Easter Break

Hey Everyone!!

Back from my three week break for Easter. I hope you all had beautiful weather for Easter in celebrating the blessed sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour. I didn’t really feel like Easter to me because we were travelling around so much : ( but it was still good.

It was such a blessing to see my parents here in the UK. Still strange though having them visit where I’ve been going to university the entire semester. We somehow managed to navigate ourselves from CRAZY London to Aberystwyth Wales, and back without dying. Ha ha! It wasn’t that bad but then again I wasn’t the one driving. I was, however, able to try driving on the wrong side of the car shifting with my left hand through a parking lot! Cheers DAD!! We had a good time. Edinburgh, Scotland was my favourite City in the UK. Stonehenge...AMAZING!! as well as Lake District, which was beautiful and cold with the snow.

Then there was Amsterdam, Netherlands. Let’s just say it was interesting to say the least. I enjoyed the Van Gogh museum and Volden Park was my favourite part of going there. They had this enormous park with so many people doing everything you can think of but it was mostly people riding bikes (there are bikes EVERYWHERE), playing football (soccer), or socializing with their dog. When I have access to my photos I will show you the massive amount of bicycles they possess in this city. It is ridiculous!

Paris, Paris, Paris...The best decision I made over break was going to that famous decorative city. You know you see and hear and try to imagine what it must be like, but it just blows your away when you finally get to see it with your own eyes. Gorgeous city. It greatly exceeded my expectations. You don’t see the city for its true beauty until you have seen it at night though. We went to all the touristy sights. Notre Dame (“Our Lady”) was my favourite both inside and outside. Eiffel tower was quite incredible as well. I have heard people say that they were a little disappointed when they saw the Eiffel tower, but I think that is ridiculous to say. It is a very impressive work of art.

After all of that travelling I was very happy to be back in Aber. I’m going to miss this place terribly when I leave. God blessed my travel companion and I with allowing us to fly back to the UK a day before the volcano exploded. I went with a boy from Minnesota that I met here at Aber who is also studying abroad for a semester and we travelled to Amsterdam and Paris together. I knew someone who was stuck in Egypt for a few extra days and some assignments were delayed another week as a result of the volcano.

Weather has been clear skies everyday since I have returned but I’m not able to enjoy it because I have three exams to prepare for. So I just hope that the two and a half weeks I have nothing to do the weather will still be lovely for me.
Sorry I know you probably hoping for more but I have a lot of work to complete. One last thing is that I’ve been told that around this time of year it’s quite possible to spot dolphins off the coast. My friend Laurine told me she saw one outside her flat window one day. I plan on witnessing this event because who knows if I will ever get to otherwise.

I will try and include pictures on here soon.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Kelli

Almost Easter!

Hey Ya’ll

I can always count on that phrase to make me sound “American”. Yes, yes I know it’s been awhile since I wrote. Things are chaotic around here. The first part of term is about to end. So I have a few essays and projects I’ve working on.

AHH! Time is going too fast. I can’t believe Easter break starts next weekend. It will be so wonderful to see my parents in person, rather than through the computer screen ;) I will admit it will be weird seeing them here because it’s like my new world. I don’t know it’s hard to explain. I’m getting pretty pumped to travel though. My friend Andrew from Minnesota and I planned our trip to Europe today. It took a while but we got it all booked. We are planning to fly down to Amsterdam, Netherlands for a few days they take a train to Paris where we will be for 5 days. AHH! I can’t believe I’m going to places I’ve only seen in the movies. It will be so cool. When I think about how much I’m spending with traveling I just remind myself that it is much cheaper since I’m already over here in Europe, and I need to take advantage of it. I’m glad to have a companion to travel with. The first week of break he is traveling with his parents like me.

So I need to make some corrections from my last blog. St Michael’s church is actually Anglican. It was pretty similar to the church services I’ve been to in America. I have really gotten a lot out of the teaching her. It is good. The evening church service I took my flat mates to actually ended up being a special service with a Gospel Choir singing. It was good but I don’t think they had ever been to something like that before.

Later that week on Wednesday I took advantage of free welsh lessons at one of the residence halls. It is a very complex language to say the least. I was talking to a professor that speaks some Japanese as well as Welsh and says that Japanese is much easier.

I had the opportunity to visit the University’s Dairy farm this week. It is unsurprisingly similar to the farms in America. Though I did feel like they lacked space for the number of cows they had in each pen but I think it is due to the fact that a long time ago the cows were genetically smaller. Overall they did seem smaller than the cows you see in America.

Last Sunday I went with the girl’s volleyball club to play our final games of the year. We kicked butt again! But on the way to Bristol, England there was a sheep randomly wandering the road. My first thought was “where is Bo peep?” Ha ha! I thought it was pretty funny seeing that. Only in Wales.

The weather here in Aber has been absolutely wonderful. Lots of sun! The temperature is finally catching up with the sun. Unfortunately for Aber it doesn’t do will with lots of sun and little rain for a length of a week. The grass has started looking dead. Apparently it’s a mixture of little rain and cold nights to kill it off. It rained finally today so that’s good.

Tomorrow afternoon, after I work efficiently on some essay material, there is a “Day of Dance” for people who want to learn/practice some godly dancing. I may not end up going because I have a lot to get done. But I think it would worth going to.
So the issue with my camera is finally solved. It was a matter of buying so good quality batteries. So I am able to include some up to date photos what what’s been going on. Enjoy! I can’t guarantee the next time I’ll write since break is beginning soon. I am planning on taking my computer with my on the tour so I may take time to write some updates regarding our travels.

Thanks so much for reading!!! I hope you have enjoyed reading. I should get some sleep so I can be efficient tomorrow.

Love you all!

Kelli Jo

It's been two weeks

Hello my devoted readers!

I’m sorry I’m so behind on writing you. I typically write on Mondays but last Monday just sort of escaped from me somehow. It was and has been beautiful weather this entire week, and it looks as though it may continue this pattern for another few days. It seems like this is quite an unusual pattern for Aberystwyth seeing as how we are so close to the sea. I was looking at the weather in Indiana and it seems like there is going to be warmer weather for you all this week. : )

Well from where I left off last time that following evening I took the opportunity to get better acquainted with the people in my flat. I was attempting to study when I heard music by Taylor swift playing down the hall and my curiosity got the better of my and I went to check it out. Some of the guys were playing guitar hero (which I had only attempted twice in my life) and they challenged me to give it a shot. They had a pretty good laugh at me. Not long after I decided to see if anyone was interested in playing cards. A group of people of 5 or 6 that hang out together a lot showed interest so I taught them the card game “SPOONS!” They absolutely LOVED it! It was the most hilarious thing ever.

~for those that aren’t familiar with the game you can only have four cards in your hand at a time, someone has the excess cards in the deck and passes them around the circle. There are a pile of spoons in the middle, one less than the number of people playing. The objective is to get four of a kind with the card (4-jacks, 4-3’s). Once the first person gets four of a kind they can take a spoon. Once they do then anyone can, and you don’t want to be the one left without a spoon. ~

It’s great fun, and one of my favorite card games. One of the girls next to me was majorly into the game. If I would pass a card that I didn’t realize I wanted till I put it down she would not let me take it back up. She cracked me up. She calls herself the “Queen of Spoons” because she won the first round of the game. We’ve played it a couple times since then groups. We had to start using metal spoons because we were too violent with the plastic ones.

That following Saturday night a group of us decided to play games out side with a “Netball” (similar to basketball). I taught them another American game… “Spud”. I won’t go into how this game is played because it’s not as much fun as spoons. We couldn’t play it for very long because I had rained that day and there wasn’t a lot of open area to play. So we ended up playing form of “netball” (I think they called it “zone” or something) with out a net to shoot at. That was pretty fun because you don’t dribble the ball; you just throw it to your team mates without letting it hit the ground.

The next morning my new friend Geddy, and I, who I met through volleyball, walked to meet the van that was leaving for Bristol, England for the girls volleyball matches. We had a great day as far as the matches went. We won against the two teams we played. I played as setter which I’m improving my skill on. I’m not the greatest, but I love it. Our team worked really well together. All the girls but one had played competitively. I felt bad for the sixth girl that played. It was her first time ever playing. She’s really a rugby player. She didn’t do too bad. I thought it was pretty decent for her first time. The ride home didn’t start out that great thought because even though I went the bathroom before we left I had to go again not long after we left again. Not only was this annoying cause we had to stop but it was a Sunday so pretty much every store/restaurant was closed. At last there was a place we stopped that had a sign for toilets leading back behind the store. It was the most ghetto toilet ever because it had no toilet paper and the sink didn’t even work. But I didn’t care I was happy, and I didn’t feel so bad because the two other people had to go as well. I learned my lesson about Sundays though. That’s one thing that is definitely different from America is that everything pretty much closes here on Sunday.

On Monday I invited a few of my American friends up to Penbryn to share a meal with me at the dining hall and to see my new living arrangements. That was fun. It’s weird not seeing them as much as I used to. I had bought a map of the world earlier that day, for wall decoration and because I’ve always wanted one. So we spent some time looking at that. It’s pretty much vital to have one I think since I’ve been meeting people from all over the world. I feel it’s important to know the actual location of their country.

The people I’ve been hanging out with the most lately are Geddy, Lucian, and Hoofe (last name). They live in Penbryn Hall also but in a larger block which is all guys. They go lift weights just about everyday. They have been good motivation for me to get in shape. It’s quite interesting though because the gym has one weight room that’s fairly small and I’m the only girl I’ve ever seen in there. Ha ha! It’s been a while since I’ve lifted so I’m getting back in the grove of that, but it’s even more confusing now since everything is in kilograms and not pounds. I was weighing myself at the gym last night with one of the manual scales where you have to move the levers, and it was weighing me in “stones”! Apparently 1 “stone” is equal to 14 pounds. That was pretty strange.

Geddy and Hoofe are from England and knew each other before coming to Aberystwyth, and they met Lucian just this year who is from Wales. It is crazy how much they pick on one another. Some times I think they don’t really even like each other with what they say but I guess it’s like a brotherly love. There’s another guy they lifts weights with us that is from England but central England, and it is SO difficult for me to understand him. I feel bad/retarded because they all talk faster to each other and kind of mumble so I often miss what they say which may not be a bad thing at times. I got them to finally talk with an American accent. It makes sense to me now why they find it so hilarious when I try talking like them because they sound ridiculous as well.

So on Thursday evening I ventured down to Pantycelyn, where I used to live, to attend the Welsh Christian Union Bible Study. I had met a few of them the week previous and they encouraged me to come. There was a girl, Bethan that was willing to interpret for me. It was a pretty cool experience. She interpreted everything but the prayers and the songs because some of them were just Welsh hymns that didn’t really have interpretation. There was one song that I new fairly well that I sang in English. Bethan encouraged me to sing, she said “it’s just like how it will be in Heaven, everyone singing in their own language”. It excites me at the thought of that. I was glad that I went. Tonight there is a welsh service that is meeting that they invited me to and they are serving broth? I can’t remember the term in Welsh. I will probably check that out.

Today I help referee some volleyball games on campus. It wasn’t competitive playing at all which was ok since I am just learning to referee. It was pretty funny at how they played thought. Some of the girls were futbol/soccer players and were pretty much head butting and kicking it the entire time. That was strange.

I’m going to a Church called St Michael’s tomorrow, I’m pretty sure it is Methodist, and I’m being accompanied by a couple people in my block. It was really a God thing how it all happened. I was getting ready to go to bed Thursday night when I met a girl from the floor above me named Claire. She was interested in where I was from so I showed her on the map in my room where it was. She must have noticed my Bible sitting on my desk because about 5 minutes later she comes into my room and asks me if I go to church anywhere, and that she has been wanting to but doesn’t have anyone to go with. So her and Harry from my hall are going with me to an evening service tomorrow. It’s pretty exciting to see how God’s drawn her to seek him. I will probably see if they want to study some scriptures with me.

Well I best be off. Time is really flying by. I will miss it immensely when I leave. God has been teaching me so much here. It’s truly exciting to see him at work in my life and in others.

Sorry no pictures. My camera hasn’t been working coincidentally.

Love you all! Cheers!

Kelli

Lots of Walking

Another week has come and gone. My mother reminded me that there are only 5 weeks till her and my father will be in the same country as me once again. I am excited for them to come see the beautiful country I have fallen in love with.

Last week contained a lot of work and a lot of fun as well. I had my first of two presentations for my Seminar Topics class. It went alright, but it showed how challenged I will be in that class, which will be good for me. This is one of my favorite classes because it forces us as students to retain pretty much EVERYTHING we’ve learned thus far in your life and apply it. I’ve met some people that are pretty knowledgeable in several areas of study.

After the class I was having a conversation with a couple people from that class. We were having a conversation about conservation of our planet when the subject quickly switched to Christianity by my professor for that class who suddenly appeared out of no where. Apparently from some of the comments I had made in our class discussion he had an inkling that I was a Christian, and decided to probe around and find out. He is not a Christian, but of course he has his own ideas on things. Needless to say I spent the next couple of hours trying to explain my views on things from a Christian perspective, and was able to explain the Gospel to a couple of people. While it all could have been very frustrating I know God will use all that was said for His glory. However, if you could pray for me, my professor, and for the individuals I talked with that would be greatly appreciated. I know God is already working and preparing a way for me. So many people here have so much “earthly” knowledge that it hinders them from knowing and accepting God’s truth.

Friday I got to play my favorite sport…Volleyball!! They have a club here that meets a few times a week and has matches on the weekends. I am for sure joining this club. There are a few other girls that are international students who are joining as well. We all seem pretty compatible in our experienced so that makes playing fun. After that ended my new friend from Moldova and I went to check out the “Dance Sport” club. It’s pretty much a ball dancing class, which I’ve always wanted to learn. I’m still considering whether I should join this club or not. It was a lot of fun though. I learned how to dance the Quickstep and the Jive. I couldn’t believe I was finally learning some ball dance moves. It’s sort of difficult to participate though because I don’t have the proper shoes. We’ll see what happens ;)

Saturday was a LONG day. Laurine, my friend from France, had never had an “English Breakfast” before so she invited some other international students to join her and then go on a hike after. Of course I wanted to be there to witness this new experience so a few of us met at 11AM at “Lord Beechings” (a restaurant/ pub). The only people who responded were me, Nuria (a girl from Barcelona), and Paulina (a girl from Poland). Only Paulina and Laurine “took an English Breakfast” but we had a lot of fun. It was a huge breakfast consisting of a fried egg, two pieces of toast, one HUGE sausage, two slices of bacon, a hash brown, two mushrooms(Paulina seemed quite appalled at how soaked in grease these were), a load of baked beans (yuck), and half a tomato. It was huge to say the least. I’ve included the picture as proof : ) It still amazes me that they eat baked beans for their breakfast here, but I love their bacon. It’s a larger cut of meat compared to America, and is better prepared.

After their feast Paulina went home to recuperate and Laurine, Nuria, and I set off on our 3.5-4 hour walk. Yeah, it was long. I’ve included some pictures of that as well. I kept Laurine pretty entertained by falling down randomly. It had snowed the past couple days so it was slippery in places. We had a splendid time trekking through sheep pastures trying to find a suitable way home. I had to take an hour nap after we got back around 4:30 or so before I could do anything else.

Then yesterday, of course, I had signed up to go on my first official walk with the walking club on Sunday (not the smartest idea). It went alright, but I’ve determined that I will save more money by doing my walking around here on the weekends, which I already do plenty of. On the drive to where we walked which was called “Elan Valley” I got motion sickness for the first time in a LONG time. Since there are so many hills here the roads just wind all around them. So we just kept moving left and right and back and forth. Not fun. While on the walking trip, however, I think we finally determined why the British drive on the opposite side of the road from the majority of the world. I say majority because Australia is different as well. The theory is that in the medieval times the knights carried their javelins under their right arm to fight their opponents in battle; the same idea with sword fighting. Since the majority of people are right handed it is thought that is easier to protect oneself by keeping to the left side. And of course it can be thought that America did the opposite just to be that much more independent from their mother country. Ha ha... I thought it was pretty fascinating.

I’m slowly becoming better acquainted with the people in my hall. I met a few more people for first time today. There are a total of 16 of us in the hall (8 guys, 8 girls). They are all in their first year so their ages range from 18-20. I’m sure I’ll, as I somehow instinctively do, take a motherly role among them, but not to any extreme ; )

It has been beautiful weather the past couple days. Some how I don’t think it will last for too long once spring arrives so I’m enjoying it as much as I can.

Have a splendid week!

Kelli

"Knifoons" among other things

Hello again to all my faithful readers. Much has happened, of course, since I blogged last. : ) I was unable to attend the walk that I told you about that Sunday, because I became sick the night before. My throat started hurting a few days before Sunday and just grew steadily worse. Saturday the 6th Laurine and I successfully made it up the hill to Pen Dinas where the Duke of Wellington’s monument was standing proud and strong. According to Wikipedia the 1st Duke of Wellington was Arthur Wellesley, who was a leading military and political figure of the nineteenth century for the British Army. So pretty much he’s a big deal. They name their rubber work boot after him by calling the “wellies” or something of that nature. Ha ha! On our way down from the hill I was able to have my closest encounter yet with some sheep. They made no response when I “baaaa”ed at them but then I made kissing noise at them and several of them looked intently in my direction. It was quite funny and interesting.

That evening a few of my fellow Americans and I decided to experience our first BIG rugby match in a pub. I still don’t quite understand the sport but I like it because there were NO, zip, zero, commercials throughout the entire 1.5 hr match! The game was quite dramatic though because it was England vs. Wales. There was a fair mix of both in the pub we were in. I had a friend telling me earlier that he noticed that whenever there was an individual blatantly sporting a jersey for England they were in groups. As if they would be mobbed or something if they were walking alone.

After the rugby match, whom England won 30-17, I could really tell I was starting to get sick. Unfortunately I wasn’t being all that careful about where I was placing my head, and had been laying on my friend’s pillow. Wouldn’t you know she ended up getting sick a few days later, as did my other friend. Though he thought it would be funny to make a facebook group out of it, because he just does that sort of thing. So there is currently a group on facebook called “Kelli Kuehnert is an illness spreading machine”. There are four current members including me. Only one of them has yet to catch the virus. :S What can I say? They are still talking to me so they must not hate me all that much.

Second week of classes were swell. God has really helped me keep my focus and overcome the cold quickly. I am enjoying the majority of my classes. Two of my lectures are taught by the same Professor who is, unfortunately, rather slow speaking and slightly monotone. One aspect of this school that I am particularly fond of is the time of socializing in between classes. There is a lounge area filled with both Professors and students sipping on tea and coffee and munching on biscuits and cakes (not stereotypical at all ;)). I just LOVE the atmosphere of being able to converse with the Professors in such an informal manner. It is how a University should be.

Now for my section of new interesting words and phrases that I have learned. There is an interesting eating utensil that they have here than can not be found in America. You are familiar with the “spork” I assume, which is a spoon and a fork combined. Well here they have chosen to combine and a spoon and a knife, which I like to call a “knifoon” : )…It’s not the most effective tool I’ve used to say the least. I’ve used it on several occasions to eat cereal, and have found it to be quite challenging. The spoon portion of the knifoon isn’t very wide so you have to scoop the food very carefully so it makes it to the mouth. LOL! It’s quite a task.

I was in a conversation with a girl in one of my classes and she was telling how she dated a “Yankee” once. It caught my interest so I asked her why she specifically called him a “Yankee” and not a “Confederate” ;). She went on to explain that it is pretty much like how Americans call British people “Brits”. I can’t say I have ever used the term, but have heard it none the less. In the same class my professor made a rather clever comment that everyone but me seemed to laugh at. That was basically for the fact that he said it really fast, but he mentioned something about “posh girls”, which I did catch. Apparently it’s another term for girls who are in the middle class. His phrase was a long the lines of “horses are an unnecessary entertainment for posh girls”. It would make a lot more sense if you had been in the discussion and knew the context.

Later on that week Laurine (my friend from France) and I had quite an entertaining conversation with her trying to teach me how to properly count in French. I’m having the most trouble with the number four which is quarte. To pronounce it properly it has a strange throat clearing noise that you have to make at just the right moment which sounds ridiculous when I say it. I asked her what her favorite word in French was. Surprisingly it didn’t take her long to mutter “pamplemousse”, which is “grapefruit”. That word I seem to do ok at pronouncing.

Valentine’s Day was just another day for the most part. However, that evening I did a little bit of rock skipping and enjoyed a group dinner with several international students. We had people from Czech Republic, Moldova, England, India, Pittsburgh, Montana, Alabama, and Indiana! It was an excellent meal for a group of college students, and had wonderful conversations. Probably one of the most memorable Valentine’s days I’ve ever had.

Today I moved from my residence of Panycelyn to Penbryn, which is just up the hill. There are several reasons which I won’t go into, but I think I will like it up here. My hall mates are very friendly and much noisier than I care for but you can’t get everything you want. With moving a change of address is in need. So please refrain from using the old one please you intend to send me anything, though I hope you won’t spend the money on me.

Room 318
Block 3
Rendel Hall
Penglias
Aberystwyth Wales
SY23 3UU

Till next time have a wonderful day!

Cheers!

Kelli Kuehnert

To all my Fans! ;)

I’m finally settled in my new room (I’ll include my address below). It is lovely and small, to put it in British terms. There are already certain words that I say that are slightly British. My favorite so far is “Cheers”. They use this term to mostly mean “Thanks”. It’s so much fun to say especially in a British accent. Ha ha!

I’m having such a splendid time here. This past Sunday I attended a Baptist church in town, approximately 15 minute walk. Aberystwyth, like any other city in the world, have several churches available in Welsh or English each one with their unique wonderful architecture. While this Baptist church was much more traditional than what I’m used to I’m really glad that I went, because I was able to meet a couple of other girls from America. One of them was unfortunately leaving that next day for America, but the other is a girl named Winnie from Kenya who has already been a blessing from God. While she is from Kenya she’s been in the states for several years now in Wisconsin. I also made a new British friend Nicola from England, at the church, that I spent the rest of my Sunday with. We went and ate a “bacon roll” for lunch, which is pretty much really excellent ham on really tasty bread. It was a decent size sandwich for 2 pounds. To drink I had a drink called “squash” that was flavored black current. I could have had it in black current or orange so I took a chance and it was GREAT! Instead of grape flavor or grape jelly they have black current, another sort of berry. I do much prefer it which is good since I have to have my “peanut butter and black current sandwiches” to live off of now. He he. After the delicious lunch Nicola went exploring with me on a walk to find the fastest walking route to my campus far away. It turns out that it only takes about 20 minutes to get there. So that is the route I’ve been taking. Unfortunately on the route I have to overcome the “Cardiac Hill” which has a 25% slant. I’m not sure why they put it in percents, but all I know is that it means it is STEEP!! I wish there was a way to put pictures on my blog because I would show you a picture but that couldn’t do it justice. Today was the first time I attempted to go up the hill. Thankfully I didn’t have a cardiac arrest! It’s so steep, however, that it seems easier to run it until I get tired, since I’m still out of shape, but I’m not even sure my amazing running sister could run all the way up that hill without stopping ; ) I was quite proud of my self for taking the trek twice today.

Back to church though. From the people there I found out about the Christian organization they have here called the “Christian Union”. They had a meeting tonight (Friday), and I think I will enjoy it. There are a lot of really cool people in the organization. They have a very large following of about 80 to 100 students. I praise God for guiding me to the right people. I have already made some good friendships and I am excited to see how I can challenge them in their walk with Christ and vice versa.

One of the friendships that I’ve made that I’m most excited about is with a girl from France named Laurine. She is a lovely girl who is my age but is a post graduate already. I met her through the international orientation last week. We have a couple classes (modules they call them here) together so we’ve had a chance to get to know one another. She is still improving here English so it is HILARIOUS some of the conversations we have. Today for example she asked if I had any “shwegum”. It wasn’t till after the third time of repeating the word that she just chopped her teeth to demonstrate “CHEWING GUM!!” HA HA! It was a good laugh. She seems grateful for me since I’m patient with her and talk slowly for her when she needs it. Tomorrow we have already planned a walking adventure so I am quite excited for that. There is the most random tower, that looks quite ancient, on top of one of the hills here. I’m quite anxious to see it up close and find out the story behind it.

Sunday I will also be getting my exercise with the Walking Club that I joined on Thursday. We will be traveling about a half hour away to the location where we will be going. We leave at 9:30 AM and wont return till 5PM or so. Ya, I was pretty surprised. So if I’m not too exhausted I will try and make it to an evening church service. Apparently there are three different groups for the walking club the easy, medium, and hard groups. I’m still debating which I should start out in. I don’t want to over do it right off the bat.

Tonight it is pretty quite in my hall. There are four other girls in my hall and they have all gone off for the weekend to celebrate one of the girl’s birthdays. They are all “first years” or “freshman”, all at the age of 18 or 19. I will also mention that the drinking age here is 18 so you can imagine it getting a little exciting around here. I can’t complain they did warn me before I moved in that they get loud. Thankfully it has never been when I need to go to sleep. It really hasn’t been that bad. They are all sweet sweet girls and I am anxious to get to know them all better. Last night they were all getting dressed for a party at the Union. They looked pretty hilarious and matched quite well might I add. They came and knocked on the door asking if they were being too loud, then they all came into my room to see what I had done with it since I had moved in. They all ended up meeting my mother who was chatting with me on skype at the time. It was quite an event, and I enjoyed it immensely.

My modules seem to be alright. All the professors are very approachable and nice. They actually seem to prefer you to call them by their first name which is still very awkward for me to do.

Well I gave you a lot of information on this Blog. I hope I didn’t ramble too much. Feel free to comment and ask any questions. I would love to read them.


CHEERS!

Kelli Kuehnert

First Day at the Uni

So I finally made it to Aberystwyth yesterday at 3:30PM. The flight was long but the "tube" (round train that can go underground), and train was even longer. Unfortunately the plane was a pain to sleep on (literally); fortunately I was able to sleep most of the 5 hour train ride to Aberystwyth. Before I go any further I must correct myself on the pronunciation of the school. It is pronounced Aber-ist-with. After hearing it about 100 times today I think I nearly have it down. J It is a beautiful place here. EVERYTHING is on a hill. It’s of course steeper at other parts that some. I live in a residence hall that consists of people that speak Welsh and English. I was originally placed in an area that had only guys living in it so naturally they are going to move me to the girl’s area. So I’m temporarily in one of their vacant handicapped rooms till Monday when I will move. One really interesting fact about the residence halls is that they have a sink in a smaller closet for who knows what. I thought that was pretty random. They are really small sinks though. Everyone has their own separate rooms which I was surprised at. Orientation was most of the day today. I’ve made pretty good friends with several of other students studying over here from North America. I say North America because there are several girls from Canada studying here. It was a pretty fun day. The town here is pretty small and lively. There seems to be several things to keep busy with. I’m going to look into the walking club that I think meets next week.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to try and figure out the bus system. The Campus I will be taking my classes at isn’t on the main part of campus and would take 30 to 40 minutes easy to get there. I will definitely take walking trips there but since I have no idea the path I should take I’m doing via bus. They have a lot of horse stables there so I’m going to look into getting some more experience with horse management.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read. I’m sorry I didn’t write much. I’m still a bit jet lagged from the trip. Hope all is well where ever you might be.

Love,

Kelli