All across Ireland

I returned home to Swansea from London Sunday evening, after bidding Briana a temporary goodbye (I will see her in Prague in less than a month). Class all day Monday, once again. Monday is the only day of school I refuse to miss. Any other day, if I have the opportunity, I am going somewhere! Thus Tuesday morning I left early for Ireland. Turns out it took me till Tuesday night to actually get there (I probably could have swam to Ireland faster than it took for me to make it there. I lie, but I bet Michael Phelps could have beaten my plane easily). When I arrived at the Bristol airport, a massive cloud of fog covered the runway, preventing the plane I needed to catch from landing. After hovering overhead for awhile, the plane was redirected to Cardiff Airport (only 1 hr from my house instead of 3, plus 4 hrs of waiting!) and I hopped on a bus to Cardiff.

Finally arrived in Cork at around 9 o’clock and met up with Elizabeth Scholz, another friend from childhood (this time from Sardis Pres) studying in Ireland and stayed with her the first night. The day after I arrived was her 21st birthday and so I took her out to breakfast and we wandered around Cork for awhile in the morning. Went to their farmers market, called The English Market. Lovely place.  And Cork is a very pretty city, similar feel to England but a bit larger and more spread-out.

Then I hopped on a bus to the countryside town of Bantry, where one of my housemate’s family lives. Liam’s family has a farm in rural Ireland and were gracious enough to let me stay with them for a day. I enjoyed it so much, seeing how families live is my favorite part of going to new places. Liam’s little sister Amanda stayed home sick from school that morning, but was miraculously better at lunchtime when I arrived. I played with her all day and then Debbie, Liam’s mom, took me to see some pretty countryside and mountains after dinner and the next morning. After picking Amanda up from school the next day, Debbie drove me back to Cork where I saw Elizabeth again for awhile and then caught a bus to Limerick, 2 hrs away.

Another one of my good friends from high school, Emily Gunn, is studying at Limerick University this semester. I spent Thursday night through Sunday afternoon with her. Emily had two other friends who are studying in England come for the weekend as well. On Friday we shopped around Limerick for a bit, in preparation for our Saturday day trip to Dublin! Saturday morning we woke up super early in order to catch the first bus to Dublin. Arrived and ate breakfast, wandered around for a bit, saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and grabbed front-row spots for watching the parade.  One of the most interesting parades I have ever seen. NOT Irish at all. All of the groups (aside from American high school marching bands, one of them being Marvin Ridge HS, loved the NC representation) wore strange artsy, sciency costumes. After the parade the several girls I was with wandered around the city some more. We wound up later in a bar where the Wales-France rugby game was going on. Wales won! And following was the bigger event for all the Irish..Ireland vs England. All of the pubs and bars were jam-packed with people. Too many for my liking. Eventually it was time to grab some dinner and catch our bus back to Limerick. Only one problem..the bus never showed up. It was an awful hour or so in which I was terrified I would not make it back to Limerick that night and possibly miss my train the next day. Thankfully we were able to squeeze onto a different bus that was provided by the university, despite the fact that we didn’t sign up to take it. I sat on the floor for a good portion of the ride since there were not enough seats, but I didn’t care. Definitely way more stressful of a night than I care to relive again so moving on…Sunday morning Emily and I went to the Limerick farmers market for breakfast (notice a pattern here?) and I took a bus to the airport to return to Wales.

Ireland was so gorgeous, and I felt like I really got to see a bunch in 4 full days. Cork, Bantry, Limerick, Dublin. A very fun week!

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London with old friends

At 3 am on Thursday morning Kendall and I took a train from Swansea to London, so that she could return home and I could see some more familiar folks. Rebecca Batchelor, an old friend from high school, was also on spring break and visiting a friend in London. I met up with her early that morning when I arrived and did some sight-seeing with Rebecca and her 2 friends from UNC.   It was so good to see her and catch up on life. I really enjoyed spending my first weekend seeing London with people from home.  Thursday evening Rebecca and her friends dropped me off at my hostel, and I sat down to wait.  A bit later another good friend of mine, Briana Falduti, arrived! Sadly, Briana and Rebecca missed each other by an hour or so because it was late at night and the tube stops running. Briana is studying in Prague this semester and so we made this be our first reunion. I will see Briana again in Prague over spring break!  We did tons of stuff and had a blast. Between days with Rebecca and with Briana I think I saw most of the big touristy things of London: the changing of the guard (accidentally came across this), London Eye (in daytime and at night), British museum, Trafalger Square, Westminster Abbey (from the outside), Camden Markets, Borough market (my favorite place in London thusfar, as it was a farmers market slash local prepared foods haven of deliciousness and tons of choices), lots of wandering around. Went to Hillsong Church Sunday morning. It met in the theater that Wicked performs in. One of the most diverse churches I have ever seen. They were having a praise-and-worship all-music service and it was so great! I have had a hard time finding a church in Swansea, between the lack of religion in the UK and my frequent Sunday travels. I had a great time in London, and am definitely forgetting several of the things I did at this point.

I leave for London again on Saturday to stay a few days at the beginning of my spring break with my housemate Max’s family. It will be cool to experience London with a Londoner.

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Spring Break in the States

#3: VISITORS

Devin, Rachel, Lauren, and I arrived home from Poland at 2 am on Sunday night. Being crazy, I stayed up until 5 am Skyping with people back home and then took a short nap before waking for class at 7:30. I have class from 9 – 4 on Mondays and so I was on campus all day, until going to the bus station in city centre to pick up my guests. Kendall, my sole girl friend in Mechanical Engineering, her friend Annie, and Annie’s friend Hannah, all came to stay with me for a few days on their spring break. I loved showing them around Swansea and the surrounding countryside. We went to two of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen and were blessed with incredibly weather on Tuesday. Tuesday night we enjoyed some of the University entertainment – pub quiz at the student village’s bar. We went because it was supposed to be Disney-themed (what girl wouldn’t be good at Disney trivia?), but something changed last minute and so we were miserable at all of the random questions. It’s still so weird to me that universities here own clubs and bars and put on events at them. There are several bars and clubs within the student union on campus! The next day Annie and Hannah left and so I showed Kendall all around Swansea’s city centre and the cute village of Mumbles. It was so nice to see a familiar face again, and I absolutely LOVED playing tour guide of Swansea and the surrounding area. Thank goodness I have more visitors coming soon, Ashley in April, and the rest in May. I can explore new places with them as well as take them to some of my favorite spots!

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Pressly loves Poland

#2: POLAND

50 hrs after returning from Germany (and one 6-page paper later) I was en route once more to mainland Europe, but this time to Krakow, Poland!!! I made this trip with three of my American friends at Swansea: Devin, Rachel, and Lauren. A month of experiences later, Krakow is still the favorite trip I have been on, and Poland is #2 on my ‘return-to-someday’ list, directly after Wales (my goodness, I love Wales so much, it’s going to be hard to leave). We shall see if this still stands true after spring break and my other travels.

I had my first experience with a hostel, and Devin picked out an amazing one called “Mosquito”, couldn’t have asked for a better stay. In our 3.5 days in Krakow we kept pretty busy: walking tour of the city, farmers market (always my favorite place and I look for one in every town I visit here), walking tour about Schindler’s List, Schindler’s Factory museum (one of the best museums I have ever seen. Holocaust & WWII-related, which have always been of immense interest to me.), Sunday morning flea market where we met a cute old man who had the sweetest personality despite the language barrier and laughed with us and cooked us sausages..they were sooo delicious. More delicious food at a restaurant whose type translates into “milk bar” – cheap Polish cuisine and most popular among university students and the homeless. Pierogies, a typcial Polish dumpling, was a frequent choice throughout our stay. Polish pottery shop – I fell in love here. Honestly I could have bought up the whole store. I will put a picture below of my beautiful jug/vase just so you can see an example of the beautifully painted designs are on the pottery. I was terrified that I couldn’t get back on the plane without checking my bag it was so full with pieces. I somehow managed to squeak by..speaking of airplanes, all these budget airlines are great (EasyJet, RyanAir, AerLingus) because they make traveling so cheap but I seriously feel nervous in those planes sometimes, like they’re going to fall apart in the air. On my flight home from Ireland the plane kept rocking side to side and I thought we were going to go down. I never get nervous on flights, but that one was a bit uncomfortable.  Anyways, back to Poland: the other big thing we did one day was tour Auschwitz, a place I have read about many times but never dreamed I would get to visit. A very somber experience, so sad to see all of the hurt and pain and atrocities the people endured in the camps. The tour was very good and informative though and I recommend the trip to anyone who is interested in that history.

Words cannot express how much I loved this city and its people, history, food, pottery, and everything else it has to offer! So here are some pictures instead of more words.

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The first in my marathon of posts

Here’s the beginning of the many posts you’ve all been waiting for…okay well actually I know my Dad is waiting for it anxiously so I will just assume the rest of you are too!

I have done so much in the past month (hence my excuse for having no posts – I have had ZERO time to write them) and want to knock all the events out asap otherwise never ever finish. Spring break starts next week and events will pile up past recovery. I will keep all of them short and sweet and with lots of pictures!

#1: GERMANY

A month ago I was en route to Martha: early morning taxi, then coach to the airport, and then plane ride to Germany constituted that entire Thursday. After a minor 2-hr mishap in communication between me and Martha, she finally discovered me sitting in the airport in a panic over what to do if she never showed up. I burst into tears of relief upon her arrival and we immediately started fighting. Not much changes despite 6 months of separation between sisters, I guess. Stayed at Martha’s host family’s home in a cute little village for the weekend and had a wonderful time. Her family was so sweet to me and spoke in English most of the time I was there (thank goodness..I only know how to say ‘thank you’ in German). I got to see her village, the town where she goes to school, and the nearest city all in my short visit. Martha loves being there so much, I can tell, and she is going to have a rough readjustment to American culture I think. It’s so crazy to see how 6 months changed her (all the way down to how she holds her silverware differently now). On Sunday I returned to Swansea, another long travel day in which I arrived home at 2 am. I have become quite good at surviving on little sleep. However, I seriously doubt this new skill will transfer back to study time in the library in late hours back at State. I’m still pretty worthless at schoolwork after about 11 pm. It was great to see Martha and her new life, and I hope I can see her again next week when we are both in London!

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The Centre for Alternative Technology

I befriended one of my engineering professors within the first few weeks of school. His class is all about renewable energy technologies (solar, wind, hydro, etc) and I am one of 9 students. And being the only exchange student I stood out like a sore thumb. But that is okay with me, the class is easy and the information is interesting (thankfully I learned everything we have done thus far at State so I don’t have to study at all..we shall see if I speak so highly of this in May when I have an exam to cram for). Anyways, this professor was so kind to take me and one of my roommates, Emily, on a trip last Saturday up to mid-Wales to tour the Centre for Alternative Technology, Wales’ premier place for alternative and renewable energy research and education. We drove through several hours of beautifully scenic Wales, stopping for coffee and scones on the way there and fish and chips on the way back.  A very British day.  CAT was the coolest place – it started as a hippie village-type thing and evolved into an education center for everything from organic gardening to solar PV systems to green architecture and everything in-between.

http://www.cat.org.uk

Okay well I’ll just attach some pictures of this place for my dad and uncle and anyone else who cares to see, and get back to the paper I am procrastinating on writing (seriously this is the second assignment I have had since I got here and my work ethic has disappeared. I am slightly terrified to go back to State in the fall after this luxurious vacation). I am leaving early Thursday morning for London where I am catching a flight to Dusseldorf, Germany where I will finally see my long-lost sister Martha after being apart since August! I am so excited!! And thus will begin the month-long period of time in which Pressly becomes a stranger to Swansea: I am going to Germany, Poland, London, Ireland, and Croatia all within the span of one month. Toss in a few friends visiting the UK for their spring breaks and now you know my life. I think I’ll squeeze in a few days of school here and there, but I’m pretty sure those days will be numbered on one hand. Haha…Okay yes, I just counted: 5 days between now and March 26th. Possibly 6. But no more than that. I have the best schedule imaginable, I get most everything out of the way on Mondays, 5 hrs of classes. And I’m even considered a full-time student, believe it or not.

Alright, this is getting ridiculous, I don’t mean to brag. Please forgive me.

Next post will be all about Martha and her host family!

Slideshow:

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“An Exotic Animal in a Cage”

This title is how my uncle Fred described Stonehenge when I emailed him telling him I went to see the infamous stone circle. And I think the description fits the place perfectly.  Last Saturday I took a day trip to see Stonehenge and Avebury (a similar place near Stonehenge in England with another neolithic henge).  Before this trip, I had no idea what a “henge” was – but I learned that it’s basically a big man-made round earthen circle made out of a big banked hill and a ditch on the inside, with a circular formation of  stones inside of the embankment. The enormous stones at these two sites were cut into defined brick-like shapes and placed in a circular arrangement that align with the sun’s solstices. These henges were likely used as sacred worship sites in some sort of pagan religion. What was the most hard to believe is that these were made 5000ish years ago without any modern tools. I have NO idea how the ancient people had such a feat. Reminds me of the great pyramids – but not quite as cool. I hope to see the pyramids someday.  Stonehenge is honestly not that impressive-feeling because it is so commercialized, people coming from far and wide to gawk at it from behind a makeshift guard-rope. We were not allowed within 20 yards of the thing (but my grandparents got to have a picnic amidst the stones 50 years ago!) because so many people in the past defaced the stones and took “souvenir” chips off the rocks. I will not feel the need to go back again, but it’s nice to be able to say I saw it. The pictures definitely make it look more glorious than it really is – a motorway is so close to the stones that you can hear the cars and there were hundreds of people visiting that Saturday. But I decided the ridiculous age and  history behind the stones makes it a worthwhile journey. Here are some pictures from my day:

At the famous henge!

Lots of people! And also this place is literally no more than 50 yards off of a main highway. Can you imagine driving past it everyday on your way to work?!

Avebury stones

All Settled

I have been in Wales for nearly four weeks – time is flying by SO fast I can hardly believe it.  This past week was so crazy busy, I apologize for not posting again sooner.  But between starting our first week of classes last week (a nightmare I will describe momentarily), writing a 2500-word paper for the class I just finished, taking an all-day shopping trip, meeting up with friends in Cardiff for a concert, and more, I let this fall to the wayside.

I  know how to catch the bus to campus, although I usually walk the two miles most mornings because I can either wait in the queue (line) for the bus for 30 min and likley be late to class or I can walk for 30 min and feel awake for my four 9 am days. I know how to check out books from the library, something I NEVER did at State. I finally found the post office in the Student Union for mailing off post cards and know where I can sit and eat my lunch upstairs with a great view of the ocean (word around here is that Swansea is apparently the closet university to a beach in the world, I think I believe it). And after a two-week period of denial, we Americans have given up trying to find water fountains anywhere and just use the toilet sinks to fill up water bottles. I can navigate my way to and from the city centre, the cute little neighboring village of Mumbles (claim to fame: birthplace of Catherine Zeta Jones), and elsewhere both by walking and on bus routes. I do admit that I am still struggling with grocery shopping – these stores are organized so differently from any I have ever been to and no, I did not expect Tesco’s to run out of baking powder and baking soda on the same day as I was trying to make pancakes. But I enjoy shopping at the Swansea Farmers Market and I have already signed up for a weekly CSA vegetable delivery at the University on Mondays (I’m sure that comes as no surprise to most people who know me well haha). So pretty much I have things all figured out here.

The only thing that has been hard to accomplish is signing up for classes. It sounds like an easy task – just go online to their version of MyPack Portal and make a wish list schedule from all the available classes and times and when my time slot opens for enrollment, click “add.” No. Not so simple. I have been utterly spoiled by a school so organized as NC State. I do not know if the complete chaos and disorganization of this school is only felt by foreign exchange students or what, but I KNOW that during my freshman semester at State it was way easier to figure out things, and I had not attended college for 2.5 years beforehand either. Basically the way things work around here is students do not pick their own schedules, but are handed “timetables” (what they call schedules) by their department and everyone takes everything the same stuff together for their 3 years of school. Modules (classes) are offered one time a semester, one semester a year. And since few normal students here have any reason to change their classes around or whatnot, they do not have this system computerized.  There is no master list of what time and place courses are offered online anywhere.  So I had to run from building to building, searching for posters on obscure bulletin boards in random hallways and knock on random professors’ doors to ask for directions or signatures on my forms that gave me permission to enroll in certain modules.  This process took an entire week of at least an hour each day running around all over the place because class times meet so unsystematically that things overlap like crazy and I kept having to find alternatives. I finally settled on 2 engineering classes equivalent of 3-credit courses at home. And one 6-credit film studies class. They all seem relatively easy, if not very easy. One of my engineering classes meets Monday at 11am, Friday at 9 am and Friday at 1 pm. And that is not considered strange. So what I’m saying is that last week was a nightmare. Put me in tears of frustration one day, it was so bad. And to think, I love making class schedules so much at home and am so good at picking classes that I make schedules for any of my friends that will let me ha.

Another thing I spent all week doing was writing a 2500-word essay on British music in the 1960s and how it related to the politics and culture of the age.  I now know more about the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Kinks song lyrics than I ever wanted to know. Thank goodness that’s over.

But on to more fun stuff: Last Saturday my class’s final field trip was to Bath, England. Absolutely amazing place. Bath was an ancient Roman city and so I felt like I was in ancient Italy rather than England (not that I actually know what Italy feels like yet, though I will soon).  We toured the ancient Roman baths that were restored as in old times and were so cool. I absolutely cannot fathom being an engineer back in those times. I feel that they must have been so much smarter than today’s engineers because they did not have computer programs to aid with so much of the work.

We also checked out the Bath Abbey and walked around town. Three other girls and I went and had tea and scones, a very British meal, for tea at a little tea shop.  One thing I certainly miss about home that I did not expect is restaurant service.  It is so lousy here. It takes forever to eat because the waiters never come see you, forget to take your order, bring you the wrong check, never refill drinks, etc.  I have not had a pleasant experience with any restaurant waitressing service yet. But turns out nobody tips here, and now I know why.

Bath Abbey

Roman Baths

At the Roman Baths

Inside the Abbey

Drinking Tea!

This past weekend I went to Bicester Village for the day with my roommate Emily. Bicester is 3 hrs from Swansea, in England, and is basically an enormous outlet mall with very expensive brands. The trip was being run by the school so we got a cheap bus ticket there. Our big master plan was to get to Bicester and immediately hop on a bus to Oxford for the day (only about a 30 min ride) because we were going to have 7 or so hours till the bus left Bicester and neither of us are too interested in shopping. But our magnificent plans were spoiled by the weather. There was a looming threat of snow, which cut our trip down an hr, and potentially more because our driver wanted to leave if it started snowing. We were afraid of getting stuck in Oxford and decided to just stay at the mall and make an Oxford trip another time. Bummer. But we had a blast anyways and I found a wonderful pair of boots for a great deal. My sister Charlotte would have been in HEAVEN here (gotta rub that in to her of course haha).

On Sunday I got up early to finish writing my paper and then hopped on a Greyhound (my first experience on one of those!) for Cardiff. Arrived and ate lunch with Beth and shopped around Cardiff. Then Jonny Wilks (a family friend from generations back – my grandparents and his great-grandparents were friends when Shem and Martha lived in England for the first year they were married. Jonny and I have been pen pals for about 5 or 6 years now) and his girlfriend Sarah met me in Cardiff for the evening. They go to school in Plymouth in southern England. I hope to visit them in May. We met to go to an a capella concert in Cardiff – the choir was called Straight No Chaser and they were a group of men who originally were all in the a capella group at Indiana University years ago. They were absolutely amazing and I enjoyed front row seats! Here’s a link to their video page on their website: http://www.sncmusic.com/video/click on one of the official or live music ones, you should definitely give them a listen. I was completely blown away by their talent and stage performance. Then Jonny and Sarah came back to Swansea to stay the night and left in the morning when I had class.

Overall I am having a wonderful but super busy time here in Swansea! I apologize for such a long post and hope to not procrastinate again for so long (although it will likely happen, and probably next week). Hope everything is going well back Stateside!

Another field trip!

Week two of my 5 months here is already picking up the pace over last week. When time starts passing even faster, before I know it I will be back in NC. I know this will happen anyways, but I seriously cannot imagine how time is going to fly once I have a real class schedule and begin taking weekend trips (and my 3-week Spring Break – I doubt that anything will be a bore!)

This past Saturday I went on an all-day field trip with my Politics and Culture class. First we stopped at St. Fagan’s, Wales’ National History Museum. It was sort of a mix between Colonial Williamsburg and the Hezekiah Alexander House or Latta Plantation in Charlotte.  The museum was largely an outdoor village, complete with castle, fancy gardens, barns, building where an employee dyes and spins wool (from the sheep at the museum) into both knitted and weaved cloth, eco-education, little old-fashioned shops and post office, and homes from a wide range of eras in the Welsh and British history.  The only thing significantly different from Colonial Williamsburg is that the employees who were around to tell you about the history of the home or building they were stationed in did not play roles of people in times past. One cool thing one of the information employees told me, though, is that he was required to be fluent in Welsh before being hired. Welsh is a very interesting and confusing language – I will devote a post to it at some point, but for now, here is a fun picture I took at the museum to give you a clue as to how different this language is.

The only thing I have learned so far is that "dd" represents a sound similar to our "f"

A home built on top of 15th century castle ruins

After St. Fagan’s we went to Big Pit, Wales’ National Coal Museum.  The museum consists of a lengthy tour of one of the old coal mines that used to help Wales supply the world market with a vast amount of coal in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Each person in the group donned a waist belt with an air mask-type thing, that would typically give workers an extra hr of time to find safety in the event of an accident, and a powerful headlamp and helmet.  We crammed into a lift and descended down into the dreary, cold mine where many Welsh people spent entire careers in darkness. Upon receiving a full-out tour, I learned that many horses spent YEARS down in the mines without seeing daylight but for a week each year.  And while this is sad, apparently the government had far stricter regulations on treatment the horses could not receive than on the welfare of the human beings working in the same terrible conditions. Children used to spend 12 hrs at a time working in the mines. I am so blessed to have never experienced such a thing. The tour was fascinating and informative, although I hence decided that my idea of the most miserable job on the planet would be, without a doubt, working down in a mine like this one.  There is no light, no fresh air, most passageways are too short for grown folks to stand upright, the work is gruesome and back-breaking.  I do not know how these people did it, and admire the people who trudged through it all and thus shaped the history of South Wales significantly.  I know these things happen all over the world, America included, but I have never been to a museum like this one before or learned much about mining.

About to enter the mine!

In addition to coal mining, Wales’ primary industries since the Industrial Revolution were slate and copper mining.  I learned in class today that hillsides of this area were apparently so destroyed by these industries that they were black and covered with slag (waste produced from mining).  Thankfully the British government and environmental agencies have stepped in and put a lot of effort into repairing this countryside.  I must say that from what scenery I have seen in Wales thus far, the efforts seem to be working well.

No, I did not take this photo (I do not have my sister's photography skills) but I have seen many views like this here!

All of this made for a very eventful Saturday. This coming Saturday is my last field trip with this class – we are going to the town of Bath in England.

On Sunday I went to church with several other American girls I have become friends with since being here. We found a church in walking distance from where we live (the Hendrefoelan Student Village – basically a living community of all Freshmen students) and made it just in time for their later service. Afterwards we found out, to our pleasant surprise, all of the University-aged students are invited to the home of one of the church’s couples to dine on a fantastic home-cooked meal. The house was packed with at least thirty people. They were all so friendly and fun and the food was delicious. I think the lunch took about 3 hours, from appetizers to main course to dessert to coffee/tea. What a lovely afternoon. Afterwards we walked back to the Village. I love walking here and choose walking over taking the bus every chance I get.

The remainder of the week has been filled with class, grocery shopping, and exploring. Tonight one of  my housemates is having a Scottish night where he is cooking us Scottish food (haggis) and we are having the traditional Whiskey and apparently someone is reading poetry from a famous Scotsman. Should be loads of fun, I enjoy my group of housemates very much. Anyways, the festivities are about to start so I must run. Cheers!

Cardiff, class and the Gower Peninsula

My first week in Wales has gone very well so far, with my major mishap being that I blew out my computer’s AC adapter charger thing a few days ago and just got my replacement. That set me back a few days later than I had planned for writing again, but now my computer works and I have some time to write a new post or two!

I am LOVING it here. This country is so beautiful and the people (both American and British) whom I have met are lovely and the weather has been wonderful. I don’t know how long the sunny days and the warm but drizzly days will last,  but thankfully none have been nasty yet!

My first destination, after the half-empty and spacious plane flight and beautiful coach ride through the countryside, was the city of Cardiff, also in Wales, where my friend Beth attends the British equivalent of medical school. I spent the weekend with Beth and her four housemates who are also medic students. So much fun! Beth also helped me a ton by taking me shopping for bedding, toiletries, groceries, etc before driving me 1 hour further down the motorway and dropping me off at my new home in Swansea!

At Beth's house in Cardiff

When I arrived at my new home in Hendrefoelan Student Village I was greeted warmly by several of my new flatmates. Two girls are from America – Emily is from Oklahoma and goes to school there, and Kristin is from Minnesota and goes to school in Iowa. I live with 9 other people in one house, and aside from these two girls I have three English boys and one Irish boy who are full-time students here and keep me laughing constantly. One thing that all of my flatmates love is that I am a Southerner and apparently talk funny. My flatmate Tom especially loves to make fun of me anytime I use the word “y’all” in general conversation (which is a heck of a lot more often than I ever realized).

My flatmates: Kristin in middle, Emily far right

I finished up my first week of a pre-sessional class here at Swansea yesterday afternoon. There are 60 or so folks here from all across America taking this course that is all about the culture and politics of Britain from the end of World War II until the present. It has been an awesome and diverse course thus far – we have taken 2 long field trips and watched several British films and listened to music from groups ranging from The Beatles to The Sex Pistols to Specials. The professor of this course is very lively and interesting and I like him a whole lot. He has done a fabulous job of showing us the connections between British culture and the political eras they reflect.

On our first day of class this past Monday we went on a field trip to some of the most beautiful and breathtaking countryside I have ever seen. Right down the road from Swansea is a little village called Mumbles (so cute). Below is a picture of me in front of the Mumbles lighthouse. Afterwards we piled back onto our bus and traversed out 30 minutes or so through gorgeous green farmland to the Gower Peninsula. We went to a place called Rhossili, where we walked along some very high cliffs above a large beach. The picture of me and my flatmates above is taken at Rhossili. And according to some poll, Rhossili Beach made it to the #11 spot in the “50 Best Views in the World” contest. And while I’m skeptical of claims like these, when there seems to be no standard of why such-and-such is rated so-and-so, I do believe that this view is going to remain in my personal list of the most beautiful views I have ever experienced.

This lighthouse was completed in 1794 and still standing

A very unique and dreary British kind of beauty. I saw people surfing in this frigid water that day.

 

 

Can you imagine living in this little house, out away from everything but an ocean view?

View towards Rhossili Beach far below

My next post will be more about the town of Swansea, the two museums we went to on our latest field trip, and more about my recent goings-on here.  I will write again very soon!