So sorry I am behind this week: it's been kind of crazy and homework-filled. But this is a nice long one, so I hope that makes up for it. But first- a favour:

To all of you who actually do read this blog, would you mind giving me some sort of indicator that you are reading? Do you like what I am posting? Is the weekly format working? Do you enjoy the pictures? Give me some feedback here people- I write this thing for you after all J

Moving on:

Monday:boring day, nothing to report. Oh, except that I lost nearly all of my London pictures trying to transfer them onto this stupid thumb drive I bought. Thankfully I had uploaded maybe 75% of them onto facebook/this blog already, so not all is lost. But it still sucks like no other. I am only slightly bitter. Stupid computers.

Tuesday: Our London: Bio walk was really cool today. We toured the "Inns of Court", which is basically a national law school. We also saw Temple Church, which is owned by one of the Inns; if you have read the Da Vinci Code, you know this is where the Knights Templar were formed and worshiped. It is such a cool building, and not just because of the book thing (though that doesn't hurt).

Wednesday: Happy 21st Claire!!

I had a very full day today- class from 10-5. Because our playwriting class only meets on Thursdays, and we left for Wales on Thursday, we had a make up class today. So Shakespeare in the morning; we are moving on from Midsummer and onto Hamlet, so that was something new, but not really as I have done it twice before. But one cool thing about doing Hamlet here is that we get to see a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace). Then we squeezed our playwriting class in before Britain Today, which was cut short because of the longer day. That was fine though because we basically just discussed what we would be seeing in Wales.

Thursday: we got up bright and early to make our 8 am tube to our 9 am train to Newport, Wales. From there we took a coach to Cardiff, the capital city and home of the Welsh Assembly- the Senedd building. The Assembly is kind of like a parliament, but with less power. They make decisions that directly affect the Welsh people; things having to do with schools and education, healthcare, environmental stuff- but leave the heavy stuff to the big wigs up in Westminster. It is expected that a motion to make Wales its own nation will happen between 2010 and 2011.After some time Cardiff, we got back on the coach and headed for Tinturn Abbey, which has got to be one of the most beautiful places we've been so far. I could have spent way more than two hours there. I took a million pictures, so please check them out as well. After Tinturn we drove our hostel, which was, no kidding, in the middle of nowhere. It was nice- clean rooms, decent beds, really good food (they cooked for us!). The worst part of it was that it was 2 miles from the nearest town. Not that that stopped us. Both nights we walked into town to visit the pub, and then two miles back. So that is 8 miles plus all the other walking we did for one weekend. My blisters have blisters my feet hurt so much. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Friday: got up and had breakfast at the hostel before heading to the Big Pit coal mine. Coal was a huge thing in south Wales up until the 1980's. We toured around the mine site and then even got to go down 300 feet underground and explore-- hard-hats and headlights included. It was pretty cool, but 50 minutes down there was more than enough time. At one point our tour guide had us turn off our head lamps—the darkness was suffocating. I was so happy to turn them back on, and it had probably only been about two minutes. After the mine tour we hung out in a little town near our hostel. It had some castle ruins and this really cool old church cemetery that I explored. Ok, that sounds a little morbid, but they had really cool headstones. After that we headed back to the hostel and most of the group took a hike in the woods. I stayed in the common room with my aching, blistered feet, a huge mug of tea and some homework. It was nice. They came back from their walk all wind blown and we played some cards, had dinner and then walked back to the pub again where we played a whole group game of Kings Cup in the back of the pub. It was a fun night.

Saturday: we got up, packed our stuff and headed off to see some really cool Roman ruins. First we ran around this really cool, really big amphitheater. After running around like small children, we went and saw the only visible Roman barracks in Europe, which were cool, but not as cool as the Roman bathhouse we saw next. It had been preserved so well that you could see footprints that were made when laying the foundation and the tile was wet. It was so amazing to be standing in these places that have been around for longer than nearly everything else—kinda hard to wrap your mind around sometimes.

Our next stop was Chepstow Castle. This place was amazing. I could have spent several more hours there. We had lots of fun running around and taking crazy pictures. Then back on the bus to the train station and back to London. It was a very good trip but we were glad to get back to our house, beds, shower and family.

Sunday: mostly a homework day. I tried to go to this Lutheran church I found in London, but the tubes were having all sorts of problems and I missed the firs half of the service. So I walked around my London Ward (for a project for class) again and took some pictures. Then I went grocery shopping (where I found some awesome sweatpants for only 8 pounds! At the grocery store, it was crazy), came home and wrote started to write my paper. Not a bad day.