We Are HOME!!!

After a long journey, we finally made it home. We went to Manchester Friday night and spent the night in the airport with about 8-10 other Central students. Some of us got some shut eye but others just played cards and hung out. We did use the check in scales in the terminal to weigh out luggage. Of course they were all overweight so we had to do some adjusting. I think other than some lotions and other liquid things, we were able to fit it all in our carry-ons or in other people's bags. Our flight finally took off about 10:35. We got a full meal and then another snack/meal, watched movies, slept, and 8 hours later we were in Chicago. We didn't have any troubles getting through customs or getting our luggage! My parents were there to meet us and we drive back to Oxford where Derek's mom, Amy, and my brothers were waiting with a home grilled meal ready to go. We had grilled pork and fresh vegetable salads. It was delicious!! Afterward, a bunch of family came out for dessert before Derek and his mom left to Pella. They also made it back safely so all is well.
So even though we are very tired and probably a bit smelly, it feels great to be home. We are ready to spend some time in Iowa, enjoying all that it has to offer! We still have more pictures ad stories so this blog is not done even though we are both home. But of course since, we are here, and we would love to hear from you and catch up with all that has been happening. Let us know if you have any questions about this last semester!! Well, considering that it is 6:40am back in Bangor, I think I am going to head to bed. Glad to be home and hope to see everyone soon!

Last Post from Wales

Well folks it has been 144 wonderful days since we wrote our first blog. We have done a lot and gone through a lot in that small amount of time. Many of you back home and even to us it may seem like forever since you have seen or spoke to us. It feels as though we just got settled in and used to our surroundings. We have just got figured out many new things and adjusted to a new way of life. We are now coming back home and again we will have to readjust. The biggest difference at first will be the time change.
These past few days since we returned from Poland we haven't done much except pack, take some last few pictures, and prepare for our return home. Last night we all went out together and had one last supper together with Tecwyn. It was good time for everyone. We hung out the rest of the night and just enjoyed being together for one last time in Wales. Today we packed up boxes and suitcases and ate any food we had left over. Anna and I had very little food left we planned the meals out just right. Tonight we are ordering pizza from the Pizza House one last time.
We are heading to the airport tonight in Manchester at 8:16 and spending the night there for our flight at 10:40 tomorrow morning. There are about 15 of us Central students going to the airport tonight the other five will leave early tomorrow morning for the airport. Anna and I will arrive in Chicago at around 1 o'clock. Anna's parents are picking us up and then we are driving back to Iowa City where my mom will meet us. It will be another long day of traveling. If there is one day that we are ready for a long day of traveling it will be this one. It has been a long sobering day. Packing everything up and saying good bye to Tecwyn.
We are ready to get home. We don't have much money left and our parents would both like us to be home. We are for sure going to miss Wales and the people we met here. We will probably be back at some point in the future, not any time soon though.
I would say that we are anxious and excited. I don't think that we will get much sleep tonight especially in the airport.
This is by no means our last blog we will let you know when we make it back to the United States and how things go our first week home. We also have a few more pictures to put up. We would just like to thank you for your prayers, letters, emails, and for following our journey, even though it may not have been very easy at times. We have fully enjoyed the opportunity to not only be abroad especially in Wales but also to be able to share it with all of you. It makes the experience so much more enjoyable if you have friends and family to share it with you even though you are six hours and 3,500 miles away.
SEE you in the states!!!

Krakow, Poland

Well we will try not to end our whole semester and expeience abroad on a sour note. It seems like a sorrowful trip to take especially the last week we are in Europe but it is worth the experience and time to honor those that suffered and died. However, to ignore and disregard the tradgedy of the Holocaust and the effect WWII had on the whole of Europe would be far worse.
We started off the day with a short... one hour bus ride out to Auschwitz KL 1. The Auschwitz camp is actually divided into three camps. Auschwtiz 1, Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau), and Auschwitz 3. We only visited 1 and 2. There isn't much left of Auschwitz 2, Auschwitz has been turned into a museum and most of the buildings are still standing. The reason we chose to see Auschwitz I suppose over a camp that was still standing or complete today is the fact that this is where close to 2 million people lost their lives and stands as a remembrance to the evil and extent of mass murder that was the Holocaust. This is were the Germans executed the Final Extermination.
We had a two hour tour of Auschwitz 1 and then a short break and drive to Birkenau and a 20 minute tour there. Auschwitz 2 is the more recognizable of the two because of its size and entrance. At Auschwitz 1, an old Polish Army barracks, their is one crematory and many brick buildings and storehouses used for the prisoners. As I said there wasn't much at Birkenau so you were just looing at the bunks and barracks and the buildings that were left trying to piece the picture back together of 100,000 prisoners being held there. It was a humbling experience going through all of them and trying to imagine what it would have been like there 55 years ago. It is hard to think of what living through all of that would have been like, or even today what people are going through. It puts a lot of things in perspective as you are actually at the place where these things took place. However there wasn't much of Europe that wasn't touched during the war either so you could literally be about anywhere. We had a good night just hanging out and we watched a movie, The Pianist. I had already seen it so the rest were surprised by its intensity however considering we were in Poland it was somewhat fitting I suppose.
We are flying out tomorrow at 10 am and should be back in Bangor at around 9 pm so it will be a day full of traveling however it will be relaxing. We have a straight trip back to Bangor from London with no changes. Then we have two days in Bangor before we will head to Manchester to fly out. It is getting late the sun rises early. Later.

One Last Adventure

Saturday afternoon we went geocaching over on Anglesey one last time. We had a geocoin and a travel bug to drop off before we left. We only found one of the three that we looked for. However it was a beautiful day outside and it gave us one last chance to get out and about Wales before we left. We also took a quick video tour of Bangor when we got back. Last night we hung out with everyone and played cards and just enjoyed out last weekend here in Bangor. They had the Summer Ball last night with bands and a small ferris wheel however it was rather expensive at 45 pounds a piece, so few of us went. Everyone had a good night. Today we after we went to church we have been packing and getting things ready for coming home. We did some laundry and also tried to finish up what little food we had left. Tomorrow morning we leave at 7 for London from there we will fly out to Krakow Poland. We have all day Tuesday there and then we will come back on Wednesday. After that we have all day Thursday and Friday and we will be leaving for the Manchester airport on Friday night at 8 to fly out the next morning at 11. It is getting down to the last few days. There aren't very many students around Bangor anymore and so things have quieted down quite a bit. We are excited about coming home but at the same time we feel we have just gotten settled in and adjusted to living here. One of my flat mates is coming over to America for the summer to a camp in Chicago so there is a possibility that I might meet up with her for a day or something sometime. It is getting late and we have to finish up things yet. Catch ya later.

Exams have ended

(The only picture that Anna is remotely looking at the camera)

Well it has been a long week so far however it is finally over. It is nice warm sunny day today and also everyone finished up exams. Anna had her last one this afternoon and my last one was on Wednesday. They both went very well and as expected so that was good. We haven't been doing much this week except preparing for the tests and trying to get everything sorted before we head home and for the trip home. We just have a short paper to turn in for Tecwyn and then we are done. We did however take a break from all the excitement yesterday to go white water rafting. This was separate event from Outdoor Pursuits because we didn't go during it and there were a fair amount of us that wanted to go. We went to a place called Bala. It was about an hour and half away from Bangor. We left at 11:30 and then we got time on the river from 2-4 in the afternoon. This gave us time enough for four runs. There were a total of 14 of us and so we split up into two rafts. We got all suited up with wet suits and helmets and about a 15 minute intro to the rafts and to what we would be doing and then we were off. It was my first time rafting however Anna has gone before. It wasn't a real difficult or challenging run. They use a 1-5 scale for rating the level of rafting runs and this was a 2. We had a great day though. The weather even cooperated and it was sunny and relatively warm. My raft had some pretty good runs and we had a good time splashing the other raft. Anna's raft had a good day as well, they had a trainee leading their raft however he did a fine job. We only lost one person the whole day and he fell out of my boat during one of the big spills. Our leader quickly snatched him up and got him back in the boat. All in all a good relaxing afternoon.
We have the weekend to finish packing up and then we head for Poland on Monday for a day on Tuesday and then we return on Wednesday night. Have two days and then we will be headed for home.

Snowdon Ascent

Yesterday there were ten of us who climbed Snowdon. Seven of us took the toughest route while three others took a walking path up to the summit. Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and the tallest minus the Scottish Highlands. So it just so happens to be the busiest mountain in Britain according to some. The weather was near perfect so the paths were packed with people. It was a bit windy during some parts depending on the shelter of the mountains. There were steady streams up and down the mountain all day. We took the bus to LLanberis and then took another bus to the Pen Y Pass where we started out journey.
It began on a foot path that was pretty rocky but when the trail split into two different trails you could either continue on the foot path or go up and over a few other peaks. These peaks were more for people who had been "mountain walking" (according to outdoor pursuits standards) before. Of course we decided to do the tougher one! It was quite a bit of scrambling up to the peaks of the mountains where then it was climbing/walking along the top ridge of the mountains. When we say top, we mean it was about a couple feet wide with drop offs on both sides. Just to let you know how bad it was, in looking at different routes up Snowdon online, this is the one to have the most fatal accidents each year... (don't worry mothers, we all survived!) We kept moving pretty quickly as one of the Central students with us had to be back for a train to Manchester that night since he had to head back to the states the next day. We never really stopped for lunch but kept our stops short and snacked throughout the day.
After about 3 hours of walking/climbing/scrambling, we finally made it to the top of Snowdon. When I mentioned that it had been a bit windy in certain spots during the climb, it was a completely different story on the top of Snowdon. Since it is the highest point in Wales, there is nothing else protecting it from the wind so it was extremely windy! If you weren't careful, you could have been easily blown over with a big gust. You could really see for miles on the top though. It was a bit hazy though so we couldn't see Ireland. Knowing that we had to keep moving, we headed down the mountain on the foot path that goes back to Llanberis. It only took about 2 hours to go down but it was the windiest on this foot path! One student that was with us lost his glasses during one gust. They were taken right off his face. We looked for awhile to they could have flown anywhere, so it is a good thing we only have a few weeks left. We ended up meeting up with the three people that took the foot path originally and finished walking down with them. After a full 5 hours, we had completely climbed Snowdon.
We took the bus back to Bangor, got cleaned up, and helped Swaff get his things packed up and ready to leave. We walked down with him to the train station to see him off and in doing so, I found 40 pounds!! It was sitting right on the platform where the trains come. So between Derek and I, we have found 60 pounds and lots of odd change. :) Off course, being tired from a big day, nobody did much last night. I watched a movie with some girls and Derek puttered around and went to bed pretty early. All in all it was a great day. Climbing Snowdon was on our list of things to do before we left and now it is checked off. Still a few things left to do but we are thinking we will get most of them done! ~Anna

Home Stretch

We made it back safely from Barcelona which was a great time to just relax and not have to think about school for a bit. Last Sunday night we fly to Barcelona but the flight was late enough that we had to catch a taxi to our hostel. The name of the hostel was Barcelona Dream Hostel but of course since we had a two bed room it was basically a closet sized room. You had to move out of the way to close the door because the bed was right in front of you when you walked in. It worked out though because breakfast was included and it was super close to a metro stop so we got everywhere very easily. It was about a 10 minute walk to the beach from there but we went to a different one to lay out because the other one was nicer. Monday it was a bit rainy and cloudy so we just explored Barcelona and went to the market. It was amazing to have fairly cheap fresh fruit and vegetables! We did walk down to the beach that was close to our hostel both nights and just played around in the sand and the waves. Of course the water was freezing but we did get in the second day. Tuesday was gorgeous and sunny so we went to another beach and just hung out. It was pretty full with people with quite a few topless women. There were also tons of people walking around offering massages but they were like 5euros so we passed on those... We did take our sun screen so neither of us are lobsters! After laying out for the afternoon we stopped and got paella at a restaurant. The paella wasn't too bad, it had a bunch of mussels and shrimp in it. Then we also got a second plate to go with it but of course neither of us could remember enough Spanish to know what our choices were. Derek got fried fish, literally little fried fish on a plate with a small side salad. Then I got rabbit and snail... :( Derek ate my snails but the rabbit wasn't too bad. Of course I didn't know it was rabbit until we got back and looked it up. O well, that is all part of the experience I guess. Wednesday morning we made an early lunch and headed back to Bangor. We finally made it in late last night about 12:30.
Today has been a day of catching up on things. I turned in my Psychology of Sports Performance paper this morning and both Derek and I are working on our two papers that are due tomorrow. Derek has his macro economics test tomorrow afternoon. Then he has a test next Wednesday and I have one next Friday. A couple of people from the Central group are leaving this weekend so we are heading out tonight and tomorrow with them. Other than that, we are starting to get things packed up and ready to go home. There are plans to climb Snowdon on Saturday with a group of people as long as the weather holds out. The last thing we will be doing is going to Poland with 3 other Central students on June 2-4 to visit Krakow and Auschwitz. It will be a depressing last trip but is when people could go and when the tickets were cheap. We will get back on Wednesday the 4th and then head to the Manchester airport late Friday night, the 6th. So we are down to our last few weeks. As long as the tests go well, it should be a good end to our study abroad experience. But of course until we are home, we will continue to keep you updated on how things are going so keep on checking in!

We have arrived in Barcelona!

Well as you can tell it is early in the morning. We just got into our hostel a short time ago. We had some flight delays but we made it to Barcelona. We got everything figured out so far. We spent Saturday morning through mid afternoon exploring Camden, literally. We were both surprised at how big and maze like it was. We were not expecting that. We had a good time checking out all the shops. There were some pretty eccentric places. We checked out No. 10 Downing Street as well. That was pretty much our day. We just chilled for the evening and tried to get some rest. This morning (technically yesterday morning) we left the court house...... yes we spent two nights in a court house. It was a court house that they turned into a hostel. It was pretty sweet actually because they most of the court rooms intact and they also left the cells intact. We weren't adventurous enough (nor did we have the money) to stay in the cells for a night. It was cool nonetheless. Well we left around 10 ish and made our way towards the train station that would take us to the airport and along the way we attended the Mattins service at St. Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral was one of the most ornate ones we have been to yet I think. It was a really good service and the murals, statues, and decorations we just amazing. After that we ended up catching some lunch at the station and hanging out there before we left for the airport were we hung out for the remainder of the afternoon before our flight. The Ryanair tickets counters experienced computer failure so we spent around a hour waiting around to check-in. Other flights almost didn't make there departure times. We had plenty of time however but our flight was still a little later than expected so it is rather late now. We will keep you up to date on how the rest of our Barcelona experience goes.

Tour Guides for a Day

We had a great last day for our outdoor pursuits. The weather was amazing however it was a little windy. My OP group was going to go kayaking however we ended up going together with Anna's OP group for the day. We ended up just sea level traversing, swimming, absailing (repelling), playing games, and barbecuing. We played butt wrestling, WAA!, nose jousting, and many other crazy games. It was a good day to just lay out, hang out and chill together. It was a bitter sweet moment because we all really enjoyed it however I suppose it must come to an end sometime. We were running out of things to do as well but who says you can't do something twice. It will be nice not having to wash and rinse all the salt water out of all your clothing every Thursday though.
We got into London last night after a few delays. Mostly because we missed a connecting train because our train was late due to sheep on the tracks.... imagine that. We got into our hostel at about 2 but we did get to finally ride on a double decker bus however.
Today we spent the day with the Central Group that is going to Malawi Africa for two weeks on a mission trip. They got into the airport around 12:30 and then their flight took off around 7 tonight. Anna and I went with half of them because we waited for awhile longer for someone to come in on a later flight. We had a chance to show them Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster, and the parliament building. They were tired after being up for almost 24 hours and they had another 6 hourish flight tonight to make it to Africa. We were able to show off our big city navigation skills and also what we have learned since being here so many times.
We have all day tomorrow and the morning on Sunday to chill in London before we head to Barcelona Sunday night. We will probably make to a few parts that we haven't seen yet. Them being Camden Market and No. 10 Downing St. Nothing real big or taxing. We have gotten into the habit of hitting up the fast food joints, i.e. Burger King and McDonalds, for their free internet, of course you then have to get ice cream.
We are all set up for our trip to Barcelona. We will just show up eat the cheap fruit, nuts, and fish. The rest of the time we should just be hanging out on the beach taking in the rays, maybe this time with some precautions.

Hoping to Relax...

Just letting you all know that tomorrow right after we get done with OP, we will be heading to London and eventually to Barcelona. We aren't heading to Spain until Sunday evening but we going to be meeting up with the Africa mission trip people from Central that are going through London. They have an 8 hour layover so we will be going to connect up with them and hear all their plans for the next 10 days or so. We are pretty excited to see our Central friends!!! Then we are hoping to have a couple of days just relaxing in Barcelona by laying around and enjoying some sun. But don't worry, we do have the sun screen packed this time! We will be back in Bangor next Wednesday evening.
Tomorrow is our last day for outdoor pursuits though. Both of our groups are having a fun day in which we choose what we would be doing. Derek's group is doing some sea kayaking and climbing. My group will be going to the beach and surfing but also taking some kayaks if people want to do that instead. Both of our groups have gotten makings for a BBQ/picnic lunches. So we will be grilling out for lunch on the shores of the Menai Strait and on the beach. I think most people are pretty sad about not having OP anymore because we are all having such a great time. But we have had one person already head home for her graduation and people are slowly starting to leave as it gets closer to the end of the semester. So things are wrapping up.
I had my first final on Monday and let me tell ya, the UK testing system is intense! Tests are in the biggest lecture halls with like 6 or 7 other classes and you have admission forms and people standing around you watching the huge clock in the front of the room. Then you can't leave in the first 30 minutes or the last 15 minutes of the test to keep from distracting people. If you feel sick, they have a special little room you go to. All in all, the tests are the same but how you take them is just pretty serious. Other than my other test on the 30th, I just have 3 papers and some journals to do in the mean time. Derek has a test on the 28th and 2 papers as well. So we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Breathe....

Well we have made it back to Bangor for a few short days. After all of our recent travels and experiences we have a little time in order to catch up on things and catch our breath before we head back out for a couple more trips. Exams start today. Anna has one this afternoon at 2 and one on the 30th of May. I have mine on the 23rd and the 28th of May. We have our last outdoor pursuits this week as well. After not having a computer in our rooms we are finally getting caught up on Blogs and pictures so there a quite a few new picture albums up. My mom brought us over a another laptop that will get us through the semester so we are able to stay in touch with people and also do our studies. We have been blessed with amazing weather the past few weeks and it looks like it should continue for awhile as well. Enjoy all the new pictures and blogs.

Cardiff

This past weekend we were in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. It was the first time we have been to south Wales. It is a beautiful down here. On the way down we stopped at several places including Hereford and Tintern. Bulmer's cider is brewed in Hereford and there is an old Abbey in Tintern. Saturday morning we had a tour of Cardiff Castle and then a tour of the Millenium Stadium. The Cardiff Castle was pretty impressive because it was fully furnished victorian style mansion and had themes from many places from across the world. The Millenium Stadium was cool. It it the largest stadium in the UK and holds most of their important events. The FA Cup, and Rugby games. They also hold huge concerts, sporting events and conferences there. They don't quite stand up to stadiums in the US but it was cool to just go there anyway. We ate lunch down in Cardiff bay where I managed to complete the Harry Ramsden's Challenging fish and chips. That afternoon we visited the Welsh National history Museum. I would compare it to living history farms in Iowa. They have villages and buildings going back through history explaining and showing how life was lived. They have a working farm, bakery, and grinding mill. There is also an area with gardens and a large mansion. Tecwyn lived and worked here for about 16 years. Last night we spend the night out with everyone hanging out and having a good time before we had to leave today. Several people are leaving early and so this is their last weekend. Today we are just going to a museum for about and hour and then going back to Bangor. We really hate to see the weekend end because it was a last big group event and we have a good time together. On the way home we stopped at Hay-on-Wye (Hay on Why) home to one of the largest collection of second hand books in the world. The have over thirty shops full of books. The town is also known for its self proclaimed king, Richard Booth and one of the largest festivals in the UK, Hay Festival of Literature and Arts. We had a good long afternoon here because after lunch we returned to the bus and it wouldn't start. We had to wait around for about 2 and half hours until they were finally able to get it started. So we made it home at about 8.30 Sunday night several hours later than anticipated.

Bath Spa

I am going to back track a little because I just got around to putting up some pictures from my mothers trip over here. She was here two weeks ago. The first day we went to Caenarfon Castle and then headed to London for several days. While in London we met up with Anna's roommate from the fall and she took us to a lot of places. We visited Westminster, Big Ben and the Parliment building. We then went on up to trefalger square and leisaster square. We saw some of the major cinemas where they have film premieres in London. We also saw the Globe and the original sight of the Globe Theatre. We walked across the Millenium Bridge as well. That night we went to the musical Wicked. It was a really good performance. It was quite a different atmosphere than in America but it was really good show. That Sunday morning we attended a service in the Westminster Abbey and that afternoon we just relaxed. Sunday evening my mom and I left for Bath. We had a good time there. We were there for two days. The first day the weather was really good. Monday morning we took a canal tour after checking out some gardens and the Royal Crescent. We toured the Roman Baths and we tasted the water from the spring. That night we ate at a local pub. One thing we had to do before we left was go and experience the real spa. On Tuesday we spent two hours in the morning enjoying the natrually warm and mineral filled waters of the spring in the Thermea Spa. We got to sit in a roof top pool overlooking Bath and there was also a ground floor pool as well. The thing that was probably the most different was a room with four large scented steam chambers; lavander, frankincense, and two other scents that I can't remember. I wasn't the only guy in there either. There were quite a few of them other being more willingly then some it seemed. It was quite relaxing and we didn't want to do much after that but we went to several museums anyway. We visited Sally Lunns, the fashion museum and also a museum on the history of Bath itself. We stayed in a really nice B&B and had a full english breakfast both days. The beds were really nice and I'm definitely not used to be staying in places that nice. We spent Wednesday in Liverpool with Anna. We stayed in a really nice old hotel in Liverpool as well and it wasn't expensive at all. We basically just took the Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles and visited all the places that were significant to them throughout their lives. Thursday morning my mom flew home and Anna and I had outdoor pursuits.

Kilts, Hairy Coo, and Nessy - What do they have in common?

Well if you guess Scotland you would be correct. We were in Scotland this past weekend. We had Monday off because it was the Bank Holiday. It was a really busy weekend. We had great weather and it was in the high 60s. We left Friday morning for Glasgow at 8 and then we when on to Edinburgh and got there around 2:30 or so. That night we just wondered around and sat a small pub and caught up on some email and stuff. On Saturday we went to St. Andrews. It was a very small town but it was cool to make it there. We did visit the golf course and even got to play it. Well sort of, we played the miniputt course, called the Himilayas. It was cool though. We walked on the beach. We also did some geocaching but were really unsuccessful because most of the ones we were close to were multi caches and we didn't have time for them. After lunch we went to a small botantical garden and then came back to Edinburgh. Saturday and Sunday night we stayed with a friend of mine from Pella, Ashley Pavlat. We had a good time hanging out with her. We had a chance to catch up and then share with her what is going on at Central, she graduated from Central as well. Sunday we walked up the Royal Mile, and also around the outside of Edinburgh castle. We had lunch in a nice park just below the castle. On the way back to Ashley's place we ran into her and her roommate who were headed to a movie. So Anna and I tagged along and we ended up seeing Made of Honor, it was good considering, but hey part of it took place in Scotland so how fitting is that. Anna and I were going to leave Sunday night for Glasgow and then go on a tour to the Highlands on Monday but being the Bank Holiday weekend all the hostels were booked full. So we stayed in Edinburgh and we went on a tour from there. The tour lasted from 8:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night. It was a good tour. Most of it was a driving tour however we did make stops for pictures and also for food. We had an hour and half break at Loch Ness. There were some really awesome views and we were pumped full of history as well. It got up above 70 degrees during the middle of the day so that made it a really nice day for us to be out. We got back today a little after noon. Anna had class tonight and she is doing laundry. The rest of the week shouldn't be too bad. The weather is supposed to stay really nice and so we will probably be in t-shirts most of the time. Friday we leave for Cardiff with all the Central people for the weekend.

Can't think of a good title...

The last week or so have been pretty busy catching up on things and then also preparing for others. In outdoor pursuits last Thursday, I went sailing and Derek went surfing. We used smaller sail boats so we each had our own. We didn't have enough for everyone so I was paired up with the other smallest person in our group. Which worked out really well becuase when you were on your own boat it was fun but it was kinda boring cause there wasn't anyone to talk with. We went sailing in the Menai Strait and the morning was pretty easy but when the tide turned after lunch, the water was very choppy. It was enough that John, our leader only had two sail boats in the water at a time. This was fine becuase only a few people actually felt comfotable out there in the rough waters. I did get a bit queasy again due to the constant motion of the water... From the sounds of it, surfing went really well as well. Derek was more tired than he has been any other OP day because they were constantly swimming or trying to surf. He got up on the board pretty early on in the day and some of the others in his group didn't get up much if at all. He did get a good rash/rub on his neck from his wet suit rubbing salt water on it all day. It looked pretty red and then getting some sun on it this past weekend sure didn't help things.
Linda, Derek's mom, made it to Bangor on Thursday as well. We were able to show her around and go to Caenarfon Castle on Friday before heading to London. We staying in Vandon House again with Beth and Zach. We went to all the sites with Beth as our guide. Saturday night, we went to Wicked, which was amazing! If I was studying in London, all my money would be going to tickets for musicals! Sunday morning we went to church at the Westminster Abbey Cathedral which was pretty neat with the all boy/mens choir. Then we rested up Sunday afternoon before Derek and Linda took the train to Bath. They stayed there yesterday and today visiting the Roman Baths. I came back to Bangor Monday morning to go to my classes yesterday and today. Tomorrow I will be joining them again in Liverpool to tour around and go on the Beatles tour. Derek and I will be heading back to Bangor tomorrow night and Linda will be going to Manchester to catch her flight on Thursday.
I think that my OP group will be either surfing or outdoor mountain climbing and Derek's group will be either outdoor mountain climbing or sailing again but with individual boats this coming Thursday. It all depends on the weather! Then this Friday Derek and I are heading to Scotland. We have a long weekend with Monday off due to the "bank holiday" here in the UK and it will be something to take Derek's mind off missing his first Tulip Time in his 21 years of life. We will be visiting Glasgow, Edinburgh, and then hopefully St Andrew golf course and Lochness. Other than that, we are just finishing up with classes and preparing for final tests and papers.

Backpacking

Alright here is a picture for all of you were wondering how we traveled Europe over break. This was taken in Venice as we were waiting for a bus to the airport. It pretty much sums up the way we were feeling at the time. We had been walking for quite awhile. Those bags were not exactly light either but I suppose that is our fault. I'm sure we would all do it again in a heartbeat though.

Castle, $$, and French Fry Sandwiches

Today we had our first fieldtrip since spring break and it was great to get everyone together again. We also had a few guest, Jen Stewart and Katie's parents, join us for the day. We started off by going to Conwy and walking around the town on the walls that surrounded the town many a couple hundred years ago. Then we got a guided tour of the Conwy castle. This was the first castle of all the castles that we have visited that we got a guided tour. Tecwyn has it planned this way so that we do our own exploring in the castles at the begining of the semester and then have questions for the guide when we do actually get a tour. The Conwy castle was a very strategic castle for defense even though the king only stayed there one time. While we were walking through Conwy, Derek found 20 pounds, which would be $40. So that made his day since it paid for lunch. :) We stayed in Conwy for lunch before heading to Llandudno. It is hard to pronounce unless you have heard the town name be said so go to the following link and you have a better idea of how it is said. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/llandudno
There we rode a tram up to the Great Orme, the ancient world's largest copper mine. It is a mine that is from the bronze age and was just discovered in 1987. It was pretty sweet because our tour guide was the guy that was the first guy to send in samples to get the dates of when the mine was used, so he knew his stuff. We were able to walk down into the mine and go through quite a bit but they are still exploring more and more of the mine as it is very extensive and archeologists are taking their time so they don't miss a thing. Of course we all wore hard hats as we walked through the mine. At times it was shorter than I was and it was only wide enough for us to go through in single file throughout the entire part that we were allowed to walk through. After going through the mine, we had a few hours to explore the town of Llandudno because even though we have been there before, we were only allowed enough to spend time out on the peir the last time we were there. If you look at the pictures in the Snowdonia album, that is where the last two pictures were taken. Derek used his findings to buy some dress shirts that were on sale. He figured they would work really well for his intership this summer.
On the way back to Bangor, we stopped at the neighboring town where the movie theater is so a few students could go to a movie tonight. Now we are back and have been to the ultimate frisbee social, eaten frech fire sandwiches (they only brought us french fries and bread since there weren't many people), and are now catching up on emails in the lab. Of course it is right about 11 so they are going to be kicking us out soon. We will work on getting the pictures up later this week when we get another computer, of our own, when Derek's mom gets here on Thursday. Tomorrow we may be heading to Chester to watch the Central students play rugby depending on the weather. If not, it will probably be another Sunday afternoon of writing papers... and naps. :)

Eathquake!!

No, we did not have another earthquake but you did back in the Midwest. We were surprised to see that a 5.2 earthquake had hit somewhere in south Illinois with some claiming that they aftershock could be felt in Des Moines, Iowa about 5 hours later. Crazy.

We had so many nices days this week with sunshine and the warmth of the sun but today however it is rather chilly. The sun hasn't been out and the wind is blowing so it has been a little colder but it is not raining. We did have a great day yesterday for OP. Anna went sea traversing and had a great time. She said it was the thing she has liked the best that we have done so far. I went sailing a 20 foot boat. We split the group in half and so we had 4 in one boat and 5 in another. It was the first time I had ever gone sailing. It took awhile to get used the notion of the boat rocking so much and getting used to all the jargon and new concepts. Being from a landlocked state we don't have much exposure to the sea with tides and winds. I compare it trying to learn to drive a car for the first time only you can't just put the brakes on and stop. There is a lot going that you need to be aware of when you are out there. It was a little windy at times but it was a good day all in all. Next week we will do smaller boats and sail by ourselves. Yeah we will definitely need some prayers for that one. Today Anna and I showed Jenifer Stewart, a Central Study Abroad rep, around Bangor. Tomorrow we are heading to Conwy Castle and a few other places. Hopefully it warms up a little and the weather cooperates.

First week back

Well we are over half way through our first week back. I am done with one of my classes and the other we have started reviewing for the final exam. Anna's classes have been going well and she still has reading to do for most of them. There hasn't been a whole lot going on really. We have been reading a lot and have been enjoying the amazing weather we have been having. It has been really warm and it hasn't rained hardly at all since we got back and we have been able to just wear light jackets all day. Spring is on its way because all the trees and bushes are budding and some of them are blooming even. I believe that Anna and I are going sailing tomorrow for outdoor pursuits which should definitely be a great time. It is supposed to be a little colder which won't matter too much as long as we don't end up in the water. There is a college rep. coming this weekend so we all have to be on our best behavior.... no not reallly we know her so we will have a good time. Anna and I are introducing her to Bangor on Friday and then having some coffee with some of the other students. On Saturday we are headed over to Conwy and Llandudno which is just up the coast, she will also be attending the trip with us. Anna just got back from playing some volleyball and I was out tonight for awhile with some of the frisbee players. That's all we have for now.

Berlin to Bangor

Well we have finally arrived safe and sound in Bangor. We got back late wedneday afternoon. It was a long day of traveling as we ended up in Berlin. We had a good time in Berlin. We visited the museums and checked out the remains of the Berlin Wall and WWII things. I wasn't a big fan of Berlin after we had been to Prague, Rome and Venice. We did only spend one day there too. The thing that got us we occasionally you would be walking and there would just be a big stench of rotten water and sewage. It wasn't appealing at all and it seemed really random. We will have have some pictures up sometime here in the near future, I hope. We have been busy since we got back unpacking, washing clothes and writing papers. We got both of our papers down yesterday afternoon and turned them in on time. It wouldn't have been so bad but my computer crashed the last day in Berlin and so I lost my entire paper and notes and Anna lost her notes. Luckily there were enough people that had extra notes we could use. We also had plenty of time so it worked out. It was just rather stressful. Spring break was good. It was the first spring break for both of us that we weren't out doing a mission project of somekind. It was a change. We both missed not being able to go anywhere, but we still had a great time with what we did. We are both sick of traveling for awhile. Sick of airports, airport security, and all the scheduling.
We had great days in Outdoor Pursuits yesterday. Anna went sea Kayaking and I went sea level traversing. Sea level traversing is just like rock climbing only doing it several feet above the water. We also were able to suspend and pull ourselves across to rock cliffs. It was really fun. The sun was out and it was a warm day so even though the water was cold we stayed relatively warm. Anna says that she had a fun day even with with a little bit of motion sickness. She said the hardest part was sitting in the kayak all day and dealing with shoulder pain. I would have to agree with her on the sitting in the kayak thing.
Today has been cloudy and rainy. We finally slept in and caught up on some much needed sleep. Tonight we are going to make Lamb tacos and probably relax.

Athens to Vienna to Prague

We had a good day at the Acropolis and seeing the Original Olympic Stadium. Just about the time we got that all done is started raining. During the afternoon we went geocaching in the National Gardens. We only found two microcaches of the four we were looking for. The weather played a little bit of havoc with the GPS and just walking around in the rain in general. We had a good day though a little more relaxed than a few of the other days but not quite as relaxing as the day at the beach. The rain was alright though it was cooler so it helped out the sunburns a little bit. And it continued to rain the rest of the night. We had a brief night out to eat. I had roast lamb and Anna had Mousakkas. I still am not a big fan of lamb but I thought the mousakkas wasn't bad, Anna didn't like the texture. Today we flew out of Athens after a three hour delay to Vienna. We spent an hour there and then headed right off to Prague. After a four hour train ride we arrived in Prague. It was a bit cooler and it had been raining off and on but it was still nice. We have settled in for the night at a really nice hostel, probably the best one of the whole trip. Which is nice because it is towards the end and we appreciate it more now. Tomorrow we will be seeing Prague and then heading for Berlin tomorrow night and then "home" to Bangor on Wednesday. Enjoy the new pictures that are up!!

Okay so we didn't go to Australia

April Fools! We did not have a flight canceled and we did not end going to Australia, unfortunately. Sorry if there was too much confusion but we couldn't pass up an opportunity like that. Someone has to keep you on your toes and we wouldn't want you to be too comfortable knowing our exact schedule.

Well we started off in Venice for a day and half. Venice was really nice and so were the people there. The weather has been amazing ever since then. We defnitely got lost in the streets of Venice on more than one occasion. I got to play with pigeons as well. We stayed at a really nice camping area about 10 minute walk from a bus ride to Venice.

We next traveled to Rome. We got in late in the evening and met this really nice guy in the train station who helped us get our bearings. He also offered to set us up in a hostel and bed and breakfast for a decent price. Then he walked us to the place....starting to sound too good to be true isn't it well it was. It worked out but half the group had to stay in a sketchy hostel while the rest of us stayed in someones spare bedrooms in there house. He gave us a lot of good information but needless to stay we found a better hostel the next night. The one we found down the street was just a little more but was definitely worth the amenities, i.e. free internet and breakfast. We saw most of the main attractions in Rome after two full days of walking. We ran into part of the other Central group there as well which we all thought was cool and crazy. There were a lot of Americans in Venice and Rome. We had a really nice chat with someone that lives in California that was on leave for a week from Iraq that spent his summers in Iowa when he was a kid. He recognized the Central College attire.

Anna and I left a night early and headed for Athens. When we got here it was pouring down rain and about 11.30. The first hostel we checked on had rooms for 45 euro which is about 67 dollars so we checked out the second one on our list. They had rooms and we got in a little after 12.30 and then a couple from Germany who were originally from Wisconsin arrived and they were booked into our with us. They arrived a little after 12 and had to get a taxi from their ferry that was from one of the Greek Islands. They are in Germany teaching English. The next day was beautiful and sunny. We climbed a short mountain and saw the layout of athens. We also toured all the shops. The rest of the group arrived mid afternoon and we met up with them in the hostel around 7. One of them was leaving today to head back and the rest of them are headed out to the Greek Isles. Anna and I are heading up to Vienna tomorrow and then to Prague for a day and then up to Berlin for a day where we will fly back to Bangor from. We spent yesterday afternoon laying out on a near by beach mainly because the water is freezing. It is rather deceptive because its really warm out and the water is clear and sparkly but not warm at all. I had a chat with an older Greek man who was stationed on a WWII base in Athens and asked where we were from. He commented on how expensive it is for Americans to travel because of the exchange rate and also wanted to know who I thought was going to be the next president. We had a good day but we may have gotten a little too much sun....

Today we are heading out to see the Parthenon and the Acropolis and check some other stuff out before we leave tomorrow. We will keep you posted and I promise no more tricks... ;)

Howdy from Down Under

Well as it turns out our flight from Venice to Rome got canceled. The airline said that they would refund the flight. Since we didn't have any definite plans we just decided to get a flight to Australia. So we are spending the rest of the time in Sydney. It has been amazing so far. The flight was long but we found a direct flight which worked out. The weather has been really breezy but much warmer. Good thing I packed lots of t-shirts and a pair of shorts. We are planning on definitely heading inland to meet up with some aboriginis and maybe check out the wildlife. Tomorrow we will be snorkeling out amongst the reefs. We are both looking forward to that the most of all. Don't worry we haven't adopted a kangaroo or koala yet.... Well time and money is short so I must be off. Catch ya later.

HowTo - London in less than a day

Warning! - Not for the weak or faint of heart.

First start off your day at 4.30am no earlier,i.e. 2.00am you will need all the rest and energy you can get. Then head to the airport in a rental car and all the way trying to find a gas station to fill up at. After you can't find the gas station anywhere near by return the vehicle and head inside the airport. Catch a quick bite to eat at the only cafe that is open. Now find your gate and catch up on some sleep in the hour you have before your flight opens and boards. The trick is to fly from somewhere close by so that your flight is the same length as the time difference, i.e. Amsterdam. This will give you a head start on the day and utilize the precious time. When you arrive make sure you pick up your bags and then head straight for the bus terminal. Now this takes some planning or at least conscientious purchases. Make sure you buy the cheapest tickets into London so that you can arrive in a airport five miles outside of the city center. This will make for a nice hour and half long bus ride with a bus driver that is hard on the brakes and slow to react. From here head straight to your hotel located near the center of all the attractions. Unload all the things you don't need, pack light it will be a long day and lots of walking and last but not least use the toilet, you don't need that weighing you down or making for an unplanned pitstop. Once you have done all this you should have compiled a full list and locations of all the attractions and how to get there in the few hours you have had to prepare for your trip so it is now time to embark for the day. First stop Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye. Once you realize that the two hour line for the London Eye isn't worth it head across the city center to London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and Tower of London. Once you have seen the real London Bridge and determined that it is in fact still structurally sound head over past the Tower of London to the Tower Bridge. On the way discover that in fact the Tower of London is no more than a mere small fortress and there really is no tower and by your guess the jewels aren't really there and if they were they are probably deep deep under ground. Before you do this you must be properly hydrated so be sure to grab some free "delicious" and "refreshing" Vitaminwater knock off from someone on the streets. You will soon realize though that you were better off without it because the smell and lack of passion fruit in the passion fruit blend is simply just weighing you down. From here you proceed directly back towards the city center to Green Park and the Buckingham Palace. Admire the view of the park in the spring and the guards behind the gates of Buckingham. Now you may return to the tube or the underground and head for Madame Tuassands Wax Museum. Before you pay for tickets to the museum you will realize that maybe $50 is a little steep to see creepy and odd busts and statues out of movie stars struck in a famous pose. This is the home stretch. Next you will begin an arduous walk through Hyde square. On the map it looks easy but let me tell you the walk is a bit long after such a busy day already. The views are wonderful, it is warm and the sun is shining and the weather has been perfect all day so make sure you take your time so as to take in the air, sights and sounds. Stop at the Albert memorial and then the prize at the end Kensington Palace, the now memorial building to Princess Dianna. Make a quick exit through the gates and streets of the local foreign embassies. Once again hope on the tube and take it back to the London Eye and get in line to enjoy the spectacular view of London in the evening. Back on the ground it is time to head to your favorite restaurant, The Albert. Make it as quick as your tired and aching body will let you through the brisk night air. Order plenty of food and fill up your tank after only eating stand food and yes a little bit of McDonalds for the rest of the day. Your night is nearly over. Return to your hotel and slump onto the bed reflecting all the while on your wonderful experience that you have had (Be careful taking off your shoes for the smell may be too much to handle). Now slowly drift into a deep sleep by 10 because you are leaving on a train at 8 the next day and have to be up at 5.00am.

Maximum Transportation

After a long weekend of traveling, we started off another week of more traveling. It is only Tuesday and we have already been on, or planning on being on, every form of transportation possible in Holland, except for the bikes(more to say about those later!). We left Bangor Monday morning on the train to London and made about 3 stops before we got on buses to finish the rest of the trip. When we arrived in London, another Central student met us to get us to the Vandon House, which is where the Central students studying in London stay. To get there, we used the "tube" system. That is one confusing system if you don't know what you are doing! We finally made it, had some dinner and got to bed pretty early as we had to get up by 2am to catch our flight. After our small nap, we walked about 30 minutes to the bus station. Then road the bus an hour to the airport. We caught our plan after getting a light breakfast in the airport. The flight was only 45 minutes, but a combination of me being sick this past weekend, being up at 2am, not having eaten much in the past 72 hours, and the flight, I did end up getting sick in the last 10 minutes of the flight. I felt completely fine afterward and was able to make it through the day without anymore problems! Once in Holland, we rented a car and drove into the heart of Amsterdam. We finally found the tourist center to ask about where to stay and what to do. They were very helpful and got us a nice hotel to stay in as we needed a place for the car. We headed out in the right direction but all of our maps ended about 3 or 4 streets too soon. So we drove around for quite some time, only to realize we had driven by the backside of the hotel once before... But we made it, got settled in and then headed out to explore. We bought a 48 hour pass that lets us have unlimited use of the public trams and buses, free admission to most museums/attractions, discounts on many restaurants, and a free canal tour. Trust us, we are taking full advantage of this! Just this afternoon, we have used the trams multiple times, been to at least 4 or 5 museums or attractions, been to one of the discounted restaurants, gotten some free coffee, and are planning on going on the canal tour tomorrow afternoon or evening. Finally, after eating supper, having been up for 18 hours already, we were ready to head back, get showered up and get ready for bed. Tomorrow we plan on heading out of town a bit, to Haarlem, and a few other small sites to get the rural view of Holland along with a few other sites here in Amsterdam and then finally the canal tour.
We have found that Amsterdam is for sure based on tourism even though the locals don't seem to like or care about the tourists. Everyone here rides a bike. You will see from the pictures that there are bikes everywhere, including a bike ramps like you would see a car ramp in the US. The only catch is that bikes have the right away. It doesn't matter if you are walking or in a car, if they go, you stop. There are bike paths everywhere and it is more of a hassle looking to make sure you won't get hit by a bike rather than a car or the tram. I'm surprised that more people are injured due to crazy bikers!!! The weather here is also kinda odd. Like Iowa, it can be one thing one hour and something else another. The only difference, is that is can be different every minute. We seriously saw sun, rain, snow, clouds, sun, snow, sun, snow again, and over and over. You would literally walk into a building, turn around, and it would be a completely different weather outside. I think you will get that a bit by looking at the pictures. Other than that, just having to deal with the language barrier is the main thing. It is sure nice that Maurice knows a bit though, he has sure helped out in that aspect of this trip! I will have to say, that even though I may not understand what I am saying, I am getting much better at pronouncing things in Dutch. Hopefully by Thursday, we will all be able to say that we have touched up a bit on our Dutch!
I'm sure we will have plenty more stories to tell tomorrow so we will try to keep things update! ~Anna

Luck of the Irish

Well I guess it didn't rub off on us. We have been doing laundry and sorting out plans for the rest of spring break since our return. We have come to find out that one of our flights has been changed/canceled. They didn't actually tell us about it but we found from someone else that is traveling with us who did receive and email. We checked the website and our flight doesn't exist. I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone. All the offices are closed and the people are out for Easter and I ended up calling people in America about and they said they can't do anything because it was booked online so I have to contact the internet booking office by email... which has been unsuccessful so far. I was also supposed to pick up my dad at the Manchester airport this morning however his flight in Detroit got canceled due to the weather. Now he will be arriving at 6.30 am our time Sunday morning. I haven't figured out what we are going to do yet. Anna was sick all last night throwing up and so she has been resting. She is feeling better though. The weather hasn't been cooperating much either it has been extremely windy and raining off and on since we got back. So it has been a long day so far for us and family back home as well. Not quite how we wanted to start off Spring break. It will work out I'm sure and we will have a great time. We will try and post as soon as we can about the places we visit and the sweet pictures we take.

Ireland

We have returned from the land of the Irish. We had a great time and amazing weather. However is sounds like the weather back home was better than it was here, at least warmer. We arrived in Galway after a 2 hour ferry ride and 4 hour bus ride from Dublin on Saturday and just checked out he local nightlife that night. Sunday we went to the Aran islands for the day. It was good no rain and it was sunny. We rented bikes for the day and traveled the island. The island was formed by volcanic activity and it created some large cliffs that we went to check out. We didn't do much that night in anticipation for the big St. Patrick's Day activities. On St. Patrick's Day we started off with a small walking tour of a cathedral and the river. After this we watched the parade. It wasn't quite up to par with a Tulip Time parade but it was better than nothing. They didn't have any floats or anything mainly just people representing different activities, organizations and tribes of the city. The tribes are the main 14 or so families that dominated the city political, commercial, and social life of Galway between the 13th and 19th centuries ( you can thank wikipedia for that side note). Anyway after the parade we just toured and rested for the afternoon before we went out for the night. We went out and had a good time, some of the group was a little worse off than others. Everyone managed to make it back in one piece thanks to several of us. Before leaving Galway the next morning we went to visit the Galway and Waterford crystal store. Again after a four hour bus ride we were in Dublin and had a short walking tour. We walked through the Temple Bar area and just checked things out. That night we went and listened to some traditional Irish Music in a bar. On Wednesday we had a walking tour of Dublin, the Millennium Spire, Museums, a statue of Oscar Wilde, the book of Kells and Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Guinness Brewery. The only two cathedrals in Dublin are in fact Protestant despite the overwhelming majority of the Irish being Catholic, this is because they were under British rule. The Guinness Brewery was alright, I liked the Budweiser Brewery tour better because there you actually get to go through the brewery itself here it is more like a museum. I still don't like the taste of Guinness even though it was at the factory. Later that night Anna and I went out for some mussels. They weren't too expensive considering Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe even given the exchange rate. We rocked out after that to American Classic Rock at the Hard Rock Cafe with a band that dressed like Kiss but didn't play any Kiss music. The next morning before we left Anna and I booked it out to the old Kilmainham Jail of Dublin which is a good 45 min. walk that we made into 30 mins. We got there two minutes before the next tour started which is Lucky because they only start on the hour. It was a very historical tour about the political history of Ireland. On the way back we walked through Dublin Castle. One the ferry ride back we slept most of the time. Anna was able to sleep through the wailing and screaming of a small child for about 2o minutes straight. Its alright though I got enough sleep. While we were in Dublin we cooked most of our meals in the hostels and then just store food from the breakfast for lunch. We returned home and are now going to be spending a week with my dad in Wales, London and the Netherlands. Finally to spoil a few myths, St. Patrick's Day is more of an American Holiday it is celebrated more in the USA than it is in Ireland. They don't have green beer in Ireland and they don't have to wear green on St. Patrick's Day either, sorry to ruin the fun.

And They're Off.....

We headed out for Ireland on Saturday morning. This is/was the beginning of a three and half week adventure. The past week has been really busy getting ready for spring break and trying to finish off papers and assignments. Last week I had a friend from Central, Stuart Patterson, staying with me. We had a chance to check things out around Bangor and chill since he was on his spring break. After arriving in Dublin we traveled across Ireland almost all day arriving in Galway shortly after 7 pm. It was a rainy day nasty day. The guys went out to several pubs and then to a club. On Sunday we went to the Aran Islands. It was a good day it didn't rain however it was a little chilly. We had to ride bikes to see most of the island. We were all tired but after cooked we still went out for awhile to a local pub. The big day is tomorrow however when we be attending St. Patrick's Day. There is a huge parade bigger than Dublin's from what I have heard. It should be a good time but there isn't a whole lot to considering it is a holiday and everything is shut down and the city is extremely packed with people. The weather is looking to be alright for the day so that is good. Tuesday morning we will travel back to Dublin for two days and then back to Bangor for a week. We will check in again some time maybe when we are in Dublin. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Dealing with the weather

This past week wasn't all that bad weather wise except for the days that we needed to be out in it, of course. For outdoor pursuits on Thursday, we went canoeing in the Menai Strait. It is quite a bit different than canoeing in the Iowa lakes or rivers, or even the Boundary Waters. Not only did we have to deal with the strong winds, we had a tide like none other to pay attention to. Since it is around daylight savings, this past week was the equinox tide, which is one of the highest tides of the year. We were able to get out on the water with no problem and practice all the basic canoeing techniques but once we were headed up the strait, it was windy enough and rough enough waters that we tied two canoes together to make a stronger boat. This helped a ton! We only went up the strait a small ways because of the rough water and wanted to make sure we had enough time to get back. My group had lunch on an island and built a small fire in which we roasted some marshmallows. No chocolate or graham crackers though. Derek's group just ate and made a fire along the shore a short way back from where my group stopped. When we pulled our canoes up on shore to eat lunch, we tied the ends of the canoes together so two of the canoes were still completely in water. When we were done and ready to head back out, there was dry land about 15-20 feel behind out canoes. That gives you a bit of an idea of how fast the tide was moving. From the time when we left in the morning to when we got out, the tide had probably dropped a good 15 feet at least. To head back towards where the trailers were, we untied the canoes because the wind was at our backs so it would be a bit easier going. The very last thing my group tried was to have both people in the canoe sit in the middle of the canoe, facing each other so their backs were against the sides of the canoes. Then tucking our toes under the lip of the canoe on the other side, we both tired to lean all the way out so that our heads touched the water. There were a couple of pairs that were able to do it but unfortunately I was paired up with a guy that probably weighs at least 210. We were able to get leaned back but even when I was almost completely leaned back, he was still basically sitting in the boat. Needless to say, we both ended up in the water... It wasn't that deep but of course it was cold! It was a fun end to a good day though!
Then on Saturday, we had another field trip with the Central group. We went to Harlech castle, the town of Portmeirion, and the dog grave, Beddgelert. The castle was nice but it was so windy you didn't want to stay out on the top walk ways or in the towers very long. When this castle was built it was built on a cliff that was in the water. Since then, the water has completely receded about two miles so it stands alone but it was still impressive. Portmeirion is a town that was built to prove that towns could be built in junction with the land and that you didn't need to destroy the natural beauty of it. The architect that built it also wanted to bring in bright colors and interesting designs. If you look at the pictures, you will be a bit of an idea of what this means! This site also has some amazing plants and vegetation considering that it is on the coast of the UK. It makes it seem like it should be much closer to the equator. It would have been much nicer to go on a sunny day but it was still nothing like I have ever seen! Beddgelert is basically a couple of rocks in the middle of a field that is supposedly the grave of a dog that saved a child. We also stopped at a wood carvers shop in this town which had some amazing art. Grandpa Calvin would have been impressed! Of course, when we got back to Bangor, the sun came out and it turned out to be a nice evening. Thats the way it is here.
This next week is going to be a busy one as we are trying to get things done before we head off for spring break. Lots of papers, finalizing plans, and we have another student from Central, who is studying in Leiden, coming to visit!!! Not sure how much internet access we will have during spring break but we will try to update you as often as possible as we will be seeing lots of new things!

Getting Filled Up

It has been almost a week again. Not too much has gone on really. Today was warm and cloudy but no rain. It has been raining off and on for the past few days however Sunday the sun was out but it was a little chilly. We have been going to several churches through Bangor, Hope Church(pentecostal church start), Penrallt Baptist, Ebenezer Evangelical, Assembly of God Pentecostal Church, Bangor Community (Rivers of Life a Spanish denomination). They have all been good and it has been hard to get a consistent schedule because our weekends aren't very regular. We have been warmly welcomed at each. In fact almost at every church we have attended we have gotten a free meal out of, quite unplanned of course ;) For example the past two weeks we have gone to church and there were meals afterwards. Two weeks ago it was soup and potatoes at the Pentecostal church and then this past week we had a free meal at the Baptist church, this was our second free meal there and we had no idea until they announced it during the service. We have no plans for this Sunday yet, so we will have to see what happens. Last night I cooked fried chicken and had mashed potatoes and corn. Then tonight we had a really good pasta/chicken casserole that Anna made. Don't get too many assumptions we don't eat like that every night. The truth is I have Tuesdays off and Anna has most Wednesdays off so we make two fairly good sized meals and then we eat leftovers at night and sandwiches for lunch most of the time. Tomorrow we are going canoeing probably in the Menai Strait however it is the Equinox tide tomorrow so it could be too high and rough for us to go there. We may have to find a lake. The Saturday we are going to Harlech Castle, Portmeirion, Beddgelert, and Llanberis Pass. It should be a good day, as long as we have no rain. There is just a little over a week left before we start Easter Break! We are all ready to be off and traveling I think, thats why we are here isn't it? just kidding it is for the education of course.

Mountain Walking

First off I should apologize about that last post when I was adding pictures and moving them around it jumbled up the text so it probably didn't make sense, but it has been corrected. Today we did get to go mountain walking for outdoor pursuits. The weather was really good today, not too warm and a little windy but manageable. It clouded up this evening as we were leaving. Mountain walking isn't a leisurely stroll, it's actually a lot of climbing. Both of our groups went up the top but we went different routes. At the top there is are two rocks named Adam and Eve, but before we got to the top there is a rock called the cannon that sticks up and out. It was physically challenging and I think that we are all tired in some form or another tonight. We will be putting the pictures up shortly and relaxing the rest of the evening. After we finalize our plans for spring break and the rest of the semester.

Earthquake!!! Ahhhh!!!!!

As you may have heard the UK had its largest earthquake in 25 years at about 1 a.m. last night. I wasn't even aware of it until this morning and I read it online. So no we did not feel anything at all last night unfortunately. I guess you could consider this my first earthquake experience, well it is the closest I have ever been to one, 210 miles to be exact. It was the second biggest earthquake in UK history, 5.2 on the Richter scale. I guess that is about the most exciting non experience that has happened this week. I did get my hair cut yesterday....Anna did it with a razor. I would have to say it looks pretty good but after all I don't really care I don't have to look at it. Anna was more worried about how it looked than I was because she said she had to look at it all the time. It turned out well though. We have been busy this week trying to schedule spring break and plans for the rest of the semester. This weekend there was an ultimate frisbee tournament, I didn't play but I did get to go hang out with the team at the pub and get free food and chat with people. We went out with them Friday and Saturday night. It was cool though. Last week on Thursday for OP we went rock climbing indoors because it was rainy and windy so we couldn't go hiking, but we had a great time climbing nonetheless. Anna and I had a race up a wall but she beat me because I had to unclip my rope from the wall as I went up and I had farther to go but it was close. My forearms we definitely shot after the day. I hope that the weather is better tomorrow than it has been this past week so we can go hiking outside. Up until last Thursday we had gone two weeks with sunshine and no rain and it has been rainy and cloudy ever since. But today has been partly sunny and no rain so hopefully that trend continues.

Sick in Wales

Being sick at home is no fun, being sick away from home just stinks, but being sick and being in a different country... now that is the worse. Not that it is anything more than a good cold that wiped all the energy out of me, but still. My nose has stopped running every 30 seconds and just the occasional cough every now and then. I still had to take a nap this afternoon in between my lab session and my lecture cause I just didn't have the energy to even sit there and read.
Beth, Niki, and Zach were here for the weekend and I'm sure they had a great time but I sure wasn't up to snuff for doing everything with them. I started feeling poopy on Friday, the worse of the external symptoms was Saturday, and the worse energy wise was Sunday. Saturday night I "watched" a movie with the girls, fell asleep pretty quick, and didn't hear them leave but I told them to not worry about me if I fell asleep as I didn't want to get them sick by sharing a bed with them. So needless to say, I slept through church and took a good nap yesterday as well. Derek made a mean chicken noodle soup (from a can but still good) and grilled cheese lunch and was a great caretaker as I just didn't feel like doing anything. Today was much better even though I was tired. I ate regularly and am hoping that tomorrow things will be just about to normal!
On a good note, my cousin had her baby yesterday: Marianna Marie, born February 17, 7 lbs 4 oz, 19.5" long. All is well and from the sounds of things, mom (and dad) are doing quite fine!

Valentine's Day in Wales

So this morning Derek whisked me off my feet on a quick flight to Paris and we were able to spend Valentine's Day looking off the Eiffel Tower... Not quite, it was actually a great day of gorge scrambling in outdoor pursuits! We headed out this morning and went to Black River where we spent the day gorge scrambling. This entailed the groups pretty much climbing up the creek/rocks/hill/gorge/waterfalls. Again we got to wear the stunning purple suits to help keep us dry but once you were in the water, they didn't do much to keep the water out. I wore a wet suit, like what surfers wear, under my purple suit along with the rest of my group. Derek and a few others in his group didn't. My leader, John, recommended that we did wear them only because he knew he would be taking us through spots where we were forced to swim and climb up waterfalls. We also wore harnesses again because there were a few spots where we hooked on to ropes due to the slick rocks and height of the waterfalls. Let me tell ya, the water was cold, and when I say cold, I mean FREEZING! Aunt Jane, I would say this beats some of the coldest waters we have been in! Not only that, but we were basically rock climbing up waterfalls in the freezing water. I have been out of the water for about 6 hours or so and my fingers and toes still feel like swollen sausages. We all were just shivering the entire time but spirits were high most of the day! At the same time, it was great fun. I have 8 others in my group and they were great. They are all in pretty good shape and are all up to a fun challenge! We did a bit more physically challenging things throughout the day than the other group and we all have bruises and battle wounds to show it. Not that they don't either, but still...
Anyhooter, other than that, nothing to exciting for love day. We had tortellini for supper and are just relaxing while we wait to head to the train station around 11. Beth, Niki, Heather, and Zach are all coming to visit everyone here in Wales for the long weekend. They are all studying in London and are ready to see new places and have a break from everyone in the London program. I'm super excited to have Beth, my room mate back a Central, come! And the others of course! I'm not sure what all we will be doing, probably just showing them around and such. They will be joining the whole Central group on our next field trip this Saturday on the tour of the Isle of Anglesey.
I think I am starting to catch a cold as my nose has been runny the past few days and I'm starting to sneeze quite a bit. I'm really hoping it clears up! I'm sure being wet and cold all day didn't help one bit! I'm thinking a nice cup of hot chocolate is sounding just about right at this point!
Happy Day Before 1/2 Price Chocolate Day!!

Paradise

Ok so that may be a stretch but it still has been pretty amazing. The streak for nice weather is continuing here. We have had two days where the temperatures have been close to 50 degrees. The sun has been out everyday and it is just beautiful weather so far. I played Ultimate frisbee after class on Monday night and I went a Microsoft Inspiration Tour presentation yesterday afternoon because I didn't have class. Anna had a few classes yesterday but she has none today. I have one this afternoon. We going to make lunch and then head down to the local museum because we have to write a brief summary/report on the Bangor cathedral and Bangor itself for Tecwyn. I snagged the vacuum from the cleaning lady today because my floor was dirty. I have been a small campaign to get my flat mates to recycle their plastic and paper as well as their cans and glass. They have all four recycling bins downstairs however we only have two bins in the kitchen. Some of my flat mates refuse to put anything else but cans and glass in them and throw everything else away. There is someone the empties our trash and recycle just about everyday so it shouldn't be a big deal. I might try getting the guys to clean their dishes next.

Sunday Afternoon

Well we may not be writing as regularly as we have anticipated but o well. Anyway I just thought that I would start off by saying that yesterday it was near 60 here so those of you in the bitter cold might just be a little jealous however we are jealous of the lots of snow you have now, we miss out on a good sledding season. Well there isn't much to report really. We had Outdoor Pursuits on Thursday and did low level and high level ropes course. It was really cool and we had a great time. There were 18 of us that went and all of us completed the whole course! There are pictures up so you can have a peek at them, with us in our lovely purple suits. We have been just chilling this weekend. Yesterday I went played ultimate frisbee for two hours, Anna did some laundry. We went and ate a local pub, Varsity, who sponsors the team to eat because they give the team a free meal. This morning we attended an evangelical church, Bangor Community, and we have a good time. They were very welcoming even though they were small in numbers today. A few of the students that were there that attend UWB as well invited us to go eat lunch with them but we declined because we had to get back so we could eat. Anna went to volleyball this afternoon from 2-4. It was a beautiful but brisk morning and this afternoon however there is a very dense fog that has covered us. I don't think I am going to get a Sunday afternoon nap in because I should probably do some homework....eh. Catch ya later.

Monday after the Super Bowl

Well it is said that around 6% of people call in sick the day after the Super Bowl luckily we didn't have to do that. We did stay up to watch it so it was around 3 o'clock when we got done. After we cooked ourselves some lamb chops and mashed potatoes we went out to a pub called Rascal's. Then we went to the "projects" at half time and watched it on a 13 inch tv in a kitchen. This was the first year the BBC broadcast it here but unfortunately we did not get any of the commercials, it was commercial free unfortunately ( never though you'd here someone say that huh). I say we went to the projects because these dorms have 18 people per flat and they share a kitchen with two stoves a microwave, two showers, and three toilets, and they have no internet in their rooms. The buildings are strewn with asbestos check stickers everywhere and are getting torn down at the end of the year. So I guess we should thank the lord because most of the rest of the international students live in those buildings. We went to Liverpool this weekend and had a good time. The cathedral was finally finished in 1978 and it was started in 1901. So it is a rather new cathedral. We did not get to see a lot things we had a very short amount of time to see things. We however get to see the Cathedral and went through the shopping center and ate on Albert Dock in a pub with excellent food. While we were there we started watching the Italy/Ireland Rugby game. That same afternoon Wales beat England for the first time in twenty years at Twickenham. Liverpool is the European Capital of Culture this year. We start all our classes this week, including outdoor pursuits, so it will be a "full" week. I hope to get a hold of the guys football/soccer team and see about playing with them. We did go to serendipity on Friday and they had all their clubs and organizations there. So we are looking in seeing which ones we can make it to. They had wintersports, la crosse, rugby, basketball, soccer, DJ, scuba diving, sailing, kayaking, surfing, fencing, camping and all kinds of things to do. We are going shopping tonight for groceries after our class from 6:30 to 8:30.