Spring Break: Lagos, Portugal Day 1

Lagos, Portugal was the absolute best place to go for Spring Break. It is essentially a beach/ party town, but with a lot of the small town charm of a Portuguese fishing village.

The first morning we were there, we got up and went down to breakfast at the hostel, which was reported to be the best hostel breakfast in town. It was pretty good, and big enough that we could make a lunch out of it too, which we snuck out in our bags and pockets wrapped in napkins. We all were ready for the beach, and the weather did not disappoint. It was sunny and almost 70 degrees when we left the hostel, heading for the main beach in Lagos that stretches out for miles. We found a spot and settled down for a day of beach lounging. When we arrived at the beach, we were ecstatic; even though the weather in Wales had been pretty darn good the whole semester thus far, nothing compares to sand and sun and sea. We all ripped off our shoes, dropped our bags, and sprinted for the ocean, only to realize it was pretty darn cold. Some of us were smart enough to bring towel type things to the beach (I brought my sarong), but most of us just sprawled out on the sand and got a wee bit sandy. We all did a wide variety of activities while lounging on the beach; I read a fascinating book about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells, Ken and Maria listened to music, Laura napped and read, Sammy.... knitted..

I took a freakishly long walk with everyone except for Sammy and Maria; we were gone a good hour or two, and made it very far down the beach. We passed fishermen, ran a little in the surf, and even did some swimming. When we got back, Maria was completely tan. Amazing. We went back to lounging and ken started digging a hole. We asked him what he was doing, and it was just that: digging a hole. We shrugged, considered it man time, and let him get to it. Eventually I got bored and started helping build a wall around the hole. It ended up being quite impressive: big enough for ken to sit in. When we were all a bit pink from the sun in odd places where we missed with our sunscreen, we headed up to one of the beach bars and had some Portuguese cocktails with brown sugar, lime, and some other delicious things. We then headed back to the hostel for showers and I got my first taste of Portuguese pastries. Let me tell you, they are amazing. We had been talking how we all needed to go on a diet after North Wales, and that simply went out the window. The pastry I got was basically a creme brulee in a pastry shell. it was so soooo good!

Speaking of the death of diets, we had a rule system in place for our trips together, and they have survived throughout the entire time we have been in Wales together.

RULE 1: No complaining once you leave the airport

RULE 2: NO talking about homework of any kind

RULE 3: The PC version: Always use the buddy system

RULE 4: No diet talk.

There are more, but the first three are pretty set in stone, and we did a pretty good job of following them once they were installed.

After our cocktails, we went back to the hostel for showers, then played some "idiot", which is a card game that Sammy, Ken, Laura, and Maria learned from some drunk and very friendly Norwegians in Amsterdam. Then we went to dinner at Casa Rosa, where we did the power hour, which involved drinking as much beer and wine as we could in an hour while eating dinner. Woah. I think we all made it through quite a few pints, and we were quite full of cheer when we left. Ken even leapt up into an orange tree to collect us some oranges. What a gentleman! We then went back to the Hostel and promptly fell sound asleep. Definitely a day of spring break done right.

Spring Break: Getting to the Algarve

Back to Spring Break.... Oy I am never going to finish this!!

Well anyway, on to Portugal! Caitie, Sammy, Laura, Maria, Casey Easley, Ken and I flew down to Faro, Portugal, on the 27th of March. Leaving Cardiff and getting to Portugal proved to be a bit of a fiasco... Sammy even started making a mental checklist of steps we had to accomplish before we were in the clear.

Step 1. Get to the Airport. This proved to be harder then we thought. We walked all the way down to the bus station, forgetting that it was the weekend and the buses to the airport left at infrequent times. In our case, it was leaving far too late, so we had to catch a cab. This was a pain, but we made it successfully to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Step 1. Check.

Step 2. Get through Security. Also something you wouldnt think would be that hard, but Caitie, Maria, Ken and I got stopped because of supposed liquid violations. Actually, everyone was fine, but they were a little bit suspicious of my cans of tuna and individual milk packets that I was carrying around for my future backpacking trip with Jackie. Security. Check.

Step 3. Get our bags on the plane. YET ANOTHER thing that seems pretty easy, but not in the world of budget airlines. As we approached the boarding counter, a line had formed of people stuffing their bags in to the tiny BMI baby baggage limit cages. Dread crept over us. We all had backpacks bursting to the limit, and I have my fairly full hiking backpack to contend with. Casey was the first to take up the challenge, and her bag fit with quite a bit of shoving. When she tried to get it out, it got a bit jammed and she actually broke the little cage, which ended up being a life-saver for the rest of us. We all made it through, even me with my giant bag. I am pretty sure the man took pity on us, as we all shoved our bags about halfway in and looked up with pouty faces. The only casualty was regrettably Laura's kindle, whose screen cracked when she was shoving her bag into the cage. Step 3. Check.

Step 4. Get to Lagos. Our issue here was simple: no busses left for Lagos from Faro late enough, so we had to call a car in advance. We were all slightly panicky because our flight had been delayed a half an hour and it took us another half hour to get through passport check in Faro, and we were worried that the car driver would charge us for being late. Thankfully, we exited customs and saw the sign Samantha Rocks waiting for us. The cab driver was friendly enough, and waited for us to exchange our money before starting out. The drive was pleasant, but when we arrived in Lagos, our driver couldnt find our hostel. At one point, he parked the car and left us sitting there, completely confused. When we finally arrived, we checked in to the Youth Hostel and made friends with the Hostel workers.

Step 5: Learn to say hello and thank you in Portuguese. Well really it was Laura who made friends with the hostel worker. She asked how to say hello in Portuguese, which is conveniently just Hola, and how to say thank you, which is obrigada (sp) or obrigad (sp) depending if you are a boy our a girl. It took us almost the whole trip to learn that if you are a girl, you always say obrigada, no matter the gender of the person you are taking to.

We were very VERY relieved to finally be in Portugal, and we went out to a late dinner at around 9, which is actually quite early for the Portuguese. We found a traditional Portuguese restaurant. I had a delicious fish soup. An interesting thing about Portugal that Laura's bible taught us; even though waiters will put bread out, it isn't free... it costs money, so if you eat it, you have to pay for it. Some Portuguese men laughed at us when we asked if the bread was free, and they imitated our American accents. Oops. The waiter seemed to like us though!

After an exhausting day of travel, we all were ready for bed, so we wandered around the beautiful cobbled streets of Lagos for bit then curled up for a good nights sleep in our squeaky hostel bunk beds.

Meet the Group Mondays! Special FLATMATE Edition, Featuring: Casey Gorman!

Today I will introduce Casey Gorman who have made living in House 26, Floor 2, Flat 2 more bearable and fun.

So here's Casey!

Name: Casey Gorman

Major: Neuroscience

Likes: Running, House/ other tv shows watched fo free on the interwebs, frisbee, Persuasion by Jane Austen, sarcasm, choir, watching rugby, Dr. Who, Welsh cakes (but who doesn't, really?)

Dislikes: the sound of glass bottles breaking when she throws them in the recycling, baseball, awkward tv/ movie characters, overly messy flatmates that dont do their dishes... (that means YOU Margaret! JUST KIDDING hehehehe), the fact that her body wakes her up at 6:15am, misplaced keys

Interesting Things about Casey:

Casey has proclaimed that she missed out on some essential parts of childhood... like camp. She only got to go to camp one year, and it was Science camp, so that doesnt really count. She may be the only person who didn't look forward to summer when she was little.

She works to preserve old books at the Colgate Library, which is as cool as it sounds.

Casey joined the ultimate frisbee team here in Cardiff, and has kicked major ass because she is the captain at home. All the boys on the team have a crush on her, as was told to me by Tom, a member of the kayak polo team and the frisbee team.

When we first got here, someone (I think it was Maria) told Casey that she was the only one in our study group who could pull of jeggings (jean+legging=jegging=horrible abomination of fashion).

We are all slightly envious of Casey's hair, which always looks perfect, even in the Wales wind and rain.

Whenever there is a pause or lull in a conversation, Casey randomly goes: La La La lalala. :)

Casey made us the only people to ever be late to meeting Geier at the bus this past weekend in Swansea. She just HAD to walk around the castle, and then we got completely lost and didn't even get to see the murder scene. (Dont ask, all will be revealed in time)

She was my roommate for the whole trip to North Wales, which was awesome. We had a good time sipping free port and bitching about our boyfriends, and we accidentally got free eggs at the first B&B.

How I met Casey:

Being the unobservant person that I am, I didnt really meet Casey until we were in our flat here in House 26. I went into the kitchen and saw that Margaret was talking about the fact that there were three Colgate students in our flat. I was like "oh! who is the third?" Casey was standing right there and looked at me like I was an idiot. oops.

A Brief Break in Spring Break: How Cardiff Uni works (aka I miss Colgate!)

Hi,

Before I jump into our adventures in Portugal, I will tell you a little about the Cardiff University School system and how it differs from Colgate back home by recounting how I have fumbled through the system for these past few months.

Cardiff University is really quite different from Colgate, which is good and bad. Here, your entire grade for some of your classes is dependent entirely on you final exam. Teachers don't assign homework, and rarely recommend you do any work for their course at all. They instead give a recommended reading list and your learning becomes almost entirely self directed. You can focus on learning things that are of particular interest to you, and learn the material at your own pace. This has certainly unnerved some of us, as we don't know what its like to place all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak. We are used to being led gently through the system, constantly bombarded with work and assignments. Poor Sammy and Laura have 100% of their grade dependent on one 15 page paper for their Sociology classes here, where they would have had numerous other papers, tests, and assignments back home at Colgate.

This system also has very little teacher-student interaction. Classes are large lectures, where the lecturer hands out a printout of all the slides. They tell you what is going to be on the exam and they generally don't ask for student participation. Practicals are essentially laboratory classes, and for my Population Ecology class, some of them are marked, others not. Attendance is taken on a roster and you sign next to a number you have been assigned. For our second practical, I showed up to the lab and couldn't find my name on the roster. I also had no idea what my student number was and was completely confused. I finally figured it out (without much help from my supposed teacher). I had to email about 10 different people, and it left me a bit frazzled.

One week, our lecture got rescheduled and moved; it took me a good half hour and the help of a security officer to find the room. The Bioscience building is a total maze, and again, I felt like I was out of the loop. All the bioscience students know each other, so they communicate and news to each other in their other classes.

My next challenge was learning how to turn in assignments. This also proved to be way more difficult then I expected. We have to get a cover page from the undergraduate office, then turn the assignment in in a red box in a room that is definitely a lab room and also hard to find. Thank goodness I have John Dow in my class, he has helped me maneuver the system, and I would be completely hopeless without his help.

The biggest disaster in my attempts at getting through the Cardiff Uni system without incident occurred a couple of weeks ago. I totally forgot that we had practical, and as usual, no warnings were sent out of any kind. I missed the lab, and in a fit of panic, I emailed the lecture to ask if I could redo it. Of course, I could not, and I believe he felt bad enough for me that he let me do at least part of the write up. I had no idea what sort of guideline I should follow for the lab write up, so I just did it in the style of every lab report I have ever written. Hopefully it will be somewhat what was expected.

The next week, I made a point to make it to lab. We went on a field trip and measured and counted young trees out in the woods. The lab was fun, but very basic and required no deep thinking or lab report because it wasn't counted for a mark.

I am beginning to really appreciate what I had at Colgate. Here, people learn facts about our world, but they don't really learn why things are the way they are. If I was at Colgate and I missed a lab, the professor would want me to complete the lab in its entirety so that I could benefit from the knowledge, not just get the points. Also, we interact and talk and discuss things with our Colgate professors on a daily basis in small classes. Our classmates aren't our competitors, they are, in a way, in the same boat so we help them along as best we can. On the other hand, I really like how much Cardiff challenges me to explore and learn on my own, by making my own mistakes if I must.

Meet the Group TUESDAYS! Special Man Edition, Featuring: John Murmello!

Well after this post, I will have introduced two thirds of the men on this study group. (Dont worry, they love it).

Name: John Murmello

Major: Neuroscience

Likes: old bookstores (well any bookstore, really), philosophers, reading, steak, potatoes, Italian food, the Pope, running, procrastination, beer sampling, Stumble Upon

Dislikes: carrying cash with him, malfunctioning computers, spending money, taking the metro, Milan, the fact that he wont be twenty one when we get back from the states (wah wah wahhhhhhh)

Interesting things about John:

He is on a quest to see the Pope while we are in Europe. The bad news, his first attempt failed because it was Easter Weekend in Rome, which means about two bajillion other people want to see the Pope too. The good news, he's going back to Rome for attempt number two!

John is the resident king of procrastination and is proud of it. He started his last Welsh paper at 5:30 am and finished at 10 am.

He's an Eagle Scout! Casey Gorman went to his induction ceremony. Sweet! And it was Colgate Day! Super Sweet!

He is in EVERY CHOIR on Colgate's Campus. His favorite song that the choir sang last semester was about some creepy rider who lit buildings on fire. Cool song though, I went and heard the choir perform it and it was very good.

John is not looking forward to his job this summer... he doesnt get paid and has to watch videos of rats running around. Thrilling.

The only time he has ever had coffee was when he was finishing his neuroscience final paper. He thought it was disgusting. A true Italian who doesn't like coffee? hmmm... something is wrong with this picture.

In North Wales, John consumed about 8 to 9 servings of potatoes in one day, then declared he was never going to eat potatoes again. Then he ordered cheesy potato wedges the next day.

John went to Amsterdam by himself. That takes guts.

He can give Maria a run for her money in book reading speed.

How I met John:

Wales study group of course! I had no idea who any neuroscience majors were before I got here, now I know three! Its like seeing rare animals in the wild.

Living in the Big Machine

So I may have mentioned the class Professor Geier is teaching: Science, Technology, Progress and Change. So far, the class has been amazing; we have analyzed the history of technology, explored some society changing but less known technologies, and uncovered a rich technological culture that was right in our backyard.

We are now reading Rebels Against the Future and it has so far been my favorite book we have read. It tells the tale of the Luddites, a group of weavers who destroyed weaving machinery because the large factories being created left and right were taking away their jobs and their livelihoods. We couldn't have started reading the book at a more opportune time. Have you ever felt that a series of events combine gracefully to teach you some sort of profound lesson? Well it certainly feels that way to me.

We have been doing class presentations these past two weeks on the latest and greatest (or not so great) technologies of the modern age. We have covered gene therapy, bionic eyes, tidal power, hybrid cars, and cryogenics. Each discussion we have had has themes that are pervasive; our impact on our environment, our dependence on our technologies, our increasing ability to alter the very fabric of biology and nature, most of the time for the worse. We are painfully dependent on our fossil fuels; our discussion on hybrid cars left us all seriously doubtful of a car-free society and our ability to seriously alter our lifestyles.

We have been learning so much about how technology has improved life for the better; the ability to synthesize Nitrogen from its elements has allows millions of more people to be fed. And yet, as we have begun this new book, and even before, we have all been getting the sneaking suspicion that we do not have the freedom we thought we did. I read the Introduction of the book and got the chills: ithrough the words of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein talking to the scientist, "You are my creator, but I am your master." We are controlled and surrounded by the machines of everyday life, and their affect is profound and unnerving.

No example of this dependence is more poignant than what as been on the recent news. As if a sign from the heavens, Eyjafjallajokull blew ash into the sky and shut down the airline industry for 6 or more days in Europe. Chaos reigned as thousands of people became backlogged in cities all around the world. The volcano affected crop sales in Kenya, where bananas withered without European banana lovers to consume them. The airline industry lost millions of dollars a day as people clammored to find other ways home. But through all the chaos, people learned something. A man who lives miles away from the Charles de Gaulle airport in France noticed how calm and peaceful his nights were without the sound of jet engines. People were forced to find new ways to travel, and inadvertently made friends with those who were also on cross country odesseys. The beauty of the European countryside was no doubt introduced to people, and its vastness, as women and men drove hundreds of miles to pick up stranded husbands, friends, family.

I have become more and more aware of the way I am trapped within the big machine. Though I wasnt trapped anywhere per se, I had to cancel my trip to Paris. Instead, I stayed here and typed on my computer, a device I am practically glued to a lot of the time. Even though I interact face to face with my study group buddies all the time, I spend hours gchatting them even though they are a five minute walk away. It seems as if the real world is falling away and my life is being reduced to my facebook profile, my email account, and this blog. No wonder I feel the intense need to get out into the woods every weekend. It is weird how we can go an entire week here without havinh human interaction if you so chose. The professors lecture with a microphone and a powerpoint. You turn in assigments into a red box, with your ID number attached to it. Vending machines give you food, ATMs give you money, weird check out machines take your money so you can take your groceries.

I am also reading a book called Blessed Unrest, which is quickly becoming my favorite book. It basically outlines why the environmentalist movement is the same as the social justice movement and is the same as the Luddite movement that I am now reading about for class. As Technology progresses, machines begin to control us; we are slaves to factories, we must keep things running because if we dont, everything will collapse, or so we think. And yet, what has technology really done for us? Yes, modern medicine has done wonders for the sick and suffering, but unemployment is the highest it has ever been. Is it really progress if no one is working and everyone is feeling as though they have a no place in the world, no purpose?

I don think its a coincidence that I feel the most complete, calm, and in control when I am in the great outdoors. It is where we are meant to be, and we are quickly trashing our environment to feed the Big Machine. I dont mean to make a political statement or anything like that with this entry, its just interesting to think about. I feel that I have been woken up from being stuck in the Matrix or something, its a bit weird.

Spring Break: North Wales Day 6

Recycling bins at CAT

I promise I will post pictures with this eventually. North Wales is incredibly beautiful and I love picture books, so no story is complete without some visual aids.

As Professor Geier put it, all good things must come to an end. The last day of our North Wales adventure was spent primarily riding the bus back to Cardiff with one stop at the Center for Alternative Technology. The drive was beautiful, as usual, and it got me to thinking more and more about our impact on the world. The UK (and Europe) has been overrun with people for thousands of years, and the impact is visible in the landscape. You cannot escape civilization, even in the seemingly rural and rustic Wales. The rocky hills are dotted with sheep, walls, and fences. The whole lanscape partitioned into little squares that awkwardly try to put borders on mountains. The image of the slate mine will never leave me... truly a "stolen mountain," cut out into little steps of black stone.

The center for alternative technology offered a slightly more positive view of the world, and it was a very enjoyable place. When we got there, we had to climb a long flight of stairs to get to the buildings and displays. Half the study group took the stairs at a run because we all desperately needed to pee. We spent 2 hours there happily wandering among interactive displays that explained how green technologies work. It was another beautiful day and the displays were fun. The whole complex was really interesting; they offer classes where you can stay in an eco friendly dorm and learn all about compost, wind energy, solar power, and on and on. The gift shop was also great; I got some really need gifts for the parents, and they had a lot of books on the environment.

After CAT, we had lunch in the nearby town. I got a goat cheese sandwich at the vegetarian cafe hosted by CAT. It was amazing! We then got back on the bus for another two hour bus ride home to Cardiff. Overall, it was an amazing trip. I feel like I am being taught how the world works, which is an overwhelming yet amazing feeling.

Spring Break: North Wales Day 5

Beautiful North Wales
Slate Museum molds
Eric splitting slate
Sammy going nuts for knitting
The finished product at the woolen mill

Back to the action.

Also, today marks the third month anniversary of our stay in the UK. While procrastinating on the Internet, Ken discovered that January 19th, the day we arrived in the UK, is judged as the most miserable day of the year. Awesome.

Day 5 of our trip was our last full day in the Caenarvon. We started out the day with a tour of a woolen mill, which was fascinating. The man who gave us the tour was soft-spoken and hard to hear, but he was a woolen mill worker so he knew his stuff. He turned on all the machinery and it was really cool to see the wool go through the process that turned it from puffy white wool to a throw pillow. The most impressive part was the looms, which I still have trouble wrapping my head around how they work.

We then had lunch in a cute town, and got ice cream afterwards in honor of the beautiful sunny day we were enjoying. Our next tour was of the Slate Museum, which exceeded expectations. We got a brief tour by a carpenter, who showed us why carpentry was so important to the slate mining industry. My favorite part of the tour was when he explained to us how making cast iron machinery parts worked. Wooden molds were delicately carved by the carpenters, then are embedded in sand. The molds are removed and molten iron poured into the space left over. The museum boasts rooms and shelf after shelf of these carved molds. SO COOL! We then watched a movie and had a slate splitting demonstration by a man who had worked in the slate mills since he was very young. He showed us how to split the slate, and then let Eric try it. Apparently, this is such a fragile art that it is STILL done by hand; no machine has the finesse. Eric did a great job, but it was harder to do since he was left handed and maybe not quite as strong as our demonstrator. Everyone had a great time and Eric even got a little souvenir: a slate circle hand cut by our demonstrator.

We headed back to Caenarfon, where we had dinner together (minus the Geier family) at a Thai restaurant. After that, we went to a local pub/bar to celebrate Paikin's birthday and play cards. Kristi, Sammy and I wanted desert so we walked over to a restaurant and ordered some. It was a few minutes before we realized that everyone in the room was speaking Welsh except for us. When we left, an older man yelled "Nos Da!" (goodnight) to us, and Kristi responded with "Shw mae!" which means hello. The whole bar started laughing, and we debated going back inside and trying to speak some Welsh. We chickened out though. It was really cool to see young and old people alike using a language that people consider to be dying. Well its not dying, its alive and well.

We got back to the B&B and watched Mulan. Paikin came back slightly tipsy from his birthday celebrations, and proceded to sit on the top of the couch with his computer on his lap taking MCAT practice test and whispering about electrophiles while watching Mulan.

Meet the Group Mondays! Featuring: Maria Baimas-George!

Hello!

Time to take a brief break from the North Wales adventure to introduce.... MARIA!

Name: Maria Baimas-George

Major: Biology

Likes: animals, especially homeless ones, wine, reading, coffee, coloring/ drawing, collage making, Gladiator, Harry Potter, sports (rugby, football, everything!)

Dislikes: tomatoes, Lets Go Europe (aka the bible), and not much else

Interesting things about Maria:

Maria has joined the Korfball team here in Cardiff. For those of you who dont know what korfball is, its a dutch game and is a lot like American basketball. She has thrown herself into it completely and practices every wednesday with the team even though the practices are intense and there is a weird mean old guy. She is going to Amsterdam for a tournament with the team!

Maria can get a tan line in literally 5 minutes. Must be because of her Greek heritage. We were all green with envy in Portugal. Actually we were red because we were sunburned.

She loves to give people nicknames: Sammy is Sam, Jackie is Jack or Jack attack, I am Call or OE... actually she just shortens everyone's name to one syllable.

She reads books INCREDIBLY fast, and loves the longest, fattest books she can find. No wonder she loves Harry Potter so much!

Maria drinks wine with every meal- family tradition! She also eats really fast, though apparently she has slowed down considerably since freshman year. Jackie told me about Maria's legendary speed eating.

Maria loves doing random acts of kindness beyond just feeding stray dogs and being friendly to everyone. When someone is feeling blue, she is the best person around to cheer them up. When Caitie decided not to go to Paris this past weekend because of the Volcanic Ash Cloud of doom, Maria bought her a crosant from a bakery to make her feel better.

How I met Maria:

Maria "met" me through Spencer, our mutual friend. What I mean is, she learned about me and decided she liked me before I even met her ( which is lucky for me that it wasnt the other way around!!) She kinda freaked me out when we officially met, because it seemed she already knew me really well. Now we do know each other really well, and I hope she still likes me as much as she liked the idea of me!

Spring Break: North Wales Day 4

Telford suspension bridge
Celtic burial grounds
Maria being concerned for the baby lamb.
Jump shot in the town with the worlds longest name!

Day 4 of our North Wales trip is certainly one that will live on in infamy. What made this day so... interesting was the fact that it consisted of two THREE HOUR TOURS ( Gilligan's Island tune in the background). I exaggerate, they were really only two (or so) hours long, but it was a marathon.

The first tour of the day was of Conwy castle, an impressive structure built for King Edward I as he attempted to conquer all of the UK. Our tour guide, Neil, was incredibly knowledgeable and told us all about how the castle was fortified against attack but also outfitted to be a pleasant home for the King should he decide to visit. The castle was the most complex castle I have ever been to, but also the best explained. Neil told us about the 7 layers of defense that protected the main gate from attack. There are little holes the archways so that soldiers can shoot high speed darts directly into invaders. There are also "murder holes" directly above the main gate, so nasty things can be dropped onto invaders if they manage to get that close. The castle was completely thought out, no detail forgotten. We learned that the bread oven is on the first floor so that the heat dries the stones of the castle walls and so that the rooms above it smell like bread (early air freshener!) When we thought the tour must be about near an end, Neil tood us down to the small Telford suspension bridge that spans the river right up to the castle. Neil is not a fan of this bridge because Telford found the need to knock down part of the ancient city wall and part of the castle to put the bridge where it was. We were now SURE the tour was over, but Neil kept going. He brought us to a church and then beyond to his favorite lunch spot, where he finally took his leave.

This left us with very little time to get lunch in the town, so most of us just joined Neil at the pub and ordered cheap soup and sandwiches. We joined the rest of the group and the Geier's. We beat the Geiers to the bus because Geier's sons wanted to go back to the castle and explore it more... apparently they have a list of castles to visit in Wales and are determined to see all of them. We then drove to the island of Anglesey, known as the heart of Wales because of its agricultural contributions to the mainland. We went to a shabby but homey little museum dedicated to the two great bridges that span the Menai straights. There, we donned neon yellow vests and set out on our second two + hour tour. We walked across the bridge, stopping every few yards so that our tour guide could educate us. Unfortunately, it was extremely windy on the bridge and most of us just huddled together to endure the wind rather than listen completely to our guide. When we made it to the other side, we crossed back over and were sure that our tour was close to being over. However, we went down below the bridge, out back, around, through, and finally back to the center. By that time we were all exhausted and fairly cranky, but we tried not to show it.

Our next stop was an ancient Celtic burial ground set back from the road a bit down a peaceful path. When we arrived, we realized that three lambs were stuck inside the fencing that surrounded the burial ground. We were all distracted by the plight of the lambs and their moms, who were baaing in a very distressed manner. We tried to herd the lambs out, and two of them squeezed under the fence when we approached them. The one that couldnt get out had brown spots and was running back and forth with its mom right behind. Maria and I were both really bothered by the stuck lamb, so I tried to let it out by opening the gate. I didnt get far before Professor Geier yelled at me not to mess with it. Needless to say it put a damper on the burial ground, which was really just a mound of dirt.

The next burial ground we visited was a bit more exciting. Even though we couldnt go inside, it was practically hanging off into the ocean and it was a spectacular view with the sun low in the sky. We frolicked in the ocean and chased the waves until Eric (Professor Geier's son) fell down in the water and got a bit wet and sandy. We then tried to get the sand off of our shoes the best we could before tramping back on to Dave's coach.

Our last stop of the day was the fair town of Llanfairpwllgwyngogerychwryndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch for dinner. We did the whole touristy photos in front of the really long train platform and gift shop, then went to dinner early, as there is nothing to do in LlanfairPG (as I will call it from now on so I dont have to type out the whole name ( and yes, I have learned to say the whole thing)). Dinner was awesome, especially desert. I got sticky toffee pudding and it was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten! Then it was back to Caenarfon, where we watched Shawshank Redemption and knitted. We all brought our computers to pretend to do work, but that didn't really happen...

Spring Break: North Wales Day 3

WEEE im really churning out the blog entries now. I love to reminisce about the fun times I shared with the Wales study abroad group... what an awesome group of people!

Anyway, day three of the North Wales trip...

Sammy, Ken and I decided to work off some of the calories we had been consuming by running every morning. I have learned (though have rarely put it to practice) that running is a great way to see a lot of a town in a short period of time. We went running every morning we were in Caenarfon, and we found a lovely road that is sandwiched between the ocean and some sheep fields. When you turned back, you coud see the impressive Caenarfon castle behind, with sailboats and pretty pastel colored buildings on either side. That first day though, Ken put us through our paces and made us run up stairs. ugh.

We returned to the B&B for breakfast, which was absolutely amazing; the eggs were always perfect and the porridge was delicious. I have become such a porridge fan since being in the UK, and the B&B porridge was the best EVER. We had the morning to wander around the town, so we all went to Caenarfon castle and explored the grounds. I think professor Geier was proud of us because we all were at the castle before it opened. The castle was fun, as they all are; we ran up and down the ramparts and took way too many pictures of us posing to shoot arrows out of windows. The place was completely flooded with french students, which was a bit alarming. Maria kept yelling Vive La France! from the castle walls.

After the castle, we found the local knitting store, and at least 6 of us purchased more wool. I got some to start a hat for Jack. I think we overwhelmed the lady who owned the store. We wandered around a bit and Laura, Sammy, Ken and I went to a cute tea shop for lunch. I got delicious welsh rarebit (which is essentially an open-faced grilled cheese with beer).

We then joined the rest of the group and headed to Llamberis, home of mount Snowdon and a large Hydroelectric power plant called Electric Mountain. We checked out the extensive gift store, then went on a guided tour of the plant, which involved wearing very fashionable hairnets (which we put on well before the tour for fun), and watching a hilarious movie on why the plant is so important. Apparently, the plant's main purpose is suplimenting the grid with electricity when there is increased demand. The example they gave was during the last world cup, people in the UK would all turn on their electric kettles at the same time to celebrate a goal or during a commercial break. At the plant, it was one man's job to predict when the surge in energy from the electric kettles would occur, so that the generators could be powered up in time. Failure to do so at the right time would mean a loss of energy and money or a catastrophic black out. The rest of the tour was not as impressive, even though the plant itself was really interesting. The tour guide was not very enthusiastic. We learned how the power plant generated water, and about the economic and ecological impacts of the plant. Apparently, an entire species of fish was removed from one of the lakes that is part of the power plant system and introduced elsewhere. Weird.

We gathered together after the power plant tour and discussed the rest of our day; it had been pretty miserable weather all day, and we had been scheduled to climb part of mount Snowdon. Geier took a poll and of course, only Jackie and I wanted to attempt the climb. Eventually Sammy and Laura joined us. The walk was very windy and rainy, but fun nonetheless. Im sure we looked like a motley crew, as we were hiking in jeans and tennis shoes and were wearing cheap plastic ponchos. We turned around early after taking some fake peak shots to confuse our study group mates, and headed down, happy we at least seen some pretty views of Mt. Snowdon.

As we walked into town, we realized that barely anything was open... it was a bit like a ghost town. We looked for a tea shop but couldnt find anything. We then went to check out Pete's Eats, the place where we were supposed to meet the group for dinner later. Professor Geier walked out and seemed overly happy to see us. Apparently, he had been calling us to see if we could come back early because there was NOTHING to do in Llanberis. Everyone had been sitting in Pete's Eats for the past hour playing cards, since the town doesnt really open up until the hiking season in the summer.

Pete's Eats was a great little establishment. Its main purpose is to feed hikers with as much greasy good food as possible. We got a massive amount of food, served to us by a boy of about 12 who was apparently just getting used to the job. He was cute, but never really told us what he was bringing out until we asked him what he was holding. I think he thought we were odd for ordering so much food.

When we got back to the B&B, we all cuddled together in the living room and watched the Lion King while singing along to the songs and knitting. We are SO cool.

Spring Break: North Wales Day 2

Oh boy, this is going to take a long time! Its a good thing I will be needing ways to procrastinate.

My North Wales roomie Casey and I got up bright and early in our day in Llangollen to walk around after a delicious breakfast with free eggs (we didn't realize we had to pay for them, but the B&B owner just shrugged it off (people in Wales are SO nice!!)). We wandered into a very weird looking garden complete with a very ornate house and shrubbery carved into odd shapes. We felt like we were trespassing, but it was beautiful so we followed a path down by a little stream with fairy tale bridges and an old healing well type thing. We later learned that this was the home of two women who decided to live together, and now their house is a museum because there was a lot of mystery surrounding their lives. We then wandered well down a country road past sheep fields almost heading into the hills.

When we returned, we loaded up our stuff into our coach and set off on a study group hike up a hill to the ruins of Castell Dinas Bran. As soon as we got to the top it was like we entered a wind tunnel, but the ruins were like a giant playground. We started running all over the place, climbing up on the ancient castle walls (probably illegally, i wonder what professor Geier thought of us desecrating a national heritage site). The rain started but the beautiful view of Llangollen was unavoidable. We sat perched on the rocks for a good amount of time, just enjoying each other's company. Many a good group photo resulted from that adventure.

We had some freetime to wander around the town, so Casey, John and I explored a giant used bookstore then grabbed some lunch. I had a bit of a feud with the cafe ladies; Casey and I ordered soup, and it came in paper cups, which was a bit confusing. When we sat down to join John, a woman came over to us and told us it costs more to eat in. I offered to pay the difference, but was told that it was another 4 pounds to sit there. I figured we would just leave, but John had ordered to sit in. We left with our cups of soup and John joined us after figuring out what to do with the Cafe ladies. I was annoyed, and it was raining, but the soup was delicious (even though we had to eat it in an alley). We then wandered to the site of the International Eisteddfod, an annual music, poetry and literature competition held in Llangollen. It was a bit underwhelming and under construction (and still raining) so we didn't stay long. We ran into Jackie and Paikin and went to have some afternoon tea at a nearby tea room (clotted cream!!!!!!!!!) after checking out a great local art gallery and drooling over the white water kayaking companies.

We got some fudge and hopped back on the bus for the drive to Caernarfon, stopping on the way at the Pontcysyllte aqueduct and the horseshoe falls. At the aqueduct the sun finally came out, and we enjoyed ourselves by making jokes about sticking various people into the aqueduct to see how deep it is. The aqueduct is a feat engineering, as it is one of the tallest, and it definitely gave us vertigo as we walked across. Specially made aqueduct boats also cruised past us, which was really cool.

The drive to Caenarfon was beautiful as well, and I was very jealous of the HUNDREDS of white water kayakers I saw along the way. We checked into our adorable B&B in Caenarfon when we arrived, then went to dinner where we ate enough food to feed a small army. Literally. We had been pre-ordering our food in our class periods prior to the trip, and since we had a 20 pound limit, we tried to order 20 pounds worth of food. Well 20 UK pounds of food is about equal to 20 pounds of food (as in the weight). We never quite got it right; some meals, we got about three salads because we didnt realize our meals came with a salad. I think I literally staggered home to bed every night.

Spring Break: North Wales Day 1

Hello,

I will now attempt to recount all the crazy adventures that I went on with my fellow study group buddies ( and the Geier family (and Dave, our coach driver)) in North Wales. This trip was a week long, and its purpose was to get to know Wales better and get to learn more about technology, since that is the topic of our class led by Geier in Cardiff.

We started our journey bright and early on Sunday, March 21st (SO long ago!) by meeting the Geiers and Dave in the parking lot outside of our residence area. We have been trying to beat the Geiers to this meeting spot every time we go on a group excursion, but we always fail. If the meeting time is 8:45, we get there at 8:35, but we never manage to beat the bus there. It became a bit of a competition with the Geiers (unbeknownst to them), and we only managed to beat them once, and it was to dinner. This story sets a theme for the whole trip: Professor Geier's ability to be hyper organized, and our ability to center our lives around eating.

Our first stop of the day was Big Pit National Coal Museum. We got there and promptly suited up for a tour of the mines by a man who had previously worked in the mines. We crammed ourselves into the lifts with out heavy battery packs and helmets with headlamps and descended through down the mine shaft. Our guide told us the lifts usually ran much faster back in the mining days; I thought it was plenty fast enough with us tourists in it. When we got to the bottom, we heard the other half of our group laughing in the lifts; apparently the miner in that lift found Maria hilarious because she had a cousin who lost his/her hearing from an ear infection. Random.

The tour was great. We learned all about how coal mines used to work with the help of our mini assistant tour guide, Professor Geier's son Eric. He was used as an example to explain how young boys used to have to stand in the dark and open and close doors for miners to get through. He did a great job opening and closing doors for us the whole tour and also demonstrated how the miners communicated by connecting a circuit with a metal bar that makes a bell ring. We learned that horses were kept underground and were treated better than the miners since they didnt have to be paid. We also learned about how they used lamps to test for dangerous levels of methane gas. It seemed like a safe place at first, but as we went along on the tour, we learned of all the dangers and hazards associated with mining. Despite the fact that it was backbreaking work and very dangerous, the miners who gave us the tour remembered their mining days with pride and nostalgia. This painted a different picture of what we always thought of when we thought of mining.

After the tour, we wandered around the grounds and enjoyed the sun, and Professor Geier laughed at my new sunglasses ( which are awesome). We went to a display on modern mining, which was pretty goofy with flashy displays showing us the modern, scary looking machines that are used to mine. We also checked out the mine baths, which were an essential addition to mines later on; they prevented the miners from going home filthy, which made a huge difference to the wives.

After roaming, we had lunch at the "canteen." i had greasy fish and chips and apple pie with A LOT of whipped cream. Sammy got her apple pie and turned around to tell us that the serving girl was her new best friend (because of the whipped cream). The girl heard and laughed.. I bet that comment made her day.

We went to a really well preserved Ironworks after the coal mine. No one was really in the mood for learning, so we goofed around in the workers cottages and pretended to sell each other plastic bacon at the fake mine shop. The shop was really quite sad though; miners and ironworkers were forced to buy their food and supplies at the shop, but the goods were vastly overpriced. We also climbed around into the blast furnaces even though we werent supposed to, and then we made paper planes of our maps and took naps out in the sun.

When we finally piled onto the bus for a 3 hour drive to Llangollen, everyone was ready for a nap. We all started out with good intentions: reading, knitting, enjoying the scenery, but we all started falling asleep, one at a time, until I think I was one of the only people still awake. The landscape was beautiful, and when we arrived in Llangollen, mist was hanging over the valley and the sun was setting over a pretty river that ran into the town. We arrived at the B&B and were absolutely thrilled at how beautiful it was! Casey and I were so excited that we locked ourselves out of our room. The rooms were huge and very comfortable, with free port for us to try and an amazing breakfast.

We met up with the group and had an amazing dinner at the Greenbank restaurant where the server made fun of us for not ordering alcohol with dinner. Apparently we dont make great university students. Dave the bus driver sat with us and regaled us with stories of other groups he had driven around. He has driven a coach everywhere!

Meet the Group TUESDAYS! Special Man Edition, Featuring: Ken Schmidt!

Introducing one of three of our study group men! yay!

Name: Ken Schmidt (DONT call him Kenneth, Kenny, Big Ken or any other variation...)

Major: Biochemistry

Likes: playing rugby, comedians, lasagna, watching rugby, traveling with a large contingent of girls, explaining rugby, beer brewery tours, rugby gear, digging holes, frat house life.

Dislikes: certain kinds of nuts, fish, traveling with a large contingent of girls, tomatoes, creepers.

Interesting Facts about Ken:

Ken is the study group body guard, and is essentially our protector whenever we brave the clubs in Cardiff or anywhere else. He takes is job very seriously; he yelled at a girl who was being rude to Sammy, informed us of creepy guys checking us out in Portugal, and subtly moved Kristi out of the way of a oncoming creeper. Thanks Ken!

Ken has moved from his DU frat house back at Colgate to a quasi frat house in his Cardiff flat. He lives with a crazy group of guys that vacuumed a can of baked beans into "Henry" the vacuum cleaner (because he was hungry!), play knifey (which involves throwing kitchen knives at a corkboard, and do odd science experiments like grow mold in a jar.

Ken has a friend from home who once was in dire need of aloe... and called out to his mom "MOM where is the aloey?" (pronounced aloe+E) It became our trademark inside joke in Portugal.

Ken really wants to buy 15 wooden swords for each of us so we can stage and epic mock sword fight in one of Wales' 2000000000000 castles.

Ken cracks a lot of jokes in class. One of our favorites is when he added a nasal mutation to his home town of Buffalo, making it Fuffalo. Our professor Walter had no idea what we were laughing about.

How I Met Ken:

Ken and I were study buddies way way way back first semester of freshman year. We sat together in class and I complained a lot about how much I hated chemistry. We would meet before every test in the cafe of the Library and attempt to study. I was pretty lousy at it, so the forced studying was good for me!

Meet the Group Mondays! Featuring: Laura Bostwick

Name: Laura Bostwick (or L Boss)

Major: Sociology

Likes: babies, crazy colored sunglasses, her blackberry, brick breaker, saving lives with Sammy, wearing her birthday suit, all kinds of frolicking, guidebooks

Dislikes: onions, snakes, being underground, grates in the sidewalk, dead things (especially if they are in grates under the ground!!), physics

Interesting Facts about Laura:

Laura went to boarding school, where she went through a hippie phase and frolicked about in the woods often.

Laura suffers from a chronic disease that we call baby fever; she often tries to steal cute small children that have british accents. Or just any kind of cute child, really. I first learned of this ailment when we were looking at a rugby store and she started gazing longingly at the adorable baby clothes with Welsh rugby sayings on them.

Laura is the L Boss of SOMAC. yeah saving lives. No big deal.

Laura has recently been mourning the loss of her beloved kindle. While trying to stuff her very very full backpack into a BMI baggage restriction bin on the way to Portugal, she cracked the screen. Well, at least she avoided paying the 30 pound baggage handling fee... stupid budget airlines!

Laura led us around Portugal with her "bible", which is essentially her Lets Go Europe guidebook. She learned that there is a wine in portugal known as vinho verde, which we all took to mean green wine. On one of our last days, we decided to try green wine and learn once and for all how it is made. Well when Laura asked if the wine was actually green, the man who owned the wine tasting bar told us that "we had a confusion.." The wine is not actually green, it is from a certain region of Portugal where it gets its name. oops.

How I Met Laura:

I met Laura first through Sammy, and I was pretty sure she didn't like me at all... until I learned that she is self-proclaimed at being bad at making friends. (Just to add on.... Laura has no memory of our meeting)When we arrived in Wales, we became instant friends because it is eerie how alike we are in some regards (its also eerie how awesome she is.) We spent a couple of extra days in Portugal wandering around a bit and we had an awesome time!

AND we're back. A summary of Spring Break

Hello everyone,

I am sorry for the long break in my blogging; we have been on a gloriously long spring break here at Cardiff Uni. It was really a great break, and not really a break at all. I learned a lot and was constantly busy (and often stressed). Our journey started in North Wales for a week long study group trip. It was magnificently organized by Professor Geier and everyone had a wonderful time eating our way across our beloved host country. Next, I set off with 6 study group mates, Sammy, Laura, Maria, Caitie, Ken, and Casey, to Portugal. We arrived in Faro, went to Lagos, tanned (so to speak) on the beach, then bussed up to Lisbon, the capital. 4 of our group mates jetted off to France, one went back to the UK to meet with her family, and another went to Turkey with her mom a few days later. I met up with Jackie and her wonderful family in Heathrow in London, then took a bus, a subway, a train, and another bus to Keswick in the Lake District. There, we hiked for several days and enjoyed the magnificent scenery (through the rain). Then Jackie went to meet the France contingent in Switzerland and I went home to Cardiff to meet up with my mom and my aunt. We drove around to Gloucester and Stratford-upon- Avon, both beautiful towns, the former boasting a filming spot for Harry Potter, the latter, the birthplace of Shakespeare. Then it was back to Cardiff and a pile of homework for me.

Whenever I need a break from my labors I will flesh out the story of my spring break even more, but for now, I better get to work. It was an absolute treat to travel with just my study group mates; we had fun wherever we went and we all had a wonderful time. As incentive to tune back in, there will be lots of stories about our penny pinching attempts, green wine confusion, burnt feet, failed portugese diet, tram roller coasters, epic blizzards, passover hiking, a quest for a non-existent t-shirt, and much more.

Thanks for reading!