Weekend in WALES!

So I just got back from WALES last night and to be perfectly honest, I want to either move to Cardiff at some point or spend a semester studying at their University (maybe for Grad School).  As much as I love it here at Exeter, which I truly do, there is just something about Cardiff that made me fall in love with it.  I was only there for two nights, but they were the best/most ridiculous two nights I can think of.  I don't want to bore anyone with a really long blog post, but I could seriously write a 300 page book about my weekend  there.
So first things first, I travelled there with my best friend from Kenyon, Liz, who is studying at York in Northern England.  We met in Bristol and took the train together to Cardiff Central.  It was the first time either of us had stayed in a hostel, and it was new to me that we had to share our room with other people that we didn't know.  We checked in around 5, and went to go put our suitcases down in our room and when we opened the door, there was a girl taking a rest in one of the bottom bunks.  We tried not to disturb her, but she said it was okay because she had to get up in a few hours anyway to go to work.  I asked her what kind of work she did that she would have to be up at night and she replied, "dancer".  She went to the bathroom, then came back and went into depth about her "dancing".  At first, I was a little shocked and nervous that we were rooming with a stripper, but then after talking to her for a little, she turned out to be really nice, and one of our good friends that we made in Wales.   After Liz and I went out to dinner and did a little shopping, we came back and Katie, aka Candy Breeze, was getting her outfit out for the strip club.  She told us to come watch her dance at her club called For Your Eyes Only, but then told us about all the scary drug dealer guys who always try and buy her so Liz and I were a little hesitant.  But Candy did tell us about all of the fun things to do in Cardiff, and the best dance places to go (and by dance places, I do NOT mean strip-clubs).  So Liz, Candy, and I all got ready together for our first night out in Cardiff.  We weren't sure how to get to the City Centre, so we walked Candy to her strip club and she pointed us in the right direction for Cardiff's fun night life.  AND IT WAS FUN!  I went to a pub and bought a huge pair of underwear (which they call pants here).  I originally bought them as a funny gift for a friend, but now I have decided to keep them for myself as a souvenir from Wales.
                                     

The next morning, Liz and I did some sightseeing.  First we walked around the City Centre, and then we went to Cardiff Castle.  It was really fun and pretty even though it was a bit pricey for a castle ticket.  But as my dad told me, the Kinsey ancestors probably came from Wales and since Kinsey means royal, it is pretty likely that I was stepping foot onto my family's very own castle!

Then we ate, got back to the room, and Candy was there, eager to put on a show for us.  I guess because I have never lived with a stripper before, I was unsure what that meant, but to be perfectly honest, it is one of the most memorable experiences and unexpected show I had ever seen.  But before she did her strip tease for us, she did our makeup.  A stripper did my makeup.  And she made our makeup look just like hers does when she goes to work.  It was a bit extreme, but very nice of Candy to do before she headed out for work.  Take a look:

Liz and I hit the city of Cardiff for our last night there, and the next morning did some more exploring. With great weather in the morning, we took a bus over to Cardiff Bay and spent the day eating lunch, sightseeing there, and taking a boat ride around the bay.  There were so many people out with their families walking their dogs that it did make me a little homesick for Lucy, as I'm sure it did the same for Liz and her dog.  But the Bay was beautiful, had cute little 'mom' shops (no cute stores for people my age), and as we walked around the water, we found an owl exhibit!  At first it made me feel like Harry Potter, but then once I saw that owls feet tied to little stubs, it made me quite sad.  One of the owls got stuck in its own leash and fell trying to walk...I wanted to go save it immediately, but then it started flapping its wings and moving its head 360 degrees with no neck and it freaked me out so I kept my distance.   

All in all, I had a wonderful trip to Wales with Liz and Candy.  I really did think rooming with a stripper was going to be a little strange, but she ended up being great and we plan to keep in contact in the future!  

On another note, the past two weekends I forgot to water my pet plant before I left on my trips and forgot to open my blinds to let the sunshine in on my little pet.  But luckily, my plant is still alive and looking good!  I remembered on the train ride to Wales that I forgot to water her and thought that I maybe should have purchased a cactus instead, but it seems as though this plant is very happy and I am very pleased with its life span considering that I keep forgetting to give it water.  

Also, I ordered a little bedside table from Amazon that came the other day so now, after a little over a month of living in England, my room is now complete!  Except the walls are still bare in which I plan on getting some cool sidewalk artwork when I do a little more traveling throughout Europe.  

Next weekend I am staying in Exeter, but we do have different plays to see on the weekend and then the following weekend I will be going to London again to see some more Shakespeare!!  And the weekend of November 12th, I am going to PARIS with some friends from Exeter and meeting up with other Kenyon students in France!  I am very excited about that trip and I plan on booking my tickets once I finish a paper that's due later in the week.  Also, I want to give an early shout out to my Mom because it is her birthday on Thursday!  I won't say how old she is turning (because I have honestly lost count), but I love her so much and hope she has a great birthday!  

Keep checking my blog and everyone should go visit Wales!

London

I just got back late last night from spending my weekend in London.  The Kenyon-Exeter group left early Friday morning and the majority of the group left London during mid afternoon on Sunday, but I decided that I wanted to stay in the city for as long as possible and took a later train with a few other people.
Before going to London, I kept getting e-mails from Kenyon warning me, "Do not go to London.  If you do go, do not go to tourist attractions due to the recent terrorist threats."  Upon receiving many of those e-mails from Kenyon, I asked my Professor if it was smart for us to all go, especially since the threats are directed toward the city that we were headed to.  She said not to worry and that it was more likely to get hit by a bus crossing the street because we forgot to look in the right direction upon stepping off the sidewalk.  But this didn't make me feel any better, and in fact, it made me a little more nervous.  See, I was hit by a car when I was eight years old, and that happened in America, where the cars drive on the "correct" side of the road.  And since I've been in England, I've almost accidentally stepped out in the street in front of cars, just missing my own death.  So as a person who has already been hit by a car once, and has almost been hit many more times in the past three weeks upon arriving in Exeter, it seemed more likely than not that my probability of getting hit by a bus was pretty high.
But lucky for me, London is used to tourists and before stepping off the sidewalk, the street tells you which way to look for oncoming traffic before crossing.  So as I sit here writing this blog, I am happy to report that I was not hit by a bus, nor was I a victim of any terrorist act.
As soon as we arrived in Paddington Station, we all carried our suitcases to our first show, The Prince of Denmark.  Even though it seems to be a clever idea to write and perform a prequel to Hamlet, it was not very good.  The play only lasted an hour, but it seemed really long and the acting was no good.  After the play we walked to our hotel, got our rooms, got a little food, and took a nap before going to see our next show, War Horse.  Well rested and showered, I walked with the Kenyon-Exeter group to London's National Theatre.  War Horse, originally a children's book and first person narrative through the eyes of the Horse, Joey, I wondered how they were going to depict a horse on stage and show how he is feeling throughout the performance.  With that being said, this three hour performance is one of the best shows I have ever seen in my entire life.  The horses are life size and move and jump as if they are real.  It is definitely a magical show, one that I know my Mom would have been crying through.
Then early Saturday morning, a group of us walked over to the Foundling Museum (because we had an assignment to go there and write about it).  I learned a lot there and after learning what a Foundling was and did, I was not surprised to learn that Oliver Twist was based off of one of the kids from the Foundling School/Hospital.  After the Museum, a few of us walked over to King's Cross, which is the train station where they shoot Harry Potter!  We then split up into smaller groups, and I walked with another Kenyonian to do a little house hunting over at Buckingham Palace!  Even though the Palace was really pretty, I was a little disappointed because I was expecting guards in red jackets standing still and not being able to move or smile outside the palace gates.  But there weren't any guards and I wanted to take some funny pictures!  Next time I am in London, which is in three weeks, I am going to find guards in red jackets who aren't allowed to respond to any outside stimuli and make one of them laugh.  But anyway, after Buckingham Palace, we walked around St. James Park, saw swans, met a duck, and got stuck in a torrential downpour with a giant pelican.  Take a look:

But once the rain stopped we dried off at lunch and ordered some hot soup and a warm cup of coffee.  After lunch we hit the town shopping, but came up short because we found that every single store on Oxford Street is the same exact store that we have in Exeter.  I was upset because I wanted to buy my first London souvenir.
For dinner we had sushi, and even though the sushi went in a revolving circle around all of the tables, it was still amazing because it was the first sushi that I had in three weeks!
After dinner, three of us walked to the Tate Modern Museum.  We saw an amazing porcelain sunflower seed exhibit and I walked around the art gallery and saw paintings by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Pollock, and Salvador Dali.

After the Tate, we walked on the Millennium Bridge, and spotted London Bridge from across the water and sang, "London Bridge is Falling Down".

We eventually called it a night because we had to get up early the next day to check out of our hotel and try the shopping area one last time before we headed back to Exeter.  And lucky for me, Sunday morning was filled with cute shops of which new articles of clothing have been added to my wardrobe.  But after shopping and checking out of the hotel, we walked back to the National Theatre to watch our last show of the weekend, Hamlet.  As good as this production was, I am always thrown off a little when Shakespeare's work is performed in modern times.  It was definitely an original script in which the director made quite a few changes, one for example was that Ophelia did not commit suicide, yet she was murdered in the river by Gertrude and Cladius.  Not my favorite renditions (it's weird to me when Hamlet lives in the 21st century, with a stereo in his room), but still, very entertaining.  But of course, there was drama before the show even began.  When I took out my ticket, it read that it was for the show for Saturday night, not the Sunday afternoon show that I was supposed to be attending.  On top of that, I was unable to call after my Professor to let her know that I would be unable to get into the show because I had all of the sudden come down with Laryngitis.  Luckily, other Kenyon students got hold of our Professor and she came out to help me deal with my mishap.  Unfortunately, the box office said that the show was sold out, and that I wouldn't be able to change my ticket for Sunday's show.  Now in a panic and physically unable to speak, I thought I was going to have to wait three and a half hours outside the theatre until the play finished.  But my Professor was so nice and she gave me her ticket and said that she would try to get in some other way.  Once seated with all the other Kenyon students, I noticed the seat on my old ticket was still not taken, and that the theatre had misprinted the day and time.  I tried calling my Professor to let her know that there was a seat available for her, but her phone was shut off and I wouldn't have been able to speak anyway since I was struck with Laryngitis.  But all in all, everything worked out.  She was able to get a different seat and I was viewing the play from one of the best seats in the house.
After the play, we walked back to Paddington Station, boarded our train and made it back to Exeter within two hours.  Even though I had a theatre scare and I got really sick in London (and still have no voice), I did have a lot of fun and experienced London in a way I never thought I would.
My parents told me before I left for London, to call them when I got back to Exeter so that they would know that everything was okay and that I didn't get hit by a bus or anything.  So after unpacking, I called home, forgetting that my voice barely existed.  My Dad picked up the phone and said, "Hello", and with all my might I tried saying "Hello" back to him, but all that came out was a tiny little grunt.  After a few more failed "hello's", my Dad finally said, "Who is this?"  Trying to get him to understand that it was his daughter calling from England to tell him that everything was okay, I kept repeating, "Logan" in soft grunts until he finally understood who it was.  He got my Mom on the phone too, but we only talked for a short time because my throat hurt and my voice couldn't do much more talking.  At the end of our phone conversation, my Dad said that he first thought that it was Aunt Bettie calling.  Aunt Bettie is my Mom's best friend's great Aunt who is now 104 years old.  I guess Laryngitis adds a couple of years to my voice.
I had two early classes today, one of which I had a presentation in, but my Professor let someone else in the class read my paper aloud after he heard me say 'good morning'.  I was going to go to the health center today in between two of my classes, but I took a nap instead because I thought that would help me get healthier and when I woke up still feeling sick, I decided to walk into town and get salt water and cough drops.  In my next class my Professor heard me talking and went to her office and brought back Aspirin and more cough drops and told me that I don't need to go to class later this week!  WOOOT!  But hopefully I will be feeling better because missing one class here is like missing a weeks worth of class since classes meet more infrequently in England and for longer periods of time.  But hopefully I will be feeling better within the next few days because I just last night I booked my tickets for my trip to Wales for next weekend with my best friend!  I am so excited that I will be reunited with her (and in Europe of all places).  My Kenyon Professor gave me a handbook on Wales today in class and it looks like I will be very busy this weekend in Cardiff!  I have a lot of reading and work to do this week, but it's worth doing it in the next few days so that I can go on my vacation this weekend.  I'll be sure to report back after Cardiff, and don't worry, I'll keep my eye out for cute stores and hopefully I won't have the same problem as I did in London!!  Keep checking my blog for more updates next week.

OOPS, I forgot I had a blog.

Okay, so upon making this blog I told myself that I would update it every week with great detail.  Well, to say the least, that obviously is not the case.  I don't want you to think that it's because I've had too much work, or have been too homesick to write, it's honestly because I forgot that I have a blog...not a very good excuse for a blogger...
But anyway, the past two weeks have flown by, and in a few days, it will be a complete three weeks living here in England.  What I like: the accents.  Amazing.  What I don't like: the food.  Not good.  As I told my parents via skype, my dessert for the past two weeks has been frozen corn, which actually is not as gross as you think.  It's very sweet and cold just as ice cream is, but lucky for me, even healthier.  I recommend it.
Last week, there was a new addition to my room.  Yes, I got a pet.  A pet plant.  I'm not sure what kind of plant it is, but it was the prettiest one for the best price so I decided to buy it.  It is sitting by my window so it can get lots of sun light, and every day so far I have remembered to water it!!  I have taken a picture of it anyway just in case if I forgot to water it, I will always have the memory of how nice and healthy it used to look.
So far I have had a full week of classes.  I have had two presentations (which went well), I had a paper due yesterday, and I have another paper due on Friday.  I didn't realize how much work and how much reading I would have for each class, but so far I have been enjoying the reading list which is the most important thing when taking English courses.  Also today, I had my first day of SPANISH.  And guess, what, I actually liked it.  My Dad was shocked, but also didn't think that it was strange that I could keep up in the first day of class of Introductory Spanish since he said, "well, you have already taken two years of Spanish in High School".  I corrected him.  "No, Dad, it wasn't two years.  It was THREE."  Maybe I should have just let him think it was two years because at least that would have been more impressive when I am now taking Intro to Spanish after already having studied the language for three years.  But this time, I am ready to conquer the language, one palabra at a time.  In class when we were going around the room saying our names, I almost introduced myself as Lourdes, but I ultimately stuck to the birth name that my parents have given me.
Also, today I received a lot of mail from amazon.  I had ordered all of my books from there along with an alarm clock (finally), and yes, a curling iron.  My mom didn't think that I would need a curling iron, but I don't think she realizes how much I use it, so I am happy to say that I now have a blow dryer, flat iron, and now of course, my curling iron.  I'm sure my dad is relieved by this information because I was truly freaking out about not being able to bring my hair supplies because of the different voltage system.  But everything seems to have worked out fine.
This weekend the Kenyon-Exeter group leaves for London!  We are doing different sightseeing and of course, going to see three different plays: Hamlet, War Horse, and Prince of Denmark.  I am very excited to see Shakespeare's Hamlet perform live in England.
On another note, I have been told that I have a weird American accent.  One British student asked me if I was really from America, because he said that he had never heard an American speak the way I do.  I never thought my voice was strange, but apparently to the Brits, the only other American that I sound like is Katy Perry.  I don't know whether to take that as a criticism or a compliment.
Other than classes, doing work, and meeting British students, there is nothing really more to report back about.  I am excited for my trip to London, and I am very excited about possibly traveling to Wales the weekend after with my best friend (who is also a Kenyon student on an abroad program in England).  Can't wait to post about my trip to London so keep checking my blog!  And I promise, I will never again forget that I have a blog...

Pictures of my plant:

First Week

So far my first week has gone by very fast.  The first night here I didn't have any bedding, but luckily now my bed is plush, comfortable and so cute (even though it seems to be impossible to buy a feather mattress pad in the UK).  I am learning how to cook which is something I thought was near impossible, but with the help of a classmate and my mom telling me how to turn on the stove, I am doing quite well for myself.  The weather has been surprisingly nice!  Only one day of rain and it's warm enough that I don't even need to wear a coat.  I have joined a number of society's since I have been here and have joined each society on their pub crawl which have been really fun.  Today, the Kenyon-Exeter group went to Tintagel Castle (the birth place of King Arthur), which is only an hour and a half away from Exeter.  It was so beautiful there, but we literally had to climb a mountain to get to the top (and I was wearing heavy boots!)  However, the castle was overlooking the ocean and once I got to the top it was nice and relaxing.  But the climb down is another story and let's just say I wouldn't do well in the olden days...I chipped a nail at one point and wasn't too happy about it....
But all in all, I LOVE England and I am so happy that I am here for the whole year so I get to experience everything and take in all of the traveling I hope to do while abroad.  Exeter is a much bigger city than I expected and it's only a ten minute walk from campus to all the shopping!!!  I saw a sweater in the window of a store the other day and I went back yesterday to try it on and can't remember which store it was in.  I looked in every window possible, but I guess it was just not meant to be.  I also found a way to watch Grey's Anatomy which I didn't think possible without buying it from itunes, but I watched the latest episode yesterday evening!  Classes start on Monday so I am starting to prepare for real work again which should be interesting after what seems to feel like a 6 month summer.
Also, Happy 17th Birthday, Lucy!  Sorry I wasn't there, but I will be in the States for your 18th birthday!

Here are some pictures from Tintagel Castle: