to bed later than intended. I spend a lot of time hanging out, watching YouTube videos with my floormates. By Wednesday night I was feeling a lot better and went to a 3OH!3 concert in Brighton with some friends. 3OH!3 is an American band from Colorado, and it was a lot of fun to see the crazy British fans. Also, the band is insane so the concert was great. It was one of the American’s 21st birthdays so we went to a pub after the concert but it was pretty low-key. Wednesday and Thursday I had plans to write my paper which was due on Monday, but instead of locking myself in the library, I went to two different Brighton coffee shops with two different friends, Jena and Nick. There might have been milkshakes involved on Wednesday as well. Coffee shops are quite an enjoyable place to write a paper, especially when you cannot connect to the internet and get distracted.

Thursday was Guy Fawkes Day, so a few friends and I went to the Lewes Bonfire night. Lewes is one train stop away from Falmer (my train station) but the bonfire night is a pretty big affair, so it took about an hour to get onto the train. The town itself was jam packed with people but we managed to follow the crowd and squeeze ourselves in along the parade route. I bought some hot chocolate (it was really cold out) and a toffee apple (not a caramel apple- it was actually so hard and I had to put it in my pocket for later) and we watched the parade. Turns out the British are all pyromaniacs and certifiably insane when it comes to Guy Fawkes Day. The entire parade was people holding burning things in the air, creating explosives, burning effigies, and burning giant carts of wood while rolling them down the street. It was almost frightening, especially with the fire being so close and the constant explosions. I realized this sort of celebration would never be allowed in the US because it’s too close to being a riot. After the majority of this long parade of burning objects, we headed over to the bonfire. There were carnival snacks and everything set up in this big field behind Tesco where a gazillion people gathered to watch a giant stack of wood set alight and then fireworks go off behind it. It was even more insane than the concert! Near the end of the fireworks display, we powerwalked back to the train station and managed to get back to Falmer pretty quickly.