Wales: Day 22-24 Got Myself A Home Life

Cardiff on Sunday morning is an entirely different city than the one we walked through at 11 pm on Saturday night. When we all filed off the train from Dover, a large number of inebriated men were waiting to board the train. As girl after girl stepped down, they all catcalled and cheered and laughed at the number of young single females that this traincar contained. We smiled and laughed. This kind of good-natured teasing and attention is nothing. We walked through downtown Cardiff, through pub and club queues, multiple "hen parties" and were the target of many shouted invitations and descriptions throughout our journey.

I'll just say this. According to my observation, there are no good-looking people in Cardiff. None. Everyone is SO GROSS. Women dress in these tiny, tiny, tight dresses that do not suit their age or body type, climb onto teetering heels, wear too much makeup and walk around with uneasy and uneven steps with their bodies spilling around everywhere. Sorry. That's what it is. Oh and a "hen party" is a group of girls that dress up for a bachelorette party. Usually even more outrageously inappropriate than the general populace.

The men are pigs. Generally. I'll just say that. We don't need to go into detail. Don't worry, Dad. We didn't feel unsafe. We were in big groups, and hello, has anyone seen me when I get fierce? Psh. A fumbling drunk Taffy is no match for Danica Budge. And Katie. Approximate number of inagropes = 1. So that's pretty good.

Walking to church taking a very similar route less than 12 hours later was just so amusing to us. Still gross, though. Cardiff is hands down the grossest place I've ever been. Some parts of Provo or Salt Lake I thought were pretty ghetto. Mesquite is significantly white trash. Other cities I thought were really crappy or awful don't even compare. I've been pretty hesitant to actually describe how gross and retarded Cardiff is, because I didn't want anyone thinking I was in an unsafe environment or that I was complaining. We're in a SKETCHY part of town and I will never complain about another city ever again. But don't get me wrong. It's adding to the experience and we just laugh and laugh.

At one point last week, Tom left his camera somewhere and I happened to be the last one out of the area and noticed it lying in the grass. I snagged it. Didn't tell him. We took it back to Penny Lane and proceeded to take pictures of all the grossest stuff in our house, and took several action shots of the things and people we encountered on our walk to 57 (one of the other houses the program has). Highlights include the ubiquitous piles of garbage on the streets, broken street and store signs, and - my personal favorite: A woman dragging a big cardboard box down the sidewalk on Albany. hahaha We couldn't stop laughing. When we got to 57, I sneakily slipped Tom's camera back into his bag and he had no idea. Can't wait till he sees the excellent photos we took for him. We told him earlier that we want him to post ALL his pictures, so hopefully I'll be able to get them and post them here so you guys can experience The Joys of Cardiff.

Anyway. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were unscheduled. The Welsh students were taking an all day, weeklong class at the University, so we had free time to study for the big quiz and to work on our projects. Hence the studying abroad. I was able to catch up on my sleep and get a lot of studying done, which was nice. If we passed the quiz, scheduled for Friday morning, we didn't have to take the final and automatically got an A on it, so everyone was studying super hard for that excellent prize. I left the house very little this week. I don't mind though. A few days this week I got up and walked down off Albany to a little fresh produce Farmer's Market and my favorite sandwich shop for a hummus baguette (my favorite). Good stuff.

We did, however, take a break on Tuesday night and went to see INCEPTION. Everyone has been FREAKING OUT about it and asking me about it. I am a movie freak. I love them, see tons of them and love to talk about them. But I'm out of the loop here! I need to see a ton. I've been going through cinema withdrawal. Hulu. Netflix. Nothing works here. So it was awesome to go see it. I really, really liked it. I'd like to see it again. It was entertaining, fresh and witty. Loved it, even.