My Quest For Power

Please admire the cheesy title that makes it sound like I'm a knight of the round table headed off to fight dragons and find the holy grail, except I won't return a year and a day from now but in about fifteen weeks.

So I'm in Wales, I've met most everyone, heard everyone's name, can list most of the names but I can't put too many faces to names other than the three people I knew already. And I wanted to write a little something yesterday (initial reactions, similarities, funny words, etc) but I didn't have a converter yet and didn't want to waste what precious power I had left over from America. This meant my phone was off most of the day and was on airplane mode when I was using it as a clock and alarm.

And this post won't cover any of those ideas either.

After Tecwyn dismissed us in his funny accent, most kids followed him for a tour of the academic buildings scattered around town. There is no campus, but there are groups of buildings here and there with bagel shops next to them. But I didn't follow. I went to my room to map out where the nearest electronics store I&H Griffiths was. It was on High St. (the Welsh equivalent of Main St.), and I knew where that was. I memorized a few landmarks like before Cob's Records, after Deinol Centre and after KFC then I was out the door in the rain.

At first it drizzled but even with my hood down it wasn't bad. My shoes were broken in and my pants were hiked up so the legs didn't drag on the wet pavement.  I headed down towards Morrisons. I'm not going to use street names other than High St. since I can't pronounce them or remember if there's one f or four, and most aren't marked clearly like ours. I pressed the button for the cross walk and it beep-beep-beeped telling me to cross (that's how they do it here). Then I went down a road that was marked for cars but that I haven't seen a car driving on since arriving.

Then I made it to the hill Alt Glanrafon. I looked up the name on google and still misspelled it three times. It's only about two hundred meters but it's steep. You have to lean back and stomp your heel into the pavement to resist gravity's insistence that you run down it. And it has two types of pavement. Cement bricks where I've been walking and this red rock on which cars have parked, but I haven't seen them drive on it. So it's all very confusing.

At the bottom, I wasn't sure which way was High street. Tecwyn led us there yesterday and someone else led us back and I missed the landmarks, so I headed down the sidewalk next to a busy street. I passed a cross walk signal by about 100 meters before I saw the sign pointing to Deinol Centre on High St. I didn't want to turn around because I figured there'd be another cross walk.

There wasn't for a long while and while looking for it, a man in a car pulled up next to me and in his funny accent asked "You know where the stadium's at?" I told him I didn't. Then he thanked me for being unhelpful and drove off without splashing me. It was very polite of him to do both. And I realized after that he meant the station and not the stadium, but I couldn't give him any directions that way either.

Ahead of me was an Asian woman in the middle of the road. There was concrete medium and a sign that I assume meant it was a cross walk without signals, so you should only run across when it's clear. It was a T-intersection with the new drivers yielding to those continuing straight. One lane was clear and I ran to the median. Then a man stopped and I thought he meant for me to go so I started but the car turning was too busy thanking the other driver for the wave forward, that she didn't see me and nearly smashed me against her headlights.

After taking twenty steps down that road, I felt lost. The end of the street didn't look like High street so I turned around and went looking for that sign pointing towards Deinol Centre. I went that way, then turned left and I was looking at all the stores and all the people and down every intersection and couldn't find my other landmarks. So I kept forward and saw Cob's Records so I turned at the street before it, like I thought I was supposed to. And what I saw was that the street I felt lost was this street and that I had backtracked for nothing.

I went looking for I&H Griffiths. I turned down one street and thought it might be on the street behind it and Google's maps had just been unclear. But I kept turning until I was back on High St and at the corner of the street I felt lost on and the High St. was the small shop I was looking for. Through the windows were plasma TVs and stereos, like their sign advertised. It also advertised Hi-Fis, but I don't know what those are.

I stepped in and no one was manning the counter. The door didn't close on its own, I had to shut it and I tried to do so quietly. I didn't want to be rude on my first visit in a Welsh store. It was small inside and crowded with merchandise that if I kneed or kicked by mistake would cost me as much as the plane ticket here. A man stepped out of the back room and I said "Hi" and walked towards him. Though I was drenched, he didn't look at me accusingly as if I was ruining his carpets or a real sore to look at.

"I'm American and we have different electrical plugs from you guys. Do you have a converter?"

He grunted some things, which still sounded polite, then he turned about the room looking for them. An older man came out from the back and took over. He asked me about the voltage and wattage and amps and then suggested answers I could use and even said he was sure I knew all about this, which I didn't, and then he pulled out a converter and told me the price was "Three pounds fifty pence." He kept telling me all about it as I rolled it over in my hand and nodded. He told me how it was a snug fit so I shouldn't jam the plug and that it should work for most things like cell phones or laptops, etc.

When I ran out of polite responses, he repeated the price and handed me the converter before I paid him. You'd never see that in America with the exception of Taco Bell drinks and sit-down restaurants. I left and he thanked me.

Then the rain was heavier but the wind was gone. I passed the Deinol Centre and saw a shop that sold donuts twenty for four pounds. I thought of going in but didn't and headed back towards the dorm. I trudged up the hill and stepped on a drain and slipped and by the top I was panting through my mouth.

The roads were soaked and were churned to mist by tires. Headed towards me was a family of three and they got to a cross walk (one without signals). Behind me I heard cars speeding this way. They crossed the right lane towards the median and I was sure they'd be splattered. Suicide seemed like an odd family outing. Then when they made it safely to the other side I realized cars drive on the wrong sides here.

I got to my room, stripped off the wet sweatshirt, the wet pants and put on sweat pants to relax in while I caught up with the world through the internet. I plugged in the converter and plugged in my computer and it all fit so I thought I was good. I turned on my computer and the charging symbol didn't come up but it's sometimes slow so I waited. Still nothing. I tried my phone. It didn't chirp and charge like it usually does.

Great, I thought. I'd have to go back down. Which I did, directly instead of getting lost again, and the old man from before was with another customer but the first grunting man was free. He looked at me and I walked towards him and explained my problem. The old man turned from his customer who was figuring out a universal remote and helped me. He said it was odd that it didn't work and I showed him the plug from my iPhone and he made sure it fit and checked the specs and said it should've worked. I said I thought so too. He got me another without hesitation or paperwork and tried it out to be sure it worked and it did. He thanked me again and insisted I come back if it didn't work or if I needed anything else. He thanked me, his assistant thanked me, and the customer thanked me and I nodded in return.

I stopped off at the donut shop I saw before. It was called Dragon Bites and they sold mini-donuts. Not donut holes, but little donuts complete with holes, so twenty for four pounds wasn't as amazing a price. Another customer was inside and the shop was only big enough for her. Her husband and child were outside waiting for her because there was no room for them.

With her gone the employee and I grunted greetings and nodded and I ordered, rather awkwardly. A medium bag of twenty. I wanted a drink too but he was so involved in making the donuts that I waited. Then he was covering them with sugar (not powdered sugar either, regular sugar), then he was standing the bag on the counter top, then he was telling me the price so I never had the time to order a soda, all of which were canned and only the water was bottled.

I ate them in the rain and at the cross walk I pressed the button and an Asian woman came up behind me, also waiting to cross. But she was standing about five feet away. I might've been sweaty, but everyone was so wet it would be hard for her to tell. I couldn't think of why she'd stay away other than the awkwardness that comes with being close to strangers. Then a bus passed through the puddle in the gutter and splashed me. I pulled my donuts out of the line of fire and stepped back.

As I went up the hill I ate the donuts and choked when I tried to pant with my mouth full. They were gone by the time I was in the dorms. I plugged the converter in and my phone didn't chirp or charge. Dammit, I thought. Then I noticed the two nubs between the outlets. They were switches and they were off. I flipped it down and my phone chirped and the battery came up, empty except that red sliver that slowly grew.