So in order to not bore you all with the dreariness that led up to spring break, I'm skipping days 46-60... Basically I wrote a paper, ate food, slept, went to class, and breathed. The only exciting thing that happened was on day 52, March 10th, when my Welsh class went to the National Museum, St. Fagan's. It's sort of like a Plymouth Plantation type deal. I am not really sure how much I learned while I was there, but Steve, Maggie, and I did a great reenactment of a sword fight on an empty field surrounded by cool-looking trees.
EUROPEAN ADVENTURE:
MALTA (Days 61-67a)
Friday, March 19 (Day 61)
On Friday Maggie, Meg, Christine and I caught a bus from Cardiff to London and then another bus from London to Luton, where we got on a plane to Malta. The plane left at 4:00 so we spent most of the day traveling. We arrived in Malta at 8:20, where we met Meg's friend from school, Bogi, and then we took a taxi to where we were staying: an apartment in Sliema.
The apartment was beautiful. Two bedrooms, a full kitchen (with a breadbox, which I think really signifies high end living), living room with leather couches and a nice tv, two bathrooms, and a porch with an ocean view. Basically, it was amazing, and the bonus was it was really cheap.
Because it was pretty late by the time we checked in, we didn't do much. We went out to get some food (pizza) and then sat in and watched Criminal Minds and CSI, something that would become a Malta tradition for us.
Saturday, March 20 (Day 62)
We slept in a bit on Saturday before heading out to get some lunch and internet access. After lunch at a nice cafe with free wi-fi, we met up with Meg's cousin Jackie, who showed us around the area and brought us to a grocery store so we could stock up on some food for the week. We also got some amazing gelato at a gelateria on the way home. We ended off our laidback day with more Criminal Minds and CSI.
Sunday, March 21 (Day 63)
Sunday was another laid back day. We ended up hanging around the area again. Meg and Bogi went to the pool in our apartment building, and Maggie, Christine, and I decided to head down to the shore for some reading. Unfortunately, our reading time was cut short (we actually didn't read at all because we were goofing around and talking) when a not so big wave splashe dup against the rocks we were sitting on and got us all soaked... while two nice Maltese ladies just stood and watched. I'm sure we were very entertaining.
We headed back to the apartment and met up with Meg and Bogi to go see a movie. I am also pretty sure that I offended the Maltese people in the theater when I burst into laughter because there was an intermission halfway through the movie. Once again, we watched Criminal Minds, even though it was a repeat.
Monday, March 22 (Day 64)
On Monday, we finally decided to do something productive. We headed out to Comino, one of the other Maltese islands. We had to take a bus up to the north of Malta and then a ferry to Comino, specifically, the Blue Lagoon, which sounds like a Disney World water ride but is waaay better.
When we got to Comino, we wanted to explore to find a sandy beach. Instead we ended up climbing up a cliff face in our bathing suits (luckily I was also wearing jeans, but that wasn't the case for everyone) and wandering around in shrubbery for an hour. However, our trek led us to some great views of cliffs and rocks and really pretty blue water and eventually, a sandy beach right next to where we started.
We all walked in the water, but Maggie, Christine, and I actually swam in the Mediterranean Sea, which was really fun, but a bit cold. Our swim was cut a little short by the appearance of a jelly fish, but we got in a good half hour of swimming in the most beautifully clear water I have ever seen. After our swim, we sat on the beach (I made a sweet sandcastle) and read/wrote until it was time for the last ferry to leave. On the ferry back, we were given a tour of the sea caves near Comino.
We decided to go out when we got back, but because the drinking age in Malta is 17 (technically 16, but only 17 in public) we felt kind of old for the scene and went back to the apartment for, you guessed it, some Criminal Minds and CSI.
Tuesday, March 23 (Day 65)
On Tuesday, we decided to check out Valetta, the capital of Malta. We took a bus there and walked around in the city all day. Our first stop of the day was St. Paul's Shipwreck Church, which was gorgeous. Apparently, Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, and the church was erected in memory of that event. In one of the cases is supposedly Paul's wristbone.
For the rest of the day, we wandered around the city, taking in the architecture and beauty of the whole city. We accidentally ran into Jackie again and had coffee with her and some of her friends. We also saw a fashion shoot, which was pretty cool.
Wednesday, March 24 (Day 66)
For our last full day in Malta, we decided to venture to another of the islands, Gozo. We had to take a ferry, and then we took a taxi up to the Ghantija Megalithic Temple. The temple is older than the pyramids, and we were able to walk in to some of it, but a lot of it was roped off to keep it preserved. The temple was pretty cool, and we also took some very fashionable photos behind a nice palm tree next to the temple.
After the temple, we got some lunch and headed inland to the capital of Gozo, Victoria. In Victoria we went to the Citadella, or Citadel. The Citadel is a historic fortified city which is dated around 1500BC during the Bronze age. We hit the Citadel at a great time because it wasn't too full and we were able to wander around in an almost deserted city.
Thursday, March 25 (Day 67a)
When Christine, Maggie and I woke up the next morning, Meg and Bogi had already caught their flight to their next destination, Barcelona. Christine, Maggie and I headed into Valetta for the morning (we walked around and did some last minute gift shopping) before heading to the airport.
At the airport, Maggie and I said goodbye to Christine, who was heading back to Wales to meet up with her family. Maggie and I boarded a plane to Bari, Italy.
ITALY (Days 67b-76) & FRANCE (Days 77-79a) & BACK IN THE U.K. (Days 79b-88)
Coming soon...
Monday, April 12, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Day 30-45
Days 30-40 (Tuesday, February 16-Friday, February 26):
Because I was such a slacker and didn't blog for 15 days, my blogging for the dates above is going to be pretty lame because I don't really remember what I did specifically. Additionally, not much worth noting actually happened during those ten days.
Things I remember/are worth writing about:
Saturday, February 27
On Saturday, Steve, Christine, Maggie, and I all met up in the center to catch a megabus to London. The ride is about 3 hours, but this time it went by faster because I actually had people to talk to the whole way. Then when we got to London, we rushed to catch a bus to Luton, which is about forty-five minutes to an hour away. Once we got to the airport, we ate some dinner and Maggie and I played a skiing arcade game while we waited for the plane.
The plane ride was just over an hour. We caught yet another bus to our hostel. Finally, after about nine or ten hours of travel, we were officially settled in Dublin. We were pretty tired, so we didn't do very much that night besides eat a ton of food.
Sunday, February 28
On Sunday, we got up pretty early and had some free breakfast (bread and tea) at the hostel. Then we decided to get on a Dublin tour bus. We stayed on the bus for about half of the day driving around and looking at stuff. It had a "hop off, hop on" policy, so we got off a couple of times, but most of the stuff we wanted to see (like the Book of Kells and the Guiness Brewery Museum) cost too much money, so we didn't end up actually seeing much except for the outside of big buildings.
We ate lunch in the first small pub with reasonable prices we could find (Dublin is super expensive compared to Cardiff), and it was either the best sandwich I have ever eaten or I was starving. After lunch and some more slightly disappointing over-priced tourist attractions, we ended up just walking around in the city for fun.
We headed back to the hostel and rested for a bit (we played a few hands of spoons) and then went to a pub/club to hang out (luckily it was free!) but ended up being too tired to stay for very long.
Monday, March 1 (St. David's Day in Wales!!! We were bummed we missed it.)
Monday was AMAZING. We started off by getting some delicious breakfast and catching a bus to Enniskerry because we wanted to see some Irish countryside. The view from the bus was gorgeous, and once we got there, our walk was even better.
Christine picked a random way to walk, and we ended up leaving the town and finding a gorgeous church and small cemetery overlooking a beautiful field. We kept walking, hoping to eventually find the entrance to the Wicklow Mountains National Park (the one in the movie P.S. I Love You, if you've seen it). Instead we found a nice stream in the woods, so we climbed down off the street and took some pictures and found some pretty rocks. Then we climbed back up onto the street and kept walking. After we had walked about 3km, we came across a man washing his big coach bus. We asked him how far ahead the park was and if there was anywhere remotely close to eat.
He told us the entrance to the park was about 6 hours away (we thought we were waaaay closer) but that there was a gas station a bit aways (far, but not too far, ahead) where we could get some food and catch a bus back to Dublin. Since we could see the mountains from where we were and we were all really hungry, we decided to go to the gas station. We kept walking along leisurely, taking in all the views, until about fifteen, twenty minutes later, a huge bus puled up next to us and the man we had talked to earlier asked us if we wanted a lift.
We took him up on the offer, which was a good idea because he ended up offering to take us where he was going, Dunlaoghaire, a coastal city. As we were driving, he pointed out places of interest, including Bono's house.
Once we got to Dunlaoghaire, we bought some food and ate it near the water. Then we caught a train to Howth, a town that the bus driver had recommended.
By the time we got to Howth, it was starting to get dark, but we still spent a little time walking around. We even started up a pretty long conversation with a nice local old man about Ireland and loving people and not fighting. It was very exciting. We had some fish and chips at a little restaurant, and then headed back to Dublin.
In Dublin, we went to a little pub/bar to talk for a while and then headed back to the hostel to sleep.
Tuesday, March 2
On Tuesday we got up early and went to the Writer's Museum. In the Writer's Museum I saw a first edition copy of Dracula, which was amazing. We lost Christine because she didn't go into the Writer's Museum and then her phone died, but eventually we found her and headed to the National History Museum. We wandered around there for a little bit and then headed off to catch a train to Howth again.
Once we got to Howth, we got some sandwiches at a little convenient store and walked along the pier to the lighthouse to eat them. We were hoping to catch a ferry to a really gorgeous island a little bit out, but the ferry wasn't running. We did see a seal, though, which almost made up for it.
Then we decided to go find the Howth Castle (which is now a culinary school) and something called Aideen's Grave. The castle was really pretty, but we just looked at the outside of it. Then we kept walking for a while on the street through what looked like really gorgeous Irish countryside but was really an Irish golf course. When we finally got past the golf course, we came to the edge of the woods and a fork in the road. We decided to go left and up a mountain. The climb wasn't actually too bad (although it was a little muddy.slippery), and the view at the top was absolutely gorgeous. We spent a bit of time at the top until we realized it was going to get dark soon so we should head back down. Once we got down, it was still light enough, so we took the right path of the fork and found Aideen's Grave.
We headed back down to the more populated area of Howth and ate dinner at a really nice pub under the train station called the Bloody Stream. Then we headed back to Dublin.
Since it was our last night, we decided to try and stay out and make the most of our time, so we went to a bar/club for a while and hung out. Then we were really hungry so we stopped at a chips place and ate some chips (fries..). We finally headed back to the hostel and fell asleep.
Wednesday, March 3
On Wednesday, we woke up and got ready to go back to Cardiff. We got on a bus to the Dublin Airport, ate breakfast there and waited around for our plane. The plane ended up landing ahead of schedule, so after we took the bus to from Luton to London, we decided to go get waffles at our favorite place, the Waffle House.
Unfortunately, despite the deliciousness of the waffles and the fact that we thought we had plenty of time, our tube to the bus station was a bit slowish and we missed our megabus back to Cardiff. Luckily there was another bus running at 7:30 and another at 8:00. Steve, Maggie and I took the 7:30 bus back, and Christine took the 8:00 bus (the 8:00 bus was cheaper so Steve and I were going to take that one, too, but Christine accidentally bought the last ticket).
The bus ride took about 3 and a half hours and then we took another bus from the centre to UniHall, and we got there around 11:45pm.
Links to Ireland pictures on Facebook:
Because I was such a slacker and didn't blog for 15 days, my blogging for the dates above is going to be pretty lame because I don't really remember what I did specifically. Additionally, not much worth noting actually happened during those ten days.
Things I remember/are worth writing about:
- On Tuesday, February 16, I woke up at a decent hour because I was planning on running errands and being productive. Unfortunately, as I was getting ready to get into the shower, someone from maintenance knocked on my door and asked if he could quickly change the shower head. Then he took my shower head and said he'd be back within the hour with a new one, which is code for he would come back in three hours with a shower head that looked exactly the same as my other one with the exception of being shinier.
- Also on Tuesday, Maggie, Steve, Christine and I went to go see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (which was nothing like the book). Steve kept laughing every time Pierce Brosnan came on screen as Chiron the centaur, which we thought was because Pierce Brosnan was playing a centaur but was really because, according to Steve, "the horse-man looked ridiculous". He didn't even know it was Pierce Brosnan.
- On Saturday, February 20, Maggie, Elysse, Christine, and I met up with Marissa and Steve (who were at the Dr. Who exhibit) at Cardiff Bay for some fish and chips and ice cream. While we were there we also saw the Welsh Bockers. They were amazing. Then we headed back to Elysse and Marissa's flat and ordered pizza and watched She's the Man.
- On Friday February 26, I bought a nice tiny suitcase for pretty cheap. It doesn't have a name yet, but Steve named his Spencer, so I want to name mine. I'm taking suggestions. Later that night I watched the France v. Wales rugby game with Maggie, Meg, and some of Meg's flatmates (Wales lost :(). Then I went back to my room and packed for my trip to...
Saturday, February 27
On Saturday, Steve, Christine, Maggie, and I all met up in the center to catch a megabus to London. The ride is about 3 hours, but this time it went by faster because I actually had people to talk to the whole way. Then when we got to London, we rushed to catch a bus to Luton, which is about forty-five minutes to an hour away. Once we got to the airport, we ate some dinner and Maggie and I played a skiing arcade game while we waited for the plane.
The plane ride was just over an hour. We caught yet another bus to our hostel. Finally, after about nine or ten hours of travel, we were officially settled in Dublin. We were pretty tired, so we didn't do very much that night besides eat a ton of food.
Sunday, February 28
On Sunday, we got up pretty early and had some free breakfast (bread and tea) at the hostel. Then we decided to get on a Dublin tour bus. We stayed on the bus for about half of the day driving around and looking at stuff. It had a "hop off, hop on" policy, so we got off a couple of times, but most of the stuff we wanted to see (like the Book of Kells and the Guiness Brewery Museum) cost too much money, so we didn't end up actually seeing much except for the outside of big buildings.
We ate lunch in the first small pub with reasonable prices we could find (Dublin is super expensive compared to Cardiff), and it was either the best sandwich I have ever eaten or I was starving. After lunch and some more slightly disappointing over-priced tourist attractions, we ended up just walking around in the city for fun.
We headed back to the hostel and rested for a bit (we played a few hands of spoons) and then went to a pub/club to hang out (luckily it was free!) but ended up being too tired to stay for very long.
Monday, March 1 (St. David's Day in Wales!!! We were bummed we missed it.)
Monday was AMAZING. We started off by getting some delicious breakfast and catching a bus to Enniskerry because we wanted to see some Irish countryside. The view from the bus was gorgeous, and once we got there, our walk was even better.
Christine picked a random way to walk, and we ended up leaving the town and finding a gorgeous church and small cemetery overlooking a beautiful field. We kept walking, hoping to eventually find the entrance to the Wicklow Mountains National Park (the one in the movie P.S. I Love You, if you've seen it). Instead we found a nice stream in the woods, so we climbed down off the street and took some pictures and found some pretty rocks. Then we climbed back up onto the street and kept walking. After we had walked about 3km, we came across a man washing his big coach bus. We asked him how far ahead the park was and if there was anywhere remotely close to eat.
He told us the entrance to the park was about 6 hours away (we thought we were waaaay closer) but that there was a gas station a bit aways (far, but not too far, ahead) where we could get some food and catch a bus back to Dublin. Since we could see the mountains from where we were and we were all really hungry, we decided to go to the gas station. We kept walking along leisurely, taking in all the views, until about fifteen, twenty minutes later, a huge bus puled up next to us and the man we had talked to earlier asked us if we wanted a lift.
We took him up on the offer, which was a good idea because he ended up offering to take us where he was going, Dunlaoghaire, a coastal city. As we were driving, he pointed out places of interest, including Bono's house.
Once we got to Dunlaoghaire, we bought some food and ate it near the water. Then we caught a train to Howth, a town that the bus driver had recommended.
By the time we got to Howth, it was starting to get dark, but we still spent a little time walking around. We even started up a pretty long conversation with a nice local old man about Ireland and loving people and not fighting. It was very exciting. We had some fish and chips at a little restaurant, and then headed back to Dublin.
In Dublin, we went to a little pub/bar to talk for a while and then headed back to the hostel to sleep.
Tuesday, March 2
On Tuesday we got up early and went to the Writer's Museum. In the Writer's Museum I saw a first edition copy of Dracula, which was amazing. We lost Christine because she didn't go into the Writer's Museum and then her phone died, but eventually we found her and headed to the National History Museum. We wandered around there for a little bit and then headed off to catch a train to Howth again.
Once we got to Howth, we got some sandwiches at a little convenient store and walked along the pier to the lighthouse to eat them. We were hoping to catch a ferry to a really gorgeous island a little bit out, but the ferry wasn't running. We did see a seal, though, which almost made up for it.
Then we decided to go find the Howth Castle (which is now a culinary school) and something called Aideen's Grave. The castle was really pretty, but we just looked at the outside of it. Then we kept walking for a while on the street through what looked like really gorgeous Irish countryside but was really an Irish golf course. When we finally got past the golf course, we came to the edge of the woods and a fork in the road. We decided to go left and up a mountain. The climb wasn't actually too bad (although it was a little muddy.slippery), and the view at the top was absolutely gorgeous. We spent a bit of time at the top until we realized it was going to get dark soon so we should head back down. Once we got down, it was still light enough, so we took the right path of the fork and found Aideen's Grave.
We headed back down to the more populated area of Howth and ate dinner at a really nice pub under the train station called the Bloody Stream. Then we headed back to Dublin.
Since it was our last night, we decided to try and stay out and make the most of our time, so we went to a bar/club for a while and hung out. Then we were really hungry so we stopped at a chips place and ate some chips (fries..). We finally headed back to the hostel and fell asleep.
Wednesday, March 3
On Wednesday, we woke up and got ready to go back to Cardiff. We got on a bus to the Dublin Airport, ate breakfast there and waited around for our plane. The plane ended up landing ahead of schedule, so after we took the bus to from Luton to London, we decided to go get waffles at our favorite place, the Waffle House.
Unfortunately, despite the deliciousness of the waffles and the fact that we thought we had plenty of time, our tube to the bus station was a bit slowish and we missed our megabus back to Cardiff. Luckily there was another bus running at 7:30 and another at 8:00. Steve, Maggie and I took the 7:30 bus back, and Christine took the 8:00 bus (the 8:00 bus was cheaper so Steve and I were going to take that one, too, but Christine accidentally bought the last ticket).
The bus ride took about 3 and a half hours and then we took another bus from the centre to UniHall, and we got there around 11:45pm.
Links to Ireland pictures on Facebook:
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Days 23-29
Before I start, sorry for the long gap between posts... as I stay here longer, things get more normal and not as exciting to blog about. From now on I'll probably only update once a week unless something super exciting happens. In other news, I've been here for almost an entire month, which seems really crazy. Ok, on to the blogging...
Tuesday, February 9
Basically, as usual, Tuesday was incredibly boring. I don't do anything on Tuesdays. For instance, on this particular Tuesday, I did laundry. How very exciting.
Wednesday
I only had one class on Wednesday, and it was semi-interesting. I had read the book for the week before, so nothing was due and it was a pretty chill class. We learned more about trauma theory and talked about the end of the world. The most exciting thing that happened was that I bought a guitar for pretty cheap to play while I am here. It's not acoustic, but it's classical, and I can't really tell the difference besides the fact that some of the strings are made of a different material and I can't attach a strap to it. I have decided for now that I will not name this guitar because I have to sell it before I leave and I don't want to get too attached to it.
Thursday
Thursday was pretty busy. I started off with Crime Fiction, which was very exciting but also really disappointing. I had actually not finished reading the book (I had less than a hundred pages left) because of all my other reading, but the book was super good and I was excited to see who the murderer was. So class was going along great and she hadn't spoiled it yet... and then in the last ten minutes she says, oh, let's talk about the murderer! which was really disappointing because I never saw it coming and I would have liked to have finished the book before she gave it away... I will never not finish a book for that class again. It has officially been moved to the top of my reading priority list.
I ate lunch and did a little reading until my next class, Welsh Culture & Folklore. We talked about the Mabinogion and our papers, which are luckily not due on the same day as my other five. They are due about a month and a half earlier, which means I have to get started very, very soon. Like this weekend.
The other two classes weren't that special. We talked about colonialism and feminism in Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte, and then we talked about Skaldic poetry in Myth & Saga.
After class, I met up with Maggie and we hung out for a bit in the centre looking for birthday supplies for Elysse's birthday. We didn't have very much luck, but then we saw Henry on the bus back and it turned out he was going to drive to the big grocery store and offered to give us a ride. After our fun shopping trip, I came back and made delicious marshmallow fondant from scratch and then I went to bed.
Friday
On Friday, Maggie and I went back into the centre to get some decorations, etc. Then we came back to UniHall, and Maggie made the cake while I dyed the fondant and failed at making a rose because the fondant was too sticky (I made a heart instead). We let the cake bake/cool and went our separate ways to get ourselves ready for the surprise party, and then came back later to decorate.
While Meghan was distracting Elysse, Maggie (and Marissa, I believe) decorated the room, and Steve and I decorated the cake. Here is a picture of the lovely cake:
I'm a little sad about the candles because they don't really match the colors of the cake, but I guess I'll live. Also, at some point Elysse's flatmate Robin switched the candles around so that it said 12... (P.S. - Mom, don't worry, the almost empty bottle of alcohol isn't mine). All of the non study-abroaders couldn't stop talking about how great the cake was... First hey thought we had made the whole thing from scratch, then got confused when we told them it was a box cake and thought we had bought it completely made at a store (and wanted to know which store). One of the Henries (is Henries the correct plural of Henry) even talked to Maggie and I about it the next night. Apparently, we made an impression.
After cake (and all of the balloons randomly popping in very fast succession, causing almost everyone to scream and Steve to almost jump in my arms), we went out to the Welsh club for some dancing and fun.
Saturday
On Saturday, Maggie, Christine, and I had really great plans to go meet up with some people at a pub and watch the rugby game... unfortunately by the time we got there, they had closed it to any new people because it was so packed... so we decided to do the opposite of watching rugby: we ate pancakes, went clothes shopping, and saw Valentine's Day.
After our day of girly fun, we split up to head back to our flats for dinner. Then Maggie and I met up with Elysse at the UniHall Pub and just hung out and talked for an hour or so, at which point I went back to my room and fell asleep.
Sunday
On Sunday, Maggie and I went to church together and then we headed into the centre to meet up with Nina, Christine, and Steve for a Valentine's Day lunch. After lunch we were planning on going to the library and doing some spring break travel planning, but it had closed at 3 and we got there at 3:30. So instead we went to the Belgian chocolate stand and got chocolate-covered strawberries and doughnuts and just hung out on a bench talking. Nina left, so Steve, Christine and I did a little grocery shopping and headed back to my flat.
When we got back to UniHall, we met up with Maggie again at the pub there and played some pool, which Christine and I dominated at (we were on a team). Then we went to Meghan's flat to watch 17 Again. Overall, it was a really great Valentine's Day.
Monday
On Monday, I headed to class. There was a sign on the door that said class was cancelled, but the door was open, so only one girl saw it. Luckily, I heard her, but then she just left and there were tons of people already in the lecture hall. So I went in and walked down to the front and used my not-very-loud teacher voice and told everyone it was cancelled. It was definitely a shining moment for me...
I didn't really know what to do with myself after that, so I went to the big public library and looked at some travel books until I got bored. I also finished the first book in that kids' book series Percy Jackson in preparation to see the movie at some point and decided I really wanted to read the second one. Unfortunately out of the two libraries and five book stores I went into, no one had the second one. Some of them had other books from the series but not the second one. So I head home (by the time I left the last bookstore, I was almost home anyway) in disappointment. It was probably a good thing because I have plenty of required reading to do anyway.
I ate some dinner and then got ready to go hang out with Maggie. She had been invited to a birthday party with Elysse for a person Elysse knew, but she didn't, so I went to keep her company. The birthday party ended up being super awkward though, so instead we went out with other people from Elysse's flat (don't worry, Mom/Kathryn, I don't have any classes on Tuesday).
We went to a pretty small place first called Lloyd's and then somehow our large group of ten got split into two smaller groups. I think the other group must have gone to anoth club, but Elysse, Maggie, Robin, Amit, and I went to Oceana into the Disco room, which was sooo much fun. They played a lot of old school music, from older (Journey, Michael Jackson's Thriller, etc.) to some party classics (Cotton Eye Joe, Cha Cha Slide) to 90's pop (Backstreet/N'Sync, B*witched) to showtunes/soundtracks (Grease, Footloose, Dirty Dancing).
So there's my week...
Tuesday, February 9
Basically, as usual, Tuesday was incredibly boring. I don't do anything on Tuesdays. For instance, on this particular Tuesday, I did laundry. How very exciting.
Wednesday
I only had one class on Wednesday, and it was semi-interesting. I had read the book for the week before, so nothing was due and it was a pretty chill class. We learned more about trauma theory and talked about the end of the world. The most exciting thing that happened was that I bought a guitar for pretty cheap to play while I am here. It's not acoustic, but it's classical, and I can't really tell the difference besides the fact that some of the strings are made of a different material and I can't attach a strap to it. I have decided for now that I will not name this guitar because I have to sell it before I leave and I don't want to get too attached to it.
Thursday
Thursday was pretty busy. I started off with Crime Fiction, which was very exciting but also really disappointing. I had actually not finished reading the book (I had less than a hundred pages left) because of all my other reading, but the book was super good and I was excited to see who the murderer was. So class was going along great and she hadn't spoiled it yet... and then in the last ten minutes she says, oh, let's talk about the murderer! which was really disappointing because I never saw it coming and I would have liked to have finished the book before she gave it away... I will never not finish a book for that class again. It has officially been moved to the top of my reading priority list.
I ate lunch and did a little reading until my next class, Welsh Culture & Folklore. We talked about the Mabinogion and our papers, which are luckily not due on the same day as my other five. They are due about a month and a half earlier, which means I have to get started very, very soon. Like this weekend.
The other two classes weren't that special. We talked about colonialism and feminism in Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte, and then we talked about Skaldic poetry in Myth & Saga.
After class, I met up with Maggie and we hung out for a bit in the centre looking for birthday supplies for Elysse's birthday. We didn't have very much luck, but then we saw Henry on the bus back and it turned out he was going to drive to the big grocery store and offered to give us a ride. After our fun shopping trip, I came back and made delicious marshmallow fondant from scratch and then I went to bed.
Friday
On Friday, Maggie and I went back into the centre to get some decorations, etc. Then we came back to UniHall, and Maggie made the cake while I dyed the fondant and failed at making a rose because the fondant was too sticky (I made a heart instead). We let the cake bake/cool and went our separate ways to get ourselves ready for the surprise party, and then came back later to decorate.
While Meghan was distracting Elysse, Maggie (and Marissa, I believe) decorated the room, and Steve and I decorated the cake. Here is a picture of the lovely cake:
I'm a little sad about the candles because they don't really match the colors of the cake, but I guess I'll live. Also, at some point Elysse's flatmate Robin switched the candles around so that it said 12... (P.S. - Mom, don't worry, the almost empty bottle of alcohol isn't mine). All of the non study-abroaders couldn't stop talking about how great the cake was... First hey thought we had made the whole thing from scratch, then got confused when we told them it was a box cake and thought we had bought it completely made at a store (and wanted to know which store). One of the Henries (is Henries the correct plural of Henry) even talked to Maggie and I about it the next night. Apparently, we made an impression.
After cake (and all of the balloons randomly popping in very fast succession, causing almost everyone to scream and Steve to almost jump in my arms), we went out to the Welsh club for some dancing and fun.
Saturday
On Saturday, Maggie, Christine, and I had really great plans to go meet up with some people at a pub and watch the rugby game... unfortunately by the time we got there, they had closed it to any new people because it was so packed... so we decided to do the opposite of watching rugby: we ate pancakes, went clothes shopping, and saw Valentine's Day.
After our day of girly fun, we split up to head back to our flats for dinner. Then Maggie and I met up with Elysse at the UniHall Pub and just hung out and talked for an hour or so, at which point I went back to my room and fell asleep.
Sunday
On Sunday, Maggie and I went to church together and then we headed into the centre to meet up with Nina, Christine, and Steve for a Valentine's Day lunch. After lunch we were planning on going to the library and doing some spring break travel planning, but it had closed at 3 and we got there at 3:30. So instead we went to the Belgian chocolate stand and got chocolate-covered strawberries and doughnuts and just hung out on a bench talking. Nina left, so Steve, Christine and I did a little grocery shopping and headed back to my flat.
When we got back to UniHall, we met up with Maggie again at the pub there and played some pool, which Christine and I dominated at (we were on a team). Then we went to Meghan's flat to watch 17 Again. Overall, it was a really great Valentine's Day.
Monday
On Monday, I headed to class. There was a sign on the door that said class was cancelled, but the door was open, so only one girl saw it. Luckily, I heard her, but then she just left and there were tons of people already in the lecture hall. So I went in and walked down to the front and used my not-very-loud teacher voice and told everyone it was cancelled. It was definitely a shining moment for me...
I didn't really know what to do with myself after that, so I went to the big public library and looked at some travel books until I got bored. I also finished the first book in that kids' book series Percy Jackson in preparation to see the movie at some point and decided I really wanted to read the second one. Unfortunately out of the two libraries and five book stores I went into, no one had the second one. Some of them had other books from the series but not the second one. So I head home (by the time I left the last bookstore, I was almost home anyway) in disappointment. It was probably a good thing because I have plenty of required reading to do anyway.
I ate some dinner and then got ready to go hang out with Maggie. She had been invited to a birthday party with Elysse for a person Elysse knew, but she didn't, so I went to keep her company. The birthday party ended up being super awkward though, so instead we went out with other people from Elysse's flat (don't worry, Mom/Kathryn, I don't have any classes on Tuesday).
We went to a pretty small place first called Lloyd's and then somehow our large group of ten got split into two smaller groups. I think the other group must have gone to anoth club, but Elysse, Maggie, Robin, Amit, and I went to Oceana into the Disco room, which was sooo much fun. They played a lot of old school music, from older (Journey, Michael Jackson's Thriller, etc.) to some party classics (Cotton Eye Joe, Cha Cha Slide) to 90's pop (Backstreet/N'Sync, B*witched) to showtunes/soundtracks (Grease, Footloose, Dirty Dancing).
So there's my week...
Monday, February 8, 2010
About a Week in One Post (Days 16-22; Tuesday-Monday)
Tuesday:
On Tuesday, the only thing that I did worth noting is that I made a really delicious dinner and it had lots of yummy things in it like cheese sauce that I made from scratch, chicken, carrots, broccoli, pasta, and basil.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was a bit more interesting. I went to class as usual, and it was pretty interesting (the lecture was on the book Waterland by Graham Swift). Then that night Maggie, Meghan, Marissa (all other study-abroaders) and I went to Christine's flat and headed out to The Lash, which is the club at the Student Union on Wednesday nights. It was very exciting. People were supposed to dress up like golfers (I didn't because I don't really own any golfing clothes...), but there were also lots of people dressed up like carrots, patients in a hospital, and Tarzan. Very exciting.
Thursday:
Thursday is my lots-of-classes day, so I went to class. I also went to a youth group type thing for college students at the church I went to on Sunday. It was pretty fun. I had to leave before they all went to the pub (this country is weird...), but it was all good because I had to get ready for my exciting weekend, which brings me to...
Friday:
On Friday I woke up and got packed. I had to take a later train than Maggie, Steve, and Christine because I booked my tickets later (my card wasn't working), and I enjoyed the part of the bus ride where I slept instead of reading like I had planned to do. Also, the guy next to me kept rubbing his arm against me by accident, so I had to sit very close to the window and be very small.
When I finally got to London, it was dark, but luckily all the buildings were pretty and lit up. I quickly found Maggie, Steve, and Christine, and obviously they were super excited to see me. We set off to find our hostel.
We ended up taking a taxi because we couldn't figure out the buses or trains and there were tons of people around so we felt lost and stupid. Then the taxi was expensive and didn't really know where we were going, so we just had him drop us off at a random street corner that he thought was close to the hostel. We called the hostel, and luckily it was right nearby.
The guy at the hostel accidentally charged us too much, but we got it all figured out and got our key cards. Instead of being in a huge 24 person room, we ended up in a smaller four-person room, which was great. Except that it was a little creepy. Overall, the hostel was pretty creepy, but also cheap, which is always nice.
We were all starving, so we headed out to find food... and that's when we found the Waffle House. Everyone, if you are EVER in the Hyde Park area, you should definitely go there. In fact if you don't, you will regret it for the rest of your life. It's on Queensway St., right near the Queensway Underground stop. (If you take a left out of the station and walk straight, you will find it.) If you can't go, you probably should still call them and congratulate them on making the best waffles ever. Their phone number is 020 7243 85. Here is a screenshot I took of it from Google Maps:
After our exciting waffles, we went back to the hostel and got ready to go out. We went to a club and danced for a really long time, then walked back to the hostel... except we walked for about an hour and a half because we didn't really know where we were going. (We also walked right past Buckingham Palace and didn't realize it until the next day, and we got lighted for walking to close to a big castle-like building.) Steve and I also almost froze to death because we didn't have coats. We are probably the smartest people in the world.
Other important things we did:
1. We took a picture with a phone booth.
2. We drank milkshakes.
3. I bought some mochi at an Asian supermarket.
4. Steve bought some doughnuts.
5. Took pictures of ourselves acting dead because our hostel was so creepy we feared being murdered.
Saturday:
On Saturday, we did a lot of exploring. We saw the following things:
1. The underground. VERY exciting. That was not sarcastic. I was very, very excited about the signs.
2. Two exhibits in the Museum of Natural History. We would have looked at more except we were super hungry and couldn't find a restaraunt nearby.
3. Platform 9 3/4.
4. A nice cafe with yummy fish and chips and funny posters.
5. Big Ben.
6. Westminster Abbey, which Maggie couldn't find even though we were standing right in front of it. She asked a police officer where it was. It was awesome.
7. Buckingham Palace.
8. A guy playing the ukulele.
9. A pug dog who couldn't put his tongue in his mouth. It was very unfortunate. He looked silly.
10. The Sherlock Holmes restaraunt.
11. A really fun 4-D movie about London.
12. The London Eye (and a lot of London from on it). We went at night, so the city was all lit up and beautiful.
13. Lots of buses.
14. A guy who posed volunteers in funny positions (like they were boxing, etc.) and then would pose himself (like he was being punched, etc.) Here's a picture:
Basically, the whole day was amazing. We had a lot of fun just wandering around taking pictures and being good little tourists.
We stopped at a restaraunt semi-near the Eye and ate dinner, and then we headed back to the hostel area. When we got there we went into a Spar and bought lots of junk food and then made a trip to the Waffle House and ordered a bunch of waffles. We went back to the hostel and had a great night just hanging out, talking, and laughing.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we woke up earlyish so that we could get everything all packed up (check out was at 10:00). We headed out around 9:30 for a walk through Hyde Park and to find Peter Pan. We found the statue (which I was really excited about!) and took lots of pictures with Peter Pan. Then Maggie left to catch a 10:30 bus back (which she missed, but luckily she could take a 12:00/12:30ish one), and Steve, Christine, and I kept walking through the park to find the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which was very pretty.
After our Hyde Park adventure, we got on the tube and headed to the British Museum, where we got to see really awesome things like a part of the Sphinx and the Rosetta Stone and swords and lots of mummies. It was really cool.
After the museum, Christine, Steve, and I got back on the tube and headed to Bond St. I left Steve and Christine there so that I could meet up with my friend Emilka who I haven't seen in about 13 years. (She was my best friend when I lived in Japan.) It was really amazing to see her. It was a little awkward for maybe two or three minutes, but once we got started talking, it was great. It was probably the best part of the whole weekend. I even got to see her sister for about two minutes before I had to leave to head to the bus station. Here's a picture of Emilka, me, and Emilka's sister, Hania:
The bus ride home was pretty uneventful, but I did end up sitting next to another student who is studying abroad at Cardiff (he is from France), so I talked to him for the second half of the ride, which made it much more enjoyable than the ride to London.
When I finally got back to Cardiff, I ate a quick dinner and took a shower to get rid of the hostel germs and rushed over to the UniHall Pub to watch the Superbowl. It was a lot of fun, and the game was really close. Also, it helped that I was rooting for the team that won. Even though the game didn't end until about 3am here (they were showing it live), it was a great ending to a great weekend.
Monday:
After the busy weekend, having to go to my class today was a little dull, but I guess I'm technically here to study and learn stuff. After class I came back to my room and rested because I was exhausted. Then I hung out with Christine. We saw Up in the Air, which was a very interesting movie and made us feel really good about ourselves because we are nowhere near as miserable as the characters in the movie.
If you would like to look at some pictures from this weekend, I have a bunch of them up on my facebook, and you can see them here.
As for tomorrow, I don't have any classes, so I plan on doing some laundry and grocery shopping. Should be exciting.
On Tuesday, the only thing that I did worth noting is that I made a really delicious dinner and it had lots of yummy things in it like cheese sauce that I made from scratch, chicken, carrots, broccoli, pasta, and basil.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was a bit more interesting. I went to class as usual, and it was pretty interesting (the lecture was on the book Waterland by Graham Swift). Then that night Maggie, Meghan, Marissa (all other study-abroaders) and I went to Christine's flat and headed out to The Lash, which is the club at the Student Union on Wednesday nights. It was very exciting. People were supposed to dress up like golfers (I didn't because I don't really own any golfing clothes...), but there were also lots of people dressed up like carrots, patients in a hospital, and Tarzan. Very exciting.
Thursday:
Thursday is my lots-of-classes day, so I went to class. I also went to a youth group type thing for college students at the church I went to on Sunday. It was pretty fun. I had to leave before they all went to the pub (this country is weird...), but it was all good because I had to get ready for my exciting weekend, which brings me to...
Friday:
On Friday I woke up and got packed. I had to take a later train than Maggie, Steve, and Christine because I booked my tickets later (my card wasn't working), and I enjoyed the part of the bus ride where I slept instead of reading like I had planned to do. Also, the guy next to me kept rubbing his arm against me by accident, so I had to sit very close to the window and be very small.
When I finally got to London, it was dark, but luckily all the buildings were pretty and lit up. I quickly found Maggie, Steve, and Christine, and obviously they were super excited to see me. We set off to find our hostel.
We ended up taking a taxi because we couldn't figure out the buses or trains and there were tons of people around so we felt lost and stupid. Then the taxi was expensive and didn't really know where we were going, so we just had him drop us off at a random street corner that he thought was close to the hostel. We called the hostel, and luckily it was right nearby.
The guy at the hostel accidentally charged us too much, but we got it all figured out and got our key cards. Instead of being in a huge 24 person room, we ended up in a smaller four-person room, which was great. Except that it was a little creepy. Overall, the hostel was pretty creepy, but also cheap, which is always nice.
We were all starving, so we headed out to find food... and that's when we found the Waffle House. Everyone, if you are EVER in the Hyde Park area, you should definitely go there. In fact if you don't, you will regret it for the rest of your life. It's on Queensway St., right near the Queensway Underground stop. (If you take a left out of the station and walk straight, you will find it.) If you can't go, you probably should still call them and congratulate them on making the best waffles ever. Their phone number is 020 7243 85. Here is a screenshot I took of it from Google Maps:
After our exciting waffles, we went back to the hostel and got ready to go out. We went to a club and danced for a really long time, then walked back to the hostel... except we walked for about an hour and a half because we didn't really know where we were going. (We also walked right past Buckingham Palace and didn't realize it until the next day, and we got lighted for walking to close to a big castle-like building.) Steve and I also almost froze to death because we didn't have coats. We are probably the smartest people in the world.
Other important things we did:
1. We took a picture with a phone booth.
2. We drank milkshakes.
3. I bought some mochi at an Asian supermarket.
4. Steve bought some doughnuts.
5. Took pictures of ourselves acting dead because our hostel was so creepy we feared being murdered.
Saturday:
On Saturday, we did a lot of exploring. We saw the following things:
1. The underground. VERY exciting. That was not sarcastic. I was very, very excited about the signs.
2. Two exhibits in the Museum of Natural History. We would have looked at more except we were super hungry and couldn't find a restaraunt nearby.
3. Platform 9 3/4.
4. A nice cafe with yummy fish and chips and funny posters.
5. Big Ben.
6. Westminster Abbey, which Maggie couldn't find even though we were standing right in front of it. She asked a police officer where it was. It was awesome.
7. Buckingham Palace.
8. A guy playing the ukulele.
9. A pug dog who couldn't put his tongue in his mouth. It was very unfortunate. He looked silly.
10. The Sherlock Holmes restaraunt.
11. A really fun 4-D movie about London.
12. The London Eye (and a lot of London from on it). We went at night, so the city was all lit up and beautiful.
13. Lots of buses.
14. A guy who posed volunteers in funny positions (like they were boxing, etc.) and then would pose himself (like he was being punched, etc.) Here's a picture:
Basically, the whole day was amazing. We had a lot of fun just wandering around taking pictures and being good little tourists.
We stopped at a restaraunt semi-near the Eye and ate dinner, and then we headed back to the hostel area. When we got there we went into a Spar and bought lots of junk food and then made a trip to the Waffle House and ordered a bunch of waffles. We went back to the hostel and had a great night just hanging out, talking, and laughing.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we woke up earlyish so that we could get everything all packed up (check out was at 10:00). We headed out around 9:30 for a walk through Hyde Park and to find Peter Pan. We found the statue (which I was really excited about!) and took lots of pictures with Peter Pan. Then Maggie left to catch a 10:30 bus back (which she missed, but luckily she could take a 12:00/12:30ish one), and Steve, Christine, and I kept walking through the park to find the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which was very pretty.
After our Hyde Park adventure, we got on the tube and headed to the British Museum, where we got to see really awesome things like a part of the Sphinx and the Rosetta Stone and swords and lots of mummies. It was really cool.
After the museum, Christine, Steve, and I got back on the tube and headed to Bond St. I left Steve and Christine there so that I could meet up with my friend Emilka who I haven't seen in about 13 years. (She was my best friend when I lived in Japan.) It was really amazing to see her. It was a little awkward for maybe two or three minutes, but once we got started talking, it was great. It was probably the best part of the whole weekend. I even got to see her sister for about two minutes before I had to leave to head to the bus station. Here's a picture of Emilka, me, and Emilka's sister, Hania:
The bus ride home was pretty uneventful, but I did end up sitting next to another student who is studying abroad at Cardiff (he is from France), so I talked to him for the second half of the ride, which made it much more enjoyable than the ride to London.
When I finally got back to Cardiff, I ate a quick dinner and took a shower to get rid of the hostel germs and rushed over to the UniHall Pub to watch the Superbowl. It was a lot of fun, and the game was really close. Also, it helped that I was rooting for the team that won. Even though the game didn't end until about 3am here (they were showing it live), it was a great ending to a great weekend.
Monday:
After the busy weekend, having to go to my class today was a little dull, but I guess I'm technically here to study and learn stuff. After class I came back to my room and rested because I was exhausted. Then I hung out with Christine. We saw Up in the Air, which was a very interesting movie and made us feel really good about ourselves because we are nowhere near as miserable as the characters in the movie.
If you would like to look at some pictures from this weekend, I have a bunch of them up on my facebook, and you can see them here.
As for tomorrow, I don't have any classes, so I plan on doing some laundry and grocery shopping. Should be exciting.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Days 13-15 (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday)
Saturday:
On Saturday, we went to Swansea. Swansea appeared to be a lot like Cardiff, except it was more icy and has a different name. The train ride was about an hour long, so I got some reading done on the way there.
The first place we went to was a restaurant that was apparently featured in the most recent episode of Dr. Who. I personally don't watch the show, but one of the other study-abroaders loves it, so it was pretty fun. I really like eating at restaurants here because the food is way better than what I make in my flat.
After the restaurant, we went to a big market place and got some Welsh Cakes. I can't really describe them. If I had to, I would say that they are a cross between a tiny pancake and something else with raisins in them, but that is a terrible description. Anyway, I don't really like raisins in stuff because once when I was little I ate a oatmeal raisin cookie and then I threw up, so now it makes me sick. But luckily they had raisin-less Welsh Cakes with jam in them and I ate one of those and it was delicious.
After the market, we set off to find the Dylan Thomas museum. We went to some cool places on the way. We stopped at a place where you could see the bay, and there was also a statue of Dylan Thomas sitting on a chair. We also found a really cute art gallery. Then we went to the Swansea Museum and saw a mummy.
We finally made it to the Dylan Thomas museum, and I listened to him read a couple of his poems. It was really cool to hear "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" read by him because a) I had to write a villanelle once, and I found it really hard, so I think that particular poem is outstanding and b) it was featured in a Five Iron Frenzy song.
Unfortunately, I started to feel really awful, so I decided to leave early and headed back to Cardiff. The rest of the night was pretty boring, so I won't write all about it.
Sunday:
On Sunday I successfully made it to church! It was really exciting, and so far I really like the church I went to. After church I met up with Maggie and Christine, and we went to the Cardiff Museum.
There was a really cool exhibit featuring Lauren Child, who is an extremely talented children's book author and illustrator. We also looked at some old Welsh plates, and we saw a platter with an adorable cow on it. In the plate room, we met a nice guy on museum staff, and we talked to him for about 45 minutes about cool places to go in and around Cardiff and what to feed birds.
After the museum, I came back to my flat and had dinner, and then I headed back out to meet up with someone I met at church. On the way back from that, some guy on the bus asked me if I rode motorbikes. Apparently the way I was tapping my feet (I had my headphones in) reminded him on driving a motorbike with a clutch or something. I felt really cool.
Monday:
Today I woke up and got ready for the day. Then I had an awkward elevator encounter, which is when you get on the elevator and there is someone else on it already and you didn't expect that so you don't talk the whole ride and then when you are trying to get out of the building you pull instead of push the door and the other person looks at you like you are not all that bright and holds the door open for you.
After finally successfully making it to the Cathays campus (where all my classes are), I had my second Gothic Fiction class. The most exciting part was when the girl sitting behind me asked me for paper. Other than that, we just talked about a lot of books I've never read before.
After class, I took the free bus back up to UniHall. Guess who I got to ride the elevator with? My morning elevator buddy! And guess what else? He remembered what floor I was on and pressed the button for me! I felt like we really bonded despite the fact that he probably thinks I'm an idiot due to the door incident.
I then ate some lunch and headed back into the city centre, where I met up with Maggie and Christine. We went to see Sherlock Holmes at the movie theatre. It was actually really good and got me excited to read the Sherlock Holmes book I have to read for Thursday (which I have not even started because this book for War & Memory is taking me FOREVER). Then I did some light grocery shopping and came back to the flat.
Oh! Today, I also met another flat mate of mine who i had never met before... she invited me to her birthday party on Friday. I am really excited. We are getting pizza.
On Saturday, we went to Swansea. Swansea appeared to be a lot like Cardiff, except it was more icy and has a different name. The train ride was about an hour long, so I got some reading done on the way there.
The first place we went to was a restaurant that was apparently featured in the most recent episode of Dr. Who. I personally don't watch the show, but one of the other study-abroaders loves it, so it was pretty fun. I really like eating at restaurants here because the food is way better than what I make in my flat.
After the restaurant, we went to a big market place and got some Welsh Cakes. I can't really describe them. If I had to, I would say that they are a cross between a tiny pancake and something else with raisins in them, but that is a terrible description. Anyway, I don't really like raisins in stuff because once when I was little I ate a oatmeal raisin cookie and then I threw up, so now it makes me sick. But luckily they had raisin-less Welsh Cakes with jam in them and I ate one of those and it was delicious.
After the market, we set off to find the Dylan Thomas museum. We went to some cool places on the way. We stopped at a place where you could see the bay, and there was also a statue of Dylan Thomas sitting on a chair. We also found a really cute art gallery. Then we went to the Swansea Museum and saw a mummy.
We finally made it to the Dylan Thomas museum, and I listened to him read a couple of his poems. It was really cool to hear "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" read by him because a) I had to write a villanelle once, and I found it really hard, so I think that particular poem is outstanding and b) it was featured in a Five Iron Frenzy song.
Unfortunately, I started to feel really awful, so I decided to leave early and headed back to Cardiff. The rest of the night was pretty boring, so I won't write all about it.
Sunday:
On Sunday I successfully made it to church! It was really exciting, and so far I really like the church I went to. After church I met up with Maggie and Christine, and we went to the Cardiff Museum.
There was a really cool exhibit featuring Lauren Child, who is an extremely talented children's book author and illustrator. We also looked at some old Welsh plates, and we saw a platter with an adorable cow on it. In the plate room, we met a nice guy on museum staff, and we talked to him for about 45 minutes about cool places to go in and around Cardiff and what to feed birds.
After the museum, I came back to my flat and had dinner, and then I headed back out to meet up with someone I met at church. On the way back from that, some guy on the bus asked me if I rode motorbikes. Apparently the way I was tapping my feet (I had my headphones in) reminded him on driving a motorbike with a clutch or something. I felt really cool.
Monday:
Today I woke up and got ready for the day. Then I had an awkward elevator encounter, which is when you get on the elevator and there is someone else on it already and you didn't expect that so you don't talk the whole ride and then when you are trying to get out of the building you pull instead of push the door and the other person looks at you like you are not all that bright and holds the door open for you.
After finally successfully making it to the Cathays campus (where all my classes are), I had my second Gothic Fiction class. The most exciting part was when the girl sitting behind me asked me for paper. Other than that, we just talked about a lot of books I've never read before.
After class, I took the free bus back up to UniHall. Guess who I got to ride the elevator with? My morning elevator buddy! And guess what else? He remembered what floor I was on and pressed the button for me! I felt like we really bonded despite the fact that he probably thinks I'm an idiot due to the door incident.
I then ate some lunch and headed back into the city centre, where I met up with Maggie and Christine. We went to see Sherlock Holmes at the movie theatre. It was actually really good and got me excited to read the Sherlock Holmes book I have to read for Thursday (which I have not even started because this book for War & Memory is taking me FOREVER). Then I did some light grocery shopping and came back to the flat.
Oh! Today, I also met another flat mate of mine who i had never met before... she invited me to her birthday party on Friday. I am really excited. We are getting pizza.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Day 12, aka Friday, aka The Most Magical Day of All
I woke up at around 11:00 this morning, which I think is good for me. I started out the morning by listening to Stan Gaede's sermon/speech thing that I downloaded from the Gordon iTunes website, which is a little creepy, but also awesome. I then got on the bus (the wonderful free one) and went to the Humanities building to wait for some other study-abroaders (because we were about to embark on a VERY exciting adventure, which I will tell you about later. Get really excited.) The bus ride, however, was not an average bus ride because someone on it was MAGIC.
Here's the story: So, when I left my building, it was really sunny, but as soon as I sat down on the bus (on the top floor; it's a double decker!), it started raining (That is not the magic part; it rains all the time here). Then I hear this girl behind me say, "And now it's going to hail." IMMEDIATELY, it began to hail. It was a miracle. She could predict the weather.
So Maggie (a study-abroader) and I got off at the right stop and went to the cafe in the Humanities building to wait for the others. When they got there, we started on our adventure. I'll tell it in a fairy tale format because that will make it even more exciting, if that's even possible.
Once upon a time, there were six travelers in a magical land called Wales. One day, they decided to set off on an adventure to find a secret treasure. They set off from the Humanities building in search of the treasure.
They walked for a very long time (about three minutes) and finally came upon a place they hoped would hold the treasure--a place called Woodville. Unfortunately, Woodville was overpopulated, and therefore the tired travelers could not rest there. Instead, they chose to journey on.
Along the way, they met up with another traveler and together the seven journeyed far. They climbed up a steep mountain (staircase) and crossed a vast, dangerous abyss (a regular sized road). Finally, they reached their destination.
When they got inside, they walked up to the counter and ordered the treasure: fish and chips! THE END.
Basically, it was the best ever because I haven't eaten a real meal since I've been here because I am not that great at cooking. I had probably my first substantial serving of vegetables since I've been here: mushy peas that were not mushy at all. They were basically regular peas.
After our fish and chips adventure, we decided to go to ANOTHER magical place: the Cardiff Public Library. It is a pretty, tall, glass building with four or five floors (plus the ground floor), and there is a giant hula hoop in front of it.
At the library, they gave us library cards. They are pink. I am really excited about the library cards. I already took out three books. (As a reference point for how excited I am, here's a story: last year, my mom told me we could stop at Barnes and Noble on my way back up to Gordon, and I was so excited that I gave myself a concussion by jumping up and down while trying to get in the car.) The best part about the library is how you check out books. You go up to these computer things w/ touch screens and select "Borrow". Then you scan your card. THEN you place all of your books on this shelf and somehow it just knows which books they are. It was the most magical thing of all.
Here is a picture of the library (and the hula hoop):
Here are two pictures of a statue with a seagull sitting on top of him:
Here is a picture of a rainbow that I took from my bedroom window the other day:
Also, I am really excited that I have three followers now. I wish that they weren't called followers though because that name is kind of creepy. Followers imply that they are following me about, which is not completely accurate. It would be better if they were "People Who Read My Blog".
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Days 10 & 11
Wednesday:
On Wednesday, I was doing really well. I got up on time, got ready, got on the bus, got to my classroom early (if you say got that many times it starts to sound funny), sat down, received a syllabus, and started reading the course layout. It said: Lecture One: What is research? How do we conduct research? I thought, "Weird, I thought this was War & Memory... what sort of research will we be doing?" Then I looked at the class title: Research Methods II. In a panic, I asked the girls behind me what class this was, hoping that the professor had messed up, not me. They said, "Research Methods II", and I said, "I thought this was War & Memory." They laughed at me, obviously because they thought War & Memory is a stupid name for a class, not because they thought I was stupid.
I asked a lady in the hall if she knew where that class was. She didn't, but she pointed me to the English corridor, where I was able to look at the module schedule and see that the class was in a different building. I raced over to that building (which wasn't too far away) and got to the classroom, only to discover that the entrance was at the front of a HUGE lecture hall. Luckily the lights were all out because the professor was using a projector, and if anyone noticed me, they didn't say anything.
Beyond that, I went out shopping with one of the girls from the program (I now have a pillowcase for my pillow instead of a huge t-shirt) and bought some of the books I need for class. I also went to the Societies Fair, where you can sign up to join Societies, which sounds much more mysterious than it really is. It's basically like joining a club, except you don't get to hang around in tree houses or make signs that say, "NO BOYS ALLOWED", and instead of having secret handshakes and smuggled cookies from your kitchen, you get to do stuff together at the same time, like karate or funky dancing or liking science fiction.
Games I played:
Thursday:
Thursday is my epic four-class-in-a-row day. Crime Fiction was pretty awesome. We're starting out with Sherlock Holmes and then going through the sub-genres in chronological order culminating in The Silence of the Lambs and some other book about a creepy serial killer (which are the only two books I'm not excited to read). I already know what I want to write about for my final paper, provided I can (the development of the detective/assistant relationship through twentieth-century Crime Fiction and the leveling of the relationship in twenty-first-century crime television). There's a question about motifs (which the pairing thing apparently falls under) on the practice essay questions, and the professor said the real ones should be similar, so as long as that one is still there, I can write that essay.
The next class, Welsh Culture & Folklore, was pretty good because she showed us lots of pictures of Welsh stuff and told stories. Then I went to my Charlotte Bronte class. We learned about Bronte's Juvenilia, which is stuff she wrote when she was 13-23. Apparently, when Charlotte Bronte was thirteen, she wrote these stories with her brother about a fantastical world based off of what they read about Africa in a magazine. In these stories (that she wrote starting at thirteen), they included all of this stuff about colonialism. For instance, the Glass Town represented the vulnerability of the colonialist system because it was made of glass and glass breaks easily. There are many other examples about how Charlotte Bronte thought a lot about colonialism and its affects on the natives colonialized as well as the colonialists themselves when she was a teenager. (I might be a bit skeptical of the extent of the actual meaning... it's possible her brother said, "Wouldn't it be sweet if the town was made out of glass?" and she said, "Yes!" but that's just conjecture.)
My last class was Myth & Saga, and I learned about Norse Icelandic mythology. We read an excerpt from a saga called Eirik the Red, which is about Leif Ericksson discovering America. My professor made a comment about Leif being called Leif the Lucky and how he didn't think finding America was all that lucky, and then he chuckled. I don't think he knows that Steve and I are Americans. I really wanted to say something in my American accent right after, but there wasn't an opportunity to.
Some important observations about Wales:
On Wednesday, I was doing really well. I got up on time, got ready, got on the bus, got to my classroom early (if you say got that many times it starts to sound funny), sat down, received a syllabus, and started reading the course layout. It said: Lecture One: What is research? How do we conduct research? I thought, "Weird, I thought this was War & Memory... what sort of research will we be doing?" Then I looked at the class title: Research Methods II. In a panic, I asked the girls behind me what class this was, hoping that the professor had messed up, not me. They said, "Research Methods II", and I said, "I thought this was War & Memory." They laughed at me, obviously because they thought War & Memory is a stupid name for a class, not because they thought I was stupid.
I asked a lady in the hall if she knew where that class was. She didn't, but she pointed me to the English corridor, where I was able to look at the module schedule and see that the class was in a different building. I raced over to that building (which wasn't too far away) and got to the classroom, only to discover that the entrance was at the front of a HUGE lecture hall. Luckily the lights were all out because the professor was using a projector, and if anyone noticed me, they didn't say anything.
Beyond that, I went out shopping with one of the girls from the program (I now have a pillowcase for my pillow instead of a huge t-shirt) and bought some of the books I need for class. I also went to the Societies Fair, where you can sign up to join Societies, which sounds much more mysterious than it really is. It's basically like joining a club, except you don't get to hang around in tree houses or make signs that say, "NO BOYS ALLOWED", and instead of having secret handshakes and smuggled cookies from your kitchen, you get to do stuff together at the same time, like karate or funky dancing or liking science fiction.
Games I played:
- The Metaphor/Simile Game: The only rule is that you have to make up really good metaphors/similes about stuff. My favorite that I came up with was "The wind blew my hair around like squid tentacles in a stormy sea".
- The How-Many-Times-Can-I-Trip Game: Three times.
Thursday:
Thursday is my epic four-class-in-a-row day. Crime Fiction was pretty awesome. We're starting out with Sherlock Holmes and then going through the sub-genres in chronological order culminating in The Silence of the Lambs and some other book about a creepy serial killer (which are the only two books I'm not excited to read). I already know what I want to write about for my final paper, provided I can (the development of the detective/assistant relationship through twentieth-century Crime Fiction and the leveling of the relationship in twenty-first-century crime television). There's a question about motifs (which the pairing thing apparently falls under) on the practice essay questions, and the professor said the real ones should be similar, so as long as that one is still there, I can write that essay.
The next class, Welsh Culture & Folklore, was pretty good because she showed us lots of pictures of Welsh stuff and told stories. Then I went to my Charlotte Bronte class. We learned about Bronte's Juvenilia, which is stuff she wrote when she was 13-23. Apparently, when Charlotte Bronte was thirteen, she wrote these stories with her brother about a fantastical world based off of what they read about Africa in a magazine. In these stories (that she wrote starting at thirteen), they included all of this stuff about colonialism. For instance, the Glass Town represented the vulnerability of the colonialist system because it was made of glass and glass breaks easily. There are many other examples about how Charlotte Bronte thought a lot about colonialism and its affects on the natives colonialized as well as the colonialists themselves when she was a teenager. (I might be a bit skeptical of the extent of the actual meaning... it's possible her brother said, "Wouldn't it be sweet if the town was made out of glass?" and she said, "Yes!" but that's just conjecture.)
My last class was Myth & Saga, and I learned about Norse Icelandic mythology. We read an excerpt from a saga called Eirik the Red, which is about Leif Ericksson discovering America. My professor made a comment about Leif being called Leif the Lucky and how he didn't think finding America was all that lucky, and then he chuckled. I don't think he knows that Steve and I are Americans. I really wanted to say something in my American accent right after, but there wasn't an opportunity to.
Some important observations about Wales:
- If you live on the 5th floor, you really live 6 floors up from the ground. There is (as far as I can tell) always a ground floor, labelled G in the elevator, which does not count as the first floor. It can be confusing when you are trying to find room 2.01 and only walk up one flight of stairs.
- Things are sometimes backwards here. Not only do they drive on the left, but they walk on the left. This can be confusing for someone who, in addition to usually walking on the right, has a little trouble with remembering which is left and which is right (not that I am that way at all...).
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Day 9
Today was my most uneventful day yet. I slept in until about 2, which is late even for me. Then I sat around for most of the day watching stuff online until I went to the corner store to get some ketchup (I had a hamburger for dinner).
The highlight of my day was definitely seeing someone I knew at the corner store and saying, "Hi"--my first word of the day--around 5:15pm. It was good to make sure I hadn't become mute.
Some good new is I have a class tomorrow, which means I have something to do. I also have to get my i.d. card and a printer. I am also going out with someone in the afternoon, and hopefully the bookstore in the area we are going to has The Mysteries of Udolpho. I found it online for free, but it is in a huge text file and pretty hard to read on the screen.
Also, in other important news, I am drinking Cadbury Hot Chocolate. It is good, but I have been making it with water, and the container says it should be made with milk. Unfortunately, I am not sure if my milk is good anymore. I am a little confused by the sell by/use by dates over here. For instance, the use by date is a day after the sell by date, which is from last week... I don't think that milk in the U.S. goes bad that fast, but I am afraid to try it. I know I could smell it, but I don't really know what bad milk is supposed to smell like. I don't really like the smell of milk in the first place. As you can see, the milk issue is extremely problematic.
The highlight of my day was definitely seeing someone I knew at the corner store and saying, "Hi"--my first word of the day--around 5:15pm. It was good to make sure I hadn't become mute.
Some good new is I have a class tomorrow, which means I have something to do. I also have to get my i.d. card and a printer. I am also going out with someone in the afternoon, and hopefully the bookstore in the area we are going to has The Mysteries of Udolpho. I found it online for free, but it is in a huge text file and pretty hard to read on the screen.
Also, in other important news, I am drinking Cadbury Hot Chocolate. It is good, but I have been making it with water, and the container says it should be made with milk. Unfortunately, I am not sure if my milk is good anymore. I am a little confused by the sell by/use by dates over here. For instance, the use by date is a day after the sell by date, which is from last week... I don't think that milk in the U.S. goes bad that fast, but I am afraid to try it. I know I could smell it, but I don't really know what bad milk is supposed to smell like. I don't really like the smell of milk in the first place. As you can see, the milk issue is extremely problematic.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Days 6-8
The Weekend:
On Saturday I went grocery shopping. I got important stuff like food and laundry detergent. Then at night I went to a club called Glam. (First I went to an apartment where everyone else engaged in what they call "pre-drinking" which is Welsh for getting really drunk so dancing for ten hours straight with strangers will appear more rational.) At the club, I saw some pretty interesting things:
- Several lurking boys.
- One very drunk lady who did a lot of funny stuff--dancing in front of the fan, trying to dance with much younger boys, stealing one boys drink, taking a sip and then handing it back (he was NOT happy), etc.
- One boy stroked my head like I was a dog. It was weird.
On Sunday I tried to go to church but failed. I took a wrong turn and ended up who knows where (about half an hour away) and had to back track. I finally found the church, but they were praying and the entrance was near the front of the sanctuary. I was also an hour late. But since I was already in the building, I went into the bathroom to wash my hands (See, there was a guy outside at a bus stop who had seen me go inside, and I didn't want to look creepy leaving two seconds after I went in). I also took a bulletin. Unfortunately, when I went out, the guy was still there, and I looked creepier.
After I left the church I tried to go back to my dorm but ended up going in the wrong direction. I kept going because I realized I was headed to the Centre, and I needed to go there anyway. I got lunch and did some shopping (socks that prevent ankle bleeding from my evil shoes, an ugly set of cardboard drawers to hide miscellaneous papers that don't have a place but look dumb on my desk, scissors, etc.).
I then took the bus back (after successfully finding the bus stop that eluded me my first night in the Centre) and walked down to the corner store to get some paper towels. At the corner store I found a sweet deal on Naan, so I made Indian food for dinner.
First Day of Class:
Today was my first day of class. I had a total of one class. My class is big compared to Gordon classes, but I am a really bad judge of numbers, so I will just say it was large. My professor seems nice and made a couple of jokes that I understood, so I think it will be a good class. The first book we have to read is over 700 pages long, but so was the fourth Harry Potter, right? And The Mysteries of Udolpho is pretty much exactly the same as Harry Potter.
After my class, I went to the Security office to get a new i.d. card. (I forgot to write about this in my blog concerning Friday: I got my i.d. card and lost it within two hours. I think it might be a record.) They said, "We never issued you one." I said, "Yes, you did. It didn't work, but I had one." They said, "Are you sure you are a student here?" I said, "Yes." They said, "We have no record of you." I didn't really have anything to say after that, so they told me to go to registry which is far away from the security building.
After lunch (leftovers... I'm like a real person now. I can make my own dinner and eat leftovers for lunch the next day out of a plastic container and heated up in the microwave), I took the bus to the Centre and walked to the registry building where they told me I was in the system but that the card people had given me the i.d. number of Christopher Andrade (who I am NOT) and that everything would be fine if I presented a letter, which they gave me, to the security office.
Instead of walking to the security office, which I will do tomorrow, I went to the movies to see Avatar. I'm pretty excited about this because it was one of my life goals to go see a movie by myself. I felt a little bit like a loser when everyone else walked in in groups, so I put on a face that hopefully told everyone else that by being alone I was actually cooler than them. I am not going to admit whether or not I think it worked. The movie itself was entertaining, and I am discovering that I don't really mind being on my own.
After the movie, I took the bus home. I was really worried about missing my stop, and so when the bus went past my stop, I noticed and freaked out. After trying to tell myself that I could just get off at the next stop, I freaked out again because we were getting further and further away without stopping. At the next stop, I asked the driver if he would be going back. He asked me if I had missed my stop. I said he never stopped at it. He asked if I rang the bell. APPARENTLY, there is this magic bell you have to ring (by pressing a button) if you want to bus to stop. I didn't know that because there are always other people getting off at my stop so I had never had to do it before. Luckily, the bus driver was going back, and we had a nice conversation about where I was from and the habit of people in various cities.
For dinner I had pasta, which I don't really want to talk about besides saying that I miss the cheese of America.
I also got my very own cupboard and now can put my jeans back into the drawer that I was using to hold all my food. Very exciting.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Orientation (Days 3-5 mashed together)
Summary of Orientation Week
Important Stuff I Did:
Important Stuff I Did:
- I signed up for my classes. I am taking Gothic Fiction, Crime Fiction, War & Memory (which is basically like historical fiction about wars), Myth & Saga (Norse Mythology/Folklore), Welsh Culture & Folklore, and Charlotte Bronte. I have one class on Monday, one class on Wednesday, four classes on Thursday, and no classes on Tuesday and Friday. I think I have a pretty sweet schedule.
- I took an 'introductory to the Welsh language' class and learned to say important stuff like "Dw i ddim yn hoffi codi yn y bore," which means "I don't like to wake up in the morning", and how to pronounce Welsh words really terribly. My favorite letters of the welsh alphabet are ch, ng, and ll. Here's a video of a guy saying all of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhN9QxQFlXI. It's pretty long, so you should fast forward to some of the good letters if you get bored.
- I went on a tour of Cardiff Castle. I saw a lot of gold stuff.
- I walked around Cardiff Centre and the Bay area for a long time. My ankle also rubbed up against the back of my shoe all day while I was walking, so when i got back to my room, it was all bloody. It was pretty painful.
- I gave myself a huge paper cut on my thumb.
- I got my bank account frozen because I forgot to tell them I was going abroad.
- I went to a pub and didn't drink anything.
- I talked to my family and my roommates on Skype.
- A dead rat. The next day it was gone, which I think is important because it means that dead animals can't just hang around wherever they want.
- A gigantic library. It's huge.
- A really wet pigeon.
- A free museum. Inside there was a cool exhibit called "The Evolution of Wales", which should really have been called "How the Earth was Formed". I watched a little video about the Big Bang and thought of something funny to say, but didn't say it because I wasn't sure if the people around me would appreciate it (it was, "This is original footage", pertaining to the part where they showed the Big Bang happening... I'm kind of glad I didn't say it). I also watched one on volcanoes, and the seat in that room was a big plastic volcano you could sit on. We only had time for that one exhibit, but there are lots of other ones, like one dedicated to Lauren Child, the children's book author.
- A lot of bilingual signs. Welsh is a bilingual country, so all of the signs and automated voices (like when they tell you which till is open or the museum videos) are in both English and Welsh.
- A double-decker bus.
- A place that was both a restaraunt and a clothing store.
- The ocean.
- A memorial dedicated to a fictional character who was killed off on the television show Torchwood (which I personally have never seen, but it is filmed in Cardiff, and one of the girls on the trip really likes it).
- A big round metal thing that I could walk in. It made me feel nervous because it looked like the sort of thing you could get abducted by aliens out of.
- A lot of tall tower things that light up in honor of Roald Dahl. He's from Cardiff.
- When my bathroom gets all foggy from the shower, I can write messages on the shower glass with my nose.
- My room is always freezing.
- My coat pocket has a hole in the lining that my room key likes to fall into.
- I woke up in my room and walked into the bathroom, and I had bright blue hair.
- I decided to surprise my roommates and go visit Gordon for a weekend, but when I got to the room, it was empty except for a girl named Penelope who told me they had been abducted by aliens. (This was actually before I even saw the large metal round thing.)
- In Cardiff, a lot of people say the word "Cheers!" when they are leaving places, like the bus, for instance. This confuses me. If cheers is a verb, it is the third person singular, which makes no sense in the context. If it is a noun, then it is just the plural of one cheer, like, "Hip, Hip, Hooray!" Are they bestowing multiple "Hip, Hip, Hooray!"s on the bus drivers and other people? (Of course, not many words make much sense, but I thought about this particular word while I was here, so it clearly belongs in my blog.)
- Colleges/Universities should have a house-wifery major. Students could take basic medical courses, an introductory accounting course, culinary classes, human/adolescent development classes, etc. It would be an eclectic major, but I think it would be really fun for some people. It could even be a house-wifery/husbandry major, but wifery sounds better.
- Q-tips are cool.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Days 0-2 (Mass Post Because I Didn't Have Internet For Forever)
Day 0-1
Traveling:
The first two lessons I learned so far took place while I was sitting in the airport—before I even got to Wales or the UK at all.
Lesson One:
I noticed a cute little boy wearing this shirt that said “Prince Charming” with a picture of a frog wearing a crown. I thought, how cute. He stuck his finger up his nose. Lesson learned: THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS AS THEY SEEM.
Lesson Two/Three:
Apparently my plane was too full or something (even though there was an open seat in front of me), so the lady up at the desk made an announcement: they needed two volunteers to wait for a flight tomorrow morning or evening. These two people would be given $800 for hotel, food, etc. to stay in Boston for the night. That is a lot of money. I figure even if you got a hotel that rented rooms for $300 a night, which would be an AMAZING room, you’d have $500 for dinner and breakfast. And even if you spent $100 on each meal (nice meals!), you’d have $300 left over for entertainment. Anyway, one guy nearly pushed over a person trying to get up to the counter. Lessons Learned: IF YOU HOLD THE POWER, PEOPLE WILL GIVE YOU A LOT MORE THAN YOU DESERVE TO GET WHAT THEY WANT. / SOME PEOPLE AREN’T AS EAGER TO GET HOME AS MOVIES THAT TAKE PLACE IN AIRPORTS MAKE THEM SEEM.
The plane ride was fine I guess. I had been spoiled on Delta airlines where you get your very own t.v. screen and you can pick to watch whatever you want. On American Airlines, they show one movie, which obviously has to be kid-appropriate. Our movie was “Shorts” which might have been nice, had I not been asleep for the beginning and then messed up the radio channel and watched about five minutes in Spanish. I gave up after watching a couple minutes in English and being just as lost as when I watched it in Spanish.
I also met a girl named Lana on the plane. She was headed to England to study abroad as well, and we decided to find our way to Paddington station together because we both had no idea where we were going. The plane landed, we got off, I paid more money than expected to get to Paddington Station because I took the fast train instead of the slow one, and then I was finally at Paddington Station. I bought my ticket, hurried to the train, accidentally put my two 50lbs bags in first class, realized where I was, left them there, and asked someone if I could leave them there. He said no, which was expected, and I went back to get them. Unfortunately by this time the train was moving so I couldn’t go outside to get down to economy. Instead I had to push one bag and pull the other down the narrow aisles of three or four cars until I got to the first economy car. I then struggled to get the bags up onto the top luggage shelf until a nice guy waiting for the bathroom finally helped me.
By this time I was feeling awful, presumably from carting around 100lbs, being exhausted, and not eating. I fell asleep. I woke up as we were pulling into Cardiff Central, which was good because I definitely would have missed it had I not woken up. As I was dragging my heavy suitcases off the shelf, people starting boarding. Two nice little old ladies shouted “Someone’s still getting off!” and herded people away. They then tried to help me with my suitcases, but they were a little too heavy for them. One remarked, “As long as you’re not trying to get a body off the train.” The other said, “Can’t say it didn’t cross my mind.” I was only mildly offended.
While trying to get into what looked like an American-style taxi in black and being ignored by the driver, a man popped out of a weird looking car and asked if I needed a taxi. As he drove me to my dorms, gave me a nice little tour of what we were driving past, suggested places I could go, and called me “love” a lot.
Going through getting my key and stuff was pretty boring, so I’ll jump ahead to my room.
The room:
The room is nice. Different though. I thought there would be a couple of flats on each floor, but it turns out each floor is one flat. There is a kitchen and a dining room across from the elevator door and if you go out of the middle section, there is a C-shaped hallway with doors to all of the individual rooms. There are five other girls (that I know of) in my flat. I met four, but the fifth was out. They are all friends, and none of them knew I was coming.
The room itself consists of a desk with three large drawers for clothes, a closet, a shelf bolted into the wall, a nightstand, a big mirror and a bulletin board stuck to the wall, and a bed. The walls are light green, the carpet is dark green, and the doors are like a green-teal color.
I currently don’t have a clock because the man at RadioShack sold me the wrong kind of adapter/ converter thing.
The bathroom:
There was no toilet paper when I got there (or any place to hang toilet paper… is toilet paper not a standard here?). Also, the toilet is nearly impossible to flush. The shower, on the other hand, while small, is actually really nice. I like my shower.
After unpacking all of my stuff, showering, and taking a two-hour nap, I headed down to the “grocery” store five minutes away from my building (which by the way is in the middle of a huge residential district and “nowhere blinking near the rest of the uni” as my kind taxi driver said). The grocery store is tiny and a bit more like a CVS, except with less things like shampoo and medicine, and more random food things like “steak and cheese” potato chips, weird assorted spreads (but no bread), and cans of sardines. I got toilet paper (to remedy the toilet paper issue), sticky tac (because I forgot the pack I bought at home in my living room), a box of tissues, and an apple.
Needless to say, I was pretty excited about my trip to the store. I had gotten there and back all by myself, given the guy the right change, and procured toilet paper. Success!
For dinner I had an apple and four girl scout thin mint cookies. While trying to get my internet to work, I met two of my flatmates. (The other two, minus the one who is a med student, came by later.) I put up all of my pictures, watched an episode of Psych, and went to bed at 9pm or 21:00 (they use military time here, and so I am constantly having to convert stuff… I bet everyone can tell I’m not from here when they see me squinting at the bus schedules and counting on my fingers).
At 11:00, or 23:00, I woke up. Then I fell back asleep until 3:30, at which point I watched another episode of Psych, an episode of Everybody Hates Chris, and an episode of Glee (the latter two mysteriously appeared in my iTunes. It was very exciting). Finally, I fell asleep, only to wake up at 11:30am, which was a total of 3 and a half hours after I had been hoping to wake up.
__________________
Day 2
Today only one person made fun of my accent. He did a really terrible job mocking me, so I feel worse for him than I do for myself.
As I said, I woke up late. I had been planning on getting up early and going into Cardiff Centre to get a phone and use the internet at a Starbucks I had seen on my way to the Hall the day before. Unfortunately, I also had been planning to meet up with some other students at some mysterious address at noon (this was coordinated by the study abroad coordinator and, luckily, was optional). The group I was supposed to meet was also planning on coming to my building later, so I used the pay phone to call the woman (called twice, actually, because I didn’t put in enough money…).
At one, I met up with the group: three students from the States, this nice woman from the study abroad office, and our driver/guide, who might be staff or could be a student (also, I am pretty sure I pronounced his name wrong several times). We drove to this gigantic store called Tescos, and I bought important things, like an adapter for my clock, a light for next to my bed, food, and other things. It was very exciting, especially because everything was pretty cheap.
After that, I ate lunch and put away all of my stuff. Then I decided to try again to get to the Centre. I got there (with only a little trouble—the fare collector machine said exact change, which I didn’t have, so I kept asking the man what to do, and he kept saying something about change, which eventually turned out to be, “it’s fine, but I can’t give you change”). I found the Starbucks, bought a drink and a sandwich for later, and sat down. The internet cost me £5.99, but it was worth it. I talked to my dad, figured out how to put international minutes on my phone, and located a church I can go to on Sunday (if I can find my way there). After that, I went into a random store and asked for a “top up” card (which is Welsh for a “put more minutes on my phone” card). He told me something about having one and filling it up at the ‘till’. I pulled out what I thought was the card (it was) and then asked him again where I could fill it up. He said, “At any till”. I said, “Like that one?” and pointed to the cashier (because I had no idea what a till was). He looked at me like I was a little strange, and said, “Sure, or over there” and pointed to another corner of the store. Turns out that a till IS a cashier, but the ones I had pointed to were self-service. I chose the ones with people.
I then could not find a bus stop that ran along the route back to my building, so I creepily waited in front of a hotel for a taxi. When I got back, I ate my sandwich and called my parents.
Successes:
- Buying stuff I can eat besides an apple.
- Getting to Cardiff Centre on the bus all by myself.
- Getting on the internet and contacting my family to assure them I was still alive.
- Using my phone to call home.
- Waking up late: This one needs a little explanation. My devotional last night was about not counting failures as failures because God can work through anything. When I woke up late and couldn’t get a phone this morning, I was pretty upset. HOWEVER, I ended up getting one at Tescos for really cheap, and if I had gone to the Centre, I probably would have paid way more for it at an actual phone store.
- Hooking up my clock so I can wake up on time.
- Locating the pound sign (£) on my computer.
Traveling:
The first two lessons I learned so far took place while I was sitting in the airport—before I even got to Wales or the UK at all.
Lesson One:
I noticed a cute little boy wearing this shirt that said “Prince Charming” with a picture of a frog wearing a crown. I thought, how cute. He stuck his finger up his nose. Lesson learned: THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS AS THEY SEEM.
Lesson Two/Three:
Apparently my plane was too full or something (even though there was an open seat in front of me), so the lady up at the desk made an announcement: they needed two volunteers to wait for a flight tomorrow morning or evening. These two people would be given $800 for hotel, food, etc. to stay in Boston for the night. That is a lot of money. I figure even if you got a hotel that rented rooms for $300 a night, which would be an AMAZING room, you’d have $500 for dinner and breakfast. And even if you spent $100 on each meal (nice meals!), you’d have $300 left over for entertainment. Anyway, one guy nearly pushed over a person trying to get up to the counter. Lessons Learned: IF YOU HOLD THE POWER, PEOPLE WILL GIVE YOU A LOT MORE THAN YOU DESERVE TO GET WHAT THEY WANT. / SOME PEOPLE AREN’T AS EAGER TO GET HOME AS MOVIES THAT TAKE PLACE IN AIRPORTS MAKE THEM SEEM.
The plane ride was fine I guess. I had been spoiled on Delta airlines where you get your very own t.v. screen and you can pick to watch whatever you want. On American Airlines, they show one movie, which obviously has to be kid-appropriate. Our movie was “Shorts” which might have been nice, had I not been asleep for the beginning and then messed up the radio channel and watched about five minutes in Spanish. I gave up after watching a couple minutes in English and being just as lost as when I watched it in Spanish.
I also met a girl named Lana on the plane. She was headed to England to study abroad as well, and we decided to find our way to Paddington station together because we both had no idea where we were going. The plane landed, we got off, I paid more money than expected to get to Paddington Station because I took the fast train instead of the slow one, and then I was finally at Paddington Station. I bought my ticket, hurried to the train, accidentally put my two 50lbs bags in first class, realized where I was, left them there, and asked someone if I could leave them there. He said no, which was expected, and I went back to get them. Unfortunately by this time the train was moving so I couldn’t go outside to get down to economy. Instead I had to push one bag and pull the other down the narrow aisles of three or four cars until I got to the first economy car. I then struggled to get the bags up onto the top luggage shelf until a nice guy waiting for the bathroom finally helped me.
By this time I was feeling awful, presumably from carting around 100lbs, being exhausted, and not eating. I fell asleep. I woke up as we were pulling into Cardiff Central, which was good because I definitely would have missed it had I not woken up. As I was dragging my heavy suitcases off the shelf, people starting boarding. Two nice little old ladies shouted “Someone’s still getting off!” and herded people away. They then tried to help me with my suitcases, but they were a little too heavy for them. One remarked, “As long as you’re not trying to get a body off the train.” The other said, “Can’t say it didn’t cross my mind.” I was only mildly offended.
While trying to get into what looked like an American-style taxi in black and being ignored by the driver, a man popped out of a weird looking car and asked if I needed a taxi. As he drove me to my dorms, gave me a nice little tour of what we were driving past, suggested places I could go, and called me “love” a lot.
Going through getting my key and stuff was pretty boring, so I’ll jump ahead to my room.
The room:
The room is nice. Different though. I thought there would be a couple of flats on each floor, but it turns out each floor is one flat. There is a kitchen and a dining room across from the elevator door and if you go out of the middle section, there is a C-shaped hallway with doors to all of the individual rooms. There are five other girls (that I know of) in my flat. I met four, but the fifth was out. They are all friends, and none of them knew I was coming.
The room itself consists of a desk with three large drawers for clothes, a closet, a shelf bolted into the wall, a nightstand, a big mirror and a bulletin board stuck to the wall, and a bed. The walls are light green, the carpet is dark green, and the doors are like a green-teal color.
I currently don’t have a clock because the man at RadioShack sold me the wrong kind of adapter/ converter thing.
The bathroom:
There was no toilet paper when I got there (or any place to hang toilet paper… is toilet paper not a standard here?). Also, the toilet is nearly impossible to flush. The shower, on the other hand, while small, is actually really nice. I like my shower.
After unpacking all of my stuff, showering, and taking a two-hour nap, I headed down to the “grocery” store five minutes away from my building (which by the way is in the middle of a huge residential district and “nowhere blinking near the rest of the uni” as my kind taxi driver said). The grocery store is tiny and a bit more like a CVS, except with less things like shampoo and medicine, and more random food things like “steak and cheese” potato chips, weird assorted spreads (but no bread), and cans of sardines. I got toilet paper (to remedy the toilet paper issue), sticky tac (because I forgot the pack I bought at home in my living room), a box of tissues, and an apple.
Needless to say, I was pretty excited about my trip to the store. I had gotten there and back all by myself, given the guy the right change, and procured toilet paper. Success!
For dinner I had an apple and four girl scout thin mint cookies. While trying to get my internet to work, I met two of my flatmates. (The other two, minus the one who is a med student, came by later.) I put up all of my pictures, watched an episode of Psych, and went to bed at 9pm or 21:00 (they use military time here, and so I am constantly having to convert stuff… I bet everyone can tell I’m not from here when they see me squinting at the bus schedules and counting on my fingers).
At 11:00, or 23:00, I woke up. Then I fell back asleep until 3:30, at which point I watched another episode of Psych, an episode of Everybody Hates Chris, and an episode of Glee (the latter two mysteriously appeared in my iTunes. It was very exciting). Finally, I fell asleep, only to wake up at 11:30am, which was a total of 3 and a half hours after I had been hoping to wake up.
__________________
Day 2
Today only one person made fun of my accent. He did a really terrible job mocking me, so I feel worse for him than I do for myself.
As I said, I woke up late. I had been planning on getting up early and going into Cardiff Centre to get a phone and use the internet at a Starbucks I had seen on my way to the Hall the day before. Unfortunately, I also had been planning to meet up with some other students at some mysterious address at noon (this was coordinated by the study abroad coordinator and, luckily, was optional). The group I was supposed to meet was also planning on coming to my building later, so I used the pay phone to call the woman (called twice, actually, because I didn’t put in enough money…).
At one, I met up with the group: three students from the States, this nice woman from the study abroad office, and our driver/guide, who might be staff or could be a student (also, I am pretty sure I pronounced his name wrong several times). We drove to this gigantic store called Tescos, and I bought important things, like an adapter for my clock, a light for next to my bed, food, and other things. It was very exciting, especially because everything was pretty cheap.
After that, I ate lunch and put away all of my stuff. Then I decided to try again to get to the Centre. I got there (with only a little trouble—the fare collector machine said exact change, which I didn’t have, so I kept asking the man what to do, and he kept saying something about change, which eventually turned out to be, “it’s fine, but I can’t give you change”). I found the Starbucks, bought a drink and a sandwich for later, and sat down. The internet cost me £5.99, but it was worth it. I talked to my dad, figured out how to put international minutes on my phone, and located a church I can go to on Sunday (if I can find my way there). After that, I went into a random store and asked for a “top up” card (which is Welsh for a “put more minutes on my phone” card). He told me something about having one and filling it up at the ‘till’. I pulled out what I thought was the card (it was) and then asked him again where I could fill it up. He said, “At any till”. I said, “Like that one?” and pointed to the cashier (because I had no idea what a till was). He looked at me like I was a little strange, and said, “Sure, or over there” and pointed to another corner of the store. Turns out that a till IS a cashier, but the ones I had pointed to were self-service. I chose the ones with people.
I then could not find a bus stop that ran along the route back to my building, so I creepily waited in front of a hotel for a taxi. When I got back, I ate my sandwich and called my parents.
Successes:
- Buying stuff I can eat besides an apple.
- Getting to Cardiff Centre on the bus all by myself.
- Getting on the internet and contacting my family to assure them I was still alive.
- Using my phone to call home.
- Waking up late: This one needs a little explanation. My devotional last night was about not counting failures as failures because God can work through anything. When I woke up late and couldn’t get a phone this morning, I was pretty upset. HOWEVER, I ended up getting one at Tescos for really cheap, and if I had gone to the Centre, I probably would have paid way more for it at an actual phone store.
- Hooking up my clock so I can wake up on time.
- Locating the pound sign (£) on my computer.
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