Home Away From Home

I received my housing assignment today.  I will be living in a single room with an ensuite bathroom in one of the dorms on campus.

Courtesy of Swansea University

Something different from the US university housing system is that there are three sizes of rooms, small, medium, and large.  Personally, I did not have a choice as to the size of the room, but I'm assuming domestic students do.  The other thing I found rather interesting, was that there is no roommate lottery system like at WSU.  All of the rooms are single rooms, most often in either a flat/apartment setup, or like my dorm is set up, with rooms in a traditional dorm style sharing a large common area.  Like this:

Courtesy of Swansea University

And So It Begins...

The week of Thanksgiving I received the envelope I've been waiting for all semester; my acceptance package from Swansea.  It was official, I was in!

It took a couple of weeks to get all of the final details worked out, but I finally sat down and booked my plane ticket tonight.  In five weeks, I'll be on a plane to London for a couple of days and then on a train to Swansea!

There is still a lot left to do, like booking a train ticket, finding a taxi from the train station to my hotel in London, finding a hotel...the list is never ending!  I'm slowly getting it all done.

Swansea University

I just wanted to give everyone a quick look at where I will be studying for the next semester.  My school is in Swansea, which is about thirty minutes from the capital of Wales, Cardiff, and three hours by train to London.  I've always wanted to live on the coast, so I'm really excited the school is literally a block off the beach.

Swansea University is known for its research institutions and strong academic programs.  They exchange with WSU through both the Honors College and the College of Business.

If you've got a little time to kill, here (Swansea University) is the actual school website.  It's worth a look around!

I will post actual pictures when I arrive, but here is a light overview, courtesy of Google Images.

Introductions and Pleasantries

Hi guys!

I'm writing this blog to document my semester abroad in Swansea Wales, and to share my adventures with my friends, family, and any future students considering going abroad.

For the sake of any newcomers, I will go ahead and introduce myself.

My name is Taylor, and I am a sophomore honors student at Washington State University.  I am an accounting major, with a background in Spanish and French.  My Spanish is coming along nicely, but my French needs a lot more work.  While home for Christmas break, I'm brushing up on my German to prepare for a visit to a friend of my in Muhlheim, Germany.

I grew up in the southeastern part of the United States.  The one question I get all the time, even after having lived in Washington for almost three years now is, "Where are you from, because you aren't from Washington."  My southern accent comes out the most when I'm tired.  I'm secretly hoping I'll come home from Wales with a cool southern/british accent hybrid.

I love to read, travel, and watch TV.  Any of my friends can tell you, I'm entirely too invested in the well-being of my TV drama characters...don't even get me started on the emotional trauma Downton Abbey has put me through!

Anyways, that's all for now.  Keep checking back, subscribe to the RSS feed, or keep an eye on Facebook for new updates! There are the appropriate links to start following this blog on the left side bar.

Talk to y'all soon!