A Journey Overseas

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Living in United States, we rarely think about other countries and cultures. I attend the University of Central Oklahoma where we have a heavy international student body. So many international students have visited the U.S. and have experienced our culture but it wasn't until I took a trip to the beautiful city of Swansea that I developed an apprecitation for other cultures. I visited Swansea over spring break with some classmates from the Mass Communication Department at UCO to make videos and brochures for a couple of non profit organizations through Swansea University. I recently went to New York City with UCO several months before going to Swansea. I didn't plan on going to Swansea for the simple fact that I went to NYC the semester before but I want to deeply thank my classmates for talking me into going on this trip. It was truly the most amazing experience anyone could be a part of. I had to recooperate once I arrived because of the time difference and the long nine hour flight.
We arrived in London, then took a three hour bus ride to Swansea, where we stayed at The Norton House which is a resort built in the late 1700's. The rooms were extremely nice, as a matter of fact they were like two bedroom apartments. The girls' rooming situation was a little different but as far as the guys, we each got our own bedroom. The rooms were also equipped with a full size living room with two couches, two bedrooms and a kitchen area with a full fridge and stove.
After we all got some rest and adjusted to the time difference, we set out with our tour guide on a bit of an adventure. We went to Mumbles, which is a small community just several miles away from Swansea. Here, we got to experience a gorgeous view of the ocean and along the coastline. It was such a surreal feeling as we all stood out on the cliffs just admiring the overall view. Standing there gives you time to collect your thoughts and really gain an appreciation for other cultures around the world.
After a full day of exploring the countryside of Mumbles, the next day was finally time to get down to business. As we boarded the city bus to make our way to Swansea University, I thought to myself that the scenery looked awfully familiar with the exception of the beaches. My hometown of Knoxville,TN has the same landscape with all the mountains and hills. It was pretty fascinating comparing the two cities. Now that I've sidetracked myself to give you some information about how my hometown compares to Swansea, we finallly arrived at the University and all I wanted to do was walk around the campus and sightsee and listen to the students talk in their British and Welsch accents.
Once we made it to our classroom we met Christine, Allie, Georgie and Kate who were the workers and student volunteers for Discovery, which was the group we were working for. These are the people who gave us our tasks and objectives as to the actual purpose for us being in Swansea. Our goal was to make a promotional video along with brochures for Discovery, which is a non profit organization that helps keeps kids active, productive and more importantly, off the streets.
We were divided up into two groups. Emily and Lauren handled the brochures, while Michael, Dusty and I set out to get some video and interviews from people around Swansea. That was our own adventure within the trip. We went halfway across Swansea to a recreation center full of kids of all ages. It's one thing to be around adults speaking a different language and in British accents but to see innocent little kids speak with those thick accents and dialects was one of the most interesting things to me. Listening to how they use words differently than us and hearing British and Welsh accents from kids really stood out to me. In the meantime, we walked around the center video taping the kids interacting with each other.
As we were filming, some of the older kids offered us to come play football. We thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see the kids in their element. However, we had to remind ourselves that Europeans say football, it's soccer here in America. As we made our way to the football courts with the kids, something just triggered in my mind and all I could think about as I looked around was just WOW! I really am experiencing a different culture and lifestyle. Walking through neighborhoods in a different country with Welsch residents just didn't seem real at the moment. I felt like I was one of them. Playing soccer with European kids half my age let me know how good those kids are. I'm not the greatest at soccer but those kids are amazing for their age. I clearly see why so many of those kids go pro at an early age.
After we finished getting footage of the kids and the scenery around us, we headed to the train station to make our way back to the university. Once we were on the train we got some awesome footage of the city as we held our camera up to the window as we were riding. The shots we got looked amazingly similar to what you would see in movies. By now, we've arrived at our destination, the only problem was there was nobody there to pick us up. At first we were worried and didn't really know what to do but we figured we would simply make the best of it. Michael, Dusty and I set out and walked around central Swansea. We had no choice since not one of us had an international calling plan on our phone.
The three of us made it into our own adventure. We got more footage around the city and even took some time out to do some sightseeing and some shopping. One of the highlights of our mini adventure was getting two great interviews from a couple of girls who worked at a shoe store. We stopped just to look around and rest for a second but they were nice enough to give us some great sound bites about how great life in Swansea is and how great the beaches are.
The week went by too fast and before we knew it, it was Thursday our last day in Swansea before heading to London. Some of the locals told us about a restaurant by the name of Verdi's. The entire group decided to eat there on our last day in Swansea. Verdi's was one of the best restaurants I've ever had. The food was absolutely amazing. I tried some pretty interesting foods that were pretty good along with some great desserts but the pasta I had was the greatest ever. The meat sauce just tasted authentic, like it was really homemade. Once we all finished our lunch, some of us saved room for dessert. That turned out to be the best decision of my entire life, just ask Taylor McElhaney. I ordered some strawberry, kiwi cheesecake and the cake was very moist. I didn't know a slice of cake could be that moist and still taste great. All of our desserts were great, so we sampled off of each other's plates just to get a taste of how amazing each dessert was. I offered Taylor a piece of my cheesecake and she was hesitant at first and said she only wanted a tiny piece. Once she tasted that tiny piece she literally turned back around and fell to her knees as we shared the rest of the cake. Yes, the cake was amazing but that's the first time I've ever seen cake break a person down like that, it was hilarious.
We went back to our rooms, packed up and boarded our bus to London. It was sad to leave Swansea because it had such a nice, welcoming vibe to it. We arrived in London Thursday evening. Since it was pretty late, we decided to turn in for thr night and get some rest after our three our bus ride. The next morning, we got up bright and early to make sure we got to see as much of London as possible. London Heathrow Airport is quite a way form central London, so we took a 15 minute train ride there.
Once we made our way through the train station and out into the central London crowd we were all in shock at the overall scene. Me personally, it was surreal, I almost couldn't believe that I was really standing in central London, England. After I snapped out of my daze, I was ready to sightsee. We only had a day, so I had to decide if I wanted to be on the tour bus where I would get the opportunity to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and other historic attractions or walk through central London and experience the busy life that London has to offer. I chose to walk around London simply because I wanted to experience parts of London that I haven't seen on TV or in movies.
Everything you can imagine is all right there in downtown London. Department stores that we visit everyday are twice as big with twice as many floors. Being around stores that big is a massive temptation. I wanted to buy everything I saw but I held my composure, and relegated myself to just sightseeing and soaking in everything I could. Later that evening, I got the opportunity to go to the Hard Rock Cafe. That was quite an experience in itself since I had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe anywhere. Seeing all the legends of rock and pioneers of music was quite the treat.
The next morning, it all came to an end way too soon as it was time for us to board our plane back to Oklahoma City. This is experience is something I'll definitely cherish for the rest of my life. Anytime an opportunity comes up for a person to travel to another country, I would definitely encourage that person to go for it. Seeing a different country is an amazing life changing experience. I thank God I was able to make one of my dreams come true.

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Comments

[southern fried]

My error by putting North America and Oklahoma City. That's where I live. It should be Swansea, London and United Kingdom. Sorry guys