Yes, But What Was The Downside?

Well, yesterday's planned activities with the Philosophy and Astronomy Societies were unfortunately abandoned--the former because I was deep in conversation with some flatmates, and the second because it was too cloudy for observation. But those opportunities should arise again, and I shall most certainly seize them. Furthermore, this morning did bring a different adventure in the form of a guided walk through the South Downs, a series of hills in the midst of which, nestled in a valley, sits the university campus. A small handful of us made it up Boiler House Hill to the sports complex early on a Saturday morning (a notable task on a campus where most people spend not just weekends but most nights drinking in pubs or partying at clubs--drinking age here is 18, folks, and that's so much the culture that there isn't much else to do around campus on the evenings, although fortunately I've found a small group of people who prefer to watch movies or hang around and talk most nights).

We left campus through the neighboring village of Falmer, which is absolutely miniscule and one of the cutest things you'll ever see. Most of the houses and walls are made of flintstone, which makes up a good portion of the landscape here, along with deposits of chalk. There's a church built in Norman times that looks like a miniature castle, right next to a duckpond and surrounded by grass and benches. From there we took a trail bordering some farmlands up a hill to South Downs Way, a walking trail kept up, I believe, as some kind of nature reserve. It basically winds its way up and down the downs, along ridges and through valleys, past snatches of woodland and flocks of sheep, through a number of fences in gates which divide the landscape into individual farms and fields. We saw a depression used as a settlement in Stone or Iron Age times, complete with the remains of some earthworks, as well as dewponds lined with clay to catch the rain and dew that will otherwise permeate the chalk and sink underground, so the cows and sheep have something to drink. Also learned the meaning of a few Sussex-originated words, like bourne (a spring that spends part of its time underground), dean (a settlement in a valley), twitten (a small alleyway), and weald (a flat plain between areas of higher ground). The weather stayed sunny, although chilly and brisk, and we ended up doing a lollypop loop of about 13 kilometers, which I guess is about 8 miles. Quite pleasant.

There are a few more walks in the nearby countryside coming up this week, including some led by biology tutors (their word for professors) which focus on the local flora and fauna, which should be very interesting, so hopefully over the next few days I'll get a pretty good idea of the university's surrounding areas. I'm looking forward to lots of walks and picnics while I'm here, especially given the openness of my schedule. And the nice thing about arriving this time of year is, the weather will only get better and the days longer. Hm, quite a pastoral entry, this. Next thing you know I'll be spouting off rhyming couplets about daffodills, so I'd best be off to do some reading for class before I become entirely Wordsworthian and go prancing off into the sunrise with a wreath of daisies in my hair, never to be seen again.