Flash back to that double-date that I mentioned once and then never brought up again.
Yeah, there was a reason for that, which was that it was really remarkably uneventful. My roommate and I had some (actually quite delicious) burgers (and milkshakes ohmygod the milkshakes… salted caramel… oops can you tell the highlight was the food?) with a couple full-time St Catz students, shared some awkward conversation, played a game of pool and then went our separate ways. They were sweet people, and we still say hello when we pass each other on campus, it was just not the ideal getting-to-know-someone situation.
Most of our other friends who were visiting students had similar experiences, including difficulty getting an in-depth conversation started with their British counterparts. As we recounted stories, this somehow led to the decision that should we ever be at a complete loss as to conversation topics again, CLEARLY the obvious solution is to (enthusiastically, to the point of being maniacal) ask “Do you like dragons?!?”
This has since become our catch-phrase, a go-to at those moments when group conversation comes to an inexplicable, or sometimes blatantly uncomfortable, halt.
I do, in fact, really like dragons.
The point of this story is that I went to Wales this weekend.
Wales has a dragon on its flag.
…
so…
d’you like dragons?!
Wales was pretty cool. I’ve been very impressed with the activities that IFSA-Butler has planned for us while abroad, and Adventure Weekend was no exception. They managed to get about 200 visiting students from all over England to the middle-of-nowhere Wales, where we took over an entire hotel for a couple nights and got to enjoy the cold, rainy, windy weather and participate in some cold, rainy, windy activities.
I actually loved the activities I got placed in, both of which involved lots of time being in the air. 😀 In the morning I did a high ropes course– we did have harnesses, but taking on the heights in a blustering, misty wind with bare hands was certainly a challenge.
(Ropes course from afar, the spider web climb)
(X-ropes and wobbly blocks)
(Skinny log and tippy balancing beam bridge. Yes these are the official names of the different ropes course challenges.)
In the afternoon, I headed over to an old slate mine, climbed down into the depths, and went on this awesome giant trampoline-net-play structure thing. Like, I can’t even describe it– it was a bunch of bouncy nets that you leapt around on, with ladders to climb up to get to higher levels and chutes to slide down to lower levels. One of my fellow jumpers described it best: it was like being 5 years old again.
All of the pictures of it look like a rave, because everyone was in constant motion and the lighting was crazy… so here are a couple videos!
We got back in time for dinner at the hotel (I can’t say the food was outstanding, but they were feeding 200 rambunctious Americans, so I give them props for making an effort). After dinner we headed down to the pub for some drinks (I found that I actually enjoy a Ginger Whiskey, which my friend from Kentucky introduced me to before downing three of them) and stopped by the party they threw, which was fun, but I left a little early to get a start on the reading I needed to finish for this week– because it’s 8th week! I can’t believe an entire term has passed so quickly. I’ll be writing two essays in the next four days, and then I’m… done with my first term at Oxford. I’ll have written over 80 pages of academic writing in the last 8 weeks. That is an absurd amount of writing, and I don’t even want to calculate how many pages of reading I’ve done. In some ways, Oxford has been less academically challenging than I expected, but looking back on it I suppose I have actually done a pretty impressive amount of work.
On our way back to Oxford we stopped by a small seaside town for one more taste of the cold, rainy, windy Welsh air.
I went shopping for gifts for all my friends back at Catz, who, even though it was only three days, I’d found myself missing a lot. I think we are all very ready for a break, but going from seeing my friends here every single day to not seeing them for six weeks is going to be hard. And I can’t even think about what it’s going to be like at the end of next term.
I came back from Wales with a lot of great photos, excitement about checking another country off my list, stress about my unfinished school work, and exhaustion after a weekend packed full of activities. But the thing I think that stuck with me the most was my realization of how much I appreciate the people I’ve met here, and how quickly I’ve come to really care about them. So, shout out to all of you amazing people who I have slowly been getting to know. You are truly, truly wonderful, and I’m so happy to have met you all.
And um…
Doyouguyslikedragons?? Because I brought back souvenirs. 😉