July 21 - Goodbye to our home stay and hello to North Wales

Finally, a computer...but there's not much time until it shuts down.

Back on July 21st, we said good-bye to our home stay families. We also said and sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kale. As the families dropped their delegates off at the bus, there were a lot of hugs, lots of pictures...and some promises to stay in touch. There were some who had a disappointing home stay, not bad, just disappointing. I gave a report regarding the families who weren't as warm as what our delegates had been expecting. The home stay, in my opinion, is the heart of the program.

We took off in the coach and drove to the dock to catch the ferry, saying good-bye to Tommy O'Brien - our awesome coach driver. This ferry was much faster than the first one we rode to Ireland. We made the crossing in less than 2 hours. We entered north Wales on the Isle of Anglesey. Beautiful!BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.


We were met by another guy named Sam...who stayed with us for the day and led us around. Our first stop on the Isle of Anglesey was a 5,000 year old burial ground - called Bryn Celli Ddu - ...which was made in the Stone Age. Sam, who leads a lot of tours and has been a university lecturer. He told us you can go from the Stone Age to the Nuclear Age in a 20 mile radius.

Next stop was - get ready for this name - Llanfairpwllgwynayllgugerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliugogogoch - honestly, that's the name. There is a train station there and at one time it was shortened so the name could fit on a train ticket. The name translates to: The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave. While we were here, we had the SUPERMARKET SWEEP! Our delegation was divided into 4 groups. Each group had a budget and was told what kind of foods to buy to make lunches for the next day. For example, my group had a budget of 50 pounds...and we were to buy the fillings for sandwiches. We also only had 20 minutes to do all our shopping....mission was accomplished.My shopping group...a great, efficient, shopping group!

We came to the university where we stayed. After dinner, there was a crew who made sandwiches to order... a great assembly line effort.BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.


Tomorrow... the castle!