Famous in France

On our final day in Paris we headed to the metro station and passed a camera crew on our route. Kathryn made a joke saying that we should totally be filmed and that she wanted to be the star; we laughed and headed down the steps underground. 

After our day of macaron filled fun, we were walking across République where we had seen the camera crew earlier, and a man comes up to us speaking in French. Realising we were from the UK, he switched to English and asked us to "come and we film you for an advert! It will take two minutes!". Having been approached and asked to buy things all day, I was all for saying no and moving on. But Kathryn (and then the others) decided it would be a fun thing to do! So we said okay and were briefed on what was wanted of us. 

We were placed in front of a giant billboard with a flowing white skirt, resembling Marilyn Monroe's famous pose and told to look interested and when the wind machine blew we were to act surprised. I was so skeptical at this point and thought it was all going to turn out to be a massive practical joke or something! We did three takes of looking interested then acting surprised. Looking interested then acting surprised. Looking interested then acting surprised. Between takes we were all finding this hilarious and so surreal, like what are we doing right now, we don't even know what this is for and we have no idea what we're doing! After our success on the third take we asked what the advert was for and were told it was for a train company (upon researching after, I think it's one of those inter-railing train packages things). They had been filming members of the public all day, so we were pretty sure we probably would never make it into the ad.

As we were leaving, two of the crew members ran up to us and said we needed to sign a contract. Except this contract was in French so we had no idea what it said, but we signed it anyway! Probably not the best idea, but it seemed legit. 

A month or two later, this advert pops up on youtube and we are actually in it!! Well, three and a half out of five of us are in it (the half being Ellie's mouth. Some of my friends are tall). The saddest thing is that Kathryn got cut out of the frame and never got to be in it, and she was the one who was pioneering our being-filmed-adventure! 

So, that's going on my CV (for your viewing pleasure, click here). And the video has over 1 million views! 1 million people have seen my eyebrow raising acting skillz! 

Bethan

a.k.a french advert star.

PARIS

Paris a.k.a the most spontaneous trip I've ever been on. (The excessive use of brackets will be making an appearance once again. You have been warned.)

One evening myself and two friends were moaning about uni work, complaining about Manchester's weather and craving some adventure when we decided we'd just go somewhere in the Easter break! (I feel like we were baking and eating chocolate and tabasco sauce cupcakes at the time too, which just exemplifies our adventurousness really.) Kathryn knew a person who knew some people who knew a guy who knew someone (it was really just one super cool guy called Simon) who worked in some connection with Eurostar so we were able to get free train tickets to Paris!! Such a blessing to our trip. We roped in two more of our friends from church and our mini break (a mini break means true love) to Paris was all systems go. Vive la vie bohème! (This is the only French I know. I love RENT.)

We stayed in a hostel in an area of Paris called Rebublique which was by a canal and as we walked from the station to the hostel there were loads of people sitting, drinking and eating by the canal which was pretty cool. On our first day we pretty much did a whirlwind tour of Paris by foot. It was pretty tiring but so much fun! Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower (classic tourist) which we climbed, admired the views and took photos of  for quite some time.

As we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe, we passed the Paris marathon upon which Becki decided it was her life goal to run that race. I'm totally behind her on that one. Unfortunately the Arc do Triomphe was having some works done so we didn't see it in it's full glory, but after walking around the roundabout for flipping ages we finally figured out how to get over to the Arc up close and it was great. 

We took a walk down Champs Élysées, stopped for food (I had brioche) and headed to the Louvre which was a really nice walk. Despite our main reasoning for visiting the Louvre being for use of the toilets, we stopped off to see the Mona Lisa and to take in some more arty-type-culture before deciding that yes we did have enough energy to walk to the Notre Dame. Which is a beautiful cathedral, although I am still unsure of what I think about paying to light a candle to say a prayer/making religion so touristy. But like I said it was very beautiful, inside and out. 

When our feet had pretty much walked off our bodies we headed back to the hostel for a nap, waited for it to get dark before we took the metro to see the Eiffel Tower at night (classic tourist). This was probably my favourite part of the trip, it was SO COOL. I had a macaron for the first time (best thing ever). And at 11pm the tower started sparkling. 

My macaron adventures did not stop there though (those things are excellent!). I'll let these pictures take you on a journey of wishing you had a macaron as good as this.

Excellent. Much more fun was had on this trip and I honestly had such a good time; I am très thankful to have these guys in my life! #selfies #wheninparis #wehavethoseinengland #cosimhappy

Oh, and we also got filmed for a French advert but more on that later (I'm famous in France!! Basically.).

Bethan xxx

Fading West

Fading West is the film documentary made by Switchfoot and can pretty much be summed up in three words; music, surf and travel. It's about the band (my favourite band at that) travelling around the world, touring, surfing and writing a record simultaneously. Having never seen a surf or a band related film, I wasn't sure what to expect. All I knew as I sat down to watch it on my train from Manchester to London was that I was really excited (and had been since news of the documentary was released) to see what these guys had come out with this time.

One part of Fading West that stood out for me, aside from Drew's Joker impression (never again please), was the part about heavy metal festivals and 'uncomfortable' places where their music wouldn't necessarily fit in and people have no idea who the band is. Jon described it as "bringing songs we believe in to uncomfortable places because we feel like that's where they need to be heard" which struck me, and is just one of the many reasons I appreciate this band. Music can reach out to people a lot quicker and can hold more meaning than say a sermon can. It is those songs which stick in our heads, that get sung throughout the week and which are memorable.

I really liked and appreciated the family aspect to this film, between the guys as well as with each of their families being involved. There were some heartbreaking moments in Fading West which were sad to watch but these were outnumbered by the joyful family moments; of family in rehearsals, their children in the recording studio and father-son surfing times. It made me realise how much family time the band miss out on when touring, but as is mentioned time and time over, they do it because they believe in what they are singing and what they do, which I admire very much.

Fading West has opened my eyes to a whole world of surfing and I have subsequently found that watching videos of people surfing is quite therapeutic. Though I can’t imagine what it feels like to be on the waves, it looks incredible. The score to Fading West is also incredible and it’s such a great preview to the album which is released later this month. Some deep-life-questions were posed in the documentary, especially the matter of faith in tough times and these were accompanied with music that I am so looking forward to hearing the full song of. Finally, the whole documentary was epically shot and the cinematographers did an amazing job. Also a quick shout out to Chad chasing animals. And him being the producer! Awesome. Thoroughly recommend Fading West, the documentary and am looking forward to Fading West, the album insane amounts!

Christmas dinners and university

I've just come to the end of my first semester at university and where did all that time go!? I've been in Manchester for 13 weeks now (which is longer than most of my friends at other universities) and it's just gone so fast, I started the semester off with a Geography field trip to Keswick and now I'm in my room deciding what to pack for christmas at home (I'm also wondering how I managed to pack for 2 months in the US yet I can't fit what I want to take home for christmas into my suitcase..).

So, a few things about my first semester (as told through the multiple christmas dinners I have had this week):

Course-wise I am genuinely really enjoying studying geography. I've managed to attend all my lectures (I only live a 5 minute walk away from campus so there's no excuse really) and the lecture content is interesting; my favourite module is one called 'Understanding Human Geography' in which we've covered topics such as multiculturalism, national and local identities and mobilities. I've also successfully completed four essays this semester! Essay writing was something I was worried about before starting uni because I had taken maths and chemistry which didn't involve essays alongside geography, and the essays in geography were never my strong point! However it turns out I didn't really need to worry as I've improved my essay writing with the help of my academic advisor over the four essays I've been set already, so I'm happy!  My academic advisor is so nice, chilled out and generally helpful with university life so that's great too! Finally, my coursemates are wonderful and I've made some good friends who like things that I like (particularly david tennant and daniel radcliffe, ha.). Christmas dinner number 1 was held in honour of Frankie's and Nicola's birthdays and it was amazing, particularly the warm chocolate-fudge-with-an-actual-layer-of-fudge-cake for desert!

One of the first pieces of advice I got about going to uni was to "find a church as soon as you can and get involved". The church I go to is called vinelife and meets in a building called 'the powerhouse' which is a community centre and library. Having visited a few churches this summer and in the first few weeks in Manchester, I really felt it was important to settle in one rather than visit more. There are so many churches in Manchester and all of the ones I visited only had good things to say about the others, which is so wonderful, but made it harder to decide where I should be! Vinelife own a coffee house at the top of the curry mile and everyone who works in there is a volunteer aka a cafe missionary so I've started doing that on a Monday morning! It's really exciting and there is so much to learn, especially because I don't drink coffee so have no idea what all the varieties are! I've also joined a lifegroup where we meet weekly and do bible study/outreach/socials together. There are 12 people in my lifegroup and every single one of them is incredible. This was Christmas dinner number 2, where we went round and each said one thing we were thankful for this year (so american) (but such a good idea) and one dream for 2014. There were some big dreams shared that evening, I'm so excited to see where God will take them. 

As I mentioned before, I live super close to campus which is so good for sleeping in and nipping back for lunch between lectures! My flatmates are really great and next year I'll be living with three of them in an actual house!! We're really excited, mainly for the sofa and how clean the kitchen will be! I really enjoy coming in from uni and cooking/chatting with them in the kitchen, and making and eating Christmas dinner number 3 was so much fun (even though I definitely did more eating and less cooking)! 

There were some not so good times too but at the moment I'm really happy and overall I've had a sound first semester at uni!

Bethan 

(Also, skype is so much better in the same time zone! At the beginning of term I'd get an email from my parents asking to skype at a certain time and my mind would automatically calculate what time that was in New York, even though I didn't need to. Small blessings.)

So long, farewell

..auf weidersehen, goodbye! (titled so because Hannah and I watched The Sound of Music in our time off at camp)

So, leaving was one of my least favourite parts of the summer. I was torn between really wanting to see my family and friends back home but also really not wanting the summer to be over and having to say goodbye to everyone who I'd become close to. During the week before leaving, we talked about going back home and not being part of camp; some things I was really going to miss like the community, the laughs, the silly greetings (#awkwardsalmon), the sunsets, the adventure course, being in a routine and being around kids all the time but there were some things I was not going to miss as much like the time difference between New York and London, showering with flipflops on because of gross-ness, cleaning the girls bathroom, the heatwaves, dealing with ticks and, being around kids all the time. I knew it would be strange leaving everyone I'd met that summer and coming home to a place where if I shouted "Hey [insert name here]!" I wouldn't get a shout back of "HEY WHAT" and then a continuation into some crazy camp song. 

I wrote here about saying goodbye at True North to Megan, Mike, Matt, Emma and Madison (so many M's) and after that we got into the international van for the last time and Karen drove us to the train station. Saying goodbye at the station was so strange because our train was waiting at the platform so we said goodbye then got on the train but it wasn't scheduled to leave for like 2 minutes so there was a period of waiting (us on the train, Karen on the platform)  in which, whilst almost all of us were crying/tearing up, Jess gave Karen her dancing chicken. True story. When the train left we did the classic waving for as long as possible out the window and then sat down for the journey into the city. It felt like a genuinely sad train journey but we looked through each others cameras at pictures of the past 7 weeks which was nice. Then Rachael, Katie, Jess and Pete had to get off at the station before Hannah and I so urgent hugs and goodbyes were had as they all needed to get off the train with their luggage to travel on to their next adventure. So it was just me and Hannah left on the train which pulled into Penn Station and we then lugged our suitcases up some stairs and navigated ourselves to the nearest bagel place, naturally. 

Then it was time for my final goodbye to Hannah, this one thankfully was less emotional than all the previous ones as I just sort of knew I'd see her again in the not too distant future so that was really great. We realised the other day that Hannah was the one person I spent every singe day with during my 8 weeks in the US which was really annoying pretty cool! I then headed to my hotel to get ready for my 4am flight the next day. 'Getting ready' involved spending all my change in the vending machine, dancing to the radio and rolling around on the massive bed all mixed in with bursts of loneliness - it was so strange to go from being constantly surrounded by friends to suddenly being alone in a hotel room!

So that's that. Summer: Complete!

And so that concludes my posts on my summer as a camp counselor. I could write about heaps more things, but will leave just a few more good memories here:

• The evening that began as talent show (in which us G3 girls performed the most Godly of raps) turned into a dance party involving Irish dancing with Rachael and a fab rendition of 'Kung-fu Fighting' with Hannah.
• When I dressed up as a caterpillar and escaped from the zoo (funniest thing ever).
• Getting sick from eating too many mangoes and the only way to recovery was having my kids dance like monkeys and sing songs from The Lion King.
• The absolutely insane cabin time where our girls turned off all the lights, had their torches on and did a fashion show.
• Eating ice-cream wherever possible.

Bethan