Wales

Hello Everyone!

So, I recently just came back from our group trip to Wales which was a whirlwind, but before I get to that, I will quickly discuss perhaps the most covered news story: the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull.

Personally, I am grateful that I managed to get here before the volcano, but it isn’t affecting me personally at all, although people have begun to talk about it frequently. For example, at lunch today, the person we ordered from joked that the good weather was due to the volcano. Also, while shopping, the lack of food would be blamed on the lack of supply coming into Britain (I honestly doubt it is the case … yet, but it will be within the next couple of days, especially for fresh fruit which is rotting in places like Africa and Brazil.) However, there is no way I would have noticed something wrong if I didn’t read/watch the news … yet, but between the food and Oxford students who will not be able to come back from abroad for the term which starts next week (8,000 Oxford students are foreign), I would have noticed pretty soon. (Update: one of my tutorial professors has mentioned being caused difficulties by the ash, but I am not sure exactly what by specifically.)

Anyways, for my trip to Wales. We left early Thursday morning by coach to Wales. We first stopped by Tintern Abbey, which is in the next picture. It is situated in a beautiful valley between England in Wales (but actually located on the Wales side of the river.) It was a huge monastery built in the 12^th century. However, its downfall started during the black plague and eventually abandoned when Henry VIII disbanded all monasteries, also taking all of the wealth from them (helped out the treasury a bit.)

Afterwards, we went to Museum of Welsh Life, which was a nice outdoor museum, which the following picture is taken at. The picture is of a field of daffodils, the national wildflower of Wales. We were very lucky to be going around Wales when there are many fields of them all around. Although it hasn’t completely warmed up yet and the trees haven’t grown back their leaves yet, the daffodils signify that it is spring.

One of the things that struck me the most about Wales is the use of Welsh everywhere. The following picture is of a bilingual sign in the capitol of Wales: Cardiff, where we spent the night (and also watched the prime ministerial debate, but more on that interesting debate in the next blog.) As can be seen, all of it is in English and Welsh, as required by Welsh law. For me, Welsh almost seems more difficult to read than Polish, with lots of weird double syllables. In Welsh, Cardiff is actually Caerdydd. Cardiff grew especially as a port for coal in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries to become the designated capitol (even though it didn’t exist when Wales was last independent.)

Right next to the Cardiff shoreline is the building that is supposed to be the new ‘heart’ of Wales, the National Assembly of Wales. It was built in 1997 when in a referendum Wales voted to have its own assembly in order to deal with local issues especially education. They built the assembly with modern technical equipment, like computers, so that voted can be held within 15 seconds, as well as allowing members to message/e-mail each other during session, and so people can go fact-checking other members during discussions. The art in the middle of the floor is supposed to represent the ‘heart of Wales.’

Later we went to Carreg Cennen Castle, which is beautifully perched on a high hill overlooking lots of the surrounding countryside. Here is the castle itself:

We had lots of fun exploring it (and there was even a nice dark cave to explore), but the best view from the castle is in the next picture. However, to see it, one had to climb up some walls, which were probably not the safest walls to climb up on ruins, but worth it for the view.

Friday night we stayed in West Wales along the beautiful coast, as can be seen in the next picture.

Finally, on Saturday we headed back to Oxford stopping of at St. David’s Cathedral and Laugharne Castle (where the next picture is from) on the way back, and had nice plate fish and chips for lunch in Laugharne.

Well, that is about it. The trip was also really great as I got to meet more people in the Stanford Oxford group, something which will be harder here than in Cape Town, especially since the group here is more than twice the size of Cape Town (47 students here.)

So long,
-Andrew