Catching up

First of all, I am so sorry that it has been almost a week! My bad.  But I have lots of pictures and details on the week for everyone.  Wednesday was a very exciting night for Mason and I.  Mason had his first volleyball game.  The JV won but the Varsity lost. Personally, I was not able to see him play because I did not make it there to the end but Tracy said he did great!  After the game we went for dinner and he decided to walk home before we were ready to leave.  This is when my exciting night started; I had my very first driving experience.

  

Driving over here.... wow.  Well it's different that is for sure.  Not only are you on the wrong side of the road but you are also on the opposite side of the car.  It is hard to not hit any curbs or swipe the side of the car with a branch or two.  And I mean if the person riding with you is not holding the "oh shit" handle then well you must of grown up here because I am not positive that when riding in a car over here I have ever let that handle go! I might not have this problem, however, instead of calling shotgun (front seat) Mason always calls the backseat because he figures if we crash... well he doesn't want to go first. 

But on a serious note.  I drove home from the pub and did a great job.  I did not hit one curb and all of the branches by the road are in tact.  Tim and Tracy drive here all the time and are really good at driving.  Well, they are getting there.  They do still have their mishaps at times.  On Sunday we were driving to dinner and  one of the two of them (I will let you decide who you think this happened too) had an American moment and started driving on the right side of the road rather than the left.  Not only was this person on the wrong side of the road.  But they was heading into a round-a-bout with a car coming straight at is.  There was a bit of a scream in the car and I believe this was the point that Mason suggested that we just go home and we will walk to wherever we were going.  We did just that.  Needless to say I spoke to my mom on Skype at the pub and made sure she knew that I loved her.

On Friday Amy invited to me to go to her house, go out and stay the night.  I met her at the pub she works at and we headed to Farnboro.  When we got to her house I met her mom and dad along with her two brothers Martin and Andrew.  Her dad walked in the house and said "Is this your American friend?  Well howdy, partner!"  They were very funny about asking me all about the differences from here and the States.  They wanted details about everything, from sports to fast food restaurants.  It was fun to sit around and joke about all the different things.  Her dad made burgers and then the four of us kids headed out to the pub. Two of Amy's girlfriends joined us as well.  The place we went had live music which was a lot of fun.  When the band played "I've got that lovin' feeling" from Top Gun it was about game over in the pub because everyone in the place started singing out loud and loving it!  One big difference about going out to a pub with locals and back home is that back home when all of us go out for drinks we all tend to get our own drinks with someone buying a round every once in a while.  Over here it is expected that everyone buys a round of whatever everyone else is drinking whether you know these people or not.  Depending on how many people your with it seems as if it would get quite expensive :)   It was fun getting to know her friends and family.  I really had a great time!  We went back to her house and she took me home the next morning before she had to work.   


Saturday we all headed into London for the day.  It was raining on and off all day so Tracy got to wear her red wellies.  This is a picture of Mason and I outside where we went for lunch. It was funny because there were two specific times that I thought of my family that day.  The first was because in a mall that we found there was a poster for Modern Family so I thought of Chuck. Then when were were walking down the street I look over and there was a shop that was full of guitars.  I had never seen so many guitars in my life.  So I am sure all of you know who I thought of here. :) It turned out that we had found a very famous music street in London and it had music shops all down it.  If you ever needed an instrument then this is exactly where you would want to go.

 

When we got back to the house that night we all decided to stay up until midnight so that we could hear Matthew and Morgan's football games.  Mason was the first one to go to bed and then I fell asleep after listening for a bit.  For those of you who do not know, my bed is in the living room which is the same room that we were all listening to the games.  Basically this made it hard for Tim and Tracy to celebrate but they did the silent screaming thing which worked well.  

As you can imagine staying up until 4 a.m. made for a lazy Sunday.  We all slept in, I went for a run, we went into the town and rented a movie.  Tracy and I went to Christ Church for a service which was fun because Peter Nevins, who was a teacher at Heritage, is now the youth pastor here.  It was so fun to see him and his wife Kristin along with their four children. What a coincidence that we all got back in touch and were able to catch up.  The Colts game was on at 6 our time.  We do not have any way to watch these games except for through the computer screen.  It is kinda fun because we are able to move the furniture around and all lay around watching the computer because of course we can't miss the games. (even if they are hard to watch at times)  Needless to say we are very excited to move into the house to be a bit more comfortable when watching these important things.

So as you can see it has been a very exciting week. Well I need to get ready for my long day of classes.  Only three more days until I leave for Paris and eight days until we move into the house!!! I hope everyone back home is doing great and we miss and love you all :)

Shakespeare's Globe

I am in a Shakespeare in his World class which is a theater and literature class combined.  We are assigned a play to read and the following week we go see that play.  We are also asked to look at reviews from the show so that we can discuss these things when returning to class the following week.  It is going to be a lot of work but at the same time I am so excited about being able to see the different plays.  This week we read Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.  Tuesday, was my first trip to Shakespeare's Globe Theater.  Our tickets were in the yard of the theater meaning we were on the ground floor right next too the stage.  This also means that we were in the standing room only section.  Another neat thing about the theater is that there is not a roof on it.  I believe that they perform rain or shine.  Luckily it was a beautiful, chilly and not raining on Tuesday so it was perfect.  Hopefully we can be this lucky through the whole semester. 

  The theater is right on the water so when standing outside the theater (having your back to it) this is the view of London that you have.  It was fun to be there right around sunset. 

The theater has a yard which is the area right in front of the stage, and then three different stories of seats which are more like bleachers than anything else.

Here is a video of what the inside of the theater looks like from standing in the middle.

Mark 4:35-41

When I pulled into the airport in Chicago and was getting dropped off to come over here I was scared.  What was I thinking?  Coming to England to live? leaving my family and friends back home!? Was I crazy?!  I got scared.  In fact, I was terrified.  I got a sick feeling in my stomach and thought that maybe I had made the wrong decision.  I kept asking God if I was making the right decision.  I am not sure what came over me in that moment.  I had been so excited and knew the second that I got on the plane that I was going to enjoy myself, I was going to have so many experiences that people only dream of.  I am so blessed to be able to have this opportunity.  

Now, I say all that to also say that when I sat down and opened my Bible tonight I felt in a way that I was not doing this because I wanted to, but rather because I felt as if I needed to.  I am so glad I did because the first thing that fell out was a letter that I had gotten from Chuck before I went on my wilderness trip in high school.  It was a thoughtful letter that I  am sure I did not appreciate at the time but kept and it was very comforting to me at this moment in my life.  After I read this, a note card then fell out and it had the words "Quiet, be still....Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"  I opened my Bible and read the story of Jesus calming the storm.  It was amazing the overwhelming sense of comfort I  felt as I read that. 

There are so many times in our lives when we make choices.  Some choices are good and some are not so good.  Some do not change our lives at all but other decisions not only change our own lives but also the lives of the ones we love.  Personally, I know that I have made some good and bad decision in my life.  I know that I have made decisions that have changed the course of my life completely.  For example, I was a flight attendant and  I decided to come on this trip.  Both of these decisions have given me time to find out who I am.  They have taught me independence and confidence. Some things happen in our lives and decisions are then made completely for us.  I had to fight cancer and my best friend is fighting cancer day in and day out. Everyone has there own storms but it's what we do in the midst of those storms that makes the difference.  I can't tell you how many times I have been going through something and thought just as the disciples did.  I have asked God "do you not care if I drown?" But He does care.  He would never put us in a situation that we were unable to handle.  He would never give up on us when we are in the midst of something huge.  In fact, these are the times that He is with us the most.  I struggle with this everyday.  When I think about the lives that my loved ones are living.  When I think about the struggles that people are going through.  I am tempted to ask the deadly question of WHY?  But in these times of our lives.  We need to be grateful that God is with us.  That He trusts us to make decisions and that we decide to trust Him when we doubt the decisions that we have made. We need to be proud that He is right next to us in the worst of our storms.  

I think back to the feeling in the airport and laugh.  Are you kidding! I have the opportunity to go on this adventure and learn more about others and myself.  I get to live a dream that so many people have.  I am so grateful for the storms that have led me to this point in my life.  

When I sit in the living room of our apartment I am able to hear the wind.  I sit here alone and think about how grateful I am to be sitting in this room which is in a small town outside of London.  How lucky am I to be sitting here and enjoying the sounds of the hustle and bustle of the outside but also hear the small things like the birds outside my window.  I sit here and try to be still and have faith.  I need to not be afraid of the new things in my life but instead have faith.

Royal Holloway (most beautiful school ever!)

Tracy Mason and I had a great time yesterday when Kat and her family invited us to go on a tour of Royal Holloway University.  It is an incredible school that has so much history to it.  It started as an all girls school way back in the day but now is male and female.  Queen Victoria helped in the opening ceremonies of this all girls school in 1886, however she did not really do it that willingly.  They had to send her three different letters asking her to be involved in the ceremonies because she kept refusing.  She did not believe in higher education for women at the time.

Mason and I in front of the school

Obviously I needed to pick it up!!

In front of the Queen Victoria monument in the middle of campus

Mason in front of the Clock tower.  

 How cool is this place?!

The beautiful organ in the chapel of the school

Kat and Mason

Music makes me feel at home

 Tim got home on yesterday from Portugal and so when he got into town all four of us went out for dinner at The Crown for dinner.  After dinner Mason headed out to hang with his friends and we walked down to a restaurant called The Bank to listen to some music.

When we got there there were only a few other people eating and the music had not started yet. But we stayed for a while and there were two singers who were very good.  After about an hour of them playing the place really started to get crowded and people started dancing and singing along.  It was really a lot of fun. We have a feeling that we will be spending quite a few Friday nights here listening to music because we enjoyed it so much. Here are some pictures of the guys and Tracy and I.

Listening to the music definitely made me wish mom and dad were over here to be here to enjoy it! Totally felt like a Friday night we would of all enjoyed together. 

Today Tracy got her car and then we went to see the house that we are going to move into. We met the family living in it now and they were very lovely. It was fun to pick out the room that I will be living in and to just see the house in general. It is beautiful with a big backyard. Or garden as they call it here :) It is quite a bit larger than the flat that we are in now and even though its small here I think we are all going to miss the quaintness of this place.  Tim leaves in the morning for Japan and then I think he should be home for a while after that.  It has been a lot of fun to skype mom and dad.  We would love to skype others so send over your skype names :)

First day of school

Well  Yesterday I had my first day of school! I woke up and it was raining and cold and windy which really made me want to stay in bed but at the same time I was excited to start my classes.  I had history as my first class which was at 1:30 and then I went into London to the other campus and had Shakespeare and His World, which was a night class from 6:30 to 9:30.  I have a feeling I am going to love this one.  We are going to see 4 plays in the class;  in fact we start next week with heading to the Globe Theater to see Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe .  Today I have Introduction to Performing Arts.  I am interested to see how this one goes. :) Could be a lot of fun.

But these two pictures are of course my first day of school pictures.  This is in front of the flat that we are living in.  

Cards in the Pub

Yesterday was a fun day. We relaxed and headed out to the mall for a bit in the afternoon while Mason went to the movies.  For dinner we went to The Rose and Crown.  We called Mason to have him meet us there and he joined us with a friend of his from school, Kat.  We got there before they did so we sat and played cards. (Tracy won all three games by the way...)  Once Mason and Kat joined us Kat said she was not going to eat because she needed to go home to eat with her mom but she called her and had her mom meet up with us too.  It was a lot of fun to just sit for hours and learn about these new people.  They were so fun to talk to and hear how they ended up here.  Once we were done eating we continued to sit around and talk and just enjoy each others company.  We pulled out the cards again and taught them how to play.  We were also able to see Amy and Ben, who are friends of mine that are managers at the Pub, so it was fun catching up with them as well.  Tim headed off to Portugal this morning for the week.

This morning Tracy and I thought it would be a good idea to go workout with Mike, the person that Tim and Mason work out with.  We were wrong.  This was a terrible idea!  He kicked our butts!  I am sure neither one of us are going to be able to move for days :)  However, we are both 1. proud that we went and 2. feel healthier already!! ha does it work that quickly? After the work out we walked down to get a movie (because we figured if we couldn't move we could at least lay down and watch a good movie...right?) and groceries for dinner tonight. It has been nice to have a day to just relax and get some rest before school tomorrow! Yes, that is right, I said it... my classes begin tomorrow! Pray they go well.

What should we do today?

Who knew the question, "what do you guys want to do today?" could end up being a day full of fun?... 

Well I do now :)

This question was asked many times yesterday morning and none of us had a definite answer on what we wanted to do.  We all thought it would be fun to go into London for the day.  Tracy and I had looked up what shows were going on and thought that could be something fun to do but we were going to wait and see when we got into town.  Tim Tracy and I headed off to the train station and got right on the train. This was the beginning of our adventure.  From where we live into London Waterloo should only take about 30 minutes.  Well, thirty minutes go by and now we realize we do not recognize any of the stops that we are passing! Turns out there are more than one route from our train station into London; we got on the train that takes about an hour to get into town.  So we began our day with a leisurely hour long train ride.  

Once we got into town we stopped at a half price ticket booth to see if we could see any shows.  It was 2:12 p.m.  The man said that there were great seats to see Billy Elliott and it started at 2:30.  So by the time he gets the tickets printed it was approximately 2:22.  We went back into the tube station and two different lines and 4 stops later now it being 2:29 we make it to Victoria station.  We run up about 3 escalators and run through the streets to make it to Billy Elliot (we were sweating at this point) with only missing the first 3 minutes of the first song! 

We absolutely loved this show! All three of us teared up (I straight up cried twice) and laughed and I could not stop smiling through the whole show.  It was an amazing cast and an amazing story with an amazing message.  

After the show we headed into Piccadilly Circus where we had dinner. This is also where we walked around and shopped for hours! We had so much fun going in and out of shops and hit the jackpot at a store where Tracy and I fell in love with basically everything we saw! It was so much fun looking around and I even got a new outfit for the first day of school, which I am sooo excited about :) 

Once we shut the stores down and realized we had been shopping for a long time (it was now 9:00) we headed back to Egham. We got on the correct train so it only took us 30 minutes to get back.  We dropped off all of our packages and decided to finish off our day of adventures and fun with a beer at our local pub.  It was so fun to sit and talk about the entire day.  

Finally, we got home and I decided to crawl into bed with Harry Potter to end the great day with a good book.  However I didn't make it far before I feel asleep and Tim decided to take this picture of me dead asleep right after I started reading...

I don't think we could of asked for a better Saturday!

Beginning of School

Well this week I have been able to really figure out the train and the tube stations.  I have had orientation all week so I have been going into London more of the days which has been fun.  At first it was kinda confusing but I definitely feel like I just get around without looking too much like a tourist, which was a big goal to accomplish.

 I was also able to go on a walking tour through Kensington which is where one of my two campuses are.  There is so much to see right around that school.  I found out that Dustin Hoffman has a place down the street and also a lot different countries Embassy's were just a few block away.  When we were walking through these They said that pictures were not allowed because of terrorist reasons.  It was also interesting because you look down the street and they all look like really big mansions but you see a guy with a machine gun outside one of them... can you guess which country that was?....  Israel.  I found that very interesting.

Tim has been home in Indy all week so it has just been Tracy, Mason and I.  Tracy and I went out driving one day and found store with an item that we were sooo excited about.  JIF Peanut Butter! We have not had peanut butter since we got here and we were just pumped about that.  We have also found a few different shopping areas, including a really big mall that is not too far from us.

I guess you can say that this week we have done a lot of the local things.  We have found places around us that we would go shopping or just hang out, figured out some more fun places to eat, and figured out the transportation a little more.  Not sure what the plans are for the weekend... I will let you know :)

SO what have you all been up too?