a wee bit of fun

I have some very exciting news this week! On thursday and friday, all of the girls' dorms in my house got new carpets! The old carpet were really gross, and so although it may sound not very exciting, it really is fanastic.
Here is what the old carpets looked like:
ewwww
and here is the new carpet!!

wooooot!

For part of the year, every week has a focus. the first week was sports week. And last week was creative week. All week there was music onduring meals, and there were optional activities after dinner. On monday we made masks (I made one but it didn't really work so I threw it out). On tuesday we painted them (along with other random stuff like binders). I was waiting for someone and was a little bored and my arm ended up like this:

and my face ended up like this:

And then there were a few other things during the week like dance and painting/repairing bikes.

As well, every Thursday our house has an open house where we all chill in our house parents' house and take turns cooking for eachother. This week all the north america's got together (four of us) and made pancakes and maple syrup (unfortunately real maple syrup is very expensive to share and the bottle I brought with me was too small for the whole house so we had to make do with fake maple syrup [not that anyone but me could really appreciate how tragic it was]).

Someone has a recipe that called for whole wheat flour, and Laura wasn't sure if she had enough and so she asked me to go and get some more, as I was planning on walking into town later in the day. When I got to the store I searched and searched for whole wheat flour. They had everything else, but not whole wheat. So I walked down the street and went to the other food store and searched and searched there as well (and mom, you will be proud to know that I asked for help at both places!). But I couldn't find any. At this point I was in a big rush (I wanted to catch a ride with the kitchen van back to the school to save myself a 40 min walk or a bus fare). So in my hast I just bought country grain flour (my brain told me that grain and whole wheat must be the same thing).

When I got back to the house I told Laura what I had, and she showed me what she had: Wholemeal flour.

Wholemeal flour was at both the stores I had looked in.

I felt stupid.

Here is William, our chef extrodinare:

Tilda is not from North America, but we let her help :)

(she wishes she was from north america)

And Laura with our beautiful pancakes

In other news, my daddy visted me yesterday on the back end of his buisness trip in Ireland! It was really really nice to see him.

And he came to watch 'AC's got Talent', in which I sang "hiphopapotamus vs rhymnocerous" by Flight of the Conchords with Killian from my house. It was pretty sweet

Miss you all!

Who rocks the house? Morgannwg rocks the house!

Here is what I have been doing for the last few days:

1) watch you, me and dupre on friday. It was pretty funny

2) Ate the worst meal so far. I personally think the food is not as bad as everyone else seems to think. Because there is always salad and stuff. But even I have a problem with something resembling 'mystery-meat' in my vegetarian meal.

3) Went to Cardiff on Saturday. Due to some problem with the trian our 40 min journey became a 90 min bus ride. Nevertheless we (a small group made up up of first years froma mixture of houses) made it to Cardiff in one peice (I spent most of the bus ride fearing for my life because of the narrow streets). We spent the day looking for various things we had forgotten (it is apparently impossible to buy refill paper that you do not have to rip out of a book) and just wandering around the shopping area in Cardiff. For lunch we took the advice of our second years and went to a chinese food place called 'china china'. It was sooo good. And then we hopped on our bus where we met up with a bunch of other AC students from my house and almost completely took over the bus. Unfortunatley I forgot my camera so I don't have photos :(

4) watched a bit of little Britain on Saturday night

5) Went to St. Donat's church on the campus of the school. It is really old and beautiful. I love it.
And they had a welcome lunch for all the first year students which was really nice. Especially becuase it allowed me to meet some of the other students (there were about 10 of us) and some of the congregation.

6) played Basketball Saunday afternoon. and... MORGANNWG WON SPORTS WEEK. I think we get a house meal or something but I don't know

7) Sunday night was 'British National evening'. All of the people who live in the UK got together and preformed. Some of it was really strange but it was really funny! It involved: pregnant welsh teens, lots of swearing, mugging, 'happy-slapping', a lesson in Scottich lingo, some folk songs, the spice girls, the beatles, cross-dressed guys, construction workers, sheep, many jokes made by the welsh, scottish and Irish at the expense of the British, and handcuffs, admists other things

8) Homework. Lucky me

It was a pretty great first weekend

And away I go

Here are some photos of the last week or so in my life.

this door is for you Emily and Rachael.
It reminded me of the blue door from cornerstone. I would steal it for you but I am pretty sure that one of the teachers lives on the other side so.. probably not a good idea. You will have to survive with just a photo


A Narnian lamppost

Me beside one of the AC flags along the path to the castle.

They may be nice flags but they are super annoying because they squeak when they are blown by the wind

This door actually works! With my service we organize an activity for the kids we work with called attack the castle. We lower the door and throw water balloons at them and they have to try and open it or climb over with ladders and then take us prisoners (I have yet to actually do this but am quite excited for it)

Here is the dining hall.

I get to eat here three times a day!

On Saturday we were finally allowed to leave the college grounds and so a crowd of us walked the 2 miles to Llantwit (the nearby town) to look around and get stuff that we forgot. This is a view from the road we were on down to the ocean

These are two other girls from my house. Sarah (Ile of Man) is on the right and Nora (norway) is on the left

This is the nice welcome sign into Llantwit. Notice the convoluted and completely unphonetic welsh under the English

Here are some more people from my house. We were waiting outside for a few more people after raiding the grocery store.

Last Saturday the 2nd years threw a party for the 1 st years. Basically they showed embarrassing photos of us that they had taken in the first two weeks, impersonated us and gave presentations about how each service is better than all the other ones. After the show we had a dance (Sosh) that was themed 'gangster'. So here are some of the girls all dressed up!

From the Right:Nora (norway), Lin (Denmark), Sarah (Ile of Man), Maria (Spain), Laura (U.S.A.), Tilda (Scotland).

Because there are 43 of us in my house and there were only about 5 plates and 6 mugs in our kitchen our house parents decided it would be good toget some more plates. However we also have the problem that people eat food, and then rush off somewhere more important/exciting and leave their dirty plate sitting in the dayroom. To remedy this problem, we all painted our own plates and mugs and put our names on them. This way we all have something to eat and drink with and if we don't clean people know...and put the dirty stuff in your bed!

Here is my masterpeice with some of my strawberrys (look mommy I am eating good food)

Every Sunday evening we cleanour house and our rooms. This is my clean/organized closet.

I meant to have this photo right way up but it didn't work and due to the slow computers it wuold take too long to fix. If you are confused the shoes on the left are supposed to be the bottom of the photo.

On Monday evening after we had finished our service a gaggle of girls in my house and I watched Across the universe (which I really enjoyed). We all lay/sat down in one of the doors, hauled out various boxes of cereal and goodies we had hidden in our rooms and chilled. In the photo Lin (denmark) and I are expressing our love for both cereal and the movie...and no homework

Here is Tilda and Nora who were also watching the movie.

The Ultimate

I have discovered a new passion: ultimate frisbee.

It is sports week at my school which means that the houses compete in a different sport everyday.
Yesterday was tog-of-war. my house came second (butit was only because I missed it for choir)
Today was Frisbee golf.
After lunch some of the poeple in my house got together to practice and so when it came time to play for real I had a better idea of what I was supposed to be doing, which resulted in me scoring two points!

And even better WE WON!

It was awesome!

Anthem

My house, Morgannwg is the only house with an anthem.
It is pretty sweet!
Here are the lyrics:

In morgannwg
In morgannwg
we live in liberty and peace
In morgannwg
In morgannwg
Our love will never cease

We have a lovely Kitchen
With cutlery and plates
And plates!
And all our girls are ...
Which is why everone hates on us

In morgannwg
In morgannwg
we live in liberty and peace
In morgannwgIn morgannwg
Our love will never cease

Timetable 2009/2010

I got my timetable today.

Just so that you can appreciate how confusing it is I will share it with you as best I can:

Monday:
0800-0850: english
0855-0955: chemistry
0955-1015: break
1015-1115: free*
1120-1210: French*
1215-1315: free
1150-1330: LUNCH
1415-1615: Study/Activity
1700-1800: math lecture
1730-1830: SUPPER
1900-2100: choir
2215 CHECK IN (must be in our houses)

Tuesday:
0800-0850: peace and conflict
0855-0955: Physics
0955-1015: break
1015-1115: physics
1120-1210: english
1215-1315: free
1150-1330: LUNCH
1415-1615: Study/Activity
1700-1800: Meetings
1730-1830: SUPPER
1900-2100: Study/activity
2215 CHECK IN (must be in our houses)

Wednesday:
0800-0850: French
0855-0955: free
0955-1015: Break
1015-1115: math tutorial
1120-1210: free
1215-1315: chemistry
1150-1330: LUNCH
1415-1615: EMC (service)
1700-1800: physics
1730-1830: SUPPER
1900-2100: choir
2215 - Check in (must be in our houses)

Thursday:
0800-0850: free
0855-0955: chemistry
0955-1015: break
1015-1115: chemistry
1120-1210: english *
1215-1315: Peace and conflict studies *
1150-1330: LUNCH
1415-1615: study/Activity
1700-1800: Assemblies
1730-1830 - Supper
1900-2100: EMC (service)
2215 - Check in (must be in our houses)

Friday:
0800-0850: French
0855-0955: math lecture
0955-1015: break
1015-1115: free
1120-1210: peace and conflict studies
1215-1315: physics
1150-1330: LUNCH
1415-1615: Field Hockey
1700-1800: math tutorial
1730-1830: SUPPER
1900-2100: friday lecture/activity
2215 - Check in (must be in our houses)

and not only do I have to memorize a specific scheldule for each day but the courses that are starred flip back and forth every week.
So basically I have classes in the morning. And then in the afternoons and evenings I have either service (which is twice a week), an activity (we officially join two but can do more unofficially) or do homework.

and then the weekends are pretty much free for us to do as we wish (however there are somtimes service things on the weekends)
check in on weekends is 2215

So even though it appears that I have lots of 'free' time or breaks most of that time will be filled with homework or my activities (which I have not chosen yet)

Hopefully I will be able to remember the schedule becuase I will have enough trouble as it is trying to find the correct classroom!

finally some photos

Finally I some photos for you!

This is the post office/bank. you can sort of see the little red mailbox.
This building also has some daycare/gym rooms and is home to the global lounge (a cafe place) and soc (which is a basically where you can go and dance every weekend)

Here is some of the farm. They have sheep, horses and cows.

This is the arts center. the back of it is a barn that was renovated and is now the theater. the part here is called the glass room.

This is a side view of the castle

This is a view from beside the castle down to the water. If you walked from where I took the photo to the water you would pass through a bunch of differnet gardens and lawns (top lawn [where I am], second lawn, the rose garden, the beast garden and the blue lawn). the small building you can see is called the Romeo and Juliet tower.

Here is the front archway into the castle

This is the outside of my house. My room has a window on the other side.

This is the view from my house down to the water

My house!

And this is my corner of my room. My bed with some of my photos :)

Gold medal

Today, while having our induction for lifeguarding we had to take a swim test.
there were three levels of passing. (if you fail, you have to take swimming lessons for a whole semester): bronze, silver, or gold.

your's truely got a gold medal.
This meant that I had to swim 100 m in 2.5 min, do some sculling, do a sumersault, tread water with one hand above our head for 3 mins, swim 800 m in under 25 mins (with at least three different strokes for 200 m each). and then pull ourselves out of the deepend.

So I am officailly a gold medalist!

french

As I took the IB french exam last May, I had high hopes that i would not to take a second language.
My hopes were dashed yesterday when they told me I still had to.
My options:
-take french again for two years
-take french for one year
- take spanish for beginners

I have no idea what to do

please give me your thoughts!!!

communal showers

the title says it all.
my question is: who the heck's idea was that?!?

I have not actually had the full experience of them yet. Due to my stretigical planning I have managed to use the shower when no one else is using them, therefore ensuring I have use of the one shower with a curtain.
But sooner or later I will not be so lucky
I guess it's a bonding experience...

codes

so classes or blocks are called codes here.
This is because the timetable is just a bunch of codes, which I cannot understand for the life of me.
Anyways today I had to choose my classes.
Somehow between the begining of the session (when I had a good idea of what I wanted to do) and the end of the session, I change four out of six of my origonal courses.
And have ended up in Higher level Math, physics, and chem; Standard level English, History and Peace and conflict studies.
I am not really sure how I ended up taking three of the hardest courses offered but there you have it... I must be an idiot.
I am not sure if I will make it or not...we will find out.

Also today I explored the grounds a bit more. I saw: the 'romeo and juliet' tower, the beast garden. the blue garden, the beach, the watch tower, the church and the graveyard. And then I played some volley ball on the grass.

It was a stressful morning choosing my classes but it was a pretty nice finish.

Miss you all!

Touchdown

I have arrived!!
and it is raining....no surprises there.
My flight was pretty good except my plane was delayed for awhile in Calgary so I arrived late at heathrow and just missed the second bus that went from Heathrow to the college. So I hung around the airport and met people as they arrived and then I got on the 6 o'clock bus and arrived at the school at about 9:30.
When we garrived at the school a bunch of the second years were yelling and screaming and then they showed us where our houses are. I have a nice room with a small dresser and a closet and three shelves which is good. the only problem is my closet has a lock on it.. and no key!
So hopefully they will fix that today so that I can hang all of my stuff up. And we are right by the bathroom which is handy. Lucky me, I am in the oldest of the Dorms. This means that the kichen is sort of run down and not very nice (but it works well for boiling water for tea) and the building is pretty small. But regardless I think it is pretty nice. There is a day/common room that has couches and stuff, a frying room (which is useful for the wet weather) and a quiet room for studing etc. My roommates are really nice and so I felt really welcome yesterday and I have met so many people already (unfortunatley I don't remember very many of their names). Unfortunatley because I arrived so late yesterday I haven't really seen very much of the school and haven't really been able to take photos but I hope that today I will be able to see more, and I will put photos as I have time.
Today we had a sort of orientation. In the morning we were introduced to our teacher tutors. My tutor is named Brian and is the music teacher (is it reeeally strange because we call our teachers by their first name!) and then we met some of the other important people like the principal and the vice principals and the student body president etc. and then for the rest of the day we are did various things with our houses.
so far I have: Gone to the computer lab where we got student IDs for the computers; taken a little math test (yuck!) so they can get a general idea of what math we should take; gone to the Library, had photos taken, met my peer listeners, went to the medical center, had castle orientation, and took a swimming test.
And then in the evening we went up with all of the people from our nations. So I was able to meet the other Canadian. All of whom are pretty cool eh? and we ate pancakes with maple syrup. yummm
So basically the last day has been a whirlwind but I am loving it.
I miss you all
and I will keep you up to date with what I am doing as much as I can!