How do you re-live your first week abroad in a blog...

It's simple, you don't! So much has happened in my first week in the UK, that I have no clue where to start. So here is the deal, I am going to hit highlights. This blog may seem a little scatter-brained and for that I apologize, but you try fitting your first week abroad in a well thought out, well organized blog...

So, I last left you after a tour around Chester and night at the pub. That's brings us to Tuesday. Tuesday. Tuesday. That brings us to Wednesday. (Tuesday was a bunch of boring meetings on how the University works, trust me, you aren't missing much.) Wednesday was a good day because I was able to meet with my study abroad coordinator and discuss my classes. Because I am a 2nd semester senior at USI, I only need 9 credit hours to graduate. Nine credit hours of ANY class that I want to take! Can you believe it! I am in the UK and I can take any class at any level I want! Do you smell that? That smell, my friends, is called freedom! That's right! So, for my Drama and Theatre studies, I am taking Contemporary Performance 2 (which is basically a level 3 acting class in the states), Advanced Drama Theory (in which we will discuss globalization and theatre), and finally a negotiated study. For the negotiated study, I get to work under the direction of a MA student and perform in Chester's Mid-Winter Watch Parade! How cool is that?! Do you remember that smell of freedom... it is about to fade a little bit. As an exchange student, I am required to take the minimum number of credit hours to be a full time student. So I needed one more class to fulfill that requirement... There wasn't anything else in theatre, so what? Well, I've always been interested in photography, but never really had a chance to learn about. Tah Dah! Welcome to the UK where the possibilities are endless. So there you have it. Three theatre courses and a photography class. Want to know the best news.... I only have class on Mondays and Tuesdays. That's right, no class on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. I don't have to ask, I know you can smell it!

Moving on now to Thursday. As a drama student, I was invited to attend the workshop for the first years. It was... interesting. There were things about it that I loved and things about it that I didn't love. For example, I didn't love the freshmen. No offense to freshmen, but you guys are crazy. Especially men. You get this idea in your head and you just go with it. Which sometimes, is totally cool. When you are doing an improve exercise and have virtually no time, not cool. However, I really liked the fact that they brought the freshmen together in a fun way to introduce them to the program. It was a way to get them all involved and excited about the years ahead of them! *cough cough* I don't know, maybe a university I know should look into this. *cough cough* After that, I got to meet Jane who is the chair of the Drama department and she talked me through the courses and what to expect. She was super sweet and welcoming, which was so wonderful. I was so nervous to meet her, but she was really great! Believe it or not, that took my entire Thursday - from 8:30 to 5:00 - and I was so exhausted afterwards... So I called it an early night. Yeah, yeah, call me boring, but I was so tired!

Friday, nothing exciting... And yes, I did go to bed early, but I knew I was going to Wales the next day! Plus, this is my adventure, so no judging :)

Saturday means my trip to Wales! So I got up bright and early at 7:30 so that I could be ready to go by 8:30. And I was, but the bus wasn't. Everyone sat around until 9:30 when we finally left. The bus sat 65 people and there were (I am pretty sure) 62 of us. So, it was crowded. Really crowded. The seats were really small and very close together. But all was good, because we were going to WALES! We went first to Llanduado (I probably spelled that wrong. Just remember, this is a judge free blog). It was so beautiful. We were out on the pier which had these really cute little booth shops. To the left of the pier was clear blue sky. To the right of the pier were all these stormy looking clouds. It was so unreal, and unbelievably beautiful.

Looking off the pier to the left.

Looking off the pier to the right.

After that, we went to a castle! Conwy castle to be exact. It's so crazy to me. It's like, (with a cocky smirk) "Oh me? Yeah, I've been to a castle." If it wasn't for the tourists with all their cameras (me included), it would have been just like stepping back in time. Aside from a few signs that were posted for the safety of visitors, the castle was untouched. Just to know that I walked through a castle where real kings and queens were is so unreal to me. Still, it is like a dream. After we left the castle, we went to a fish & chip place called Fisherman's and got -- any guesses -- fish & chips. It was so good! Probably some of the best food I have had here since I arrived! Moving on quickly though, we went to the smallest house in Great Britain. They weren't joking either! All of that - castle, fish&chips, and the smallest house in one little town.

Me in front of Conwy castle

Fish & Chips! YUM!

The smallest house in Great Britain!

After Conwy castle, we went to Snowdon mountain. I never knew that there was so much beauty in the world. Unfortunately, some of that beauty is really cold. On the mountain, there were gusts of wind up to 50 miles an hour! But, it was definitely worth it! No fee to see something man-made. No, tourist trap. Nothing, but climbing bare earth. The sky was a grayish blue and the clouds were insane! One of my favorite (and coldest) parts of the trip!

The wind was so cold!

Random photo as we climbed, but my first thought was "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

The highest I climbed.

Our final stop.... crossing an aqueduct. I don't really know... the tour-guide liked the idea. It was an hour drive to get said aqueduct. It was beautiful and somewhat terrifying to cross. It was really high up, like higher than I have ever been in an open space. but you could see for miles out and the view was breathtaking. You just don't see this in States.

Crossing the aqueduct.

Thus ended the trip to Wales. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The entire trip was 169 miles across North Wales, and every mile was worth it!

Sunday was a lazy day that included laundry, and I guess because you are all so interested in what I am doing I will go into lengthy detail about how I did my laundry. To start I put my clothes... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Ok, so Sunday wasn't that thrilling. But the week as a whole was thrilling, exhausting, meeting-filled, adventurous, and so on. I know not every week in the UK will be like this and part of me is thankful for that because I think I would die of exhaustion. However, this first week alone was totally worth it! Let's face facts, I really love the UK.