some illustrations...

Here are some pictures to illustrate the last few months a little. I must confess that all of these have been stolen from other people because I have been woefully delinquent in my picture taking lately.

Mom, Dad, Melody and I in Bath in February

(if we are going in chronological order, this picture should technically be further down, but it ended up at the top and I can't be bothered to redo everything - grr... obnoxious website)

Walking to college along Willow Walk in the beginning of January

A couple of weeks later, we ended up getting the most snow Oxfordshire has seen in something like 18 years.

Willow Walk in the snow

Snowball fight in the car park (parking lot) at college. Mike is getting ready to hit Simon, our principal.

Hanging out at one of the student houses

Wantage town center, where I have my church placement.

The statue of King Alfred in Wantage town center. He supposed to have been born in Wantage.

Walking along the Thames (technically called the Isis in Oxford) with Melody when she, Mom and Dad came out to visit in February.

Carfax Tower in Oxford - This is what everyone uses as a reference point for giving directions around the center of Oxford.

Walking along Willow Walk with Mom and Melody (I am absolutely exhausted after just finishing clearing up after the Salt & Light European Leaders Conference)

Getting an excellent tour of Oxford from my friend Paul

One of the girls at college had a fancy dress party (costume party) for her birthday.
I went as Pebbles Flinstone.

Matty, one of the other KBC students, went as a French skier and amused us all with his drawn-on mustache and sketchy French accent.

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COMING SOON - photos from an afternoon stroll around The Devil's Punchbowl

back into blogging

Hello Everyone!

Just when you thought I had drowned in a British puddle, here I am, back from the blogger dead. I thought about writing a blog several times in the past 3 1/2 months (has it really been that long?!?), but have always been too intimidated by the staggering challenge of explaining what is going on here. Also, when I have a little free time, I am usually too knackered (tired) to put any coherent thoughts together. At the moment I am actually in about that place and considered just taking a nap, but I decided to press on, bolstered by the thought of my mother's great joy and the lure of a nice cup of tea while I type. (Incidently, I have already finished that cup of tea. I am debating making another one...)

Many significant changes have taken place since I last wrote. One such change is that I now drink my tea with only milk and no sugar. I started out in September having one teaspoon of sugar, but soon found that I actually prefered 1/2 teaspoon - making me somewhat of a difficult and confusing guest. However, sometime since January (I honestly have no idea when) we ran out of sugar in our house for a few days and so I drank my tea without. By the time we did get sugar again, I found that my fickle tastebuds had once again shifted and I now don't like my tea sweet at all. This apparently is the proper way to drink English tea - or at least that is what all of the people who take their tea with just milk claim. This proof of Britishness is disputed by those who like sugar in their tea. Much like the debate over which you put first on your scones - the clotted cream or the jam...but that is a topic for another blog...

I told you I was having trouble thinking coherently. I'm really quite sorry, but you did say you wanted a blog! So for real now...

Things at college have been really good, but incredibly intense. Every time we don't think it can any more intense, we get proved wrong once again. But the amazing thing is that we do adapt and cope and definitely grow through all of this.

The lectures have generally been focusing in on a specific book or group of books of the Bible each week. The styles vary a lot each week depending on the lecturer. I've had my favorites, but each week has been enjoyable and challenging in its own way. One of the best was last week when we did the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) with a guy named Brian Watts who pastors a Salt & Light church in British Columbia. Brian opened up the gospels in incredible depth, but also gave us the tools to study them on that level on our own. Such good stuff!

Our community has also grown even closer together, becoming more and more open and vulnerable with each other. At some point or another, I think each one of us has gone through a time (or multiple times) when God has brought us to a place of being really vulnerable so that He can heal past hurts and help us learn to find our security in Him. It's hard to explain, but God has been doing a lot of deep work in each of us. It's been a privilege to walk through things with other people and a blessing to know that they are there for me when I need someone.

So in some ways this has been a really emotionally stressful time, but it has also been a lot of fun. There is football/soccer every Saturday, rambles in the countryside, and games of Uno and Monopoly. (By the way, the British Monopoly has different names for everything and they wouldn't believe me that the American one is the original. It's difficult for them to accept that EVERYTHING didn't begin in England! ;) We also have good stress-relief giggles in our house. A couple of days ago, we were taking the foam from the dishwater and clapping to make it "snow" all over the kitchen. Try it sometime. It is incredibly amusing.

One thing which I have been enjoying increasingly is the beauty of the British countryside. As spring has been coming, it has just been getting more and more amazing. One of my housemates discovered a new and even more beautiful way to walk to college and I now go that way almost every day. You walk down past a little old stone church and down a narrow side road with tall old stone walls on either side until you turn left onto a winding dirt path. You cross over two bridges during the walk. One is over a lazily moving river with tall trees on either side and grassy green banks. The water under the other bridge moves faster and you can hear it gurgling along. The path cuts between two fields where there are almost always horses grazing. There is one horse who comes right up to the fence and lets us pat him and feed him bits of his own hay (for some reason he seems to think it tastes better if we pick it up and hand it to him). We have named him Mr. Darcy - but to tell you the truth, Mr. Darcy could very well be a girl since we haven't been able to decide satisfactorily. Are you getting a feel for why I love this place? It has been sunny for most of this week and every day I am blown away by how beautiful it is. And this is just one little corner of Botley which is just one little corner of Oxford which is just part of Oxfordshire...yeah, you get the point.

Well I could go on, but I think I've written enough for now. I am aiming to get back on the blogging bandwagon. We shall see.... Goodbye for now!