The Home Stretch

Well, it's official...I have nothing to do. I just turned in my final assignment and all that is left to do is go to class. We're struggling to find things to do because most of the other students have a lot of work left to do. So we've resolved to watch the tv show House with our friend Danielle. It's very refreshing to be done with all of my work, but I still feel like I should be doing something haha. I've really been trying to soak up the last few days here with my friends, which is probably what's most important to me (that and sleep). It's very bittersweet that the semester is...

Oh wow. i just have to insert a comment here because I'm in the library and a girl that I'm sitting next to just applied her spray deodorant...in public. That's all. I guess I'd rather her wear deodorant than not though...

So as I was saying...It's very bittersweet that the semester is over. I've so fully enjoyed my time here and don't want to leave this new and different experience that I feel like I've just begun, but I am so eager to get home to my family and everything that awaits me there. With Christmas just around the corner, 9 days...but who's counting :), I'm trying to keep my mind constantly turned to the gift of Jesus, and redemption through him. It really is such a fascinating thought, that the Son of God coming down, humbly but also mightily, to bring us life to its fullest. I know that my words will never do justice to the greatness and gloriousness that Christ brings and offers to us, but in a single phrase, it captivates my heart and always will. Although it's the holiday season in England as well, it just doesn't feel like Christmas to me, which is why I'm so excited to go home. I know that wherever I am, I will always be filled with inexpressible joy at Christmastime, but I believe that joy is expressed so much more when I'm surrounded by those who share in it with me. 

With all that said, for the next few days I will be enjoying my last few days in the UK with my friends, but I can't wait to see all of you soon and am so excited to share joy with you this holiday season!

¡Viva España!

¡Hola! It is with ease and great pleasure that I proclaim that Spain was officially one of my favorite times of this entire trip. Other than the obvious reason (my love for the Spanish language), everything about Spain, minus the throngs of people, was captivating. The weather was around 50 or 60 which is so much nicer than the 30 or 40 we are used to here in Ormskirk. We arrived around supper time on Friday, which we desperately needed. We met our friend Mark at the hostel and headed to go find a place for dinner. There was a nice tapas bar across the street that we settled on and I proceeded to have one of the greatest meals I've had in a long time. Wanting to be authentically Spanish, I went for the vegetable paella and some sangria...I was a VERY happy camper. The paella rivaled some of the best meals I've ever eaten, and the sangria was a perfect mixture of fruit and wine. I definitely want to find a recipe of each when I get home. We walked around for a bit and got some time to catch up with Mark before heading off to bed. Saturday we woke up extremely earlier than everyone else (no one's awake at 10?) apparently because no one was out as we walked around. We headed to La Rambla which is a famous pedestrian street in Barcelona known for it's markets, performers, and (cheap!) shopping. It's also well known for pickpocketing, but all of us managed to come out with all that we went in with. La Rambla was definitely a highlight, and we spent most of the rest of the day walking around and managed to get some very tasty gelato that night :).

Mark left us the next morning, and after a very tasty Starbucks we headed to Casa Batlló, a house designed by Antoni Guadí to look like an underwater castle. It was gorgeous! I might easily get a little nauseous living there, but it was beautiful none-the-less. We then headed to see a Cathedral designed by Gaudí called La Sagrada Familia. Guadí's designs are insane, so this church isn't scheduled to be completed until 2026! I'll be 40! Wow. After seeing the church we decided to get lunch and then some more gelato and after one final visit to La Rambla, we headed back to the hostel to rest and get ready for dinner. We ate at the same restaurant from the first night, had our last toast with sangria and our last scoops of gelato before heading to bed. Monday we headed towards the Arc de Triomf, the Spanish version, to take some pictures and walk through the park behind it on our way to the bus station. 

All in all our trip seemed pretty perfect (minus the delayed flight home). I feel as though Spain was the perfect way to end our travels here. With less than 2 weeks left, we all needed some good time to relax and laugh with each other and Spain facilitated that beautifully...gotta love it. Also, as some of you know, I turned 22 last week! I thank you all so much for your birthday wishes and am so blessed to have had another year to be joyful about! The night before, my friends here (we call ourselves the festive friends) decorated my room and we had a little party full of cake and balloons and the movie "The Holiday." We also went out for a superb dinner in town the night of my birthday and I had a glorious glass of red wine with my pasta. I could not ask for a better way to celebrate my 22nd year! Click on the link below for pictures of España!

¡Viva España!

Happy Turkey!

Hey everyone! I finally got our video tour uploaded so that you can all see our house! Just click on the links below to go watch the videos. We had to do two separate videos since someone was in the bathroom when we wanted to show it to you...Enjoy! I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! I am very thankful for all of you!

Video 1

Video 2

Marissa, Danielle, me, Lauren, and Angie at the Thanksgiving festivities!

The Luck of the Irish.

It's almost time for Turkey Day! It's a cold Sunday here, lots of refreshing rain! Sorry it's been a while since I've updated. I've been working very hard on all of my coursework so that I can have some time to relax and enjoy the last few weeks that we're here. Today we went to a church in Ormskirk and enjoyed it a lot. Very traditional, and there's also an earlier service that they said was "happy clappy" (lots of kids) so we might try that one next time. After church, since the dining hall on campus is only open from 11-12 and 5-6 on sundays, we stopped by subway to enjoy a toasted sub :). Now we're just sitting in the library catching up on news and enjoying the warmth. I'm listening to wonderful Christmas music right now. I can't believe in 32 days we'll be celebrating another Christmas! Time has really flown by here.

Well, I got another stamp in my passport! We headed to Ireland early yesterday morning. I'm pretty sure we were one of the first flights out. We had a really nice taxi driver on the way to the airport, so it made the early ride a bit more fun. Once we figured out how to get to the centre of the city, we headed to a cafe mentioned in my Let's Go! book that Chris and Ashley gave me. It had the best scones in the world. Not that I've eaten every scone in the world, but they were really tasty. I had an apple-cinnamon scone with a hot chocolate. It tasted just like fall. We walked all through the city and got to see Trinity College (the "Irish Oxford"), St. Patrick's Cathedral (a graduation was being held though, so we didn't get to go inside), the Guinness Storehouses, Dublin Castle, and a had a wonderful Irish meal at a pub. After walking around a few shops we headed back to the airport for our flight back to Liverpool. I didn't see as many redheads or sheep as I anticipated, but Ireland was definitely a great trip!

Oh and to everyone who doesn't know, I dyed my hair darker. Hope you'll still be my friends after!

My new hair!

Dublin!

Trinity College. Tried to go in the cool super old library, but apparently you have to pay 8 euros to read. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral. They were doing construction on the tower.

At the Guinness Storehouses in front of the Christmas tree!

Christmas time is here!!!!

Free pint of Guiness + me being goofy.

Dublin Castle

The throne in the room where the president gets inaugurated. 

A sitting area in the Palace. It's decorated really pretty so I thought I'd put a picture up.

Bar where we had yummy dinner.

Lauren and me in front of the lit up Christmas tree in the city centre!

Some Pictures!

I had so many pictures that I didn't want y'all to miss out on any of the greatness, so I put them up on another website where you can go through an album. Just click here for pictures...or on the link below. After you get to the web page click on the picture of the Eiffel Tower and then the first picture of the bunch and scroll through using the arrow keys! Enjoy!

Pictures!

I see London, I see France...I see Switzerland too!

We have had such a busy week, that I don't even know where to start! I'm not a huge fan of the super long blog posts because I know people get bored and don't want to finish reading it, so I'll put in a disclaimer now: Read this when you have nothing to do...I most definitely do not want to bore you!

I wanted to start with just letting everyone know the amazing work that God is doing in my heart. He is opening my eyes to so many wonderful characteristics of who He is and his redemptive work in my life. It is such a beautiful thing to see Him work so purposefully. Every day I am more and more joyful to see the work of his continual grace. So to everyone who has been devoted to praying for me, thank you, and the Lord is ever faithful.

So to be honest, I have no idea how we managed to navigate ourselves around 3 different countries in 7 days. It was a really good idea to put London at the beginning of our travels, because that one took the most out of us. The first afternoon/evening we were there it literally poured down rain...and we thought it'd be a good idea to walk through. I think I was the worst at the rainy weather because I managed to step in maybe 8 puddles. At the end of the night I just had to laugh.  But we did get to see St. Paul's Cathedral (gorgeous) in the afternoon, and Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey at night. Our hostel wasn't that bad (clean wise) but we found out quickly that it was a party hostel. Try sleeping to Linkin Park blaring outside your door...it's like a fun game that you never win. The next day we managed to hit the Museum of Natural History, the Globe Theatre, London Tower and the Tower Bridge (London Bridge), Buckingham Palace again, the London Eye, and the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben). We got to take a wonderful ride on the London Eye and it was sooo worth it. We managed to get our tickets right at sunset and saw the sun set over the city. So beautiful.

Paris = amazing! I have to admit that I was slightly nervous about how I would feel about it because we've been warned that the French:

1) hate Americans

2) are extremely rude

3) are extremely rude

so you can understand that we were a bit nervous. But in Paris I experienced none of those things. I think it really helped that I had Lauren to speak French for me, but even when we spoke English most people were very helpful. Lauren did a wonderful job speaking the language and I think most of the people we talked to were really impressed. Paris just had a magical feeling all together. I can see how people easily fall in love. In Paris we went to the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Troimphe, Notre Dame (where we saw a man get tackeled and arrested!!!),  the Catacombs, the Pantheon, and Moulin Rouge. I don't know how we managed all of that in a day and a half, but our feet were definitely tired. After our long day we decided to have an "authentic" French meal and went to a wonderful fondue place where they loaded us with bread and cheese and wine out of baby bottles! It was sooo tasty! Lauren and I had an extra day to ourselves in Paris on Wednesday because Danielle, Marissa, and Angie headed to Luxembourg, Brussels, and Amsterdam. We decided to walk around a really cute shopping area and have a yummy crepe and my first (and probably my last) espresso ever!!

Early the next morning, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Switzerland. Apparently the Metro doesn't run earlier than 5:30 AM, so we had to get a taxi...our first time in a car since leaving home! In Geneva we managed to grab a quick baguette before our train to Interlaken. We found out that our new President was Barack Obama while we were in Paris, but they didn't have any newspapers out until we got to Geneva. It is amazing how the world is so interested in our politics. I couldn't even name what political system Switzerland has, but everyone we met managed to ask us about the election. Crazy. I tried to read a German newspaper about the election on the train. I realized I didn't know German though...rough. Interlaken is glorious! I have never seen such beauty in my life. I have never felt so small either, which reminded me how small I am in the big picture. We found a cute coffee shop for a quick cafe and walked through the town before finding a nice place for dinner. I had some really wonderful gnocchi...the fullest I've been since I left home. The next day we took a gondola ride up to Mount Schilthorn, one of the highest mountains in Switzerland. Everything that we saw just reminded me of how glorious and big my God is. It was such a joyful experience. I even got to eat some snow :).  We ate some soup and had some coffee/hot chocolate and a nice ice cream situation at the revolving restaurant at the top of the mountain and headed down before the abominable snowman came to eat us.

We got back to Ormskirk yesterday afternoon and had a day to relax which was nice. Tomorrow neither of us have class so we're going with Danielle to try a waffle place in town, doing our laundry, and writing some of our papers.  It'll be hard to get back to school after our week of adventures, but we'll be done soon, so it's time to soak up all of the knowledge that we can! There are so many stories that I didn't get to share, but this is already a novel, so hopefully I can tell you soon in person! I'll put up some pictures for everyone to enjoy tomorrow!

I met Brad Pitt, and something similar to David Beckham.

Hello dear friends! I just finished supper about 30 minutes ago and thought that I'd update everyone on life! This week has been great! It's gotten a bit colder, but it's very welcomed considering the summer we had in Georgia. Wednesday the International Office planned a trip for everyone to Blackpool. It's a city very similar to Coney Island with the pier and all of the fun games. We only had a few hours, so the girls and I went to a wax museum! Some of the people looked real but some looked incredibly fake, but it was hilarious and fun all the same. I even got to play piano with Elton John! I also found out this week that the International Office is planning a "Traditional" Thanksgiving dinner for all of us! I thought that was so sweet and can't wait to see what they prepare. I got to see a "British" version of the Nutcracker today! It was more like a puppet show for younger kids, but Danielle, Marissa and I enjoyed it just the same.

Early tomorrow morning we leave on our biggest trip of the semester! We head to London in the morning, from London to Paris on Monday, from Paris to Interlaken on Thursday, and back to Ormskirk on Saturday. I am so blessed and joyful to be able to experience all of these wonderful and different cultures, places, and people! I'm hopeful that I'm passing some of that joy onto you as I share my stories. I wish I could carry you all around in my pocket and pull you out at the appropriate time, but for now my rendition will have to do. On that note, I'll leave you with some Martin Luther (it is Reformation Day after all) and some fun pictures!

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said 'Repent,' he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. All of the Christian life is repentance. Turning from sin and trusting in the good news that Jesus saves sinners aren't merely a one-time inaugural experience but the daily substance of Christianity. The gospel is for every day and every moment. Repentance is to be the Christian's continual posture." - Martin Luther, Thesis #1 of 95

Me with Chef Gordon Ramsey...ahh!

Oh George Clooney :)

Me with the Beckhams. David looks seriously deformed.

Brad Pitt clearly wants me more than Angelina.

Ahhh! T-Rex! Jurassic Park always does that to ya.

Me tickling the ivories with Elton John.

Lauren and I on the bus ride home.

Cowabunga, Dude!

Michael Jackson scares me.

I'm quoting Shakespeare to Shakespeare.

Me and John Lennon...he's basically my boyfriend.

Pretty lights!

Come on, City!!!

I have officially survived a European football game! Yesterday Lauren and I went with our friends to Manchester to walk around and then go to a Manchester City football game. We left about 9 because we wanted to make sure that we'd have time to get there before the game, only to find out that yesterday was daylight savings, so we gained an hour! Which meant that we gained time to grab a coffee in Liverpool :). Apparently a lot of stores are closed on Sundays, so we didn't get to go to into some of the really cute looking stores, but we did get to have some wonderful chinese buffet for lunch! They had some of the best wontons I've ever eaten, and my tummy was soooo happy. So after lunch we headed to the stadium and looked around in the shop a bit and then went to the game! It was incredible! Our seats were amazing! We probably could have touched the grass if we wanted to, but we probably would've gotten tackled, so bad idea. The fans were crazy as we anticipated, but it was actually really funny to witness. Manchester City won 3-0 woo! After the game we managed to find the right bus to take us to the train station...we had a nice rainy walk, but that just made the warmth that much better. 

Right now Lauren and I are just hanging out in the library before we go to lunch. I've decided that the library is the place to overhear great conversations and to witness really stressed out people...it's awesome. Today we're going into town for a bit and then coming back to work on some of our papers. I finished one paper last week (yay!) so now I only have 3 left! We're going to work very diligently this week and then Saturday we leave for London! This will be our BIG trip of the semester, so we're very excited! We'll be going to London, Paris, and Interlaken in Switzerland. It's going to be glorious! I can't wait to share all of the fun stories/pictures with everyone! Well I'll leave y'all with some pictures from the football game! Also, happy birthday to Daddy! I hope it's great!

Manchester City Football Stadium!

The referees stretching...we found this particularly funny.

The yellow dressed people were there to keep people from fighting! ahh!

The boys celebrating after a goal!

The inside of the Stadium...warming up after half time.

Us enjoying our football game!

Beautiful sunset on our way out.

My first of the 7 world wonders

First of all, I have to say that peanut butter and honey sandwiches have never saved me quite as well as they did this weekend. Our adventure started early Saturday morning, where we took a train to Salisbury and from there took a bus to Stonehenge. We had a glorious day full of sunshine and nothing less than perfect weather. It was refreshing and awesome to be able to see Stonehenge in person, and I definitely recommend it to everyone. I still don't really understand all of the history behind it (I guess that's what the internet's for), but it's crazy to think that men were able to build a structure like that that has stood for so many centuries. After our tour of Stonehenge we headed to Bath. Our hostel was interesting to say the least, so sleep was pretty difficult to find that night. I was soooo glad I was awake to hear a mass of drunk people singing Enrique Iglesias' "Hero"...If you don't know it, look up the lyrics because they're awesome. 

We woke up early the next morning to head to the Roman Baths. To me it sounds kind of weird that tons of people bathed together, but it was actually pretty neat to hear all of the history behind it. After the Baths we tried to take a tour of the abbey, but there were services all day and we didn't get to go inside. The outside was pretty enough though, so we felt satisfied. After a quick Starbucks (sooo good) we went to find the Jane Austen Centre. Jane Austen spent a lot of time with her family in Bath, so they had the place where she stayed turned into a sort of museum. I bought sister a pretty sweet present (you'll never guess) and after talking with Jane for a bit we walked around the city and looked in some of the cute shops they had there and then headed home in the early afternoon. We had a long trip home, but the entire experience was worth it. Every day I love living here more and more, and every day God is showing me more and more of his glory.  All in all I'm just so grateful for this experience and for the memories that I'm making and am excited for the next two months and for when I get to see all of you again! And until next time, here's some pretty sweet pics :)

Lauren and I at Stonehenge...really close up and you can't see Stonehenge, but oh well!

Stonehenge!

Stonehenge and glory.

Bath. I named all of the statue after people...Chris is the one on the far right.

Bath from the bottom. Look at the steam!

Bath Abbey that we didn't get to go into.

This is how we live...

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give y'all a little taste of our every day life. These are some pictures of where we live and around Ormskirk. There's also one of how the ducks love me...one even bit my foot! I hope y'all like it!

Me trying to climb a tree in our yard...didn't work out very well.

Me caressing John Lennon. This is at Matthews Street in Liverpool.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds...Angie as Lucy. (Matthews Street in Liverpool)

A pretty church in Liverpool.

The street that our house is on, Ruff Lane.

The ducks love me a lot.

Our house!

Our yummy coffee.

You can't stop me! I've become a semi-vegetarian.

As most of you know, I love other cultures. The fact that travelling to a new place, even a different state, elicits a different attitude towards life, people and values makes me so happy. By seeing these nuances of different cultures, I feel as though I can more fully comprehend God's plan in making each of us unique. With all that said, I hope that you all know that I arrived at my semi-vegetarian decision with some reluctance. I love England and all things about being British (minus some rude people), but the food seems to put up a constant fight with me. If food had feelings, its feelings towards me would be something very much like hatred. So after a few sick nights I decided to stick to the basics...fruits, vegetables, bread, and coffee. After the second day of my semi-vegetarianism, I can happily report that I have found the issue...they cook their meat weird. Until I see you all in December, I will be meatless (unless I go to Subway).

In other news, I started my second week of classes today! I generally like all of my classes, but am slightly concerned about the grading process. They've told us many times that the grading system is a bit harsher than back home, but I feel as though I can put my best effort in and hopefully come out with something I'll be proud of. None of my classes really have any outside work other than reading, so that's the main difference. Most of them require a 2500 word essay at the end of our semester and that's all. I've been blessed with decent writing abilities, so hopefully that'll carry me through.

Lauren and I went to Liverpool with our friends Danielle, Angie, and Marissa this past weekend to "go shopping." This mainly entailed us looking through all the stores but not even trying anything on because our money only goes half-way. They had £8 jeans! But that's $16 and I didn't need jeans so I opted not to try them on. We did see a lot of really cute clothes though and we thought "if only we were British," but we're not, so we got Subway and took the train home.

So...apparently it rains a lot in England? Coming from Georgia, it's nice to have a little rain, but torrential downpours aren't really my thing. But beggars can't be choosers. On our way back from Liverpool last weekend, we all got completely drenched by the classic car through the rain puddle intense splash. Danielle got the worst of it, but I think she came out stronger for it. I'm starting to get used to the rain, but it wouldn't hurt to have one sunny day :). I do try to wake up Lauren every morning singing "What a glorious day!" but usually we're woken up by slamming doors and not singing birds, so that doesn't happen often.

Hope things are going well back at home! I hope fall is starting to peek it's head around the corner and you're all going out of your way to step on those crunchy looking leaves that God has blessed you with!

I went to Scotland, but didn't see Nessie

Hello chaps! Well things are going wonderfully here on the other side of the pond! We got back from a weekend trip to Edinburgh, Scotland yesterday evening, so our attempt to take a "power nap" today turned into a 2 hour long nap. Lauren and I wandered around Scotland with our new friends Danielle, Angie and Marissa and had a fabulous time! It was our first stay at a hostel, which wasn't as bad as we thought. Overall we just decided to forego using the dishes. Being as wise as I am, when I packed lightly for our trip I forgot to pack pajama pants, so I spent my entire weekend in one pair of jeans...I think they might've stood up by themselves before Lauren and I did laundry today. My Uncle Steve told me once that's how you know your jeans are dirty, so I decided I probably smelled a bit, especially since we opted not to shower all weekend :)

Edinburgh was very fun though! We met a lot of funny and interesting people, frequented a near-by coffee shop called the Beanscene, and got to navigate a foreign city quite poorly. We got to take a tour of Edinburgh Castle and walk around the gardens and walk through the National Gallery of Scotland. The history of it all just made it so much more exciting. The entire city seems to be perched on a mountain too, which made the architecture of the buildings look beautiful. Saturday morning we all got up and went to hike a mountain called "Arthur's Seat." It was sooo glorious! It was bit chilly, but so worth it! To see God's beauty on display like that was just what we needed to refresh us for a 5 hour train ride(s) home. Classes start tomorrow and I'm very thankful that I know where and when they all are and by God's grace I'm no longer sick! We're getting more used to the food here, and I even opted to buy some instant coffee for our 3 month stay. As we're getting more used to life here I'm really trying to remind myself to cherish each moment because it'll go fast. We're having so much fun and I can't wait for what's in store.

One of the girls downloaded the premiere of The Office on her laptop, so we're going to watch it together tonight! I am extremely excited! I've added a few pictures of our trip to Scotland and hope you enjoy! Love and miss you all!