WYTHNOS UN DEG UN A DAU - week eleven and twelve

I am writing this from the airport as I'm on my way to Stockholm for my friends 30th birthday where we are gonna go and see the Northern Lights up in Kiruna BUT before I continue I must write down an interaction I've just had with the sweetest Welsh man!!

I was going through my project proposal and looking at Tŷ Pawb's website and the next thing a guy comes up behind me and says something which I KNOW is in Welsh. So I of course say to him 'I'm sorry I don't speak Welsh' and he then continues in English, saying he saw my laptop screen and read Welsh and just wanted to say hi. We ended up having a 20 minute conversation about all things Welsh, how to him the Welsh language is so much more than a language, so much more than conversing, it is something else which he cannot describe. He lives over in Blanau Ffestiniog and works in Norway on the ships and he told me that when he first got the job they all took the mick out of him saying 'the Welsh never last cause they miss home' and we laughed because that's the reason I came back. I then proceeded to show him my project and although he probably had no idea what I was yapping on about, he was lovely and got all excited. He told me about a song called Hiraeth that I need to listen to with the English translation, but again, it means so much more in Welsh and the translation doesn't do it justice.

I feel so overwhelmed with joy that someone who doesn't know me has a full blown chat about my studies and gives me things to look into and is so bloody lovely, it just makes me feel even more connected to Wales and how the people are just the nicest people in the world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fast forward one week and I'm on the overnight train back to Stockholm after a wonderful long weekend away with my friends. We saw the northern lights, had a dog sled experience and went on a hike in the oldest national park in Europe. As soon as we got back I jumped in an uber to my friends house to join the call for our project review/presentation. I listened in on the girls presentation and then did my own. It was pretty chilled which was good because I was sleep deprived and had been out of uni brain for a week. Kayla mentioned that we have 2 parts to this module and we need to hand in a presentation which is our findings and research along with our reflection journal and then the second part is our portfolio. I got a bit confused and said that my portfolio is the presentation which she said was fine. But I couldn't stop thinking that maybe I'm missing something here and that I should hand in my sketchbook that I had started with all my research. So that's exactly what I did when I got home on the Thursday, went through my sketchbook and started to re arrange and add in my pieces I've made from screen print and laser cutting etc and I am actually so happy with it. It's not in a particular order and it's pretty messy but it has all the research and development that I've been finding these past months, so exactly what is needed for the submission.

On the Tuesday that I was in Stockholm I also submitted my Project Proposal for Johns class which felt like such a huge relief. I had asked a few of my friends to read it and they all gave me good feedback and had a positive response to it which felt great. I am so happy that's handed in now and I can focus on Studio Practice again before Christmas. I am definitely going to take off at least one week over Christmas as I am going to London for the weekend before to see Wicked with my friend, which she got me for my birthday gift and then another friend is visiting until the 28th. So it will most likely be after New Years before I start looking at anything again, which I think is fine because I have most of next week and then the long weekend before hand in to complete everything.

TO DO:

• Organise sketchbook and continue to add to it

• Start to refine portfolio ensuring that the colour feeling comes through