I loved my Friday!

I slept in, did a bit of research for my paper (which absolutely fascinates me), and headed into town for some shopping.  I was by myself, and I think that's why I loved it so much.  It was such a beautiful day, which made waiting at the bus stop near the Student Village a pleasure!  My first stop was Primark (oooh, how I love that store!).  I bought a white v-neck, because it was super cheap and fit well, as well as a black skirt with little flowers on it.  I later realized that outfit will be fantastic for Haf's birthday party on Monday.  I also bought a denim button-up shirt and immediately started planning outfits to go with it!  I found a pair of brown and white brogues (a must in the U.K.) to further add to my ever-growing shoe collection.  My moment of true love (though I do believe that shoe love is true love) came when I tried on a cream and red striped maxi dress.  It's unbelievably comfortable and unbelievably flattering.  Why didn't I discover maxi-dresses earlier? Live and learn, I guess!  I walked from the city centre to campus, enjoying the beautiful day and forgetting about my tendonitis (oops?).  I think the rest of my Friday is going to be filled with more researching; thank goodness that I love the topic!  Ahhh, I love my life!

Musings on my time abroad

I received an email before I left for Wales saying that if I wrote a letter about my experiences abroad I could receive a $500 scholarship.  I love writing, so I'm excited to type up that letter as soon as I get home!  However, I had some thoughts today that I wanted to jot down, so here's a lil' precursor to my letter:

While study at Swansea, I chose to talk a class on African American History (mostly because it will fill the U.S. Diversity credit that all Iowa State students need to graduate).  I've thoroughly enjoyed that class, though, because it provided me with a chance to gain a different perspective on something quite familiar to me.  The grade on the class was based solely on two essays, and as I worked on the second essay, I realized how much I appreciated having control of what I was learning.  I found the subject of my essay (I chose the Black Panther Party) extremely fascinating and devoured all the literature I could find on the topic.  I was able to read the facts (as well as various opinions) and develop my own opinions about the Black Panther Party and their effect on African American culture.  With my usual engineering classes, there are a lot of wrong answers and one right answer.  This class provides me with a chance to delve deeper into myself to learn how I feel about the world around me; pardon the pun, but this class proved that not everything is strictly black and white.  Yes, I love my engineering, but I also love knowing what I believe and that I have strong rationale behind it.

I'm a stereotypical girl with a love of shoes and belief in a fairytale ending, yet I was not terribly excited about the royal wedding.  I could not see the point of taking a day off work to watch two university sweethearts tie the knot.  The commemorative mugs, posters, notepads, pens, etc., seemed a bit over the top.  The evening of the royal wedding, I had dinner with a New-Yorker who recently moved to London.  She mentioned that the celebration reminded her (in some ways) of a sporting event; everyone was cheering, grilling out or picnicking, and waving the Union Jack.  She stressed, though, that unlike a sporting event, there were no "losers"; everyone could celebrate.  They were simply experiencing a major historical part of the U.K.  Before I came to Wales, I honestly think I would have brushed this off as a silly aside.  But I had grown in the past 4 months, and I found myself agreeing that it's a good way to unify and inspire the British people.  I also found myself toting home two Will and Kate mugs (one for me and one for my mom, who also watched the previous royal wedding 30-some years before).