My running route in Cardiff is quite different from what it was in Vancouver. A lake full of ducks doesnt compare to the Pacific ocean with views of the mountains and the islands. Nevertheless, this is my route-if I was fit enough I could run down to Cardiff bay, (perhaps 5 miles from here), but that is a big IF. I am still exploring a lot of Cardiff, and I think an awesome way to explore someplace is by running. I did this in Greece and Turkey and its great fun getting lost and finding your way home. This was the case tonight...i now know how bad my sense of directions are. I ran up hill, to the left, downhill, twice around the lake, and i thought i was going right and uphill from the lake (to go back to halls) but really i was only running further left and away from the lake and my dorms. I had to stop at the bus station and inspect their maps to find out where I was. I now know more streets that connect to each other...the things you discover running!

The week has flown by and it was filled with a lot of study time and a lot of partying too... I am still considerably behind the other students in my classes, but I am catching up and hopefully I'll get to the new work by this weekend. I now feel like a real economist because all my textbooks are econ related; whereas last year I was still studying a bit of everything. This is exciting for me and despite all my complaining, I think I really do like economics. (i hope!!!)

I'm getting to know people in my classes, whom are all very friendly and helpful. Most of the second years and up live in student housing, just behind the main 'drag' of the university. I live 2 miles away, which always posses problems. But this past weekend I got a speedy road bike from Mike's mom and thus I now bike to school and back every day. I really should correct that and say I coast to school (downhill ride) and bike uphill (to university hall). Nevertheless, I'm really enjoying the freedom and the fact that I dont have to wait for the bus!! (only comes once a hour and picks up from campus 10 to the hour and classes finish on the hour-so i have to wait 50 mins: dont have that kind of patience thus I bike!) I am still conscientious of biking on the WRONG side of the road and thus I pay more attention to the cars then to the asphalt that I'm biking on. Tuesday morning was the first morning I pulled out my new bike and I'm almost at school when a) i pass a pub (one of many on my route) and b) I hear a big POP! Sure enough, there was a glass on the road and I hadn't seen it and I got a puncture through both my inner and outer tire. What luck! After coughing up 22 quid (slang for pounds=44CAD) , I was back on the road again.

I signed up for the sailing club and this past wednesday the club met and went sailing in Cardiff bay.
Picture is of my friends getting dressed in wetsuits for the first time. There were about 20 students and 7 'instructors' (experienced students). I guess my friend Jane and I should of known we were in trouble as soon as I read the 2 persons max sign and we were with 3 in this small little dingy. I asked my instructor about it and his response was, "ohh-dont worry!" 5 minutes later-we'd capsized!! It was fantastic fun. I now know that sailing in a dinghy is totally different from the 45 ft. yacht I was sailing in this past summer. The sensitivity of the dinghy makes it really fun and the speed that they can acquire is pretty impressive. The Cardiff bay is enclosed, which is only relatively new. 5 years ago they put up an artificial barrier to help build up the water level in the bay, which before used to be covered only in mud. The bay is now being developed with new residentual housing, posh retail stores and restaurants, and the Cardiff theater/opera house and Wales government debate chamber are all located here. Cardiff has some pretty spectacular architecture (both of the old and new variety) and the opera house and debate chamber are incredible. The Opera house is made completely of Welsch products. Back to the water part... this enclosed space is great for learning how to sail small dinghys. We had such good fun and just laughing the entire afternoon through. The only downside of the entire experience was the lack of boots that came with my wetsuit and thus my feet had lost their color by the end of the afternoon. It hurt to walk! I was in the water twice because i had a go at the helm on this overfilled dinghy and soon enough, we were all in the water again--thanks to me!! woops! But just for the record, later (on a different dinghy) I was at the helm again and tacking was no problem; no more capsizing.

That same evening was Rubber Duck evening at our union club. Don't ask why it's called Rubber Duck, but the theme of rubber duck that evening was Pornstars. (I am not proud of what comes ahead)... I was against this from the beginning, but all my flatmates were all so incredibly well dressed (they call it fancy dress; and in our terms fancy dress is what they call smart dress) so I faltered and also decided to dress up as a pornstar. People like to dress up in all kinds of costumes, which I don't remember doing once in Vancouver. I had to go to my friend's closet because honest to God, nothing in my closet would look remotely like a pornstar. So here I am, 'shopping' through my friend's closet and she pulls out this bright colourful dress and she shouts, "go as a sleezy housewife!" Thus that is the explanation for the following photos. I went out with a bunch of flatmates, which was lush (Welsh/english for great fun).










It's now 11:30 and usually people are still chatting to each other with doors open but because of the quite eventful evening last night, we're all going to bed early. Just to let you know that I'm not here for just for the fun and games, I applied for a summer internship today housed here in Vancouver for a firm called DTZ Consulting & Research; they research the real estate market and help with all kinds of aspects of the investment in real estate process. I would mainly be in charge of gathering economic data and summarzing the findings into reports which would then be presented to clientele. Its a competitve position but the least I could do was try, right? I am also waiting to hear back from a store that I applied for a job for; who know's whats happening there but I expect to find something out tomorrow. The weekend is looking bleak with a ton of work and flatmates leaving, but perhaps I can get a hike in on Saturday to a castle called Castle Coch-supposed to be very nice!

My third weekend in the UK has flown by, just like the previous two. Time seems to be distorted here as the weekdays seem to take ages to go by, but weekends (as always) are gone in an instant. Mike came up this weekend from Birmingham. He caught the train up Friday evening.

We had a wonderful weekend exploring Cardiff. There are still many places here that I have yet to see, so this weekend we went to Cardiff Castle (big castle in the heart of the town.) On the way to the castle we quickly realized that there was some sort of sporting even going on in the city because of all the Welsh perephenlia beign sold on the street corners. It turned out that Wales was playing football at the Millenium stadium in the heart of the city. Thus there were many crowds of people, decked out in Welsh gear, heading towards the stadium and creating a general racchus.

The castle sight was first occupied by the Romans in circa 75 BC, then the normans came alone, and a long time afterwards the castle was owned by the owner of the factories of black gold. (i.e. coal). He was the richest man in the UK at the time. That man, had so many homes around the world, that he gave up the castle to the city of Cardiff. This is the only castle in the UK that is owned by the city, all the others are still privately owned. The history of the castle is really intriguing though. At one point, one prince was angry at another prince, crossed the English channel and collected his brother from Normandy, and returned to Cardiff to imprison him in a tower here at the castle! He was imprisoned for eight years when his death set him free. There are 100 rooms in the castle, and most of them have been restored to their former glory. One room is valued at 20 million pounds (the ceiling is covered in gold), another table in the dining room valued at 6 million pounds. (To get to USD multiply by 2). Additionally, the castle grounds itself are quite large and secured by a huge wall around the premises. Saturday flew by in Cardiff.






Sunday morning, Mike's mom, Pamela, came by to exchange my bike, spend the afternoon in Cardiff with us and to drive Mike back to Birmingham. We went to Cardiff bay, which is the location of where the old docks used to be that shipped out all the coal that was produced in Wales. After the coal rush died down, the docks turned into a ghost town, but now they are pumping money back into that part of town and revamping it. The architecture of the buildings along the bay are incredible. Very modern but really unique designs. We walked into the parliament building, a historical church, and the opera house. There are tours given in all of these buildings, but unfortunately we didn't have time for any of this. We grabbed a traditional English lunch (what is known as dinner here) at a pub. A traditional English dinner includes roast beef, roast potatoes, pees, carrots, a muffin/bread like thing and ofcoarse, everything covered in gravy. 'Fat free' are words problably not known around here. At the end of the afternoon, Mike and Pam set off to Birmingham and the weekend is over.

I've got class from 10 to 2pm straight tomororw, then a two hour break (break=library time) and then a modern british economic history course. The week is going to be very full, but i'm looking forward to sailing wednesday afternoon.