Papers Papers Everywhere.

Oh my...so many papers to write. I think I have somewhere around nine papers to write.

Today we went to visit All Souls College and walked around for a while. And I worked for a while on all of my papers. I waited for a long long time at the post office to get envelopes for my World Wide Witness letters.

I didn't do a whole lot today...homework and walking around town. We did watch Peter Pan (the Disney version) tonight. Apparently people watch movies over here in house 9, but being in house 10, I'm normally too lazy to come over here. It's probably better, because otherwise I'd never get anything done.

I'm excited though, because when this weekend is over, I should have at least all of my flights booked for the semester, and on my way to having all of my trips planned. Plus the homework is going to start getting easier as the frontloading part of the semester comes to an end, and we get to spend the last part traveling and basically enjoying life, with some school thrown in. Ahh...can't wait.

House boats.

Who needs a mobile home when you can get a house boat? No really, we were walking by the river for one of our walking tours, and these boats had little yards and mailboxes where they docked. It was so cute.

We went on this walking tour, and went to little Alice's shop from Alice in Wonderland, Christ Church Meadows, and walked along the river for a long long time. We did almost get attacked by some angry swans though. We went to St. Freidswide's church, and walked along the river some more. And then we came home.

So this weekend I think I'm going to Bleinheim Palace, just a 20 minute bus ride away, and trying to get caught up on all of my homework. There's a lot that's due at the end of the semester that I really should get done now.

Now we're reading the Magician's Nephew for C.S. Lewis, so that's pretty cool.

Oh, and I can't wait to register for classes next semester. I love planning my schedule, but now I want to have it. I'm tired of waiting.

And here is a picture of some interesting art that I saw at the Tate Modern in London. It's a large crack in the floor. I'm not always sure what to make of modern art...I think that's why I find it interesting. You can make up your own mind.

Overcoming iPhone Jealousy.

Okay, so, I'm jealous. I know I'm not supposed to be, but I am.

All the incoming freshmen at ACU get free iPhones. Here's the link to the story.

Not that I'm mad that they get one, I'm mad that I don't. Mostly because I really want one already. I guess I just went to college too early.

In other news for the day, I tried to get a Bodlian card, but we were mislead when we listened into someone else's conversation on cost, and it doesn't look like it's going to happen after all. Sad day. I am going to Berlin, Germany in a week, and Ireland for St. Patrick's day the weekend after that. And then to somewhere, maybe Scotland, the week after that. And Italy in April. It's a wonder we do any work around here...or maybe that explains why we have so much to do when we are here.

I do love the conversations we get to have on Wednesday nights downstairs in one of the professor's flats. We're going through the Purpose Driven Life, and mostly it's really good conversation.

Today it hit me how much I really want a good hug though.

We talked about trust tonight, and trusting in God. It's strange, because for all of growing up, everything in my life was constantly changing. Now that it's been the same (ish...I mean, college and such, but you know), I'm not sure I'm as used to dealing with change. It's hard being so far away from home, with everything changing. But it seems like from here on out...things are going to change. I guess that's a part of growing up...slowly becoming an independent adult. So much of life was easier when I was little. I watched Kennedy talking to her mom tonight (wife and kids of one of the professors), and I remembered being that age, and how safe everything was when your parents deal with everything for you. And now I'm starting to learn to deal with things for my self. Not there yet, but starting. I can, however, see where this goes. And it is kinda daunting.

Anyways. Sometimes I get stressed, and lose sight of how very blessed I am. Because I am. I'm living in Oxford, traveling Europe, I have a dear wonderful family and great friends, and God is so very good.

My message for myself at the moment: God is Good. God is Love. God will take care of me.

And to end: I really have a liking of this artist, Wassily Kandinsky. Here's something of his.

I can't tell you exactly why I like him...I really just do. So there you go.

Earthquake!

Okay, mid day post. Or morning post to be more correct.

I've now been in earthquakes in Peru AND England. Last night Britain experienced the largest earthquake they've had in ten years. [Edit: Biggest in 25 years now.] It was a 5.3 on the Richter, but it the epicenter was a couple of hours away from here, so all we got were some little tremors.

So, here's the story.
I was laying in bed last night as it approached one am. Reading I think. All of a sudden, I felt my bed shaking, kinda like someone had grabbed a hold of the side and very rapidly rocked it. So, being on the bottom bunk, I thought that Holly was shaking the bed or something. Then I looked over at the wardrobe, which doesn't touch the bed, and it was shaking too. Odd. So I sat there and told Holly..."What was that?" After we concurred that we didn't know, I mentioned to her that it felt like an earthquake...but I was pretty sure that earthquakes didn't happen in England.

I was wrong.

So I woke up this morning, and another roommate, Krisann, told me that it had been an earthquake, someone else had looked it up. She was half asleep when it happened, and doesn't remember feeling it, but she did remember my talking about it, and so when she heard some other people talking about it this morning, she came and told me.

Then I looked it up:
Heres the BBC report,
And here's the Times report.

Now, if you read those, keep in mind that I was in Oxford, and the epicenter was near Lincoln. They're several hours away, and so those crazy stories are not around me. I'm safe and fine.

On this Map, if you can't find them, Lincoln is directly above the "n" in England, and Oxford is directly below the "g".

Anyways, that was an interesting story, and now I've been in earthquakes on two continents. Neither of which is the one where I've spent most of the 19 years of my life. (I would say the one where I live...but I kinda live in England right now.)

But anyways, I hope your day is wonderful and earthquake free!

Package from Home

So today I had a midterm in C.S. Lewis, and for Oxford Through the Ages we went to the Oxford Museum. The highlight of my day was that I got a huge package of food and other assorted items from my parents, and the two 4gb flash drives that I ordered two days ago got here. Exciting!

Our C.S. Lewis midterm was intense though, as we had to write eight intelligent typed pages in two hours. It was rough. And now it's over.

Fair Trade Fudge.

So today I woke up, and went to work at Oxfam again. While I was there, I was talking to one of the guys who works there, probably the only one even near my age, and he asked me what I had done the last weekend. So, reluctantly I told him that I went to Spain. I didn't want to say it, because it sounds kinda strange. "So this one weekend I went to Spain." Anyways, I told him, and he just looked at me for a moment. "You went to Spain...for the weekend?" he asked me. Needless to say...he thought it was strange.

After that, I went grocery shopping, but not before I got some fair trade fudge on my way out of Oxfam. It was so wonderful. Then I went to class, did a presentation on faith and culture, and then came back to work on some more homework. We met for my bible class, and then I sat over in the common room in house 9 for a while. All in all...not very eventful.

I love Spain.

Okay okay, I feel bad for not posting. But first, I was gone all weekend, and second, we no longer have reliable internet in our house. Sad, I know.

Well anyways, this weekend I went to Spain. Palma de Mallorca to be more specific. It's an island off the coast. It is so so so pretty. I love the place.


We left the houses at 4am on Thursday morning, walked to the bus station, took a 4 hour bus to Stanstead airport, waited there for a long time, took a 2 hour flight to Mallorca, and then waited for a bus, then took a bus to our hostel. Only we don't speak Spanish so we missed our bus stop and had to walk back.

Our hostel was nice, and we went and got groceries for breakfast and lunch the next two days, and ate dinner. We managed to order because no one there spoke English, and we don't speak Spanish. Dinner was good, and we sat and talked for several hours.

After dinner we went and walked down by the marina, and went to see the Cathedral there at night. It was towering and majestic and absolutely wonderful. We stayed there for a little while, just in awe. Then we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.


The next day, we got up, and hiked to the castle...in flip flops because we didn't expect to be hiking. It was a lovely walk though. And the view from the castle was breathtaking. You could see almost forever. Out over the hills and the Mediterranean Sea...ahhh lovely.
After we explored the castle for a while we left, and went back to the Cathedral during the daytime, and it was still wonderful. We didn't pay to go in though. So we wandered around the gorgeous Spanish streets. We ate lunch in some beautiful gardens, and then caught a bus to the beach.


The beach was so wonderful and beautiful. One of the best things that I've ever seen. We explored, and napped, and relaxed to the sounds of the waves. After a while of that, we went back to the hostel, rested, and then went out to dinner. We had this really great dinner at a place by the marina, and again, talked for several hours.

The next morning we woke up early and went to the Catholic Mass at the cathedral. We got to see the inside, which was beautiful, but we didn't get to take any pictures.

After that, we went shopping, and I got some Mallorcan pearl earrings, and then after eating lunch, walked for a long long time, caught a bus to the airport, and flew back to England.

It was sad coming through the cloud into England though, because Spain was warm and sunny, and we saw the sun the whole way home, and then we went under the clouds in England, and it was dark and gloomy. After another 4 hour bus ride and a 2o minute walk home, we made it back to the houses.

Today I slept in, and did a lot of nothing. I enjoy being in a English speaking country again though. Language is a big deal. It's hard when you don't speak the dominant language.

But I'm also glad, because Oxford feels more and more like home, and it's good to be back.