hi everybody!! well i have so much to tell you! so we went to snowdonia and it was a fun trip. we left after class on thursday around 3:45pm to go to the bus station and it was such a far walk, especially since we had to carry our luggage. but it was definitely preparation for this weekend... so we were on the train from 4:30 til 11pm. but we had fun singing and playing cards and talking on the way. then when we finally got to the last station carl(the guy who runs the hostel we were staying at) was there with his land rover to pick us and our luggage up and take us to the hostel. very nice of him but kinda scary. so then we got to the hostel and it was way cool! it was better than the houses we are staying at here. free breakfast every morning til 9:30 and a movie room and movies to rent for a pound and a bar room(that we never used) and hot showers! the room we stayed in had eight beds in one room and a sink and there were six of us. and we were by ourselves for the first two nights. ok so thursday night we went straight to sleep(well after talking for quite awhile). then on friday morning we got up early, ate breakfast and got on a bus to climb mount snowdon. yeah i know, you all think im lying lol i thought kelly was joking when she said we were going to climb a mountain. i thought yeah climb a mountain lol thats cool. but i knew it was serious when we got to the hostel and started talking about what we were going to do the next day... but i had a positive attitude, thought it would be cool to say that i had climbed a mountain. so we rode the bus up to the base of the mountain. that was an adventure in itself! the guy was going at least 70mph and at most points the two lane two way rode turned into only one lane so if two cars happened to be going opposite directions and met each other on the one lane one car/bus would have to back up until it was two lanes again and let the other car pass. plus there were parts where the rode was on the side of the mountain with only a small rail to keep you "safe". so we reached the base of the mountain and it started to lightly drizzle. after the warden gave us advice on what paths to take to the top we were on our way. i was totally pumped! so i had thought this mountain would have alot of trees and dirt paths... yeah so not the case... it had sheep in the grass and all the paths were rocky. and if you know anything about climbing rocks and wetness is NOT GOOD!! but we are college kids and decided to go for it anway. the hike up took us two and a half hours and was really hard on my lower body seeing as how i dont exercise ever. i was so exhausted by the time we reached the summit. the top of the moutain was cold and since we were "walking in the clouds" we were picking up all the precipitation so our clothes and hair began to get wet. we ate our peanut butter sandwiches and digestives(these yummy cookies that are essentially a round graham cracker with chocolate on top) and rested for about thirty minutes before beginning our climb down. me and sarah really wanted to take the train down but it left before we could get on. so the climb down was easier and harder than the climb down... going up really wears you out, we had to keep taking breaks. but the climb down is easier on your body(although it works different muscles) but its more dangerous because its easier to slip and fall. i fell on my butt a few times, but nothing bad. kelly slipped and fell on the way up when we stopped by this little stream. she went to touch the water and slipped and busted her chin and scraped her knee. it was so bad, but she claimed she was fine. so on the way down we got completely soaked because it started raining. i mean to the bone. i HATE being wet, well i take showers whatever lol but i dont like getting caught in the rain and whatnot. i freak out. but i was totally fine with being wet on the way down. of course i was probably the most uncomfortable i have ever been in my life and i was not too happy to have to remain wet til we got back to our hostel which was about three hours after we were done climbing the mountain. and i said i did not want to see another rock for the rest of my life!! lol so the bus we had to take back to our hostel wasnt coming for another two and a half hours. so we decided to take another bus that was coming in thirty minutes but was going in the direction opposite of our hostel. the plan was to then take another bus to our hostel. we would be getting there about the same time as the other bus that was leaving much later. but we preferred to be doing something instead of just sitting at the base of the mountain in the cold rain. so we took the bus soaking wet and got off at the stop and ate at this little cafe. i got a bacon, avocado, mozarella cheese toasted sandwich. sounds kinda good right? well it was sorta weird... i took off the "bacon" because it was really slabs of ham, gross! but i was so hungry i ate the rest of it. plus i had chocolate fudge coffee-it was really good after i added a large amount of sugar : ) then we caught our other bus that took us back to our hostel. when we got back we all showered(which was WONDERFUL!!!!!) and then we decided to put our soaked clothes and shoes in the "drying" room. sounds smart right?? NO! BAD IDEA!!!!!!! we figured out the hard way that the drying room is really the keep wet room. it was so humid in there that everything just retained its moisture... stupid! so anyways we watched good will hunting in the cool lounge room, i had never seen that movie. it was SO good!!! well it kinda helped that both matt damon and ben affleck were in it ; ) so i discovered the next morning that both my shoes and my only pair of jeans were still half way soaked. sucky! brent had the same problem so we ended up sitting on the floor of our hostel room using the blow dryer to get our pants to a wearable state. it was SO ridiculous!! so then once we were ready we went down to the tourist information center to get directions on how to get to black rock sands beach and the castle in criccieth. once we had them we set out on the longest journey of my life! the first part of it was okay except for the fact that the directions werent very clear and we walked an unnecessary amount of time. but once we reached the beach it was so wonderful! the sun was shining and there was a bit of a breeze. we sat on the rocks and ate the sandwiches we had bought at this little cafe. me being plain jane got turkey, lettuce and cheese on a baguette and i ended up splitting it with brent because he ordered some nasty sandwich. it was mexican chicken and he asked for pickles on it which turned out to be not pickles at all, but rather a purple looking jam. needless to say it was disgusting! not even josh would eat it which says alot! so then we decided to go on a trail up over the rocks to another part of the beach. and there we got to walk out on a sand bar-the water was SO cold but felt good once we got used to it : ) it was so beautiful! then we followed lisa and kelly up over some rocks to another part of the beach where we could see the castle we were planning on seeing. so from there we decided to walk to the town of criccieth to see the castle because it SEEMED close... thus begins the journey of hell... no joke! so we walked along the beach, towards the castle, for about a mile. it was alright except that my hip began hurting(it has started to do that lately when we walk alot... oh well). so because of my hip and the fact that i was so sick of walking, i remained about twenty or thirty yards behind everyone else. i felt so bad because they kept stopping for me to catch up. so then once we had reached the end of that part of the beach it was time for us to begin walking towards the land so we could go over the cliff that was blocking our walk along on the beach. but not before stopping to check out some caves near the cliff. they werent anything to talk about, in fact they smelled pretty bad. so then we walked through a campsite and had to jump a barb wire fence to get to the road that would supposedly take us to the castle. well we obviously got lost because we ended up at a dead end near a bunch of farm houses. so josh stopped and asked a welsh farm boy how to get to the castle. after he nicely told us where to go we began the worst part of the journey. the boys directions took us down a steep and rocky trail that was covered in mud. once we had made our way through that we reached the beach on the other side of the cliff that had previously thwarted our beach walk. well this beach was hell! it was covered, and i mean COVERED! there was no sand in sight, in mulitcolored rocks about the size of my fist. and this stretch of beach that we had to walk down was probably two miles long(of course im a bad estimator AND an exaggerator... lol). and on top of that the castle still seemed as far away as ever. i was seriously on the verge of tears. my hip was hurting so bad and we had been walking a total of about three hours. like i said... the journey of hell! i cant even put into words my feelings of despair at that time... i had said i never wanted to see another rock in my life and i made sure to remind God that this was not a funny joke... so anyways we finally reached the edge of the town of criccieth and found out when the buses back to our hostel were coming because there was no way we were walking back! so then we were on our way to the castle but all of us were famished so we decided to stop at this little tea room that was close by. it was exaclty what i needed! i got a small pot of tea, a piece of chocolate cake and a scone with butter. plus i ate the peanut butter sandwich sarah had made for me that morning. i was feeling much better after that. plus brent retold our journey in a humurous way so that we could laugh about it-it was the only healthy way of dealing with it. when we left the tea room it was about 5:30pm. so we headed for the castle and when we got there the lady told us that we only had thirty minutes to go around the castle which wasnt enough time and we still would have to pay full price. so we bought some things in the gift shop and left... so then we hopped on the bus back to our hostel and were so thankful to be "home." we took showers and then me and sarah and kelly went just down the street to this fish and chips place to get some dinner. i got a chicken and vegetable pie and chips. the lady asked me if i wanted gravy and i told her on the side and do you know what she did? she poured it on the chips which were to the side of my pie lol ...on the side... anyways i was kinda nervous about this pie bc i am such a picky eater but it was just about the best thing i have ever eaten!! i was very surprised and so happy to eat a good meal. then after dinner we all watched the green mile. that movie is so good but it scares me SO bad!!!! lol and ive seen it like three times. plus i cried at the end, its so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! me and josh were the only ones in the group that had seen it before. kelly was bawling! she started when percy kills mr jingles and i dont think she ever really stopped. so then we went to bed and the next morning we got up and walked around the shops and bought some lunch at tesco which is like wal mart. my lunch consisted of a bag of potato chips, strawberries, raspberries and a bottle of water. lol needless to say i was HUNGRY by the time we got off the train in oxford at 5:30pm. i was so glad to be "home!" so i took a shower and got ready for nine at nine(our sunday night worship time at nine oclock in house nine) and unpacked my bags. then me and sarah made some dinner and went to house nine. it was so good tonight! i was crying the whole time!! brent was part of the group that was leading it and he talked about how abraham had prayed for so long for isaac and then God asked him to sacrifice isaac but that God had provided an offering. and how that story related to his relationships back home, that he had finally found friends that he really trusted and then he had to leave for oxford which is where he knew God was leading him but that bc of that he had to "sacrifice" those relationships to God but that he knew God would provide. and i started bawling! thats exactly where im at right now! i know im supposed to be here and i love being here. but there are people back in the states that i have left behind, people that i finally found that i had been waiting for and now i have to leave them. and i know that its all Gods plan and timing and im cool with that but brent put all of that into words and it really hit me hard. and then we stayed an extra hour and just prayed and i started crying again when we were taking praying requests because there are so many people here that are going through some hard times and it just tugged at my heart... hard. but it was good : ) so i think thats about it for this weekend... love ya! ~jen