I feel like I am acclimatising to living in England. There were a couple of orientation events for the university.

It was absolutely nothing like Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) – Purdue's equivalent of freshers week – and as a former BGR leader, my biased instincts told me it wasn't as good.

I am thankful I was able to meet new people.

If that Friday were an exclusive indicator of British life, it would seem that everyone in England is American.

The vast majority of people I met were from the US, one girl was from Chile though and one from Canada. So...that's three countries represented.

Since then I have managed to meet some actual English people.

On Saturday I went into Brighton on my own for the first time, to wander around, get lost and pray to God that I would manage to get back home OK. Fortunately it really wasn't as terrible as my typically horrible sense of direction led me to imagine it would be.

Actually, it was a fantastic day.

If I had to choose one highlight.... well, the highlight any day always involves Bob Dylan or Reggae and the highlight of this day involved both.

There were a number of street performers in Brighton and my favorite were two hippies who were playing a reggae version of Don't Think Twice, It's Alright with a steel drum, ukulele and harmonica.

I gave them some money and hung around to listen to the end of the song and when they were finished we started talking.

Aside from the awesome hippie-ness about them, they were quite fascinating.

One of them is Mark Stewart! That's right...THE Mark Stewart!

OK... I didn't know who Mark Stewart was.

However, after he told me how we are all family and all we need is love, he explained he used to be a stuntman and was Christopher Reeves' stunt double for Superman 3 and 4.

I know that isn't 1 or 2...but at least it wasn't Superman Returns.

I looked him up on Internet Movie DataBase afterwards, and apparently he was also Guard #4 in Tron as well as a few other things.

Needless to say, I thought they were awesome.

Sunday was even more incredible.

I started off going to the only church by campus.

The American stereotype is that so many people in England don’t have a relationship with Christ and that most of the churches around are more postmodern than Biblical and when I walked in that was my immediate impression.

There were about ten people and the service was very multi-denominational, which implied postmodernism, but after talking with the pastor for a while I learned quickly that he had a strong relationship with Christ and understood the Gospel clearly.

I met with him again today for coffee and we had a pleasant, long discussion about theology.

He said God had called him to evangelize through services that can’t be rooted to a specific denomination.

After church I went with the other international students on a coach tour of Brighton, Devils Dyke and the Royal Pavilion.

Devils Dyke was really cool.

We went in the middle of January mind you, and there were hang gliders and para sailors everywhere.

Oh and the Royal Pavilion, WOW!

The outside is absolutely nothing compared to the inside.

I can’t do it justice through verbal explanation, but the entire thing was extraordinarily ornate and elaborate.

If any political leader tried to do anything like it today I would be furious, but since it is long past history I’m ok with it.

On the tour, aside from learning the history of the Royal Pavilion and George IV, we saw caricatures of the king by revolutionaries in the early ages of comic strips like George Cruikshank.

I felt I was only person who cared about that on the tour.

I have been in the city a few more times now and each time has been a great experience.

More news from The Argus

The Argus: Daily Echo on Facebook - facebook.com/southerndailyecho Like us on Facebook

The Argus: Google+ Add us to your circles on Google+