We came, We saw, We got lost!

Day 17

Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night
People so busy, makes me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright
But I dont need no friends
As long as I gaze on waterloo sunset
I am in paradise


Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunsets fine

Terry meets julie, waterloo station
Every friday night
But I am so lazy, dont want to wander
I stay at home at night
But I dont feel afraid
As long as I gaze on waterloo sunset
I am in paradise


Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunsets fine

Millions of people swarming like flies round waterloo underground
But terry and julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And the dont need no friends
As long as they gaze on waterloo sunset
They are in paradise


Waterloo sunsets fine.
 
-Kinks
 
Went to London. Actually went to the Waterloo station. There was a huge elephant head in it. Very interesting. The sun was shining today too. It was probably the suniest day since We have been in England. City is crazy though! So many people everywhere! We had no idea where we were going several times but somehow we always got were we were trying to get. Our hostel was super far, super sketch but great. Saw Harrod's but didnt go in because the store is "cheap", stingy. I will get a more detailed blog of what went down after I get Scotland written down...someday. And I will get the rest of Scotland pics plus my London pics up tom....maybe.
 
Hittin' the hay. Christ Church in the morn.
Laters Chums

Where's Maytag Man?

Day 15

So as I said in the post before this, the internet has been quite flakey. Again, this post is pretty much a quick summary of my day. It is hard to summarize this without telling everything because laundry today was....an experience/fiasco but I did my best. As with the last post. I may or may not go back and elaborate on these when I have more time. i love blogging. i love writing down the events that happen in my life. I really wish I could be Will ferrell in Stranger than Fiction and have my life recorded and narated minus the part where he almost dies...or incase you havent seen the movie...maybe he does die....hmmm. Does he live? Does he die? Anywhoozers...here is my day at about notch 3 on the quickie meter...

Internet was working all day and literally just stopped working so I will wait to post this one and the one from yesterday until I am able.


Woke up @ 1000. Began to slowly get ready thinking class was at 1050. Nick came in at 1020 and informed me that class was indeed at 1030. I had a lot still to do to say the least. I managed to get to class on time seeing as it was just downstairs but in order to be on time I ate my rather large bowl of cereal in less than 2.5 minutes. I was fairly proud of myself.


Class was very entertaining as usual. I am going to learn a lot from Dr. Lytle but it will be challenging.


After class, I was supposed to go to the train station to get tickets to come back from London but I ran to do laundry real quick with Cailee. Well it turned out to take a little longer than “real quick”. After I put everything in, I realized I have forgotten my jeans so I came and got those. Once I got back to the laundry room, I realized I had forgotten money. I did not end up making it to the train station. I was worried the whole time my laundry was going that all my soap from the little soap packets you put in the wash went straight down the drain. The symbols are different. Read a little. Moved stuff to dryer.


Met Rona in the laundry room with Cailee. Talked and learned a lot about stuff around the school. Got her number but don’t think I will be calling her. I could talk awhile about the convo with Rona but for time's sake, lets just say it was informative yet interesting. The dryer I had put my jeans and sweaters in ended up being broken so after sitting 40 mins, I had soaking wet jeans. Put them in other dryer with the stuff. Cailee’s stuff ended up getting done and I wasn’t going to stay with Rona by myself so I just threw everything in my bag and left. It really wasn’t Rona. She was quite nice. I had just been in the laundry room for well over 2 hrs and I needed to get out. I laid out my laundry all over my room and it is currently still drying. Hopefully it will be dry before we leave at 0830 tom for London. Super excited for that.


Had dinner with Nick. Had a bunch of chicken divine to finish off so it wouldn’t spoil over the trip. It was amazing!!! He also had fresh mango. I had never had it before and I liked it but I like it in a smoothie a lot more than just straight. I bought 72p bread for the meal and did dishes. It was a pretty sweet deal.


Found the other tokens and got the last token I needed from the newspaper for the "Eatout for 5 pounds" deal. I have no idea where I can use them at since the internet it down but I cant wait. It’s been a while in the making!

I actually found out that two restaurants right by where we live takes the tokens. Let's just say I think this was definitely worth me digging through the recycling a bit today to find the other clips seeing as how they stopped printing the coupons on the 24th so there were no more in the current papers like I thought.

Well today was another great day. Had some quality time with Kelkel and Cailee tonight. Missed out on Ben90Lang tonight due to mixed comm lines. Well London tom early tom morning. STOKED! staying at a hostel with some character to say the least. More on that when i return. As in scotland, i will record play by play what happens and hopefully get them up on my blog soon. Ill be back late sat night so be looking Sunday for the stories.

Stay STrong
Laters Chums

I Feel Special

Day 14

The internet has been about as reliable as an eskimo guide trying to find water in the sahara. Due to this, I have been rather backed up on posting my blogs. Because I was rather discouraged when I sat down yesterday to write this post and found the internet to no avail, I did more of a quick summary that I attempted to do the last post only I feel that I was successful in this attempt. I plan on going back and adding a little more "pep" to this post some other time than right now seeing as how it is 2330 and I still have to shower, read, post today's actual blog and pack for London, which we leave at 0830 tom morning. So for now....enjoy.

Woke up at 1214 just before alarm. Got excited I didnt sleep until my "safety" alarm which I set at the latest possible time I can get up, hoping I get up before then. I then realized I had woken up less than two mins before my safety alarm went off. oh well...


Went to OTH-Cajun Chicken with tomatoes and mozzarella


OxThroughAges(OxTA)-saw old Oxford(OX) wall and went to St. Michael’s Tower and church. Got a good view of the city from atop the tower. Had fun hanging with Hannah. Caught Dr. Lytle(Rick) on the way back to the house. He had a delicious looking hot chocolate which he shared with Hannah, her being his daughter. I felt a little left out, but he made up a pretty lame excuse about some disease they had and they just didnt want to give it to me. I did feel a little better that he at least took the time to create up the fib.


Saw Jacque, Ravanne and Lauren going to store just as we were arriving back at the house....so I went with them.

Hung out. Ate dinner with 9 2nd. I was their special guest, along with Wyatt. Penne pasta pesto chicken with tomatoes with mozzarella and vinaigrette stuff. Wyatt’s blueberry cobbler and delicious ice cream stuff from convenient store on n parade street.

Hung out. Figured out who I was staying with for London. Got switched in groups. No biggie. Buying train ticks tom.


Hung out with corbo. Awesome convo. Great guy!


Got caught up in gladiator. One of fav movies. Left for my unfav part of movie.


Internet being retarded again! About to read a little @ 0019. Got class at 1030 tom. Morning class…bleh.

Decided on seeing wicked today. I over-rotated on a kip. Thought Kris was going to die laughing. Come to think of it....Idk if it would be better or worse to die laughing. Seems like a brutal but happy way to go out. Found another token for the “Eat Out for 5 pound” deal in the newspaper, which is some campaign that has been going on in the newspaper where in every issue there is a coupon that you collect. When you get enough of them, you can go to super nice restaurants for super cheap. im almost there…need just two more if I find the other coupons. So stoked! If not, then I need three more tokens.

That's my quicky of day 14.
Laters Chums

The Day of Manny

Day 13
I got up 0845 today and simply got ready for class, grabbed some cereal and then, naturally, headed to INTS. This class is nothing to write home about but I realized that I need to cherish the few classes I have left with Jacque. She will be here for just one more class and then sadly she is off the good ole US of A to get her marriage visa which they thought was obtainable without having to leave but...no such luck. They have it all set up though so we will still have her as our teach. I think she will be using podcasts and skype for a lot of stuff. hopefully it all works out and she is back in a few weeks instead of the worst case scenario being her ahving to stay over there until summer.

After class, I high-tailed it back to do my Marketing hw which I got done. Ra van ee and Luz helped me get the material down for the quiz. They were awesome! Class with Dr Lytle was awesome as I see ever class with him being. He talked us through the behemoth Marketing Journal so now it doesn't seem so mammoth after all. I just can not procrastinate............

When class was done, for the first time in a while I did not have hw that I immediately had to attend to so I chilled. Corbin, Bradyn and I went to Posh fish to eat dinner. The fish was amazing!!!!!!!!! Ontop of that we had the odd pleasure of meeting Mannie. We think he is the owner of Posh Fish but are not really sure. We think he may have killed a man before. Here is DL on Manny: he grew up in Turkey. Worked for PanAm Arilines for years as ground crew. Got into poker. Now plays professionally. Has a house in vegas where he plays A LOT. He had just gotten back from a 3 week trip and before that a 5 month trip and before that a 2 month trip. He showed us pics of him with famous World Poker Tour peeps and emails he has gotten in the past. Naturally we were curious as to why he was working at a little restaurant so we asked. He said it was a nice cover. Yes, he said cover. Sound sketch to anyone besides me? We asked if there was a place around that he would recommend for poker and stuff. He said the Vistoria Casino in London and he gave us directions. He said he would be there friday and Saturday and if we swing by and find him that he would take care of us and show us around in his big car. that might be a limo but we are not sure. We are about as sure that he has a limo as we are about him having killed a man or him being in some shady stuff, whatever that may be. Non the less it made for some AWESOME convo while we waited for our food and I cant wait to go back. Come to think of it...I suppose it is possible that all of it was just a ploy to hook us Americans into coming back and eating there again. What ever the reasoning be...it worked.

We watched a movie in 9 commons and it was nice to finally not have hw and to not be anti-social. We did Ben90Lang (aka P90X) after the movie. It was super exhausting. Everyone is trying to figure out their plans for London. No one was going to stay the night but now suddenly everyone is. I am going to say it was Corbin that started the swing but thats just me shooting the breeze. Because so many peeps are going now, no one knows who is staying with who and where they are staying. We are all doing basically the same thing but jsut not all together so it's interesting. I am staying out of any planning cause Scotland wore my planning skills out. I just know that as of now, no matter what, Kris, Malia and I are doing the bus tour thing to the big spots on Sat and seeing Wicked on Fri night. We shall see how everything else works out. It is almost like people are recruiting others to be in their group. It is actually quite comical, purely innocent yet funny.

I thought this was going to be a quicky but as I begin to go through my day, I just remember everything tha happens. Oh well. Glad this isn't a pay by the word deal I suppose.

Oh! I was informed I am the special guest for dinner on the 9 2nd floor(remember, 1st is technically the 2nd floor and  2nd is technically the 3rd floor) for tom night. Im stoked cause they have the most AMAZING lavish meals out of any floor. I am feeling pretty cool right now to say the least. It's kinda like winning the student of the week award in elementary school. I hope I get a certificate or something. Certificate or not, I will have a very full and happy belly to say the least.

Well it is now 0130 but luckily I only have Ox through the Ages and we are going to St. Michael's Tower. I think it is the oldest structure in Oxford. I know it is on Cornmarket which is basically city centre so its not too far and from the outside it doesn't look to be anything super impressive but we shall find out. the bottom line is that I really have no idea what the tower is or if it stands for anything but its a field trip and it's free so I'm excited and I will be there.

I will do my Scotland blog someday...Build it and they will come. That Doesn't really apply right now but it popped into my head so there ya go. Maybe i'll dream of a field of dreams. I'm off to find out.

Stay Strong.
Laters Chums

Home Sweet Oxford

Day 12
Today is my first day back "home". I just want to say how blessed I feel to be able to come back from an AMAZING trip to Scotland and come home to Oxford!!! It is almost surreal. Surreal.....that kinda reminds me of that time I had breakfast brought to me in bed by my roommate.... surreal....


Today started off at 1130 seeing as how I went to bed at 0245 last night. I wish I could say the reason for staying up that late was entirely due to hw but I cannot. I was severely distracted from my priorities seeing as how I had been away from my pc for several days. But I got up and did my MGMT assignment and then went to On the Hoof. I got the Chicken Pesto Rosso Panini...delicious as all sandwiches from there are. Walking there with Durko though we wondered why On the Hoof was so fortunate to get our business instead of the perfectly fine looking sandwich shop directly across the street from OTH. I mean...I think it is even a good five fewer steps to the other shop than to OTH. Durko and I never arrived at an answer. I have been in the other shop with Cailee to get a brownie and it didn't smell, look bad or even have weird people working. I think you could almost compare this mystery to that of the Bermuda Triangle...we may simply never get a real answer besides aliens.....that's it....aliens own the other shop.

Anywhoozers...after OTH I went to MGMT with Rick Lytle who could very well be the next plenipotentiary (word of the day) of the prominent, up-and-coming, leading the pack technologically according to some magazine, top university with more than 4000 but less than 4999 students in the north mid-west of Texas, and one of the best 5000 universities in the nation....Abilene Christian University. The class started off with, in my opinion, a brutal quiz but just got better as it went along. We watched a 13 min long version of It's A Wonderful Life and related George Bailey to the five leadership practices. The class will be hard but I think I will really enjoy it. We were assigned a project to go interview 10 people about what makes or breaks a person successfully. Im with Corbin, Kris and Chase. It will be a lot of fun.

After class, I went and tried to do hw but started a spreadsheet of my finances while I am over here. I decided to do it in GBP's so it doesn't look as bad as when I look at my credit card transactions. I have really been cutting back on my food spending so when I subtract the money I have gotten for food from my total expenses, it looks even less bad. haha I think overall, I have done really good on money so far. The train ticket to Scotland is what makes it look bad.


At five, Kelkel, Kris, Grant and I went downstairs to the Lytle's for dinner so they could here about Scotland. Writing it that way, I guess only Kris, Grant and I went down there...hmm. Spaghetti, bread, salad with dressing, grapes and ice cream...it was dang good!! It was a lot of fun. Atleast Kris, Melia (spell check) and I were supposed to go Ballroom dancing tonight but we found out it wasn't free tonight for some reason so we bailed on that plan and I came up here to do hw. Haven't done any yet so I guess I better hit that up.

Scotland was one of the best trips I have ever been on and was for the most part....perfect. no accidents, broken things, missed trains. We were incredibly blessed! Thank you for your prayers! I'll get all the details typed up some time. Between Kris' and Grant's iphones I recorded EVERYTHING down so it will just take me some time to get those uploaded to my pc and to listen to it all. I think we recorded close to 2 hours worth of mostly me rambling about what we did right after we did it. So stay tuned for that...


Oh. 9@9 last night was really good. Again, I really thought about what I can do over here to not only help people but probably more importantly, what I can learn from people here. It really it me that I am the one that needs to get out of my comfort zone and make the connection with people. They are not going to come to me...for the most part.


I recently read Psalm 24 on Wednesday. After reading what Spencer posted and thinking about what it meant, this chapter could not really be perfect. It simply says how good and powerful God is. It then goes on to state on who God's favor will fall...who will receive the Lord's blessings. David answers the question with "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false." He then describes the people as "those who seek Him, who seek your face O God of Jacob." It is hard to explain in such few words what David explains perfectly with even fewer words. Basically, those who get their character and priorities straight are the ones who will "receive blessing fromt he Lord and vidication from God His Savior." Read it...reflect on it...show it.


Back to hw.
Laters Chums

Lost in Translation

Day 7... The day started off in a way only Mother's Day, Father's Day and fairy tales do...with breakfast in bed. Only I can tell you right now it is NOT Mother's Day because I am not a mother. It is NOT Father's Day because my kids who do not yet exist were not the deliverers of the food. And it is definitely NOT a fairy tale because in a fairy tale, my current roommate would not be the one who brought me my food. The cheese omelet, jam, toast and OJ he brought was delicious though and eating it at my desk, looking out over the courtyard, watching the peaceful snow fall was a delightful way to start a day that was soon to be darkened by a not so successful marathon of homework. (picture of breakfast coming soon)

Being woken at 0914 with a hearty meal seems like it would give me the energy needed to a day's worth of hw. Big misconception. I did do hw all day minus my Oxford through the Ages class which will most likely be my favorite class. Basically we will take tours through places all around Oxford and then write reflections on them. There are a few other assignments like doing self tours and possibly making a video tour if we want an "A". In the class today, we went to the open market which is every Wednesday. They had super cheap, delicious fruit but that was about the only deals. Kristi nailed some lady in the head with her umbrella. Got cussed out as PPP would say.

Anywhoozers...Got back did hw. Ate at Pepper's Burgers. Came back and did more hw. Well when I saw did hw...it means I was attempting to do it. It does not imply that an equal amount of hw was done compared to the amount spent on it.

Well it is really late seeing as how we are meeting in house 9's 2nd floor kitchen(which is actually the third floor. they count wrong over here) for breakfast. Then its off to the station to begin the most...(insert lots of really cool adjectives here)...trip to Scotland EVER!!!

You might notice this blog is rather short compared to my other ones...it is not because I hurried through to get back to hw or because I have been doing hw while writing this. I may or may not have been drastically distracted due to my social attributes, creating a much larger lacuna(word of the day) in my hw doing than I envisioned.

I don't know if I will be able to keep up with my blog while I'm in the land of brave hearts, but I will keep a journal and deluge the few souls that read this with our (insert more awesome adjectives here) stories and experiences. If you would send up a few extra prayers for Kelly, Kristi, Grant and I for our safety, a smooth trip and lots of memories we would definitely appreciate. Thanks

 Psalms 24(more on this later)...read it...reflect on it...show it.

Laters Chums

Came from the left while looking to the right

Due to technical difficulties with the internet which were beyond Durko's (aka Team55) control and made me unable to post this post when I wrote it, I failed my one post-a-day challenge in literal terms, but figuratively, which is always the term that matters, I'm still on pace. So...

Day 6 brought my first class. Fudge and double fudge on that. The class Great Britain was not bad at all this morning. We found out about our community service options and how the class is going to work. It was a lovely time. We just didn't see what was around the corner though. This class and study abroad in its entirity is like a mother bear who acts like she loves her cubs...treating them nicely, letting them roam around the forest, try new berries and playing with other cubs. Now the momma bear very well may love her cubs and want the best for them but one day...BOOM!! Everything changes. She flips on them, making them work their poor paws raw and filling up what once was play time with fetching food, finding new caves, learning about other animals they never see and other hard, exhausting, time-consuming, fun-sucking tasks, working and slaving away at the command of their once sweet momma bear. Poor poor cubs...they didnt even see it coming.

Now, I may have overplayed this situation slightly but it makes for such better reading. Class really was good but it also really has SO MUCH work to go with it. One lonely class and I already feel bogged down. It was a tease to not have school for four days. It was light and then BOOM it got dark, leaving you blind and stunned. There was snow and then BOOM it melted(really fast...there was a solar flare), leaving your plants barely clinging to life. Good and then BOOM bad. Again, probably playing this up a little much but hopefully my point is made. Tons of work so now it's time to Do Work.

So after class, Kelly, Kristi, Grant and I perambulated(word of the day) to the train station again to buy our tickets. It made my day. Our guy Mike was/is the man. He spent over an hour working with us. From line work to getting rail cards, he got us through it. We ended up with a super fast trip there at 0837 for the same price as non-peak times putting us in Edinburgh at 1422. The trip back on Sunday was the problem because of work they were doing to the tracks. The way we were coming was going to take over 8 hours and involve making 5 connections and catching a bus somewhere along the way. He ending up routing us through London which ended up only being a few pounds more expensive while saving us hours of travel and now we only have 2 connections. He got us all sitting together around a table on the trains you could get reserved seats and he got us hooked up with a rail card that cost 26 quids but saved us almost 40 so it paid for itself in one use. Now we can use it on any train we take in the UK and get big discounts. W had to get a passport pic made at the station for the rail card. That was interesting because the machine was...well lets just say it was very "picky" on how you took your photo. Its "pickiness" lead to some very unflattering and funny pics. This train station experience which was really my first one ever made me even more pumped for this trip!

At the train station, I had my first "street" convo with a Brit. He was an older man and he was asking me some questions and heard my "twang" so we started talking about Texas. Then he left and the lady behind commented on how it seems like I made a friend and then we talked a little. Very nice. Ate a sausage roll at the train station as a recommendation from the worker guy. Flippin good!

After the station, we went to buy Kelly a new camera because of an incident that occured during the hand-off of it between Kelly and Kristi. I bought a cinnamon roll and a cranberry muffin from Sainsburys. Good stuff except the roll had raisins. Not a big fan of those little boogers. Also bought some fruit from 9-9. We shall see how that is.

Got back home and started on hw. Decided to take a nap at 1730 til 2000 cause I couldn't focus. Got up and ate some leftover pasta from Ryker and Ben. Now back to do hw until bed. Good day all in all.

I saw this on Spencer Hilliard's facebook today and it touched me:

"What we think about affects what we do, and what we do produces habits, and that is what ultimately determines our character.... Pursue God's truth, reflect on it, and put it into practice, that is the character we should all strive for."

Being in a foreign place, you could almost call it a duty to not just take, but give back. Habits essentially show who and what we are about. Habits are created by something we do and/or are surrounded by a lot. Habits are what we do. If my heart is for Jesus and like His then it will show because that is what I would think about and do all the time. Today in class, we read "The Moral Ambiguity of Study Abroad" by John Barbour. It just reiterated what I've been hearing and things finally came together. For the community service projects there are many cool things to do such as being a guide at Christ Church which I really wanted to do. After reading this article and what Spencer wrote, I did not see that opportunity as very appealing compared to the other service options available that can really impact someone's life. I've decided to do KEEN which is a program that basically will allow me to spend time with mentally handicapped kids, helping them do recreational things and what not. I can't wait! I am here spending more money on my weekend trip to Scotland alone than some people make in a year. This study abroad trip costs more money than a lot of people will make in their lifetime. I am having the time of my life while hell has come to earth in Haiti. I have to make the most of my time over here. I mean this in a completely different way than what I wrote about last night. I need...I want to help people and make a difference while I am over here instead of just worrying about the places I will and won't get to go. I have the opportunity of a lifetime...I will pursue God's truth, reflect on it and put it into practice. Thanks Spence.

Thanks for the prayers and keep them coming.
God is good.

Laters Chums

Too Much Goodness To Handle

Well it is officially day 5 and classes started today.  For me and several other people though we got to somewhat celebrate the revered holiday known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day by not having class due to the absence of our teacher. He has a good excuse seeing as how he is interviewing for the President position of ACU. You ever wonder why we get MLK day off at ACU and not Labor Day?  Do we even get Presidents' Day off? geez. So today I got up at 900 and made a delightful fried egg sandwich.  Durko, Grant, Chase and I eventually went for a great LONG walk around city centre but we stayed off the main area and took some backstreets...way cool. We found this place that I think is the original campus of Oxford University.  Super Cool! Saw this exhibit called Crossing Borders on display for free at that place.  It had a whole bunch of Hebrew manuscripts and meant to show how even though it was all Hebrew, the dialects are all different because of where the manuscripts came from. I didn't really pick up on anything more than that cause I was mesmerized by how old the stinking books were. We also found the Red Lion for anyone that knows what that is. If you don't...it's supposed to be super cheap, amazing food that is not take-out for once. ha

After we got back to the house, I worked with Kristi on planning our Scotland trip.  Talked to Cole a lot about it trying to get the inside info.  Found out we should go to the train station and talk to an actual person to try and book the train.  We eventually did that after waiting for the rest of the group to get back from shopping. Found out what we needed.  Some people started to not want to go to Scotland after that which is actually good cause we had way to big of group although I also do support the ancient saying, "the more the merrier" so its a coin toss. When we got back I worked on figuring out more about where and when I want to go places.  Europe is just way too interesting with way too many places to go and way too many things to do. Since if mom does come over here, she will want to go to Scotland, I was trying to find other places to go or different places to go in Scotland. I literally found a map of Scotland and picked three random small cities off the map. I looked them up...they are all unbelievable and want to visit them! Is it bad to complain that you are in a place that is too cool? I am flat-out overwhelmed by all the choices and with me being in the running for the Most Undecisive Person award for the last 8 years running...this is not good. Anywhere I go would be good but....I want to go to the best place and make the most of my time over here. I need some clarity on this or I fear I will doubt myself on every trip I go. It would be awesome if you could pray for that clarity and that I just enjoy whatever I do and not be so flippin undecisive. Id appreciate it. So anywhoozers...I think I we are going to go to Scotland this weekend...Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sterling and maybe St. Andrew's. Although now more people want to go and the hostel we want to stay at is filling up and I dont want to leave anyone out. hmmm.

So I literally just walked back into my room with a confirmation letter of our reservation at castle rock hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm stoked to say the least. God is good. The price was somehow the lowest I had seen and there are only four of us going. The others are going to Bathe which will be totally cool too.

So basically that has been my day. Spent $0, ZERO, the big goose egg today. I might be a little overly proud of myself for that. I do have to give a shout out to Claire and Stephanie for sharing their awesome tacos with me and to Sydney and the girls of house 9 for sharing their red pasta noodles with bread. DELICIOUS! Im pretty sure Im just going to sell my services as clean up crew in return for food. Maybe that will work. haha Well, first class tomorrow...Great Britian Studies or something like that at 930.

God is everywhere. He's in the air. He's in my chair. Although I'm in Oxford, He is here. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow...unchanged. In America or here, God is everywhere.

I'm a poet and I knowed it. I'm just not very good and I think I just showed it.

Til next time...

Laters Chums

I'm here and it is for real

So... I figure this is a waaaaay easier way to be able to remember everything I do than actually writing in my travel journal I have. Who still actually writes anyways? pff. Pen and paper are so caveman. Anywhoozers, today is my fourth day in a foreign land. I know people usually start these things when they get here but it's better late than never. I am a procrastinator...What's new? So quick catch up... Flight was super long for three main reasons. First, I am a rather long-limbed person who needs space. Planes don't have space, especially when the man in-front of me somehow found the secret button that every person I sit behind seems to find. The famous button that makes the seat lean back extra far and turn into a bed which I guess they think has some of built-in fan system that blows warm air on their head. Newsflash for those lucky people...that is my breath and in this particular case, it was my very smelly breath that was coming from a mouth that had not seen a toothbrush for quite sometime (Disclaimer: this is because of the simple fact that we were on a plane for 9 hour). So second reason...I didn't sleep more than thirty minutes the whole flight. This was mostly a direct cause of the first reason. The third reason...my awesome entertainment screen on which I was supposed to be able to watch and listen to hundreds of movies, tv shows and CD's DID NOT WORK! The flight attendant tried to reset it and it went through all the steps she said it would but the result was no different. Several people did offer to switch me seats and their ipods to watch videos on but to be honest i was too tired to really watch anything. Yes that completely contradicts my second reason I listed and your confusion is equal to mine as why I could not fall asleep...man in my lap or not. Although this sounds like a disaster of a flight, I love flying and the view of the sunrise and talking to different people who were in between naps made it not too bad. And looking back, it actually didn't really seem that long at all. Can't wait for the return flight.

Getting through customs was good. We had a hiccup that kept us from going right through and while we were waiting, Kristi took a pic of the group and a rather flustered customs guy did not like that and called her out and made her delete it. Besides that, no prob getting into the country.

The bus ride was CRAZY! Our first time on what us "colonial people" call the wrong side of the road. And there was snow and fog everywhere. So pretty!! We passed the house with a shark in the roof symbolizing something about the Cold War. The houses we live in are stinkin old! At first, I didnt know if I was going to be able to deal with the old smell and just how small everything is but, now I love it! I live in house 10 on the top floor in room 10. Our kitchen is basically a closet but I just cook down a floor as does pretty everyone in the house. In the basement live the Lytle's and on the main floor lives the Morrison's. We have the computer room in our house so when I have to print something that will definitely come in handy. I really love my house and the peeps in it. Its not really the hang out house like 9 so its much more chill. And if I dont want chill, I can just go to the other house. And I didn't get to room with Ben and Bradyn like we requested but Nick has been a great roommate. Nothing like Jro and Jgroves but good enough. It's great. God knows what he is doing.

So after we got here, we went on a guided walk to get a feel for the place. I was blown away and continue to be everytime i walk around the town. Like tonight, I have literally walked to Ali's kebab van with 3 different groups just cause i love walking in the town and...Ali is the man! but back to Thursday... that was about it.

Friday we all slept in awhile so since it gets dark at 1630 here we didnt have much daylight. Basically got groceries, walked around a lot more and just got a feel for the place and the rest of the group. We ate at Pepper's Burgers. Up there with best burgers I've ever had. I got thai sweet chili and BBQ sauce on it. MMMMH. I skyped with the fam for the first time. It was good!

Saturday.... It was CRAZY! I got up at 845 and made a fried egg sandwich which was fairly bland seeing as how I bought unsalted organic butter..yuck! After breakfast, Grant, Kelly, Kristi, Cailee, Sydney, Chelsea, Jackie(spell check), Becca, and some other girls went to University Park. A lot of snow had melted but there were still a few huge balls that people had made that we made snowballs from and had a pretty legit snowball fight. Grant and I won cause girls drool and boys rule. Yes you could say that we should have let them won but that's the beauty of democracy and the Freedom of Speech and the Miranda Rights...you don't have to say anything you don't want to. ha But then we came back, ate lunch and went to Summertown, just north of Oxford on Woodstock. Nice little shopping area. After that we ate dinner at Ali's Kebab...RIDONKULOUSLY AWESOME!!! Then we got a big group and went to what was supposed to be this pretty crazy sounding garage band concert thing. Walked FOREVER to get there. Went past Christ Church and other places and at night and in the fog everything looked amazing! The "concert" turned out to be a bust seeing as I think we were way early. It was just like and awkward single and ready to mingle atmosphere. We all bailed and took the bus back to city centre to go to another place we saw a flyer for. Couldnt find it so I asked some cops. Coolest cops ever...straight up Dumb and Dumber. Hilarious. Just to name one thing...they were trying to give me directions and they were both arguing about it. Turns out the map was upside down. Anywhoozers...we found the place called The Cellar. We got there before 2230 so we got in for free. They had some good music going and we just sat around and talked. Then...the white British rappers came on stage. holy eminem gone geeky. They were so chill and funny. Awesome skills from what experience I have to offer the rapping community. After they finished, it was a straight up dance party on stage. Our group just stuck together and had a blast! It was definitely an experience! Especially since the roof was only a few inches above my head and when you are already an awkward dancer....that does not help to say the least. I eventually left with a small group and went home.

Today...finally. I went with a large group to St. Aldates church. Its where Cole and Jacque)spell check) go. It was a super old church on the outside but on the inside...AMAZING! completely modern with flat screens all over and a full band. The service was over 2 hours long but the worship was great and the lesson was awesome...for what I was awake for. it was an interim pastor cause the main one is on a pastor trip thing that they take. I don't remember what it is called. But he was SUPER long-winded. Like I said the sermon was powerful over the weeds and wheat parable but it could have been a 15 min sermon versus almost an hour!! After church we went to On The Hoof. Got the Sexy Brazilian Panini. Odd but really good. Hung out trying to plan our Scotland trip this weekend. Went on a walk with Malia, Kristi and Grant around the "loop". Took some pics til it got dark. Went into some Oxford apparel shops and to the Museum of something for free and saw a crazy SteamPunk display. Got back and kinda helped cook some soup. Ate the soup. Good. Went to Ali's Kebab twice after dinner. Didn't buy anything. Just went for company and to see Ali. Started blogging when I got back. Forgot about 9@9 and was late. It was really good. It was about Abraham going off to find his land in Genesis. It made us think about not only what do we want(or can) to get out of this trip but how we can bless others. Went back to Ali's for a third time with Bradyn, Claire, Wyatt and Grant I believe. Always fun going to Ali's. :) I skyped for a bit and then back to blogging.

It is now 031. I love this whole military time deal. And every stereotypical saying about the English...It is SO true! On a cereal box it said "Scrumptious new flavor". No one is overweight here cause portions are way smaller and they walk everywhere!!! I think I'm closing in on almost 15 miles in just four days. Lose the chicken wings baby!

Laters Chums