Being Homeless in Vienna

So Erik and I are finally on our European adventure!

Before heading off for a few weeks away from Wales, I spent a pretty quiet Christmas in Bangor. The flat and most of the students had left a few days before the holiday, and I had a couple of days to hang out and get some homework finished. I slept a ton and actually finished one of my three papers, so at least the holiday was not wasted. I go to talk to my whole family on Christmas day, and then it was time for packing!

How do you pack for a two week adventure in cold countries where the only game plan is hang out with Erik? Such a difficult task! I did manage to get everything packed up though, and my train was out of Bangor around 8pm on Monday. Traveling to London for the first time, by myself, turned into quite an adventure as well. But I made it to the Gatwick airport around 3am after three trains, a bus and so much confusion. My plane took off at 7:30am and Erik was waiting in Vienna for me!

My first day here was amazing. I got to meet a few friends from Erik`s semester over here, and we got to do some good exploring as well. Vienna is beautiful, and even though I don´t speak any German, I love it here! We got to drink delicious coffee, explore the university and we ended the night in a cool club downtown. Throw in some Chinese noodle take away and it was a fantastic day! But like the old people we are, we were back at the flat we were staying the night in and were in bed before 10.

To explain the title of this post, we didn´t book hostels or anything for our four days in Vienna. The theory was that Erik has friends and we can sleep just about everywhere. So far so good! We often don´t know where we will be spending the night until the same afternoon, but that just adds to the adventure. The first night we stayed in one of the student dorms, in the flat of one of Erik´s friend. We slept in the kitchen on the floor above his friend´s flat because they had bigger houses. Thankfully most of the students are gone for the holidays, so we didn´t disturb anyone by being there! Going to bed so early though, after so much traveling for everyone, really messed up our sleeping patterns. We were both awake around 4, and so decided to go get breakfast. Chocolate milk and pastries? Yes please! The public transportation here is so awesome, and we can get around so easilz, even so early in the morning. After breakfast we were tired again, so it was back to bed for a little bit until we were woken up by the cleaning lady... awkward! I´m sure she knew we shouldn´t have been sleeping in the kitchen!

We spent today walking around the city. I got to see the historical parts of Vienna, and also all the places the students see everyday. It´s so interesting to see what other study abroad students get to see and do everyday. It makes their stories so much better! Tonight we were going to sleep at Christina´s apartment, but she is a nanny and the family is a bit crazy. Us staying would have involved some sneaking into the place, and besides that, it doesn´t have much heat. Seeing as we don´t have pillows or blankets, we decided against that. My coat makes an excellent blanket, but it´s only so warm! So we are staying at the Central study abroad office instead. They have couches and heat and we have turned this place into our own little apartment; complete with beer and music. We are having a chill night tonight, working on essays and keeping warm. Tomorrow will be another busy day of exploring and adventuring around Vienna. We may just hop on the subway and see where we end up, that sounds pretty fun. ha ha.

We will spend New Year´s here, celebrating with everyone in City Center. Then we are off to Munich for a few days. After Munich, it´s one day in Berlin and four days in Amsterdam. From there we fly back into Liverpool and catch a flight back to Bangor, where we will spend some time recovering from almost two full weeks of travelling! This is an awesome adventure, and I´m loving every minute of it so far. Vienna has been beautiful, and I know that we have so much more to see. Also, I´m getting pretty good at living out of a suitecase with only my coat for a blanket and pillow. And typing on German keyboards, which are slightly out of order from what I´m used to! :)

Well, I should probably get going now. Erik ran back to the flat to pick up some stuff he forgot this morning, and if I am not working on my essay when he gets back, he has threatened to punch me so I bleed. We wouldn´t want that, so Ill just work on the paper!

And so it begins...

Well, it's getting down towards the end of the semester now. This brings papers, revision for exams, Christmas and everyone leaving. We all knew this week and these last few days were coming, we just didn't think it would be here so soon. This semester has just flown by, and it seems like only yesterday our study abroad group were meeting up for the first time in the Manchester airport, spending that first night together at Hatters, and being invited on our first pub crawl. It seems so crazy to think that everyone is leaving this week. Brandon left Monday, and everyone else is going either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. It's weird to think of myself in Bangor next semester without these eight wonderful people who made my first semester so awesome!

We were out at Paddy's a few nights ago, just having a few drinks and enjoying a night out. Lucy started crying and everything just went downhill from there. It was like a chain reaction, and everyone was losing it. We stood there for the longest time, singing karaoke, crying and hugging. It was one of the best nights we have had, but it made my heart super sad. I think that putting everyone on a train at some point this weekend will break my heart. Tomorrow will be a rough day for us, I think. We are meeting Tecwyn at Uno for a few drinks in the evening. This will be the real last time that we are all together as a group. I think many tears will be shed, and many memories recounted of our three months in Bangor. 

I'm starting a list of all the places in Bangor where I have cried, and so far it stands at Paddy's and Uno. I know this list will grow immensely these next few days though... It's hard to put into words just how much everyone from the Fall semester means to me and I suck at goodbyes anyway. I am so excited though for my Christmas adventures and for next semester, I just don't want this one to end.

My Christmas adventures begin on Friday though! Friday, the flat and I are going to see Tron in Llandudno, Saturday I will pick Liberty up at the train station for our week of epic adventures, and the 27th I will be on a train to the London airport. From London I am flying to Vienna to meet up with Erik for a two week tour around Europe. Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam and Dublin. Sounds like a good Christmas vacation to me! Then it will be back to Bangor to meet the new American students and take my one exam.  I'm not really looking forward to sitting that exam, it means I will actually have to do some studying on my European excursion, but I guess that's ok. ha ha. 

Last night was a good night out though... we started at Uno as a flat just having a few drinks and playing some pool. I'm absolutely terrible at pool, but I hope I'm getting better. I'll practice over break and blow everyone away by my mad skills next term. :) Anyway, after Uno, Jack, Lewis, Kalli and I headed down to Paddy's for a bit. We ended up staying there and enjoying some drinks before moving on to Rascals. From there, I went to the electronics party with Jack and Lewis. They do electronic engineering, and apparently their course was having a party. It was a really fun time, and we ended up getting home sometime around 2:30. I was having a bit of a rough night, and I actually ended up falling asleep in my bathroom for a bit, oops... but it's all good. One of those nights I'll always remember! Today was a day of recovery and homework. I have 2 essays and journals for Tecwyn that I need to get done for Friday, so I'm crossing my fingers that motivation to get them finished comes to me... hopefully. Then tonight we headed to Molly's flat for a goodbye party. Such a good time. Even on nights when we just stay in and hang out, I feel like we have so much fun and these are the times we make the best memories! Tomorrow is back to Paddy's for pound a pint and more crying, I'm assuming. ha ha. 

“Climb up on some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you'll find it there.”

The title of this post sums up possibly the best weekend I have had in Bangor so far. This is exactly what I was doing this morning at approximately 7:15am...
This weekend was such a good, chill weekend, and my heart is so happy because of it! We decided to stay in all weekend and just hang out as a flat. On Friday night, we started the evening with Crank and Crank 2, followed by copious amounts of Guitar Hero. We were having such a good time and the evening just flew past. At one point we realized how late it was getting and instead of heading to bed, we just decided to pull an all-nighter. Such a good decision! Once we were developing claw hands from too much Guitar Hero, we decided to put on a few episodes of True Blood (of course!). At one point, around 7am or so, Mark and Tom were heading out for a cigarette and I ran to my room to check email quick. I heard them talking really loudly in the hallway, so I opened my door. They were both yelling about snow, so I grabbed some shoes and my camera and followed them outside. Now the first snow in Bangor is nothing like the snow I'm used to back home, but it was awesome! Just a light dusting on the ground and the cars, but enough for footprints and small snowballs. It was so much fun to run around the parking lot, making the first footprints in the first snow in Bangor! After drawing a snow penis (because we are immature) and throwing a snowball at Jack's window, we headed back to the flat to make breakfast. Beer and toast for breakfast? I think so! After all of the excitement of the morning, we were ready for sleep so we eventually all went back to our rooms to pass out for the day.
I got up Saturday around 3pm and bummed around for a long time before heading to Uno to catch up on life with Shireen. We headed over to Bar Uno on campus and were those awkward kids who sit down, don't order anything, hang out for 5 minutes and then leave! So we headed back to my flat and played a few songs on Guitar Hero while admiring the new Christmas decorations that help to make our kitchen look festive. Once everyone in the flat was ready, we headed down to Morrison's for a bit of grocery shopping. We had decided to have another all-nighter, and the evening started with a meal together as a flat. I think we did pretty well, a chicken pasta bake and garlic bread. I was a happy camper! A few other people came over after dinner, and we watched Vampires Suck and The Hurt Locker. Then the Guitar Hero started up again. (Thanks Nathan for leaving your XBox in our kitchen all weekend, it was a great addition! ha ha). People started trailing off to bed as the night went on, and eventually it was Tom, Mark and myself that were left for the all night adventure.
More True Blood followed, and around 6:45 this morning we bundled up and headed out to Roman Camp to watch the sunrise. It was mighty chilly this morning, but it was totally worth it. When we got to Roman Camp it was still dark, and we settled down for the wait for the sun. There was a period of time where we even got snowed on, but we would not be deterred from seeing the sun. We also made several new friends this morning! So many dogs camp up to the top of the hill to visit us, which is funny because I keep telling them that we need a puppy for the flat. There was also a really nice log at the top of the hill that they guys used as a seesaw! Mark had also brought his speakers, so our time on the hill was made so much more awesome with the Lord of the Rings soundtrack playing in the background. Around 8:15 or so, the sun started to become visible over the mountains. It was so spectacular to watch the sunrise over the mountains with the sea on one side and Angelsey on the other! Beautiful. We have lots of pictures from this morning, but they don't do the scene any justice. After the sun was mostly up, we headed back to Ffridd site for hot drinks and heat. We ended up watching Indiana Jones until almost 11am before we passed out.
The sleep deprivation from this weekend was totally worth it for the bonding and fun I had with my flat. This whole weekend made my heart so happy, and we are even talking about doing it again next weekend! I'm sensing a flat tradition in the making! It makes me so happy that I have an amazing group of people in my flat, I'm so excited to spend the next semester with them making memories and having adventures.
Wow, I almost forgot about out Thanksgiving feast! Crazy how we just had Thanksgiving on Thursday and I have already forgotten, that's the sleep deprivation talking there. :) So Thursday, all of the Central students got dressed up and headed down to the Italian restaurant near the pier for a "Welsh" Thanksgiving. Every year, Tecwyn takes the students to this restaurant to celebrate a holiday that is not even on the radar here. Wednesday was so funny, I was around at a friend's flat, and at midnight I wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I got the best response ever... "Wait, isn't that a Jewish holiday? Are you Jewish?" ha ha! So I did a lot of explaining about Thanksgiving and how we celebrate. But anyway, we went to the Italian place and had a fantastic time! Though it wasn't tradition food, it was still amazing. Tons of starters, my main meal and dessert, on top of all the wine we could drink. Win! There was even an American flag hanging on the wall to make us feel at home, and Tecwyn had us all stand up and toast to America, our families and Thanksgiving. It was just a really awesome night of hanging out as a study abroad group (which we don't do very often, as we are all super busy) and enjoying the holiday together. All of the Central group has a special place in my heart, and I'm so sad for them to leave in mid December. If I just don't think about it, it's not happening right? I can't believe that a semester has flown by this quickly! We still have a good 20 days though, and we will be taking advantage of each of those days!
This week it's back to classes and work on my 3 papers which are due before January. My motivation to complete my school work is lacking, but I'll get it all done. Probably between episodes of True Blood. ha ha. :)

Sometimes Blogging is Hard...

So I realized the other day that I have not blogged in forever and a day. Oops... my bad! :) Well, I'm back now, so don't fret! Life has been absolutely crazy since I last wrote, but I love it so much.
We have had some epic fieldtrips as well since my last post: Cardiff weekend, Welsh Mountain Zoo, Conwy and so much more! I do love our field trip days and I'm excited to go on another one this upcoming weekend. I don't remember where we are going (but that's because I don't tend to read my info packets...) but I'm excited nonetheless!
Also, I didn't realize how much I miss random stuff from America until a few weeks ago. As the Dutch were winding down their football season, I really began to miss good 'ol American football. Not that I'm a die-hard fan or anything, but as the weather got a bit colder and the leaves started falling off the trees, I wanted to see a football game! Lucky for me, one of our friends here in Bangor just happens to play for the University team. So I got my football fix at the Bangor Muddog's season opener against Aberystwyth two Sundays ago. This was maybe the coldest football game I have ever stood through, but it was totally worth it. The Bangor team was only formed last year, and they are really good for all the guys being relatively new to the concept of football American style. They unfortunately lost to Aber, but the score was pretty close from what I hear. (We ended up leaving after the half as none of us could feel our feet. But that's what standing in mud will do.) It was a good game though, and I can say that I have seen a football game played with a background of the Menai Bridge. Much prettier than any football field at home! We also got invited to the Muddog social that night to celebrate the game. This was a good time as well! All the guys are super nice, and they love talking about the games. I have been invited to go to their away games with the team, as they love to have Americans around who understand what is going on! :) We'll see, I may just be the team's new (and only) cheerleader, trash talker, and/or token American girl. ha ha!
Well, I have officially survived about half a semester of University classes. We just had Linguistics reading week. This is pretty much an awesome week where we have no class. I think the point is that we get a head start on our papers and projects before the term winds down... but really everyone just sleeps a ton and doesn't do work. Obvious answer! During reading week I did actually work on a group project for approximately two hours, and then the books went on the shelf and the staying up all night and sleeping all day kicked in. There was one day where I was lying in bed at approximately 3:30pm and my flatmates were being quite loud in the hallway. When I called them out on it later, they just turned to me and said I deserved to be woken up, it was almost night time! ha ha. Reading week ended with a long long weekend of awesome. Our friend Mark turned 22, so we had to play a night of pub golf to celebrate. Then the next night we celebrated my flatmate Mark's 19th with lots of drinking and other random stuff. We didn't go to bed until nearly 6:30am Saturday morning, and we were all so beat the next day! But Saturday was Mark's actual birthday, so we got up sometime in the afternoon and did it all again. Needless to say, by Sunday morning at 6am, I was ready to pass out or die. But I survived, and even made it out of bed in time to see the Vikings play the Bears! So productive weekend over all. This week it's back to classes and back to reality. My final paper topics have been announced and between 3 papers, stuff for Tecwyn's class and everything else, I'm looking at about 11,000 words before Christmas. I should probably have started writing yesterday... but oh well, it will get done!
In big life news, I have officially decided to stay in Bangor for the rest of the year! I will be here until late June, and I'm so excited to be able to study a full year here! It was a stressful couple of weeks, trying to get forms, essays and everything from Central. It seemed to take ages to get my financial aid approved for next semester, but when the email came through, I was one happy camper. We had gone to Firework's night at Roman Camp and we were going to end our Guy Fawkes Night with some Harry Potter 6. So we came back, changed our muddy clothes, and I checked my email quick before heading to the kitchen for the movie. I didn't even read the entire thing. I got about as far as: "Jessica, Congratulations. You have been approved to stay..." I jumped up so fast and ran into the hallway screaming. (My flatmates can confirm that one... ) I jumped and screamed about how excited I was, and there was much hugging and screaming back in celebration. So I am here for about 7 more months at this point. I'm not nervous at all, I feel like Bangor is my home, and I love the people and this place so much. I couldn't imagine going back to Central next semester. It will be sad to see all of my friends from the program going home in December, but the new students will be here in January, and I'm pumped for the opportunity to hang out with them! I will also not be going home for Christmas, as I will be going on a Great European Adventure! More details on that later... :)
Mostly I'm excited about staying the entire year with my flat. I love each and every one of them so much! We bonded so quickly, and I often find myself asking how it happened. How did 4 English Freshers (all 18 or so) and myself become best friends? I have no idea, but I'm so thankful for getting to live in this flat with these people. Most nights you can find us all in the kitchen cooking our dinner around the same time (we have some sort of internal dinner clock these days). We all cook our food and eat together, then we usually end our evenings watching some TV or a movie in the kitchen. This evening actually, it was my flat, part of Molly's flat, and a few other people all huddled around our kitchen table watching Lord of the Rings Extended Edition. For nearly 4 hours we watched Frodo and all of our favorite characters start the trek to Mordor with the One Ring. I think my favorite part of the evening would have to be the intense side conversations throughout the film. "Well I think that Borimir is a crap character." "Well have you read the book where..." "No I mean it all makes sense if you think about it like..." I have never had better movie conversation than this evening. We are all secretly so nerdy about stuff like this, and it's great to bond over our love of hobbits and elves. :)
This weekend we are going to see HP at Llandudno and we have a field trip on Sunday. I would have liked to see the Muddogs play Sheffield on Sunday, but it's just not going to work out... bummer. But I'm sure I will hear the full story from Mark and the rest of the team when we bond over some NFL on Sunday night. But now I have to get on reading my book on the Welsh Language for my book review. I'm actually learning quite a lot of interesting facts about it, but finding the motivation to read this book is far from my grasp right now... oh well, the next two days with no class will be spent in the library for sure!

More soon!
Cheers!

Comfy Trousers, Cheesy Chips and one Kick-Ass evening

Oh my, where to even start... I feel like it has been so long since I've updated this thing... Alright, so everyone got moved into the dorms and the year started off with a bang. We enjoyed Freshers Fortnight, which was an interesting experience to say the least. Lots of cheap nights out to welcome everybody to campus. But it was actually a really good way to get to know everyone quickly. It was actually kind of awkward when my flatmates were moving in because I'm that awkward, foreign, old student that has been here for three weeks. But it was all good. My flatmates are fantastic, and I could not have asked for more amazing people to spend my semester with. We all get along really well, and it was kind of insta-bond if I do say so. We have had many an amusing night reading our American info packets about life in Britain. They love seeing what we have been told about their countries and about how different everything supposedly is. Many good times.

Classes have also gotten under way. I'm actually pretty excited about being back in school, just because it's been since early May that I had my last class. I was beginning to feel my brain turn to mush as all of the knowledge leaked out. Ha ha. Just kidding, but really. So I am taking Intro to the History and Culture of Wales, which is the class that Tecwyn teaches. Also I have beginning Welsh, so I can begin to understand the street signs and place names of this country. Then for my choice of classes I am taking Current Issues in Bilingualism and Meaning: Semantics and Pragmatics. These two classes make my heart so incredibly happy, and I was so excited to go to them and talk about nerdy Linguistics things. My first lectures I took pages of notes and I'm looking forward to getting the reading assignments from the library website so I can read up on Linguistic issues. I know that sounds funny, but I just stinking love Linguistics, and it has been far too long since I have had a good discussion on this topic.

Other than starting classes and surviving Freshers, life has just been pretty good. Our flat is known as the party flat, and it's not an unusual night to have 20 or more of our friends (or strangers) come over and spend the evening with us. I feel like that's where we make most of our friends. We all gather before a night out and then head out as a group. It's more fun that way. Also, our nights on the town have lead to some interesting American discussions. My favorite was in the line for Octagon a few weeks ago. This guy heard us talking and was asking us about America. He was amazed that we boil water on the stove top and that eating something like Lucky Charms is normal. I will give him the fact that he was pretty drunk, but him giggling about Lucky Charms was pretty wonderful. Also, my flatmate Tom had his first chocolate Pop-Tart the other day. I felt like a proud parent watching him enjoy a staple of American life. I have asked my grandma to bring a suitcase full of Pop-Tarts when she comes to visit, just for my flat to enjoy.

As for the title of this blog, that comes from our night tonight. Last night was a little rough for us... we had said we were not going out and we would have a quiet evening at home, but that never actually happens when you plan for it. So we ended up going out and having a good night. I honestly lost some of last night, but the details have been filled in by my friends and flatmates. And I feel that sitting with me in the kitchen until 5am while I go on about everything was a good bonding experience for Mark, Tom and I. So tonight we did have a quiet night in. After dinner and everything, a few people came over and we edited the American handbook so I would be able to tell people the proper translations of everything. Then Shireen and I walked down to Bella kebab for cheesy chips. There is nothing special about cheese covered fries with garlic mayo, but for some reason they are our new favorite food. They are not as good when you are not enjoying a night on the town, but they did well for our late night snack. Then Shireen, Mark, Tom and I watched Kick Ass in our kitchen. We were all dressed in our comfy trousers, glasses and general lounge wear. We even have a picture to prove how cute we were looking. We completed our movie experience with delicious sweet popcorn and much laughter. It was just a really good bonding night for all of us.

I think tomorrow is going to be another lazy day for us in the flat. I may possibly just continue wearing my comfy trousers. ha ha. We are having dinner as a flat tomorrow though, they want me to experience a traditional British Sunday Dinner. So we will be enjoying chicken, roast, potatoes and vegetables, I think. I'm kind of really excited. Flat meals are always wonderful, and much appreciated! Other than that we have another week of classes and everything starting Monday. And I'm pretty sure we are taking a trip to Liverpool next weekend, but we will find out soon enough. I never really read the info packets, so some of our activities are always a surprise to me. :)

But I think now it is time for bed and recovery from my week of not sleeping and going out too much. But that's what lazy Saturdays are for right?

Cheers!

And we thought things couldn't get any better!

Well... here we are. Being back in Bangor for the few extra days actually ended up being pretty good. It's nice to be home and to sleep in my own bed! And I have found that I'm a pretty terrible backpacker. I really hate living with what I can carry in my bag, but all is good. Our new dorms are pretty sweet, and I'm excited to get to spend my semester here. Our first night here was pretty chill. The ones of us on campus just cooked our own dinner and then we spent some quality time watching Little Miss Sunshine. Now cooking for myself, it's alright. I won't starve this semester. But in all honesty I did call my mom about three times. Also, someone probably should get my kitchen a working light, because cooking in the dark is a really difficult task, and I don't especially appreciate it. But first mission, accomplished!

When we got up this morning though, things had changed... and definitely changed for the better. Since we had to get here about two weeks before everyone else, campus (and really all of Bangor) has been relatively empty and quiet That all changed today though, as the students began to move back. Most of them will be arriving tomorrow though. My quiet little flat will soon be full and I will finally have flatmates! We all met up this morning (well afternoon really... seeing as we didn't get up until almost noon... but whatever). So we got up and were going to head to Bar Uno on campus for some food. We ended up running into some campus groups who were talking to students and handing out food. Yes please! So we chatted with the Christian Union for a bit, they fed us some delicious food, and we ended up making new friends. Then one of the guys we were talking to said he had Linguistic major friends and could introduce us if we wanted. So we headed to Bar Uno with him and met a few people from the Linguistics department. We talked to them for a bit over hot chocolate, tea and coffee. It's so cold here now! And rain all day. I literally  may never be warm again. Ha ha. Just kidding, but quite possibly...

After a while we headed down to lower Bangor for a little bit of shopping and to run to Morrison's for groceries for dinner. We cooked some meat and veggies in aluminum foil. A wonderful, hot dinner on a cold and rainy day! This dinner went a bit better, except the knobs on the stove are not very clear, and figuring out which one actually warmed the oven was hard. Then after dinner we got ready to hit the town and see if things were different with students here. And yes, it is much different... and so much better! We went to Rascals for a bit, and then headed with some of our Welsh friends to the Octagon, where we danced. All in all, a wonderful night.

The rest of everyone will be here tomorrow, and things will really get going then. Freshers Fortnight starts tomorrow. This is pretty much Central Welcome Week. But it's two full weeks activities and things to do. We will be busy everyday, and it may be the best two weeks ever! On top of Freshers activities, we have Linguistics meetings and dinners, we told the Christian Union we would attend some of their events, and we have class registration eventually. Don't worry though, we do start class soon, and it will be good to get back in a schedule and the classroom. But until then, it's a lot of things to do, many places to go, and so much fun to be had. Also, everyone here is so wonderful. The boys are nice and respectful for the most part, and you can actually have intelligent conversation with people who can have intelligent conversation back. Wonderful! :)

Tomorrow is 11,000 new friends and Linguistics dinner. Happy heart. :)

Cheers!

The best made plans...

Well, we made it back from Ireland alright on Tuesday afternoon. We left half of our group at the train station in Dublin to catch their flight to Paris, and the rest of us got on the ferry and continued back to Bangor. Once we got home, we had to move everybody's stuff to their new dorms because we have officially moved to our homes for the semester! It's nice to be in a permanent house and to feel that I can unpack and relax a little. So after tons of moving and a wonderful dinner with Tecwyn and Richard, we had a few free hours to get ready for our trip to Paris. Molly, Lucy, Shireen and I were supposed to fly out of Liverpool on Wednesday afternoon and be in Paris until Saturday morning. Everything was going as planned. We were packed and we even left campus for the train station on time! So we took the train from Bangor to Chester and changed to another train for the remainder of the trip to Liverpool. From Lime Street in Liverpool, we caught a bus to the airport. The trouble started when we got to the airport. We went to check in and find our terminal when we found out that due to air strikes in France, all flights had been canceled. So we talked with the desk people for a bit and found that our only options were to get a hotel in Liverpool and leave the next day, hopefully. That was out of the question. Our Paris trip was a bit pricey, and to lose a day would just be silly. So we opted to just not go to Paris at all. Then we had to decide what to do, stay in Liverpool, or rush to catch a train back to Bangor. We decided to spend the night in Liverpool at the Hatter's Hostel. We stayed there in Manchester, and it was good, so we hopped the bus to the other side of town and got a room for the night. All in all, the drama with Paris and things getting messed up was a good thing. I loved Liverpool! We spent that first night hanging out in the hostel and recovering from all the stress of our day. The next day we saw museums, Albert Dock, and we drank the best milkshakes ever. That night we got dressed up all cute and headed out to see what night life in Liverpool is all about. We headed back to the hostel at about 2 am this morning and had a good night sleep until the fire alarm went off this morning. But after everything we caught the train back to Bangor, and it might be nice to have a few extra days before things really get going here. Freshers week starts so soon, and the schedule for it looks crazy! I'm so pumped though to see Bangor alive with students. So maybe Paris another time, or maybe just some more random adventures in places we never expected to find ourselves...

A Quick Update!

Gah! I feel like it has been forever since I have updated this thing! Sorry to everyone who is waiting to hear that we are still doing things across the ocean! But no worries, we have been busy and we are not slowing down quite yet. So after our two days of fieldtrips in North Wales, we had Wednesday free. We all just hung out for a long time and had some quiet time to process everything that has happened so far. It seems like we have been busy since the moment we stepped off the plane in Manchester, and even a little down time is good. On Wednesday evening, we went into town to hang out with some people that we had met a few nights before. We went all over Bangor, and ended up staying up far too late... but all was good. After a late night of packing and getting ready, we were on the bus heading to Holyhead to catch a ferry on Thursday morning. We took the ferry from Wales over to Dublin, Ireland, and that's where we are right now. Yesterday we had a small tour of the city after arriving at our hostel. Then we had lots of free time to shop and explore. We spent our evening checking out various pubs around town for the best music and dancing. Then we ended up at the karoke bar to sing our hearts out to a group of people we will never have to see again! After another late night, we got up this morning to enjoy breakfast at the hostel before a longer tour around Dublin. We saw Trinity College and the Book of Kells, as well as Temple Bar, The Dublin Wall of Fame and so much more. I will have to just post pictures of everything. Ha ha. Tecwyn left us after our tour of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a few of us made our way back to the National Museum to see the Bog People exhibit. Tonight we are off in search of more live music and possibly some dancing, as well as some traditional Irish food. We leave tomorrow for another 2 days in Galway, which should be wonderful as well! Some of us will be back in Bangor on Tuesday, and we leave for several days in Paris on Wednesday. Almost all of our group is heading to Paris for those days (just seperately), so it should be a fun adventure to travel on our own and not as a guided program trip. But now I think it's time to get ready for another evening in the city that I have fallen in love with over the last 2 days! :)

Friends, Fun and Fire Drills

Yesterday was such a crazy day! We had class with Tecwyn in the morning, and then he walked us down to lower Bangor for some shopping. We all got our cell phones and explored a little. Then we had a really fun meal in the Yate's pub downtown. Afterwards we headed to Morrison's, the grocery store, to stock up on food and everything. It's weird to be completely on our own at this point, but it's lots of fun. We all cooked a delicious meal of pasta and garlic bread for dinner last night. It was our first home cooked family meal, and it was very precious. Ha ha. Then we got ready and headed out for a night on the town with some friends we had met before. They showed us all the good places, and we made lots of new friends throughout the night. Being referred to as "The American" is interesting, but it happens all the time. We got back to Y Borth, our dorm around 3:30am. There was a slight problem with getting up to bed though. Someone had come by at sometime and smashed the door in and it would not open from the inside or the outside. So we talked to the Security Lodge and they eventually got things sorted out and then it was off to bed for some well needed rest. We didn't get very much sleep though before the fire alarm started going off. It did not sound like any alarm we have ever heard at Central, so when I woke up I thought it was definitely my phone making some weird noises. When I couldn't get the phone to stop the noises, I got up and joined everyone in the hallway while we tried to figure out what was going on. We grabbed out keys and shoes and headed outside, just like at Central. We stood out there for a little bit and then we were moved away from the building because a fire truck came and helped to shut off the alarm or something. We got a small lecture from the Security guard about making sure we all leave the building immediately and everything, and then it was back to bed for a few short hours.
Tecwyn's class today was all about our first field trips, which start tomorrow with castles and a tour of a slate mine. Other than that, we are just hanging out this afternoon. Some other Central students who are with the Spain program have come to crash with us for a few days, and we will be heading down to the pier for scones as soon as they wake up from their naps. It is cool to have other people here and to be able to show them around the city and everything.
Besides that everything is going very well, and I'm excited to start going on our field trips tomorrow! It will be cool to see other parts of Wales and to learn about the history behind everything.

Bangor at last.

We have finally made it to Bangor! It was a long trip getting here, but it was all worth it. Today we left the Hatters Hostel in Manchester where we spent last night and we met the last 3 of our group in the airport. A few of us were really tired since we spent a good part of our night talking to our Greek neighbors. We got to dismiss a lot of their misconceptions about Americans, and it was awesome to meet them our first night. Then we took the bus from Manchester to Bangor. So many sheep and castles on the drive over! After we arrived we had to drag all of our luggage to the third floor of our temporary dorm, this is the time I wished I had packed a little less... but it was all good. When we were settled we had a little time to ourselves and then we went on a tour of Upper Bangor with Tecwyn. There are a lot of cool shops and restaurants that we will have to check our throughout the semester. From the sounds of it, Upper Bangor is more of a students village and everyone from the University hangs out there. After our tour we headed back to the dorms for a little more down time. Then it was a short info meeting and our first dinner as an entire group at Bar Uno on campus. Delicious food for so cheap! We also went into town tonight to find something to do. We met some cool people who showed us the places to go and a few of us ended up at Yellow at the bottom of the hill. I have conquered this hill once and I don't know that I want to do it again... but this will be probably a daily trek. We also spent some time as a group tonight playing cards in our kitchen and getting to know each other. We are already so close for only knowing each other since this morning. I think this will be a fantastic semester, and I already don't want to go home. Ha ha. Tomorrow we go downtown and we are possibly going to the pier for scones. Then we are meeting up with some of the people we met tonight for a Bangor Saturday night.