UK Trip 2013 - Part 2: Wales 1

(Note: there will be A LOT of photos in this post, and possibly the next few posts. :)

Wales is a really beautiful place. I was really amazed and amused when I saw Welsh words, as I have never seen the language Welsh before. I tried learning some simple Welsh words, but I couldn't remember them... xD

We spent a total of 4 and a half days in Orielton Field Studies Centre. It is a place where students learn stuffs in the areas of biology and geography, through hands-on and outdoor fieldwork. After driving through meandering roads and through a small forest, we arrived before a big, ancient looking and 3-storey building with scaffolding on the outside. The building was surrounded by trees and meadows, with bright yellow buttercups, fluffy balls of dandelions and white little daisies growing everywhere. There was also other wild flowers, including some that I couldn't and still can't name. I was beyond thrilled. (I use this phrase far too often oops) Having lived in cities for so long, the place was like a paradise to me. Have I mentioned that I dream to own a little cottage in the countryside, with wild flowers growing in the front yard, and a backyard that leads into the woods? This place matched my imagination completely. I simply couldn't wait to start taking photos. We got to meet the staffs working there, and we were introduced to our mentor Martha. The interior of the building was really really cool. Vintage and ancient. And I'm in love with the staircase. The building consists of dormitories, toilets, showering rooms, students' common room, a dining room. AND IT HAS A BASEMENT. Okay sorry for being so excited but you don't really find basements in Singapore. Our dorms were on the 3rd floor. And they had no lift (obviously). I had to lug my 22-inch luggage bag up to the 3rd floor. Putting my arm muscles to good use, yanno. I shared a room with 7 other girls. And unfortunately, I got the lower bunk. My head hits the top when I'm sitting down, so every time before I sleep and after I wake up I had to roll out of the bed. Yeah.

Photos below are taken with either iPhone 5 or Canon 650D with the 50mm f1.8 lens or 18-55mm kit lens. Edited in VSCO Cam, Afterlight, Photoshop or unedited at all. I'm too lazy to include that in every photo. :P

The gorgeous staircaseeeee.

The view outside the dorm room window!

Fake fireplace inside the students' common room.

Ceiling of the students' common room.

Students' common room.

The food there was pretty great. All the food supplies come from local farms to support the local economy, which is quite cool. We had an emergency evacuation exercise (which I will skip the details. But it was quite fun because the evacuation route had this cool metal ladder that made me feel like a spy when I walked down it yanno 8D) We had dinner, some free time and then headed off to the stable-turned-classrooms building for introductory lessons. And of course, I took photos at the front meadow during the free time. IT WAS GOLDEN HOUR THEN, AND CAN YOU IMAGINE MY EXCITEMENT. I rolled around on the grass, jumped and even lied down. IT WAS SUCH AN AWESOME TIME SIGHHH.

Dessert! It was yummmmm.

The chandelier in the dining hall.

Meeeeee, taken by Zhang Min. Badly edited, I know.

Photo of Zhang Min, taken by me.

I SUCCEEDED IN DOING THAT STARFISH JUMP! 

Candid shot of me, taken by Juliana. That's a school T-shirt btw...it's not very photogenic :(((

Me, taken by Juliana.

Julianaaaaaa.

DANDELIONNNN. I won't be uploading many flower photos on here. You can find them on my Flickr (link there ->)

The Lalala Buddies, consisting of Juiana, Zhang Min, Yifan and me. :)))

That's how I look like when I'm taking photos...in case you're wondering. I look like a tortoise sigh...

I was fixated.

Quiz time! 10 points for you if you know the name of these flowers! :)))

The classrooms building!

I adore these enchanting little paths. :)

We had lessons on sand dunes and successions, in preparation for the next day's fieldwork. I had never studied sand dunes before, so it was quite a refreshing lesson. The classroom had some pretty fanciful high-tech equipment (a SMART board, according to Juliana), despite its ancient exterior. After the lesson ended, we left the classroom and I got another shock of my life. In Singapore, the sun sets around 7 pm. However, the sky there was still so bright, yet it was already past 9 pm! I had to check my phone repeatedly to convince myself that it was indeed 9 o'clock at night. HOW VERY STRANGE. So based on my geography knowledge (hey, it was a geography/biology trip!), as it was entering Summer in June, the Northern Hemisphere is nearer to the sun. Due to the high latitude where the UK is located, the time where it is facing the sun becomes longer, and hence longer daytime. Which was coooool. Because longer daytime = more things done without feeling tired. Back in SG, my French lessons end around 6.45 pm and every time after the lessons, I would feel so tired because the sun was setting. Hmm...and moreover, you could go home late without your parents being worried, since it is still so bright outside!

However, I could feel the noticeable change in temperature. IT WAS FREEZING. One thing about Wales is that its diurnal temperature range was so wide. I could be perspiring in the afternoon under the hot sun (and even sunburnt...), and shivering at night. So yeah. My friends and I ran/skipped our way back to the main building while shouting "So cold gahhh". The showering place was coooool, and (fortunately) really clean! There were even hairdryers, which were great for the long-haired me. But it was quite scary, because there was a door separating most of the rooms with the showering area. I refused to be alone there so I dragged Juliana with me while I was drying my hair heheheee. After the sun sets, the sky got really dark at around 10 pm pretty quickly. The scheduled sleeping time was at 10.30/11 pm (I can't really remember now...), so we decided to head down to the basement, where the "Students' recreation room" aka Ein Geddie (I think that's the spelling? It was named after a desert or something.) for food/drinks or a friendly game of table tennis and table soccer. The basement was COLDDDD. Thankfully, they had heater inside the room.

I bought instant cup noodles, as instructed by the teachers before the trip. I wasn't really hungry, but just wanted to eat something, so.

The feeling of having warm soup and noodles down your alimentary canal was really good. After eating, my friends and I went upstairs. (WAIT I can't remember which day I ate the noodles...so let's assume that it's the first day. I bought 2 packets anyway.) The main building had WiFi, but I could only connect to it at the first try. The subsequent days, despite numerous attempt, I couldn't connect. Sometimes I think it was iPhone's WiFi prob, since Juliana can even connect to the WiFi on the 3rd floor. Meh. We stayed in the warm and cosy student common room, where I Instagram-ed (as usual), Whatsapped people but there was no reply, since it was 3 am in SG. With a full stomach, I went up to sleep. I had no problem in falling asleep, as I sleep like a piggie.

So yup. That's the adventure of the first day in Wales. And change of plans! I'll have 3 posts for Wales, 1 post for Oxford and 2 posts for London as I have too many things to say and too many photos to upload! :) Stay tuned for the next few posts!

To be continued...

- Elsa

P.S. Apologies in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes! It's late at night and I'm really sleepy...