A Rainy Sunday In Wales

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Classes start tomorrow and basically everyone is just waiting for classes to start tomorrow. In classic Wales fashion, it is cloudy and damp with a thick fog cover, which doesn't really do much for anyone's mood. The ILBs (Inshore Life Boat servuce participants) are undeniably the worst off, though, as they have to wake up at 6:30 every morning for the next month in order to go do their fitness and swimming training in the bone-shatteringly cold Welsh Channel. This is why I joined CAVRA (Cardiff and Vale Rescue Association); it's the only rescue/exploration service that doesn't involve jumping daily into a body of water so cold that the survival time is less than two hours. Besides, if I can hike half a mile through the stinging-nettle infested woods back from the watchtower without a flashlight leading a staggeringly drunk Canadian at 3 AM, I can do anything. The North American students had their traditional end of induction bonfire last night at the watchtower, where we ate Oreos, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and real American marshmallows, which really do taste different (read: six thousand times better)than the English ones. By that time I had changed out of (ripped off) my by-now legendary trash bag and duct tape outfit, which won me the Best First Year Costume prize at last night's first-year show. If I could upload pictures onto this computer I'd include one, because it really was amazing. My newspaper hat ended up being about two feet tall, with enormous newspaper flowers and a duct tape headband. Unfortunately I have now run out of duct tape. Equally unfortunately, the really tall people can just jump and steal things off my clothesline. Speaking of whiuch, my laundry should be done now, so I'm back to the castle basement now (not to be confused with the dungeon, where the girls' bathrooms are. I make a lot of unnecessary trips to those bathrooms because they're so awesome, with impressive carved wooden doors and really fearsome-looking locks). I'll write more once something actually happens!

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