Hello, dear August. While I can hardly believe that all of July has come and gone, I do not regret that you have come. You have, after all, waited a full year before taking the stage. So then, welcome to the year, in behalf of all those participating in it.
After getting up at my now-usual time of 8am, I quickly got ready for the day and made a breakfast egg sandwich on my REAL English muffins. It really is a fantastic way to begin a day.
I walked with my group of first-years to class shortly after. The language is quickly getting more involved in the intricacies of present-tense and we are starting on a tiny bit of past tense. Working with the changes between positive statements and negative statements is pretty easy so far, but changing to a question takes a bit more brain work. The vocabulary for most things is so far going pretty well, actually, but there are a few key words that I need to apply more to memory before some big things get easier.
Can I also just say that tea time is the best idea ever? For those who question, don't even doubt. Short of sanitization procedures, It really is the greatest long-term surviving tradition I can think of off the top of my head. It also may or may not be 1:30 in the morning, so that could have something to do with it. But who knows?
At lunch time, we decided to walk to the park just out in front of the big University museum. The girls don't often pack lunches, so we made a stop at a little grocery store on the way. It was there that I saw something that made me do a double-take. Miya had been telling me a few days back about a candy she had surprisingly fallen in love with, but hadn't been able to find in Cardiff. They are called Aero chocolates, a thick sectioned chocolate bar that is full of little air bubbles. While I don't totally get the fad, Miya can't get enough of that texture. As a major fan of mint and chocolate, the rare mint Aero balls were a fine delicacy she had come to admire during our travels. It was at this rack of mint Aero balls that caused my double-take, and within three minutes, I was putting Miyas gift in my bag.
While in the store, we met a pleasant woman who was from New York. She had been living in Cardiff for the last 18 years, but had no hint of an accent, and worked at the University, and was heading over to the same park we were going to picnic at. So we decided to walk over together. She was very quiet, so we able to discuss only very little on our walk together, but we still greatly enjoyed her company.
When we got to the park, Theresa said she needed to use the restroom. I offered to go in with her so she wouldn't have to go alone. I slipped the package of Aeros in Miya's backpack as we headed for the nearby museum. I waited out in the foyer and shop. While there, I found something that reminded me a ton of Gretchen, which I just couldn't let pass me by. I have no idea if she'll actually be able to do a thing with them, but they were just too similar to...well, she'll just have to see for herself. :)
Theresa and I headed back to the park shortly thereafter, where we munched on our lunch on the park grass. Abbey and Calysta kind of got in a fight with a bee. I'm still not sure who won or lost, but it was definitely something worth seeing.
We went back to class at about 1:30 and actually got out a little early today, at 3:30. On our walk home, Abbey, Josie, and I decided to take an alternate route through a little alleyway that gets graffiti-ed often. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, which should show that I'm not completely naiive. It was broad daylight, there were three of us, and the detour is very short.
The graffiti in America, I've decided, is mostly about portraying anger. Viscous angles, 'suggestive' images, and expressions of pain are all that I see in graffiti at home. But every time we walk through a tunnel, bridge, or wall that has been graffiti-ed here, I always want to say 'thank you' to the artist for improving the area. Very rarely do we see writing, and if we do, they are just the artists names. For the most part, all the graffiti here are images, and they are tactfully done. Every now and then we'll see a skull or a strange monster, but most often we see faces of people. And they are empowering faces, expressions that request nothing more or less than a moment of reflection from the viewer. Landscape scenes are also very popular along the walls, with images of swimming creatures in a river, birds, or people working the land. Very rarely do we find angry graffiti, so what we do find seems to be an improvement to the overgrown stones and dirty tunnels. It's really pretty great.
We also found along one of these back roads a wild blackberry bush that was growing up along the fence of the train tracks, and the blackberries were very much ready to be picked. We have grown a lot of berries at home, so I definitely know what a ripe blackberry looks like. And these were dang good! It was a lot of fun walking down this hidden little street, looking at the new graffiti while munching on blackberries. In Wales. Boy, that really doesn't get old.
As we got closer to home, we noticed a steady stream of water running down the gutter. We didn't think anything of it until we got to our very sad looking front door (yeah, it's always been like that), and saw a pipe to the immediate right of it spraying water everywhere. Awesome. The two men working on the area moved a few of their buckets away from the door so we could unlock it and go inside.
No one else was home, so we did some checking to figure out what was going on. We quickly found that all the water in the house had been shut off.
Cool. It's amazing when you realize just how much you use something once you no longer have it. For some reason, Josie and I couldn't seem to think of anything worth making for dinner without having to boil it, so we dodged the construction workers again and headed over to Lydl's to get some bottled water for people to cook and drink with.
We had only been back in our house about five minutes before we got a knock on our door. Josie and I got up and I stood by the steps as she answered it. It was one of the construction workers. He told us that he had tried something out and wondered if the water was working now. I went into the nearby bathroom and tried the sink faucet; a tiny stream of water came out, but then died out. Haha, I've helped with enough sprinkler and plumbing projects at my house to know what it looks like when a stopped line lets out the last of its water. I'm still pretty naiive though, in hindsight, and was just confused that the lines would still be empty if he had been able to turn them on. I called out what had happened, but he responded with what sounded like artificial surprise. I then heard him tell Josie that 'it didn't make sense and that this was a strange problem. Since it would take longer than usual, could they come in for a cup of tea?'
Haha! I had just come out from the bathroom and back to the hallway to see his face when Josie told him that we actually didn't have any tea. He was baffled, but not as baffled as when his request for some coffee was also met with another 'we actually don't have any.'
"What? No coffee at all?" He asked.
"No, sorry, but none of us drink coffee here." I replied.
"We do have some hot chocolate though." Josie told him.
I smiled.
"Hot chocolate? Are you serious?" He asked, taking a small step back from our door he had been leaning into only a moment before.
This time I chuckled a little bit.
"Yeah! It's kind of what we drink instead. Would you like some?" I asked.
"Uh, sure. Cheers." He said as Josie closed the door.
We both had a good laugh as we put the kettle on to boil.
Not more than two minutes later, Theresa walked in.
"Guys, what's going on? The construction men just outside just asked me out tonight." she said as she came into the kitchen.
"Wow, they're a bit more forward than I thought." I replied. "What did you tell them?" I asked her.
"Heck no!" she replied. "No joke, they are attractive, but I'm not a moron! They asked after what I was doing tonight instead. So I told them I had a lot of homework."
"Did they buy it?" I asked.
"I don't think so, they asked what class I was taking, so I told them we were studying Welsh, and then they let me through." She said. "Boy, I'm really glad that Connor and his buddies are coming by in a little bit."
"Oh, I didn't know they were coming. What for?" I asked.
"They just wanted to hang out again tonight." Josie said.
I guess Theresa was a little too embarrassed that we had offered the construction workers hot chocolate, so she took out two glasses of Pepsi for them instead.
We all cooked an early dinner then. I threw together some stuffed peppers for dinner and then worked a tiny bit on my journals. Josie had thrown me her phone to keep track of, for some reason, and after a little bit, a text came through from Connor. They were just outside. I told the girls to go get changed, since they had changed into some short shorts and I opened the door once they had gone upstairs. The construction workers had blocked off our doorway with plastic gates and they seemed a little surprised when the door opened. I didn't really care though, and I slid the far gate over enough to let Conner and two others in before I slid it back, picked up the empty Pepsi glasses, and went back inside.
After I answered Connors questions about what was going on, I was introduced to his two mates from the other ward. These two, Matt and Dave, were brothers, and were also from the rugby group a few nights back.
Josie and Theresa had retrieved Abbey, who was hiding upstairs, and they all came down shortly after. We decided that we wanted to go to the park, so we filed out of the house, locked up, and left the construction zone. I didn't hear it then, but apparently the construction guys told Theresa she lied to them since she wasn't staying home to do her homework after all. It kind of bugged her, but I'm sure they were just trying to goof off.
We all walked to the Hays, grabbed some cheap ice cream, looked at some of the zombies that were getting some practice in for the yearly Zombie Game (where hundreds of people come to Queens Street dressed as zombies and hundreds more with green arm bands try to survive a whole night without being turned into a zombie), and then walked over to Bute Park.
Oh man, I love that park! It is so gigantic, and FULL of enormous trees! I forget which river it is, but there is a river that runs right through the middle of the park, so there are bridges everywhere! We got there right around sunset, so we got to see the trees and many fields warm up with the colors of the dying day, then turn that beautiful dark green and blue color of dusk, then dark blue and black once the sun had left the sky long enough. We all stayed long after the park had closed, just walking and chatting and joking along the many trails.
Me, being the romantic that I guess I am, mostly enjoyed lagging a little behind the group so I could soak the sights in. I would often catch up with Connor and Theresa and talk with them for a while (as I learned that the other two were...well, not my favorite kinds of personalities; Dave was wannabe punkster and Matt was a complete flirt), but I really just liked looking around at how lovely the park was in the evening.
With the exception of the other people who were in the park after hours. See, after the sun set, we ran into a lot of other people, but every one of them was a man and either drunk or high. The first time we were approached was when we were standing out on a bridge. Two men came up onto one end of the bridge, and one of them staggered over to us. I just happened to be out in the middle of the bridge at the edge of our group. As the guy got closer, I threw a panicked look at Conner, who told me not to worry. The guy came right up to me, and I stepped in between two of the guys in my group. The man stopped, turned around, paused, and then walked back to his equally high buddy. All the guys laughed and then congratulated me on having just 'gotten the full look up and down.' I was less than amused, but I really wasn't bugged. We ran into a lot of other people like this, but the guys said that they had been around this before, and that we wouldn't be bothered at all since we were in such a big group. And they were right. A few other men came close to our group, but they were so hiked up on who knows what that I highly doubt we were even seen by them.
One of the guys had brought a big blanket that we all easily fit on when we rolled it out on the grass. We swapped stories and had some good laughs while we watched the stars come out. Josie had the best stories by far. My favorite was about her friend in New York who's dog had recently died. She didn't have a car and she wanted to dispose of her dog's body properly, but she had to take the subway. Not wanting to attract attention (like carrying a dead dog onto the subway), she put the dog in a big briefcase. But the briefcase was heavy so as she was struggling to get it up on the train, a man offered to help her. As he placed it inside the train, he seemed really surprised at how heavy it was and asked her what could possibly weigh so much. Again, she didn't want to say she had a dead dog in there, so she floundered a bit and finally just said it was some laptops. When the train stopped at the next station, the man suddenly grabbed the briefcase and ran off the train, making off with what he thought was a briefcase completely stuffed with laptops. I can only imagine what a face would look like upon realizing that what you thought was a case full of computers actually turned out to be the body of dead dog. :)
At about 10:30, we folded up the blanket and the guys walked us all back to our house. The other girls stayed up a bit later chatting, but I was very much ready to go to bed. Our water was still off, but we had bought enough water for everyone who had come home later that night to take care of what they needed. I really hoped the water would be fixed soon, I was not looking forward to walking all the way to the other house just to use their bathrooms.
I took a quick shower, finished the day off right, and then settled in for a good night's rest. Well done, August. I think this month is gonna be amazing.
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