Hello Wales! We started our bus tour at this outdoor Roman amphitheatre which is the only fully excavated amphitheatre in Britain. It was amazing to begin seeing the country side of the UK and to explore throughout this very large ruin. Also at this stop we got to see the Roman Barracks ancient monument and stop at a Roman Legionary Museum. The museum was very interesting and because our group was only able to stay for a short period of time the owner allowed all of us to go into the outside part of the museum where they had people re-enacting what it was like back in the time of the Romans. Our next stop was to Caerphilly Castle, this is considered to be one of the

greatest medieval castles of Western Europe. This castle had not one but two motes and we got a chance to explore all of inside. We even got to witness the start of wedding occurring there! We stayed the night in Swansea and began day two at the Big Pit Mining Museum. This was an amazing experience, I got a tour of an actual mine 300 hundred feet underground. We put our hard hats on with our head lights attached to them and we were ready to go! Our tour guide was funny too which made the tour that much more enjoyable. I learned how they ventilate fresh air down in the mine, and how they used to have boys as young as six years old working down in the mines. At one part of the tour, our tour guide had us all of our lights off to experience true darkness as the little boys would when their candle got blown out. We got to see where they kept all of the horses and learned the origin of the word S.H.I.T.! It meant sit high in transit when lifting all of the horses manure out of the mine. Near the end our tour guide asked where we were visiting from and we told him London and he said, “London’s a dumb. The best part about London is the M4 on its way to Wales!” Our last stop was to Tintern Abbey which was a gorgeous ruin. We were able to explore around the abbey for awhile and before headed back our tour guide bought us all the best welsh cakes to try which were actually pretty good! I was thrown off by it looking like a pancake but tasting like a scone. Overall I had a great time in Wales, the welsh were very friendly but now it is time to say goodbye and head back to London.

Amongst this trip I have began adventuring around in London with a few friends I’ve made here! We found this amazing street food festival that is near the London eye on the weekends so that is something we look forward to now for their great authentic food! Also, I have began visiting some of the great royal parks here in London. I have been to the

Queen’s Rose garden and part of Kensington Gardens. Kensington Gardens is so big but I was able to see the peter pan statue and the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial which is where we are on the left! I plan to go back there again though to see Kensington Palace.

Other than that I have been doing well and my time here is going by much faster! I have made a list of places I still want to go and I look forward to being able to check some of them off this next week!