Finishing up Tenby

I made a pizza! Two, in fact. They would have been perfect if not for a set of issues. One, I am used to garlic cloves, not minced garlic so I had to guess how much went in. Two, the microwaveable measuring cup was not in cups, so I had to try and figure out how much water was needed. At least my aunt had some measuring cups. Every one here uses ounces or grams, not cups.

The third, biggest problem was that me and my aunt could not figure out how to use the oven. Instead of words, like bake, broil, or whatever, that knob only had symbols. We had absolutely no idea what a lightbulb symbol meant, as it did not make an oven light. We guessed at a symbol and guessed wrong. I accidentally broiled my pizza instead of baking it which meant that the top was all cooked but the bottom was a bit doughy. It tasted pretty good though.


By the way, that was in Tenby. I am only a week behind...

We went to this beautiful cathedral called St. Davids that was right next to the ruins of the old Bishops Palace. And what a palace! I never knew that men of God were supposed to have so many worldly possessions and money. Those bishops lived well.

The cathedral was also rather huge. The lighting was not that great for photographs unfortunately but I did take quite a few. Once again, photos will be posted later. And later will be when I am back home in Minneapolis. Tomorrow!!!

Heatherton is like no amusement park that I have gone to or even heard of. It was like summer camp, with lots of activities like archery, shooting, but like an arcade with arcade games and paintball. There was mini golf, baseball, go karts, fishing, this tree adventure thing, and lots of other things. My cousins had a blast. My feet got tired following them race from one thing to the next.

Me and my aunt joined my cousins on one activity, the bumper boats. I got soaked and it looked like I had peed all over the back of my dress. At least it was sunny and I dried pretty quickly.

Another day we went to explore these arches in an island that is right off the shore. At low tide, you can walk all around the island, but at high tide its a proper island. I have never seen so many star fish! They were so cool. I felt like I was looking at the tide pools at the Minnesota Zoo. There were thousands of shells and lots of star fish, and even a big dead dog fish that my cousins picked up and waved around. Uck.

I think that that covers most of my adventures in Tenby.

Except! Ice cream parlour that I said I would talk about! It was too yummy for its own good. They would create ice cream things with wafers and whipped cream and chocolate flakes and other things and it would be a person! Or a train! Or something like that. I stuck to the more basic things, but after getting ice cream there twice I finally told them to put less whipped cream on.

Seriously, they put mountains on the ice cream. Half the time they put more whipped cream then ice cream. Even one time my aunt agreed that there was waaaay too much on her ice cream creation. Super yummy. But I am looking forward to my medium butterscotch dipped cone with the crunch on it when I get home.

The thing is... AGH. Those three words have sprouted into every conversation, every sentence, and it feels like every word. It started with my older cousin using it to explain why it wasn't his fault, or why he could not do something, and then my aunt or I, or my younger cousin would point it out to him that he was saying it for the millionth time. AND THEN. It spread like an epidemic. Now me and my aunt are saying it all the time and I am super self conscious about it. Every time I start a sentence with "The thing is..." I clam up. I was just on the phone and Hollis said it and I almost said "HAH! The thing is!" but I didn't. Thank goodness.

I think that Tenby is now officially summed up. Now lets see if I can get another post out while still in Wales...

I come home tomorrow!!!

Summary Summary of the Summer

Well, not a summary of my whole entire summer, but just this past week. I have already forgotten which day I did which thing, so I will instead speak of all of the events.

We all went to Pembroke Castle for our rainy day. It was gigantic. I really cannot imagine anyone living in it. Its too big! I really appreciate seeing models and diagrams of what the castle might have looked like when it was whole, as I have a hard time trying to fill in all of the open space with walls. The only bad part of the castle were the rooms that had dummies. They were too life like and gave me the shivers. Scary! I am a total wimp with scary things. I kept imagining that they would come to life. Silly, I know.

I went to another castle this week for a Grand Fete. Its basically a town fair that was held in Manorbier Castle. This castle was more then a little run down. And it had dummies in it again! Agh. Muy scary. There were all sorts of stands doing luck games like tombola, pick a number type of thing. The money was for different charities and I played a couple games. All I won were a pair of sheer tights. One, I don't where them. Two, they were not my size which I didn't realize till later when I offered them to my aunt and she pointed out that they were too large for both of us. At least I won something? I think this teaches me never to go gambling.

There have been a few festivals this past week. There was one at the Harbour in Tenby with live music and food and drink. Me, my uncle, and my two cousins went to peep at the festival but ended up going somewhere else to get ice cream. I will soon tell you of my first experience with an ice cream parlour. But I still think that I like Dairy Queen better. Sad, I know.

The second festival had better weather and was fun. It was the Fireman's Parade and fundraiser. There were a few floats but most of the parade was made up of people dressed up to different themes. Some of these little kids were so cute in their little outfit. The people on the floats (back of trucks) did their best to soak the crowd with water guns and buckets. My younger cousin was on my uncle's shoulders to see better and he got soaked.

That also culminated with music and food down at the Harbour. The music played till at least midnight as I could hear it from an open window in the upstairs of the flat. Every place that I have gone and there has been live music (beer tent at Kelmarsh, the Grand Fete, both festivals in Tenby), the same music has played. Maybe a few differences, but not much. Its a bunch of pop/rock hits from the last few decades. Not that I mind, but I find it strange at the lack of musical diversity on the radio and open public.

I assume that there is some underground station that has more variety such as the Current, or at least some sort of music scene somewhere in Wales, but I have yet to see or hear of it. I must say that I am very glad at the lack of hip hop and rap. Sorry guys, but I really dislike hearing it all the time at dances and on the school bus, plus in many of my friends cars and houses.

Hee hee. Complete side note--

I brought wild rice for my aunt and uncle as it is very expensive and hard to get here and of course one of the packages split on the voyage over. Since the first day that I got here and took the wild rice out, I have had bits of wild rice all over my room. I think that I will have gotten it all cleaned up, and then I will find more. I just found some on my bed, and I have been here for over a month.

Okay. Back to Tenby.

Me and my aunt and uncle had a movie night where we watched Hogfather, an adaption of the Terry Prachett novel. I have not read that book, but I have read many of his other books which were introduced to me by my aunt and uncle. When I say that we watched the Hogfather, I should clarify and say that my uncle watched the first half and then turned it off as I had fallen asleep 15 minutes into it and my aunt not long after.

I remember trying to stay awake for as long as I could, but my eyes just kept closing on me! Its like they had heavy weights attached to them and were being dragged down. So a couple nights later we attempted to watch it again. This time I stayed awake the whole time.

I think that I have proved to my uncle that yes, I do need a crazy amount of sleep. The only reason that I have been falling asleep in cars so much and during movies is because I have not been getting enough sleep each night. 8 hours and less are not enough for me. For two or three nights this past week I made sure to not stay up late talking to my aunt and uncle and headed to be bed before 11. I caught up on sleep finally. Too bad I cannot keep that routine up.

Its great that I have so much fun talking to my aunt and uncle, but its not so great how fast the time flies and I realize that its after midnight. I am like the carriage, I will turn into a pumpkin. We tried to have another movie night last night, but I did not last long. But I managed to stay awake long enough to say goodnight and go up to bed instead of falling asleep on the couch.

I think I will save another post for the last few things of the week. My fingers are getting sore. Ha ha.

Hee hee

So ya know how I said that I wouldn't have internet for a week? I caved into internal pressure and bought wifi credit. Anyway, I need to tell you about my awesome adventures that have included some first attempts at body boarding, digging gigantum sandcastles, defending said sandcastle from the tide coming in, and a rainy day trip.

Wonderful day!!!! The train ride to Tenby was uneventful. If it wasn't, I wouldn't know because I was fast asleep for the last 40 min. The weather forecast for the week was dire-- high of 62 and the only spot of sun was on Sunday. Every other day was wet and cloudy. When we arrived it was wet and cloudy. Uck. We had a lovely dinner (I ate too much garlic bread). I also went to bed a bit too late as usual and did not wake up till half past 11 the next morning. I woke up just in time to see the sun shining in.

Yay! It was forecasted to be so icky and it wasn't! I did some morning stuff and then went down to the beach to be greeted by sunny sandy loveliness. A huge sandcastle was waiting for me to put sand towers on. So I spent the rest of the day playing in the water and enjoying the rarely seen sun. I have got a bit of a tan! I have felt super pale lately because I have not felt the rays of sun.

Sunday was spent much the same except I got up early and helped build the sandcastle this time. I even have the blisters to prove it. It wasn't as big as the one from the day before, but it was a lot taller and thicker. That proved handy when the tide came in later and we tried to protect it by shoveling loads of sand. We lost to the sea. Of course.

It was nice and sunny on Sunday but there was a wind that hadn't been there the day before. That made it so much colder that it was less fun playing in the water or even just being on the beach. The evening was finished up with half a pint and fish and chips. We came home early enough to watch a movie and we saw a Knight's Tale. I actual really liked the movie and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

It was kind of funny to watch after being at a reenactment where everything is very authentic, because I am pretty sure the song 'We will rock you' was not performed before jousts. Another thing that I wanted to mention earlier but forgot, is that I am amazed how adapted I am to the Welsh weather. The first day I arrived I was freezing in the sunshine and wind while wearing a very heavy sweater.. On Saturday I was frolicking in the waves of the sea and running around in just a bikini. I would like to think that that first day must have been loads colder then Saturday, when in fact, it was quite a bit warmer. Us humans are strange, no?

Well, off to play with the internet some more. I better take advantage of my 24 hours.