Week 2

okay so week two begins on Monday Sept 13th with an introduction the course we will be taking for the next two weeks. we meet our lecturer, Dr. Bryn Willcock (i capitalize this out of respect for him cuz he is legit). he is probably the most entertaining lecturer i have ever had. i really enjoyed listening to him talk about the various topics. on monday it was 'where are you?' and post war cinema since the course ran from 1945 to the present. obviously i knew where i was and that its technically a country with its own governing body that just happens to be a part of the United Kingdom. but i assure you if you were to call a welsh person english they are going to be angry. that would be like calling an OU fan a cowboy. its just against nature lol. so memo to everyone when in wales dont call them english, british is okay though. so i learned something on the first day. i felt successful :) during the two weeks we have lectures everyday and most days they took up the majority of the time. we also watched a few films. on monday it was Passport to Pimlico. which i liked but some other didn't and they left the class before the film was over. kinda rude but oh well that's life. i enjoyed the film and its quirky humor. when the movie was over that was the end of lectures. Day 2 followed much the same with lectures although mine were only that afternoon so i got to sleep in. unfortunately for us the first couple weeks sucked without a kitchen that had pots or pans. we found the kitchen in the second week but none of us had a pot or pan to use except natasha so relatively useless... oh also pretty sure this was day we were shown a clip when talking about cinema that was men stripping at a club because they had no job... the censorship here in non-existent 
day 3 was field trip day. it was like grade school at the end of the year when they let us go on an adventure. i was excited for St. Fagan's which they call a castle but is really more of a mansion back home. and Big Pitt which is a closed mine now used to show how it was in the olden days. the mine creeped me out. i was pretty paranoid the whole time that 1) we were in a horror movie 2) it was going to collapse or 3) i was going to fall on my ass and be covered in the most disgusting dirt ever.  oh and they showed us a place that were set up like stone stalls for the ponies (horses). it was so depressing because they would leave them down there for 50 weeks at a time and if the horse were to die in the mine the miner that looked after it would have to cut it up and put it in the carts they used and push it to an empty part that was no longer used. i was almost in tears as he told us this. you would never hear about such things in the states due to animal cruelty laws. but times were different then and it was just an entirely depressing morning. after the mines and a packed lunch we headed to St. fagan's which is pictured above. i really liked it here it was beautiful. tori and i took lots of pictures and wandered the grounds and tried to get some good shots. i got a few. as of right now i have about 800 pictures taken in just over 5 weeks. pretty good even for me. there really wasnt much to the history of the place it was donated by a duke or something and they use it now for tourists. 
day 4 this has to be my favorite day. we had lectures in the morning and i liked the topics okay. then we talked about 60s music. so the beatles who i like and was glad to have a lecture on. then we moved on to another movie. for anyone who has seen a room with a view (1985) i'm sure you know why i love this day. the movie itself was okay it was a bit choppy and the budget was so low that extras literally wore their own costumes. but i love helena bonham carter and she was in this when she was just a teen. anyway at one point within the film three men (one teenager, one mid 20s and one older man) all go for a swim, naked. and well they somehow end up chasing each other around the pond. there is no censoring we see everything and the class erupted in a fit of laughter that went on for hours. we made jokes for days about why it was called a room with a view. it was just the most disturbing image. i put my head down and waited for it to pass no one wants to watch the men chase each other while there parts are showing. its just awkward. and we ended on that note as well 
day 5 more seminar groups which were smaller and covered topics like health care reform in the US and politics and things. then more lectures over 70s music and margaret thatcher was that day. i took lots of notes over the weeks which came to be of little use when i was writing the 2500 word paper that was our only grade in the course. evil. evil. evil. but i survived and hopefully did alright. this marked the end of the first week of lectures. i rather enjoyed them and actually took a course the professor teaches during term. i am hoping to report back in with the news of the grade soon! wish me luck