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.
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- Bath Abbey
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- Roman Baths
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- At the Roman Baths
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- Inside the Abbey
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- 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!
presslyblackley 