Chroesawa at Cymru

"Welcome to Wales" - the title of this post in Welsh
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267216&id=11832732

Fri: Traveled out from London, realized how big London actually is, not just the city center which I had been exploring before, but the suburbs, etc.. which still count as London. I took pictures of the interesting sights on the way out of the city, including a building with the Sega logo on it - don't know if it was associated with sega, but it seemed cool. It took more than 30 min to get out of the city proper; I don't know exactly how long, but it was 30 minutes to pass Heathrow airport exit from the road.
(Photos 1-14)

Once outside of London, I saw Windsor Castle off in the distance (Photo 15). Then I took a nap for a while; I ended up waking up just before we passed into Wales (although I didn't know it at the time). Once I realized we were in Wales (only a few minutes after we got there), I took a picture of the countryside - you can see lots of sheep in it. From there, the terrain was mostly the same until we got to Swansea, where I saw the sea for the first time. We drove along it for a ways, then passed the University on the way to the student village where I am staying.
(Photo 16-22)

So at this point I have made it to Swansea, and am trying to get settled in - I took pictures of my room, so everyone who wants to know knows what my room looks like (mostly for family, but if I have any stalkers out there, you might be interested in these as well :-)

I attend an orientation on canpus, in which they throw as much information at us as they possibly can, and when it sticks, we are ready - no, that is preparing spagetti. Instead, they give us a lot of information because we don't have enough time for spaced out orientation/instructions, because, surprise, we are registering for classes today instead of Monday like I thought. After enduring a mini-panic attack, I manage to sign up for classes without too much trouble, despite not doing so online. I am taking 2 computer science classes, Computer Graphics I and Modelling Computing Systems. I am also taking a history class, Europe from 1650-1800. It is not one that I had originally looked at, but they were all full, and it still seems like a good option - what's the point of coming to Europe if you don't take a european history class while here, to get a european perspective on european history?

At this point, I discover that I am unable to access the internet here. They have a weird system where you have to use vpn connection instead of just hooking up to the wireless. So my first night there I ride in to the library and try and get help from the IT support desk. Turns out that my issue is not one that they have ever seen before, so after spening an hour or so on it, they tell me to come back when the rest of the staff will be in. I am able to access the internet using a library computer, but that isn't really coinvenient from my room, since I am several miles off campus.

Sat: More internet debuging on my own - I don't think very highly of the IT support desk here, but I am still going to get help. The person they end up directing me to suggests that Service Pack 3 for Windows might be corrupted, or the Windows files themselves. He recomends removing service pack 3, and if that doesn't work, then re-installing Windows, which is kind of hard to do since the installation disk is 3000 miles away. So I try the service pack which doesn't work; I spend the rest of the day troubleshooting it in the computer lab which has internet so I can look up the problems I am getting. I come up with nothing.

Sun: A very bad day on the computing front (at least at the start). I get up, get ready for church, go to the bus stop and discover that on the weekends, the buses don't follow the normal schedule of every 10 minutes. So I give up on church today, and go back to my room to try debuging some more (did I mention I hate debugging). Anyways, as a part of this process, something in Windows gets corrupted so now Windows won't turn on, even in safe-mode. I go into full blown panic, and walk to campus (several miles) so I can try and troubleshoot this problem with a computer with internet access. I should mention that I haven't eaten yet, because I was going to eat a breakfast bar on the bus to church; when I crashed the computer, hunger became the farthest thing from my mind.

I spend all day working on this, and am unable to do anything about it. I eventually give up and walk back to my room, where I try one more time to restart my computer. Although it doesn't work, I catch a glimpse of something in the boot up process that leads me to the "Rescue and Recovery" console provided by the Laptop in hardware. To make a long story short, the Windows disk data is apparently stored somewhere in the hardware, so I am able to 'repair' the corrupted Windows files without losing any data, I jut lose all the programs I had on my computer (which is ok, since I can re-install them and I still have access to my data which was NOT erased). At thius point, whever was wrong in Windows fixed itself, so I now am able to access the internet. In rejoicing, I eat my first and last meal of the day - peanut butter crackers (I brought peanut butter from home), which serve as a comfort food for me.

Mon: First day of classes; one at 10-11AM, computer modelling. I think it will be an easy class, since it seems similar to material I have done before as part of classes at State. Still trying to get settled in, but getting there now. Most of the unpacking is done; I actually have room to unpack as opposed to London, where most of my stuff remained in the suitcases due to lack of space.

Tue: My bad day in terms of classes - I have 3 consectutive hours in a weird pattern. I have class A for one hour, class B for one hour, then class A for one hour. Fortunately, teacher don't teach until the end of the hour, so I have enough time to get from class to class alright. The downside is that I have to eat lunch really early or really late (11-2 is class). It is managable though, so it is not a totally bad schedule. My classes today are Computer Graphics I (the meets twice class) and History. I anticpate that I will enjoy both of them a great deal; they seem interesting.

Weds: Class at 9 (modelling, so I have to get up at 7). This is a very minor complaint, but I don't like waking up before 8 - I don't feel awake if I wake up before 8, no matter how much sleep I got the night before. Modelling goes well, if a bit dull since I have already done this material.

Then I have a break until 1, when I have my graphics class again. This class meets 3 times a week as opposed to the typical 1-2 meetings per week. I believe this is due to the teacher wanting to be done teaching after 7 weeks as opposed to the full semester - don't know what that means in terms of exam schedule yet; whether I take it in 7 weeks or at the 'normal' time.

After class today I went to the chaplaincy for a late 'snack'/lunch, and met a few students. It seems sort of like the BSU at home, except smaller numbers of students show up (Wales/England/UK don't appear to have a very religious college/university aged population).

I then went to the board game club, where I met some people who could become good friends (maybe, assuming I don't scare them off with my weirdness :-) Played the settlers of Cattan for the first time, it was fun although I had never played before.

Thurs: My last day of classes, one at 9-10 (History). We covered "images of war" from Louis XIV to Napolean )(in time, not just France). There was a gradual shift from the depictions oirignially being about the leader to becoming about the troops doing the actual fighting; from glamorized combat to the realistic horrors. It was an interesting class.

After class, I went downtown and bought food for the first time since I have been here. Tescos is sort of like a target or walmart from home; it is a large store that mostly sells food, but also sells other stuff as well.

Fri: Since I had today off from classes, I travelled to downtown Swansea and visited the museams. I started at the Waterfront museum which, despite the name, doesn't have a lot to do with the waterfront; it was more a general museam about Swansea. This was an interesting museum, unlike the Swansea museam, which was really a collection of odds and ends of random things that had very little to do with Swansea, with 2 exceptions. One was a history of the region, going back to the stone age; the other was an exhibit on pottery/china which apparently was a major industy here seversal hundred years ago.

After leaving, I took a look downtown. Lots of shops, which would mean more to me if I was a shopper, not a lot of historical stuff; the one exception being the remains of Swansea castle
(Photos 31-35). It was interesting to look at, but not for much else. I did get a take-away pizza from Pizza Hut so I could have slice or two for lunch tomorrow on the Avebury Stonehenge trip (will be another entry since I took a lot of photos of stonehenge)