Time Flying

Hiya!

So the hot water was off for a total of 6 and a half days... I am glad I've done a lot of camping over the years, as I coped with the cold showers a lot better than some of my flatmates! I know I keep promising, but I do have a video in the works, including:

• My last hike with the University Hiking Club, to Neath Valley
• A few days in Haverfordwest
• Presentation to the RC of Haverfordwest
• Presentation to the RC of Neath
• Other photos

But for now, I would just like to express my agitation at the fact that humans have not yet discovered a device that can travel through time and space. My previous homesickness has been swept under the rug as I realize that I will be out of Wales in less than a mere four months. I know I will be back here, and still involved with Rotary, but it is difficult to say goodbye to my scholarship year. My good friend Laura Edwards left a few weeks ago, and luckily she understood that I didn't want to get into the farewell frame of mind, and I managed to play the whole thing down. Sooner or later I'm going to send her the goodbye card she deserves, and I think it will start to hit home for me then. The relationships I have made this year have been amazing. Flatmates from all over Europe, local and English colleagues, Middle Eastern office mates, not to mention the wonderful array of people I've met through Rotary. I've been surprised... I knew learning about other cultures would be interesting, but I must admit I never thought I would fit in with a group of entirely another culture. I was clearly wrong, as I currently (and quite happily) spend the majority of my time with a group of friends from Syria, Kuwait, Palestine, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia - they are trying to teach me Arabic but I am utterly useless at it!

Aside from that, it is going to be tough saying goodbye to the RC of Swansea Bay, and each of the distinctive characters I have grown to love over the past 9 months. I hope I will be back here, as a prospective member early next year, but it really does depend where I get a job. Never the less, they have instilled in me a passion for Rotary, and I know I can always call on them for guidance, advice, or just plain friendship.

Enough of the sad talk! Four months! My plan to finish my Masters is thus: my best friend arrives on the 20th July for a 3 week holiday with me in London, Swansea, Macclesfield, and Scotland. I hope to have my literature review and materials & methods chapters finished before she arrives, no mean feat, but a good goal to aim for. This leaves most of August for experiments and data analysis, and September for writing the results/discussion part of my thesis. I'm heading for a 30th September hand in, and trying to book the viva in the week 11th-15th October. So far so good, although I know it's only going to get crazier! 30th September is my official end of course date, so the appropriate amount of time for an MPhil. However, most people overrun, so I will do well to get it in on time. From the 30th September to my viva date I'm hoping to make my first visit to France - just a few days in rural Limousin, bit of a taster really. Depending on the timeline, I might hang out with family friends in Haverfordwest waiting for my viva. After the viva I'm sure there will be corrections to make, so I will spend a few days in Swansea doing that before binding my final thesis and jetting back to New Zealand.

It's do-able!

It's May already??

Hello Kiwi Rotarians, Welsh Rotarians, and anyone else having a gander on this page! Have a video planned soonish for photos etc, but in the meantime thought I would just have a regular old blog post for you.

I checked the date today, and was shocked to see it was May already - I have now been living in Wales for just under 8 months, and the odd homesickness pang aside, I truly feel as though I have experienced but a taster of what the UK has to offer. Last week I was saying to my parents that I couldn't afford (in time or money) to do any more traveling aside from the 2 week trip I have planned to Scotland in July, and they came back with "that's fine, we're surprised at how much you've seen already!"... How much I've seen?!! Nothing! I haven't even seen everything in Swansea let alone in the UK! Sure signs I must return... I have set myself some University goals with a reward of 4-5 days spent in the middle of France at the end of my stay here, so I'm working hard to be able to go to the land of Baguettes, Croissants, and Jacques Cousteau. I'm beginning to feel the familiar pinch in the base of my stomach as I become more and more aware of exactly how much University work I have to get done, and how little time to do it in - a very unpleasant sensation but one that seems to bring out high levels of productivity in me! I am proud to say I have really been working hard in the lab and trying (operative word "trying") to write decent sections of my literature review. I'm worried! But if you ask my folks they would definitely say I'm overreacting, and everything will be fine - take your pick on who is right!

Anyway, being here for the last 8 months has been totally surreal - it has gone so fast, too fast! I have fully immersed myself into not only the Welsh culture, but Rotary. I remember back in mid 2008 when Dale Jack of Hamilton East told me I had got the Scholarship, and even amongst the shock I still remember thinking "this Scholarship was made for me. This is my Scholarship". And it really has been - instead of being just a way to study in another country, or a way to experience the culture of another country, it has also been my discovery of Rotary - an organisation that I hope to be involved with for the rest of my life. Rotary gives me the opportunities to bring out the best in my personality, and this has played a huge part in my personal development, which in turn has allowed me to really make the most of my experiences here in the UK. I couldn't have asked for a better scholarship, or a better host club to share my year abroad with!

On that note, I'm going to head back to doing some work, the Undergraduates are coming to the end of their year and soon I will say goodbye to Laura, my fellow Rotary Scholar in Swansea. This makes me really aware of the short 5 months I have remaining! Gotta make the most of it!

PS: Came across this article today about the trip the Swansea Bay club took to Brussels a few months ago. Nice to see!

aaaaaaand 10 - The March Trip to Ireland!

Thank You Weather Gods!

I know I promised a video and I haven't lied! There are not one, not two, but three in the pipeline, so please bear with me whilst I get it together! Just wanted to blog today to let you all know that the weather in Swansea is very much improving. This whole week has been beautiful sunshine, and the wind hasn't been too bad. Everyday I have relished the opportunity to sit on my windowsill in the sun, and the longer light hours have been great too. Yesterday I went to Bristol with a few of my friends to an adventure golf place called "Jungle Rumble", where the courses are all island-jungle like :-) Very cool! Today I have been a-walking - into the city for spring-time icecream with Laura, to the library to get some more novels, and back along the beach. It was so neat to watch the people with kites, search for shells, and feel the sand between my toes - although it was still a little colder than I would have liked! I'm off for a roast dinner at my friends house now - my first real "Sunday" Roast! Let's hope the weather holds out from now until October :-)

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...

LINK Weekend in Leicester 25-27th September 2009

National Botanical Gardens of Wales