Jaclyn - Cardiff, Week 4

I know it's cliché…but it needs to be said - I can't believe it's already my fourth week here in Cardiff. I've become so well-adjusted. Better than I thought I would be. Week four means I have just five weeks left, and that semi-terrifies me. I've learned, and learned to love, the funny sayings, the weird-shaped electric sockets, the excessive amounts of mayonnaise…

I'm getting so used to things here that I'm missing this place already. I've been making a super conscious effort to soak up all the experiences I can, so cue the pictures/touristy adventures...

Took a quick trip to Cardiff Market with a coworker on one of our lunch breaks last week. It's essentially like a small flea market. There were little shops selling trinkets and, of course, tons of food stands. There was even a pet shop, so naturally I took pictures of cute baby animals to post on here for everyone to see.

My coworker, Amy, and I got lunch -- I got a tomato/mozzarella panini and she got a jacket potato with beans which, to my fellow Americans, is just a baked potato with beans. They have weird phrases for everything…I'm still trying to catch on to some :) Anyway… jacket potatoes and beans and cheese are big (in popularity) over here. Everyone eats them… it's super weird. I'm semi-nervous to tell them that I'm not particularly fond of potatoes… I could get away with a baked potato if it had butter and/or sour cream and/or cheese on it though (very American of me).

Enough about potatoes…. I wanted to try something traditionally Welsh, so Amy (co-worker and my "shadow" as some of our coworkers would say) suggested I try a Welsh cake. A Welsh cake is essentially a pastry in the shape of a pancake (different sizes available) with raisins in it. I got one traditional and two of the chocolate chip version, too (because chocolate is essentially a food group in my book).

Hard to tell which are the chocolate chip ones and which is the raisin, but I swear, two different kinds are there. They were quite tasty! These ones are about the circumference of a standard-sized water bottle (sorry for the strange reference… my Camelbak water bottle is currently the closest thing to me that even remotely resembles a circular object).

Amy was getting really interested in helping me find things to blog about, so she made me take pictures of the historical information posted around the upper balcony of the market. There's even some Welsh there! (Most people don't speak it. I have no idea how to pronounce a thing.)

I simultaneously would like to thank and apologize to the people who have been reading this far…

To continue… last week at work, I decided to doodle a logo for the recruitment team. One of my coworkers, Gary, and I turned it into a reality and now the Super Recruitment team logo is up on one of the recruitment stats boards - no big deal.

I have no smooth transition for this, but here's a picture of the new Cardiff Admiral building that everyone from the 4 different offices (yes, 4) will be moving into so they can all be together! I'm lucky enough to have a great view of it from my building.

Giving up on transitions now…

Went out with a great bunch of people the other night. Had way too much fun and they even were up for learning some of my American ways!! (That's as much detail as I'm going to go into!)

The best part about that night may have been the fact that I tried fish and chips for the first time!! Boy, do the Welsh know how to make french fries. I haven't had a bad one yet, which to me is extremely impressive. I got fish and chips from this place called Dorothy's. It's on Caroline Street in Cardiff, which is referred to as "Chippy Alley" by most. There are tons of chip (french fry) shops all down the street. So so good.

Still don't like fish, though. But hey, at least I tried!

The next day (this past Sunday), I decided to take a trip to Cardiff Castle. It's essentially across the street from my building, which is crazy to me, because (to put it into U-M terms…) it'd be like working in the Ugli and having Pizza House be a castle. Crazy to even think about..but there it is, every time I go to work, right across the street. Crazy crazy crazy. I don't think I'll ever get over it.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took while at the Castle before the rain chased me away...

And, of course, castle selfies.

To end this incredibly long blog post, I thought I'd include one last picture of Cardiff Castle.

Still can't get over it….