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!
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