7/27-7/29

Can this be real? Am I really approaching my last week here in Wales? I remember my bus ride to Cardiff thinking how long 6 weeks was. Boy, could I have been any more wrong. These past 5 weeks have flown by and it it's hard for me to grasp my mind around the fact that this time next week I will be landing in the Cincinnati Airport, back to my normal everyday life. I have had the most amazing time here. I've grown so much, made lifelong friends, and had the time of my life. Rather than reminiscing now (trust me, I'll do that plenty in the last blog update), I'll fill you all in on what I did this weekend. It was probably one of my favorite weekends since being here! On Friday, we went on an archaeological tour with the Royal Commission where we visited some mining sites and old churches. That night we went to the pub to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It was really interesting to watch it here where the Olympics are taking place (in the United Kingdom). Rather than being mesmerized with the ceremony, the pub would burst out into laughter at a lot of the parts. I know a few people weren't huge fans of how their areas were represented in the opening ceremony. We watched it in a pub that was an old converted chapel, which was really neat (but sort of ironic). Saturday we went on a ropes course which was so scary! It was a lot of fun, though. We were so high up and got to do zip lines, too. My nickname for the day became "mulchy-pants." Why, you ask? I went down one of the ziplines so confidently, but midway down I turned so I was forced to land backwards. Instead of landing gracefully, my entire back landed on the ground and I was drug a couple of feet in the mulch, getting mulch all in my pants. I wasn't too confident after that little incident. That night we went out with some of Iona's friends to the pubs and a club here. We loved getting to meet some of the locals and hang out with them! This morning we went shopping down in town where I bought quite a few souvenirs! The weekend was great, but we're back to the grind tomorrow. We have quite a busy week planned out for us!