Snow Day, Oxford, Midsummer, &Wales

Greetings! I have so much to report on I'm not even sure where to begin. I hope when you read this you have a lot of time on your hands because I have a feeling this is going to be a LONG one. I'll start with the beginning of my week.

On Sunday, some of the girls and I went to church that is on our block. They had tea and biscuits for us after the service and then lunch after that. It was a very nice way to start off our day. Next, was the Super Bowl (of course you all know that). The girls and I walked through the snow to our pub on campus to watch the game. It was a late starting time for us though. I only made it through half of the 3rd quarter until I marched back to our flat again in the snow. I couldn't believe how much snow there was.

Monday morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow and London being completely shut down because of it. Our classes were canceled for the day, which I didn't complain about one bit. We took the whole day off and went and played in the snow at Hyde Park. All of my flat mates and I had a blast in the park. We threw snow balls and made snow men. It was awesome. There were a ton of people out there. I'm not joking when I say London shut down because many people didn't go to work or school. The public transportation was shut down completely, which means most people can't get anywhere. No worries though, I think everyone made the most of it. The city was even more gorgeous covered in snow. Not to mention the snow was perfect snow to make snow balls and snowmen. Since London hasn't seen that much snow in decades, we all literally made history because we can say we were here in London when the "big" snow fell. It was an exciting day.

The next couple days went on as planned with class and field trips. Wednesday was our field trip to Oxford. It was a really interesting tour. I didn't feel like I got to see a lot of Oxford, but I know I did. Its just so big its hard to take it all in. One thing I didn't realize is that Oxford is made up of 36 colleges. It isn't just one big college, but a bunch of smaller ones. I may be one of the few people who didn't realize this, but I thought I'd pass it along to everyone else just in case you were in the same boat I was. We spent the whole day in the town of Oxford. Part of the day with a tour guide, and then we got to roam around the town for the rest of the day.

Thursday I got to attend the play A Midsummer Nights Dream. The Shakespeare class had some open tickets so I took one. The play was very interesting. Since I hadn't read the play prior to the show, it was a little hard to follow, but I caught on quickly and enjoyed it thoroughly. A lot of the girls in our flat went. We had to get back pretty early so we could pack for our trip to Wales the next day!

So now for my highlight of the week.... WALES!!!! Ellie and I left our flat at 10:00 Friday. We got to the train station about an hour and half early and some how managed to almost miss our train. Go figure?! We got to the station and tried to waste time until it was time to board our train and somehow lost track of time. No worries though, we got on the train in time and made our way to Wales. On our way there, we found out our friends that were on the bus for Wales got canceled because of more bad weather. Luckily, they were able to get on a later train and meet us there. Ellie and I arrived in Wales about 2 hours before anyone else. So we decided to explore the little town near the train station. It was a really cute town and the people were so friendly. We grabbed a bit to eat in a local pub and meet everyone else at the train station around 6:30. As soon as their train got here, our transportation was there to take us to our weekend destination. It was about a 25 minute drive to Preselli Adventure, and once we got there, they had dinner ready for us. The food all weekend was amazing! The best food I've eaten since I've been in London. I almost forgot what it felt like to be completely full! We all ate and prepared ourselves for a full day on Saturday!

Saturday morning I woke up to an amazing breakfast. There were English muffins, toast, baked beans (which I didn't eat and thought it was a weird breakfast food), hard boiled eggs, and bacon (what we would call country ham but they call it bacon). It filled me up for our seven mile hike at 9:00. It wasn't what I expected a hike to be we are on a beach so it was a coastal hike, but it was difficult, cold, muddy, windy, and I LOVED every minute of it. It was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. The cliffs were high with waves crashing against them, and there were sheep running around in the field. It was picturesque. We came back to the lodge for lunch, which consisted of a homemade stew with homemade bread. I definitely had two servings. I had to get a good meal in for our coaststeering adventure. Immediately after lunch we went to get suited up for a swim in the Atlantic. Yeah, I was starting to think I was a crazy person for doing this, but ended up having a blast! We wore full body winter wet suits with another layer of shorts and vest that were the same material of the wet suit and on top of that we had life jackets, boots, gloves, and a helmet. Then we were ready to rock and roll. The initial jump into the ocean was, to say the least, shocking/breathtaking. It was absolutely freezing, but eventually we either went numb or quit thinking about it and had fun swimming around and climbing on rocks. (by the way, we were completely safe with two extremely certified guides who made sure we were doing what we needed to do to be safe. So, no worries) I can't say for sure how long we were in there, but long enough to say I swam in the Atlantic Ocean in February! The temperature was about 6-8 degrees Celsius, a.k.a. COLD. As we were finishing up and climbing out, we saw a seal! She was about 50 yards from us, but we could still see her! We walked back to our van and headed back to the lodge for dinner. Once again, they didn't let me down and had amazing food. It was chicken curry. I'd never eaten curry before, but I definitely bought some mix tonight to try and make it. We'll see how it turns out. We ate and crashed pretty early because we were all exhausted.

The next morning I was expecting to be super sore when I woke, but surprisingly I wasn't and climbed out of bed for another great breakfast. (the same as the morning before). This time I was filling up for ocean kayaking. I can definitely say by far that kayaking was the hardest thing I did all weekend. We got suited up again, but with different stuff. I wore my Under Armor long sleeve under a short sleeve wet suit. On top of that we had a wind/water breaker and then our life jacket, gloves, boots, and helmet. We had to wear these funny looking skirt things that fit over the opening of our kayak. I'm not sure that makes sense to anyone, but its hard to explain. As soon as we suited up and picked out our kayak, we headed to the ocean. It was so WINDY. The conditions on Sunday were worse than the conditions on Saturday. It was colder and windier and kind of snowing. We were troopers though and powered through it. The kayaking was a lot harder for me than I thought it would be, which was frustrating. I finally got the hang of it and moved along a little better. We saw a seal again! The same one kept poking her head out of the water and looking at us. She got a lot closer than I thought she would. The only other wild life we were exposed to were the lobster traps that our guides pulled out of the water had some lobsters in them. It was pretty cool to see the wild life while I'm sitting in a kayak in the middle of the Irish Sea (we went to a different part of the coast than we did yesterday, so this part was the Irish Sea). We paddled around the coast for a while then headed back. That was the toughest part for the whole group. We were almost back and only had to go around this bend and then a straight away for the ramp. As soon as we went around that bend, the wind hit us like a ton of bricks. It was ridiculous how strong the wind was. The guides kept telling us not to stop and keep going because if you were to stop the wind would push you right back where you came from. I pushed out the last bit of strength I had to get around the bend and to the ramp. It was rough, but definitely worth it. We got back to the van and packed up and headed back to the lodge for our final lunch before we left to head back to London. We ate jackets for lunch (aka baked potatoes). They had optional toppings: tuna, corn, and cheese. Random, right? I got cheese with the corn on the side. It was another nice meal to top off the weekend. After lunch, we all pack up and headed to the train station.

It was a long ride back on the train. We got back to London around 10:00, and we were all exhausted. I have to say one of the best weekends ever though. Even through the bad weather conditions, every part of the trip was worth it! I would definitely do it again, but it'd have to be in the summer, FOR SURE! I hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful weather I keep hearing about back home. I am missing everyone! Oh and one last thing, I had hot tea for the first time this weekend and actually enjoyed it. I mean it will never replace my cold sweet tea, but it will do for now.

More to come later......