What's the rest of the week been like?

View outside my flat window in the morning

Day Three- Cardiff
We started the day with a couple lectures about Cardiff University (computer services and so forth). After a light lunch, we went on a quick walking tour of campus. I'll be the first to admit this, but I was too busy socializing with other international students to really remember the tour. Oops.

Slightly melty Snow-Dalek (villain from Doctor Who) near the Main Building on Campus

Someone had fun sculpting snow on the statues!

From the tour, a group of us went into Downtown Cardiff. We bought phones, visited Primark (a cheap clothing store)  and went grocery shopping.

Fun Fact #1: You have to pay for plastic bags when you shop. Bring a supply of reusable bags, cough up the extra cash or be prepared to carry it all home!
Fun Fact #2: British credit/debit cards have a chip embedded in them. Using American cards, like me, may confuse the cashier (the cards need to be swiped and signed for). Apparently, my credit/debit cards are more colourful than British ones. I got complimented for it by the cashier at Carphone Warehouse.
Fun Fact #3: They carry maple syrup in the grocery stores here. Yes, it is from Canada, but it's real. In the end, isn't that what's important?
Fun Fact #4: It is.

I was lucky moving into my room. The guy who lived here previously left me quite a few things (bedding, towels, pots/cup/bowl/silverware, bag of uncooked pasta). I did end up needing quite a bit of stuff though, like food, soap and TP.

In the evening, the Uni hosted a Twmpath (toom-path, "w" is a vowel in Welsh) for international students. A twmpath is traditional Welsh folk dancing. It was very much like a contra-dance. The lady leading it was nuts! She would call out non-participants (seriously, can't a girl just sit out a round and enjoy her cidre in peace?) and manhandle us. Needless to say, I had a bunch of fun. A bunch of us went to hang out at the bar in the student centre afterwards. It was such a great opportunity to meet and talk with other students. I talked with some French girls, Aussie girls, some Americans and I sang a song in Irish Gaelic (I don't quite recall what chain of events motivated me to do that, but they seemed to love it).

Day Four- Classes, Dinner and a Show

The Millennium Centre. All you Whovians should be familiar with this

Course Registration Day! It was like a throwback, technologically speaking. We met in-person with reps from each college (Biosciences, Welsh Studies, History etc) we wanted to take a course in. Schedules in hand, we went upstairs to register online. Way, way less stressful than at SMC. Does SMC give you welsh cakes and tea when you register? Slacking off there, Saint Mike's.
My course-list: Cytogenetics/Human Genetics, Genome Expression, Medical Microbiology, Welsh Folklore (pretty much all the internationals are taking it), and Horror, Fantasy and the Media.
Since I registered for classes, I could get my computer and phone hooked up to the CU network! I got lunch and hung out in the Student Centre for a while.

Since the Cardiff Crew left before we could go see Spamalot (like those lucky-duckies in the London and Bristol groups), our program leader took us out to dinner at Pizza Express on Mermaid Quay (said key). Afterwards, we went to see One Man, Two Guvnors. It was hilarious. They broke the fourth wall a bunch and interacted with the audience. The play had slapstick, innuendo, awkward audience members on stage, British-isms, improv, the works!

Apologies for the darkness of these photos.

The shiny thing to the right is normally a fountain (and the secret entrence to Torchwood). In related news, I want to buy an RAF jacket.

That blue arc marks a six-star hotel!

The white church is where Roald Dahl was christened.

The inside of the giant inscription of the Centre. It is in English and Welsh.

Interior of the theatre

The band that played before the show and during scene-changes

I heard Welsh spoken for the first time over the intercomms at the theatre. It sounds so... alien. It's pretty but unlike anything I've ever heard before in my life.

Day Five- Scavenger Hunt
We toured around Cardiff Uni and the surrounding area. We had twelve tasks to complete and we had to photodocument them. For example, we had to go to a post office and ask how much it would be to send a postcard to the Continent and how much to send one to China.
Fun Fact #5: It is the same price.

An Arcade. Honestly, I wanted a picture of that medieval-style building in honor of Professor Kinder and the Burgundy trip.

Leftover Christmas Decorations?

Cardiff Castle!

Rugby store!

A couple of the Cardiff Crew made Tesco runs. Tesco is a giant store, the hybrid spawn of Staples, WalMart and a grocery store. It was nice to get some actual usable food and other supplies that I needed.
Fun Fact #6: You need a £1 coin to unlock the cart. You get it back at the end. I felt like I was being reimbursed for a purchase.
Upcoming: my attempts to feed myself!

Day Six-
After a brief spiel about the library, I had the day to myself! I visited a coffee shop and got a hot chocolate. Later, my flatmates and I chipped in for Domino's. Pretty quiet. Stay tuned for further updates.

Cheers!