WR, Center of the Universe!: Semester Abroad Wales 2001

Semester Abroad – Wales, Spring 2001

23-24 January 2001 – Thus begins the great day of travel. I had to get up early to go to the dentist (stupid wisdom teeth). Mom, Dad, Cassie and I were on the road to Chicago by 10:30. I tried to sleep along the way, with little success. We met Megan W and her family in the airport. We had about 2 ½ hours to kill, so we chatted, played cards, and looked around. It was tough to say goodbye, but I’ll be keeping in close contact with them, and they are coming to visit me in March. Megan and I finally got on board. The plan was very under-booked {fewer than 10 passengers total}, so we each had a row of three seats to ourselves. We took off, and they gave us these little goody bags with socks, toothbrush, ear plugs, eye mask, mints and lotion. Virgin Atlantic rocks! The dinner I got was eggplant. It’s so hard to eat now after having my wisdom teeth out. I can only open my jaw a half inch. We sort of watched Remember the Titans on our little monitors before trying to get some sleep. I could not get comfortable. Too bumpy, too loud, too cold. I think I did manage to get an hour or two, though. {the flight attendants let us lay down across a whole row of five seats in the middle of the plane.} As we flew into London, it was still dark out, and the whole city was laid out in millions of points of light. It’s so huge! We got our luggage, and I realized too late that I packed too much heavy stuff! It’s such a bleedin’ pain hauling it all around. Megan helps me a bit. :) We got on a bus to take us to Reading, where we could catch a train to Swansea. I spotted Windsor Castle. Oh, and just to prove that it doesn’t rain here 100% of the time, it was sunny, blue-skied with only a few clouds. We bought tickets for a later (and cheaper) train. In the meantime, we got a bit to eat. I had a cheese-filled croissanty thing. We caught our train, stowed our luggage, got seats and were off. The countryside is gorgeous – pasture, houses, rolling hills… We finally got in and got our first views of Swansea. Really packed-in city. We took a cab to the student village, where, after getting a little lost, I finally got to move in to my new home. Let the semester being! (Note: the day-to-day record of the semester will be kept in my green planner this year.)