Drunk Men Make the World a Happy Place

This Sunday my friend Brendan and I went on a day trip to Brighton, a seaside town south of London. It was the most perfect day on the beach ever, especially after a few days of gloomy, rainy weather. After getting over the disappointment of not going orbing, everything went off without a hitch and it turned out to be one of the more pleasant days I've had since I've been here.

I will recount my day through a food diary.

Breakfast: At my flat I had an apple and some mixed veggies. Then, upon reaching the Victoria train station, we stopped at a French pastry stand, and I couldn't resist this beautiful chocolate chip twisted bread thing...so much so that I had two (calorie guilt!).

Snack 1: Wandering about the alleyways of "the Lanes," which is the old town where a lot of shops and restaurants are, we came across the most darling cupcake place. We couldn't help ourselves and I chose a devil's food cupcake with peanut butter frosting and a Reese's piece on top. Brendan chose a pumpkin flavored cupcake. We had half of each, but devoured them too quickly to have documented their beauty. I only have a picture of the aftermath...
Lunch: Being at a seaside town and all, we thought it appropriate to have some sort of fish. So we had the old favorite: fish and chips. But this time, it had the added flair of mushy peas. It is exactly what the name suggests. The texture was a lot like baby food, but surprisingly it actually tasted like peas.
Snack 2: At Brighton Pier, there were at least 5 Doughnut stands that smelled so irresistible that we ignored our arteries' screaming cries for mercy and purchased three to share between the two of us. They were so crisp and moist inside that it was definitely worth it. They were very reminiscent of funnel cake.
Snack 3: After roaming several really cool vintage and antique stores, and finding the most awesome looking samurai store that sold all this cool weaponry (so sad that it was closed on Sunday), we went to the Japanese beer festival at a restaurant called Moshi Moshi. We each had the special brew they had there and bought a pack of wasabi peas. Brendan couldn't handle the spiciness of it, but did admit they were really good beer munchies.
Snack 4: After pre-gaming our planned sunset on the beach at the beer festival, we headed over to the shore in a hurry because we thought we might miss it. We got a bottle of wine, contained in two paper coffee cups (I know, super classy), and rushed over to the beach. As the sun set on the water, we enjoyed probably the most expensive wine I've had since landing in the U.K. and some more wasabi peas.
Then the best part of the entire day happened. We met our very own drunk guy photographer. We wanted a picture of us on the beach against the setting sun, but the only person on our side of the beach was this random, disheveled looking guy in a suit staring at the sea. Brendan approached him, and from my vantage point sitting a little ways away, I could tell something was weird about this guy.

As I approached, I could hear the man slurring his words, and as we posed for the picture, he accidentally pointed the camera at his own face and took a picture of himself, which Brendan posted on Facebook for posterity. Even through his stumbling, mumbling, and slurring, he took a pretty decent picture of the two of us. He's probably some genius photographer who's received tons of awards and recognition. But to us, he's the really drunk old guy who took our picture on the beach. Here's a shot I got of him on his way to drink some more whiskey.
Dinner: After watching the sun set, it was only about 5:10 and completely dark outside (daylight savings is trippy). We went over to an awesome tapas place on one of the winding streets in the Lanes. I had never gone to dinner tipsy before this, and it definitely was a new experience. Everything tasted better and I felt warm and fuzzy all over throughout dinner. Everything we had was delicious and I'm sure it still would have been sans pre-game. We had seafood paella, mussels in a really yummy tomato sauce, and these garbanzo beans and spinach that burned the roof of my mouth, but still tasted really good. Unfortunately my camera started running out of battery and I did not capture the awesomeness of this dinner on film.

Snack 5: Our bellies stuffed with the day's food consumption, naturally we had to get a final snack. And what a perfect snack to end the day with. We had ice cream at a New York Times recommended shop called Scoop and Crumb. I had the Baked Plum Crumb ice cream, and it was possibly the best ice cream I have ever tasted. And the flavor was nothing I'd ever heard of before, which made it a unique and delicious experience. Thanks NYT! The picture below is courtesy of Brendan's Facebook album.
After beating Brendan at Air Hockey at the pier, we headed back to the train station and journeyed home.

All in all, a very good day. It was nice to get some sun to beat the seasonal depression that seems to be going around lately.

In other news...

I am meeting with the English editor at Le Monde tomorrow to discuss the project that I'll be working on with them. It's official! I'll be interning at Le Monde Diplomatique for at least this term. I am so excited to begin this phase of my study abroad experience. This internship is part of my anthropology class, which is so illuminating in so many ways. For the first time in my academic career, I am learning about productive steps that I can take to create the change I would like to see in this world. I'm getting more into visual anthropology, which is a field that uses media, mostly film and photography, to document and present research. It seems to be a lot like what journalists do, but in a more analytical, research-oriented way. Anyhow, it sounds like something I'd like to explore, the whole documentary film genre.

More on my progress on changing the world later.