John Leraas writes from Wales.
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John is an Honors College physics major studying abroad for a year.
He's a junior, and his hometown is Olympia, Washington. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. after gradaution.
I celebrate my first Pancake Day
Pancake Day came about as a way to use up food that was forbidden during Lent. Pancakes here are much thinner than the pancakes back home. They're what we would call crepes. Now it's more of a tradition than anything associated with religion or conserving resources, and everyone has a great time with it. Everyone has their own favorite pancake toppings, which range from jam to Minstrels (chocolate candies). I had pancakes with lemon and sugar and also with caramelized banana and ice cream. They were absolutely amazing.
Rare snow brings sledding
The day after Pancake Day, March 1, was St. David's Day (the patron saint of Wales). To celebrate, people wear large amounts of red and post Welsh flags. The night before, it snowed a few inches, which is a really big deal here since it usually snows only once every couple of years. So I went out with a bunch of friends from my course (their word for "major") and drove inland to go sledding. One person had a proper sled, four of us had bacon trays.
Luckily, there were no shotguns
Land ownership in Wales is a bit different than in the US. I wouldn't trespass on someone's farmland for fear of being chased off with a shotgun. We hopped a few gates and barbed wire fences to reach a long steep hill. We were in plain view, which made me a bit uneasy, but my friends said that the worst that could happen is that someone would tell us to get off their land. So we sledded for about 45 minutes, and then someone did tell us to leave because we were scaring the sheep. So we left in search of another farm.
We found a man with a tractor and asked if we could use his hill. Not only did he give permission, but he let us use three sleds that he kept in the stable. We had an absolutely amazing time going down the hill, over the jumps, and avoiding the rocks and holes. We piled people on top of each other to see how many we could fit on a sled and still make it down.
Have a can of Strongbow
Before we left, the farmer, Garreth Jenkins (an extremely Welsh name), walked down with a plastic bag. He said "I know it's cold out here, so I was going to bring you guys down a cup of tea. But I thought that's a little boring so I brought you down these instead." He passed each of us a can of Strongbow, a brand of cider. It's not even close to any of the "hard ciders" I have had back home. The cider here has less of an apple cider taste to it and is extremely bubbly—almost like champagne. Apparently it is a very popular drink with the farmers here in Wales. It's a bit acidic and the bubbles don't help it settle well in your stomach. But we all agreed that Garreth Jenkins had given us the best can of Strongbow we had ever tasted.
Making friends in the UK
The friends I went with are from the UK—three English guys and three Welsh. I met most of them through my course. It seems like most of the American students here either make friends with lots of other Americans or with people from the UK. I fall into the second group. The people who keep mostly American friends do quite a bit more traveling, but don't make as many permanent friends. My American neighbor told me that she has had a great time traveling over Europe and seeing the sights, but that she was envious of me because I would always be welcome back.