Llangollen Weekend

I spent last weekend in the Welsh town of Llangollen. The trip was through the International Society at the University of Manchester and was sponsored and hosted by the Rotary Club of Llangollen. There were 25 students that went on the trip, and we all stayed with members of the Rotary Club. Jia (another girl on the trip, from Malaysia) and I stayed with the Law's. They were absolutely wonderful hosts! 

I'm queen of the world!!! At Dinas Bran at least...

The weekend wasn't just spent with the Laws, however. The entire group had several activities. On Saturday we started the morning with quite a hike, climbing all the way to Dinas Bran, or Bran's Castle. It's just ruins now, but from the top we had an amazing view of the entire Vale of Llangollen, including the houses, River Dee, and thousands of sheep. No, seriously, THOUSANDS!!!

After climbing to the top of the hill, we then had to climb down and walk to the pub for lunch. To give you an idea of how far we walked, just look at the photo above. On top of the hill in the distance you can sort of see the ruins of a castle. We walked from there to the pub, a slight bit of which can be seen on the left side.

Following lunch, we all went on a canal boat cruise. The canal system there was built in 1797 and, aside from very minor safety updates, is mostly unchanged. We even went over the top of the aqueduct at one point! The top was so narrow that only 1 boat could go at a time. I'm sure that caused a lot of issues when the canal was first used, because then it was the major form of transport and this canal system reaches all the way to London and beyond.

Later that night we all went to a Noson Lowen, which directly translates to Jolly Night. It's a Welsh tradition where people come together and everyone shares something, whether it's a song, dance, joke, poem, or story. I sang the National Anthem rather well apparently!

The next day we went to Chirk Castle. Unlike some castles, which are basically fortresses, this one was lived in. The picture above is of one of the dining rooms. The castle was like a mini (very mini) city, with a kitchen, dungeons, chapel, gardens, stables, and more. One problem though? The kitchen was so far away that all the food was probably cold when it arrived!

After leaving the castle we had a nice lunch and then a little bit of time to just walk around Llangollen before getting on the bus to get home. And by a little time? I mean 20 minutes. Jia, the Laws, and I walked to the bridge in town to take some photos, walked by a few shops, and then got on the bus. Overall it was a wonderful weekend that I won't soon forget!

New Camera!

As you probably read in my last post, my Spring Break has begun. I'm currently still in Manchester while waiting to here back about an interview for a VA company, but I've been making the most of it by exploring local shops, museums, and new parts of the city.

My latest adventure was in buying a camera. I went to The Real Camera Shop near Picadilly Gardens, here in Manchester. It's a used camera shop with great staff. As an aside, I think the bus circle at Picadilly is the only place I've seen in England where the traffic pattern is like it is at home! Anyways, I bought a Leica V-Lux 1 with a bunch of equipment with it, including a remote, upload cord, SD card, case, and UV filter. It was also really well priced, since it was used!

It wasn't all perfect though, because when I got home, I realized that the cord it came with? It belonged to a PS3 and didn't fit in the camera. So today I went back and changed them out, free of charge. 

Here are a few of the photos I took from the park across from my flat as well as just on the street.

Spring Break Begins!

To start off with, the last few months in Manchester have been a blast, and I haven't really been posting. As an overview, I am in the Motion Picture Society (we watch great movies, though one's some people have never really heard of), the Astronomy Society (great stargazing!), and the Photography Society (self-explanatory, I hope...). I'm also in the International Society, which basically means that us non-British people get discounts on certain trips. 

The University of Manchester is gorgeous, and the mix of styles on campus is fantastic. The visitors center is a modern building that bears some resemblance to a giant tin can, and right across the street is the Old Quadrangle with classic beautiful Victorian (and earlier) architecture. The building I'm normally taking classes in is the Alan Turing Building which is geeky, big, and open, and most of the outside facing walls are made of glass, even in the classrooms. 

Entrance to the Old Quadrangle

 This weekend marks the start of Easter Break, a three-week long reprieve from coursework, exams, projects, etc. and also from 7:30 a.m. alarm clocks ringing throughout the flat! Yesterday I celebrated by staying up until early morning and then sleeping in until about 11:30. Turns out Alexa and I did the same thing, though each in our own time zones. Twin powers! Today I slept in again, and enjoyed the bliss that is being well rested. I finally ventured over to the Manchester Museum. It's a part of the University and is right next door to the Quadrangle from the picture above. Looking at the architecture and style makes me realize where the format of our Smithsonian Museums come from, including the "Smithsonian Castle". They're only open until 5 p.m., and I like reading all the signs and fulling exploring the galleries, so I only had time for 3 galleries, meaning I'll definitely have to return! I could see myself spending an entire day there! The first exhibit I went to was about Manchester's history and about the museum itself: how it was founded, the first donated exhibits, etc. The displays were made to look a bit like a dry erase board, which you can see below. It was really well done!

Here are a few of the other things I saw:

This elephant was walked all the way from Edinborough to Manchester in the 1800's to appear at Belle Vue Zoo. Why? It didn't like the train

A gallery full of old fabric, pottery, and bows. Interesting mix!

One of the Two Brothers Sarcophagus's

After exploring the museum, I went to Teacups, the museum's cafe. It's a second location of the popular Manchester bake shop Teacup Kitchen. Because I arrived shortly before closing, I was the only one there. The kitchen was closed but they were still serving tea and sweets. Since that's exactly what I wanted, it was tea time after all, it worked out splendidly. The atmosphere at Teacups was wonderful. Glen Miller was drifting out of the loud speaker, museum style prints hung on the walls, old curio cabinets and drafting tables served as storage, and a buffet style table was lined with gorgeous cakes and other sweet treats. 

Table of sweets at Teacups

I ended up getting a Red Lychee tea and scone. The scone came with jam (unidentified but good) and clotted cream and was very good, and large. My tea was somewhat surprising though. The server came out with 2 teapots, a cup, a jar of brown and white sugar cubes and a rack of hour glasses. The tea was loose-leaf, so one teapot had the tea steeping, and the other just had a strainer one top. When my tea was done steeping, I just poured it into the other pot and through the strainer. I used the second pot to pour myself a cup of tea. It was a much more complex process than I am used to just to get a cup of tea, but it was completely worth it. It was an amazing cup of tea! 

My scone and tea

Heart shaped scone. The best sort of broken heart!

The hour glasses each were for a different amount of time, and were labeled 3 minutes - weak, 4 minutes - medium, 5 minutes - strong. It was flipped when the pot was prepared and I poured the tea when it reached the point I wanted - strong!

Now I'm relaxing in my flat before making dinner, and figuring out what to do with the rest of my Spring Break. I'll keep you posted on my adventures! 

My First Two Days

While the last few days have been crazy, I've finally arrived in Manchester. Snowstorm Jonas kept me, and several other people in the study abroad program, away until yesterday morning. I arrived at the airport, got my student status approved (directly following another person going to University of Manchester) and took a taxi to my flat. Checking in went smoothly and my room in nice. It's pretty big, has a large desk, and has its own bathroom with shower. I even have a nook in the wall for my glasses, book and alarm!

After dropping my stuff off and changing quickly, I made my way to orientation. I won't bore you with the details, but I did find it interesting that over half of the study abroad and exchange students were American! After that I got lunch and went shopping. I got groceries and necessities from Pound Land. That is an amazing store! It's kind of like the dollar store, buy with a bit more variety and slightly better quality. The variety was a bit closer to CVS, just with different items. I got some food, utensils, a travel mug, shampoo, a dish towel, milk and a ton of tea for only ‎£16! Walking back to my flat with 2 huge bags just gave me more incentive to get a bus pass, which I did today. 

At my flat, I located the kitchen and met some of the others in my building. One girl was from my flat and she and some of friends from the building were studying for a chemistry exam that they took this morning. We chatted a bit, I worked on some course selection, and then we ordering dinner from Nando's. Its a fantastic take-away place here that is at a few places in the US. Apparently it's ridiculously popular here and I see why!

The chips had a delicious spicy salt on them called peri-peri and the pita was yummy and had cabbage rather than just lettuce, which gave a nice crunch. Over dinner we chatted a bit more and I was given the down low on some people in the flat and on the flat in general, such as the rota, trash pick up, etc. All in all it was a great evening!

This morning I had a meeting at the Law School with the visiting student officer and the study abroad students taking law or criminology classes here. I'm taking the second, a data analysis class. There I met up with Lindsey, another girl from UNC. We ending up sticking together for the rest of the day. We explored a bit and found a cheap and tasty lunch at Gregg's consisting of pasties and soup. After that I got my student I.D. I used my passport photo but the quality of their ID photo's is aweful, so I now have an ID with an even worse photo, which is sad... After that we search a building so the English Departments reception and found out that my navigation skills are very good, at least according to Lindsay! After find reception, we chilled in the Union until tea time. The International Society hosted a tea for us and it was extremely popular. We arrived 15 minutes early and could barely fit inside. Three rooms were open and the line still went out the door of the building when everyone sat down. Still, I had a good cup of tea, mini-muffin, and scone with jam and clotted cream. I also got some butterscotch biscuits in a packet that I'm saving for my tea with breakfast. 

I met a few more people and after the tea we realized we had nothing to do. So...we went to Pound Land and then got dinner together. We tried a place called Spicy Mint on the famous Curry Mile. It was very good and the conversation was even better. I'm really looking forward to all the semester has to offer, which is infinite possibilities minus sunshine..

While Manchester is wonderful, and a place I look forward to exploring, the weather is sad. It rained on and off all morning. By this I mean I walked one block in a downpour, the next in clear skies, the next in spitting rain, the next in gale force winds, the next in a downpour and by the time I got to my destination it was dry again. Here's the view from my room's window from before I left. The wind was going about 15 mph for much of the morning. 

Getting Off The Ground

This semester I will be traveling to England and studying at the University of Manchester. I'm really excited about what the next few months have in store. I'll be studying mathematics and computer programming in the Alan Turing Building, living in the 2016 City of Science, traveling around England, Ireland, Scotland and other parts of Europe, and making new friends along the way. I'll keep you posted on my adventures, the new things I try, and the everyday adventures of an American abroad.

On another note, the adventure begins before I even leave. As those in Northern VA know, we are expecting a massive snow storm this weekend akin to Snowmagedon. I fly out on Friday afternoon so I don't even know if I'll leave on time! This makes planning exciting, but it's in God's hands, not mine. Plus? I can't be held accountable for being late if it's an act of God. I'll let you know how it goes!