Wow, Sorry I'm behind!

Mmmm this past week has been busy!!!! We finished up the last week of lectures for the American students only, and today started our courses. Here's a quick run through up til now. Last Monday was mainly just classes and going out to town. I make American pancakes and the girls I live with thought they were just lush, they had never had them before, their version of pancakes is the rest of the world's version of crepes. Which I also made this week. Tuesday was just a day of exhaustion, I could have attended an inaguration party and been on the news here, but I was absolutely knackered. So, I just took a really long nap instead then played some pool. Then Wednesday I was supposed to go to the boys' rugby game, but it was rained out, so a bunch of us, Americans, went to town, Jori and I went clothes shopping and then to Tesco. Then I made some brownies, which I'm going to make a different kind in just a bit. Then we went out to town again that night, but this time I left a little early with some friends and we signed up at this casino which gives you 5 pounds free for signing up, so we just gambled that and then left when it was gone, it was fun. Thursday was yet another day of relaxation, there was supposed to be karaoke at the pub, but it was cancelled since people were still in exams. So, next week. Anyways so my roommate and I decided to just watch a movie, then the other two girls joined us. We watched She's the Man. Friday night I couldn't be asked to want to stay out late, so I got ready to go out, but everything was so crowded that I didnt even stay to go in, I just came back with another friend who didn't want to wait either. I also decided to wash my clothes that day, quite the fun time, I washed them in the bath tub after cleaning the bath tub, cuz the machines are worthless and expensive, then I went to bring them down to the dryer just to pay for the heat not even to turn off, so just an hour of rolling my clothes, so I had to put them up in the boiler room, which is now going to be my standard way of washing clothes, hand wash and hang dry. Saturday we went on a field trip to the lovely city of bath. Oh, it was so fun. We were able to see these natural hot spring baths that are ages old. Then we walked around town, had a Sally Lunn bun, which is a famous place apparently. Then we went to this area where there are really nice homes called the Circus and Royal Crescent. Also, every building there matched, a white stone look, its so pretty. Then we played putt putt, it was so cold yet sooooo fun. There was one point when we were waiting for the green and I was standing on the number post, then when it was our turn I jumped down, not thinking oh wet grass it'll make me slip, and I did slip and land right on my bum in the mud. It was soo funny, great times. Then right before we left we stopped at this lovely, lush fudge place, named what? San Francisco Fudge. Oh they love American food here. Then that night I watched the Shining and part of Forgetting Sarah Marshall with my roommates before deciding to go to bed. Sunday, next week I am going to church with this new girl from Colorado that I met on Wednesday, she's really sweet. But this week we still didn't know of anywhere to go, so its our mission to find somewhere before this Sunday, which is superbowl Sunday! Anyways yesterday I went running, which I haven't been on a run in what a year and a half maybe? A long time. I ran to the beach with my friend Nathan who runs 15 miles often. It was a slow more like jog though, which was better on my ankle. It was 2.5 miles to the beach and then a 2.5 mile walk back. It felt so good though, even though I'm in so much pain right now from it. Then the rest of the day I just sort of lounged around with my roommates. Then at midnight the pub in our Village gave me on the house (its nice to know all the employees) my first drink ever. I had a slushie with a shot of cherry vodka and a shot of smirnoff. I didn't drink all of it by myself mainly cuz I hate slushies, but it sounded the best at the time. I told everyone to take a sip, so really I hardly had any at all, but it still counts. All in all its been a great week. Tonight we are going to TGI Friday's and then out to town again, and I started classes today, World History 1500-1800 and Intro to Dante's World (which seems really awesome). Oh yea, and Happy Chinese New Year, and its my birthday, 21! :D

rainy days of fun

So, yesterday we went to Cardiff for a few hours. It was really fun, except we were all shattered (really tired). There was an hour ride to this Welsh museum which was really cool because it was really just this old little village that you could walk through. And ceiling and door heights signaled status, so some of the door frames were less than a half inch taller than me. It was a lovely little play and it also had a "castle", which really was just a mansion house and beautiful gardens. Some of the girls and I just took our time mosing around this lovely place, it would be even more beautiful come spring when everything is blooming, but just imagining helped as well. Then we went to City Centre of Cardiff and walked around in all the shops looking for clothing deals, I didn't really find any that suited my budget and size and taste but a lot of others did, so it was fun to get on the bus and see what everyone chose! We were shattered because Friday night we went to the club on campus, can you believe it ON CAMPUS! It'd be like a club in Talley. There were a ton of people there but we mostly all knew each other. That's the best thing about a smaller school! Anyways so we came back from Cardiff around half past 5 and everyone split to go home, but almost all my flat mates went home for the weekend, so my neighbor mates and I decided to go play a little pool at the lounge area bar which is located in the student village where I live, best comparison would be Wolf Village but with a bar. Only students are allowed in this bar so its a very chill place just to hang out with some friends, watch rugby or music videos, play pool or fuseball. And then last night after heading down to Woody's (the bar) I met this girl from UNCW, UNCW sent around 15 students over here. Anyways the wild thing about meeting here is, well I didn't know this until just now, but... I left UFCA in the 8th grade, and I remember hearing about the new girl that came in 9th grade, well what do you know I meet that girl in another country! How wild? I'm actually excited to tell her I too attended UFCA. For those of you who don't know UFCA is a small private school, less than 30 to a class, so to have attended the same school is pretty rare! She's coming out with us for my birthday! Which is in a week, I'm so excited, everyone every day reminds me of the countdown. I made an event today and already almost 30 people are going to attend, its so awesome to have met so many amazing people, they are all just so fun loving and a great joy to be around! I also finally unpacked and organized my room, well most of it still a few more clothes to put away, but at least they aren't in suitcases. And already I have a load of laundry, that's what happens when it rains all the time and your trousers get muddy quickly. Oh, and another fun detail, one of my flat mates, Matt reminds me of my cousin, Kenny. It is uncanny, they make the same facial expressions and everything its great! Miss everyone talk to you all soon again!

living in a dream world

Class is quite neat, we are learning about British history, politics, music, cinema and culture. Last night most of us Americans we went out to the town, it was quite fun. A few of my welsh flat mates attended along with us. Tonight is going to be more of a quiet night, and hopefully going to sleep early. I have a feeling that it may turn into a girl night since one of my flat mates just broke up with her boyfriend today. Last night the girls straightened my hair, I forgot what I looked like with straight hair, and wow my hair is so long now! It's very exciting. There are a bunch of birthdays coming up in the next few weeks including mine, so its going to be very exciting! I love the language here, they say things like lush and call snobs posh and just all these fun words. I'm friends with practically the whole rugby team, so next Wednesday we're going to the rugby match, I'm excited to see my first match! Right now everyone is revising for their term finals, a lot of people are going home this weekend for a day or so. Their grading system if funny, the highest grade is a 70, so you have to get a 40 to pass. The phones are nice here, you don't have to pay for an incoming call nor incoming texts, only when you call or text someone yourself. And text is cheaper than calls, so text is the number one form of getting in touch with someone here, which is way different from how I'm use to. I also find myself saying darling and love all the time now, its funny how things just start to catch on. They comment all the time how when I'm not even trying to sound British (which I do on occassion) that some words I say are now always British. So, its a fun experience. If you have any specific questions shoot me an email and I'll be sure to answer them! xxx (the British thing to do at the end of a message, it means kisses aka much love!)

3 in the morning

Okay so, where did i leave off? It is so different here that everyone can drink at the age 18. All my flat mates are 18, 19, and one 21 and so they all drink. So, there's a ton of night life. Oh, and they stay up forever. So, every night I've been up just talking and hanging out til 3 amish. I've made cookies twice and they are absolutely amazed. One of them calls me Mary Poppins. All of the Americans are awesome. And every person is excited for me to be 21, in 13 days! I told them that I will only try one drink then, and that I won't be spending money on alcohol, and they assured me they'd be more than willing to pay. I've started orientation and the classes they have for us. Its going well. I'm about to be starting lecture now. I'm rather tired, so I can't really remember what all I thought I would say. They say really awesome things too, and I've convinced several Americans and one Welsh student I'm from here with my accent its so fun!
Anyways I'll try to update again soon!

Here to stay, for a while

So, I arrived in Swansea on Thursday night, and first thing Friday morning went to move in my bags to my room. I'm up the hill and to the right. (hills, so fun for pulling luggage!) anyways I met my first flat mate when I brought in my luggage. Then it was off to Tesco (their super walmart, but much much better!), unfortunately they didn't have a phone for me to buy, so we took a bus to another part of town and on the bus my mom said I wonder if they have a Barnes & Nobles or something of the sort around here. Olivia said that she remembered seeing a Borders in London, and as soon as we stepped off the bus to go to Tesco Extra (it was even bigger, hard to imagine) there was a Borders right there. It was such a relief. I was in need of a Bible because mine from the States was too large, anyways we seriously thought we wouldn't find one, finally we did and there was only around 7 to choose from. Shows how religiously dead this area really is. That night I went on a taxi with some freshers back to the student village when we realized that the bob (bright orange bus - student bus to the city quadrant centre) wasn't running anymore that night. It was hard to say goodbye to my mom and sister, but also exciting at the same time to start a new adventure. That night I met two of my flat mates, Ceri-ann and Danielle, they are such sweet girls. I live with all freshers, so everyone is 18 or 19 except one of them is 21, he took some time off before coming to school. I also met some really neat people that live in the houses near me, also all freshers. They had so many questions it was crazy. They wanted to know all about me, and right away they said you're a Christian aren't you? and I was shocked, so they also wanted to know all about my faith and beliefs and the Bible too. It was a really cool experience, very scary at the same time. One of the guys was gay and told me that he thinks that I'm going to make him straight by the time I leave, I'm not really sure how to take that. But they all repeatedly tell me how much they love me already, its so awesome how they have taken to me, they have so much respect for me because of my beliefs and are interested to learn more. And I'm excited to share. We stayed up late that night just talking, and crazy thing is all their favorite show is Charmed, same as mine, and they love Friends too. And to top that they love my favorite movie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, I couldn't believe they've seen it, because very few people back home have. I woke up early the next morning, barely on time because my phone was set in pm rather than am so my alarm didn't go off. Anyways at that time I didn't know there was a shower downstairs and had to take a bath. Then I ran to the bus stop for our fieldtrip around Swansea for all the US students. I met alot of nice people, mainly from Iowa (reminded me of you, Jeff). And saw some beautiful landscapes of the coast, then we had time in town where I had a tour of the town to get a feel for everything. Then I went back to the flat around 4 and made cookies (the house desperately needed to smell like them rather than the smell it had) and some soup for dinner. My flat mates were absolutely amazed they said they had never had homemade cookies. This is when I met a few more of my flat mates. They are all really cool people, I like them a lot already. They are afraid I might want to leave because they've had several girls move in and out of my room since they've been there (which has only been a semester). But I like them. We stayed up really late, o my dear, I was so tired. Anyways they are very excited for me to turn 21. Also, there are a few Americans that live near me. Nick from Iowa and some guy I never want to see again from Oklahoma, he is so annoying and was absolutely wasted and gross. Anyways everyone is really great. I met up with some girls from University of Iowa today in town, my flat mate gave me a ride because she works here. We are at a local cafe using the internet until ours is set up at our flat. I'm very excited to continue to meet people. I'd love to hear from any of you!

Patience pays off

January 6, 2009 and January 7, 2009

So, the morning started early on Tuesday with my mom waking us up convinced we needed to go back to Charlotte to catch that flight to Gatwick. Little did we know that when we'd get there, we'd go to check in in the domestic section of the USAirways check point to be told that our best bet was to stay in Philadephia because they were cancelling arriving flights due to potential bad weather. So, between me and Olivia all 150+ lbs of just my luggage not to mention hers too down past (outside too) all of the other ticket counters to make it to the international check points for USAirways. Half way there I realized that I'd need to have muscles like Popeye to make it the rest of the way and decided I had to somehow figure out an easier way. So, I went into the American Airlines area and asked to borrow a large luggage cart, but the TSA man told me to just use one of those luggage carts that are usually paid for, but he had a few that people didn't return, so I piled all of my bags on and finally pushed to check them in. Then we spent all day in the airport, shopped at the GAP, ate lunch and dinner and even enjoyed a few movies. Well, ironically during one of the movies my mom told me that my other sister called and she dropped and broke her lap top (also a dell). Which is awful, but ironically comes in handy. Well, so somehow we aren't really sure how my charger to my dell fell out of my bag, there was a point when these two gentlemen who were both going in opposite directions and didn't even know each other both ran into me at the exact same time, well that's when it may have fallen, who knows. All I know is I asked every security and information person there was and no one had been handed one. I didn't have time to look for that long since we did(!) make it on the flight to Gatwick. You know that you've been in the airport too long when people start to know who you are. All of the gate agents from the day before kept telling me when they saw me that they'd keep an eye out for me and make sure that I got to England. It was a cool feeling. And they'd all ask me how my search was coming for my charger, and half of them I don't even remember asking. Anyways very nice people, and we made it!
The flight was around 7 hours with taxing and de-icing. I sat in between a 16 year old boy from the city that I'm going to be studying in, which was really cool. And on the other side was a gentleman from Asheville, so since I was just there we were able to talk about Asheville. Granted I slept and read most of the time, all and all it was a good flight except for the time change which meant I was up at 4am and ready to get to my hotel. We made it to the hotel, and around 3pm London time headed straight for downtown London. It was a long hour to get there by train, but much shorter to get back. We saw Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, the Buckingham Palace, and went into Harrod's. We got this delicious Pastys for dinner, which I was skeptical about at first, but my oh my were they good. Maybe even better because it was practically all we ate all day. Waking up so early we forgot to eat! Anyways tomorrow we head to Wales. I'm excited!
I'm very thankful that God made it possible for us to get here, because we were starting to wonder if only I'd be able to go, which would have been frightening.

Much Love, Andrea

Rash, sit, Philly, overbooked

January 5, 2009
Our (me, my mom, and Olivia) first day of attempt at travel. I was a long, long day full of airports, not to mention the discomfort I felt from a newly formed rash on my face, maybe poison ivy from vine swinging? but who knows, I've never gotten poison ivy before. Anyways, the original plan was changed around five times. The night before the idea was to go to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport around 5:30 pm to try to catch a flight to London, however, around midnigh plans changed to go to the airport at 11am to head to Philadephia, due to the flights filling up. Philadephia was a much better option because they have three flights a day going to the UK rather than just one like Charlotte. However, once again flights even to Philly were becoming oversold, so in a frantic bolt we all piled into the car only to turn around upon reaching Wachovia and my mother realizing she forgot her debit card. Then the plan changed to catch the next flight which gave us an extra hour to finish up some last minute things, like eating, random packing, and cleaning. We left for good finally and arrived at the airport at 11:30am. We missed two flights to Philly and quickly came to realize that the flights were going to be full all day. So, it was time to call the employee line for help, and also to figure out where my checked bags were. The man that answered the call was a God-sent, he was very kind and looked up every possibility until he found out that a staggered route would get us there. We now were going to be off to Richmond, VA. We immediately went to the gate to check in just to stumble upon the fact that no one would be there for us for around an hour. So, we headed to get some lunch. We ended up at Chili's too and quickly retreated back to the D concourse after eating. At 4:15pm we were off to Richmond without any problems, so we thought... once we were in the air though, I realized that I forgot my brand new coat some where in the Charlotte airport. I couldn't believe it and felt it was lost forever. But God used this incident to remind me that He was taking care of things. As soon as we landed I got in touch with Chili's and they found my coat. Next I called my dad who happened to be leaving shortly for his own flight, fortunately the plane will wait for him, since he's flying it. So, he picked up my coat and delivered it, as he said "to the other side of the world", which is really just the other side of the airport to a currently boarding flight to Philadephia. Thank goodness the flight attendants took my coat without any questions. At the same time in Richmond when we reached the ticket counter the gate agents were talking about [us] "these people that had to come from Charlotte in order to get to Philadephia." And when they saw us approaching they surprised us by asking, "Are you the Urbans?" We made it to Philadephia and picked up my coat. Fortunately God interveined again. He also blessed us with the fact that my coat was going to be delivered 7 gates away from our departure gate. Which is a huge blessing because the Philadephia International airport is HUGE, we could have had a to walk over a mile just to get my coat, and I'm not exaggerating. But thankfully God proved once again that He is faithful. We did disappointedly not make a flight to the UK that night, and not from a lack of trying, we sat trying to get on 3 flights, and I even begged British Airways to check all their availability, sadly they were all full too. So, we had to get my bags from baggage claim and check into a hotel. Once again we come to find out God had better plans, had I or all of us gotten onto the plane my bags would have stayed in Philadephia, and I would have been out of clothes. Next it was time to find the shuttle to Quality Inn, well we were missed by the van, so I in my ankle brace and high heels with 90+lbs of luggage, ran down the street to where he did stop to get him to wait for all of us to get there. I'm sure everyone was quite entertained, especially when my bags slid, and the man almost left, except this lady yelled really loud to get the man's attention to tell him to wait for me. So, we made it to the hotel except apparently Quality Inn and Quality Hotel are not the same place. Due to the mix up they gave us a reduced rate lower than the AAA rate! So, there we are after a long day finally getting a shower and a bed, back to square one, where do we go from here to get where we want to go?