Traveling Far and Wide

Hello world!

 

The last couple of weekends I haven’t traveled too much, but I’ve spent more time seeing local attractions. I met a girl (Nia) in my course (they same thing as we would call major) and she showed me around Cowny. It is such a beautiful town! The castle is breath taking!! I still can’t get over all of the stone around here! It is so absolutely gorgeous!

This last Sunday I also went to Nia’s house to spend time with her and her family! She showed me around Llandudano which is where Alice and Wonderland was written! There were little wooden sculptures of the characters all over the town. We walked down the pier and she drove me around the Orme. It is basically a rock outcropping that you can drive around, it was absolutely breath taking!

It is really nice to be making some friends because slight homesickness is starting to set in. I love it here and I am so excited for all of the adventures that I am taking; I am also going to be extremely sad to leave! My flat mates are such amazing people and I have grown really close to them as well! I have been seeing pictures and videos of all of the harvest festivities back home and it makes me really miss it. This is my favorite times of year back home and it is weird not celebrating very much. However there is always next year!! I’m going to focus on what I have now and celebrate the things that I am doing because I am extremely lucky to have this opportunity!!

This next weekend I am planning to go hike Snowdonia with one of my friends and then there is a food fair later in the day!!! Yes I said FOOD FAIR!!! I seriously can’t wait! I think that I am going to stay the night at Nia’s house that night and then come back on Sunday.

Stay tuned for more Wales Tales!

Cheers!

 

Here are just a few of the differences that I have observed! Other than the accent of course 😉

You may notice a trend with food… again… I LOVE FOOD!

“To be fair” is used as honestly

“See you soon” is the most common parting saying

Lays potato chips are called Walkers

PB and J’s are not really a thing….. what???

There isn’t really any mexican food… their version of a tortilla chip is a lightly salted Dorito!

They sell hot dogs in jars

Toast with baked beans on top is one of the most common breakfasts/ snacks

Ranch doesn’t really exist (cool ranch chips are called “cool original”)

They have a type of food that they absolutley love called yorkshire pudding which is basically fried dough cups that they dip in gravy

 

 

Myself and a girl named Chloe are the only international students in our flat. The rest are from the UK. We now have a complete list of the foods from each of our cultures that we need to show to the other cultures that they havn’t tried. If anyone is an extreme food lover like myself and wants to see the list let me know! I will post about my favorites, but I can post a complete list if anyone is interested! 🙂

It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted. I have been getting settled in to classes and getting into the hang of things. I absolutely love all of classes! The professors are amazing and crazy helpful! All of my classes are two hours long except for one which is like a recitation for my creating writing class which is only an hour. Since the last post I have done a bit more traveling and tried to reign in my travel spending a bit….. not super easy! Honestly that is one of my main goals while I’m here though so as long as I have money for food until I leave then I am good to go!

Our first adventure was to a 500 year old tea house which was only a 45 minute train ride away and so worth going to! It was an impromptu trip, but has been one of my favorites so far. The people there were some of the sweetest I have met so far (which is saying something because everyone is sweet!). We also walked through some beautiful sheep fields and saw the classic countryside. Words can’t even describe the beauty!

Next… To Dublin! I definitely want to go back to Ireland to see more of the country side, but since Dublin was so close and we only had the weekend it was perfect! We toured the Guinness Factory and I am not much of a fan of beer, but the tour was incredibly interesting!! We snuck in on a tour of the Dublin Castle and we saw St. Peter’s Church. The night we got there we went to a little pub called The Celt for a traditional Irish dinner. I got the traditional stew and it was SO delicious!! I haven’t been a fan of lamb in the past, but the Irish have it down to a science. We also ran into a girl and her mom that had come over on the ferry with us (the ferry was amazing!) and spent the night with them listening to live Irish music. The next morning we walked into Dublin from our air B and B (about a 20 min walk) however it was POURING! Totally worth the walk though! We went to O’ Neills Irish Pub to get a traditional breakfast. I ATE BLACK PUDDING!! The one thing I had always said I wasn’t sure I would be able to eat! and I actually liked it a lot! Just goes to show not to turn something down because you are a little unsure about it! We went out in the Temple bar area that might and had a ton of fun! We danced and talked with a group of guys from Amsterdam and we made some more friends!! I LOVE FRIENDS! We got back in at about 4 am….. Europeans always stay out really late! However we didn’t let that cut into our next day! We woke up at 7 to go hiking at Howth. HIGHLY recommend! We didn’t have enough time to hike around the whole thing, but I for sure on revisiting! We came back and rode back on the ferry just in time to get ready for classes the next day!

Last week I traveled to Chester with one of my friends from here for the day and I loved it! It is a very classical old European town with loads of shops and cafes. I have made plans to go back to go look at Christmas lights in November! I can’t wait!

I guess I should talk a little bit about school since I am supposedly over here to study 😉 I love the style of teaching over here. It is a lot more self guided, which is hard to get used to, but it helps a lot more with learning to prioritize and to give more free time to explore other opportunities, instead of sitting in class.

I also love my flat mates! They are all so funny and living in the dorms has been a great experience! I love talking to them about their day and it really does help with adjusting to being away from family! I made a pumpkin pie the other day for all of them and they loved it! They were a little unsure about the texture, but I think with time we might actually be able to spread the pumpkin love enough so demand brings canned pumpkin to Europe! I ended up buying a pumpkin form the store and baking it in order to make the puree. They don’t have our types of flaky crusts pre made here either so I used there tart crust which I think next time I am going to make the crust from scratch. Also the perks of being on campus are also so worth it! I actually just signed up for a free roast dinner (an English tradition every Sunday). I just really love food… the fact that it is free makes it even more incredible!

I have decided to just start posting random differences of things that I notice about here and the states. I will start a new post with just the differences that way I can add as I go 🙂

 

Stay tuned for more Wales tales 🙂

Honestly in my three years of experiencing freshers week I have learned a few things. Firstly, there is tons of free food you just have to know where to be and when. If you are doing it right you should only have to cook a few meals in the first week if that! Secondly, there are TONS of events and it is almost impossible to make it to all of them! Thirdly, it can be one of the most stressful weeks for an incoming freshman. Now I know that I am not technically a freshman, but I have definitely felt like it these last couple weeks. I have been wandering for most of my time here and I am just now starting to find the smartest routes to places, I feel like there is always somewhere that I need to be or I am missing out, and then when you think that everything is all in place that is when it all falls apart.

I went to an event called cheese night which was awesome because basically all we did was go to the local club and listen to throwback music! Who doesn’t love that. The next day I went to the beach with my college and let me tell you, IT WAS AMAZING!! The beaches here are incredible!

Yesterday was the Serendipity event where the students get to tour around and see all of the clubs and societies to see which ones they might want to join and of coarse pick up free food along the way! I basically put my name down for everything and I am definitely going to narrow it down. I think I am going to join power lifting, tea time society, climbing society, surfing and possibly trampoline society. I also think that I am going to volunteer to go on outings with kids and play games with them.

You could say that my life was perfect and that everything was going to planned and falling right into place. That was until I went to turn in my classes. One of them I couldn’t take because it was a year long teaching class and I’m only here for six months and then there were clashes in my schedule and walking from one side of campus to the other and back again. After about 2 hours of rearranging I found a schedule that worked. I ran around this morning getting everything signed and now it is turned in and I can relax! Now time to go get some school supplies and find some free food!

 

Stay tuned for more Wales tales 🙂

Alright you all so I seem to be finding that my time here I have been surrounded by the theme of Dragons. Considering it is the national symbol this does make sense! I absolutely love it!!

Since I last posted I have seen a Dragon… IN REAL LIFE! A castle, which was so incredibly amazing and I want more than anything to design my house like a castle! maybe not as large with a few less stairs. Freshers week has been amazing and the student life is incredible! The peer guides have made it so easy to meet people from my college because we all go out together. We are known for being the “chanters”.  BTW if you ever get the chance to try a cider call the “Celtic Warrior” GET IT! It is amazing! The culture here is so amazing and I love the history! Which brings me to my next topic… classes!

I am planning on enrolling in a class called Princes and Tudors where I learn a lot about the history of Welsh politics. I also plan on taking two Exercise science classes, Sports nutrition and Motor learning. We did a treasure hunt today to tour our campus which I was so excited about because I am slightly obsessed with treasure and scavenger hunts! The staff is so incredibly friendly and helpful! My peer tutor is doing research on how nutrition influences exercise. I have a meeting with him tomorrow and, fingers crossed I can volunteer to help with research! If not maybe I’ll just have to come back for my masters 😉

Stay tuned for more Wales Tales!

 

So it is day three here in Bangor and it already feels like I have been here for so long. I absolutely love it!! I have met so many new people! Surprisingly there are quite a few people from the states! Especially Denver! I have made close friends with a couple of people from there and we have been going to all of the events together. We also met a couple in one of our orientation meetings. one of them is from California and the other is from Belgium. Yesterday was a day filled with walking around. Honestly every day has been. The campus is spread all throughout town, which honestly I really love. We went to go pick up some essentials for our rooms and cooking supplies since we cook all of our own meals. I am starting to get by barrings of where everything is. We went out and got Chinese food last night where I learned that tipping isn’t really a thing in the UK and Europe. Afterward we went to an Asian market that was just across the street and for anyone who knows me will know how excited I was to go into it!! It was incredible!! We made a stop at a very nice bar across the street right after that where we all hung out and talked for a few hours.

 

Today we got an early start and I went for a run through town and found the Pier. It is absolutely incredible and probably my favorite place I have found so far!! At the end of the Pier is a tea room which I will FOR SURE be visiting soon!! When I got back we got registered at the gym and then walked around campus to get signed off on a couple of classes. There was a free lunch in one of the main buildings where we got to meet up with people in our same major and eat FREE food!! Which was a highlight for any college student!! Directly after we made a quick trip to the grocery store which let me tell you for me quick and grocery store don’t usually go in the same sentence, so that was a feat in and of itself! We made it in just enough time to unload groceries and head back out for a lesson on Welsh history!! Spoiler! fun facts to come! Overall this trip has been so incredbily amazing so far and I can even imagine what else is in store for me! I have already created a list of places I want to go and things that I want to see, but if you have any suggestions, by all means comment!! Thank you all for the support!

 

Wales fun facts!

1. Welsh is the oldest Celtic language
2. In Wales there are more castles per square mile than anywhere else in Europe
3. Wales was first conquered by King Edward I
4. Bangor means “church surrounded by a fence”
5. There are about three million people living in Wales and about 11 million sheep
6. Bangor is the poorest city in Wales and that makes it one of the cheapest college towns to live in
7. The Prince of Wales is always the first born son of the King and Queen of England (Tradition started by King Edward I)

Stay tuned for more Wales Tales! Hint… next blog will be more of a dragon tale! Guesses below 😉

After about 24 hours of traveling I finally arrived in the Air B and B that I will be staying in for the next few days. I have met so many friendly people already! One the first plane ride from Portland to Iceland I say next to a girl from Portland that is going to school in London. I got to talk to her about all of her adventures and it made me even more excited for all of the experiences to come!

The Iceland airport was incredibly beautiful! I didn’t spend much time there; after about an hour we flew out to Manchester. The airport there didn’t have much there, but I did find a little cafe where I napped on a couch for a little while. I had about 5 hours to wait so I read and relaxed. The coach picked me up from the airport and we headed out on the last leg of the journey. The trip was about 4 hours and allowed for some catching up on sleep. The air B and B was just a short 2 mile taxi ride and it is an amazing home! I woke up this morning to a very sweet note from the other girl that lives here. I went on a run to take a little look around. I absolutely love this little town already!

Stay tuned for more Wales tales!

Traveling abroad is something that I have been thinking and dreaming about for so long! I have always thought about how amazing it would be to travel around the world and see all the amazing places that I see in pictures, but I never really thought about how it would feel when I would actually do it. Now that it is less than a week away and I am officially making a packing list, it is really starting to sink in.

 

So I should probably be packing but…. nah. I’m a college student and what do college students do better than procrastinate! BLOG TIME!!

I won’t lie and say that I am not nervous at all because I FOR SURE am. However, I am also extremely excited and I know that this is going to be an adventure of a lifetime!! Bring it on world!

“Oh the places you’ll go”

 

 

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