Ah, David, that’s good news (and I wish I’d seen it sooner) - what time do you expect to be in Aber by? There’s no busses on a Sunday, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to take you up on that offer of a lift.
I’m hoping to meet up with you all on Tuesday morning too - looking forward to it!
The first Sunday train from Manchester to Aberystwyth doesn’t arrive until about 3:30pm, so that’s the earliest I can get there. If that’s too late in the day, then I might be able to arrange a space on a friend’s couch on Saturday night, but I’d rather avoid imposing on people if I can.
Best wishes to everyone for their coming week in the wild. Looking forward to hearing Gavin and Johns stories when we next meet up…JOIO!!!
I’ve seen the bootcampers very briefly twice this week. The first time they were in the Dan’i Sang Chinese restaurant, some of them looking a little nervous and quiet, but it was just their first real day so not sure what they were in for.
The second time was today at the Llandysul Festival and they were definitely a lot more relaxed! They’ll be heading off home tomorrow so no doubt the tales of what they got up to will be hitting the forum sometime soon after that. Should be interesting reading!!
Great. I always love reading the stories…
Me too! Next best thing to attending.
Like others I really look forward to the reports; and being nosey, the more detailed the better.
Well, that was fun. Feels weird to be talking in English now. Just out of interest, is it normal to start thinking in both languages?
Not at all! In fact, it’s quite useful (for me at the moment as I’m still in Wales!), but it’s great to be able to think in both languages! 
Siw mae pawb!
We went to Caws Cenarth on Dydd Gwener (I think it was), and they were obviously very proud of the fact that the Prince of Wales had paid them a visit many years earlier.
So I was delighted to see that he is going to see them again this week!
1 Like
Great news for the lovely family who run the farm. I must have been there at least six times now and absolutely love their Perl Las organic cheese.
I sent a text to my husband while away in Tresaith last week to tell him I was having a whale of a time.
My FB update reads as follows.
A week away in Tresaith resulted in
- Much more fluent Welsh. Thanks to Say Something in Welsh
- Six days out of seven sitting or swimming in the sea. More often swimming.
- Quite a lot of ice cream.
- A visit to the National Wool Museum at Drefach Felindre. Only two books bought, one on socks.
- Coastal walks to Aberporth, and from Penbryn to Tresaith.
- Huge amounts of laughing.
- Two Scrabble games.
- Visits to Llandysul, Newcastle Emlyn, Aberteifi, Pentre Ifan, Aberaeron.
- Four runs in the C25K programme.
- A tour of the Castle in Aberteifie, from the outside.
- A lot of late nights.
It was a very fun week. At the pizza party, I ended up talking to this woman from Bolton who’d moved to Ceredigion with her husband some years back, and had been learning Welsh for about five years-ish, and two first language speakers who were their friends (whose names I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten). When she asked if I’d gotten the hang of Treigladau (not sure on the spelling), my only answer was a blank look until she added, in English, “Mutations”. At which point, my answer was, very rough translated, “Oh right! Those! Well, I don’t know the names, but I can use them well enough.”
She seemed pretty surprised when I mentioned that I’d only been learning for about 18 months. It’s probably a good job I didn’t mention some of the pretty big gaps during those 18 months. But yeah, I’d had a few drinks by that point (four or five pints, I think), so I was extolling the virtues of SSiW and Bootcamp as regards language learning perhaps a little more loudly than I should have been.
But yeah, I enjoyed myself greatly. And, so Huw tells me, I apparently spoke in Welsh in my sleep one night. Obviously I didn’t hear it, but there you go.
I just wonder how Iestyn’s kids are going to cope without Amy ;).
Really great to hear you all enjoyed yourselves. I hope we all have as busy, and as much fun as you all did in July. Particularly like the sound of lots of swimming and pizza parties…
Oh, if I could give such a cool answer as this… I usually think of responses like this hours after the event…
“Oh right! Those! Well, I don’t know the names, but I can use them well enough.”
You certainly going enjoy it,
Margaret forgot to mention the wildlife park, how much cheese people bought, churches, dancing, singing, the coracle proved very interesting, the sheepdog herding ducks should get a mention, no doubt i have forgotten some bits as well but you get the idea.
Cheers J.P.
She also forgot to mention that one of those late nights was down to one of those games of Scrabble yn Gymraeg…which went on until about 2am!
Kim I bought some of that Perl Las cheese, amongst other selections. It will probably be all gone by the time I get to The Coopers Arms on Saturday, but if I knew you liked it I would’ve brought some back for you!
It is lots of fun. I can’t recommend it enough for anyone who’s finished the first course. For anyone who still considers themselves a learner, this is probably what will stop you saying “I’m learning to speak Welsh” and start you saying “I speak Welsh”. You won’t learn much (well, not much about the language at least), but a full week of using what you already know will honestly work wonders.
@Chris - better question, how will I cope without the kids?
@Margaret - were those late nights? glad to hear it! I was thinking everyone goes to bed at 1am in Wales and I wasn’t sure how I could keep up…
Bootcamp was the most amazing fun, one of the best holidays I’ve ever had. The level of organisation from Iestyn and Cat to provide us opportunities to live a week yn Gymraeg only was simply staggering; and maybe especially coming to Cymru as an outsider, I felt like I was experiencing real Cymreig life - if that’s not too much of a pretentious guidebook thing to say. Also if Cymru Cymreig regularly and spontaneously burst into song in the pub. You know.
From a language perspective it was not so much an opportunity to learn new vocab (although I did, for lots of useful everyday things) but to get to use my Welsh just casually to organise dinner or locate lost SSiWers - and as for the most part up until that point I had been using my Welsh to talk to my pot plants, that aspect of the bootcamp was very, very special to me.
I think I feel a bit jealous about our experiences on bootcamp - like I want to explain every detail of every day to my bestie right now but also I don’t think she’ll quite understand so I want to keep some things to myself - but just a couple of highlights…
- Kempton explaining quantum physics using cwrs 1 vocab
- Noson Lawen
- meeeting other dysgwyr at the Aber Teifi Pizza Tipi Party
- singing in the pub (so much singing in the pub)
- the weather, OH the weather!
- that really tasty raspberry hufen ia from that place that one time
Sounds amazing! Feels like it’s going to be a long time until I both finish course 1 and manage to make time to come on bootcamp but I’m looking forward to it already.