Blogs from Barry, Vale Of Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Before AC, my life was barely exciting enough to fuel a single episode of Last Of The Summer Wine, and now it could possibly inspire an entire season of the O.C. On the whole my week has been quite surreal, mainly because usually these sorts of things only happen in guilty-pleasure teen shows. My hidden camera crew apparently started filming at the Open Mic on Saturday night at the Globe Lounge, the final performance of AC focus week in which a lot of the teachers went up and sang or told little anecdotes about their time at the college. The open mic must have expected the rich and diverse history of Atlantic college to actually inspire rich and diverse anecdotes, because they were done about an hour and a half earlier than they planned (the show ... read more

As a higher level music student, not only do I get two codes free every week to just compose and free voice lessons from a Welsh National Opera star, but I also get lessons on the Javanese gamelan every Sunday afternoon! Last Sunday I just stuck by the huge gong, but next week I'm hoping for the nong or maybe even the ka-nang...a unique skill, but not exactly one I could take to the streets of Dublin, where Sioned, Henrik and I hope to go for the long weekend in March. After discovering that all of us have Friday evening codes free (and, therefore, our weekend starts at 1:15 in the afternoon instead of 7), we planned a celebratory meal at the only really nice restaurant in Llantwit, only to discover that the only really nice ... read more

Well, I know I'm back at AC, as no one is speaking English in the entire computer lab. I thought it would take me a little while longer to settle in, but I arrived at the airport and it was as if I'd never left! I was so jet lagged and exhausted (I thought it was just a cliche, but no...I had the classic crying baby two rows in front of me on my 7-hour, overnight flight) that I basically crumpled to the floor just after Xavier ran all the way across Arrivals Hall 3 to grab my waist and throw me in the air - luckily he did not make me do a backflip, a neat trick we had debuted at the dance after the Christmas party. Of course, the crumpling may have had something ... read more

Since I last wrote, I have acquired an accordion, the lead role in the annual AC musical, and probably a score of 1 on my Spanish exam. I sang my body parts vocabulary to the tune of Deck The Halls for DAYS, when on the test we had to translate a random 5-page interview with Penelope Cruz (who was not ever asked questions like "Do you like your elbows?" or "What do you think is the most important issue facing toenails today?"). My Physics exam was equally grueling today, which - and I'm really looking on the bright side here, as I only discovered the entire last PAGE of the Physics exam when we had ten minutes left - made the Maths exam afterwards seem like ponies and sunshine and rainbows. You can always tell how ... read more

My week both started and ended on Queen Street in Cardiff, although last Saturday there wasnt a gigantic Christmas tree and ropes of glistening icicle lights lighting up the entire city. Some other minor differences - last Saturday I was dressed as a soldier pretending to beat monks with sticks (some incriminating photos might soon become available of when the police pulled me aside and took my stick away) as part of the Amnesty international street theater against the violence in Burma, and this Saturday I just went shopping with my roommate. I had my third chance encounter with a famous person while we were waiting for the bus into Llantwit, when the Nobel Peace Prize winner who had given us the Friday Lecture the night before was just leaving campus and offered us a lift. ... read more