Feeling mostly better! Catch up blog.

Hey all,

After being sick for over a week, including losing my voice for several days, I am finally nearly better. I still have a cough but that's been clearing up bit by bit, and it isn't stopping me from socializing anymore.

So I think I left you all on a cliffhanger: just arriving at my flat. Well, as I've not been homeless for the past two weeks, that bit worked out. I was pretty exhausted when I first arrived. A few different people in the building came over to greet me and introduce themselves as I started to unpack and figure out what in the world a duvet was. (They stuff their comforters here inside a sheet. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out.) I was so jet-lagged and overwhelmed that I almost instantly forgot the names of everyone who introduced themselves to me in that first hour or so. It wouldn't be until after they would leave that I'd think to myself, "I'm going to be seeing them for the next five months. It'd probably be a good idea to try harder to remember names." After halfway unpacking and setting up the bed, I pretty much just crashed for several hours. Seeing as though I didn't have Internet access at that point anyway, I didn't have a whole lot of options. When I finally got up, I had some sponge cake as my first official meal in Wales. I got to know the people in the building a bit better that night when we started off by playing a drinking game with a roulette wheel in one of the other flats. I didn't want to get drunk--especially my first night here--so I just watched after a few rounds. I got my first official "going out" experience that night when the group went pubbing and clubbing. I learned that there are plenty of old, randy men in pubs, especially at night, and that night clubs here are so loud and full of smoke and flashing lights that it's incredibly difficult to gather your bearings. Despite the fact that everything was thrown at me so quickly, I instantly liked the people in my building. Everyone was really welcoming and friendly and have gone out of their way to make sure I was taken care of. After worrying that I'd be encountering excessive American prejudices, and probably not positive ones at that, it was a huge weight off of my shoulders to feel at ease so quickly.

Home sweet home. =)

The next day was a fairly busy one. After not going to town to get a phone right away like I had originally intended, Sunday was the day I needed to buy things like food. Unfortunately, I had slept in rather late and things in town close rather early. Will and George took me into town in the afternoon, and I got my first taste of the city that Dylan Thomas called an "ugly, lovely town." The city itself is quite pretty and rather interestingly designed in that you enter from the bottom of the hill and can see the buildings spread out along the hill above. It kind of reminds me of how I think San Francisco is laid out. We first went into a store called Vodafone so I could get a pay-as-you-go phone. The hardest part about not having a phone is probably not being able to know what time it is. I've long since given up on watches and am used to just pulling my phone out of my pocket to check the time. My phone also doubles as an alarm which was going to be an issue for getting up in the morning to get to class which was why it was pretty urgent that I have something. I didn't trust the absolute cheapest phone they had and got a slightly higher-priced one in the hope that it would be durable. Also, it was purple. In hindsight, however, I wish I had gotten a different phone as mine is a keypad touch screen with no T9 option which makes texting an arduous endeavor. We barely got to Tesco, the local grocery store, before it closed so the following 20 minutes or so consisted of hastily gathering various foods to at least tide me over for a while. I believe it was after we got back that I finally got Internet access when Josh very kindly signed me on under his name. As the rest of the Americans didn't get the Internet for several more days, this was certainly a welcome relief. 

View of part of Swansea. I'll try to get better pictures the next time I'm in town.

I think that just about covers my first weekend in Swansea. I have a paper due next Monday, but I will try to catch up to where I am throughout the week when I'm not busy with all that. Apparently I can't save blogs to finish later (as I found out when I had this blog half-written a few days ago) so I'm going to have to do this piecemeal. As they say over here, cheers!

Sick. =(

Hi all. I know I said I would have another entry out soon but it seems as though the change of environment is boding ill as I've not been feeling all that great over the past couple of days. I slept for 15 hours last night which helped to an extent though all of my symptoms seemed to have some back, namely, a terrible sore throat, mild headache, a weird croaking in the back of my throat, chills, and feeling a little shaky/sensitive. So, I'm sorry I haven't updated when I said I would. I will do what I can to get something out in the next few days. I usually get over these quicker than normal (or quicker than Heather at least) so keep your fingers crossed this'll be over in the morning. Night everyone!

Departure and Arrival at Swansea!

Hey all,

Sorry this has taken a while to get up. As you can probably imagine, it takes a little while to adjust and find a proper balance when going anywhere new--even if it was just from the suburbs to Champaign.

My flight was at around 5pm on Friday which left me the day to do some last minute errands: namely, getting another CD case to hold some DVDs, picking up a check from work to deposit, and last minute packing/redistribution. I got a little tripped up in this however. When I went to the ATM at Jewel, I decided I should print out a mini-statement from there to be able to provide the Immigration Officer with the most up-to-date financial information I could. Funny thing happened while I was there though. Just as I told the machine to print the statement, it released my card and the power went out--and not just at the machine, but the entire Jewel and the immediate area. While I fortunately had my card, my statement had been in the middle of printing. Worried that someone else could find a way to abuse that information once the power was restored, I decided to wander around so I could be there to snatch the printout. I walked around for about 20 minutes, and then decided I needed to leave since I had a flight to catch. I haven't experienced anything nasty with my card as of yet so fingers crossed that that turns out well.

I've never had to fly by myself before. The first time I had been on a plane at all was actually when LZHS band went to Disney my freshman year with the only other time being the trip to London my senior year with the band. My mom and my aunt dropped me off at the terminal and left. Facing complete isolation (I had to leave my cell phone in the States as it's better to just get a pay-as-you-go over here. By the way, don't call or text me until June 20th, or you might awkwardly end up talking to my mom instead.), I figured I would just suck it up and be the ignorant traveler that asks people for help. Luckily, I didn't really need to make too much of a fool of myself. I checked in my baggage almost immediately when I entered the airport and security was right next to it. Fortunately, I had printed out my boarding pass the day before which made everything even smoother. The security line was surprisingly quick for a Friday afternoon, and upon entering the airport, it only took about 15-20 to reach my terminal which was an absolute miracle. I now had two hours to kill and no cell phone or Internet: a scarier prospect to my generation than flying solo across the Atlantic, I'm sure. After an incredibly tedious wait, I finally boarded. I was quite pleased to discover that I would be spending the next eight hours sitting with a well-mannered college-aged guy instead of the shady, rude older man behind us who was still on his phone 20 minutes after electronics were supposed to be turned off. I finally saw The Social Network on the plane and was impressed with how the script interwove the different plot lines to create suspense out of something which could have been quite mundane. I also learned something during the flight: There is possibly nothing scarier than experiencing turbulence while flying over the ocean in the middle of the night in January. The pre-flight safety video has got to be one of the most useless precautions. If a plane crashed into the Atlantic, I'm pretty sure my floating seat cushion isn't going to save my life.

I finally arrived at Heathrow at around 6:15 am (London time) and followed the pack to collect my baggage and proceed through customs. Immigration probably could have gone better. I do sympathize for the workers there. They don't really get any lulls to chill out and socialize, they have to deal with people who might not speak English or be familiar with their customs, they're in an enclosed and dreary building on the 6 am shift. I get it. It's not the best job. But why make it worse with being unpleasant? Crack a smile. If your surroundings don't exude cheer, then it's going to be more pleasant to take of that yourself and be amiable. Instead, they were impatient, abrupt, and rude which I didn't warm to, snidely criticizing my choice of transportation to Swansea from Heathrow. On the advice of the Immigration Officer, I chose to ride the coach bus instead of grabbing a train from Paddington. After a brief spout of panic when the ticket machine rejected both of my cards (later to be fixed by a security guard who claimed he had a magic touch), I settled down to wait for my bus. Oddly enough, as I was waiting, I saw someone who looked uncannily similar to Natalie [omitting last name as a precaution], a girl I went to high school with. It was a few moments until she looked over at me that I realized it actually was her. The last thing I expected to happen 3,000 miles from home was to run into someone I hadn't seen in 3 years. It was bizarre. We chatted while I waited for my bus, and after about 15 minutes, my bus arrived, and I headed out. It was not a very pleasant bus ride. It took about four and a half hours. I can be somewhat prone to motion sickness so when I had to wear a seat belt and smell some other passenger's food for half the ride, I chose to try to sleep instead of taking pictures of the gorgeous countryside.

Once I arrived, I took a taxi from the bus terminal to the student village: the final leg of my journey. That was officially my first time taking a taxi for the record. I'm pretty sure I tipped him too much. I'll need to look up the protocol on that. I arrived at my flat at around 1:30 in the afternoon--over 12 hours since I had left Chicago. The part of this experience I had been the most stressed about, the traveling bit, had gone much smoother than I had expected. When people describe character traits about themselves, I'm always a little uncertain as to their accuracy. Sure, you might think of yourself as hard-working or creative or supportive, but how often do your actions necessarily reflect these traits? I like to think of myself as a fairly driven and independent person, and after successfully navigating international travel, I feel a little more self-assured in that assessment.

Alright, that's going to be about it for now. I don't have a whole lot going on in terms of class tomorrow so I'll do my best to get in another entry and catch up to the present. As a writer, I'm usually wordier than is convenient for conserving my time although once I start classes, I hope to find a more regular writing schedule. I hope you're all doing well, and the snow isn't getting the best of you. I'm changing the Christmas fish to Bears colors in reference to the big game this weekend. I can hardly imagine the tense atmosphere that must be going on back home. Best of luck to Chicago!

(Also, no promises but I will try to insert pictures into the text next time. Woo visual aids!)

General Updates - Last Days in the U.S.

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't been posting more. I don't have the Internet at my mom's which makes all of my online excursions over break sitting in a chair in the back of the library. As such, I try to somewhat limit my Internet activity because I feel kind of awkward. Anyway, I leave on Friday! Ahh, craziness. I'm actually pretty much ready to go besides the packing part. I've said most of my goodbyes and have just about everything I need. And without the Internet, time is moving pretty slowly so I'm kind of ready to go now. Partly because I miss wasting my time watching Youtube videos. And I'm getting pretty far behind a few of my TV shows so I need to catch up with that too. I never really realized how much I love going online until it was 10:30 at night, and I could either watch Leno or read. Don't get me wrong--I obviously love to read but I just get too restless at night to sit still for very long with that.

Anyway, I'm just kind of biding my time until I leave which is why I'm going to cut this short. I found a button on here that says "insert image" so I'm thinking I'm going to actually be able to make this a lovely picture blog once I figure out how to function it properly. And once I actually find the long-unused cord which connects my camera to my computer. I'll try to figure out something worthwhile to talk about before I leave. Probably have one more U.S. entry. Also, I apparently don't get notified if someone comments or "follows" this so if I don't reply to something right away, I apologize; I just haven't found the proper way to adjust the settings yet. I hope you've all had a lovely holiday season. =)