I know
this post is a little late, but I was in Wales this weekend, and I wanted to
wait so I could show you the pictures! It wasn’t that extensive of a trip – it was
less than forty-eight hours, and a lot of that was driving – but I had a
fabulous time, and I’ve now been to Wales.
I
joined a smaller tour group for the trip; there were only sixteen of us. We had
people from the US, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Israel, and Australia,
but the tour was given in Irish-accented English. I left Cambridge at 6:30
Saturday morning to meet up with the rest of the group in London (the company
provided transportation), and we headed off to Wales.
On our
way, we stopped off in Chester and wandered around for ourselves for a while. I
got lunch and then went to see Chester Cathedral. It’s an impressive building.
We also took pictures of the Eastgate Clock, which is the most photographed
clock in England after Big Ben. At the moment, though, it’s covered in
scaffolding.
After
this we crossed over into Wales, which is full of misty, mountainous terrain
and adorable little villages. We walked around one of these, saw the smallest
house in Great Britain, and photographed a couple of castles, although we
couldn’t go in anywhere. On Saturday night we stayed in an adorable hostel,
where our host informed us that he didn’t go to bed until “all his lambs were
back in the fold” (regardless of the fact that some of his ‘lambs’ were older
than he was). We appreciated the homey atmosphere.
On
Sunday we woke up early for a full Welsh breakfast before driving to our next stop.
This was the ‘village with the longest name’, which really consisted of nothing
but its name and souvenir shop. Of course, the shop was fairly extensive. We
finished off the sightseeing with a steam train ride through Snowdonia* before
heading back to London. Everyone had a great time.
Of
course, by the time we’d driven back to London, and I’d taken the train back to
Cambridge and walked back to my dorm, it was about 11:30 at night. Still, I
managed to get unpacked, showered, and into bed before midnight, and then wake
up at 7:30 to prepare for a presentation in my 9:00 discussion section (it went
well). I’m planning on a nap later today, though.
I’m
having fun inside of class as well. I had all three of my discussion sections
for class this morning, and they were fun. In “Good Life or Moral Life” we were
discussing Plato’s dilemma.* It wasn’t anything like the first time I’d heard
it, and I don’t consider it a particularly potent problem, but it made for an
interesting conversation all the same.
My mind
is kind of in overdrive lately, which is exactly the way I like it. I’ve given
up TV and Netflix for a while, and it’s amazing how much I can get done when I
don’t waste time – and how much more interesting I find what I’m doing. I
always do this during summer study; I get really excited about whatever subject
matter I’m focused on. At the moment, that subject matter is philosophy.
It’s
been two weeks, and I’m now halfway through with one of my classes and a
quarter of the way through my time here at Cambridge. It’s scary how fast
things are going, but I’m certainly enjoying every minute of it. And now I have
to go get my laundry and awkwardly carry it past all the tourists. Until next
week!
**Simply put: is it good because God loves it, or does God love it because it is good?
God, as defined by the Judeo-Christian tradition, is a
necessary being, and thus his nature could not be otherwise. In this case,
moral values are absolute because they are part of God’s absolute nature. It's not a question of God loving the good so much as of God embodying the good.
Pictures:
(Thanks to all my fellow tourists who took pictures of me!)
This is the Chester Cathedral. As I said, impressive.
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