When I signed on to study abroad in Wales, I knew it would have ups and downs. I hoped it would have ups and downs. Disasters make great blog posts. Also, suffering builds character.
But in the last 24 hours, I have:
-not slept because of the traffic noise outside my window and the fact that my sheets are approximately the texture of that disposable tissue they put on pediatric exam tables
-failed to get either of the Creative Writing classes I signed up for
-plugged the Creative-Writing-induced hole in my schedule with two literature classes I don’t want to take and that foil my brilliant three-day-weekend-every-weekend ambition
-desperately needed to do laundry but found both the Aberdare washing machines out of order
-gotten lost in Aberdare approximately twelve times
-mysteriously drowned my phone on dry land (???)
-missed dinner because I was at the Genius Bar at St. David’s trying to resuscitate my phone
-failed to resuscitate my phone. The good news: It was under warranty. The bad news: The most recent iCloud backup was a week ago and I lost all my Morgan’s Arcade photos.
-also apparently lost a good chunk of my iTunes playlist (???)
-slept through breakfast twice
-got my jeans doused by a passing car speeding through a puddle
-lost all of my pens and soaked my notebook
-learned that there is no escape from the meal plan
-THERE IS NEVER EVER ANY TOILET PAPER ANYWHERE IN ABERDARE
So by the time I got out of orientation at noon today, having just engaged in some frantic class-shuffling to get enough credits into my semester, I’d run clean out of chipper. I did manage to get out the door before I started crying.
I decided that the best cure would be to walk downtown, sit for a while in a back pew in the 12th-century cathedral where it’s dark and warm and quiet and peaceful, and then grab a fresh hot Cornish pasty at the produce market on my way to my last errand of the day, which would be to acquire soap at Wilko.
Except I couldn’t find the cathedral or the market or even the door to St. David’s. (I couldn’t escape St. David’s the other day. Where did it go? Was it all a dream?)
So by the time I got to Wilko, I’d decided I’d built enough character for one semester.
My intention, when I moved into my dorm room two days ago, was to rough it. I’d get used to the sheets. I could fold my pillow in half and ball up my fleece jacket under it to make it less flat. I folded a very creative origami spoon to eat my microwave chicken tikka masala without silverware. If I went enough sleepless nights in a row I’d have to acclimate to the traffic noise.
Only at this point in my day I decided I’d run out of a sense of adventure. So at Wilko, in addition to the soap I’d come for, I bought decent sheets, two more pillows, forks, a fuzzy blanket, pens, and a bulk pack of pocket Kleenex packets to battle the chronic toiletpaperlessness of the Aberdare bathrooms. (This being Wilko’s, the entire bill still only came to £22.50.)
I feel much better now. Also, since this post is very whiny, I’m going to end it with a sunset photo:
