Nevermind The Gap: A Weekend By the Sea

I think it's no secret that I've loved my time in London so far, but I've just returned from the most amazing weekend by the sea.

Friday we traveled to Eastbourne, which is on the south coast of England, for the London Rotary District 1130 conference. It's difficult to recount the entire three days of pure wonderfulness here, so I'll try to sum it up with a list and a whole bunch of photos.

Things that were amazing:

1) Staying in a lovely hotel with a bed twice the size of my London bunk and a bathroom the size of my entire room in university halls. I purposely flailed around at night just reveling in all the room I had!

2) Spending more time with the other Ambassadorial Scholars. We are a very diverse but cohesive group, and I'm so happy I've met them all. We bonded at the gala Rotary threw Saturday night, and at the pub shortly thereafter.

3) Seeing Rotarians in action. We not only got the opportunity to hear some hilarious and dedicated Rotarians speak, but we also got to spend social time with them. One thing that continually impresses me about Rotarians is their work hard, play hard attitude. And they're also really family-oriented. During closing ceremonies the District Governor brought his wife up on stage to thank her in front of everyone, which I thought was really sweet.

Things that were even more amazing:

1) Saturday night before the gala, I was invited to a "Gangsters and Mols" themed dinner hosted by my Rotary club and another club. I dressed up like a flapper girl (Mol) and was handed an inflatable machine gun and a gangster hat to complete my look. During the meal we had lively conversation (fueled by great food and wine), and discussed everything from the evolution of publishing to Barack Obama to Irish rugby.

2) Having the chance to hear Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London who is running again, speak. And being able to count it as an assignment for class.

3) Fish and chips from the best little hole in the wall place in town.

Things that blew me away:

1) The scenery. Eastbourne is just east of Beachy Head, which is the highest in a series of cliffs along the coast known as the Seven Sisters. As I said, I love London, but spending time in open green fields and on cliffs overlooking the ocean was unbelievably re-energizing.

2) The amount of hiking we did. Saturday afternoon we climbed Beachy Head and hiked for about 4 hours, and on Sunday Jay and I stayed later and hiked for another 5 hours, including a trip to a lighthouse and the beach. I think the pictures say more than words: