A winter's day

Here are some photos of the beautiful frost we had at AC yesterday:

The view from top lawn looking towards the sea.

Looking through the trees at the castle.

A frosted leaf in the grass.

Looking towards the castle.

The way back to the houses.

The beginning of the end

8.30am- Well here it is, the last week of my first term at AC. I can't believe where the time has gone! I am able to write this as I do not have English this morning. I still got up to have breakfast however we did have a bit of a lie in. This weekend was great but quite tiring. It is strange that not doing much is so tiring! Saturday we went in to Llantwit, did some shopping and had tea in a tearoom. It was very relaxing and a great way to get ready for the Christmas party. Everyone looked  amazing at the party and it was a lot of fun. My date was great! PK's party was held in The Great Hall in the castle and so it was lovely and 'Christmasy'. I ended up taking my heels off around half way down and spent the rest of the night barefoot. We had a three course buffet meal, songs and lots of laughs. Check-in was 12am and so that made it even better.
    Sunday morning we all slept quite late before going down to brunch. After that we spent the rest of the day chatting and relaxing. Last night there was a candlelit carol service in the church, which I really enjoyed. After that we ate the PK Christmas cake. It was decorated by a couple of students and looked really good. It tasted good too! It is my houseparent's Birthday today and so we may have more cake later too.
    Well I am going to pop back to PK before assembly at 9am. It is Neil's last assembly and so will be very sad. Love to everyone and see you in 4 days!

Friday!

8.30am- Morning everyone! I have first code free today which makes Friday even better! I have just had breakfast so I popped up to the library before Econ starts at 9. We have under a week left at school until we go home. Everyone will finish exams today, so there will be a great atmosphere on campus. I had a really relaxing day yesterday.  After lessons a group of us from PK went in to Llantwit to do some shopping. When we got back we wrapped the presents for our Secret Santas, which made me very excited for Christmas. We then made Danish rye bread and ate Danish pastries for Open House. My Danish dormie said they were not real Danish pastries but they tasted good to me! I now love rye bread and see why all the Scans complain about ours so much!
         This weekend is going to be so good. Tonight we are having a PK girlie night in (around 6 of us). We are going to cook pasta with lots and lots of veg. We bought all the veg we miss from home! After that we are going to watch "Love Actually" (keeping to the Christmas theme). Tomorrow is then the Christmas party. Each house has a separate party. PK are in the Great Hall in the castle.We all dress up and find out who our "date" is. We then have a meal, go to sosh and basically have a great time. It is going to be so much fun. Before that a couple of us are going in to Cowbridge and will do a little window shopping as a final Christmas treat. When we get back we will help get everything ready (the hall and ourselves!). Check-in tomorrow is 12am. I won't say any more! Sunday will then be time for catching up on our sleep! 
      Yesterday my dormie left to go back to China for Christmas. It is sad that she left a week early and we will miss her. We won't see her for five weeks and that is a very long time when you are used to living with someone everyday. We have Codes until next Wednesday morning and then Thursday will be the big departure day. I don't really see myself writing much on here over the weekend but I think I have given you a good update. Lots of love to everyone and will probably see all of you sometime in the next month!

1st December!

1.20pm- Hello everyone. The snow is still on the ground here and it is freezing cold! It is a beautiful to see the castle in the snow however. I have a busy day today. It will be fun and all of my exams are done and so that is nice. Everyone is relaxing and getting into the Christmas spirit. I have a flute lesson followed by flute ensemble and then French tutorials tonight. In between that I will go for a walk in the snow and try not to freeze!  Yesterday I had service, and we went to visit the residential homes. I really enjoy talking to the elderly people although it tends to be a similar conversation every week! It was lovely when they said not to forget to come back and see them after Christmas. Hopefully it means that we do help them a little. Last night I went to the club for people with learning difficulties once again. I have now made it my 3rd official social service activity as I wanted to guarantee there would be a place on the bus for me every week. I will not have any service next week and so I will not see them all until January. Well must go but everything is great here. Christmas is coming and I am so excited! See you all soon.