oh yeah, and that's the castle...

So, since I'm wide awake, I thought I'd give you an update since its been a while!! I don't even know where to begin! Before I get on to the castle (which is AMAZING), I'll start with Millennium Stadium, a little less exciting, but still super cool! On Wednesdays, we only have one class from 9-10, so we decided to have an adventure for the rest of the day to go and find the famous Millennium Stadium. Needless to say, we found it! It's huge, and kind of hard to miss, but hey! it was a fun adventure :)

Here's one tiny corner of it:

it's massive! anyways, you walk down a bit farther and there is a row of flags, accompanied by mosaics on the ground in front of each flag for that country.

USA!

Across the water there were all of these beautiful homes :) I especially love the one with the teal trim! So cute! Then, across the street and under a bridge we found this adorable water-bus stop!


That big thing in the back and to the left, yep, that's the stadium. Here's the same shot with the 4 corners of the stadium marked so you can have a little bit better idea of how big it is:


and here's a closer shot of the water-bus stop :) I love it!


Now! On to the castle! Which is literally in the middle of the city. It's kind of mind boggling. Here you are, walking down Queen street, which is all shops and food places, and then one side of it is still shops, but across the street it's a castle. Awesome. So, we got out tickets and headed in:




and that was only the beginning... So with your ticket comes a tour of the main castle, and the signs say you aren't allowed to take pictures inside of the castle. We, however, had a wonderful tour guide that allowed us to take some! And there were more than enough picture worthy sights, here's some:

omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus amori
"Love conquers all, let us too surrender to love"

The Children's room.


The ceiling in the Arab room. Literally THE most amazing ceiling I have EVER seen.


The story of Abraham and Isaac, and how Abraham obeyed God and was willing to sacrifice his son, but God provided a ram as a replacement. Foreshadowing God's provision for us in Jesus Christ. In stained glass.


The library :)

After fully exploring the inside and hearing lots of amazing history, we headed outdoors! It was about 32 degrees or less, so we were freezing! But we went on to explore Norman's Keep, the inside of the castle wall, and the South Gate.

Norman's Keep


inside the wall


and the south gate!

Needless to say, we had a lovely time! After spending a good few hours there, we headed down to "chippy lane" for some fish and chips at Dorothy's that were delicious!! A perfect end to an amazing castle adventure :)
On the academic side of things... haha classes are going well. I'm still getting used to the class schedule, but its better than it was a week ago! Still clearing a few things up with the module leaders, but for the most part we are jumping on in! Tomorrow we start collecting data for a group project in our exercise physiology class that requires me to do a VO2 max test. This test basically entails of pushing me (and 9 of my classmates) to just over 90% of my age predicted heart rate max, all the while taking down various other information. This then allows us to see how much oxygen I can take in maximally... essentially its a test of my aerobic fitness. Then in the following 2 weeks we will see how aerobic fitness is related to recovery time.... if that makes no sense to you at all, don't worry about it. haha. Anyway, seeing as that is tomorrow morning, I am headed to bed! Goodnight all :)
love, emily