A very UK Thanksgiving

I've been all types of busy lately. Sorry for the delayed reaction time in the travel blogs. They really do CRAM a master's into one year. I'm working my little booty off. This module is about surveying planning. The marine biologists share this module with the marine environmental protection (MEP) master students, totaling with 26 students. We, as a team, are surveying Shell Island off the coast of mid-Wales. Shell Island has for major habitats, Rocky Shore, Sandy Shore, Mudflat and Saltmarsh. The 26 of us have split into four teams, respectively, to survey the entire island. I'm on the rocky shore team. Each shore is writing up it's section, and then the team has to present the entire report for a grade, all 26 of us. My grade is dependent on 25 other people, although with a heavy influence from the other 7 on the rocky team. So yeah, a lot of work. It's due on Friday.

The last weekend in November we had Thanksgiving here and I cooked not one, but TWO turkeys for 16 people. It turns out that the English love Thanksgiving, and love when Americans are around so that they can eat thanksgiving. I spent most of the day cooking, although because it was such a clean and beautiful day my housemate Beth and I took a drive through the wonderful mountain range of Snowdonia that we can see from our house. There are snow on the mountains that I see when I walk to school every morning.

I'm enjoying the Menai Bridge life, although I do miss the fast pace of NYC sometimes. About two months in I started to get a bit homesick, but that was only because I realized I had finally gotten comfortable. Menai is no longer strange, unknown and filled with people with people that talk funny. I have finally stopped asked my Scottish friends to repeat themselves, I can understand them on the first go (and for those wondering, Scottish is by far the hardest accent to understand). I know the back roads, I know how long it takes to walk from Menai to Bangor, and what bus to take if I get lazy. I live with a great group of people who are fun to be around. Menai is a town that's two thirds locals, one third students. We are a small community of ocean science students, and since I decided to do my undergraduate at an art school, I have never been surrounded by so many people that are just as nerdy as me in my life. And I have to admit, it's really nice. So why does this make me miss home? I couldn't answer that fully, I can only assume it's because I finally got hold of the big picture, and none of it is home. Now, this isn't a sad thing. And I'm still finding new things that I love about Menai Bridge and Wales and the UK every day. It's along side with the idea that distance makes the heart grow fonder. I appreciate home more, and take comfort that it's still there.

And as for my Artsy friends in NYC, I still love you for who you are and hold you dear. You're all nerds, too. And you know that, just in a different way. And I would hate for you to change that.

So what's next for the Emily? The sadness is that I will not returning to the states for Christmas. BUT, I will be heading to Germany! I will be spending 5-6 days in Koln, and then driving up to Frankfurt to stay with the awesomeness that is Jenny Gerke for two weeks. I've been reading a kids manga book in German to brush up on my skills. And my friend Nora, from Koln, has been forcing me to talk in German ever so often so hopefully I'm up to the challenge of spending Christmas dinner with a family that has the right to speak only German at the dinner table. Kann Ich es nehmen? Ich hoffentlich.

Love!
Emily
15, Mount St- Menai Bridge

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