arriving in wales

"Wales. How can I capture this place and these feelings in static words?"

Those were the first words I wrote down in my journal on arriving. Crossing over the Wales border, calls crossed back and forth inside the van about the Welsh words passing us on road and shop signs. We all giggled in excitement over the milk cartons when we stopped in at Tesco on the way because we had never seen a foreign language on such a familiar object before.

We came in along the road walled in by hedgerows leading the gravel road among the hills. We arrived in the dark which forced limited first impressions of our new home on us. Warm. Winding. Luxury. We scattered in all different directions, setting the house to creaking in all its many corners and passageways. It didn't take us long to all gather in one room again however. That's the beauty of being in a group of people who enjoy one another's company.

We soon had the fire lit. Sitting around it, someone began a hymn sing and we cobbled together our favorite verses through collective memory, not caring whether we were in or out of tune. Late in the evening, I  headed up the worn wooden stairway to fall asleep to soft bursts of laughter from the main room from those who were staying up into the wee hours.