An eventful time in Wales!

By Louise Lauzon, Camosun Exchange Student in Wales

So, I have been blogging, and journal writing, but have yet to post much, so here's a backlog of the last month!

Also, before I start, I just found out that I'm receiving two awards from Camosun: thank you so much to the donors and I'm sorry I won't be able to attend the award ceremony and thank you in person! So thank-you for the following:  Vic & Pam Shemilt - Island Blue Print International English Scholarship and  Vic & Pam Shemilt/Island Blue Print Associate Degree in Creative Writing Scholarship ~ Year One

The hardest part about blogging is repeating yourself – over and over.

Personally, I've got a gorgeous purple leather bound journal that I'm writing most things down in. Then, there's Facebook. The status updates, the messages to friends and family, and then you have Skype; verbally telling everyone about everything that's been going on.

So now I have to repeat myself once more, but in blog form. So, I'm cheating a bit and copying from journal entries and Facebook messages. . .

(Then, of course, there's the huge distractions. A spider the size of my hand just wandered into my flat mates room. Surprisingly, there was very little screaming, just our lovely Italian friend saying that she would start charging by weight of the spider to kill it.)

Anyway, here's some of the things I've been up to:

 

 

So, it's Sept 24^th right now. We met up with the school on the 17^th, and today is probably the first day we've had time to just breathe. The 18^th and 19^th were long orientation days, and on the 20^th we were taken to this amazing castle, then headed to a superstore to do some shopping.

On the 21^st they dragged us to Whitesands Beach and St. Paul's Cathedral:

 Both of which were amazing. We wandered into a cave on the beach and found a seal – yeah, the animal – just hanging out in there. At St. Paul's we got kicked out early so they could hold a wedding. If you were looking at this cathedral right now, you'd have the same look of shock on your face as me. How many years would you have to book in advance to have a wedding there? Maybe I'll book now for ten years down the road and hope the timing works, ha ha.

On Sunday (the 22^nd) we finally had time to settle in and unpack, put up pictures, and do some laundry. People were finally starting to arrive, and we had the first of many parties – a cops and robbers theme at the school club.

Speaking of people, let me brag about the ones I get to spend time with!

There are 10 international students (actually, I believe more have arrived since we came along, but we're the core of it.) Of those ten, nine are female. Four are from BC – crazy, I know – one is from Italy, and the rest are from America. We all completely hit it off with each other right away, all sharing the same interests in, well, almost everything. I guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of people who are crazy enough to fly half way across the world to study Humanities. Anyway, three of the girls in my dorm are international, and the other two are from England. Surprisingly, I've only met two or three Welsh people! Most are from around the UK.

 

The dorm rooms are pretty cozy – if you ignore the REALLY loud pipes that are always running. (some nights they remind me of the ocean at home, but most nights I wind up throwing a pillow at them, which doesn't do much). Most of the time (like now for example) we all just have our doors open and we'll shout to each other to talk. Everyone here is incredibly friendly and welcoming.

Tonight we've got the International Potluck (Shintana and I are bringing Poutine, yum!). Tomorrow we get to do tasters of some of the activities they have. I've already met the head of the Quidditch team (yes, you read that right) and I'm really excited for that. Also planning on looking at archery and martial arts just for fun.

For now, I guess I better go start on the Poutine.