Switched my Class Schedule Around

Hello, hello...

In case you're concerned with my academic life, here is my new schedule.  I decided I only wanted class on Monday and Tuesday.  I also found a class that way more interesting to me than one of my other classes, so I switched some.  Now I am quite pleased!  I'll have some Wednesday tutorials at the end of October, but until then, just Monday and Tuesday!

New schedule:
Social Problems (Mondays: 9-11am)
Eating Behavior (Mondays: 11-12pm)
Applied Behavior Analysis (Mondays: 3-5pm)  --> this one is more applicable, which i liked. it's about how to treat people with autism/self-injury disorders/etc. etc.
Drugs & Behavior (Tuesdays: 3-5pm)

So, in the end, I went back to taking mostly psychology classes.  That's okay.  Works for me.

Off to Oxford tomorrow - pictures to come!

Also, the weather here has been FANTASTIC.  Too bad it probably won't last, but I went to the beach on Wednesday.  So amazing.

Melissa, Caleb, & me :)

On another note - I booked my trip to Spain. Life is good.

Thankful for BC's UIS System

Hello, hello!

I have officially enrolled in some classes!  And let me tell you: instead of the 10 minutes that it would take to do at BC, which would involve me relaxing in my bed, in the comfort of my room, and entering stuff into a computer program, I spent about 5 hours on campus today.  I wandered around, went to where I was told to go, was redirected after various people weren't where my form said they'd be, waited around for the people to tell me WHAT TIME the classes are offered, and so on.  I'm not sure why they make this so difficult for themselves.  Nevertheless, I have a class schedule worked out, and hopefully, it is good! (I can't even guarantee this because I don't know when my tutorials meet).

Here is my schedule:
- Social Problems (M: 9 - 11am)
- Politics and People (M & T: 3 - 4pm)
- Eating Behavior (M: 11 - 12pm)
- Evolutionary Psychology (W: 11 - 12pm)

Sooo, I only have class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - yayy for long weekends to travel!  I also don't think that any of these classes will count toward my majors, which is fine.  I have just under 20 psychology-related courses to take at BC.  I might as well not take entirely psychology classes here and take other stuff that interests me instead.  (Politics and People is kind of basic, but my professor from the pre-sessional is teaching it, and he is fantastic).  

In other news, I'm cooking for my housemates tonight.  Teriyaki salmon, of course. Hopefully I wow them!

:)

Trip to London to see Wicked!

Hello, hello!

So - yesterday, 6 friends & I went to London to explore the city in the morning and see Wicked in the afternoon.  The picture above is, of course, me making my way to Hogwarts.  (They moved it though - as you can tell by the fake-looking wall on the right).  The original wall is still there, but they moved it to outside the train station. 

Then we walked around the city.  I suggested that we go to places that I had been to before during my London orientation, simply because I knew how to get there.  However, we did see the London Bridge (above) and Buckingham Palace (below).  I didn't make it to these last time.

Outside the theater!

Wicked was, unsurprisingly, phenomenal.  SO SO SO AMAZING.  We then made our way back to Swansea via bus, and after a ridiculously long and exhausting way, I went to sleep.  Before I went to sleep, though, I chatted with two of my housemates, and they are WONDERFUL.  I'm expecting some good bonding experiences ahead :) Now, time to get myself to do the paper that I have been seriously putting off.

All my love.

The 2 Things I Wish I Had - WHAT I FORGOT TO INCLUDE IN THE LAST POST

So there are 2 things that I wish I had.

1) My picture calendar.  It is currently underneath my nightstand next to bed in my room in California.  I made it especially for here, AND I FORGOT IT!  I love hanging up calendars in my room sooo maybe my parents could send it to me? :)

2) My SLR, very nice digital camera.  I know that it would probably be a drag to carry around with me everywhere, but a lot of my friends brought their nice SLR cameras, and they are having so much fun taking pictures.  So, I am jealous.  But, my camera is nice too, and it takes great pictures.  So I can deal.  I also don't think it'd fit anywhere.

On another note - the whole exchange rate is kind of an issue.  $1.62 for 1 pound sterling. So, so sad for my bank account.  So, so sad.

Two Things I Wish I Had

Hello friends and family!

Day 2 of my move into the Hendrefoelan (pronounced Hen-dri-foy-len) Student Village.  Definitely a transition from being in a close community with American students in college dorms to a student village with so many international students.  Not everyone has moved into my house yet, though.  Hopefully it's a great group!

Here are some pictures of my room.  I added a little poster and a little red vase with fake flowers. hahah.  Anything to try to add some pizazz!

In terms of the house - well, it's good.  The tub, sink, and shower are in 3 separate rooms.  There isn't a sink in any of them, but I do have a sink in my bedroom (approve of this).  I feel like I'm about to break the house when I walk down the stairs.  The carpet is kind of stained.  The bedding feels like sandpaper.  And yet, my room is starting to feel quite homey.  It's really all about the decorations so there are a whole lot of pictures, as you can see.  On another note, I made dinner tonight - my classic teriyaki salmon with onion, asparagus, and garlic bread.  It was actually the best I've ever made it.  Everyone was so incredibly impressed.  Hooray!

Well, it's almost 1am.  At about 2:30am, I have to head over to meet the cab, where 6 other American students & I are headed off to London for the day to explore the city and see Wicked.  Should be a fantastic day.  Will obviously have a report tomorrow!

Much love.

Field Trip to Bath, England!

Hello, hello!

Today was probably one of my favorite days thus far.  We took a field trip to Bath, and holy cow, what a perfect, beautiful, charming, wonderful city.  It is a must must must see if you ever go to England.  We first went to the Roman Baths - the Romans (when they were in control of Britain way way back in the day) used the hot springs for some lovely bathing and honoring of some Gods.  In some of the pictures, you'll see Bath Abbey in the background.  Such a stunning church.  After touring the Roman Baths, we went to a cute coffee shop, walked around and explored the city, saw the Circus, Royal Crescent, and went into the Royal Crescent Museum (not worth my 5 pounds, but hey, royalty vacations there!)  After that, we went to Sally Lunn's Bun Shop - a restaurant, museum, and store.  Here, we had afternoon tea (which was sooo good! - because I added a bunch of cream and sugar), sandwiches, and buns.  My bun came with cinnamon butter.  So, what more could I ask for?  Good friends.  Afternoon tea in England.  Basically, everything was fantastic.  We then headed back to Swansea and got our luggage and moved into our off-campus residences.

Friends with Bath Abbey in the background

Roman Baths

Roman Baths, with Bath Abbey behind it

Royal Crescent

Sally Lunn's!

Bun with cinnamon butter

Tea time with our pinkies up - clearly, my pinky is not very strong

PS - I'm in my new permanent residence.  I'll post a little something on that tomorrow or some time soon. Time for bed!  

Random Notes

Hello, hello!

Tomorrow should have a much more exciting post because I'm headed to the city of Bath in England for our final field trip of my pre-sessional course.  Until then, I have a few thoughts for the day.

The way this university has their students register for classes is kind of lame.  Instead of some handy online system, we literally have to go to a professor, stand in a very long line, and sign up for courses.  Apparently, classes fill up really quickly so you want to try to be at the front of the line.  What makes this difficult is we don't actually have any idea when the classes are offered.  They don't give us a time table until Monday, the 26th, when we register.  So, I guess I have to quickly look over a time table of when classes are offered, decide what I want to take (traveling/giving myself long weekends is kind of a priority here), and then run around campus to find the professors.  I honestly don't mind the running around part.  I really just wish I knew when the classes were offered so I can plan my schedule.  Because I don't know my class schedule, I haven't booked my trip to Spain, which is happening at the beginning of October.  So, I'm just going to have to deal with higher ticket prices. Lovely.

In other news, planning trips is a lot harder than I thought it was!  Despite all the stressful meetings my friends and I have been having about our travel plans, I will say that I am definitely going to Berlin from Oct. 13th - 16th for the Festival of Lights.  I have my flights and hostel booked.  I now just need train tickets to and from Liverpool.

I'm also going to London this weekend to see Wicked!  With the mentality of cheapest is best, 6 friends and I are leaving Swansea at 3:30am (by train) Saturday morning to get to London around 7:15am.  Then we'll have the morning to explore, and we'll see the show at 2:30.  Then we have a 5 hour Megabus ride back to Swansea around dinner time.

3:30am is kind of insane, but I suppose I'm grateful for my budget conscious friends.

Finally, I move into my 'permanent' term-time residence tomorrow!  Most of my house-mates won't arrive, however, until Friday or Saturday.  I'll have 9 house-mates.  It will probably be insane and extremely fun.

Much love to all!    

Brecon Beacons National Park! - Waterfall Hike

Hello, everyone!  I have included some pictures from my hike to various water falls at Brecon Beacons National Park in some French-sounding Welsh city that I can't remember the name of.  It was a fantastic three-hour hike (filled with lots of stops for picture taking - I don't have many good group shots. We split off into a few groups) & took a bit over an hour each way to get there and back.  It was absolutely beautiful, but it was raining.  So we were trudging through the slush and mud.  Of course, I nearly fell three times.  I honestly felt like I was in the rainforest in Costa Rica.  My shoes are a mess & I haven't quite figured out where to dry them after I stick them in the shower.   

In other news, I am freezing to death in my room.  Because of the shower flooding, the carpet and room has really begun to smell. SO UNPLEASANT.  Therefore, I opened the window, but it's cold.  So now I'm still cold in my room, dealing with terrible smells.  Such is life.  Another full day of class tomorrow.  Until next time... =]

Bathroom Flooding

So, I just decided that I needed to post a little something about my shower flooding.  The drain is terrible, clearly.  And as you can see, if there is any blockage, water spills out onto the floor (there was standing water) and then it spilled out in the carpet.  Then it also spilled out under the wall and under the doorway into the hall.

A Closet History Nerd?

I think that if I weren't a psychology major, I would probably be a history major.  I am absolutely loving my Great Britain Politics & Culture class.  First of all, I told the professor that my favorite singer/band was Pitbull.  He consistently makes references to that during class, each time using a different breed of dog.  Some of the most common examples include the Yorkshire Terrier and Rottweiler.  I crack up every single time and have to compose myself by laughing into my shirt or something like that.  Let's just say - THE BRITISH ARE HILARIOUS.  He also just has so many jokes and is so engaging.  I am just eating all this up.  What's funny is most people struggle to stay awake, and I feel like the class flies by incredibly quickly - even though we have it 4 - 5 hours a day.  I just don't see how you can not be fascinated by everything that has happened in the past that leads to where we are now.  I suppose I'm a bit of a History nerd...?  We also had a seminar (7 students + professor for an hour) about what to do while we're abroad and various travel advice.  The professor is just such a delightful man.

Yesterday and today have been more low-key besides my hours of class.  Doing some laundry now.  Went to the grocery store yesterday.  Last night was 5 pound Curry Night at Potters Wheel, a local pub, so a bunch of my friends and I went out to eat.  (Naturally, I got Chicken Tikka Masala).  Adjusting to life in Wales quite well, I would say!

Looking forward to going to Brecon Beacon National Park in Wales this weekend!  Updates to come soon, as always.

  

Field Trip Day! - St. Fagan's

If you want to read about what I did today in a chronological order, I suggest reading the post below this first.

After we left Big Pit, we headed toward St. Fagan's.  From the website, St. Fagan's can be described as: "In the 100-acre parkland of St. Fagan's Castle, a late 16th-century manor house, are over 30 buildings moved from various parts of Wales and re-erected." It was BEAUTIFUL, as you can see.  We just walked around took a ton of pictures.  It was also beautiful weather.  After a couple hours to explored, we headed back to campus.

Tomorrow is another full day of class.  Tonight, we're all heading out to the club Oceana.  Should be an excellent night.  Until next time! - enjoy the pictures.

Field Trip Day! - Big Pit

Today was a fantastic and delightful day!

We met at the bus stop at 9am and made our way first to Big Pit, which is a preserved coal mine that is now a museum.  The first part of that outing was a tour down into a coal mine, which was actually incredibly fascinating.  We weren't allowed to bring cameras, watches, or anything with a battery down into the mine because of the whole gas/fire/explosion issue.  So, all pictures were taken outside.  Before we went into the mine, we had to get our protective gear, which you can see in the first picture.  This included a helmet with light - otherwise, there is no light 90 meters below.  We also had these belts, which had a gas mask/mini oxygen thing and the battery for our head lights.  Kind of heavy.  Then we walked through some other museum stuff that talked about mining life.  (FYI - Coal used to be a HUGE industry in Wales).  The second picture is a view of the mine from the top of a hill, and the third is me in the thing they used to carry the coal.  Now I'll write about the other part of the field trip in the post above.

Some pictures :)

the beautiful part of my school! (other buildings look a bit older)

(another view of Swansea University)

there is a beautiful park right behind the university!

Professors are more interesting when they have British accents...

Hello, everyone!

Sorry, family, for not posting yesterday.  It was a long day of class, and then I spent the evening playing Banana Grams and having some great discussions with my friends.

Anyway, the professor of my pre-sessional class is great!  I obviously find his British accent to make him that much more engaging, and he is quite funny.  I have found, though, that I really don't know anything about Great Britain culture and politics.  Oops.  Apparently, many other people in the class do - at least the vocal ones.  Nevertheless, it should be a great learning experience - we learned about the Great Britain political system yesterday and watched a movie to supplement the lecture about British film.  I was definitely not a fan of the movie and was extremely bored, but that's okay.

On today's agenda: just came back from a library Orientation.  Then I have class from 3 - 5.  Should be good.  Tomorrow, we have a field trip to St. Fagan's and the Big Pit.  I think I might go look up what that is right now.  Then, on Thursday, I have my first "tutorial/seminar" session, one of the most known components of the British education system.

In other news, BC emailed me telling me that I am eligible to apply for the Psychology Honors Program, which allows me to write an Honors Thesis, AND I AM QUITE PLEASED.  I had been wanting that for a while.

Well, after this very academic email, I'm going to take a nap.

All my love!    

Weekend Exploring

Hello, hello!

In about an hour, I'll be heading to the National Waterfront Museum in downtown Swansea, but until then, here's for some blogging.

Saturday, a large group of us went to the very charming & quaint city of Mumbles, right next to Swansea and home to Catherine Zeta Jones.  It took a bit to figure out the bus system and how to get there, but at least I have a bus pass that didn't cost me anything.  Once we arrived, we walked down the "prom," right next to the water, until we finally arrived at a place for lunch around 3pm.  (I only ate one official good-sized meal yesterday - I guess that's what you get for not really having easy access to food, not wanting to spend money on constantly going out to eat, and not wanting to eat fried foods every time you go out to eat).  This restaurant was a DELIGHT - not expensive, good food!, we ate outside, beautiful day with actual sunshine, wonderful new friends, and gorgeous views of the Swansea Bay.  Then we went to this popular ice cream shop called Jo's Ice Cream.  Then we walked back toward Oystermouth Castle and explored it for a while.  That had breathtaking views, and the sun was out!  -- It rains every day so when ever the sun peeks out, I die of joy. -- Then our journey continued to Tesco, which is the local grocery store.  Finally, we came home.  I rested & got ready for our Pub Crawl.  This was hosted by the Student Union in order to show us some fun nightlife places in Swansea.  First, we went to the pub/club on campus and danced for a while.  Then we went to another club, and that had a lot of old/weird-looking people and wasn't really my thing.  Then we went to the very posh Oceana club, and it was quite fun!  We hung out by the bar - naturally, didn't order anything and still haven't really taken advantage of the younger drinking age - watched people sing terribly at Karaoke, and then went downstairs to the dance floor and danced for a while.  A very good time indeed.

PS - The Welsh accent is a combination of English & Minnesota.  It's funny.  

My intensive class on Great Britain Culture and Politics starts tomorrow.  Hope it's good!

Mumbles!

new friends :) (outside the restaurant)

Oystermouth Castle

view from the top of Oystermouth Castle

me with the castle

Until next time... :)    

My short-term housing accommodation (single room w/ bathroom)

the group! (of Americans)

Gower Peninsula

Made it to SWAN-zee!

Hello friends and family!

I haven't had Internet for the past 2 days, and I've been feeling like an addict suffering from withdrawals because I've been wanting to update everyone on my adventures.

I will start with Thursday morning!  Jason, our coordinator at Arcadia, accompanied Kate, Whitney, and myself in a cab to Paddington Station in London.  We ended up missing the train because Arcadia thought they had given us our tickets, but they hadn't.  No problem though since a train leaves for Swansea every hour.  So, at 11:45, we started our 3 hour journey toward Swansea.  Once we got to the train station in Swansea, the three of us took a cab over to the university.  Kind of a dreary day - it rains every day, but the campus is great!  And it's across the street from the beach!  Now, this is no CA beach, but I do love being next to large bodies of water nonetheless.  (I still have to upload Wales pictures, so pictures will come later.  It also hasn't been that nice out, and I'd rather take some pictures of the campus when it's sunny).  Once we arrived on campus, we headed toward the appropriate building and got our keys for our short-term accommodation.  I then chatted with other American students for a while, and we headed out to a Pub for dinner.  Quite delicious.  Then it was a pretty quiet evening.  This morning, we had a small Orientation meeting about our upcoming two-week class on Great Britain Politics and Culture and then had some free time to grab lunch and officially register with the University.  At 2, we all met outside a building and had a field trip to the Gower Peninsula.  We first stopped in the town of Mumbles, which was beautiful and very quaint!  (This is home to Catherine Zeta Jones).  Then we made our way to the peninsula and got to walk around and take pictures.  Then, my new friend Melissa and I went out to Pub on the Pond, my second night in a row, and got some dinner.  Since then, I've been working on my internet connection and finally got it to work!

On another note, the Student Union plans some trips to various European cities so I signed up for two today! -- one to Amsterdam in November and one to Paris at the beginning of December.  Hooray!  

A few notes:
- I have been very impressed with Arcadia University.  They have basically taken care of everything, and I keep finding out that stuff is paid for.  For example, the couple hundred pound bus pass has been paid for, and I have 2 week bus passes for the next 2 weeks.  For all the last-minute waiting that I had to do prior to my departure, they really have everything under control while I'm here.

Pictures to come soon!      

Exploring London

On Day 2 of my Orientation in London, my 2 Swansea friends and I spent most of the day walking around the city!  We had a small Orientation meeting in the morning, but our coordinator tried to keep it as short as possible to allow us to explore the city.  Naturally, I needed to take this touristy pic.  We also saw the London Eye, House of Parliament/Big Ben, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and more.  I had some kind of chicken/mushroom pot pie thing with mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch. Was it that great?  No.  But it was fine.  Then we went out for Indian food for dinner (apparently, Chicken Tika Masala is the national dish of England!)  The dinner was actually not as good as my favorite Mother India in Costa Mesa, which was surprising since the Indian influence is so strong here, but at least it wasn't too expensive for the amount of food we got - one of the waiters lured us into going there by offering us a deal.

Also - I bought a phone today, family.  I'll have to email you the number!  I'm not sure that you'd ever want to call me though.  I wonder how expensive it is.  

That's all for now.  Off to Swansea tomorrow!

Touched Down in Londontown

Hello Blog readers!

I am officially in London, and it was quite the adventure getting here.  The flight to JFK was smooth, but my layover wasn't really long enough to best accommodate the time needed before an international flight.  On my flight to JFK, I met this girl who just graduated from UCLA who was doing an internship program in Israel for 5 months.  We, and this was a poor decision of mine, met up with this other guy going to study in Israel, and the three of us leisurely made our way over to our terminal -- this journey included going the wrong direction on the Air Train.  I was trying to adopt the mentality of 'Go with it.'  Thus, when I finally arrived at the terminal (I had to re-check in and go through security again), the guy checking me in said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" -- As in, I should have been through this ages ago.  Woops. Then I start to freak out and started asking if I can cut people in line at security.  Nobody let me.  Then I get through security, don't put my shoes back on, and run through the airport without my shoes.  I arrive at the gate, and I fear the worst - that they've closed the gates, and I'm kind of making a scene of myself at this point.  Then the woman tells me they haven't even started boarding yet, and people kind of stare.  Oh well.  Made the flight!  The flight, however, was pretty uncomfortable, but that's okay - it got me here.

Once I made it through Customs, a driver picked me up and took me to a very nice hotel.  (Well done, Arcadia).  Between my arrival at the hotel, around 1pm, and the time in which I needed to be in the lobby to start my Orientation at 4pm, I basically just had difficulty with everything.  -- I call this part of the adjustment process.  I couldn't figure out how to turn the light on in the bathroom, making me decide not to take a shower.  I now know that you need to use the room key, but the light only stays on for about 1 min. HMMM.  I finally got the internet to work, but had to pay 10 pounds.  I couldn't figure out for about 900 years how to get my adaptors to work.  I crashed my suitcases into all the mirrors in the tiny elevators.  Good times.  I was also exhausted by this point so I took a little nap.  Then I went downstairs and met up with a small group of students and our coordinator.  We had a little Orientation and then went out to dinner.  It was lovely!  More to come on the group tomorrow, after our Scavenger Hunt in London!  

List of 'it's a small world incidences" - (all references for my family)
- the girl I met on the plane going to Israel is from Redding, CA
- my program coordinator, who now lives in London, went to UCSD, lived in Newport Beach throughout his undergrad., and is originally from Costa Mesa
- two students from this Orientation group are from the LA/Riverside areas
- another guy in my Orientation group, who is from Minnesota, asked me about the Queen Mary in Long Beach, which I went to about 3 weeks ago, and visited the Submarine Scorpion and was wearing a hat from it -- I took my brother to this place at the beginning of summer

Such a small world!