Quiz Night and Scholarly Presentations

There will be more photos and videos soon - but for now, you are stuck with my typing. SO! This week I started out by attending the Rotary Quiz evening hosted by the Mumbles club, with the competitors being themselves, Carmarthen Twyi, and Swansea Bay. The 9 rounds were intense, and the topics were varied and interesting. Carmarthen Twyi won the night, albeit narrowly, and the evening certainly was entertaining!

On Tuesday evening Gwenda drove myself and Laura down to Port Talbot, where we met with two other Ambassadorial Scholars, Emily (Brisbane, Australia - Cardiff) and Andrea (Munich, Germany - Cardiff) to present to the Rotary Club of Port Talbot. Gareth and Jan were there also, although I really didn't find enough time to catch up with everyone as well as talking to the many interesting people there! Laura and I had prepared a joint presentation, which I found flowed nicely and I really enjoyed being a part of Laura's story of her family and background. The other scholars provided invaluable insight into their family lives, country's, and backgrounds - I would love to see some other presentations because although I have met and befriended both Emily and Andrea before, it was fantastic hearing about what they wanted to share. If any of you Rotarians out there have the opportunity to see any of these girls speak, I can highly recommend it - and I'm sure the 5th 1150 Ambassadorial Scholar Wendy Swain in Aberystwyth is equally as captivating.

Tomorrow I am heading to Pembroke to some lectures relevant to the oil and energy industry - I am particularly excited as my father worked on a few of the oil refineries and chemical plants in Pembrokeshire about 25-30 years ago, so it will be great to see the area. I'm sure I will enjoy it!

The Most Lovely Club of Swansea St Mary's...

Last night I gave my presentation to The Rotary Club of Swansea St Mary's, at Sketty Hall. Several members of the Mumbles club were there too - Because I have been to several events so far, I am starting to see Rotarians I have already met, which is great! As usual with Rotarians, Liz Jones (Pres. Elect Swansea Bay) and I were made to feel most welcome, and I had the pleasure of sitting at the top table. After my presentation, a Foundation representative went through what the Ambassadorial Scholarship was about - something I was very grateful for, as it is one of the several things that just don't fit into the short space I have for presenting. There is a link on the right hand side of the page here ------> that should take you to the RI page on Ambassadorial Scholarships, which is a useful source of information on what I am meant to be doing this year! Anyway, back to the meeting last night - the Foundation member had been reading my blog (hello!), and had read that I need more photos to put on my walls, and that I miss Fresian cows... apparently there are lots here, I just haven't seen any! I was then presented with an A4 print out of a fresian dairy cow to pin on my wall! It was wonderful to be received with such thoughtfulness, as well as humour! Thank you Swansea St Mary's!

I would also like to mention that a week or so ago I spoke to the Rotary Club of Llanelli, but I unfortunately didn't blog about it afterwards. It too, was an enjoyable evening for me, accompanied by Mair, Gwenda, Liz Jones, Bryan, Mike, and Anne Bowen all from Swansea Bay. I do like being asked questions about my own country and culture, and I am learning more about it myself when I have to come home and google the answers to the questions I didn't know! Again, thank you Llanelli for hosting us for the evening, I hope you found my presentation interesting!

For those that like to read,,,

Here is an excerpt from my personal blog - if you would like to know how I am personally finding the trip abroad as a whole.


The Truth about Life in Wales...

It's epic. My life in Wales is pretty exciting, if anyone gets the chance to go overseas I would say take it with both hands. In saying that, I would really recommend making sure you are at the right place in your life when you leave NZ though... I am fortunate enough to have the last 6 and a half years of my life consist of 2 terribly homesick years, 1 party year, 3 emotionally draining years at uni, and 8 months of getting used to the idea I would soon be 20,000 kms away from anyone i knew. So I was ready!

Obviously when I first got to the UK I was jetlagged, so didn't really know up from down (I was going to say left from right, but I get those confused 95% of the time jet lag or no jet lag). I switched into business mode straight away, and was really calm finding my way around heathrow airport. Except the ONE internet cafe they had was broken! I had to call my Papa at 5am NZ time to get him to log in to my email to get a reference code it turned out I didn't even need! Anyway, thanks daddy :D The next day, in Reading, I explored like a good tourist would. I took heaps of photos, because in my jetlagged state I couldn't decide what was good and what wasn't. The first 4 days in Swansea I was with Mair, the Rotary President of my club here. Anything she suggested, I just said yes to. I gave a 30 minute presentation to the club, but luckily it was about myself so I could wing it with the help of the slideshow I made. That weekend I was in the halls, but there was no one around. I went on a trip to the national botanical gardens of wales, not because I desperately wanted to see them, but because it was free and something to do. About this time I was ready to meet people and get into it!

Since then, I have joined the student radio station, the engineering society, been to leicester, mumbles, torquay, llanelli, have gotten books out of both the public library and the university library, been shopping several times, and am hoping to join the volleyball team. It is safe to say I am pretty much into it all over here. My best friends here are a pre-dental from Iowa, America, and an international development/politics from the Netherlands (that's Laura and Elise if you hear me talking about them again). I have met some other really cool people here as well, but not everyone can expect a shout out can they? Yesterday I spoke to my University supervisor, and I'm going to start experiments late next week. On Monday I move into my office in the Engineering department - I share it with 2 others, and our names are on the wall outside the door! I have my own key to that and the labs, as well as after-hours access to the building. Am I grown up or what?!

Rotary is going well too, I have already done 5 of my 10-15 activities for the year - 2 presentations and 3 visits (Scholar conference in Leicester, District conference in Torquay, the Swansea Coastguard with the Group Study Exchange (GSE) team from Adelaide, Australia), plus I have another 4 or so booked. My host counsellor here is amazing - her name is Gwenda and she works way too hard. She is a specialist nurse, and she is absolutely fabulous to have looking out for me. I also have the scholarship co-ordinator for the district, Gareth and his wife Jan, who are just so hospitable and fantastic to have around. Laura is another ambassadorial scholar - next week we are doing a joint presentation and we've decided to speak back and forth as opposed to one after the other - so I'll let you know how NZ stacks up next to America!

For Christmas I don't know what I am going to do yet - Elise is having a Christmas party in Swansea on xmas day, and i've been invited various other places with other people too (Mum and Dad's friends in Haverfordwest, Gwenda's family in Aberystwyth, London with another friend)... Elise and I are quite keen to head to either Ireland or Scotland for a few days over the xmas time, so that might happen too. I'm obviously not loaded with money at the moment, studying in a foreign country is not the lightest on the pocket :-) ... so I must choose my travels carefully! I'm pretty much just trying to meet people from different areas of the UK so I can stay with them! The scholar conference was pretty good for that, and a guy from London is here this weekend visiting Laura and I. Mainly Laura, as I am here typing this. But I will be on the d-floor tonight, I promise! The district conference meant we got to meet Emily, a scholar from Australia studying in Cardiff (capital of Wales for those of you that aren't good at Geography). Laura and I are really keen to head over to see her - even though Cardiff is right there we haven't been yet!

Living in the halls is pretty lame, but in the mornings I open my curtains and if the sun is shining it is a beautiful view out over the ocean. No kidding - it really is amazing here! I knew I would feel a bit trapped moving into the halls, but there are so many positives about it it's working out fine. I have my own ensuite, a beautiful sea view, all the furniture was here already, and I am right there on campus. I have lots of photos of my best friend Stella and myself on my walls, - need to figure out where I can print some photos off of all you other people I miss. I do miss you all, and I miss New Zealand too - I miss the fresian dairy cows, I miss the rangi-ness of NZ, the kiwi party scene. I've been really getting into Katchafire, the Black Seeds, and Fast Crew. I can't wait to go camping here, and see if it is like camping in NZ.

So I'm sorry to say to all you Kiwis - I truly love it here. Start planning your rendevous 's with me for Summer 2010/11, because I think I will be back in the UK fairly soon after that...

Rotary Update! 15th October 2009

LINK Weekend in Leicester 25-27th September 2009

National Botanical Gardens of Wales

The first of the Video Catch ups!!

Getting to Wales....