Wednesday randoms.

Is it Wednesday already? Time flies.

Since I've always lived in the States, naturally all the money I have saved for this little London adventure is in dollars. Unfortunately, they don't take dollars here. So every so often I have to make a little trip to the bank and do an exchange, which is seriously the most depressing thing ever. The other day I took in $100 and got back a measly £59.73. Ugh.

I'm in paper-writing mode again. Which means I'm baking again...you know to keep me from actually doing any work.

This made me laugh and feel all sentimental. Is 23 too young to be feeling sentimental?

I got to use my [limited] Arabic skills in class. I got put on the spot and was asked to read " لشعب يريد إسقاط النظام " out loud. Not a big deal, really, but I hadn't even tried to read script in at least 2 years. Plus there were at least 3 people there who actually spoke the language in our class. Oh, and I'm not too fond of the spotlight. I seriously thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest, and I'm sure my face was bright red. (Side note: Why does your body do that to you? It doesn't help at all!)

It gets dark so early here. The sun is down by about 4:30. No fun.

Baylor dominated Texas Tech over the weekend, even though RGIII was injured and sat out the entire second half. And both the women and men's basketball teams are ranked nationally (women are #1, actually). Gotta love my Bears. I'm so proud.

Apparently there was a big strike today. Some girl at uni tried to convince me to skip class and avoid all homework "in support of my teachers" (who, incidentally, were not striking). But I turned her down and ended up doing more work today than I have in over a week.

And I really like this video.

Hope you've enjoyed your November as much as I've enjoyed mine. Bring on December, with plenty of hot cider, scarves and Christmas music.

I love this time of year.

Wales for the weekend.

I didn't take any pictures until we got to Caerphilly Castle. Then I took like a million. Here are just a few:

 

Welsh is a crazy language. It uses the same alphabet as English, so you'd think you'd be able to sound the words out. But you could be wrong. Here's a sample. It's from Google translate, so if you speak Welsh (but let's be honest...you probably don't), and it's wrong, I'm sorry:

Rhowch gynnig ar geisio ynganu'r geiriau hyn. Rwy'n eithaf cadarnhaol y byddwch byth yn ei gael yn iawn. Oni bai, wrth gwrs, eich bod yn dod o Gymru.

Which, in English, means: Try sounding out these words. I'm pretty positive you will never get it right. Unless, of course, you are from Wales.

Yeah.

Anywho, Wales was lovely. We had absolutely gorgeous weather. What we didn't have was a plan, but everything (from the hostel, to transportation, to figuring out what to do) worked out amazingly well.

And now I've been to Wales. Check.