The semester has been divided into 2 terms, one being January-March then the second term being April-June, with Easter break in the middle. Once I got back from break, I went straight to work on a big essay that was due the day classes started back for the second term. Then we had about 3 weeks of classes left before finals began. Finals are much different here than home in the way that we have about one week of finals at home but here finals go for a month. They can be spread out among many weeks, so it gets kind of quiet around Swansea for this last month.
About a week after school was back in, there was the largest school sporting event of the year on April 28, called 'Varsity'. It consisted of sporting events all day long, ranging from rugby to American football to field hockey (since there is not really any ice hockey here) and of course, regular football (also known as soccer to us). It was on campus starting at noon with multiple fields having different games going on. It was so much fun to get to see all the different sports and cheer on the teams. It was Swansea versus Cardiff in every game. The big match was in the late afternoon around 7 pm, at the Millennium Stadium which is the large city stadium, and it was the varsity rugby match between Swansea and Cardiff. It was so cool to see and there were about 7,000 spectators watching. To top it all off, Swansea won!! So after the game all the fans rushed onto the field to celebrate! It was awesome!! Afterwards, everyone went downtown to go out to one of the clubs, which was a fun way to end a great day!
Other than that, the second term has been pretty low key since everyone is studying for exams. I did have an exciting visitor for just over a week, Sarah came to visit!! It was so much fun to have my best friend to travel with and really nice to have a piece of home here after 4 months. She arrived on May 8th and we headed into London to get settled into our housing for the next couple days. We stayed with a girl named Anneka, who I met in Ireland over Easter break. She is an Australian living in London and working for a couple of years. She was so sweet and took great care of us, we were living in luxury! After we settled in, we headed into central London for dinner and then went to see the play Grease!! It was such a cute, fun play!! Afterwards, we went out on the town for a bit, just to give Sarah the feel of British nightlife. The following day we woke up early to do our sightseeing. We started at Buckingham Palace, circling around Big Ben, Parliament, The Tower of London, London Bridge, and Tower Bridge. It was all amazing to see!
The next day we headed to Hyde Park to toss the frisbee around before catching the train to Bristol, England. Once in Bristol, we took a walk around the city to waste a few hours before flying to Dublin, Ireland. We arrived in Dublin late at night and found our hostel. We woke up early the next day and did the free walking tour of the city, where we saw City Hall, Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin Castle, Chester Betty Library, and many other cool sites. We went to the Temple Bar area in the afternoon and saw some live music in a pub. It was really good and very Irish, so we enjoyed it a lot! The last day we went to the Kilmainham Goal, which is a jail that was built in 1796. We ended with the Guinness Brewery and then headed back to Swansea, where we finally arrived around midnight.
We got a good night's sleep and spent the next day on the beach with Emily, just hanging out and relaxing from all the travelling we had done the past few days. It was a nice day, but really chilly. A few of the exchange students went out to town with us that night so Sarah could see downtown Swansea at night. We took it easy the next day, and then the last day we went to the Gower. We went to Worm's Head, Rhossili Bay, and 3 Cliffs. Three Cliffs is one of Britain's must see most beautiful places. All of these places in the Gower were so gorgeous, like nothing I have ever seen. There were amazing cliffs all around the ocean, and huuuuuge beaches!! It was so much fun, and we got really lucky because it was a gorgeous day with the sun shining and rather warm! We went with another exchange student from Louisiana, Austin, and his parents, so it was a great day!
We headed for Sarah's long journey home the next day. We took the bus to London, got settled into our hostel, and I dropped her off at the airport the next day! It was sad to see her go, but we covered a lot of ground while she was here and we had so much fun being together!
Other than that, Swansea is still great! We have had great weather for the most part, so I have spent a lot of time on the beach and we made another trip to Gower for a day with a large group of students just to hang out on a different, prettier beach than the one across from school. We have been sending off exchange students all the time, our groups are dwindling down day by day, which is sad but it is good that we all got to know each other! Next week, Emily and I are going over night to northern England, so that should be fun! I can't wait!! Ultimately, I am just trying to embrace my last couple weeks in Wales as much as possible!!
No comments:
Post a Comment