Love

I had an amazing run today. Cole told me about this path that accessed the meadow area in NW Oxford, so I spent a good chunk of my run making wrong turns off Woodstock in attempt to find this so-called trail. At one point, I took this bridge into a residential area, and suddenly I had found the river! I ran along the river, which was lined with houseboats, most of them in pretty shabby shape. After a bit of river time, I decided to get back into residential civilization, and spent more time wandering.. by the last 20 minutes of my run, I discovered another path that seemed to be going nowhere. Curious, I followed it, and voila! The meadow. It was absoluely gorgeous and green, covered in huge ponds with horses scattered here and there. I'm not sure if it's good running terrain, since it seemed pretty marshy, and the fact that the gate was locked sealed the deal, so I turned around. Lately, the weather has been perfectly hovering around the high 30's (fahrenheit.. I don't know if I'll ever be able to think in celsius. good for my American readers!) and the occasional peak into the low 40's. When the sun decides to make an appearance, boy is it ever so glorious. And the other night, I actually saw stars for the first time in what felt like years. I had forgotten how pretty they are.

Today marks my second laundry adventure. All went smoothly, and I passed the time reading my chosen book for an upcoming Humanities project. I'm trying this whole 'being disciplined' thing, and it seems to be going well. Haha. I didn't use the dryers because, well, I'm cheap, and it was dinner time. When I'm hungry, not much can stand in my way. Can you tell I like eating? Lately, it's been a lot of peanut butter and jelly, which is fine. It's just a comfort food that reminds me of HOME home. I also had a little of this veg curry I bought at Sainsbury's. Yummy lentils, cauliflower, spinach, and other veggies compose this cast of delicious characters. Not really sure why I just said that.

Ah! The cookies I baked last night. They turned out well, and I had planned to post pictures I took during the process so you could experience it with me, but alas, it is 3 AM and I have not uploaded them. Priorities come into play here. But anyway, we had our weekly 9@9 devo tonight in the common room, which was so awesome. It was led by Jacob, Ben, and Hannah. Jacob said a lot of things that really spoke to what has been on my mind lately- about truly using every second of this trip as an opportunity to improve my relationship with God. Absolutely. We had some quiet reflecting time, and I am so excited about life.

Then, Valentine's Party time! Well, back up. With the secret valentine's exchange thing.. alot of the guys had portions of the girls' surprises delivered to them prior to the actual party time, and I got the most hilarious card slipped under my door. Like, ask any of the girls on my hall. I just about died laughing, and was in such a goofy mood afterwards. Really. I lost.it. I had no idea who the guy was, though! Kelly got yellow and white daisies delivered secretly, along with a strawberry smoothie, which we later learned was the work of Bradyn. Very sweet. So I basically spent the rest of my night trying to figure out who it could possibly be! After 9@9, I went up to get the gift for my person (Durko) and the cookies I had baked. He loved the Man U scarf, and then I looked at all the desserts while wondering who my person was. Tap tap on the shoulder, and it was Ben! He gave me a little bouquet of yellow tulips, white daisies, and pink carnations, a Galaxy chocolate bar (he's loyal to his club, haha!), and told me he'd buy me ice cream sometime. So much fun!! He was so sweet, and I'm so glad I've gotten to know him better already from Alpha stuff. Thanks, Ben :]

The rest of the night was pretty chill.. watched a crowd of screamers play Spoons, while we watched speed skating and cross country skiing Olympics on tv. Once the American was in the lead, he kept looking behind him. Got too confident, I guess, because the Frenchman ended up overtaking him for the win. The room erupted in screams. Ah and then Jacob finished his little present to Ravanne- he threw rocks at her window and sang the LOVE song. I just love how creative, thoughtful, and sweet all the boys were to us. Great friends. :] A group of us watched part of Hitch, but ended up ending it early. Today was so much fun, and a nice change thrown into routine life here on Canterbury Road.

I'm so thankful for all of the people that my life has been blessed with. I hope that you felt love this Valentine's Day, I'm sending it your way.

With all my heart,
Sydney