Days 28 - 32 (Monday, October 18, 2010 - Friday, October 22, 2010):
Nothing much happened this week except that I got really sick with the cold. :( Frownie face! Anyway, they apparently call it "Fresher's Flu" here, indicating that Freshers get sick within the first couple of weeks of school because they are out partying and basically getting each other sick. Well, my "Fresher's Flu" was definitely later than everyone else's, and I don't think it was even a flu, but regardless I shall call it "Fresher's Flu" just because.
On Day 28 (Monday), I had my usual two lectures in the morning; I ended up having dinner at the Blackweir Tavern with Alisha. I had my second CU hall group (I forgot to mention my first day of Hall Groups on Day 21's entry). It's really awesome because CU hall groups here combine bible study with outreach in the halls. We are supposed to be studying the bible and getting ourselves mentally prepared for 3 weeks and on the 4th week of each month, we have a "go-event" where we hold some kind of event as an outreach/evangelizing event for our halls. It was really nice talking and discussing my faith with others :) God is good all the time!
On Day 29 (Tuesday), we went on this greatest adventure ever to find the only Korean restaurant in Cardiff! It was kind of insane. The day started out normal with my lecture and seminar - I then had a meeting with my Media, Racism & Conflict seminar group for our presentation on Friday (more on that as we come around to Friday). It was kind of cool to really interact with my "coursemates" - we were quite productive in our meeting and came up with a rough outline for our presentation! Basically, in our seminar group, we were all separated into smaller groups to be in charge of each seminar weekly. We were the first group up, so I really wasn't sure what to expect, but luckily I had good group mates.
For dinner, Alisha, Dee Dee and I headed off on an adventure to find the only Korean restaurant in Cardiff! After some extensive research, I found out how to get to Seoul Haus. We had to take a bus toward Newport for 30 minutes. I wasn't exactly sure what the stop was going to look like, so I ended up interrupting the bus driver in the middle (which apparently is a taboo here...oops). He was really nice though! When we were getting off (literally in the middle of NOWHERE), he asked us if we knew where we were going and stopped the bus to chat with us. That was quite nice. We just thanked him and said we knew where we were going even though we really didn't know, but thankfully I remembered that the Seoul Haus website instructed visitors to walk down from the bus stop and turn right. I was so nervous that it wasn't going to be there, but it was there!! The sign was kind of tucked away.
The restaurant was called Yaikniku and was attached to Seoul Haus, which is like a tiny house serving as a small hotel aimed at Korean tourists. Go see on the website how it's literally in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by woods!!! Anyway, I was super excited when we entered into an aroma of Korean food. I hadn't had Korean food in about a month and I was craving it so badly....
I ended up ordering Kimchi Jjigae:
Which was not as spicy as I would have liked it, but it was good enough to subdue my cravings. I also ordered Galbi:
Alisha ordered Spicy Bulgogi while Dee Dee ordered Bibimbap. It was a great meal overall, even though it really wasn't too great by typical Korean standards. I also got to chat for a little bit with the waiter in Korean - it's good to know that I hadn't forgotten how to communicate in the language :)
We left feeling full and pretty much content. I took a picture of the place before leaving:
The adventure continued when we tried to look for the bus back home! I had forgotten to look up bus times, so we were unsure when it would come. The waiter had directed us to the general direction of the bus stop, but the sign itself had been eaten by trees, so we would have completely missed it if the road hadn't been curved inward as such:
That says 'Bus Stop' and again in Wales (if you can't read it because of the blurriness). Well anyway, we waited for 30 minutes literally in the middle of nowhere - all three of us really needed to pee, so it was quite nerve-wracking on many levels! We called Alana a bunch of times in an attempt for her to look up the times, and I texted the travel number as indicated on the bus stop sign, but the bus stop wasn't listed on the timetable and the traveline kept texting me back saying that the bus stop code was incorrect. We were counting cars to reassure ourselves and putting bets on how many cars would pass by before our bus would come - I think we stopped counting at 50 cars!
Anyway, just as we were about to give up the bus came!! I had never been so happy to see the bus. We were the only ones on the bus, but we got back okay! This became one of the many, many things that will last as a ridiculous moment while studying abroad :)
Day 30 (Wednesday) was a beautiful day! I took a snapshot of the sky:
So, so, so gorgeous. I had another group meeting with my seminar people and then ended up missing my seminar for Media and Gender because I could not find the room. Yeah, I know. When I finally found it, the door was shut!! Bute building, where all my classes are, is numbered very strangely. For example, to get to room 1.41, you have to go downstairs to where the "0" level rooms are and then climb the stairs to get there instead of using the main staircase! Insanity, I tell you.
I had dinner with Alana and Elmira at the Taf:
The pizza actually wasn't that good, and I ended up eating like two pieces and then bringing the rest home. I rarely eat leftovers, so the rest got thrown out anyway! Such waste of food, I know...Anyway, after dinner, the three of us headed to Town where we shopped away! Our SA group was going through a shopping phase around this time - we just kept going shopping everyday for a week! I'm really glad we came to our senses and stopped...
I was really ill all night afterwards - I remember waking up at various moments throughout because the heater wasn't working. I was freezing. At one point, I got up to layer myself: I wore leggings, sweats, two hoodies on top of my long-sleeve shirt, socks and gloves! It was absolutely ridiculous. I was so miserable that I called my mom in the middle of the night and whined to her for about 10 minutes.
The next morning (Day 31 - Thursday), I woke up shuddering but being the excellent student I am (haha) I went to my seminar anyway! We had another group meeting for Friday's presentation where we uploaded the appropriate documents before our deadline and handed in stuff to be printed for the next day. I then went to Lidl to buy a new thick blanket and medicine, came home and slept. I had a dinner date planned with Izzy at the Woodville Pub, so I was really glad when I woke up at around 5pm to find myself feeling infinitely better!
I wasn't going to go to the CCCC fellowship meeting because I was feeling so sick but I ended up going since I felt better after my nap. This semester, CCCC ESF is going through a "Discovering Christianity" session, which has been very helpful to reestablishing my foundations.
Day 32 (Friday) started off with a lecture and then my seminar presentation! It went pretty smoothly and we got a pretty decent score on it (although we didn't get the results back until the following week). In the evening, Alisha, Elmira and I gathered in our kitchen to have a Mexican Fiesta!
It was really yummy, if you can't tell ;). Afterwards, we ended up making crepes (we're totally obsessed with them):
Nutella is so heavenly. :)
Coming up in the next entry: our weekend trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwick and Windsor! I think this trip will remain one of my favorites so far...so be excited! :)
