Swansea Beach at Night

If I didn't mention this before, Wednesday nights in Swansea are like Friday nights at home. Everyone goes out on Wednesday night. It's odd but I think I'm getting used to it. Anyway, because everyone is just coming back to school this week, there are clubs and parties open and wild every night. Yesterday there were two clubs that were having massive parties; one where you dressed up like an animal and the other in like a school uniform. So I get on the bus, and I see Jeph. That first picture is what he looked like. I opted to go see my friend perform at a bar nearby because I had early class and didn't want to be out too late. Yet we all still missed the night bus, so we walked home from the beach. Here are some pictures from then!

Here's a little taste of my room for ya! Thanks for everyone who has been sending me cards and stuff. I love it!

Miami Beach

Apparently there's like this ginormous snow storm happening in PA today. It had to be like 55 or 60 here because I went jogging on the beach and I wasn't even really that cold. It was a really nice day here, I went to town and got a few things, now I'm at the library checking books out for the weekend train ride. Classes went well yesterday, I think they may be a little difficult but I will manage. I bought these boots today and they are really nice but they make my feet hurt so I might take them back. I took some pictures of my room so hopefully I will post them later today. Other than that, nothing new. I finished my rought draft paper last night and am going to a session tomorrow to edit. Then I will hand it in on Friday, have class in the early morning, and off to Windsor! I will probably end up staying in that area until like Monday, because I don't have class so basically why not. I can just take my reading with me. Cheers!

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day!

I have a friend who is Australian and today is Australia Day, which is kinda comparable to the fourth of July in America. I went out with her for a bit and she explained some Australian history and it was wonderful! I didn't know ANYTHING about the continent really before she gave me the dish. It was extremely interesting..

Off to pretend to write a paper..!

Not a place to take a Bath

Hello All,

So the end of this past week was basically me getting registered for classes. I'm taking three classes:

The History of Screen Animation

New Screen Technologies: Video-Games, Internet, and Mobile Phones

Creativity, the Arts and the Young Child

I have class on Tuesdays from 11-2 and 2-4 (my time, so subtract 5 hours from you), Thursday from 12-3, and Friday from 9:30-12.

I went to Bath on Saturday and from there to Oxford. It was my first time riding a train by myself! The train rides were nice, and the ride from Oxford to Swansea is probably remarkable during the light hours of the day.

Bath is a neat city. Most of the buildings are the same color and much of the architecture looks the same; you don't really find that in the U.S. However, my camera BROKE during the trip so I only have a few photos. Hopefully I can get more from the memory card if it will turn on. I'm borrowing Hiroki's camera until I get a new one :)

I found out that Ang is probably coming to visit in February! I'm very excited.

Anyway, in Bath, we went to the Jane Austen museum but didn't go in because I didn't feel like paying $20 and it looked really small but I went in and can say I was there. Then we went to tea in Sally Lunn's house, which was the oldest house in Bath. Apparently Sally Lunn Buns are famous.

After Bath I took the train to Oxford and spent the next day there. I met some of Hiroki's hilarious friends and saw more of his campus. I mostly just worked on a paper because it is due next week and because I'm going to be away I want to make sure it is done. I start classes tomorrow, wish me luck!

44

Inauguration Day.

Today I watched the inauguration on TV and got my picture taken for the evening post! I was wearing my J-Roll shirt so I was probably clearly American. And I'm gonna be on Welsh TV! The funny thing is, if I were at home, I probably wouldn't have watched the whole ordeal because I would have been in class or at work during it.

Another interesting point- Obama is the 44th president of the United States. 44 is the international dialing code for the UK. How ironic that I am in the UK during the 44th presidential inauguration so that if anyone wants to call me internationally they need to dial 44 before the call? ...Just something I came across.

Aretha Franklin rocked the house. They should have just turned the inauguration into an Aretha Franklin concert. It would have been much more entertaining. Not to mention cheaper.

Yay for new presidents who might actually do something!

I went to class and the beach today. Here are some pictures from today :) Now I am going to eat and maybe go to the gym.

Wandering into Town

Today we went into town and bought a few things. Here are some local Swansea sights. We ate at a Pizza Express which is this fancy restaurant that serves pizza. It was really nice! We saw this cool castle which is seen above. It was such a beautiful day here. It's weird, Swansea is kinda like Florida, in that it rains like every day and then gets sunny out. It's really weird. Today it was raining while it was extremely sunny; it was odd. I bought some cute things and crazy socks and british stuff because after seeing the trendy kids in Cardiff I feel like I need to dye my hair green and get a studded belt.

Tomorrow I have more class and I am trying to get a ticket to Germany to visit Jojo. I love and miss everyone!

More!

Some Oxford pictures! One the train on New Years, Gloucester station, London on New Year's, Oxford in general, me going out.

More Pictures!

Here are a few shots from today also. P.S. British people don't like George Bush.

Some More Pictures

In Order...: 1. The Church we had tea at today in Cardiff. 2. A bunch of us stuffing in a telephone booth at St. Fagan's. 3. A cool picture with us poking out of the trees at St. Fagan's. 4. Cardiff Castle.

January 16, 2009 10:30pm Hello all! I got back a little bit ago from my day trip to St. Fagan's and Cardiff. This is the church that we had tea in earlier today. Both of the places were really nice, and I learned a lot about Welsh and British history. We departed at about 9:15 in the morning, and I fell asleep on the bus ride there. (I must have been tired, because I never fall asleep on bus rides! Anyway, we got there around 10 and went to St. Fagan's, which basically looks like Pennsbury Manor except a little cooler. We took a lot of pictures and saw what Welsh life was like over the past few hundred years. I'm looking to get the pictures online but my computer takes forever to load them. So I am going to try to load them at the library sometime this week, and hopefully this will be successful. A few highlights from St. Fagan's: 1. Trying to fit 4 people in a phonebooth. 2. Taking this really cool picture behind a tree. 3. Seeing cool Welsh stuff. 4. Walking around aimlessly on a sunny day. 5. Not hearing the Patsy Fagan song for once in my life when hearing the name Fagan. Afterwards, we went to Cardiff. Cardiff is a nice city, and I think it's a lot like Oxford. Pretty much all small towns here or "cities" have a town centre and then small streets with shops in them. We went a few places, saw a protest about the Israeli-Gaza situation (British people protest constantly, I've already seen at least 4 protests for this reason), saw the Cardiff Castle, and had some tea in a really nice church. We also saw a museum that had some really excellent science and art exhibits. I always like the art exhibits because they remind me of the art history class that I took. We came home, I bought some train tickets for upcoming events, and now I am here. I really want to add pictures on here but I'm having trouble so hopefully that can happen soon. I met this British boy and instead of "just kidding" they say "I'm telling a lie" and when I heard him say this I started laughing really hard and he looked at me like I was crazy. Then I explained to him that we don't say that in America and he started laughing as well. I can't believe that the Eagles are in the playoffs. With my luck they will probably win the superbowl and the Flyers will win the Stanley Cup.

I'm going to try to add some pictures. Let's see if it works.

mmmmmMMMmmmMMMMmm <--that's me humming.

There's this British song and I have it in my head but I don't know the words or who sings it and I have it in my head.


P.S. There is a club on campus. And it is in the building next to my room. It's 1 am, and if I didn't know what European techno was before, I do now.


Swansea is one of the nicest beaches at night that I have ever seen.

It's Friday already?

I have been at school for a week now. Things are going well, everyone that lives on my floor is really nice. I have class soon so I can't write more but I am having a good time and I'm going to Cardiff for the day tomorrow morning. I hope everything is going well!

First Days in Swansea

January 11, 2009

10:30 am
It's Sunday. I have officially been at school for 3 days now. My arrival in Wales was not as bad as I thought, considering I had a lot of luggage. The train ride was really nice…it must have snowed outside of London that morning because for about a half hour everything was glistened with snow. The countryside was beautiful and I saw tons of sheep and cows. After arriving in Swansea, I got settled in and now am in a room on the ground floor of a dorm. It's good because there are extra bathrooms on my floor because it's accessible, but it sucks because if I were on a higher floor I might have gotten a view of the ocean. My orientation roommate has this wonderful view of the ocean. But! The beach is only literally probably a 7 minute walk from the building that I live in.

I haven't met anyone on my floor yet, there are 5 other rooms. I don't know if everyone has moved in yet because the last term is going through finals now, and they don't start until tomorrow. Yesterday, with orientation, we visited the coast of Swansea, Gower, Mumbles, and Rhosilli, which has this phenomenal view of the coast. I will load and post pictures soon, when I get internet; I found out that we probably won't have internet until Tuesday, because techinically we aren't registered as students yet, and we can't have internet until that happens. The brat lady at the library wouldn't let us use their computers either. Everyone else in Wales is extremely friendly. Much friendlier than in London.

I've met a bunch of people from orientation, surprisingly, most are from the Midwest. Apparently Midwest schools really promote Swansea as a program to go through. Pretty much all of the other American students are living in the student village, which is 2 miles from campus. I'm wondering if I should have lived there, but I really kind of like my location, considering that I'm so close to the beach. Oh yeah, I'm also right next to a hospital. Like literally, 3 minute walk to the hospital.

Other than this I've just been adjusting to the new environment. I can't wait to get internet because I really want to Skype everyone and buy train tickets for all of my events later in the year. If you book train tickets here online in advance they are significantly cheaper.

We have this cool intercom phone system where you can call anyone's room on campus and it's free. This is good because hopefully I won't have to use my cell phone as much as I thought. I'm going into town today to get some things, one of which is hopefully more minutes for my cell phone.

Tomorrow we are starting our orientation at Swansea, then getting registered to the internet. There is a 24-hour turnaround so I'm assuming I won't have it until Tuesday. Take care!

January 12, 2009

4:00pm
I finally got an adapter for my computer, so I don't have to turn it off and on every couple of hours! However, I still don't have internet, and apparently I may not have it until Wednesday because we may not be registered until Tuesday. That's over a week without accessible internet! Yikes.

Today we had a basic orientation from like 10-5 and then I came home and tried to configure the internet for when I do get to use it. Last night myself and a few others went to this student village place where students hang out and they had the Eagles game on! I probably was the only excited person there. I met some Welsh people and we talked about the differences between Rugby and Football, and I basically learned why Welsh people hate the English. I made the mistake of referring to the English as British, when really anyone from Northern Ireland, Wales, England, and Scotland are considered British. I think. I got my orientation schedule for then next two weeks, and we are watching a lot of movies about British culture and whatnot. It's my friend's birthday today, so we bought her cupcakes and are probably going to celebrate for her tonight. I hopefully won't be out too late because I have a library orientation at 9am tomorrow morning. (Maybe I can get my computer set up then!)

So that's pretty much it. I also found out that this Saturday we are going to Cardiff for free through school (I already knew this a little), and the following Saturday we are going to Bath. It will definitely be an interesting time. Talk soon!

6:45pm
I just rested for a bit and now I'm getting ready to go out for the night. I haven't called anyone yet so I don't actually know where I am going. I just figured that in the meantime I'd note some British sayings and phrases that I've recognized over the past few weeks.

-Everyone follows a sentence with, "No Worries". It's quite refreshing.
-Someone was referring to some famous sports player and was like, "He's a leggggend". He asked me if we used that and I said not really.
-"Cheers" follows everything. It can be said in replacement of thank you, excuse me, I'm sorry, and whatever else. I've heard it in all three of those contexts over the past few days.
-If someone is following what you said, they may say, "Is that right?", except usually they say it so fast it takes a minute to register before you can respond.
-Umbrellas can be referred to as, "Umbrollies".
-If you say trash people will laugh at you and have no idea what you are talking about, because they call it "rubbish".
-British people use the c-word and shite a lot. It's like no big deal either.
-Football is soccer. And I think it's spelled differently. When you say soccer, you get laughed at or someone asks you why you call it that when it should be called football because you kick the ball with your foot.
-There's this game that’s called the Six Nations or something like that. It's comparable to our Superbowl, and people get really excited about it here.
-British people pretty much love Barack Obama.
-"Brilliant", can be used virtually in any context to describe something.
-People say "For Christ's Sake" a lot.
-Kids can curse and nobody really cares.


I think that's it for now. Cheers!

London Orientation

January 6, 2009

6:00 pm
Hi there! I am in London on orientation until Friday. On Friday, I go to Swansea and move into my new school! I am so excited. I had a wonderful week in Oxford, saw all of the tourist-y colleges, missed Ang way too much, and pretended like I was an Ivy-League chick for a week. (Just kidding, no one was even there). Anyway, I am now in London and the view from the hotel is absolutely amazing. My roommate is super nice and so are the other students on my program.

10:30pm
We just got back from the first official day of orientation. After the whole safety and introduction to Britain bit, I went to lunch with a few friends at a pub in the train station. We have been taking the subway everywhere and I really love it. It's extremely easy to navigate (even though some people think I am directionally challenged, I am not), and it is pretty clean. We went to this Mexican restaurant after dinner and they played Mexican Radio. . . and now I'm watching a TV show and it's playing the Electric Light Orchestra. Basically in the UK (Which I found out, isn't called the UK, but the whole area including Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, and Scotland is called something else that's really long. The UK only stands for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Britain without Ireland. Also, I found out that the Great in Great Britain is supposed to mean something or other about that it was the greater part of the area.
Although orientation was extremely boring, it did have some "legit shit" (Ang) that was covered which I though was important to know. The previous paragraph is just an example of this.
So anyway, after orientation we went to Camden in London and took a local tour. Just to let you know, Camden is nothing like the Camden that we know in New Jersey. It's like, actually nice. Who would have thought? I'm wondering if all of the areas of England that were inspirations to many names in Pennsylvania are as contrasting as the two Camdens. I want to visit Bristol. . . I wonder if there is a Croydon..? (Just kidding, there's no way I'd go there anyway). There was some really nice scenery and lots of rich fancy houses. We went by the house that Charles Dickens lived in at some point, Nan would be proud. I made sure to take a picture of it but since my camera screen is broken (That's a long story), the picture didn't come out excellent. But it was good.
Camden has a market area that is much like South Street, in that there are crazy trannies and stores that sell things you would find at Rice's. I think it's like South Street, Philadelphia, and Canal Street, New York combined. I got some minutes on Chris'/My phone, (By the way, thanks for the phone Napster!), but I ended up using almost all of it calling home tonight. I think it charges like a dollar a minute, which is why I haven't really called anyone. Hopefully my Skype will be set up next week, and if it isn't I'm definitely going to buy a Skype phone so that I can call everyone for free. I miss everyone a lot, and am already a little homesick, but London is really nice and I'm interested to move into school on Friday.
Tomorrow, more orientation, then going to see the play Billy Elliot at Victoria Palace. On Thursday we have a free day, and then on Friday morning we leave for Swansea. There are three other students here who are going to Swansea with me. Maureen, my roommate during orientation, is from the Boston area and is currently singing in the shower. It reminds me of Ang and it makes me a little sad but it's almost like a small comfort from home. The view from our hotel room is extraordinary. I like cannot get over it.
So today at the panel discussion we had three speakers who were all in British politics and graduated from some fancy ivy school tens of years ago. They talked to us and answered questions about British affairs and how Britain is politically involved in the world. One of the speakers was a woman in Parliament who is the first female black Member of Parliament. I thought that this was really interested, and she was a very intelligent and informative speaker.

I'm not as annoyed by accents as I used to be. I actually think that I'm used to them. I've been in the area for 9 days. I think that's the longest I've ever been away from home.

P.S. In case you didn't know, in England, Milky Ways are called Mars Bars and Milky Ways are 3 Musketeers. That means, if you open up a Milky Way, you are going to eat a 3 Musketeers.

Julia, I heard Akon while walking by a store today.

The music that they play in pubs and in public places is so much better than America so far. In London and Oxford that is. It is American music..I'm sure it will be much different in Swansea though.

I love and miss you all. Until next time, take care! J

Hopefully I will have Skype set up sometime next week and can virtually update everyone!!


January 7, 2009

8:45 am
I finally slept a whole night without waking up in the middle! I just had breakfast in the hotel, they have this ballin' free breakfast in the mornings. It has some weird stuff, like some food Americans would only eat for dinner or lunch, but they also have cool things that we don't have. Today is another orientation day, which is going to be followed by a play during the night. We don’t have anything on our schedule from 2-6, so I'm hoping that I can get an adapter for my computer because I have been borrowing my roommate's because I got the wrong kind. But Arcadia might have planned something so we will have to do that. Well, off to more boring lectures about English things, academics and whatever else, so good-bye!

January 8th, 2009
1:45am
Hello there! So yesterday, as in last night about an hour ago, I had a wonderful day! Let's recap.

1. I don't have internet and probably won't have it until mid-next week. I apologize for not staying in contact with everyone and I miss you all! I am going to an internet café around 11 tomorrow (like 5 am U.S. time), so I'm going to post all of these entries that I have been typing and saving on my computer. I will hopefully get on Skype with a webcam by Tuesday J
2. Thanks to everyone who's reading and wants to stay with my on my journey! I also haven't been able to check my e-mail so I will do that when I get internet next week as well.

Anyway, we had some orientation time today where we met with our Study Abroad Advisor from our university. The lady I had was named Angela and she's this little old British lady who seems really happy, excited and helpful. She was more than willing to answer any questions we had and kept expressing her appreciation for our choice to go to Swansea. It was weird but really nice at the same time. After this, a bunch of us went to the Victoria Albert museum in South Kensington (Again, nothing like the section of Philadelphia…) It was a really nice museum and I managed to sneak onto this internet computer and e-mail my mom (I miss you!). At this time I also saw that I had 27 unread messages in my inbox, which told me that I need to get to an internet café and sort through the mess.

You will be happy to know that I, yes I, navigated us home from the museum. Not like it's that difficult or anything, but I'm so used to people always giving me directions that it was nice to finally have the direction.
Having a direction is great.

Later that night we went to see the play Billy Elliot at Victoria Palace. Beforehand we went to this nifty Italian joint which was really good and we got to walk up these cool spiral stairs to eat. The musical itself was good, there was extremely talented people in it and the child dancers they had were really amazing. They did a lot of tap dancing and I thought that was neat because I have never really seen tap dancing before. Especially by a bunch of 12 year olds.

Even though I knew about this, I am extremely surprised to hear children cursing in a musical and it be okay. The kids were like saying curses left and right and it was no big deal. Why should cursing be a big deal anyway…I mean who actually determined connotations behind words that are considered bad? (This is rhetorical)

The musical had an extraordinary ending that involved this dance routine where all of the actors and actresses danced rather than just stood there and bowed. It was really cool to watch.

After the musical we strolled to a nearby pub, where I ordered some Bacardi drink because I was so thirsty, and it was scrumptious. There were probably about 12 or so of us, so we just got to know each other and asked questions about where everyone was going to school. Most of the people there were going to London or the London area, but my whole Swansea group (There are 4 of us) was there as well.
We left the pub at 11:30 because the subway closes at 12. Also, everything here closes early. One would think the subway would close later because its' so popular, but it doesn't. Tomorrow is my free day, so hopefully I will post my entries and get some other preparatory chores done before leaving for Swansea. I leave for Swansea at 10:00 on Friday morning and will probably get there around 3, but most likely won't settle in until the afternoon. Because we aren't registered students with an ID until Monday, we may not be able to get on internet in our rooms, but I'm hoping and was told that we could probably get on in the library. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get my computer registered early so I can Skype my loves back home. On Saturday, orientation at Swansea starts at 10:00 and it's all day because we are taking a field trip somewhere. We have off on Sunday, and Monday we start more orientation. The Saturday following we are going to Cardiff. I'm excited about that and I'm glad the school is taking us there for free.

So, there's my week, hopefully I will have internet soon, but until then, I'm off!

New Year's in London!

After much debate and indecisiveness, I went to London for New Year's with Hiroki. It was pretty excellent. We rode the train there and there was basically no one on it. The fireworks were way better than I've ever seen, and I think that I have seen a pretty good amount of fireworks. Afterwards, we walked around London and although we were supposed to stay there ended up staying up all night and meeting some crazy Italian girl, Indian and Welsh dude and talked to them for about an hour. Rather than sleep, it was 6 in the morning so we headed up to the bus station. We missed the first bus, and ended up eating waffles and going home. Talk to you soon!