Bŵtcamp Sept 2022 - 19th to 26th - Lampeter

One more month! I’m already tingling with excitement :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Hello, yes I’ll be traveling from Cardiff to Lampeter too

@Anna_O @Camilla_Walker @sade perhaps the three of you could meet and travel together?

@sade you mentioned possibly hiring a car, but Anna and Camilla will be using public transport.

Hello Anna and Camilla nice to meet you
thanks for the suggestion Deborah, I’m not hiring a car, as I won’t be using it the week I’m at bwtcamp.
If anyone else is driving to Lampeter, I’ll gladly chip in for petrol. Otherwise, I too will be taking the train/bus up to Lampeter.
I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.

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Hi Sade, nice to meet you too
When are you coming to Cardiff? Just yesterday, Camilla and I found out that we even fly from Amsterdam on the same plane, it arrives in Cardiff on Sunday, 18.09, at 16.15. We are thinking of leaving Cardiff by train at 9am Monday. You are very welcomed to join us any time if you’d like!

Shwmae @sade

Nice to meet you, too.
Just like Anna says, you’re very welcome to join us!

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Hello, good to hear from you. I will be visiting my mother near Cardiff before I travel to Lampeter. Thanks for the invite to join, I’ll check out the times and see if it will work.

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thank you

I have also been invited to join you for some of your sessions and am really looking forward to meeting everyone on the Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.

People may be aware that Monday 19th Sept has just been declared a Bank Holiday because of the queen’s funeral. I don’t know if this will have any impact on travel arrangements but it may be worth checking.

Tan toc
Huw (bootcamp addict and local boy).

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Diolch Huw! We’re looking forward to having you with us!

I’m hoping travel arrangements won’t be affected, but I know that sometimes Bank Holidays run the Sunday timetable, so I’m not sure. Fingers crossed!

I’ve emailed you all about it, and given you phone numbers for Nia and myself, should you need any help on the day.

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Michael has emailed to say that he rang Traws Cymru and they’re offering the usual Bank Holiday T1 service from Aberystwyth to Lampeter.

Check with traveline.cymru - Timetable

Thank you for your e-mail Deborah.
I checked the train and bus connections Anna and I will use and so far it looks like everything will run smoothly.
I’ll keep an eye on it, but I’m confident it’ll be fine. :four_leaf_clover:

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We had a wonderful first post-Covid bŵtcamp with a great bunch of bŵtcampers, a variety of interesting activities, and best of all, lots of laughs together.

Diolch yn fawr i chi gyd! Thanks to all of you! I miss your company already and I do hope we can get together some time in the future. Your Welsh was brilliant and it was fantastic to see you all growing in confidence and chatting away in Welsh during the week!

Feel free to give your thoughts on Bŵtcamp Mis Medi 2022 to encourage others who are thinking about coming next year.

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An amazing immersive week, no only immersed in the Welsh language but also the culture. The week has really helped me to become much more confident in speaking Welsh and I’ve made some wonderful new SSiW friends to carry on practicing with online :slight_smile:

Diolch yn fawr i Deborah, Nia a phawb!

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Going to Wales and taking part in the Bŵtcamp has been a dream of mine since I started to learn Welsh with SSi and I’m happy beyond words that this dream finally came true :heart:

It was an intensive week full of different and interesting activities as well as lots of laughter. To me, the best thing of all was to see so many places and been given the opportunity to talk to lots of different people - learners as well als native speakers.
I never felt like a tourist (though coming from Germany, I certainly was) but part of the community, because everybody gave us such a warm welcome and invited us to join in.
It didn’t seem to matter to the people I spoke to “in the wild” that my Welsh is far from being “perfect” or fluent.
And that was a relieving experience, because back at school, learning English, I was taught only to speak up if I was certain that what I wanted to say was correct in any sense (choice of words, grammar, etc.).

It was surprisingly easy to switch from English to Welsh. Much easier than switching back at the end of the Bŵtcamp; I felt like my English just went out of the window some time during the week and it felt so strange to not speaking Welsh anymore :joy:

I’m more a Listener than a Talker and am no good at small talk, so I certainly missed many an opportunity to actually push my Welsh forward.
Do I regret that? Well, yes, to some extend. But I know myself well enough to realise that I still stepped out of my comfort zone and did talk more than I normally would. And I learnt a lot by “just” listening as well.
So here I am: Proud of myself, still wanting to learn more and looking forward to new adventures!

I attended the Group Chat on Slack earlier and someone asked me if the Bŵtcamp was hard/difficult.
The answer is: yes and no.
It wasn’t hard to stick to Welsh in general, but it surely was very frustrating at some point or other not to be able to express myself like I wanted to. Or to “only” get the gist of what someone else said.
But those were the points in time where it was up to me to decide between backing down or plodding on. And being able make that decision gave me the power and courage to keep going and break through that “wall”.

If you expect to be fluent at the end of the week, I’m afraid you may be disappointed.
But if you look forward to a huge confidence boost to speak Welsh, great company, tons of fun and an unique chance to experience Wales: go for it!!

If given the chance, I’d take part in a Bŵtcamp again any time!

A huge “Diolch yn fawr!” again to Nia, Deborah and my fellow bŵtcampers :heart:

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Don’t forget the amazing skill you acquired in Flat Green Bowling. :astonished::clap:

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Geiriai hyfryd @Camilla_Walker

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Highlights


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Llun o bawb! A photo of everyone staying at Garth Newydd during bŵtcamp 2022

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Thank you for telling us all about it, Camilla - I’m delighted you had such a wonderful time :star: :star2:

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