First Week of Classes

Well the title may be a little misleading. This is supposed to be the first week of the semester however most classes don't start until next week because they just got done with tests on friday. I had one class on Monday from 9-11. It was macroeconomics and there were four Caucasians and then 36 Chinese students. It is not what I would have expected when taking a class in Wales. Monday night everyone had the History and Culture of Wales with Tecwyn our director. Anna has one class today. This system is very confusing and different from America but so far so good. We made two more trips this past weekend.
Saturday we went to the Marble Cathedral, aka the wedding cake cathedral, and a Cathedral in Chester. Chester is built on and around the remains of an old Roman City. They still have the Roman walls up around the inner part of the city and you can take a stroll around on them. The town also is right on the English border and so there is some enmity between the English and the Welsh, mainly because the English conquered the Welsh and are still under their control. Examples of this are the clock tower only has three clocks on its four faces because the side without the clock faces Wales and they won't give them the time of day. There are several laws in place that are also anti Welsh, One states that if a Chester residents finds a Welsh citizen in the streets of Chester at night he can kill him but only with a crossbow, but I don't think that it is still practiced today. So there is just a little bit of tension with friendly relations there. It was a good day. It is a tremendous shopping extravaganza and so we just walked around towards the end of the day window shopping. We eventually got something, it was in the bakery. We had an apple turnover with cream filling and a pastery stick of something. Sunday we went to the Snowdonia and visited a lake called Devil's Kitchen. It is called this because when the wind blows through the crags amongst the rocks it howls and sounds very creature like and also it is said that no birds fly over the lake so they will not be eaten by the monster that lives in the lake. It was a really spectacular view. We also visited the Ugly House, which isn't that ugly actually. It was made by robbers some time ago. The rule was in the those days that if you could build a house from dusk to dawn and have a roof and smoke coming from the chimney you own the land that the house was on and the distance that you could throw your ax from each side of the house. We visited a Welsh Prince's castle and then finished the day up at Llandudno beach and pier.
The weather has been good here. The sun has been out most of the days and it has been warm. Today it is cloudy and has sprinkled a bit this morning. We went geocaching last thursday because it was a nice day out. I have to say this was my first time geocaching. We did find one of the two we were looking for. The other was on the pier but by the time we go there the pier had closed. So my first geocache was in Wales! There are about 15 around the area some are aways away but all are within in five miles. I am planning on playing soccer here when I can I might join the club team but I won't be able to play in games because I have class on Wednesday afternoons but at least I will be able to kick it around. A few days after we got here I purchased several flowers, the crocus plants and three red Tulips. They are doing quite well the crocus are about to bloom but the tulips have a ways to go. I am also trying to start up an Ivy plant that I stole from a fence. I will keep updated photos of their progress.
I have the rest of the week off and the group is planning on going to Liverpool this Saturday. Until next time.