4 Countries in 2 Weeks!

Shwmae! Hello in Welsh! I have so much to tell since my last post. We got back from Ireland and had a few days to spend in Bangor. One night a group of us decided to walk around the town and we ended up finding the pier which had an awesome view over the water and of the Mountains. The next day we had a mini orientation and then left for a fieldtrip to the Penrhyn Castle. This is a large beautiful castle just outside of Bangor, although many Welsh people hate the family and would not be caught dead in the castle because of what the family did to the Slate Miners and their families. We arrived back on campus from the castle to FIND OUR LUGGAGE that was missing for 11 days! The next day Tecwyn brought us on another fieldtrip. We went to the Snowdonia National Park which we can see from campus, there we hiked up into the mountains and saw beautiful lakes called the Devils Kitchen because when there are storms and high winds it has been said that you can hear the devil, the wind blows down and around the lake swirling and making screaching sounds. We then went and saw the Swallow Falls, this is a natural waterfall. Next we stoped at "The Ugly House" this is a small stone cottage that had to be built and had smoke coming out of the chimney within 24hours in order for them to be able to keep the house and land or they would have to just leave it! We then got to visit the Llechwedd Slate Mines. Here we got to take a walking tour though the slate mine and then we got to go on a little train through another part of the mine. The next day we took a fieldtrip to visit the Marble "wedding" Church in Bodelwyddan. We got to take a tour of St. Winefrede's Well, Holywell where we all took a drink of the holy water from the well. Next we got to go to the city of Chester. Here we toured the Chester Cathedral, had time to walk around the city on our own, and then had a guided tour of Roman and Medieval Chester. We got to walk on the Roman walls and visit the Chester Roman Amphitheatre, where many people were killed. Tecwyn then gave us a few days off so a group of 7 of us decided to take a train from Chester to Scotland for a few days instead of going back to campus. We had a few hours to kill in Chester so we decided to hang out at a Mexican Restaurant/Club. While hanging out in this restaurant we decide to order chips and salsa, when the waitress brought us our food we got a little bit of culture shock, we had ordered french fries and salsa! Forgetting in Europe chips=french fries and crisps=chips!
We then hopped a night train and when we woke up we were in Scotland! This was our 4th country in less than 2 weeks! (Wales, Ireland, England, Scotland). We arrived in Inverness from here to took a bus to Loch Ness, while in Loch Ness we took a boat tour on the lake searching for Nessie, the water was so smooth and beautiful. We then took a bus to tour the Brodie Castle, because one of my good friends in the program, Kristin Brodie, used to have family living there. Then we took a train to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Once we arrived we realized our hostel is out of the city so we had to take a shuttle to from the city. We took a free walking tour of Edinburgh by a young enthusatsic American girl, where we got to see the Edinburgh Castle, the Stone of Destiny, St Gile's Cathedral, the origianl Hogwarts, and much more. Edinburgh is one of the most haunted cities in the world so later that night we went on a ghost tour where we stopped in a few graveyards, site of Witch Burnings, heard about the cannibals and vampires, and more. We ended our tour at a pub where we met a group of men in traditional kilts! That night we ended up getting lost in Edinburgh walking around for hours searching for our hostel that we later found out that it is haunted! The next day we hiked up to the top of Author's Seat where you can see the entire city of Edinburgh, this would be like if NYC had a mountain in the middle of it, the view was amazing and we spent hours on top of the mountain just relaxing. That night we went to a local restaurant and tried some traditional Scottish food, Haggis, this is all the leftover parts of a sheep such as liver, heart, etc. cooked in the stomach and with potatoes, it was not that bad surprising just as long as you didn't think of what you were eating. The next day we took trains all the way back to campus, only getting on the wrong train once, luckly it all worked out! It is nice to be back on campus and finally in my own room! My flat mates are all very young, but seem nice. We had orientation today and I am starting to pick out classes, this is a way different process than in the states, but I think I am getting the hang of it. We start class a week from today. Now that we are settled into our rooms and starting school stuff the newness is wearing off and it is starting to hit everyone that we are going to be staying here for a while and we are not just on "Holiday"! We are all starting to miss and crave American food, we have been living off of PB&J or ham sandwhiches. We have been enjoying the nice weather, it hasn't rained in 2 days! Talk to you soon! Iechyd da - Cheers/ Good Health!

To check out more pictures go to this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30488030@N04/page7/

Across the Pond!

After months of preparing I am finally in Wales. On September 4 my parents and Nate brought me to the Des Moines Airport. Our flight got moved up to 1:30 so we had a rush our good-byes. But because of weather we ended up getting delayed until 5:15 and just an hour later we landed in Chicago and our next flight was taking off 15 minutes after we landed. So we missed our flight to Manchester where we were going to meet up with all of the students in the program and get picked up by our program director. There were 6 of us that all missed our flight so we went and got re-booked to go to London then to Manchester. After our 7 1/2 hour flight to London we exchanged money and made a phone call to Tecwyn (our program director) to let him know why we weren't in Manchester. He told us that once we got to Manchester to get on a train to Bangor and he would meet us there to bring us to the University. We arrived safely to the University of Bangor 12 hours later than scheduled, but without our luggage. We then walked around downtown Bangor and got some food. Then called it a night after being awake for 36 hours! The next day we met as a program and walked down to one of our classrooms and had a mini orientation. We then got familiar with the town of Bangor and did some shopping.
The next day we still did not have our luggage and left for our 5 day trip to Ireland. We took a bus and then a ferry to Dublin, which only took 2 hours. We stayed in a hostel. Tecwyn took us on a walking tour of the town and then just left us in the heart of Dublin, which is the 5th largest city in the world! The traffic is way different here, not only do they drive extremely fast on very narrow roads, but they are also driving on the wrong side of the road and car! Thankfully the nice people in Dublin like to warn the people like me by having signs on the road at every crosswalk telling you which direction to look! We had a lot of fun for the few days we were in Dublin. We got to visit some cool parks, St Stephen's Green, the National History Museum, Trinity College, the Guinness Brewery, and St Patricks' Cathedral. We got to listen to some traditional Irish music being played. Although we had a lot of fun in Dublin we were excited to travel to the other coast of Ireland. We took a bus in only 4 hours we had crossed the entire Country of Ireland! We arrived in Galway and stayed in a hostel there for 2 days. Our program director took us on a walking tour here also where we visited a small river and a Cathedral, he then left us on our own again. We walked down to the ocean and walked out to a lighthouse. The next day we took a bus tour to the Dunguaire Castle, the Aillwee Caves, Poulnabrone Dolnen in the heart of the Burren. The next day we took a ferry to the Aran Islands, it was a really rough ride and many passenger got sea sick. This island is about 10 miles long and 3 miles wide. Once we got there we rented bikes and split up and had ours to tour the island. There are an easy, medium, and hard trails. My group took the hard trail. We went to the highest point on the island to a light house and a castle. We had a lot of fun and you could see both coasts from the castle. We then biked to this rocky area and climbed down to the coast where the waves were huge and we were getting splashed by the ocean. We then continued to bike and met the group at the cliffs, where we layed on the edge and got some pretty cool pictures. Although none of the pictures can describe what we have seen. We then took the easy path by the coast back to the ferry. In Galway we learned that by getting groceries and doing family style cooking we get better meals and save a lot of money. The girls cook and the boys are more than willing to do the dishes. We have bonded a lot throughout this trip. The next day we took a bus back to Dublin then the ferry back to Wales.
Although Ireland was a blast it feels good to be back on campus. We got back and I still have no luggage it has been nearly a week and a half of living out of my carry on. They say that I should have my luggage within the next day or so. We are going on a few day field trips around Wales to some castles throughout the next few days. It rains nearly every day and is in the 50's. I am now adjusted to the 6 hour time difference, getting used to the rain and cold, and having fun picking up on some of the local slang terms. Talk to you soon.

To check out some pictures from my trip so far just go to this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30488030@N04/page7/