Reflection Week

 Hello, my fellow readers,

    This week is reflection week and what it means is that students have a whole week off of classes to either travel to see their families or to catch up on assignments. For us study-abroad students, that meant taking a trip to Wales for three days at a place called Plas Caerdeon. Plas Caerdeon is a big house that does educational activities for Liverpool Hope University students and other schools who want to take their students on a day/multi-day trip. The ride was 2-3 hours long, but the beautiful landscapes and, surprisingly,  the many sheep made the ride seem shorter because I wanted to look at both sides of the windows to see new sites. 

                                                                

 

Nature (The white dots that you see are the sheep)

                                                

 

Beautiful View

                                                    

 

A little town to go to, Plas Caerdeon.

                                                

 

Plas Caerdeon

                                                        

 

The beautiful view in front of the house

                                                

 

The full view

    Arriving at Plas Caedreon was tiring because we were mostly drained from the car drive. Also, at 4:00pm, it was already dark, and it felt like it was 10:00 at night because of how dark it was outside. Anyways, even in a tiring mood, we got lunch, and after lunch, we did group activities.  The people who organized this trip split us up into two big groups, and away from people we already made friends with, we did different activities to get to know each other more. It was a nice experience and a funny one at that because there were laughable moments while doing these activities. I couldn't take pictures of these activities because we did them at a fast pace, and it was more hands-on than anything else. When it started getting dark outside, we couldn't go outside because we were in the middle of nowhere and did not have Wi-Fi for those three days, so we had to warn our family before leaving for Wales. The next day we had a meeting about the activities we would do. Those activities were Mine Walking, Forest Walk, Archery, Kayaking, or Canoeing. We could combine, for example, Forest Walking for the first hour and then for the last hour we would do Archery. Half of the group that wanted to do the Mine Walking went to do that activity for a couple of hours and then went to do Archery. I decided to do Kayaking and Archery. We did Archery first, and it was an amazing experience. I haven't done Archery in a long time, and it was at a carnival where people can try to do Archery and can possibly be able to go to an Archey summer camp kind of thing. First, one of the workers explained how to hold the bow and fire the arrow, then we went for a practice test. After the practice test, we started to be in groups of three for a competition round of play. I got the bull's eye three times which I am very proud of. The first bull's eye was by doing the practice test, and the other two were for the team.  I absolutely loved doing Archery and would have gotten better if I had stayed longer than three days. When finishing Archery, we got ready to put on our waterproof suits to go Kayaking. The suits were tight, and I thought I was going to pass out from the heat because we had to put on many layers for the weather as well. It was raining all day, and we got back to the house, we were super wet and needed to take a warm shower. Oh my goodness, the shower is another story. They did not like the water to be running for a long time, so there was a button we would press to let the water pour out but then when one had soap on their body, the water would stop, and we would have to push the button again. It was hectic, to say the least, but the worst part was that one had to take a shower while the other person would wait because if one was taking a shower and the other person was in the stall, they would not get water because the other person was using it. It was weird and unbelievable. After figuring all that out, we were able to be warm and have a nice warm dinner. 

                                                        

 

I forgot to say this, but on the first day, we went ziplining. 

                                                    

 

Archery

                                                

 

I don't think you guys can see it, but I got a bull's eyes.

                                                        

 

Kayaking suit first layer that is waterproof.

                                                          

 

All ready to Kayak

 

    I did not trust myself with my phone on me while Kayaking, and thank god I didn't bring it with me because it was raining and the water was getting on the kayak. It was a mess, in all honesty. Besides, the suit did not have pockets to put my phone in. All in all, the day was splendid, and it was really fun. It was my first time kayaking, and I quickly got the hang of it. When the three days were over, we went back home, but before we went back home, we visited the castle where the now King Charles got the coronation to become Prince of Wales. It was amazing to go inside the tower and see the town in full view next to the sea. It was a beautiful view, and learning the history of the castle was interesting. 

                                                            

 

Caernarfon

                                                        

 

I tried to get the whole castle but only got part of it. 

                                                    

  

Entering this is the first view you will see

                                                  

 

A beautiful sculpture showing the whole castle

                                                        

 

This is what it looks like walking through the halls.

                                                        
                                                        
                                                     

 

This is the view from one part of a tower. Also, a fun fact is that platform you see in the middle is where King Charles became the Prince of Wales.

                                                            
              

 

Picture of the sea

                                                

 

A picture with a friend

                                                            

 

This is how the stairs would look when walking up to get to the top of the tower. Some stairs would also have small steps, making it even harder to walk on them because they are small and narrow. 

                                                        

 

This is a room in the castle that would showcase the history of the castle.

                                                            

 

The town. While walking around the town, I was hearing people speak welsh, and it was actually very interesting how many people in England speak different accents and languages. 

                                                            

 

The museum of the soldiers and their medals. The late Queen Elizabeth the second is on the right, her father on the left, and her grandfather in the middle. 

                                                        

 

King Charles's coronation to become Prince of Wales. 

                                                            

 

I wanted to feel like a princess sitting on this wooden throne. It felt nice. 

    Overall, this past week was amazing, and I was in love with the amazing views I witnessed. Nature on this side of the world is breathtaking, and It is something that I will never forget. After the castle trip, I was invited to see a play called the Mousetrap on Saturday. It was a play about a mystery murder surrounded by this childhood lullaby. It was more of the story of five people in one house, and one person was murdered, and the detective tried to find out who killed who. The play's ending was surprising because I wasn't expecting it to be the character I thought was good, but he turned out to be the murderer. I am grateful to be able to see a musical and a play on the study abroad trip because I got to see how a professional play and musical are produced on a professional stage. It was a great week.

                    Until next time my fellow readers.