Cardiff update and trip to English coast!

Things have been great in Wales since my last update!  2 Wednesdays ago we went to Cardiff University's big annual Varsity rugby game at Millenium Stadium.  Every year, Cardiff Uni plays Swansea Uni in every sport, culminating in the rugby game at night.  Cardiff hosted this year and it was a big deal here--tons of Swansea students were here for the day, there was a lot of school spirit, and a crazy atmosphere.

That Saturday, my friend from high school, Katelyn, who is studying in Seville for the semester, arrived--it was great to see her!  She visited until Tuesday and we had a great time just exploring Cardiff.

This past weekend, I went to Salcombe, England with Lauren, Mandi, and Carolyn.  There is a big network of youth hostels throughout the UK (YHA) and when we saw a picture of this hostel, we decided we needed to go.

The picture of the hostel on the website that convinced us to book a trip here.

Salcombe is a beach town in Devon, England.  It is a really really cute town with extremely narrow streets, steep hills, and the quaintest shops.  It was also very very preppy, which we were not expecting--it has the reputation of being where rich Londoners have their second homes.  But the water was bright blue, stunning cliffs topped with farmland surrounded the ocean, and the foliage was unexpectedly tropical (palm trees!!).

Welcome to Salcombe.

We took the train from Cardiff late Saturday morning and made it to Salcombe by that night.  We shopped around the downtown Salcombe, got some delicious pizza for dinner, some famous Salcombe Dairy ice cream for dessert, and went back to our hostel.  We were amazed by this hostel!  It is about 2 miles from the center of town, nestled at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean.  We went for a short hike that night and were in awe of where we were.

Lauren, Mandi, Carolyn, and I.

Entering the hostel, Overbecks.

View out the front door of the hostel.

Sunday morning, we were fed an incredible breakfast at the hostel inside this great dining room that overlooked some beautiful gardens.

View from breakfast 1.

View from breakfast 2.

After a long breakfast, we meandered back to town.  It was such a great walk, offering a lot of beautiful views of the coast.

I want one of those houses.

Lauren and I on South Sands beach.

So tropical looking.

We caught the bus back to Totnes, where our train was departing from to bring us back to Cardiff.  Totnes was a really great town also!  We had a few hours to kill so we enjoyed a relaxed and delicious lunch before heading back.

View from lunch.

This week=lots of preparation for my 3 WEEK SPRING BREAK, which starts this Friday!!!!!

In school news...last week was my last week of physics lab, I turned in my final Welsh assignment, and this is my last week of classes!  1 math paper, 1 physics lab, and 3 final exams are all that I have left for school--and I don't even have to think about those for another month :-)   When we get back from spring break, as if 3 weeks wasn't long enough, we have a "reading week".  So essentially spring break is 4 weeks long.  Then exam period starts...I get my schedule by the end of this week but I will have infinitely longer to study for any of these exams than I ever do at Colgate so I am not worried.  Extremely rigorous Colgate academics are going to be such an unwanted change in the fall...