PINBALL WIZARD (in case you didn't figure out the first sentence of this post

Today we went from Soho down to Brighton, we must have seen it all. (Get it, get it?) Anyway. It's a little seaside town that's pretty much built on the tourist industry, since I'm sure it's beautiful during the summer. It was nice today, but with the temperature in the low 50s and pretty strong winds in some places, I can think of other places I would rather have been today (my bed). The director of the program basically just gave us a train ticket and told us to do whatever we wanted once we got there, after we saw the palace, which was called something else but I don't remember it right now. Price George IX (I think), Queen Victoria's father, built it as a "pleasure palace" for in the summers before Brighton became such a big tourist attraction, so it's lavishly decorated and really spectacular. A few of the rooms are done in a Chinese style, with bamboo painted on the walls and Chinese pottery and other artifacts everywhere. It was impressive now; it must have mind-blowing to guests in the 1800s.
I'm pretty tired now, partly because we must have walked all around Brighton, which is not a small place, and partly because we chose to go there and return during rush hour on the Tube. I had heard of this phenomenon before from Popo, who said he had to let a few trains go by before he could get on one. I did not believe it, or just could not have imagined the magnitude of this event. I still can't quite believe how many people were on that train this morning around 8:30. We did have to wait, because there was no way to wedge into the door of the train. Since we had a deadline, I steeled myself and pushed into the train, between tall businessmen in suits with briefcases. The doors closed, and I was drowning in a sea of black trenchcoats and ties. I had to remind myself to breathe as I stared through the mass of people at the square of window that reminded me there was an exit. I'm not usually claustrophobic, but then again I usually can move parts of my body without bumping into other people. This morning I almost didn't have to hold onto anything like I usually do because I was held up by the other people in the train. Not to be repetitive, but there were a lot of people in that train.
We came back from Brighton at 6 p.m.
Rush hour.
Great.

Cheers!