"You Win"

I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve written. The time has flown by and Thursday was the one-month marker of when I arrived in Wales.   I was thinking about that the other day and about how I’ve only got 4 more to be here.  It made me sad/desperate and (believe it or not) happy at the same time.  Sad because the time has gone be so fast. Desperate because a whole month has gone by and I feel like I haven’t done any of the things that wanted to.  I feel like I’ve wasted so much time, but this isn’t entirely true. Things just haven’t happened exactly how I imagined they would in my mind. And yes, I was sort of happy to see how fast the time is passing. I was very surprised and somewhat disappointed in myself when I finally admitted this to myself. But I’m not wishing myself somewhere else, and the only time that I get close to being homesick is on Sundays for some reason.

Three Sundays ago Mt. Pleasant had what they call “special Sunday.”  On these Sundays, the whole church eats all 3 meals at the church together and spends the whole day at the church.  I definitely enjoyed this because I was able to get to know students who go to the University, and I got 3 free meals. J

That whole week, it snowed! The first night was the best though.  The rest of the week the snow wasn’t enough to be of any use and was just enough to be annoying but still pretty. Monday night all the students in the village were out having separate little snowball fights.  After about an hour, a few guys got the entire student body who live in the Woodside flats (this is about half of the student village and the section that I live in) to come together in one big mob and gave orders to attack the student houses on the other side of the village. It was epic.  There were quite a lot of us and I was told that we were pretty scary looking when we first rounded the corner. The next day classes were canceled and again most people were out throwing snow at each other.  It didn’t matter if you knew the person or not. If you were outside, you were going to get hit.  Open windows, people building snowmen and people walking in and out of doors were also primary targets. I was sore for the next 3 days, but I’ve never had so much fun in the snow before.  A couple of nights later, I was sitting at my desk when a snowball smacked against my window. I nearly fell out of my chair. Thinking that it was a couple of guys I had met on Tuesday during the snow fight, I opened my window and called out to them. One of them answered but wouldn’t come out from behind the car they were crouching behind.  I took this as an open challenge. I had my coat on and was out the door before the guys behind the car knew what was happening. They took off and hid behind some bushes where they continued to hurl snowballs at me. I had the advantage because I had access to the snow on the cars and pretty soon they had to give up. The whole time, I was talking to them and calling their names out, but I never saw their faces. Finally, they came out. “You win!” they said. But something was terribly wrong. Tidal waves of embarrassment and shame swept over me. I didn’t know these guys. What could I do? My gut instinct told me to throw more snow in their faces and run away before they got a good look at me. Looking back now, I wish I had. But no. I introduced myself, shook both their hands and carried on small talk for another 3 minutes. They seemed a bit dazed and I can see why. They had gotten more than they bargained for when they hit my window. Because of course, they were just hitting random windows never thinking about the impulsive natures that might govern the lives of the people inside. As they walked away, I noticed that one of them had half a snowball stuck to the back of his head. They didn’t lie . . . I had won.  Shame turned to pride almost instantly, but a healthy amount of embarrassment still hovers over me.

On Saturday of that week, I went to Mumbles with three other girls (Heidi Richards, Siusan Buie and Britny West). Mumbles is on the other side of the bay and about 25 minutes away by bus.  It has no historical importance that I know of. It’s just a very pretty little town at the beginning of the Gower.  The Gower is a beautiful stretch of coastline complete with caves and ruins of castles that I have yet to explore.  The most memorable event of the day was probably eating at Joe’s.  Joe serves ice cream. I can’t decide if I’m happy about discovering Joe’s or not… it will be very hard to go back to any other ice cream after this. Joe’s is only found in the Swansea area. His ice cream is by far the best I’ve ever tasted, excepting my grandmother’s custard of course. It’s better than Bop’s, Marble Slab, Cold Stone and even Ben & Jerry’s. I know it’s hard to believe, so if you don’t believe me then I won’t hold it against you. It’s ok. You’re not no account; you’re just ignorant. ß (That is a quote from the Andy Griffith Show, so if it didn’t make any sense, just ask any of my family, Davis Morgan or Bryant Hawkins. I’m sure they’d be happy to explain.)  On Sunday night, I hung out with the British students who go to Mt. Pleasant.  They taught me how to do the Oky-Koky, which is their version of the Hoky-Poky. And because they are British, they of course think that their way is the right way. J

Last Wednesday, I finally went to play Frisbee with the University club team.  They were having a practice. Just for the record, this is only the second time I’ve actually practiced Frisbee. I think it’s a little strange to do Frisbee drills and such but whatever. I was desperate to play.  I was glad when we finally played a game, but I was severely handicapped. The field we played on was little more than a massive mud puddle. Everyone was wearing cleats except for me. All I had were my running shoes.  No cleats = no traction. Therefore, I fell down a lot and ran into people who could stop quicker than I could.

Now for some information that I’m sure you will find extremely amusing. I’m learning a variation of a traditional Irish dance. It’s along the same lines as the Lord of the Dance. Look it up on YouTube. It won’t have the fancy footwork that the dancers in these clips can do, but it’s to the same kind of music and we are dancing in pairs.  There are no guys in the class with us so I have to be one of the gents since I’m taller than most of the girls there.  And here’s the best part:  we are going to be putting on a show with the other dance clubs some time in April! Haha- You know those clips you’ve seen with the girls in black tights and black skirts skipping and prancing around… that’s going to be us! Oh and each pair is going to have matching capes that the instructor will make. We’re going to look legit! Heidi and Suisan are doing this with me. They’re the reason that I’m even doing this at all, but I’m excited about it. I’ve always loved Irish dancing, and when am I ever going to have this opportunity again? I’ll make sure that I take loads of pictures of this so that you all won’t just have to imagine what I will look like. Although, I’m sure that the mental pictures you are seeing right now would work just as well and are probably more comical. J