college experiences

Monday was the first day of classes for most of us, although my first class didn't start until 12, so Molly, Sarah and I decided to make breakfast together to celebrate our first day of classes. We decided to walk to class early so we could find our room, and after walking up and down the stairs about 3 times, we finally found our lecture room, with a few minutes to spare. When it was about 12, we found that didn't actually have class today. At least we found the room for next time.

I experienced doing my first real load of laundry on Monday, sharing a washer with Molly, to save as much money as we could. Molly and I had the WORST time with the washer...apparently the pressure wasn't high enough to wash properly, so what should have been a 45 minute cycle, turned into a little more than an hour cycle. It was frustrating at first, but now we know a little more about laundry on campus and what to do/avoid next time.

It was brutally cold that day, and not the kind of cold that freezes, but the bone chilling cold that makes your whole body shake. The weather is so much different than back at home during this time of year. By later that night, it almost felt warmer...its weird how the temperatures alternate like that.

Dinner was a blast last night, we made baked potatoes with our choice of topping while listening to Britney Spears in the kitchen. We hurried off to our first class with Tecwyn at 6:30pm, and learned that most night classes have 10 minute breaks and the professor usually provides biscuits (aka cookies) for the students. I can deal with that;)

We spend the rest of the night on Megan's flat talking, eating concoctions of frosted flakes and nutella, and playing dirty minds with her flat mates.

Snowdonia Fieldtrip

Today I woke up to a somewhat rainy and foggy day, but there was no way I was going to let it ruin the field trip today! We headed off toward Llyn Ogwen in Snowdonia where we got to walk the paths of the Snowdonia mountain to the Idwal lake, a beautiful clear lake surrounded by mountains. As we walked back down the mountains, we could see the fog taking over the peaks of the mountains slowly until we couldn't see them anymore. We then drove to the Ugly House (Ty Hyll), which is said to have been built by 2 brothers within 24 hours, and by dawn of their 24 hour construction, they had smoke coming out of the chimney. The house was small, but it's amazing to think that it was built in just one day and was very much functional! Our next stop was at Swallow Falls, right off the main street, Holyhead Road, near Betws-y-Coed. The falls were magnificent, with two separate falls, having large boulders making it look jagged. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Betws-y-Coed along the way where Molly and I got the most delicious ice cream dessert! It was called the Belgium waffle sunday...enough said. We then stopped at the Dolwyddelan Castle which we actually trespassed into=/ but Tecwyn was the leader of the pack so we didn't get into too much trouble. As we walked up the steep hill to get to the castle, the clouds slowly passed letting in the sunlight and an even more beautiful rainbow. The view was amazing from the top of the castle, being able to see for miles the hills and pastures. Our last stop was in Llandudno, popular for its shopping centre and Victorian themes town, having the longest pier in the United Kingdom overlooking the waters and large windmills sitting out in the middle of the water.

When we got back to campus, the girls and I got ready to go to a church we heard about that had a 6pm service and a free dinner afterwards! It was called Penrallt Baptist Church. The minister was so friendly and it really was a great service. We had to laugh during service though when the minister was talking about the struggles of first learning to drive and when you accidentally grind the gears...most cars are manual while all of us drive automatic, so we had never had this problem. The people were all so open to visitors and surprised by how many Americans had attended the service that night. We talked to one of the singers in the band and he was telling us that only about 1 in 100 people go to church in Wales. I found that very surprising because of all the beautiful churches and cathedrals they have around campus and the town.

After getting back to our rooms, and I was ready for bed, Liz invited me to watch some episodes of "Glee" with her and the other flat mates. We ended up watching episodes for 3 hours, and before I knew it, it was midnight! It was a pretty eventful day and I had so much fun! But now classes start tomorrow, so I have to prepare myself for actual work ahead of me.

Bodelwyddan/Holywell/Chester

I woke up early this morning with the little sleep I got last night to get ready for our field trip to Bodelwyddan, Holywell, and Chester with Tecwyn and the group today. We drove about an hour to get to Bodelwyddan, where we got to see The Marble Church built in 1860 by Lady Willoughby de Broke in memory of her husband who passed away. The Church is known as the wedding cake church because it resembles the ideal church that would be put on top of a cake. I have never seen so much detail and carvings in a church than i did in this church. Every pillar was marble with carved stone varying in flowers or plants, it was beautiful.

Our next stop was in Holywell (Treffynnon), where a Monastery is built in memory of the St. Winifrid and a spring is running from the inside of the Monastery to the outside for residents and visitors to take a dip in during the spring and summer due to its legend to heal. Back when medical options were limited people with disabilities, such as limb injuries, etc. would take a dip in the well and come out healed. Those healed would leave their crutches behind as proof of their miracle.

We then made our way to Chester, a large town in England, where we got to explore inside the Chester Cathedral, named after a brave young boy. The Church was very large and had four different sections of the church making up a cross shape from above. The details of the interior and exterior were fascinating! From beautiful painted ceilings, to an organ the size of a 2-story building. After visiting the Cathedral we were able to walk around the town and stop at the various shops. The town is known for its medieval appearance and popular shopping center. It felt a lot like Chicago, with its busy streets and performers on the side of the streets. We did quite a bit of shopping and stopped at a delicious milkshake shop, where i had the most amazing milkshake with a Carmel galaxy candy bar mixed in it. It was a long day, but very fun.

When we got back we prepared a tortellini pasta and sauce and served a cheap white wine with our meal to end the day. Tomorrow we go to Snowdonia to walk the trails! I cant wait!

1 week anniversary

Thursday was officially our one week anniversary of being in Wales, so Annie, Megan, Sarah, Molly, Ashley, and I decided to celebrate by baking a custard, frozen of course, but never the less AMAZING, to go along with our hamburgers (already cooked, but needed to be heated, but still...we're progressing) and chips (aka fries). It was a delicious meal after a day of doing barely nothing. As we were eating we got on the topic of trips we wanted to make and thought that Paris sounded like a fun place to visit, so...we spent the last 4 hours after dinner figuring out travel plans to fly to Paris the days of Jan. 28 through Jan. 31. Which is next weekend! It still hasn't hit me that we are actually going to be going to Paris next week though...it hasn't even really hit me that we are in Wales!

Because it was a Thursday, Molly and I wanted to watch "The Office", but the only way to watch it was live...in America. So we had Amy set up her skype and we watched The Office on their TV at Central. But since it was live, we had to stay up until 2am Wales time, to watch the program at 8pm in Iowa. Although it was kinda fuzzy and we weren't really paying attention because of the excitement, it only mattered that we got to "watch" the Office with our teammates=)

Friday was a busy day. We got up early to walk to the train station in order to buy our train tickets to Liverpool, where we will fly out to Paris next week. Because we were so much closer to Tesco, the Walmart of Wales, we decided to make a trip there, which ended up being a 45 minute walk both there and back, to pick up some Outdoor Pursuits supplies. While we were out there we stopped at the only McDonald's in town and got a snack. It was a pretty stylish McDonald's really, much more higher class looking than ours at home. While we were walking back we got 4 honks from cars passing by...we didn't know whether we were doing something wrong, or if it was because 6 American girls were strutting their stuff on the sidewalk, haha.

When we finally got back it had been 5 hours and we were planning on going out to Octagon, the popular club inn town, with Megan's flat mates. But before I could get ready for that, Elliot and I went on a short run around town, crossing the bridge to Anglesey just as the lights were coming on. It was so pretty seeing the reflection of the bridge and city lights against the water.

Before we left for the night we attended the International Get Together in Bar Uno for some free food and socializing. Then we made our way back to meet up with Megan's flat mates and walked to Octagon. The guys on her flat call me Taylor Swift occasionally, which made me laugh and think of my cross country team at home=) We danced at Octagon from 11-3am, but it was sooo much fun, and the time flew by. All kinds of remix dance songs were played, and we were all just singing them out loud with all the others. I had the best time! It really was a great day slash night=)

what is meatloaf?

The last 2 days have been the most stressful days yet since I've been here. Figuring out our classes and fitting them into our schedule on a system unlike ours at home couldn't get any harder. Their system of classes is based on what school they are enrolled in, depending on what they are studying, unlike our liberal arts program where we take a variety of classes outside of our major in order to graduate. They also only go to the University for 3 years, and before they are at a University they are in College for 4 years, taking classes much similar to ours, where they take a variety of class subjects. But I finally figured out my schedule and I'm taking a Exploring the New Testament, for my religion credit, and The History of Art Renaissance, for my history credit, while taking a welsh history class with Tecwyn, which all the Americans take, and of course, my Outdoor Pursuits class! My schedule shouldn't be too difficult, especially since most of the classes don't have course work, just 2 essays, one at midterms and one for the final. Its quite a bit different than ours back home, and it relies on a lot of outside of class reading.

Outside of figuring out our classes on Wednesday, we made our way to the Morrison's for dinner and bought supplies to make tacos, around 4pm because we hadn't had time to eat lunch due to all the meetings and walking around for classes and such. We ended up eating about 4:30 and watched "Shes the Man" in Megan's room all scrunched on the bed. It was the perfect end to our busy day. When i got back to my room, Nikki and Liz were watching YouTube videos and we ended up doing that for a good 2 hours, they were showing me all the contestants on the "X factor" and British Idol", two of the popular shows here.

Thursday started early for all of us, we were out the door by 10am and didn't get back until 4 in the afternoon, from walking to all the buildings to get our classes registered. We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch called "Mikes Bites" that is known for its breakfast, and it really was amazing! For their breakfast, they put together beans, toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, and hash browns...it was heavenly. And apparently beans are put with most dishes, even breakfast! While we were sitting in the lounge beneath the restaurant we met a friendly lawyer to be, Dan, that was doing some last minute "revising", aka studying, for his exam. We talked to him about all kinds of stuff, from typical Welsh foods to weird American dishes. When we finally got back to the dorms, we decided a movie sounded like a good idea , so we watched "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "Stepbrothers" with a quick dinner in between. We ended up chatting with some of Megan's flat mates for a couple hours, and thought it was funny when they didn't know what meatloaf was or cool whip...but had different names for each. It was a late night and a busy day but I had so much fun spending time with the girls and meeting the locals, like Dan, at Mike's Bites.

Today is pretty much a free day, although we have our first Outdoor Pursuits meeting at 4pm, so most of us slept in, of course, today the cleaning ladies came early to clean our kitchen, so I didn't get much sleep. I was brutally awaken when there was a loud knock on my door asking who knows what, so i simply answered the door and said no I'm good, and hoped that's what she was referring to=/

Its surprising to hear how many people say "cheers" when referring to "thank you" and their form of "whats up?" is "You OK?"...I never know how to respond, and I always wonder if I look like I'm sick to them when they ask, so I tell them, "yes, I'm fine". We share our stories with Tecwyn and he just laughs, and we laugh too. I'm loving Wales=)

Caernarfon/Cricieth/Llechwedd

Today was a pretty eventful day slash amazing views! Our first stop was in Snowdonia, North-West Wales to the Caernarfon Castle, where the first Prince of Wales, now Prince Charles, was inducted. It was beautiful! We were able to go to the top of Eagle Tower which is the highest point of the tower and had an amazing view of the Snowdonia mountains and the harbor.

We then headed to Cricieth, where there is another castle, but it is more known for its amazing harbor views. Although it was foggy, the visibility was still pretty extraordinary. But on a clear day you can see the whole layout of the water up until the other mass of land of Wales. We got some world famous ice cream at Cadwalader's Ice cream in Cricieth. I got a 4 berry forest blend in a teddy bear cone, it was amazing! We then stopped to eat, finding a ledge to eat our sandwiches in the town where we found a one footed seagull. We felt bad for the bird so we fed it our crust, but that only caused disaster, when all the other birds wanted bread too. We escaped that situation immediately!

We continued on to Llechwedd, the largest Slate producing town, where there were mountains of remaining slate throughout the town. Slate is the most popular resource in Wales, much like we have coal in the United States. We got to travel down over 1,000 ft underground in a tram to see the slate mines, it was very interesting, and quite chilly. Its crazy to think that men use to do that everyday!

On our way back we took a scenic route back to the university, where the roads were very narrow for our charter bus. We stopped at a site parking area where we got to view more of Snowdonia and its mountains, the colors were fantastic! It was like nothing I've ever seen before. As we made our last couple miles back into town it got very foggy, up to the point of barely being able to see in front of the bus, but it quickly passed as we headed north. Its crazy how much the weather and temperature can change in each town in Wales.

Today's fieldtrip was amazing and only the beginning of our adventures. We were able to interact with some of the locals at the towns we visited and experience the "usual" views they get to see everyday=)

I also went on my first run tonight with my flat mate Liz around upper town. We only ran for 20 minutes, but it felt good to finally get out there and run.

"Are you Americans?"

Today was a pretty relaxing day, we all got up around noon and saw that it was BEAUTIFUL outside, so we decided to go for a stroll downtown to take pictures and get more familiar with the city. It was pretty warm outside, about 50 degrees F or so, which is crazy to think that its still January and we don't have to wear our winter coats! We got hungry and stopped at a Subway, but when i asked if they had Parmesan cheese, the woman looked at me and said, "whats Parmesan cheese?" I was slightly embarrassed=/ Soon enough, we got a little cold, so hot chocolate sounded good. We stopped at a cafe called Costa Cafe and got some hot chocolate, which tasted a lot like it was made with dark chocolate. It was very good.

After many pictures and miles walked, we headed back toward campus making our way through Love Lane, a path leading to the Main Arts Building. As we were making our way back we ran into an English man with a young German Shepherd dog and we talked to the man about the typed of hunting dogs in the United States. Everyone is very friendly here and seems to like Americans and are very interested in our culture.

Eventually when we got back we made dinner, which was just some pasta and sauce, and headed back out to Patricks Pub to watch the Cowboy vs. Viking game on their TVs. Supposedly there is karaoke on Sunday nights at the bar, but we didn't stay long enough to find out...maybe next week;)

Noswaith dda

Some things ive been noticing about Wales that are different from the United States, specifically Iowa are the clothes especially! Everyone wears tights with a regular size t-shirt and boots of some sort. Even the little girls look cute. The Welsh language is found everywhere we go, anywhere there are english words, the welsh translation is directly below it or near by. Ive even learned a few welsh words, and some english words that are translated into dirty british words=/

This morning I met a neighbor across the window from me, we waved and that was all. Not long after I looked over to see that he was completely naked! I guess I wasnt expecting that, haha, so I left my room quickly before I saw anything more than I wanted.

My flat mates and a few of us Americans are going out tonight to a club called Octagon, so were are getting ready for that, im quite excited actually! Its werid that we can be served alcohol here and buy it. But they really seem to respect their right to drink here.

Oh almost forgot! The warden lives on my flat, which is like the RA. So I have to make sure i behave;) no, but shes really nice so im sure itll be fine.

We go on our first field trip on Monday to the Caernarfon Castle, Cricieth and the Llechwedd Slate Mines, so that should be fun=)

first look at Wales

We got to the Chicago, O'Hare airport to depart to Manchester but the flight was delayed 2 hours because of maintenance, so we didn't arrive until 9am in England. From there we had to collect our bags and head out to find Tecwyn, who was picking us up in a bus...after about 20 minutes of walking and searching we finally found him and loaded on the bus. It was different to get on the opposite side of the bus and to drive on the left side of the road! We saw many sheep pastures and there was even snow covering the ground, which is very unusual for England, making travel very difficult for drivers. In fact, our bus had a pipe leak, because the pipes froze from the cold, which normally those kind of temperatures would not have affected our forms of transportation. It was pretty cloudy in England but as we got closer to Wales, it became much clearer and sunnier. As soon as we reached Wales, all the road signs were written in Welsh, with the English translation above/below. Castles became more abundant and within an hour we could see the Atlantic Ocean, or Irish Sea or Liverpool Bay. The houses all seemed to look similar throughout our bus ride, resembling Ireland homes or those of England. As we approached Bangor, we passed the Snowdonia Mountains, where there was still snow resting atop the peaks. The snow became less visible and quickly disappeared as we got into Bangor and drove up the steep hill to the University and the dorms where we were staying.

When we got our keys we were able to take our luggage to our rooms, where mine happened to be on the top floor (3rd floor) of Y Glyder "W"...and there were no elevators to carry our luggage, needless to say it took a lot of time and work. As I looked out my window I saw to my right the mountain peaks of Snowdonia! It is one of the most beautiful things I have seen her yet. I quickly got to know my flat mates and became pretty close with 2 girls, Nikki and Liz. I also happened to "accidentally" meet Pete, James, and Anna when I went on a hunt looking for my box of materials from the previous study abroaders. Everyone is so nice and helpful here, and always smiling at us...it could be that we look funny or that they think our accents are funny;) I do love their accents! and sometimes I catch myself using their accents...and its only the first day! can you imagine what I will be like in 6 months?!

I also made my first purchase today with the Welsh pound, buying toilet paper for our dorm room bathrooms. We went to the PoundStretcher, which had 3 floors! One of the biggest "dollar stores" in Bangor. It sounds like we will be visiting this shop quite a bit!

Well my first day was a success and i managed to stay awake a full 2 days, so now i need to catch up on my sleep. I cant wait to see the sun rise in the morning, it will be beautiful=)

1 more day

So ive been packing for the last 2 hours and it seems like im getting no where! i already have 4 bags, which seems like a lot, but ive got it under control. My flight takes off tomorrow at 5:30pm at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago, but were going to have to get there pretty early to get through security and such. I arrive in Wales, Bangor around 7:05 am January 14th and my adventure begins=) I cant wait! But im really going to miss Iowa and the people here=(