24 January 2015: St. Fagan's- three more hours in photos

St. Fagan's is an outdoor museum and village that represents daily Welsh life at various points in time through architecture and park interpreter lectures. John, you would really enjoy it, I think. One of the interpreters, bless his heart, tried to teach us a bit of Welsh, just a  greeting.It wasn't that I was an inattentive pupil; on the contrary, I was quite excited to work with the language. I just completely butchered it is all. And despite the saying "practice makes perfect", my pronunciation managed to get worse the more I tried to say it.Oh well, the trip was still a lot of fun and informative

(Erika and I on the bus)

 (one of the farmhouse outbuildings)

(Large farmhouse)

(Thatched Roof)

(Erika and cows)

(slated pighouse)

(Some of the old flour millstones)

(old toll booth)

(inside one of the old farmhouses and the animal stalls In The House)

(Erika and sheep)

(out by the animal houses)

24 January 2015: Cardiff Castle-three hours in pictures

Shots of the Keep:

Shots of the castle apartments (outside):

Shots of the Castle Apartment ceilings (Arabian Room, Banquet Hall, Dining Room):

Shots of the Library:

The original Dividing Wall from atop the Keep (and just an update from the internship days, Jav, a part of me still really hates heights):

Stain glass window at the Apartment Entrance:

The Castle Walls were used as air raid shelters for Cardiff during WWII:

Miscellaneous Shots of the Clock Tower and the Wall beneath it:

A Tour of the Flat

19 January 2015

I am back in the classroom! Sort of. We did not have any formal lectures today, just formal pre-orientation orientation and a bus tour. We drove around town, which really helped me to get a better idea of where to walk to get to specific locations.I love how colourful the houses are around town

 After going through town and gaining more knowledge on local history we headed out into the countryside towards one of the beaches.The land just outside Swansea is free grazing land and livestock can just roam free around and onto the road. So, yeah, a lot of sheep in the ditch [living not roadkill]

  

Then we went on to one of two beaches. The scenery more than made up for the chilling (understatement) wind off the sea. I can envision Martyne gloating when I say that I really enjoyed the beach and really want to go back, even though there is sand. The scenery even makes me enjoy the sand.

Then we went on to Mumbles and the beach there and some pretty hot chocolate and a some delicious bread at a cafe by the beach.

(Swansea across from Mumbles at twilight.)