Across the Pond: Wales!

Apologies on the absolute fail of blogging in the last couple weeks!
Here's an explanation as to why :) ---
The week of March 5th (last week) was my last week of tutorials! Yay! If I failed to mention it before, my Oxford time is split up into two sections: the regular Oxford student phase and the longer classes after term to make up my American Biola credits phase. The permanent Oxford students have 3 terms instead of 2 semesters - Michaelmas Term (Sept.-Dec.), Hilary Term (Jan.-Mar.), and Trinity Term (Apr.-June). So, I just completed Hilary term of tutorials and lectures! Needless to say, Oxford has a bit less students and a bit more tourists.

So, what am I doing for the next four weeks, might you ask? Well, everyday I will be watching an episode of a documentary by Simon Schama (whom all of us students love dearly in a quite teasing sort of way) which is on British history. I will have 2 essays to write on British history from a theological perspective, which will take care of a Bible elective for me. I also have to read 4 historical Christian autobiographies (C.S. Lewis, John Bunyan, etc.), and to top it all off I will be writing a 4,000 word essay which will be taking psychological theory, applying it to literature, and seeing how they compare on the topic of children's grieving processes of death. Oh, and did I mention I get to go on field trips every week to different cities in England? Yay!

So I decided to make a blog post specifically about my spring break last week! WALES. Amazing.

Two of my program leaders, 10 students, and I went on the trip to the Brecon Beacons National Park in Southern Wales. We stayed at a large house in the middle of the countryside, and it was BEAUTIFUL!

My trip consisted of:

- Traveling to Caerphilly Castle, Castle Coch, Chepstow Castle, and Tintern Abbey
- Making and eating a homecooked meal by candlelight every night
- Watching The King's Speech, The Painted Veil, Romeo+Juliet, and How to Train Your Dragon
- Finishing the Hunger Games series - woot! (a nice easy read after 8 weeks of intensity!)
- Playing Bananagrams / Spoons
- Making friends with local sheep
- Hike under a waterfall
- Getting stuck in mud past my ankles. (My Sanuks hate me.)
- Throwing and catching marshmallows in my mouth
- Having lovely quiet times
- Hike up Pen Y Fan, the highest peak in Southern Britain!!!
- Hearing my Australian and British leaders attempt American accents
- See wild horses

All in all, the trip was a success :) Here are some pictures!