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.