Caerdydd

    Hello my friends! So I wanted to write sooner but that's okay. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to charge my laptop so I was using it sparingly. Also, my time in Cardiff was busy from morning to evening, so that's been a fun adventure.
   I would like to start off this post by saying I took the Chunnel and it's really just a tunnel. But now I can say I'v done it. Once you've been through one tunnel, you've been through them all. Your ears pop. That's about it. But it was a good train ride, only a couple of hours to London from Paris, so that was nice. Once I got in to the train station I took the underground over to the bus station, where I caught the bus to Cardiff (which, in Welsh, is Caerdydd)! This was my second time to go to this lovely Welsh city on the coast, and it was really nice. I got in around 7:30 and chilled in a McDonald's until my wonderful hostess Hannah Diaz came to get me and take me to her host home. Once I was settled in, I bought my Doctor Who Experience tickets, and then we went to bed. We got up the next morning and headed to the city centre, where she left to go do a ministry thing and I went to the Cardiff Library to print off my ticket. I tried three times to print that thing from my email and the barcode image just wouldn't print. But the girl helping me let me try using the staff computer, and kept saying, "You WILL go to the Doctor Who Experience. You HAVE to go." And with the staff computer we successfully printed off the ticket. She asked be if I was by myself, and I said I was, and she responded with, "That's okay, you're never alone when you're with the Doctor." And I think only people who love and know the show will understand when I say that that was definitely one of the most touching things a stranger has ever said to me. So with my ticket finally printed, I headed off to the bay.
    The bay is a lovely area of Cardiff, and it was cool to be there again because of a) the memories of the first time I'd been there, and b) I kept seeing Doctor Who scenes playing out in my head. So after I walked around a bit I headed toward the big blue building in the distance. Walking up to it I started to get irrationally excited. And then I went in and saw that they had a Lego Dalek and a wax Tricey and I'm pretty sure I recognized the workers from one of the 50th Anniversary videos. So the Doctor Who Experience starts out as an interactive adventure, which was really exciting, and they first take the group into a room with a screen that has a giant crack in it, and I sat down thinking, 'There is no way that crack is just a crack' and I was right, it was definitely the crack in time and space. But once the music started and Matt Smith's voice and face came on, I got really happy and excited and it didn't matter that I was on my own. And then there were Daleks and Weeping Angels and all sorts of stuff that was just really cool. I got to fly the TARDIS with no cares in the world that that part of the tour was mainly for the children. And then I went through the exhibition which had all of the Doctor's costumes and New Who companion outfits and wax figures of the Ood and the Silents. Tons of Daleks and Cybermen heads. And the TARDIS console rooms. Ten's TARDIS was my favorite. It was all so lovely and wonderful. And then the shop. The shop was just lovely, and if I'd had more money to spend, I would've had to buy another suitcase because everything there was so awesome. There were so many posters that I wanted but couldn't fit in my suitcase, so I didn't get them. But I got enough stuff to make myself happy. Including a tee-shirt, a bag, and some small things for my close whovian friends. After that I was hungry, so I went to city centre again and ate a chicken bake at Gregg's and then ate at Nando's with Hannah once she was done with her ministry thing. Oh, and while I was waiting on meeting up with her, the Communist Party of Wales marched by protesting NATO and corporations and the EU and all that sort of thing. So that was interesting. And then after lunch I went to Cardiff Castle, which was really nice and pretty, and Bute Park for a memory lane visit. Then Hannah and I walked around a bit and looked through a street market, and while we were doing that a group of protesters marched by protesting pot being illegal. One person had a sign that said, "Gardening shouldn't be illegal" or something like that, and there were a bunch of high teens kinda walking through and they really didn't look like they cared to be there? It was a bizarre thing. Also smelly. I'm sure you can imagine.
    After the market we met up with an intern Hannah works with named Ruth, who was really nice, and we sat and chatted on the castle lawn until we decided to go see the Intern House. There I got to meet all of the interns for the church in Cardiff. They're all so nice and it was such a blessing to meet them. There they showed me this secret room that was off of the attic that they call the "Murder Room" because there's a hatch in the floor that opens up to one of the girl's rooms. So I got to see that, which was fun, and then we went to dinner at a pub at the bay. I have now officially had fish and chips. But yeah, it was a nice dinner, even though I was kind of exhausted, it was good to hear the girls talking about their relationship with Christ and how they've grown and how they've seen God work. They're all from the UK too, so it was cool to see such a strong group of girls in such an Atheistic culture. And then near the end of the meal one of the girls came and talked to me about France and the differences in culture and all of that, which was cool. Then We walked back through the bay and headed back to the house. (Hannah lives with a host mom separate from the other interns).
    This morning I got to sleep in, which was beautiful, and then Hannah took me to her church in Cardiff. It was the first English sermon I've heard in FOUR MONTHS. And Lord was it such a blessing. I understood everything and got the good points and deep thoughts and it was such a good sermon and I just kind of drank it all in kinda like you when you drink water after you've walked for a while on a hot day. It was just the greatest thing, and I really needed it, and now I feel encouraged in wrapping up my semester in France. Sad still, yes, but a lot more encouraged and aware of God's presence. But anyway, a lot of good spiritual things came out of my time in Cardiff. Hannah was a wonderful conversation partner, and talking with her kind of helped me to look back and process how I've grown over the past semester, both personally and spiritually. It was so nice. So so so nice. And after the church service we went back to the house and had sandwiches and chatted over tea and coffee, then left in plenty of time to get to the bus station so that I could head to Gatwick to be picked up by my family near London. We took the bus to the city center, got off, got to the ticket office to print off my ticket, when I realized that we had forgotten to grab my suitcase. So we chased that down, but had to change my ticket to later, because they bus came back around like, 30 minutes after my bus to Gatwick left. But we got my luggage, and the guy was kind and let me exchange my ticket for a later bus for free! So it worked out. I was able to contact my family and let them know. So the bus got in at around 10pm, and now I'm at their house with wifi, a charger for my laptop (praise Jesus), and a really, really tired brain. But I knew if I didn't update tonight, the next post would be forever long and stuff so I just. I just decided to write it out tonight. But yeah, so those were my Cardiff adventures! I hit London tomorrow, and not just that, but London on a budget because I am so close to being broke. But it'll be okay. I'm extremely grateful for my family here who are being great hosts and showing me around. Turns out I'm here on a bank holiday, which means no one has work tomorrow, so that's nice. But yeah. Good things happened today. And this weekend. It's been good. But now I must sleep.
Cheers and goodnight!