Day 14 (Monday, October 4th):
Classes started! Dun dun dun...I had my first lecture, "Writing with Light", early in the morning. "Writing with Light" is a "module" (class) I'm taking that analyzes photographs throughout time in relation to history and media. I am really enjoying it so far!
I then had a couple of hours for break, which I spent very wisely back in my room napping (I was tired from the weekend's adventures). I then had my second lecture for "Media, Racism and Conflict" - this was a full-blown lecture (not an introductory one) to my surprise! I ended up having to leave early and could not stay for the movie screening, but more on that later...
There were two big differences I noticed between classes at Penn and here in Cardiff. 1) To sign up for modules, there wasn't a process like Penn's advanced registration (this might be because I am an exchange student). It was kind of confusing. I had to log-on to Cardiff SIMS website and request "optional" modules, then wait for approval from the school. My first choices got rejected and the assistant told me to come in to talk with her. When I went to see her, she basically had to call different "lecturers" (professors) checking whether a lecture had space...once we checked through and chose the ones I was most interested in, she told me to go back through the online SIMS system and that she'd approve them.
Signing up for "seminars" attached to these lectures (seminars = recitations in Penn terminology) was very informal too; there basically was a wall of sign-up sheets and you just had to sign up with a pen. How weird is that!
Another big difference I noticed was that student didn't bring their laptops to lectures!!! That was very different for me since at a given Communication lecture at Penn, 90% of the students bring laptops - half of which are on Facebook or chatting the whole time. I have 3 hour lectures here in Cardiff and is sincerely worried about how I'm going to survive without my laptop (this is kind of sad, I know).
I think it's good in a way that people don't bring laptops to class - it is very distracting.
After lecture, I headed to Taly Social to meet up with other CU people living in the area for "Grub Crawl" - it was a lot of food, fun and meeting new people :) We basically went to two different houses and ate...and ate...and ate.
Days 15 & 16 (Tuesday, October 5th & Wednesday, October 6th):
Nothing more exciting on these two days other than classes, more CU stuff and hanging out at pubs. On Tuesday, Alisha and I headed to the postcard to finally mail our postcards to people back home - it cost around 67 pents for international mail, which isn't too bad at all. They also have these "international" stamps which are convenient (so you don't have to count 67 out with a bunch of different stamps or anything). I sent around 7 postcards (if you received one and didn't tell me yet, please do let me know you got them safely!) I've really gotten around to buying postcards from everywhere I go, so expect lots of postcards!
On Wednesday, I went to the CU international cafe, which was very nice - the CU at Cardiff hosts an International lunch every Wednesday at the Chaplaincy for international students. I've gone every week - it's a great place to socialize and meet new people (and free food)! I hung around in a pub for a while with friends and then headed to the CU Wednesday meeting - I'm realizing a lot of things from CU here and how it differs from RCF back at Penn...I wonder how it would feel when I get plugged back into RCF in the Spring (or Fall 2011...).
Day 17 (Thursday, October 7th):
Since this entry has thus far been very text-heavy (I really need to take more pictures of everyday happenings), I'll include Day 17, which has lots of pictures!
On Thursday, my seminar had not started yet (since it was week 1), so we planned a quick trip to Bristol! The day started out absolutely BEAUTIFUL:
We took a train to Bristol, which took about 50 minutes or so. The Bristol Temple Mead Station was absolutely gorgeous:
The city itself was quite similar to Cardiff (at least from what I can see). It was cute and small.
We initially had planned to go on this full replication of John Cabot's Boat (when he sailed to Newfoundland) but ended up going on the S.S. Great Britain instead:
The ship was magnificent :) It was the first iron-clad ship in the world, had traveled over a million miles (I think...) and was now displayed for us to see. We got to see the inside and outside - even go "under water".
I could not get over how tiny these rooms were.
Here's first class:
Second class:
Third class:
The First Class rooms were so tiny as well.
After exploring the ship for a good couple of hours, we went to explore Bristol, which constituted of eating, looking at pretty buildings, you know the normal stuff.
OH! Exciting new addition to my family here in Cardiff. Introducing...
CARDIFF THE WHALE.
Alana and I had fun the entire way to Bristol and back with Cardiff the Whale...and naming my (at that time, still nonexistent) bigger dragon. After much contemplation, we decided to name it...
CAERDYDD DRAGONWHALES.
Yeah, they're called Whales because of a word slip on my part, but now it's become pretty much an inside joke.
I ended up buying Caerdydd Dragonwhales a few days later - more on that on another entry!
