Deciphering My Destination

University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton
East Sussex BN1 9RF
United Kingdom

I never completely understood how the entire region of the UK was sectioned off in terms of country, city, state or county, to be quite honest. Since I'll be chillin' in the UK for two and a half months, I figured it might be a good idea to brush up on it. In the address for my university, there are three names that all sound like the city the university is in but only one of them can be it, right? Right. (I bolded these names in the address above to prove to you my confusion.) So, I wikipedia-ed the hell out of the names and thankfully I figured out where I'm headed!

Let's start big. The United Kingdom entails the countries of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
In England, there are nine official regions consisting of the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East, South East, South West and London. I will be in the South East region of England, within the United Kingdom. I hope you're following so far!

England is also partitioned into 48 ceremonial counties with their own Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff. These officers represent the British monarchy on a local level. England is also separated into 83 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and is used for the purposes of local government, the county council. These counties are then made up of several districts with its own district council government. The two types of counties mentioned have overlapping named counties but in terms of the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, there are also smaller unitary authority districts which makes up the rest of the 83 counties. Unitary authority districts pertain to large towns or smaller districts with only one local authority, which combines county and district council rather than the typical form of local government where there is a separate county council and district council. This merely makes local government more practical for smaller regions. You got me?

Alright, so I'm headed to the University of Sussex in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex. The very popular tourist city of Brighton and Hove is where I expect to spent most of my time, since it's super close to my university. Brighton and Hove is considered to be a unitary authority district because it's extremely small compared to it's neighbors East and West Sussex. If you look at the map, you'll see that Brighton and Hove is squished between these two districts. Brighton and Hove is also a city in the South East region of England. The only thing is, a city in England does not have the same connotation as a city in North America. City status in the UK is granted by the British monarch and there is a lot of prestige to be had when a community is named a city. The modern day criteria of granting "city-ship" would require the region to be first rank in population, size, and importance with it's own distinctive personality, if you will. Anyways, Brighton and Hove became a city along with several others in 2000 as a celebration for the new millennium. Back in the 1500s, city status was only granted to communities with a cathedral, but now that's not necessary. I don't really know how to convey how big it is to be granted city status so I'll just say it's a pretty big deal. Wiki it if you don't believe me!

Anywho, these counties are made up of smaller districts, which would be made up of even smaller villages. That is where Falmer comes in. Falmer is a small village in between Brighton and the Lewes District in East Sussex. So, the University of Sussex lies in this area of Falmer in the Lewes District in East Sussex County in the South East Region of England. I'm not quite sure why Brighton is in the address if it's not technically in the district but I guess I don't really need to understand everything. This is the best I can do and I will leave it at that.