Part 2

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Since it is Thursday, perhaps I should write the continuation of the previous post, and what actually happens:

I shouldn’t have said Thursday is the funnest day, because up until 9pm it is pretty dull. I don’t have anything until 2:15, and that is a three hour class. Yes, my third three hour lecture of the week. Luckily the last class also, but still. Three hours! So if Wed has been a normal evening, er early night, then Thursdays commence fine, maybe do work, or bake, or just, as it often is, watch TV on this laptop. Because I have access to the BBC! And Channel 4, so I can watch directly online. And I don’t have to pay for a licence fee. There are a few commercials, but I will tolerate them, because I can watch British TV! Without having to rely on YouTube. I mean I do still, because there are less commercials, but if I really wanted to, I could just go to the BBC. For Doctor Who, when that resumes, is what I will do. Anyway, the only good thing about this class is that it is in a semi-normal classroom. There are full sized desks, but only three long rows, which at Camosun I also had, and hated those. Here, slightly brighter room, but still not good. The class is Imagining the Other: Theories of Religion. An actual theology religion class would probably be fun, but the last few weeks have just been about a specific person and their contribution to the the study of religion, so not that fun. The essay though that is due in January should be a good one, though the classes aren’t.

Then, after 5 usually I go to the Supermarket, just because I’m already out, and it’s really not that far. Come back here, make supper, and apparently type out a blog post! Or watch TV or something. Practice violin would be a good thing too though…Until 9pm that is, when at a pub here there is folk music. Once a week in this pub, and yes I say pub not bar, there are people who go with their instruments, violins, mandolins etc, and just play music in this pub. It lasts a couple hours, and it just seems like a very traditional Welsh thing to do, listen to Folk music in a pub. It’s a pretty fun night, lots of people. One of the best seats in the room where the musicians are, is a filled-in fireplace. So you are actually sitting in a fireplace! Narrow hard seat, but still, it is cool.

Fridays:

No classes today, so do work, clean room, or what actually ends up happening is I bake something. Chocolate chip cookies mostly. I have not tried most of the restaurants and cafes in Lampeter yet, but sometimes on Fridays we will go out to the cafe. ‘The’ cafe meaning the same one every time. Soon I shall hopefully have tried all the places here! So during the day nothing happens, then at 8pm there is a ‘jam session’. I joined the Lampeter Folk Society, and not that there are that many people, but still a few, so we get together and play some songs. It is me, lead and only violinist, a guitar, a mandolin, and then someone who has a couple flutes/pipes, a drum, a guitar, and a bouzouki, which is a bit like a mandolin, and it sounds so nice! Afterwards, just go back home. We practice in the SU, the Student Union building, which is right across from my building. So literally, a 2 minute walk.

Weekend next time! TBC…

Just a Quick Post

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On the bus back from London (yes, I went to London!) I wrote this post. It was meant to be longer, but my laptop battery died. So I will complete it soon, once my essay is done. I’ll also write about London, when this school work is finished!

“Every time I’m on my laptop and not writing my essays I feel a bit guilty, as I really should be doing them. I have already finished one and handed it in, but at the moment of writing this I am on a bus back from London, and have 2 essays still to write. One of them is due in three days and I haven’t even started it. Like, nothing. Not even read the articles I’m supposed to be writing about. I suppose the next couple days I’ll know what it’s like to have pulled an all nighter writing a paper! I should have started to write it earlier, but the other essay took a bit longer than I thought. Also, I had other things to do in Lampeter. This past week has been ‘Reading Week’, so no classes. So, decided to go to London. Yes, instead of doing actual work. But as an exchange student, travelling and seeing Europe seems more important than school work. So yes, I am rationalizing this to myself. It was a really good week, and I definitely would have regretted not going. But I just have to do a lot when I get back! I brought my laptop with me to London so that I would do some of it, and maybe I did 100 words. But still I do consider it worth it to have brought it, like now I can type out a blog entry, and just post it when I get back to the Internet.

I have not kept this blog as updated as I’d hoped, but that was before I was on Facebook, and had so much to do. A normal week for me is:

Monday: 10:30 am coffee with a group of retired people in Lampeter, because one of them comes on the International Cultural Programme trips, and she invited me for coffee in this society thing, and it’s just nice to go to something like this, people who have held important positions in the university. Connections! Then at 11:15 a one hour meeting with my Personal Tutor, which everyone at TSD has. Basically, he’s supposed to help us with our work and whatever else, these one hour sessions have so far involved a talk on book reviews, essay writing, plagiarism, and general discussion of things. It is about 5 people, and I think I’m the only one doing second year courses, so my essays and stuff are slightly different than the others. But it’s required to go there, and as an exchange student on a visa, if I don’t attend compulsory sessions and my classes, the university will contact the UK border agency. So I can’t really skip classes….And Mondays I do have a class, from 1:15 to 4:15. It’s on European History, so while three hours is a long time, it is a subject I like, and have done before. After class I just walk back to my room, because it is 2 minutes away! At home to get to Camosun it took me an hour and a bit to get there. Here, I can leave my room 5 minutes before class starts. Afterwards on Mondays, at 7:30 there is orchestra. They only have three rehearsals before each concert though, and it is hard music! I’m playing second violin, but it is much harder than I am used to. What is nice about this orchestra though is that there are drums and trumpets and clarinets and flutes. We rehearse in the Old Hall, which is in the old main building of the university. It is such a nice room, though I have not gotten pictures of it yet. So that pretty much does Mondays, a pretty busy day usually.

Tuesday: Nothing in the morning, so I usually go to the supermarket or something. Or just sleep in. At 2:15 I have a Welsh Language class, so now I do know a few sentences in Welsh! It’s a pretty harsh language, reading it is really difficult and saying it with the proper pronunciation is also hard. Right after this class, at 3:15, after a 2 minute run, I have a Religion class, that goes until 6:15. So yes, 4 hours of class on Tuesdays. But the religion class is interesting, the lecturer is from British Columbia, so a bit weird that I come all the way to Wales and my class is in a North American accent. It is in the same classroom as my Euro history, and it is not the greatest. There aren’t any actual desks, just a chair with a extra large armrest type desk. So not used to those. It’s getting better, but 6 hour in 2 days of them is a bit much.

Wednesday: Luckily, Wed is my totally free day. Nothing is planned, so either I do homework, or just walk around the town, watch TV  sleep etc. If I looked on my calendar I’m sure there are things on Wed, but nothing regular.

Thursday:   ” And that’s where the battery died. Shame, because Thursdays are the funnest day!

Dinefwr

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When I first set up this blog, I was still in Victoria and I had all these ideas about writing in it, thinking I would have the time, the inclination, and the content. I kind of do, but everytime I think I should write a post, I remember that I have a 2500 word essay due in a couple weeks, and so much reading to do. So, I go to Facebook instead, because I have become one of those people who use only Facebook to keep in contact! Before I joined I did not really like it, but really, it is a pretty good way to stay in contact, and upload hundreds of pictures at once. So apologies that I have not posted as much as I originally intended!

But to explain the title of this post, Dinefwr. It is Welsh, and pronounced Dinehver, and it’s a castle about an hour away from here, and so gorgeous! Right next to a town called Llandeilo. The castle part is from the Normans, and then there is a house that construction was originally began in the 16th century. Really lovely place, and I went as part of the International Cultural Programme. Unfortunately I did not take that many pictures, but I am going again next term, so hopefully then.

Another thing that happened was my birthday! I turned 19, and had a little party to celebrate. It was really great, I got a few really nice presents and cards, and it was just fun to hang around with new foreign people! Lol that sounds a bit weird, but it was a really awesome birthday evening. The kitchen was decorated by my hallmates, and then a few people came over, then went to a bar, which I was already legal to go to here, but now in British Columbia I can go to bars too!

Classes are another thing that is going on, I have lectures 3 times a week, each 3 hours long. So it’s good and it’s bad that they’re so long. Something else that’s really weird is that I live so close to the classrooms. At home to get to Langford to Camosun it took me over an hour, here I can leave my room 5 minutes before class begins and still make it with plenty of time to spare. And there is less work, kind of. Each class I only have 2 essays to write, but in all it’s going to be 15,000 words. But no exams or marks for attendance or seminars, so that’s a bit different. It just means that the essays count for so much more!

Oh, violin issue has pretty much been sorted, I have bought a violin for £100. It is full size, because there were no good 3/4, and if the violin didn’t sound good I wouldn’t have wanted to play it, so useless. I have found 2 places where I can play, the Lampeter Chamber Orchestra, which is a higher level of difficulty than I am used to, but hopefully it shall be alright. There are only 3 rehearsals before a concert, way less than at home, but as there are wind instruments and percussion the violins can kind of hide in that! Where I can’t really hide is the second place I’ve found, which is the student Folk Music Society. There I am the only violinist, and then there’s a couple guitars, a mandolin, and a bouzouki, a type of string instruments that sounds really cool! So I get to play the tune, and have a nice accompaniment:) And as it’s folk music it is not so difficult or complex, so it does sound really good.

I’ve just written 600 words, and this time probably should’ve been spent on the essay, but I did just want to update. Maybe I’ll just do a picture post soon, but there are just so many pictures I don’t know which ones to put up!

Cardiff!

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So finally, after several years of really really wanting to go, I was in the capital of Wales! It is such a beautiful city, typical European architecture I suppose, but being from British Columbia, from Langford, that type of architecture is very welcome. The going to Cardiff was part of the Cultural Programme that this school offers, however, it takes 3 hours to go from Lampeter to Cardiff, and they were just going to let us have a few hours in the city. Definitely not enough time to see everything  So, I booked a hostel. Yup, first time ever doing something like that, and it was actually pretty easy. And worked out really well. It was a private 6 bed (3 bunk beds  room, with tall ceilings. It was very satisfactory for what we – enough people to fill the beds – needed. It was just for 1 night, and not as if we really did see everything that Cardiff has to offer, but as you can see from the opening photograph, basically the only reason I wanted to go was accomplished.  Continue reading →

Whitesands Bay and St David’s Day Trip

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Amazing day today! So fun:) We went to St David’s, Britian’s smallest city, which basically means it is technically called a city, but really the size of a town. Probably a bit bigger than Lampeter. But firstly we went to Whitesands Bay, a gorgeous beach. The sand is so fine, like really tiny, and the waves were Tofino-esqe. Then not only was the water stunning, and the beach, but also all the rock around. The coastline was fun to walk around, and I did take my shoes off and I went into the ocean. I was the only one. But I don’t care! It was fun, and only the very bottom of my jeans got wet, so worth it. I kept my shoes off most of the time, which was a bit painful at times, but I think less slippery because of it. They’re different types of rocks, very jagged and pretty easy to perch on. However this also means quite pointy, so it took me a while to get over a wall, to reach a cave. Continue reading →

Castle! And Stuff

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Today was the beginning of the week for all the students here at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, so finally here are people here on campus! Well, that may not be a good thing, as that mean now the Student Union building is open. Which means the bar is open, and also the club. Which means I can hear the club music, at least the underlying beat, while I am trying to sleep. Soon classes shall start, and then I’ll be too tired to notice! Anyways, today there was a welcome to Lampeter speech, and then we went to a welcome BACK to Lampeter speech, as we are exchange students, so technically in the second year of study. In all, 4 speeches. luckily though all the international students already had the orientation on how to use the computer and library and stuff, so we don’t have to go to those this week. Which means, it is a pretty free week. I want to get a violin tomorrow, and to do that I will have to take an hour long bus ride to Carmarthen. That’s not too bad though, same distance from home to Camosun.

But oh yes the castle! The trip was part of the cultural programme the university offers, one of seven. We had to leave at 9am and it took a little over an hour to reach the bottom of the hill where the castle is situated.  Continue reading →

Settling In

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Hiya! So I’ve been here a few days and haven’t done much to the blog. Well that’s because I joined Facebook. For years I haven’t, precisely for the reason that I didn’t want to waste my time on it, but now it made sense. Within the first few days I’ve added half a dozen people, so ya I think it was good to sign up. Anyway, Lampeter is lovely, such a cute little town. It is definitely old, all the buildings are stuck together, and all different colours too! It’s so pretty! The people here are nice, the cashier at Sainsbury’s, a huge British supermarket chain, was very friendly and also had such a great accent. Continue reading →

Just a Quick Update

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Hello! So I don’t really have time or energy to do a full post, I just wanna say that so far it is pretty great! University experience, halfway across the world:) Except that I am in a hall with other Americans, and 1 Canadian. So not too many accents yet:) Just orientation happened today, so we finally got to meet the International assistant, who I have emailed so many times! Didn’t really get to talk to her much though, busy first with welcoming, then registration. I hate filling out paperwork! But strangely, it isn’t as bad when you are on a table with a dozen other people all doing the same thing.

There is a Starbucks here, merged with a food place, nice sandwiches and daily deals. For $5! Nice place close to my building. It is such a little cute town! Like it looks really old, all the houses and buildings stuck together. I love it! Grocery store is pretty cheap too, I think. Well, some things anyway, just had a quick run through really. Tomorrow is more orientation, so I must go to bed and sleep! Half a dozen of us (USA + 1 BC + me) went out tonight to a real British pub! Well, actually 2. And they were so empty! It is only the international students that are here already, so the place is pretty empty. Next week come all the rest of the students. But still, a real British pub experiwnce, twice in 1 night. I’m not legal to drink in BC, so this was kind of cool, the first one was really homely and food restaurant orientated with a bar, the second was pretty much just a bar. Also completely empty when we got there. So nice people so far, and Sunday we’ll all pitch in for kitchen stuff. Today we bought some plates and bowls, otherwise everything in the kitchen is mine! Utensils and equipment I mean. Food, I haven’t really bought anything, yet;)

Last Bit of Euro 2009 Trip

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In October 2009, for my 16th birthday I went on a 3 week European guided bus tour with my mother with Insight Vacations, a very generous present from my grandmother and uncle (whining and persistent “I want to go to Europe” does actually get you somewhere sometimes :-) )It was amazing, and during our trip I write a journal. I have finally transcribed it, at least some of it, so I have decided to put it on the Internet so it is here forever! This is the second journal. Continue reading →

2 Days. Technology Will Save Me!

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Well, not specifically me, but my parents and sisters. My little sister keeps saying I’m going to have to Skype her 5 times a day, or at least text. Or Tweet. Or email. Luckily, it is the 21st century, and I have the resources to be able to keep in contact with people very easily, cheaply, and quickly. It is only the timezone that might make things a little difficult. When your family are night people, and able to Skype after supper, it would be 4 am most times for me! Just a decade ago it wasn’t this easy, nor really possible this near-constant contact, so there is no reason to not go far; it’s quite easy to stay in touch with home.  Continue reading →