defabbiasStephen Defabbia

All articles by defabbias

 

Boston Reunion.

The four of us met in Boston over winter break. Although we met up several other times throughout the 6 months since being home, Boston was the first BIG adventure. It actually was lengthened by a day, too, because of a crazy blizzard- we all met up a day early. Justine and Maggie live in
Continue reading...  

It’s been almost a year since I left for Wales….

It is almost one year since I left for Wales. I can not begin to explain how great this experience has been for me. Even after being back for six months, each day I become more aware of how studying abroad has changed me for the better. it has opened my eyes to the world
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #19: T-12 hours until takeoff. (My story, part 2)

So I leave Cardiff in 12 hours… but I actually leave for the airport in 9 hours… At 330 AM I will be taking a taxi ride to Cardiff airport and then saying farewell to the amazing city that I fell in love with. …so I not only got to Cardiff, but I made it
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #18: Saying Goodbye. (My story, part 1)

I am currently sitting her in flat 8 of Dwyfor Block of Uni Hall. My room is a mess. I have my suitcase by my side which is half full (or half empty). The rest of the room is either filled with garbage, or miscellaneous stuff that hasn’t made it’s way to the suitcase yet.
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #17: Caerphilly Castle!

Throughout the last month here, the Americans slowly started leaving. Justine was second to leave, and since she was leaving so much earlier than everyone else, she felt as if she was missing out. I ensured her that there is always time for one more adventure, and so we planned one! Caerphilly Castle is not
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #16: Dunraven Bay

The story oh how I discovered Dunraven Bay amuses me. I was writing my essay for my ‘Wales and the Welsh Language’ course about what makes Wales unique. In completing this research, I typed into google “Welsh landscape”, and images came up looking like this: I took a break from writing my essay, to discover
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #15: South Northern Wales!

What’s interesting to me, is that the last big trip that we went on ended up being one of the best. Along with many of the other trips, we ended up going here, because my friend Justine found out about it from a book she read in middle school. In fact, it was this book
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #14: Puzzlewood

One of the great things about the people I have met here, is that they lead me to places I would not ordinarily find on my own. Two of my friends here, Justine and Marissa are avid fans of the shows Merlin and Doctor Who. Both of these TV shows have filming locations locally. Doctor Who,
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #13: Every volcanic ash cloud has a silver lining….

So there has been a volcano that erupted in Iceland, and the volcanic ash has caused many flights throughout Europe to be delayed and canceled. Luckily, this problem did not occur until after The Italian Adventure… that would have been bad. I know there are tons of people that have been affected by the ash,
Continue reading...  

Why Wales?: Entry #12 The Italian Adventure “Days 9-15”

Day 9, March 28, 2010 4 becomes 3. Originally, the plan was to leave Rome early and head to Pompeii, but we ended up missing a train because of daylight savings time. We decided to switch our original plan a bit, and head to Naples and relax for a night, so we could have a
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #11: The Italian Adventure “Days 7&8”

Day 7  March 26, 2010 San Marino to Rome.  (2 becomes 4) Day seven started out well planned, but many problems occurred. The plan was to get up at around 6:30, check out of the hotel by 7:20, get on the 8am bus back to Rimini for our train to Rome at 10:15. The 8am
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #10: The Italian Adventure “Days 4-6”

~~~~~~~~~~ Day 4 March 23, 2010 Piacenza & Venice We had a short morning at Miriam and Lorenzo’s with some dilicious italian bread and coffee. After that Miriam rushed us to the train station to head back to Venice for another night. Our first train ended up being late, which delayed most of our day-
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #9: The Italian Adventure “Days 1-3”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Day 1.  March 20, 2010 Day one was a day of travel. We were all set to take the megabus from Cardiff to London and then another bus to the London-Stansted Airport, but we realized the night before that that the times we planned did not give us enough time to check in to
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #8: The Italian Adventure “Planning”

Why Wales? Well the obvious reason is that we had 3 weeks off for Spring break! Now, classes are important, but so is travel. Three weeks off allows us to choose places outside of the UK and truly taste that traveling bug that has been fluttering around us since we initially decided to study abroad.
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #7: Ireland Adventure.

Ireland. was. amazing. Reading Week. It is a week given to the students so that they have extra time to prepare for exams, and catch up on their reading, etc. Needless to say, ‘reading’ was not going to be a part of my Reading Week- except for maps, street signs and menus. My reading week
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #6: I’ll take Welsh weather over NY weather any day.

The one thing people warned me most against Wales was the weather. Everyone warned me that is is rediculously wet and cold all the time. I for one, have not experienced this at all. I can officially say that Spring has sprung in Cardiff, and I love it. Today is the first day that I
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #5 London Love

One of my friends here was planning on going to London for the weekend to meet up with a friend that she hasn’t seen in 13 years. Since she was planning on going anyway, she decided to invite some others and make a mini-vacation out of it. I went to London last year with some
Continue reading...  

Why wales? Entry #4- Venturing out to Swansea.

Going to Swansea was somewhat spontaneous; we only decided on going the day before. We didn’t consider the weather or the cost… we were ready to see a new city. Swansea is the second largest city in Wales.. and it was not that big at all. We were there for pretty much the entire day…
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #3: Discovering and Appreciating Cardiff.

Today is February 11th, which means that I have been on this journey for  25 days. Almost a month! It is unreal for me to look back at all the paperwork and saving and see that not only am I here, but I have been here for some time now. Enough time now, to be
Continue reading...  

Why Wales Entry #2- Planes, Trains, and Buses.

There are four New Paltz students (including myself) studying abroad in Cardiff. It is interesting to me, how we have all attended this small school for at several years, and never even knew of each other. Surprising to the both of us, one of the travellers not only shared a class and a major with
Continue reading...  

Why Wales? Entry #1

(Sidenote: This blog is dedicated to my good friend Liz Conti who studied abroad in London last year, thus opening my eyes to the many possibilities yet to come) Why Wales? From the point that I decided to study abroad in Wales, to after arrival in my host country… everyone has been asking me, “Why
Continue reading...