sine language...

A few pictures before I unload a long entry...

The first is of Conwy from the flatemates favorite latenight hangout while on our trip there. Although my Dad and I didn't "hang out" there, I walked the city walls with him and showed him our favorite spot...

In Telford (named after the guy who constructed the Ironbridge in the town and later went on to design and construct other impressive bridges throughout England and Wales) we went for a walk after an excellent tea and scones - with clotted cream of course- break. Incase you can't put two and two together... this is my dad (fannypack included - although he did hide it under his jacket...)

And this is just classic. All of the castles we visited were partially in ruins, and therefore not particularly as safe as a walk in the park would be. At the entrance of Canaerfon, or maybe Harlech... not it was Conwy, this sign told all visitors that all of these horrific things (depicted by the cartoons below) could happen to YOU if you did not proceed with caution. Of course, the sign was in Welsh and English, as always. My favorite was the "Please let your eyes adjust to the darkness" ... which is shown by the middle charachter who seems to be suffering severely...

The trip to Wales with my Dad was wonderful. We enjoyed hiking the base of Mt. Snowdon, walking through sand dunes and along the North Sea coast (yes I said hi to Molly across the way) and walking through some great medieval castles. The driving was a bit stressful, but we got along just fine and didn't get lost too many times... I'm just glad my Dad had five years of practice of driving on the left side of the road in Australia... It was a great weekend overall. I really enjoyed spending time with my Dad, exploring Wales a bit more than I had the chance to on our flat trip weekend and getting away from Uni life for a bit. We came back to Notts after a heroing three hour delay only twenty miles away from the city and enjoyed a good meal out. I showed my Dad a few of Nottingham's "must see" spots... if you can call them that, and we turned in for an early night. My next day was full of classes, not all of which I made an appearance in, and then I spent the last few hours with my Dad walking around UNott's campus. After a long weekend, which seemed quite short, I took my Dad to the train station and we said our goodbyes. Dad made it safely back to Manchester and after a quick night there, a long flight, he made it safely back to Freeport.

The slightly upsetting feeling that accompanies any goodbye always gets to me even before the time to say goodbye comes because I have had to see so many people off at that station. That is perhaps one of the only negative associations that I have with something in Nottingham so far, but it is a relatively strong one. I really have been lucky to see all of my family and some of my friends while abroad. It is also strange to realize that now that I have seen my sister (twice), Mom, Dad, a cousin from each side of the family, John, Eda, and soon Molly and Megan, that the year is quickly drawing to a close. With about ninety days left in Europe, which includes almost a month of that traveling, I struggle to comprehend just how the time has elapsed. The group has become, as Kevin pointed out in his blog, closer than we have realized and closer than we ever could have imagined. Aaron turned 21 on Wednesday and we headed out to a pub/bar and instead of the awkward silences that were so incredibly common those first few weeks and even months, we chatted away, laughed hysterically, and realized that of the eight of us that were out (sorry Kate, you were still in France...) on the two couches one was filled with those of us who had turned 21 (and coincidentally within those four are the two couples in the group) and then the rest of us who are still twenty (and not dating one of our flatmates - or anyone as the case may be for three of us... yes, Anna, we will not forget CJ back in the States). If you had asked any of us at the beginning of the year if we could foresee a relationship among the flatmates... any one of us would have burst out laughing, and yet here we are with two budding relationships. It really does strike me as quite odd. It is official, everyone (excluding Anna) has dated someone in the flat at sometime (two couples here, one last year, and one freshman year). Truly, what are the odds of that? But enough on random reflections...

Really, I'm done.

Tonight, after yet another delicious dinner (we are also becoming excellent cooks, bakers, and pretty snobbish about any food that we eat. I quite enjoy it, every night of the week), some of us piled into the car with Mark and Carol to head to yet another opening of Hetain Patel's work. (For those of you that don't remember, he was one of our lecturers for our fall course with Mark and Carol - we have kept in contact and attend his performances and galleries when we can) The showing, entitles 'Sine Language' was preceded by drinks and hors d'oeuvres and small talk. We were all closed into a large gallery and the visual/audio artwork began. It was a fascinating combination of traditional Indian drumming with vocal commands for said drumming which was paired with a beat boxer who was also mimicking the drum sounds with his turntable... it was a great show.

Unfortunately, the room was a bit warm and several people who were getting on in years were also in attendance. Midway through the performance I noticed an elderly couple moving towards the door and then a few people suddenly congregating towards the rear of the room. I rushed back to realize that an elderly man had collapsed. Thanks to my training for lifeguarding (First Aid, CPR, AED, etc.) it turned out that no one else was a doctor or knew what to do, so all of the practices which were ingrained into me during training sprung back to the surface. Someone called the paramedics, I had several people help get the man into recovery position while talking to his wife, and as I was checking vitals he began to breathe normally again. It turned out that he had just overheated and lost consciousness because his knees were locked as he was standing. He was lucid as soon as he came to and was made comfortable and I handed him off to the paramedics who arrived a few minutes later. The gentleman was fine, but was still taken to the nearby Queen's Medical Centre for a routine checkup. I returned to watch the last few moments of the performance and attempted to get my own adrenaline levels back under control. It has been a while since I have had to do anything of that nature and I was rather flustered - it always seems to happen when you are least expecting it.

That seems to be nearly everything I can think of at the moment... so I am off to read another hundred or so pages in Barchester Towers for Mark and Carol's class tomorrow. I hope everyone in the Midwest is surviving the frightening weather. Let me know how you are all doing. Much Love...

oh yeah, and I just added all sorts of pictures to Picasa, so be sure to look at those...