Week six of Harlaxton is finished and I find myself more or less halfway finished with my study abroad experience. It feels like I’ve been here longer, but I mean that in the best possible way. I’ve done so much during my time here that it has kind of blended together week in and week out.

This week saw more papers and more exams. Maybe I’m still coming off of the relaxed part of my trip to Scotland, but I still felt a bit off with the papers and what have you that I dealt with this week. I’m sure that it’s only a passing thing and I’ve been working to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. My classes are still going well and I’m still certain that I’m leading my World War II class as far as discussion goes.

I was traveling again this weekend, this time to Wales. Wales is an oddity. Unlike Scotland, Wales was absorbed more or less peacefully into the kingdom of England and it hasn’t tried to break free for some time, so it does not exactly have the same level of nationalism that the Scots have. However, the Welsh do keep up enough differences to establish a Welsh identity. They have a flag (a red dragon standing before two horizontal bars, white on top with green beneath) and half of everything is written in Welsh.

I don’t speak Welsh and I can only just read it, but it sounds a little bit like French with less fancy bits. The day of our arrival saw me climbing another hill: Mount Llandudno, which provides a nice view of both the sea and the nearby town. There was also an old church where I presume that the Saint that the town is named after preached at, but it was a bit far away and the wind was picking up, so we did not get to see it.

Saturday saw us travelling out to one of the old castles that Edward I had built to subdue the Welsh Princes (and also where the first English Prince of Wales, Edward II, was born). I’d already seen something of a castle before in Lincoln, but this is different. This is more than just a big stone wall with some buildings inside, this is a legitimate castle with towers, gates, and all of that wonderful stuff.

I’d show you some pictures, but my phone was suffering from a severe case of “dead” that day and I could not take any pictures. It's tragic because the castle was really neat and I would have loved to show it to you.

Sunday saw us heading back to Harlaxton, but we got to see some pretty waterfalls. Next week I’ll be heading out to Bath/Stonehenge and perhaps I will be able to show you everything from that week in a timely manner.