Thoughts on life and home...
Well, here I am having just finished the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and wishing that it would go on for forever. C. S. Lewis has a way of making you feel something deep inside yourself that makes you want to find other worlds that are reached through your own. Brilliant. I would recommend to anyone in a heartbeat to read the Chronicles of Narnia in chronological order, it will change your life.
Today has been an eventful day. My parents have been here for the past 10 days for their 30th anniversary (Happy anniversary Mom and Dad!) and Sarah H. has been here since Sunday. Both of them sadly left today so the morning was spent helping Sarah get to the train station and seeing her off (I had to say goodbye to my parents last night). It’s strange, I nearly cried when Sarah’s train pulled away… I still don’t know why… maybe it’s because that’s when it hit that I wasn’t going to see my family or Sarah or Paul or Cari or Vanessa (the list goes on and on and on) until I come back home. Up until now I felt like I was at summer camp and my parents were coming to pick me up to go home, but instead I stayed behind. I am more than happy about the fact that I am here and I am so excited for the next two months that I have here. However, reality finally hit and I realized that I am in school here and I have 4 papers that need to be written before I go home. Perhaps I should start on that? Eh, I’ll get to that. Anyways, back to today’s events. I had rowing again today and we went out on the water this time in a rowing boat and we were fighting the tide all over the place. It was a much harder day than when I went out last week. There are 4 Biola girls that are doing rowing and we all found out that we may not be able to row with them anymore because they need to be working on getting the team in shape and ready for the season in March. Hopefully though we will be able to figure something out that will allow us to row still. Then I came back and showered and went to my Bible class where we had a guest speaker talk about being a Christian and an artist but not making art that was explicitly Christian. It was a good time and there were many of his pieces that I really like, he was a very talented man! Then I walked a couple girls to the train station in the rain (it has been a good down pour since about 4 this afternoon) along with Garrett who is from Biola. We got back and I read some and now here I am. Having said all that, here’s what I have been up to lately…
My parents got here last Tuesday and we hung out for a bit, went on a guided walk, and had dinner. Wednesday was the first day that I got to actually row on the River Thames; that was such an interesting experience. We rowed with two ores which was such a challenge to get used to but once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed doing it. While we out on the water it started to rain and I got totally soaked to the bone, but I was rowing on the Thames so I was completely happy. Went and hung out with my parents a bit more. Thursday I had class and found out that there was a man found shot in an area right down the street from my school. There are several things that are interesting about this situation; first off, guns are illegal in England, so someone being shot is a big deal. Also, I have been looking out for news on the whole thing and there is not a word about it in any of the newspapers; very strange. I hung out with my parents again, and then that night we (the girls and my parents and I) went to my parent’s bed and breakfast for an amateur jazz night. It was so much fun! Charlotte (the owner) and her partner played the piano and clarinet and they had two friends playing guitar and percussion. It was a relaxing evening of talking with some of Charlotte’s friends and learning more and more about British culture. Friday I went to Cambridge with my parents and I really loved being there! Everything was so green and lush; the buildings were all old and steeped with history. I got to go into King’s College Chapel (basically all postcards about Cambridge have that chapel on it) and that was amazing. My parents and Charlotte think that I should go to school there, I’m not so sure about that. Saturday was the only day I didn’t see my parents. My Bible class through Biola had an excursion day where we went the Saatchi gallery where there were paintings of different sorts and then there was a room that was half filled with oil and one person was allowed to walk in at one time you saw the mirrored image of the room on the oil; very trippy. Then we went to the Tate Britain and was given an hour long tour. I will need to go back there at some point because we didn’t even see ¼ of the things that were there. Then the best part was that we went to the Globe Theatre and saw Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Holy cow, everything was so perfect. Everything was done the way that things should have been done in that they had men actors for the woman’s role and the theatre was in the old style with a 3 piece band that played occasionally. Sunday was an adventure because I had to figure out how to get to Gatwick airport to pick up Sarah. After getting turned around a couple times I was able to meet up with her and we met my parents back at my room. We then went into town and got some food and saw many of the major sights at night (Big Ben, Parliament, London Eye, Tower of London, London Bridge, Trafalgar’s Square…). The next day I had class and then we (Sarah and I) met my parents and went to the House of Commons and saw two of the candidates running for the Conservative representative. It was very interesting to sit in on the way their government is run. They will interrupt each other and joke with each other, even make fun of each other. Then Sarah and I went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and had a great time relaxing and talking about life and what not. Then we met back up with my parents and went to see the Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre (where the original opened and has been for the past 19 years). Surprisingly enough I did not enjoy it as much as I thought that I would (I saw the one that came to the Amenson a few summers ago, and that was phenomenal) but I still enjoyed myself and was glad that I went. Tuesday I had class and then met up with my parents and Sarah where we had traditional fish and chips with peas and then went on the London Eye. It was my parents’ anniversary that day so they went to go have high tea and Sarah and I spent over an hour going through Westminster Abbey. It’s interesting to go into a place that has so much history buried within it. Almost all of the kings of England and their wives were buried there as well as Handel, various nobility and several poets. Then Sarah and I went to Camden town to do some shopping; basically picture Santa Monica with all the drugs, throw in a couple downtown L.A. shops and add several markets and you’ve got a pretty good picture of what this place was like. Then we went to Oxford Circus where all the name brand shops were located (Harrods is there but we didn’t make it down that far). Sarah and I met back up with my parents and we went to this amazing burger place that we had visited earlier that week and went back to my parents B&B to eat it. Then everyone came to my place and I said bye to my parents and Sarah and I had an amazing time looking through all of her photos from Uganda and hearing wonderful stories.
Well, that’s my life in a nutshell, of course there’s more to my life than that but I want you all to not spend the entirety of your life reading my not so glamorous blog. Hopefully I will be able to get some stuff from my trip up soon (no, I didn’t forget, I just got a little side tracked). If the rain keeps up it will definitely be soon than later. I hope that all is well with you all, drop me a line or post on my blog letting me know how you are doing. Loves!