In Wales

In Wales! It’s really very pretty with lots of green hills—and sheep. The town of Aberystwyth is gorgeous, with tons of little shops, and the flat I’ll be living in is a street away from the ocean. Here’s the view.

Right now I’m in the dorms until the other international students from last term move out. Did a bit of exploring in the town and found a fish and chips shop. We also have a KFC.

The university is up a giant hill which is useful for figuring out where I’m going (uphill = school, ocean = home) but really annoying to walk up. I’ll need to buy a bus pass.

We just had orientation and registration, so I’m running around to different departments to get signatures on my form. I’m taking Psychobiology & Cognition, Welsh History, and Web Development Tools. The computer science department gave me free stuff, including a coaster which says something in Welsh. They call coasters ‘beer mats.’ :)

Almost everything here is in both Welsh and English, usually with Welsh first. It’s hard to read since the words are so different and filled with y’s and w’s. The pronunciations are a little crazy too. I’ll ask people for directions and not be able to find the right place because it’s spelled different than it sounds. Everyone is very helpful though. Here's some random Welsh from the 'in case of fire' directions on my door.

Os oes sosban yn mynd ar dan...

(If a pan catches fire...)

I’ve already spent horrible amounts of money. And in pounds so it’s even worse! But the money is really cool. Much prettier than ours. Here’s some of the coins. The big silver one is 50 pence and the gold one in the middle is a pound coin. The smallest note (bill) here is a fiver (£5). Everything has the queen on it.

The sinks are kind of screwy. There are two separate taps, one for cold and one for hot, and they’re set apart, so you can’t ever really run warm water.