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Published: February 3rd 2009
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So now I’ve started classes and gotten into a routine, plus I have done some more traveling as well. But to start off, I will tell you about my courses. I am in Medieval Britain, Modern Wales, Welsh Culture, and Outdoor Pursuits. The first two are the classes I take within the university and each has a lecture once a week, and then a seminar once a week to supplement that. Welsh Culture is Tecwyn’s class and that is kind of simplified for Americans, so it helps catch me up with my other British history classes. Outdoor Pursuits (OP) is all day Tuesday and is just that; we do activities outdoors that are not even heard of in Iowa, but I will go more into detail of OP later.
The classes are very different than I am used to, we don’t have homework due everyday, we just have 2 or 3 papers due after a certain amount of time, and the seminars are smaller groups for discussing things not covered in the lecture. I’ve notice that in history classes at home we study events and people, where as here we study the historian who wrote about the event or person. Also,
there is not enough time to cover all of Medieval Britain in one semester so we covered over 200 years in one hour. This is very different from taking a class devoted solely to the 4 years of the Civil War. There is not as much detail in the lectures, rather the papers I write will go more in depth in the subject I chose to write about.
Outdoor Pursuits actually began today! We started off with our introductory lesson and did the low ropes course and high ropes course. If this is introductory, just imagine what we will be doing! Gorge scrambling, sea-level traversing, abseiling, surfing, mountain biking, and hiking, just to name a few! I can’t wait for next Tuesday. However, today we did ropes courses as I mentioned, and I loved it. It was not the first time I had done it, so I was comfortable up there and I could just hang freely from my harness. But, it was fun to watch and support the others as they were afraid of heights or had never done it before. It was very cold and muddy and snowy, but we kept fairly warm with all of the adrenaline
rushing through us. It was also exciting to do the team building activities on the low ropes because we really got to know each other well, and it will be fun to see how we work together on bigger and better things to come.
On Saturday, a group of us went on our first excursion alone to Liverpool! I had researched a lot of it, rather than doing school work, and booked us at the Beatles Museum, and for a tour around the city on the ‘Yellow Duck Marine,’ a land and water tour of the city. As corny as that sounds, it was so much fun, and we even got to sing as we splashed down and drove out of the water. It also gave us a sense of the city so we could walk around and see the sites we wanted to.
We went to the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, which was absolutely gorgeous! It is the second largest in the world and we went to the top of it! The view from the top was amazing, as well as very windy and cold. But the Cathedral was just beautiful, inside and out. A few of us went to
the Metropolitan Cathedral as well, which is a much more modern church, but still very beautiful. It has stained glass all around and when the sun is at a certain level, a certain color shines through, so it is very technical. It was neat to compare the two cathedrals which are just at opposite ends of a street.
To finish off the day in Liverpool, we went shopping at Primark, which was very busy and rushed, but very cheap. The British students, who we have gotten to know, met us up there and showed us where to bargain shop. Apparently a lot of people bargain shop there.
All in all, Liverpool was a great day, and a great way to get our feet wet in traveling. We now understand the train system and everything that goes into planning a weekend vacation. Next up, we are thinking, are London and Amsterdam! We have another fieldtrip with Tecwyn this weekend to the Isle of Anglesey, the Beaumaris Castle, and the town with the longest name in the world, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogoch. 😊
I’m staying very busy, and definitely having a good time. I am learning a lot too, from the British students, from my classes, and from making mistakes (especially with the food I have to fix myself- I’ll explain later). One thing we have been saying a lot is, “Live and learn,” because we have been figuring out stuff the hard way. Not to get you worried though, we aren’t getting ourselves into trouble! But we are learning a lot; about the culture, history, cooking, laundry, each other, and ourselves.
Cheers!
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