Weekend!

So here are some new pictures on an old blog. This picture is very similar to the other one, but closer up- and since the zoom has broken on my camera, I am using Laura's quality pictures. I stepped in some bird poop on my way to see a monument. I was not impressed. I guess the picture makes that fairly evident.

Tim and I running to catch up with the group after we stopped so I could chase a flock of Canadian geese and scare a swan. Don't worry, the English don't like our national bird.

This is Tiger.

It's now Friday, which officially marks my first week in England. So far? Amazing. Classes are fantastic, Oxford is beautiful, and the group is really fun. Tonight was 'formal hall' at the college, which was made even more formal due to good old "Robbie Burns"- the Scottish poet that everyone around here knows and loves. Because of the Scottish theme, a lot of the men were dressed in the formal Scottish gig- kilts, sporran's, knee socks, daggers... it was very cool. There were a few speeches, a couple toasts, a lot of drinking, a meal of haggis ( which I think is meat stuffed into a sheep's stomach) and some really great dancing.

Although I wasn't too keen on the 'formal' part- Sharon and Laura took me under their wing and made me look presentable. A bunch of us arrived early because we joined the college choir. I am supposed to be committed now for the next four practices. The real reason I went was because I didn't want to take the train on my own to Oxford at night. I'm such a wimp. In any case, the choir was fun ( we sang some Celtic songs!) and the formal was a hit. Here's some pictures to give you an idea of who I'm over here with and sharing my adventures with!Bethany, me and AlishaMe and a Scottish stranger- I just really liked his kilt.d I snuck into someone's garden for a prime photo opp. The place was beautiful!

A typical English cottage. And the picture below marks Saturday- and our trip into Woodstock to see the Blenheim Palace- former home of Winston Churchill.Here is most of the gang- minus Heather, Megan and Gabrielle. In this picture we have Jodi, Sharon and Laura in the front, then Tim, Mark, Bethany, Bethany, and Alisha. I'm the one with the camera. You can't see me.

The front of the palace ( unfortunately, it was closed today, because of a wedding)

Today was fantastic. Laura, Sharon and Jodi showed up at around 11am. we rounded up the gang and hopped on a double decker bus to woodstock, for 3.40 pounds round trip. Honestly, the ride alone was worth the trip. I can't believe these buses can even travel on the roads over here. They are so narrow- I thought I was on a roller coaster for 6 miles! In any case, we only smoked one tree, and hit the curb about three times. The driver was good.

We snuck into the palace grounds through the side doors, and explored the whole afternoon. The pictures speak for themselves at this point. What I will say is that once Mark became the leader of the group, we ended up a mile outside of Woodstock, and had to make quite a hike to get back to the bus stop. But it was an adventure.

Now I am home, the girls are here having an internet party, and it's nice to have the whole night to just do nothing. I hope everyone back home is well! Much love!

Pashminas

Bethany and Mark waiting for the train back to Charlbury

Laura Loney: one very funny girl

Laura, Heather and I excited to see the sun. I kicked someone when I flung up my leg like that. Not cool.

This is the Chapel in Charlbury where we have some of our classes.

Waiting at Laura's to walk with the girls down to the train

There was a thunderstorm in Oxford, and Laura's umbrella was a joke. She bought it broken, but Tim thought he'd test it out anyways.

At Christmas, the people stick a tree in the wall above the door, and string it with lights. Since the town doesn't have many street lights to begin with, this is one time of the year when most of the streets are lit. Kind of neat.

Sharon's scarf was the solution to frizzy hair during our rainy countryside walk. Once I found a solution to that, the walk was quite enjoyable. That also had a lot to do with Heather, and her great sense of humor.

Note the excessive amount of white space. I'm not sure why this always happens.. but I'm hoping James can fix it?

Oh, look at that. He fixed it. Cheers.

My new home

England is beautiful. Although the skies are overcast, and the air is damp, the wind is relatively warm and I am quite excited to be here. Tim gave a pretty detailed intro to this whole adventure, so if you are interested to know about the beginning of this trip, check out Timot's blog. The only thing I have to contribute that differs from Tim is that I did not experience any overwhelming tiredness- which is probobly why he considered the flight uneventful, and that he was being kind in his sock comment. I'm sure that I had something to do with that ladies quick departure. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

My hostess is wonderful. She is very friendly and hospitable, setting up my room, filling the bathroom with lotions, shampoos, soaps and all that kind of girly stuff, and letting me know that what's hers is mine. My first night at her place we kicked back, had a beer, and watched the Office. I feel quite at home. Not to mention she has a beast of a dog that is fantastic. Her rotweiler's name is Tiger, and he could probobly eat me. I love him. Hopefully I'll be able to take him for walks through the countryside, which is fortunately a two minute walk from my house. The house is on the outskirts of town, but since the town can be walked across in about 20 minutes, most places are found close to the countryside. Since Tim has promised to post pictures, I'll avoid that hassle for the time being. Sorry, but I'm lazy.

The people who've organized this whole 'studying abroad' thing have really organized it. Even though we've only just got here, the days have been very busy. This morning Beccy woke me up, brought coffee up to my room, made me breakfast and walked me down to the big old stone church. The peeling bells can be heard across the whole town, which I think must just seer the consciences of a lot of people that choose not to come. The bells are a pretty loud reminder.

After church Laura, Heather and I explored a bit, took pictures, and stumbled upon the secret garden. Katrina, you would have loved that! Like the book- it was unintentional. I simply leaned against this wooden door in the rock wall because Laura wanted a picture, and then it flung open, and I stumbled in. Unlike the book- this garden was in someones backyard, and that someone was standing right there and looking pretty pissed off. I ran away.

After that we had lunch at the baptist church- which consisted of a baked potato and savory "minced"- which Heather thought was a crock pot of savory MINTS, and I thought was somthing totally different than what was served. But it was good, and I have no complaints. I also discovered that when they say after dinner we'll have pudding- they don't mean pudding at all. They mean dessert. Good to know.

After dinner we all borrowed rubber boots from Madelaine and went on an hour's hike through the countryside. It was muddy, a bit rainy, and generally a pretty great time getting to know the different people in our group. After that I went and checked out Tim, Laura and Heather's houses, stayed at Laura's because her house is the nicest, and then we headed out to Madelaine's for dinner.

Now I'm home and Beccy and I are watching some T.V. and both being anti- social because we want to do things on our computers. I'm fine with that. Tomorrow will be a pretty busy day. We will be exploring Oxford, starting classes, and then heading to Stratford for our first play of the semester. I'm pretty excited.

So- there is my first update of England, and I'm sure there will be more to come!
Cheers!

England

This blog is to end my blog drought. You know you are in a blog drought when your last blog is a title, and the intentions are there to continue, but when you look at the title, you think "this is suffice." Now a new semester is about to begin, and I'd like to say a few words. The first thing I'd like to say is the usual, and that is this, where does the time go? Did I honestly spend a week in BC? I can't believe it. But whatever the case, and no matter how fast the time went, BC was fantastic. Visiting James' family and friends, hikes in the rain, competitive Settlers, 'booking' in Vancouver, dinner dates, the movies, skiing in a white out on a real mountain (I emphasize real because Ontario doesn't have them) - all of it was such a treat. Now I'm back, and in a bit of a limbo stage, seeing my friends frantically get assignments together and suffer hours and hours of class while I sit and socialize and attempt to be organized for my next big trip. Which brings me to England. I leave tomorrow. How do I feel? Well, I don't. I haven't really sat down and thought about the fact that I won't be back at Redeemer until next September. It doesn't seem too real to me right now, and it most likely won't until I leave. Tomorrow. Oh man. But I suppose with time's habit of picking up speed at a seemingly exponential rate, it would only be fair for these next 3 1/2 months to fly by as well. We'll see what happens. The rest of my blogs will be posted from across the ocean, so this segway may be a tad lame in comparison, but I hope that whoever reads these little reflections will enjoy them, and feel free to write me! Not to sound desperate or anything, but I can imagine I may get lonely, and the best cure for that is to hear from friends. It's true. Ask Marva Dawn about social intimacy.
That's all from this side of the globe.

Merry Christmas!

I'm not sure what the deal is, but a cold has settled into the right half of my face. Now, on the positive side of things, the left half of my face is holding up nicely. That would be the positive side. Literally. ha.
It's exam time, and my first one isn't until Thursday. Some of you may think- wow, what a sweet schedule. Well. You would be wrong. Now I have four days of a certain feeling that tells me I don't have to study yet, even though all my friends are. And do you know where that feeling leaves you? Homeless. Because you flunked out of university.
So yes, it's Monday and I studied today.
I feel like a direct parallel can be drawn between my dry throat and this dry humor. It's time for a throat numbing candy.
That's all for now- I'll post again when I can breathe through my nostrils with limited effort.

This past weekend was one of those random weekends that sticks in the memory. It was great. On Friday, Trine and I wanted to hop on a bus and head downtown, explore the sights, and just get lost. My backup plan was a backpack with sandwiches and a blanket, in case we had to spend the night on the street. This all sounded great at the time, but as it got darker, and colder... we didn't mind so much that Tim and Jason wanted to tag along. In fact, with James knowing the entire bus route, and with two very sensible boys around, there was no chance of getting lost--

I left the sandwiches at home.

Saturday night we had a birthday bash for Danielle, which involved some seriously competitive charades. It got pretty intense, the teams being guys vs girls... but we definitely won.... 3 out of 10.
James introduced the game Mafia, which kept us going until about 2:30 A.M. Twas a grand party. On Sunday we invited Pastor John to the guys house for some tasty spaghetti. He liked that. So did we.

Monday we threw another party for Danielle ( she's our favorite) Jordan helped Trine and I get ready.

She's getting married, so we thought we'd celebrate. I must say, I'm really starting to love my house. It took a few months to adjust, but the girls are wonderful andI really like it here. It makes me kind of sad that I'm leaving in a few months. BUT moving on...

Tuesday was my weekly sleepover with my good friend Kris. We went with Ryan, Jordan, and Danielle out to Crabby's for 29cent wings. It was our last sleepover of the semester- possibly year- I'll miss you Kristina.

On a good note- James and I had a date tonight, which is always a good time :)

This picture isn't from our date. I just like it.