Days 54 & 55 - EDINBURGH.

Okay, by now it's pretty clear that I suck at updating this...anyway on with the story!  I need to update on my study abroad adventures (yes, I am fully aware that half a year has passed by now...) before I forget them permanently :(  My bad memory will fail me soon, so I'm going to try to update as much as I can as soon as I can now that I'm on *gasp* summer break!

Day 54 (Saturday, November 13, 2010):

So this weekend I was off to Edinburgh, Scotland - one of the most beautiful cities I ever visited in my study abroad adventures.  I was joining Alisha and Alana who were had gone together to Scotland before I did (because they were on 'reading week', which my department unfortunately did not have in my stay there) - so that meant traveling to Edinburgh all by myself from Cardiff!

Due to the nature of planes and airlines and stuff like that, my route was more complex than I would have liked it - I remember replaying my schedule over and over again in my head throughout the night to make sure everything went to plan!

This was the route:

Leave Cardiff via Megabus -> Arrive in Bristol -> Take taxi from Bristol bus stop to Bristol Airport -> Board airplane to Edinburgh -> Arrive in Edinburgh -> figure out somehow to get from Edinburgh Airport to meet Alana and Alisha at City Centre (which, I realized, was not too difficult - there was a shuttle that went directly from the airport to the city centre) -> successfully meet Alana and Alisha!

According to transactions in my email records (yay!), I left Cardiff at 4am, which meant that I was walking to the bus stop (~40 minutes) in the midst of (obnoxiously) drunk people, but I remember the walk not being too bad.  Once I arrived in Bristol, I called a cab from a number I had looked up right before leaving (good call on that, as I found out that it was PITCH BLACK with no one in sight when I arrived at the bus stop).  The cab came pretty quickly, and it cost £20 to get from there to the airport, which wasn't too bad.

The taxi driver was quite nice and friendly (as most of them are in the UK) - we talked about a lot of things.  He had immigrated to the UK from Turkey, and he talked to me about how he had once driven up to Edinburgh from Cardiff, and how much he loved the city.  He also warned me about men in kilts - "they're not wearing anything inside! so when they bend down, you know...*insert a grunt of disgust*" :) He also talked to me about how much he wanted to visit America and go to Las Vegas ("are the lights really as they look on TV?") and asked me whether I liked Kebabs or not.  It was overall a very friendly and pleasant drive - thinking back now, I really miss the friendly cab drivers in the UK.

ANYWAY, back on track.  The flight from Bristol to Edinburgh wasn't anything meaningful.  Once I got off the plane, I took a shuttle bus to City Centre, which took about 35 minutes (if I remember correctly).

I also successfully met up with Alana and Alisha, which was really awesome because we had been separated for quite some time!  Nice to see friendly faces after a long journey alone :)

I. absolutely. fell. in. love. with. the. city. at. first. glance.

beautiful.

Parliament building - a cool modern structure

One of the first places we stopped by was the Holyrood House - the Queen's official residence in Scotland!

There were really cool Abbey Ruins:

gorgeous.

We couldn't take many pictures actually inside Holyrood House, but I remember there were a lot of really cool things there.  If I remember correctly, a lot of the furniture stuff there were dedicated to Queen Mary of Scots - and we also got to see a room where a lot of scandalous things happened.  Something about her husband killing her suitor?

Just looked it up in Wikipedia:

The suite of rooms on the first floor of the north-west tower comprises an audience chamber, accessed from a lobby next to the Great Gallery, and a bedroom, leading from which are two turret rooms or closets. These rooms were occupied by Lord Darnley in the 17th century, and later formed part of the Queen's apartment in the reconstructed palace, before being taken over by the Duke of Hamilton from 1684.^[31] Queen Mary occupied an identical suite of rooms on the second floor of the tower: the bedchambers are linked by a private spiral stair. The Queen's outer chamber contains her oratory, and was the scene of the murder of David Rizzio, after he was dragged from the supper table in the northern turret room.^[32] In later centuries, tourists were often convinced that they could see his blood stains on the floor.

So yeah, I think her husband, Lord Darnley, went into the room where Queen Mary and David Rizzio were having dinner, dragged him out, and just killed him right outside with a pregnant Mary watching.  It was super cool to stand actually at the place where he was killed!  Oh, royal Brits...

We then ventured onto climb this volcanic mountain:

It was kind of ridiculous because we saw a bunch of tourists (Spanish?) dragging ALL THEIR SUITCASES up this mountain!! Okay, so it wasn't THAT steep, but still - it was such a bad idea.

Once we got up just enough (haha, we didn't even get close to actually going up to the highest point), we were rewarded with a beautiful view of Edinburgh.

See how happy I look? Haha

Afterwards, we were all hungry and cold so we found a cute little cafe to sit down at:

I MISS AFTERNOON TEA SO MUCH.

There's a picture of me with a scone and a cup of tea but I look way too disheveled in the picture - so I'll save your eye and not put it up :)

We wandered around for a bit and found this:

The museum was free, so naturally we went inside!

There was some free demonstration going on by a woman who was acting as someone from the past (something about old Edinburgh and new Edinburgh...clearly I wasn't listening too well, but it was entertaining).  Alana got chosen to be one of the reenactors :)  The woman taught us how to drink tea and enter the carriage in a 'proper' way!  Gotta love the British ;)

We got some fudge at a fudge shop - the three of us each got a different piece to share, but I think we all decided they were SO rich that we needed them in very small doses:

Saw this dude:

Wandered for AGES looking for the Greyfriars Bobby Statue (because of Alana, a HUGE animal lover, hehe):

Then, we ventured into the national museum because...we all needed to pee. Hehe :)  We played around in the museum for a bit, went upstairs to this wonderful view:

this takes my breath away, even now

Found a restaurant to grab dinner at!

I remember that this wine really hit the spot after an exhausting day

THESE FISHCAKES WERE SO YUMMY. I can still taste them...

That evening, we went on an underground city tour of Edinburgh that Alisha had booked us!  It was actually really cool :)

Basically, this street (Mary King's Close) was an area inhabited by people during the plague...but they ended up building a street above ground level (I know, it's like...huh?) so now it's underground.  From the Close's official website:

The Real Mary King’s Close is a warren of underground streets and spaces.  It can be a strange concept to understand – back in the 1600’s, Mary King’s Close and neighbouring Closes were at the heart of Edinburgh’s busiest and most vibrant streets, open to the skies and bustling with traders selling their wares to the Old Town’s residents.  Why would this street find itself underground 400 years later?

Bizarre, yes, but now it's making money for these people, so I guess it's a tourist attraction?  They tried to make it scary and stuff....and I must admit, it was kind of weird at times, but overall nothing too terrible.

We then headed to the hotel for some well-deserved rest after a very long day!

Day 55 (Sunday, November 14, 2010):


This was my second and last day at Edinburgh (come to think of it now...wow, these short weekend trips, flying to a different country...I MISS BEING ABROAD).

On our way to the Edinburgh Castle, we got to encounter a veteran's parade!

Also stumbled upon JK Rowling's thingy:

And...hello, Castle!

More gorgeous views of the city from the Castle:

Inside the castle were some really cool historically significant rooms, such as...

rooms where POWs were kept, including ones from the INDEPENDENCE WAR! :) Yay for American pride.

woot!

We got to see the crown jewels, which were gorgeous - but couldn't take any pictures :(

Some more Britishy royal stuff:

Making a wish:

SO CUTE:

We ended up eating at this place:

Cool building.  Yummy food.

I remember we then wandered around, and I wanted to buy this super cute kilt skirt thingy that was PINK, but it was £120 and I was like, okay never mind...

According to my records, our flight left from Edinburgh at 7:55pm and landed in Cardiff at 9:15pm! (Yes, it landed in Cardiff this time because we took a different airline, even though I had left from Bristol).  I remember waiting for the BUS forever and contemplating taking a taxi, but it came just in time as we exhausted all our patience.

YAY for another great trip :)

Like I said, Edinburgh was one of my favorite cities to visit.  SO GORGEOUS. :)

...now for two more months of updates O___O oh dearsies...

Days 45 - 52: Short Recaps - Guy Fawkes Day, CU, Malaysian Food

Here are some study abroad recaps (long overdue...)!  Unfortunately, my memory can only go so far...so I'm going to have to update what I did on weekends rather than each individual day (that's more reasonable), unless I happened to have extraordinary happenings on a weekday!

I'll begin in the first week of November (which is where I left off from last study abroad related post).

To recap, I had broken my camera on the last weekend of October, when my friends from Penn had come to visit for Halloween in Cardiff.  I bought a new camera (which was such a necessity in my travels) sometime during the early first week of November.  Here I was testing it out on Day 45 (Thursday, November 4, 2010):

This is a picture of English Breakfast that I had at Cafe 10 at the Student Union with Alisha.

During the first weekend of November, we had plans to celebrate Guy Fawkes' Day while staying in the area, so on Friday, we had just stayed in Cardiff (a very rare weekend indeed)...

Thus, on Day 46 (Friday, November 5, 2010) Alisha and I allegedly (from what I can tell through pictures, at least) made dinner and ate Crepes for dessert (too typical).  Here's a picture of one of our 23974987293487 crepes that we made in the 3 month period:

Crepe with Nutella & Banana = Small Heaven

I miss how cheap Nutella was there!

Day 47 (Saturday, November 6, 2010):

I believe both Alisha and I had some sort of essay due the following week, so we were hard at work in that for the majority of the Saturday.  At night, we headed to Caerphilly Castle to see fireworks in honor of Guy Fawkes Day!

Fireworks at a castle! Almost too good to be true...

It was absolutely gorgeous!  Alisha, DeeDee and I went to Caerphilly via train (which was absolutely NUTS because there was a rugby match in Cardiff - apparently it is not advisable to travel on a Rugby day in Wales).  We had a blanket with us and some champagne to enjoy - it was almost like a mini 4th of July celebration.

I still find their celebration of Guy Fawkes Day a bit strange.  It's like, "oh hey, this guy tried to blow up Parliament but failed, so let's celebrate!"...although, I guess during the first anniversary of the event, they celebrated it, and then it just ended up sticking throughout the years.  It *still* reminded me a lot of our Independence Day (4th of July) celebrations, which is slightly ironic since we, as Americans, are celebrating our Declaration of Independence from the British...

(Anyway - going back to my adventures):

I felt terrible because Suwei and her boyfriend (who was visiting Cardiff that weekend) were supposed to join us, but they had just boarded the train to Caerphilly from Cardiff Central when the fireworks just ended :(  They ended up coming to join us when we were at a cafe enjoying hot drinks after the fireworks.

Dee Dee and I shared this "delux hot chocolate" drink which was heavenly:

Can you say 'omnomnom'?

Afterwards, we had to wait a very long time for the train.  It was....an interesting experience because there were a bunch of preteens/early teenagers who were waiting for the train at the same time.  They were clearly drunk and rowdy.  I remember missing America so much at this point, since we tend to have strictly enforced curfew laws with underaged teenagers.  At one point, they jumped onto the bench that Suwei and I were sitting at, causing us to have to move...it was just really ridiculous.  That is one thing I definitely don't miss about the UK.

On Day 48 (Sunday, November 7, 2010), I was definitely in Cardiff and must have gone to church for the first time in ages!  I went to CCCC, which was the church that I ended up sticking with for the rest of my time abroad (and during the limited Sundays that I was there).  I remember really enjoying the service there and feeling part of a community even though...I can count how many times I actually went there for Sunday service.  Nevertheless, I was happy that I was finally able to attend a Sunday sermon!

(Skipping a couple of days)...

Day 51 (Wednesday, November 10, 2010) was a typical day after classes because the Christian Union's weekly meeting was on that day.  While I was abroad, I went to CU meetings almost every Wednesday, where we typically did worship and heard a message.  After CU, a couple of the girls and I headed to the park in front of Cardiff City Hall because Winter Wonderland was opening that night!

Unfortunately, we came too late and missed the fireworks (which I heard wasn't that great anyway), but we did end up taking some pictures in front of the lit ferris wheel!

I remember that it was really exciting to see the ferris wheel and other stuff being lit up because we had seen the preparations for the opening of Winter Wonderland in the past few weeks!  Due to time constraints, I never ended up actually going into Winter Wonderland...but it was nice walking by it everyday :)  The Bute building (where all my classes were) was within 3 minute walking distance from the Winter Wonderland, so I got to see it all the time (even though I never actually went inside...)

Day 52 (Thursday, November 11, 2010):


After classes, I went to CCCC ESF meeting (Cardiff Chinese Christian Church, English Student Fellowship) that occurs every Thursday night as per usual.  This time though, Suwei and Connie were cooking a Malaysian dinner for me and Joanna (a BBC - British Born Chinese)!  It was SO YUMMY.

My first time having Malaysian food, and I must say, they set the standards pretty high :)

Blogging about this while I'm already back in the States makes me miss the girls so, so, so much.  It's really amazing how easily bonds are formed in such a short amount of time.  I'm so thankful that God placed each and every one of those amazing sisters in my life :)

The weekend that followed this meal was spent in Edinburgh, where I invoked on an adventure BY MYSELF to join Alisha and Alana who were already in Scotland (they had the entire week off as 'reading week'...I didn't :( ).  More on that to come very soon!

Yay for updates!

Days 35-39: Budgeting, Studies, Korean Food, & London Visits Cardiff :)

Days 35&36 (Monday, October 25, 2010 & Tuesday, October 26, 2010):


This Monday was a typical Monday - two lectures and hall group meeting! I can't remember what we did at hall groups.  I started budgeting this week after realizing how ridiculous my blind spending had become.  I was literally draining away all the money I had saved over the summer and during the school year from working nonstop. I started writing down everything I spent and keeping track of where the money was going - it really helped me to be conscience of my spending.

 On Tuesday, I attempted to actually get some work done (surprise!) by going to Starbucks with Alisha.  I had such difficulty focusing that I think I read only about 2 pages of my article.  It really didn't help that I had brought my laptop with me either.  On a side note, I really love that the Starbucks here as a more of a 'cafe' feel to it since it has real cups!  I don't understand why the Starbucks's in America don't have that system - after all, Starbucks is American.  Also, the McDonald's here is so much nicer.  It looks so fancy inside, and the workers wear these super formal skirts and everything.  There's a more elegant feel to it, which is strange.  A McDonald's I went to in London even had digitally streaming news headlines on the side; another one I went to in Paris even served fancy macaroons.  I don't understand why our McDonalds' are so broken down and often really uninviting...

I also bought a travel mug from Starbucks so I could make coffee from home to bring along to my classes (yes, I'm one of those people who live on coffee).

Anyway, I have written on my notebook that Alisha and I came back from Starbucks to cook spicy Korean noodles that I bought from the Cardiff Japanese and Korean Market!  It was her first time having Korean food, and she absolutely loves it now :) Yay for introducing new people to the cuisine!

Days 37 & 38 (Wednesday, October 27, 2010 & Thursday, October 28, 2010):


On Wednesday, I had my debriefing for my previously mentioned seminar group presentation; we got a '65' on the score (which means a D in the American system but is actually equivalent to like a B+ here...), which wasn't bad (but of course I would have liked an A).  Honestly, I don't understand why they work on such low percentages, but I guess it means there is always room for improvement.  I knew that the system was different here, but my heart still sank when I saw the '65' - at home, my heart would sink at like an '80'!

Afterwards, I went to the CU International Cafe, which is always a nice place to grab lunch and meet people from all around the world (mainly Malaysia...).  I headed to the Korean market again this time around to grab some more stuff; I bought some instant rice packets, gochujang (spicy sauce), sesame oil and some dried seaweed.  Mixed together with rice, this sauce is heavenly - I discovered this quick fix during my freshman year at Penn, and it has saved me once again at Cardiff!  So simple, yet so heavenly.  I also bought stuff for my Korean cook-out that happened on Thursday (more on that very shortly)!

I ended up leaving my newly bought traveling mug at the Chaplaincy after International Cafe (typical)...

I came back to my room and attempted (very hard) to do some work, which...failed. I went to CU that night, which was (probably) a sermon and hang-out (can't remember)...

I ended up marinating the meat (Bulgogi) for the day after at like 2 in the morning, but that went all fine. :)

On Thursday, I had one seminar and then invited some CCCC people over for Korean food before our meeting later that night!

The dinner had three components: 1) Kimchi-Jun (Kimchi Pancakes), which are really easy to make, 2) Spicy Sticky Noodles (Jjol-Myun) and 3) Marinated Beef (Bulgogi)!  As a bonus, we had crepes for dessert (which has nothing to do with Korean food, but it was still fun).  Alisha and I were super busy running back and forth - thank God I had her to help me :)

Elmira dropped by with a suitcase filled with a spare blanket - I needed it for friends who were coming over for the weekend from London!

In the midst of our cooking and eating, we had a fire alarm - that really sucked since we had guests over. I felt really bad :\ , but it wasn't anything anyone could foresee.  We were running late to the CCCC fellowship meeting, so Alisha had to do the leftover dishes. :( I felt really bad but thankful at the same time!

I was able to retrieve the mug that I had left at the Chaplaincy on Wednesday at this time - it was really convenient since CCCC is also in the Chaplaincy. :)

Day 39 (Friday, October 29, 2010):

My Friday started out extremely early with morning prayer at the Chaplaincy with the CU.  I went with Jordan, who lives in the house next to me.  It was such a blessing.  Morning prayer definitely has a different power to it - it's amazing how God moves your heart when you get up in the morning to just praise him.  We prayed for people around us to come to know God, for ourselves, and for other issues at hand.  It was just awesome; I came out of it feeling completely renewed and refreshed.  I love, love morning prayer, but I really don't do it enough.

Afterwards, I went to my 9 o'clock lecture and my seminar immediately following it; I was excited because I had some friends from Penn visiting over the weekend!

It was kind of ridiculous because all three of them arrived at three different times even though they were all leaving from the same place!! We're all absolutely nuts. :)  I picked Jen up first immediately after class; we had about an hour to kill before Alphonse arrived, so we headed to the Welsh National Museum.  This was the first time that I went to the National Museum, and it was pretty cool.  Alphonse came soon after; we all headed to my room from the SU to drop off their stuff.

I was housing three people over the weekend in my tiny room:

Yeah.  That's pretty much all the space I have!  It's small and cozy for one person, but to house three people it was kind of crammed.  Jen ended up sleeping on the floor while the two guys slept on my bed - they (at least one of them) were quite resistant to the idea at first but relented when they saw the situation.

We headed to the Woodville Pub to grab lunch - they were mesmerized by the cheap meal deal it has (£4.99 for a burger+'chips' +beer) since London is so expensive!

We did manage to take some really nice pictures once the rain cleared up:

Photo Credits to Jen

So pretty. Photo Credits to Jen

We hung around Town for a while and did a little bit of shopping.  Earlier in the day, the zippers in my boots had broken, so I ended up buying new boots - which was devastating to my budget since I had started keeping track.  Boots are such a necessity in this weather though, and I am really glad I got them.

We then came back onto campus to the Taf, which is a pub at the SU.  We got a couple of drinks (I think I got dessert) and just hung around since we were waiting for Christian to come.  Christian was arriving really late (at around 2am), so we had lots of time to kill!  We decided to go to Tesco's to grab some stuff - on the way there, we ran into a couple of people from my hall group who were playing hide-and-seek (haha).  We came back extremely exhausted but still had to wait for Christian to come.

At around 1:30am, we trekked across the city to pick-up Christian from City Centre; afterwards, we all came and pretty much crashed.  I didn't know until the next morning, but I ended up destroying my camera in the rainy walk to pick-up Christian... :(

More on their visit on another entry!

Oh and an update on my Bucket List:

I decided that I want to visit all the 50 states!  Lots of people have been asking me about the States since I've been here, and I always feel kind of sad when I tell them that I really don't know much about the other states since I haven't been to most of them!  Thus, I shall make it a point to visit every single state in the US...

Elisa's Bucket List (so far) - in no particular order
Last Updated 11/30/2010

1.   Fall in love & never, ever let go.

2.   Go to an H.O.T. concert

3.   Go on a short-term mission

4.   Go skydiving

5.   Hike the Half-Dome

6.   Fish a shark

7.   Learn to swim

8.   Go swimming with dolphins

9.   Watch a solar eclipse with someone special

10.                 Go on a road trip

11.                 Donate to a university in the form of a scholarship

12.                 Open a bakery

13.                 Travel around Europe

14.                 Visit a pyramid

15.                 Go to the Great Wall of China

16.                 Have children

17.                 Cook a Thanksgiving meal (from start to finish by myself)

18.                 Finish the BBC 100 book list

19.                 Be in a musical

20.                 Play the piano at a church

21.                 Study abroad

22.                 Pet a baby tiger

23.                 Have a library in home

24.                 Visit the 50 States (layovers don't count): 

AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI,
MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN,
TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY

Days 28-32: Sickness, Korean Food, Shopping, Mexican Food!

I'm over a month behind...and I really don't want to write my essay so here we go!


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! :)