All i have to say is that I was in utter shock whilst reading this article. Do people not have anything better to do?!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
News in Cardiff
All i have to say is that I was in utter shock whilst reading this article. Do people not have anything better to do?!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Back in Wales
I am back in Cardiff after almost a month's leave. Although there was hesitation coming back, now that I am back in my room studying away...it feels okay again. Christmas at home was fantastic. We had a lovely time and it seems that the three weeks i spent at home flew by. New Year's Eve was spent on the couch with my parents; very uneventful...but as it was my last night home I didnt want to go far. I flew back into London on the 2nd and from there Mike picked me up and we went straight to the ferry. We had made plans to spend the week touring the Netherlands and staying in Rotterdam with my uncle. The week in Holland was fabulous too. Every day we were out and about and by the end of it, we were thoroughly exhausted. I'm glad Mike got to see holland, meet some of my family, and just get a taste for what its like over there. Being there made me miss home though and coming back to Cardiff was difficult. It seemed that I didnt have the same excitement that I had when I came over in September for the first time. This term will be filled with more work, less play, and less travel...which I'm trying hard NOT to happen. Next week I am free for a week and trying to make lots of day trips. Also this summer is going to be very busy and hopefully if everything goes as planned Mike and I will be moving back to Vancouver. That in its self is a hassle. As hard as I try, i still seem to accumulate a lot of junk and i know that not everything will fit into my suitcases. But that is a future head ache. Enough said of the future, I am now in the midst of my exams. I've already had two under my belt and one more on Friday. I am trying hard to keep focused for this last one... Mike and I are celebrating our one year anniversary this week, which is also exciting and pretty scary at the same time. I had once said that we're not a real couple until we take a trip together. Well last week when we were boarding the ferry, Mike reminded me of this fact! Yikes! But we'll have a nice weekend together and then in two weeks time we'll celebrate his 22nd birthday.
I do realize that I am still very much a foreigner in Wales. Last night i was walking home and listening to music at the same time. When crossing the street, it is still intuition for me to look left first. I realized this and turned around to look right. But little moments like that makes me realize that as hard as I try to fit in here, it really will take much more time. Two minutes up the street I was stopped by a car asking for directions. I apologized and said I couldn't help them find the street they were searching. After living here for four months now, it seems that I am still not fully familiar with the city. My bike route back and forth to Uni is the span of my familiarity. I will try to do better this term, though, and span my horizons. Instead of taking so many trips back and forth to Birmingham, I will try to encourage Mike (and me) to meet up in different towns to explore those too. Next week I'd like to take the train further west into Wales, as I've not seen (any) of the country really. So, my new year's resolution is to continue travelling and exploring the area I live in. I also find it strange because last year I was never scared to go explore by myself,but it seems that this year I've created the excuse of needing somebody to travel with. That, for now, is out the window and hopefully i'll have some exciting trips in the near future. :)
Hopefully everybody is well and had a safe ringing in of the new year!
(As usual, the photos are totally out of order but I will try to explain chronologically:
Photos start at Mike's engineering ball in Birmingham which took place on December 3rd, then mike, his mum, and i went to the national museum of wales and a pub which are the photos of MIke wearing a tweed jacket, the monday December 11th we went to my business ball, and the rest of the photos are back home in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. )
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Back in Atlanta
I am back in Atlanta!! My entire family (and sister's boyfriend too) are all here. This is the first time since last Christmas that we are all together; which is quite nice. Its difficult at the same time because we are 7 very opinionated people. Last night we tried to watch LIttle Miss Sunshine and you should of seen it. First it was a hastle of who claimed which seat. Then, when everybody was finally sitting down, we tried to start the movie however it indicated that it wasnt made for the appropriate region. You should of seen our reaction. Apparently there was a problem with our DVD player. Its great to be home again and to be in this environment. I miss hanging out with my sister especially. The other day we baked cookies for an entire evening and we take on really bad crafts project. My mom wanted little tree place tags for Christmas dinner that she had seen in a store. I was stubborn enough to say that that was too simple and we could easily do it ourselves. So tes & i went to michael's arts and crafts store and came back with glue, glitter and paper. We spent the evening geting glue on basically every surface except our Christmas trees. We also wanted fake snow on the tree but then realized that it dragged the paper down too much. It was a blast. Now that we're finished, my dad is determined that those things are not going on his Christmas table. Ha...we'll see about that.
I look back at this year very fondly. The last two weeks were especially great. I went to Michael's mechanical engineering ball, which was fantastic. I loved the dress i got (after quite the episode with a broken zipper in the dress). The ball was a big success, Mike helped organize it, and i was very proud of him for the great evening. My outings to birmingham have always been great. THe last time i was tehre we went to a German fair where we ate bratwurst on the streets and listened to bands. The atmosphere was great and all the stalls had their own crafts/foods/linens for sale. I ended up with lots of German Christmas treats to bring back to my family because my parents grew up on them. The weekend after the engineering ball MIke came to Cardiff. On the Sunday we met his mom and went to a traditional English pub...im going to admit that i'm actually liking these pubs very much. There is good atmosphere and I like the fact that you can sit and chat for hours. That doesnt happen very often anymore in American restaurants. You sit down, 1.5 hrs later they expect you to be gone so the table is free for the next customer. On monday night Mike & i went to my business ball in Cardiff's city hall. The location was absolutely beautiful; and we were greated with champagne coctails. We had a fancy meal and afterwards danced until I was exhausted. The next morning,since it was my last day of uni for the year, i decided i'd get up and bike to my 9am class. Ha-tunred out it was canceled but ofcoarse i didnt know that. So i was pretty exhausted when the next morning at 4.30am a taxi came to pick me up to take me to cardiff central station. From there i was catchign teh train to London Gatwick. My flight was 9.5 hours and just too long. I was squashed into a corner where i was locked in because a big man was sitting in the middle and on the other side of him a lady with an 8 month old baby on her lap! It was a long flight...
The first couple of days back in Atlanta i mainly slept and lounged around the house. I havent done much work (at all) but hopefully that'll come once Tessa, Matt and Dirk leave again. I have to get my act together because i've got a ton of work to do. I'm thinking that ill go to my dads office next week and sit in one of the cubicles.
It is now Christmas Eve and the family is just hanging out. There are way too many dogs in this house because we're taking care of two neighbors's dogs (plus our own.) I'm going on a walk with them later through the forest to tire them out some. For now, my banana bread is in the oven, we're listening to Christmas music and just enjoying being home (and together!). Tommorrow (on Christmas) we'll have a nice breakfast, open pressents and we'll cook up a nice meal.
I hope everybody has a lovely Christmas with their families. I hope the day is merry and filled with warmth and happiness. :) Merry Christmas!!
I look back at this year very fondly. The last two weeks were especially great. I went to Michael's mechanical engineering ball, which was fantastic. I loved the dress i got (after quite the episode with a broken zipper in the dress). The ball was a big success, Mike helped organize it, and i was very proud of him for the great evening. My outings to birmingham have always been great. THe last time i was tehre we went to a German fair where we ate bratwurst on the streets and listened to bands. The atmosphere was great and all the stalls had their own crafts/foods/linens for sale. I ended up with lots of German Christmas treats to bring back to my family because my parents grew up on them. The weekend after the engineering ball MIke came to Cardiff. On the Sunday we met his mom and went to a traditional English pub...im going to admit that i'm actually liking these pubs very much. There is good atmosphere and I like the fact that you can sit and chat for hours. That doesnt happen very often anymore in American restaurants. You sit down, 1.5 hrs later they expect you to be gone so the table is free for the next customer. On monday night Mike & i went to my business ball in Cardiff's city hall. The location was absolutely beautiful; and we were greated with champagne coctails. We had a fancy meal and afterwards danced until I was exhausted. The next morning,since it was my last day of uni for the year, i decided i'd get up and bike to my 9am class. Ha-tunred out it was canceled but ofcoarse i didnt know that. So i was pretty exhausted when the next morning at 4.30am a taxi came to pick me up to take me to cardiff central station. From there i was catchign teh train to London Gatwick. My flight was 9.5 hours and just too long. I was squashed into a corner where i was locked in because a big man was sitting in the middle and on the other side of him a lady with an 8 month old baby on her lap! It was a long flight...
The first couple of days back in Atlanta i mainly slept and lounged around the house. I havent done much work (at all) but hopefully that'll come once Tessa, Matt and Dirk leave again. I have to get my act together because i've got a ton of work to do. I'm thinking that ill go to my dads office next week and sit in one of the cubicles.
It is now Christmas Eve and the family is just hanging out. There are way too many dogs in this house because we're taking care of two neighbors's dogs (plus our own.) I'm going on a walk with them later through the forest to tire them out some. For now, my banana bread is in the oven, we're listening to Christmas music and just enjoying being home (and together!). Tommorrow (on Christmas) we'll have a nice breakfast, open pressents and we'll cook up a nice meal.
I hope everybody has a lovely Christmas with their families. I hope the day is merry and filled with warmth and happiness. :) Merry Christmas!!
Monday, November 13, 2006
I am once again guilty of not updating my blog more often. What can I say, time slips away. The past few weeks have been really busy; packed with studying with the occasional nice breaks. :) On November 10th, I officially left my teenage years behind and turned 20! Finally! Glad to leave the teens behind. My birthday was wonderful. I went out with my friends for a nice dinner and went out to Bar Billabong afterwards. It was very relaxed and just enjoying a good meal in wonderful company.
Birthday Dinner photos:
On the saturday following my birthday Mike and i went on a 22 mile bike ride to a nearby castle called Castle Coch. The castle used to be a medieval castle but was destroyed in a battle. In the late 1900th century, a coal mine ownder- (i.e very rich man here in Wales) decided to rebuild the castle in a fairy-tale like manner as a nice summer retreat. The castle has thus been refurbished in a fairy tale-esk style and when wondering through it feels like walking in Disney World. Unfortunately, the castle was never used often; only when his kids had infectuous diseases did they go there!!
Mike and I really enjoyed our bike ride and just being away from books and uni life altogether is very gratifying. We had a lovely picknic on the castle grounds and went for a walk after we wondered through the castle. I also learned that now that I turned 20 I dont know how to bike anymore! On our way home, I literally just fell down while biking. Full on wipe out to the side. It was brilliant. All of a sudden Mike just saw me flat out on the ground. So, after all those years of being able to bike, as soon as I turned 20 i lost it!
Castell Coch Photos:
The following weekend I went to my first rugby game!! I was so excited to go to well, for one a rugby game, two, an event in millenium stadium (huge stadium here in castle), and finally, to see Canada play Wales in Rugby!! :) It was so good to hear the Canadian national anthem and to see Canadian flags flying around. The game itself was almost sold out, 74,021 people were there out of a total of 74,200 seats. Canada lost the game (62-28 Wales) but they put up a good fight. Everybody said they were very impressed to see Canada play that well against Wales (supposedly the #1 team in the world). I couldnt believe how viscious rugby is though. I couldnt believe these guys who were going head on into the other player. The game also didnt stop every two seconds as in American football, which was great because it keeps you on your toes. I also enjoyed listening to all the men shouting, "go left!" , "ref that was such a bad call", ect....as if they can actually hear you. I was in the highest level-really high up and all these men we're shouting at the players as if they could hear. It was great fun and the atmosphere was really good. Walking out of the Millenium stadium into the night, surrounded by 74,000 fans, it was fantastic. People shouting shants for Wales and everybody dressed up in red. (Funny because the national color for Canada is red as well and Canada wore read whilst Wales wore grey jerseys).
On the Saturday my friend Katrin and I went to Ikea to have her first Ikea meatballs! She, now an x-vegetarian, really enjoyed them. We had a blast walking around Ikea; as she calls it, we went for a "mootch." It was really lovely and later that night we put together my night-stand and lamp whilst watching Desperate Housewifes and eating chocolate truffles :) Don't need boys to put together furniture-we did it by ourselves with a kitchen knife and scissors...(didn't have a screwdriver)! Ok, so maybe i did lose a nail....woops!
This weekend I didnt see Mike because he went to a family reunion in Bristol. It was also his brother's 25th birthday! He was also sick and had lost his voice so contact between us went to nill except the few whispers he could manage on the phone :( But after five days of silence his voice slowly came back to him.
This past week I had an exam in empirical economics that didn't go so well. I was really dissapointed as it was my first exam here in Cardiff. I felt so confident going into the exam as well and as soon as I opened the exam, I knew I was in trouble. So that was a dissapointment. I have another exam in Political Economics of the EU coming up in two weeks and hopefully that'll go better.
Lately my relationship with Mike has had some bumbs. We've just had a hard time adjusting not living together anymore and both being so busy its hard to find time for each other. However this past wednesday Mike called me up and said he was coming to Cardiff!! What a surprise. We hadnt seen each other in two weeks and weren't planning on seeing each other this weekend. It was a fabulous surprise. The following day was American Thanksgiving and I had organized to cook my flatmates a traditional thanksgiving dinner. Mike was a great help and on Thursday morning we started in the kitchen at 11am. I baked an apple pie, pecan pie, corn bread, a BIG turkey for 10 people, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts and gravy. I was very happy MIke was around to help me with the turkey!! Here in England they dont deliver them the way they do in America with a pop-up thermometer and all the guts already out of the turkey. Mike literally had to stick his hands in the turkey center to get out the liver, heart, ect. How lovely-we put that in a pot and made turkey stock out of it for the gravy. This was also the first time i had made gravy and hopefully I played close enough attention so I can repeat it for CHristmas dinner. It was a lovely meal though and the first with the entire flat together. The meal turned out really well and a big success-and now we want to cook a joint Christmas meal with the other end of the floor as well! However, that will then be 25 people not 10 and this time it wont be me cooking! I hope my flatmates got a taste of what American thanksgiving is like and perhaps that they too celebrate it in the future.
The rest of the weekend wasn't nearly as eventful. A lot of studying and just hanging around Uni hall. Mike & I went to go see James Bond Casino Royal which was great. I highly reccomend it. Its a good show and just good entertainment which keeps you on your toes. It had a bit of everything in it; definetly a crowd pleaser in my opinion. The weather in Wales has turned sour. We've had record breaking rain fall and in 20 minutes it can be any of the following options:
a) sunny
b) sunny and raining
c) dark and cloudy but no rain
d) dark and cloudy and rain
e) Hailing (happens more often than you think!)
f) windy
g) windy and intense rain coming at you from a different angle then usual-makes biking even more interesting!
Its ironic because a couple posts back on my blog I commented that I expected the weather to be much worse in Wales-ha
Well, I'm coming to my end. I've caught up in two weeks of posts. This morning we woke up and Mike dragged me on a run around Roath Park. Afterwards we walked into town via Starbucks and I did the first of my Christmas shopping. I said goodbye to Mike at 3.30 at the trainstation; promising to see him again on Friday. While walking out to my bus stop Mike rings and says we misread the time and his train doesnt depart till 4.30! So that was fab and we were able to grab some lunch before saying goodbye again. I'm excited for this week to fly by because next weekend I'm going to Birmingham for his mechanical engineering ball! I get to wear my (mom's) ball gown and Mike is wearing a tux! I cant wait for his ball and for my business ball on December 11th.
It is shocking to think that I only have two weekends left before I fly back to Atlanta. I first typed in Vancouver there--its funny to think that I consider Vancouver to be my home but thats not really true. My home is where my family is, which is Atlanta, but I really am looking forward to going back to Vancouver next year. Don't get me wrong, I love my exchange year here in Wales and i've learned so much, seen so much, and met many great people. But at the same time, I can't wait to go back to Vancouver. I missed my family this past week because everybody was home for American thanksgiving except me. Its been a long time since I've seen them but I really do think the webcam helps me a lot. I see my mom pretty much every other day on the webcam which is fab. When my parents have bought another piece of furniture for the house, or if my dad painted something, they'll show me on Skype. Or when Maurits is eating my mom's Dutch pancakes on monday night he'll pull up the laptop to the stove to make me jealous. Its great--really!
I hope everyone is doing well and getting into the Christmas spirit. Cardiff is all decorated with Christmas lights, decorations and a very large Christmas tree infront of city hall. It looks lovely. I'm excited for Christmas to come around; to be in good company at home in Atlanta :)
Birthday Dinner photos:
On the saturday following my birthday Mike and i went on a 22 mile bike ride to a nearby castle called Castle Coch. The castle used to be a medieval castle but was destroyed in a battle. In the late 1900th century, a coal mine ownder- (i.e very rich man here in Wales) decided to rebuild the castle in a fairy-tale like manner as a nice summer retreat. The castle has thus been refurbished in a fairy tale-esk style and when wondering through it feels like walking in Disney World. Unfortunately, the castle was never used often; only when his kids had infectuous diseases did they go there!!
Mike and I really enjoyed our bike ride and just being away from books and uni life altogether is very gratifying. We had a lovely picknic on the castle grounds and went for a walk after we wondered through the castle. I also learned that now that I turned 20 I dont know how to bike anymore! On our way home, I literally just fell down while biking. Full on wipe out to the side. It was brilliant. All of a sudden Mike just saw me flat out on the ground. So, after all those years of being able to bike, as soon as I turned 20 i lost it!
Castell Coch Photos:
The following weekend I went to my first rugby game!! I was so excited to go to well, for one a rugby game, two, an event in millenium stadium (huge stadium here in castle), and finally, to see Canada play Wales in Rugby!! :) It was so good to hear the Canadian national anthem and to see Canadian flags flying around. The game itself was almost sold out, 74,021 people were there out of a total of 74,200 seats. Canada lost the game (62-28 Wales) but they put up a good fight. Everybody said they were very impressed to see Canada play that well against Wales (supposedly the #1 team in the world). I couldnt believe how viscious rugby is though. I couldnt believe these guys who were going head on into the other player. The game also didnt stop every two seconds as in American football, which was great because it keeps you on your toes. I also enjoyed listening to all the men shouting, "go left!" , "ref that was such a bad call", ect....as if they can actually hear you. I was in the highest level-really high up and all these men we're shouting at the players as if they could hear. It was great fun and the atmosphere was really good. Walking out of the Millenium stadium into the night, surrounded by 74,000 fans, it was fantastic. People shouting shants for Wales and everybody dressed up in red. (Funny because the national color for Canada is red as well and Canada wore read whilst Wales wore grey jerseys).
On the Saturday my friend Katrin and I went to Ikea to have her first Ikea meatballs! She, now an x-vegetarian, really enjoyed them. We had a blast walking around Ikea; as she calls it, we went for a "mootch." It was really lovely and later that night we put together my night-stand and lamp whilst watching Desperate Housewifes and eating chocolate truffles :) Don't need boys to put together furniture-we did it by ourselves with a kitchen knife and scissors...(didn't have a screwdriver)! Ok, so maybe i did lose a nail....woops!
This weekend I didnt see Mike because he went to a family reunion in Bristol. It was also his brother's 25th birthday! He was also sick and had lost his voice so contact between us went to nill except the few whispers he could manage on the phone :( But after five days of silence his voice slowly came back to him.
This past week I had an exam in empirical economics that didn't go so well. I was really dissapointed as it was my first exam here in Cardiff. I felt so confident going into the exam as well and as soon as I opened the exam, I knew I was in trouble. So that was a dissapointment. I have another exam in Political Economics of the EU coming up in two weeks and hopefully that'll go better.
Lately my relationship with Mike has had some bumbs. We've just had a hard time adjusting not living together anymore and both being so busy its hard to find time for each other. However this past wednesday Mike called me up and said he was coming to Cardiff!! What a surprise. We hadnt seen each other in two weeks and weren't planning on seeing each other this weekend. It was a fabulous surprise. The following day was American Thanksgiving and I had organized to cook my flatmates a traditional thanksgiving dinner. Mike was a great help and on Thursday morning we started in the kitchen at 11am. I baked an apple pie, pecan pie, corn bread, a BIG turkey for 10 people, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts and gravy. I was very happy MIke was around to help me with the turkey!! Here in England they dont deliver them the way they do in America with a pop-up thermometer and all the guts already out of the turkey. Mike literally had to stick his hands in the turkey center to get out the liver, heart, ect. How lovely-we put that in a pot and made turkey stock out of it for the gravy. This was also the first time i had made gravy and hopefully I played close enough attention so I can repeat it for CHristmas dinner. It was a lovely meal though and the first with the entire flat together. The meal turned out really well and a big success-and now we want to cook a joint Christmas meal with the other end of the floor as well! However, that will then be 25 people not 10 and this time it wont be me cooking! I hope my flatmates got a taste of what American thanksgiving is like and perhaps that they too celebrate it in the future.
The rest of the weekend wasn't nearly as eventful. A lot of studying and just hanging around Uni hall. Mike & I went to go see James Bond Casino Royal which was great. I highly reccomend it. Its a good show and just good entertainment which keeps you on your toes. It had a bit of everything in it; definetly a crowd pleaser in my opinion. The weather in Wales has turned sour. We've had record breaking rain fall and in 20 minutes it can be any of the following options:
a) sunny
b) sunny and raining
c) dark and cloudy but no rain
d) dark and cloudy and rain
e) Hailing (happens more often than you think!)
f) windy
g) windy and intense rain coming at you from a different angle then usual-makes biking even more interesting!
Its ironic because a couple posts back on my blog I commented that I expected the weather to be much worse in Wales-ha
Well, I'm coming to my end. I've caught up in two weeks of posts. This morning we woke up and Mike dragged me on a run around Roath Park. Afterwards we walked into town via Starbucks and I did the first of my Christmas shopping. I said goodbye to Mike at 3.30 at the trainstation; promising to see him again on Friday. While walking out to my bus stop Mike rings and says we misread the time and his train doesnt depart till 4.30! So that was fab and we were able to grab some lunch before saying goodbye again. I'm excited for this week to fly by because next weekend I'm going to Birmingham for his mechanical engineering ball! I get to wear my (mom's) ball gown and Mike is wearing a tux! I cant wait for his ball and for my business ball on December 11th.
It is shocking to think that I only have two weekends left before I fly back to Atlanta. I first typed in Vancouver there--its funny to think that I consider Vancouver to be my home but thats not really true. My home is where my family is, which is Atlanta, but I really am looking forward to going back to Vancouver next year. Don't get me wrong, I love my exchange year here in Wales and i've learned so much, seen so much, and met many great people. But at the same time, I can't wait to go back to Vancouver. I missed my family this past week because everybody was home for American thanksgiving except me. Its been a long time since I've seen them but I really do think the webcam helps me a lot. I see my mom pretty much every other day on the webcam which is fab. When my parents have bought another piece of furniture for the house, or if my dad painted something, they'll show me on Skype. Or when Maurits is eating my mom's Dutch pancakes on monday night he'll pull up the laptop to the stove to make me jealous. Its great--really!
I hope everyone is doing well and getting into the Christmas spirit. Cardiff is all decorated with Christmas lights, decorations and a very large Christmas tree infront of city hall. It looks lovely. I'm excited for Christmas to come around; to be in good company at home in Atlanta :)
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