the final chapter...

The end of my experience abroad is coming and I can't help but feel terribly saddened. The last chapters of my life have been full of fun, adventure, and friends. I have learned so much about myself since I have been here. I have learned about the importance of the people around you, not necessarily where you are in the world. Leaving Wales is something that I thought was so far off. Five months ago I did not expect to make the friends that I did or have the adventures that I have had. I have been so blessed with great flatmates and such a beautiful place to live.


Things that I learned about myself are important. But telling you would not make much sense, because well, you are not me, are you? But I wanted to share with all of you a great lesson that I learned while being abroad. It is a lesson on beauty, inner and outer. I learned this lesson while traveling in Italy. A wise  world traveler stayed in the same hostel that I did. We were in the same room, and we had several chats about life while we were there. Patsy (a friend that I was traveling with) would back me up when I say that Sam was wise in many ways, even though she had some rough edges that we weren't used to, she shared some of her wisdom with us while we were roommates.


She spoke about the beauty of places and people. I can't quote her exactly, but I feel like I can try and explain it to you. As we reminisced about Rome and the places that we went around the city, she said that the city and everything in it was beautiful. It was true, Rome was amazing. Full of beautiful places and beautiful people. We talked about how they reflected each other. Soaking each other up and letting out pieces of what they saw and where they lived. People reflect what they see. 


That brings me to an important point. Some people have the ability to make you a better person. They have to ability to reflect a light and a beauty on your life. It wasn't just the city of Rome, but other cities as well, that reflected on the people. The beautiful sights that were full of character made the people full of character. The people dressed with more character, they acted more fully, and lived life more enthusiastically.


While living and blending with their surroundings the visitors or tourists, like me, would also soak in the beauty and the character. I gained a sense of 'going with the flow' and simply enjoying life. 


Walking slowly to see the city move around me, was my favorite part of the days I spent abroad. 


We, as humans, have this strange power to impact others. We can change their day with a simple grin. We can make other people beautiful by the character we convey. Beauty can be reflected from us and others can soak it up. It may seem like an easy lesson to learn, but sometimes we don't realize how we affecting people. I made mistakes in Wales, mistakes that I have already and will continue to learn from. I look back at my experience hoping that I was a person that others wanted to reflect off of. Although, I feel as though many times I was the one soaking up the reflections. I think that is a large part of studying abroad. You can find your true self, you can see how you are when there are no people holding you accountable. You can realize just how weak you are when you fall, and also how strong you are when you pull yourself up. 


Being here and living in Wales has made me soak up a much simpler life. A life of enjoying my time, soaking up the beauty of places and people, walking slower and watching as others lives move around you. Sometimes it has been hard, difficult, frustrating. I have had to learn how to block out some things and soak in others. I am not sure how I will be going home. I am not sure how I have changed since being here. I am excited to take the things that I have learned here and move home with them. 


Bangor will always have a place in my heart, and the friends that I met there will stay in the photo-book of my mind forever. 


And although this story will never be over for me, it seems like it is the last chapter for you. Thanks for sticking through my writing, and pictures. I hope that you already have or eventually will have an experience similar to mine.

Go and be the person that someone else wants to reflect...

gelato, pizza, and friends...

There are plenty of people in your life that change things. They make things better, they make sense, they are people that you can just be yourself with. I have had many people like that in my life, friends, family, people that are sent to me at the most perfect times. 

Spring break plans were made and changed and somehow they all worked out perfectly. After a week in Ireland, I got to go back to Bangor to clean my clothes, get a good night sleep and head out again for Rome, Italy. One of the places that I wanted to visit most of all while I was abroad was Italy. I wanted to spend time there and actually take time to experience everything. My friends Patsy and Justine were kind enough to experience Italy with me for a whole week. And it was lovely, and I am going to try and recap it here for you...

When I left for Rome I was scared. I was traveling by myself to the Manchester Airport, and then going on a plane to meet my two friends from Spain in Italy. I was going to be traveling alone for almost a whole day. When you are tired, that thought scares you. Going out of my comfort zone scared me. Thankfully I have people here in Bangor that are willing to hang up the phone on their mom and comfort me, I have friends that are willing to walk me down to the train station and encourage me. So with those comforts I left on a train with nothing but a backpack for the next two weeks. 

Traveling wasn't bad at all, and I met a lot of people, I could probably write a whole blog about the people that I met, but I will save you from that and continue with this. Traveling wasn't bad at all, but when I saw Patsy and Justine at the airport in Rome I could not be happier. I admit it, I cried with joy and relief, (only a few tears though), for after meeting we had to find a bus to our hostel in Rome! Rome, Rome, Rome. One of my favorite places. We found the bus and headed off for our hostel. The hostel was a bit sketchy, but we were in Rome and had a bed to sleep in, so we were happy. 

Okay remember that one time I said that I wouldn't tell you about the people I met? I lied. The first night there we were hungry. We asked the hostel-man, Shafique, where we should eat. He pointed out a place and we started walking. Outside of our hostel were three girls just sitting watching a movie. I was feeling outgoing so I asked them if they wanted to join us. They had already ate, but they seemed to have the same accent as us. So I asked where they were from, they said Canada and Norway. Wow, so I was off, they were not from the U.S., they then said that they were studying at a Bible school in Germany for the past 6 months. Whoa. A Bible school? I was so excited to hear it. So excited in fact that I could barely talk, so I whispered "Oh my goodness, we love Jesus too!" They laughed and seriously, from right then we became practically best friends. 

Wow, I feel like I have been writing forever, and I have only gotten to the first night in Rome. This is going to be hard. Ugh. 

Shorter story, we decided to go site-seeing with these girls for the next 3 days. And it was simply wonderful. The weather, the waiting in line, the walking around, all of it-wonderful. We ate real Italian pizza for pretty much every meal. And we ate a lot, a lot, a lot, of gelato. Mmhmm. It was so good. All of it. 

And because I want you to experience Rome with your own eyes and mind, I am just going to show you pictures of Rome and not what I thought about it. This is also an attempt to not go too terribly long on this three day experience. 

palm sunday, vatican, the pope...

altare della patria...

the pantheon...

 

friends...Justine (Spain), Liz (Norway),
Blair (Wales), Emily (Canada),
Patsy (Spain), and Vanessa (Canada)

We traveled to all these places, when we were at the Vatican, I got to see the Sistine Chapel, which was absolutely incredible. We stood there are just looked for almost an hour. So big, and so many details. I can't describe it. The Pantheon was also amazing, the architecture of it and the beauty that couldn't be captured by a camera. 

trevi fountain...

the spanish steps...

the colosseum...

The Colosseum was my favorite. One night we decided we wanted to see it at night. So the 6 of us went back. It was raining, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. We danced in the rain at the Colosseum, and sense it was raining, there were no other people there. It was the best night in Rome by far. So pretty, and a night I will never forget. 

the colosseum at night...

We ate pizza and gelato and had some of the best times ever. We had to say goodbye to our friends and later that day Patsy and I headed on a plane to Venice. (Blog to come.) But, Rome was absolutely amazing, sorry that it was so long and sorry that it wasn't more detailed. I have more pictures to show, so ask me about it. But thanks for reading this today, and I hope that one day you get to enjoy some of Rome for yourself one day...

the land of lucky charms...

First I must apologize for taking such a long break from blogging. Spring break took a lot out of me and I just haven't found time. But I am slowly and surely catching up...

I call it the land of lucky charms because usually when I think of Ireland, I think of the Lucky Charms box. Leprechauns and rainbows and perhaps a pot of gold. Happily I can tell you that Ireland hesitantly embraces this American view of its culture. I did see several people dressed up in leprechaun outfits while I was there. They were usually on the sidewalks, ready for you to take a picture with them, after -of course- you paid them with some of your good old gold...


Here in Bangor, we have a three week spring break. Now this three week spring break could be spent in any way you choose. However, the first week is filled with a trip across the water to the island of Ireland. Our entire American student group took a week long trip to visit the two most popular cities - Dublin and Galway. 


There are 34 students who came to Bangor through Central College. We all live apart from each other while we are here. We rarely get to see everyone together, unless we are at our Welsh History and Culture class, once a week. You can imagine that our trip together to Ireland was a nice way to get together for a whole week. 

the whole group...

We went all over the place. It was wonderful. Typically Ireland is rainy and cloudy, similar to the rest of it's UK counterparts. But we were lucky enough to see the sun during more than half of the week. We spent our time doing loads of things. The local Irish pubs were number one on our list. Mainly, Temple Bar. Almost all of the pubs in Ireland have live music playing. In the band are the typical members, a guitar, accordian, and percussion instrument of some kind. The bands were my absolute favorite parts of the nightlife in Ireland. There was music playing everywhere, in and outside of the pubs. On the streets, in the alleys, and from most of the mouths of the Irish men came songs of cheer. 

One day we spent taking a ferry to the Aran Islands. The day was cool and crisp with the sun shining down on us. This is not like Ireland at all. Rain comes and rain stays for days, months, sometimes forever it seems like. But for us we got our first sun-burns in the rainiest area in the UK. Yay us! The day was full of riding bikes around the island and being a part of our own little adventure. We went to a beach and danced in the ocean and laid down by cliffs that were plummeting towards the crashing waves of the ocean 

at the aran island cliffs...

at the beach on the aran islands...
with Elizabeth and Regan...

The Aran Islands were probably my favorite place in Ireland, except in a very very close second was the Cliffs of Moher. We took a long bus ride to the Cliffs of Moher. If you have ever seen the movie The Princess Bride, then you might remember the Cliffs of Insanity and how "inconceivable" they were. Well my friend Jade and I agreed that the Cliffs were inconceivable and in honor of the great movie we declared that they were inconceivable a minimum of 64 times while we were walking on them. The weather at the Cliffs of Moher was absolutely amazing again. It made the experience so much better. The Cliffs were so intensely huge, I don't know quite how to explain them. So here is a picture that barely captures the mass of these inconceivable Cliffs...

The last stop that I am going to mention in our trip to Ireland is the trip to the Guinness Factory. It was more like a museum/factory. It was great. It was seven floors that walked you through the process of the production of Guinness beer. It was really interesting. I would like to say that I tried my first Guinness, fresh brewed straight from the factory. The bartender even put a clover on top. It was my lucky Guinness. 

mmhmm...

can you see the clover?
look closely...

Sad to say that I could not finish the thick Guinness. One of the very kind male friends took the heavy burden of finishing my drink for me. I don't think I could handle the whole pint. Well I tried to keep it short and straight to the point, and I hope that you enjoyed my overview of Ireland. I would strongly recommend that you visit Ireland because it was one of the most magical places I have ever been to. 

the top of the tops...

There are several times, almost everyday where I wish that a camera could capture a moment. I wish that a camera could capture the emotions, feelings, weather, and site of everything around me. There are times in people's lives that cannot be recreated. The first step, first day of school, graduation, falling in love, your own wedding day. All these things cannot be recreated, no matter how hard you try. Well, as sad as it may be, I could never recreate the experience that I am having at this very moment. I can't write these blogs and have you experience the same things as me. I can't expect to come home, and ask if you remember the view from Roman Camp or the fun we had running around Bangor. 

The place that I get to call my temporary home is absolutely beautiful...


It is filled with life, joy, beauty, and excitement. God has revealed so much of His character to me while I have been here. He has revealed his love, his creativeness, his wide-open arms, and his ability to know what we need exactly when we need it. 


He has made His word known in my heart, Psalm 16 says, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." That is the truth that I am facing. Apart from God in my life, there is nothing. I can have these experiences abroad, but they will have no permanent value unless God is a part of them. 


Let me show you some of the beauty that I am finding here in Bangor...

the green grass, and the white dots
of sheep grazing the land...

I think that the bad things in life usually aren't that bad. But even if they are, I think that there has to be bad or good wouldn't be so good. The bad times make the good times that much better. The bad thing about Bangor is that there are always clouds here, and not usually sun. But, on the other side of the rain, the one thing that I really love here is the green everywhere. The rain, although sometimes daunting, creates a perfect place of green grass and trees all year round. Even in the winter, there is green all over. 

the beach and in the far left,
the church standing on it's own...

We take several field trips with our program director, Tecwyn. He brings us to castles, cathedrals, and other beautiful sites around Wales. One of my top experiences here was going to the church on the sea. It is literally a church on the sea. The church is on the high ground of Angelsey (the island directly next to Bangor.) When the tide is down you can walk on a beach to the little church. And when the tide was up, (which I did not see) apparently, it looks like the church is just on an island that no one can get to. It stands on it's own, constantly battling the wind, rain, and sea. It was windy when we went there, but in truth the wind made it better, because the waves were crashing against the rocks around us, and it was absolutely beautiful. That was a moment when I wanted to have a camera that could capture the entire memory; the way I was feeling, the wind, the sun, my thoughts. It was a thin moment in life, where I felt close to God. That place will never leave my mind. 

rachel and i at the pier, almost sunset...

The pier is another thin spot here in Bangor. It is a place that is always beautiful whether it is raining or sunny, high tide or low tide. It is wonderful. I am there at least 2 times a week. It makes for a good run, a good walk, a good place to have conversations with friends, and a good place to enjoy tea and scones. It is a multi-tasking place. I always seem to have peace when I am there. 

i wish i could capture all of it,
the river and the mountains...

We went to one castle, Caernarfon Castle. It was built at a high spot in Wales, along with all the other castles, to protect the population and keep a watch for enemies. This castle is absolutely massive. The town is actually on the inside of the castle. In it's massive size, came great views, and straight-up beauty. The mountains in the distance and the river emptying from the low tide, and the smaller towers of the castle. There was so much more that this picture could not capture. It was wonderful. 

And the latest place that we went, Portmerion. This town was designed by a french architect who wanted to show that buildings and land could flow together harmoniously.It was a very wealthy town. My friends, Regan and Patsy, and I walked around the town. It was absolutely gorgeous. I did not expect to stumble upon the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. We started walking to see the lighthouse on the coast of this town. We found the lighthouse, which really was not that impressive, but then found a small path that led to some rocks. We walked down towards the rocks and the water, and of course God met us there in the stillness. It was quiet, peaceful, and a very thin place. The pictures that I took did this place no justice. It was so amazing to see with my bare eyes, and I will never forget the insane beauty and creativeness that God showed me there. It was really indescribable.

seriously, this is not even close to capturing the
beauty of this place...breathtaking...

This is the place that I get to call home for the next two and a half months. This has been the most challenging and beautiful time of my life. This home has brought a whole new meaning to the verses in Psalm 33:5 "He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord." All around me is beauty and creation, and in that creation is a glimpse of God's steadfast love. 

That is why my temporary home is absolutely beautiful...

eruptions of kilts and bagpipes...

This blog is a little late coming and may get a little long. But never-the-less, here we go. 

dan, maddy, kelsie, jade, me, elizabeth...
(standing at the top of Edinburgh Castle)

I took a wee-little weekend trip to Edinburgh, Scotland with the people that you see in the photo above. It was seriously a beyond-excellent trip. Let me tell you a bit about it. So we woke up in the very early hours of the morning to hop on the train, which is a ten minute walk from where we live on Ffriddoedd site at the University. I walked with my larger-than-average purse and backpack stuffed with everything I needed for my travels. My purse had a whole loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, an apple, as well as other purse-like things. (Thanks Amber Smith for letting me buy it off you from our garage sale this summer, it is kinda perfect for traveling.) 


The train left at around 5 am and we all spread out on the amazingly spacious seats and slept as comfortable as we would have in our own beds.


Boy, I hope you don't believe that. Haha. We each had our own seat which was nice, but we were all balled up on our seats, trying not to let out heads hang off, so the train attendant wouldn't wake us up and tell us to move. Anywho, we slept for an hour and then switched trains, blah blah blah, and headed on a three and a half hour train ride all the way up the United Kingdom to Edinburgh. I slept the entire way, it was safe to say my back and neck hurt a decent amount. 


Our first goal was to find our hostel, lucky for us it was just off of Blair Street, so we knew that it wouldn't be too sketchy. 

Blair Street sign directly above me,
of course i got a picture with it...

We then found our hostel, which was only 11£ a night. Pretty good price for hostel with free tea all the time. The Hostel was called the Cowgate Tourist Hostel, can't get much more tourist-y than that. Let me tell you. 

yep, with the picture of the cow
and the obnoxious colors...

We got our clean sheets and got to our 6-person room. We were there pretty early in the day, but I think everyone wanted to take a quick nap, we decided to keep moving. We were perfectly placed in Edinburgh. It was just a short walk to uptown, but far enough away so it wasn't loud at night. Oh and did I mention the free tea! Yum. The first day we decided to look through some shops and then find the Edinburgh Harley Davidson Shop. 

it took us over an hour,
but we found it...

kelsey and i
looking like fasionistas...

The Harley Davidson store was a bit out of the way, but we found it eventually. The dress shop was very little and quite great. I tried on a few dresses but didn't absolutely love them. And if I remember my mom right, she always says "If you do not absolutely love it, do not buy it, because you won't like it anymore at home." Well thanks mom. The dress Kelsey is wearing is furry, and the dress that I am sporting, contrary to belief, is not a night-gown but an actual dress. I know, I should have bought it...On the way back to uptown, there were a few little girls who were selling perfume. And, I cannot just turn down little girls with great accents. I gave them 20 pents and they were ready to give me a full bottle of their homemade perfume, I took a squirt and said that it smelt wonderful, but I did not need the whole bottle. 


Edinburgh was so lively. There were street performers everywhere. My favorite tourist thing, was that everywhere I went, I literally could hear a faint sound of a bagpipe, and almost every store had cashmere scarves, wool sweaters, and kilts. So stereotypical. But Edinburgh was beautiful. 

Street Performers...

We walked all over the place. We went to the Edinburgh Castle and saw the Crown Jewels, and we went to a few museums, which were not boring. We ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe Edinburgh. Which was absolutely delicious, and so much fun. 

my new boyfriend,
at the edinburgh castle...

We walked past the Scottish Parliament building which was actually really modern style architecture, which is weird to find in Europe. And just beyond the Parliament building was an old [inactive] volcano! So we decided to climb it. Yep, you read correctly, I climbed a volcano. And of course, God made it with perfect timing. The clouds cleared out and we got some sun while we were climbing, which made for great views of Edinburgh. 

windblown hair and
 the view of edinburgh...

jade, elizabeth, me, maddi, and kelsey

way down the volcano
the ocean in the distance...

The last day we were there we decided to go see another tourist-y area. It was a hill with several ruins on top of it. If you were shopping on High Street, and you looked up the street you could see them. We were all really excited to go. It wasn't too terribly nice of a day, but the ruins were really cool. They were also really random, there was a large dome-like building, an old Roman-looking columns, and a very tall building-ish thing. Yes, you are welcome for the legitimate terminology I just used right there. 

the ladies hugging the ruins...

Edinburgh was absolutely gorgeous, and by the end of the trip I was exhausted from all of the walking, and I was ready to go back to Bangor. It is always a good feeling at the end of a trip to be ready to go back home. Bangor is such a good place to call home, for the next few months at least. Oh, God is so good for letting me be here. I just hope that I can soak most of this experience up and learn from it. 
Thanks for reading...

"For greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city..."

God of this City.         

watch out central market...

So, back at good ol' Central College, we have one specific thing that I absolutely love. I am pretty sure that if I was deathly ill and could't go anywhere, I would still get out of bed if it was 'fruit-pizza-day' at Central Market. Seriously. That is the one thing from the cafeteria at college that I miss the most. So in my creative fashion, I decided, "Hey, Blair! You can cook, and you have a grocery store at your finger tips." 

(the fact that fruit was on sale at Morrisons helped too.)


So I whipped up the ingredients and decided to make like a storm in my flat and destroy people's taste buds with sugar, more sugar, and tons of fruit. My flatmate Rhi and I decided that although there was sugar in the pizza, it was still healthy. The way that we explain this is:
Well the fruit is really good for you, and the sugar is not so good for you. But positive 1 and negative 1, come out to be zero. So, in all reality (if you tilt your head and squint) it is really like you are eating nothing and getting satisfied from it. 

Matty mid-bite...

Sarah, also mid-bite...

I think that they both enjoyed it. But while I am working on perfecting the recipe, I am sure that they will learn to like it even more. So with that, I say "Watch out Central Market!" The new baker Blair is a'cooking away. 

fancy picture...

look at all that fruit...yum!

Well, that is all from Blair's corner of the kitchen and the world. You can check out the recipe, which was pretty delicious, right here!

the place i get to call home...

Everyday when I wake up it takes me a while to get out of bed. I think that this is typical for almost everyone. There are some people who can just jump out of bed, but that's not me. I can't say that the snooze button gets a break in the morning. I certainly use it. But when I finally decide to get out of my bed and start my day, I open up my curtains. I remind myself that today is another day that I will never get to re-do. Today is another day in Bangor, Wales. 

one of the most beautiful places...
a.k.a. roman camp.

Usually when I open my windows in the morning, light pours into my dark and cozy room. Well, at least as much light that can get through the clouds in a morning in Bangor, Wales. The picture above is not very typical here. There are usually more clouds, and some sort of drizzle happening or about to happen. But I won't let the weather rain on my parade. I am in the fabulous United Kingdom, studying (or not studying), living, learning, and loving it. 


So, a little bit about what I live in every day. I don't know if this really matters to any of you, but here it is. The literal room that I live in.

my living space...

my comfy bed...
yes, that is pink. 

my lovely desk...

Oh, you don't have to tell me that my room is extravagent. I know that it is beautiful and full of sassiness. I know that the blank walls add charisma, and that practically everything shouts out "Blair!" For some people, it might be hard to believe that my life and the all my "crap," can fit into one bedroom, let alone one suitcase to get it over here, but I did. Fitting in all the other collectables that I have acquired while being here, into a suitcase for my ride home - that will be another story. 


Well that is the tour of my room, more on the city of Bangor to come (in another blog). Also to come is a blog about Edinburgh, Scotland. I took a weekend trip there and absolutely loved it. 


Thanks for reading...

"Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings, 

I cling to you, your right hand upholds me."

-Psalm 63:7-8