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.