This week has been pretty busy. I don’t think I have walked this much in my life. For the first few days, it reminded me of Tulip Time being on your feet all day long. Fortunately TT is only three days long, and the food is cheaper. We got here last Thursday. Tecwyn took us to the Weather Spoon where I ordered a braised lamb shank along with the recommended beverage. I was hoping my first Welsh meal would be more memorable. It was not bad, but nothing extravagant.
Friday was spent checking out the town and picking up some groceries, after our meeting with Tecwyn of course. We chose 02 for SIM cards because we got 300 free texts for topping up with £10. We wanted to eat at the Yellow Pub but they would not accept any ID except passports or UK drivers license. We then walked into Varsity; same deal. We then traversed up BFH to grab our passports. I went ahead to stop at the ATM at Morrison’s, but half way there I realized that I had just used the bathroom and changed jackets. Still no passport I hurried back up to my room the other way so no one would notice. I caught up with the gang at Morrison’s were we decided to try the Irish pub so we didn’t have to go back down the hill. It didn’t have a large enough table so we had to go back to Yellow Pub. We all signed up for Yellow Cards and enjoyed our meals. I had the Cajun Chicken with a pint deal. Once again, nothing spectacular but it was relatively cheap.
Saturday included another meeting with Tecwyn at 11, then more wondering around. We had dinner at Yates where I helped myself to both halved of a two-fur deal. Good food, but a little pricier.
We had nothing on the schedule for Sunday. We joined JJB and walked the length of High Street. Our baked chicken hindquarters turned out well, after being transferred onto a pan that could catch the grease and juice.
On Monday we boarded the coach at half nine for Caernarfon Castle and Llechwedd Slate Mine. I captured some good pictures at the castle, including the Black Boy Inn. Apparently Affirmative Action has not yet gone global. The slate mine was kind of lame. The deep mine was closed because the pumps kept shorting out due to the 18 inches of rain so far this year. The waste slate has created mountains over the years, with reminded me of the trash mounds in Idiocracy. On the way back to Bangor, we stopped at Swallow Falls. The rapids were pretty powerful from the excess precipitation, but the sight was not worth the £1 entry fee. Even though Tecwyn paid, and we squeezed two per on the turnstile. We saw the sun for the first time since landing in Chicago. It was brief, but some sun is better than none. We had dinner at a ‘free house’ near the pier. The lasagna was good, but the drink was warm. Supposedly chilling it ruins the flavor. It wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t try it in America.
On Tuesday we attended our first Bangor meeting. Andrew Griffith has a very ‘British sense of humor’. Basically we figure that that meant he thought dumb jokes and word plays were hilarious. We spent much of the afternoon touring with Chris to find modules; not much luck. African music is not running this term and there were few other choices. We then worked out for the first time and then hustled to our half four meeting concerning OP. Then it was back to Ffriddoedd for a chicken finger dinner. We finished the evening with £ a pint night at Yellow Pub. Cain got his first taste of Welsh drinking games. The game involved counting to 21, but nobody could nail down every rule. Cain was also the only on to get ID’d upon entry, so he was forced to return for his passport again, even though the manager remembered ‘the Americans’ only a few days prior.
We are working out again in the morning. We should be able to take our time since we have nothing solidly scheduled. We need to decide on modules by Friday and check with Central that they with fulfill our needed core credits.