Fresher's Week/Gower/Rhossili

'Hello!
Before I begin my post I would like everyone to know I am in my kitchen, eating potatos and veggies with loads of HP sauce, watching it pour rain while it is sunny, and there is a full double rainbow outside of my window.

Where to start? Last week was a week called Fresher's Week. Freshers are the UK equivalent of Freshman. It is a week full of getting acclimated to the University (or Uni as everyone calls it here) and of joining clubs, and playing your techno music extremely loudly and passing out glow sticks to everyone who comes into your house (as demonstrated by the boys who live behind me). I live in a "house". It is more of a condo where we share a wall with another "house". We have a HUGE kitchen (awesomeness!) and I have a really good sized bedroom with a bookshelf, desk, and a wardrobe. I love my flatmates. 5 other girls (besides myself) and I all live together with two boys. Raj is from Singapore, and Jim from Hong Kong. Two of the girls are from England. Rachel is from the Oxford area, and Jo is from the Black Country. Angharad (SWEET Welsh name) is from about 25 minutes south of Swansea. Gracie is from Tennesee, and so is Caroline. I LOVE all the girls, we get along great and all have a lot of fun together. None of them are too crazy into going out. We all have a great time, and see eye to eye on a lot of living situation things. The boys are also nice, but mostly keep to themselves.

Class: This week was my first week of class. Although I am a fulltime student, I only have class for six hours a week. Sweet. I am taking Theory of Persuasion and Argument, and Media Representations. Both of them are one, two hour lecture, and one, one hour seminar. They both seem like they will be a bit of a review course.

Social Life: I joined the Hiking Club. What a great decision! On Sunday, I hiked 8 Miles (they work on Miles and Kilometers here....its weird) through the rolling hills of the Gower, and we ended in Rhossili, a lovely town which is on the coast. It was a sunny day, so it was a BLUE ocean and sky. Perfect weather for hiking as well, about 65 and Sunny. I couldn't have asked for a better day! There are a few of us Americans who joined the club. In a couple of weeks I think we have an overnight trip, so that should be fun. This Saturday is the Fresher's Ball, which is like a homecoming dress up type of deal. Fun Stuff! I am going with all my flatmate girls.

Food: Yum. There is a sauce here that tastes like A1 sauce which they put on EVERYTHING, hence I put on EVERYTHING. It is SO yummy, its HP sauce, not sure if they have it in the states or not. The ciders here taste AMAZING. I wish they had them all in the states. Four of us (two other Americans and a Brit) have made a dinner club where we are going to rotate weeks of who cooks. We'll see how long it lasts, but for the time being its fun! Sunday, the British guy made us a full, proper English roast. Basted chicken, Yorkshire pudding, veggies, broiled potatos, and sausages. Their sausages here arn't "leftovers" such as in the states. They are AMAZING and 100% meat. This Sunday is my turn. I am either doing Breakfast dinner or Italian night- Homemade pizzas, salad, and a pasta bar.

Upcoming Plans: This Saturday I am going on a school trip to Stonehenge. Fun! Next weekend, I will be in Dublin. I am traveling alone on Wed. to Bristol, and flying into Dublin on Thursday to meet up with some friends who will already be there (I got a better flight deal than themm hence me traveling alone). So excited!

Well, I think that is all for now! Here are pictures from the Gower/Rhossili. Miss you all!

Me and a couple hiking pals (busting out the Spandex....of course)

The fog over the sea

From halfway up the hill we were climbing. It was harder than this picture looked!

From the top of the peak


Mud. FUN!!!
I found a secret garden!
The first peak we climbed
Mist rolling over the second peak we were climbing
Rhossili Beach
Looking down from the super high peak I was on.


Blue Sky!
Blue ocean and boats!
This is Worms Head. It takes a while to hike out there. This whole area is covered, minus the peak, when the tide is in. I guess there is a seal colony on the other side. The current is extremely strong, so they don't let you hike out there. They have signs that say when you can hike out there and when you can't.

Bath!

Sweet Bridge to a building I have no idea about
Pretty view

Looked like a fun place

Typical streets in Bath


There are street signs like this everywhere. So neat!

Jane Austen looked creepy...


I felt right at home!


Aaaaaaaaannnnnd the church is a restaraunt...
The stairs leading up to the belltower in St. Michael's....The door was locked to the bells :(

Beautiful window with a dining table and chair.

Look, God pulled out the chair for you to sit down!

Organ (Mom and Peggy this pic is for you!)


Altar


I just thought this angel was beautiful!


Dining place again

St. Michael's Church from outside



Organ again

The Royal Crescent


Another fun sign!
The street between The Circus and Royal Crescent

The Circus- Basically it was three sections of the same types of houses as the Royal Crescent positioned around a Round About, so it was hard to get a good picture of it. I got a neat postcard with an ariel view of it!

Royal Crescent

The Circus

The Royal Crescent


This was the Sacred Spring I believe. The Romans believed it held special powers because it bubbles (to this day!) and was very warm. It bubbles because it is over a hotspring, but they obviously didn't know that. Curses and different things were thrown into this spring.




This was at one point underneath a floor in the furnace room, or the "Sweat Room". The heat from the furnace would travel and be trapped in the pillars, making the floor so hot one had to wear sandals when walking.

This is an ancient sacrifice altar. Goats were one of the animals sacrificed. I don't remember which goddess it was to.
Recovered statue

Recovered Fresco

I don't know who this was, but it was in perfect condition. Amazing!

Recovered tombs

This is taken from the 2nd floor of the unit, which looks down into the pool above.

You can see the Abbey through the Bath structure

Ancient mosaic recovered. It is on the floor, the picture just flipped

Preserved Bronze Statue of a Goddess. Not sure which one (Ashley, help me out?)

The original steps into the Altar

The outside

Inside the Roman Bath lobby

Taken from the 2nd floor again


I am on the 2nd floor of the Roman Baths unit, the Abbey is behind me

Bath Abbey

The ceiling is like this the whole way, except for the blue diamonds. Those are only over the Altar



Not sure why the picture flipped upon loading....but it shows the top of the building before it rises to the bell tower which rings every 15 or 30 minutes.


Where the organ is (Again, for Peggy and Mom...)


This only gives a glimpse at how tiny you feel in this place. It is like being in a dollhouse church!



The altar...on the screen is the picture of the organ keys. 3 Tiers!

Window above the altar
They put flowers on the lamps outside!





The windows on the bottom left are from the Roman Baths














Hi all!
It has been a really busy couple of days! On Wednesday, we went to Bath in England. Gorgeous place! The main attraction there is the ancient Roman Baths which were thought to contain healing powers among other things. It is amazing how preserved the baths are. The place was built around what remained of the bathing complex. Many men conducted business while in the baths, and showed their prestige and power by using fragrant oils. There was an automated tour which you listened to on a huge cellphone like thing. After I saw the Roman baths, I saw the inside of Bath Abbey. Unlike Tintern Abbey, this Abbey is fully functional and running. It was ruined in 1539 by Henry VIII. Three different churches have stood on this site. In 1999 it had its 500th anniversary. It currently costs over 2,000 Pounds per day to run the Abbey. Crazy! I was fortunate enough to walk in and see a sign that said, "Organ Recital: 1:10 pm." Fantastic! I only stayed for the first piece, Prelude and Fugue in B minor, by Bach. Fantastic! The organ was outstanding! After I heard some organ music, I went wandering around some more. I found a church, St. Michael's, and it was a fully functioning church on Sundays, and a restaraunt during the week! So funny! I found the Jane Austen Center (she was from Bath), the Royal Cresent (which is a group of 81 extremely expensive homes) built by John Wood the elder, and the Circus, built by John Wood II. These homes housed very important people high in prestige such as William Pitt (former MP for Bath) Dr. Livingstone, and Thomas Gainsborough. You can go to http://beehive.thisisbath.com for more info on Bath. Here are massive amounts of pictures!!