You make beautiful things out of the dust

So I have this huge Historical Books of the Old Testament exam tomorrow..
Conveniently, I have the urge to blog instead.

Cliffnotes version of this semester: I pledged.
Seriously. I was a bumbling mess most of the time, but the experience was wonderful. Frankly, I went through a lot of the emotional ride with the girls last year (not to berate either one of our experiences), making this my chance to appreciate everything just for what it was. This whole thing has been such a blessing- I am now a member of a club filled with such wonderful girls I know I can count on!

The Sunday before pledging was over, I got a phone call from my dad. After what I'm sure has been a whirlwind of doctor's appointments for him, we've found that he has a cancerous mass in his colon. He starts some chemo and radiation Monday so they can shrink it and remove it later on, so please just be in prayer for my family, and especially my daddy! God is so good, and I am pleased to report that my family is very optimistic and happy to hear it's nothing worse!

That being said, I cannot imagine how I would've taken news like this even just last year. "Cancer" is a terrifying word- and I am so thankful for the journey I have been on these past 7 years, allowing me to feel such peace in the midst of the unexpected. It's hard to express just how much joy I feel in the ability to not be shaken by little things.

Short and sweet, as usual.

Awake, my soul

I typed this about three times. None of them really worked. It was something to the tune of how unexpected the past year has been, and how it's all turned out perfectly despite the fact that I am often a bumbling, worried mess over the situation at hand. It's goofy we allow our worlds to feel flipped upside down so easily, eh? Lah dee dah, fast forward to now, stern retrospective post as we approach the new semester. Aaaand scene.
The Blarney Stone has yet to deliver on that gift of eloquence.

I recently bought the Mumford and Sons album 'Sigh No More', and it has really struck me. Beautiful. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHWsKTSdS74&feature=related

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes
I struggle to find any truth in your lies
And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know
This weakness I feel I must finally show

Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep, totally free
Har har, har har, har har, har har

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life

Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker
Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker
You were made to meet your maker

oh, hello there

I may or may not have forgotten this blog even existed.
First order of business- catchup time.

April Fools
I don't recall this day flawlessly, but it was along the lines of studying all morning while remaining in pajamas, and suddenly conspiring (out of boredom, no doubt) with Cailee and Kelly to pull some April Fools pranks. Aw yeah.
Well. In a not so stealth fashion, we giggled and scampered between houses 9 and 10 to complete our mission. First, Kool-aid in the shower head of the boys floor in house 10. Unfortunately, the basement bathroom in house 9 had a less ghetto showerhead that made this prank impossible to replicate. Instead, we saran-wrapped the toilet, as well as the tops of most of their toiletries. Rumor has it that the Kool-aid caused some speculation as to whether someone had been bleeding in the bathroom.. and that the saran-wrapped toilet may have received a retribution present. I have no further comment.
In between the pranks, the girls and I were spotted by some of the boys (also transitioning from one house to the other) and we, as per our paranoid fear of being caught, acted suspiciously by turning around and running through the backyard. I think we may have scared the Lytle family, who caught a glimpse of our crazy run across their living room window.
Oh, did we laugh that day. Every day I am home, I rehash various moments from the semester, and am thankful for the joy and pure goofy fun we experienced.. pajamas and all.

I really miss you, Oxford family.

Retrospective blogging

Better late than never, right? Looking back on everything that happened this semester feels strange from my new 'American' perspective.

Life isn't the same here. My heart is torn between two separate countries. Texas holds my roots; the people who have shaped me and mean the world to me live in the States. My foundations are here. They are wonderful.

5000 miles away lies another huge part of me. This semester I spent in Oxford literally changed my life. Finally, I feel like I know myself completely. And I am confident in this identity that I find only in God, which is unwavering. It's been a challenging semester, in every sense of the word. With this, I find a huge milestone of my life marked by my time spent in Oxford.

I still want to spend time traveling. My mind has been opened to a global perspective- I see that people have so much in common, despite the boundaries of culture and language. The world is seriously beautiful. Traveling has always been a passion of mine, and it has only grown with this semester. Outside of trips to other countries, I am currently considering returning to the UK to complete a master's degree. It's a long way off, but it's something I can see myself doing.

The last thing I want you to do is leave this page thinking I no longer want to be in the States. I assure you, my heart is torn between two countries where God has blessed me immensely with unforgettable experiences. I don't know why I was granted this opportunity to experience life in two very different places, but I hope I walked away with as much growth as possible.

La la la la la life is wonderful.

Easter, Oxford style

Attended the Easter Sunday service at St. Aldate's with a few people from the houses, and it was fabulous. I just love the worship and talks that go on, and truly feel that this is my church home here in Oxford. I find myself being challenged to question and grow, and it's a good situation to be in. This semester has been work, but I know that it has been all for the better to strengthen my faith.

In the classroom of house 10, we worshipped together as a study abroad program. Dr Lytle offered some great thoughts on how Christianity has prevailed despite struggle, the religion where a man has called himself Divine. With this evidence, I find it even more convicting to see Christianity as truth-it has withstood persecution, questions, and the test of time. Mike (Jacque's husband) read the Easter story in such a compelling way that many of us became emotional. The way our time was conducted was such a fresh perspective on the story that many of us have heard countless times, bringing a new facet of meaning to the story of Jesus' sacrifice.

Then it was potluck time! My contribution was sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, and it was a delicious meal! Pretty impressed with everyone's cooking skills! Following the meal, we had a mini Easter egg hunt, each egg labeled with a persons name on it. Inside some of them were little sentences describing elements of the Easter story that we took a little time to reflect over.

Despite being away for a very family-oriented holiday, each of us enjoyed being the Oxford family that we are as a sufficient replacement for the time being. I think this day alone brought us closer together because of our time spent together spiritually, focusing on that common thread of faith and thanksgiving we have for salvation. What an immaculate day.

backyard barbeque

So Wyatt and Grant came up with this awesome idea to have a backyard cookout, since the weather has started to warm up and the sun has been making guest appearances.
The date was set- Sunday at 2 pm.

Since I got back from Amsterdam around midnight the night before, I rushed to the store in Summertown after my morning run. Frozen shrimp, mixed veg, onion, and lemon in a foil pack is a real good idea on the grill. While the afternoon wasn't completely sunny, it was beautiful and so relaxing! We stayed out in the backyard until 6:30 pm playing volleyball, throwing the football and frisbee, sitting on the lawn, and enjoying a barbeque potluck! It was so nice to actually enjoy the fresh air on a Sunday afternoon without freezing, and of course I always love the opportunities for group time.

The dynamic between us has really strengthened, and I absolutely love being in the company of all these great people I live with! God brought us together for such a perfect time, and I know that I will be sad when we no longer have the chance to be together exactly like this again. Reunions are a must.

Katie's Birthday

Pretend I wrote this the day before our France excursion. Continue

On the list of notable notes, yesterday (Wednesday) we visit the oxford university press in our Oxford Through the Ages class. You know, the largest university press ever that cranks out the renowned Oxford English Dictionary? We learned about how the book came about, and it's ridiculous. This man (his name currently escapes me) appealed to people in general, asking them to cite print references to words, in order to date them back to their roots. Slips of paper came flowing in, and it was the job of his eleven children to alphabetize all these scraps of information, binding them ad putting them into boxes for later use. The project nearly turned the press bankrupt, and a good number of 'new' words flow in daily. Seeing the print process and all the intricacies that formed books that are essentially works of art was mind-boggling.

After the tour, I picked up ingredients at the store to make molten devils food cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese icing for Katie's birthday! Finished just in time for dinner with the hall (minus a sickly Becca) at pizza express for Katie.

The rest of the night was pretty chill hanging downstairs.. And by the time I was all packed and ready for our 5 am departure time for France, I only got an hour of sleep. Today should be interesting.

Hey, remember that time..

when I was a halfway decent, committed blogger.. when nothing was happening? Welp, my butt got kicked and life happened. It has been the most amazing thing. I know that I was insistent on not falling behind on this documenting thing, but that's so last month. Within the next week or so, I plan on catching up via Notepad on my iTouch. Thanks, Steve Jobs.

Here's a little taste of what is to come:
Italy (finally)
Easter
Amsterdam and Belgium
Our Spring Cookout
Swing Dancing
April Fools
..and really whatever transpires from now on.

Be ready, people. It's gonna be a doozy.

What you've been waiting for

A real post with pictures! I wrote most of this on Notepad in my iPod while traveling, so please excuse the frequent use of present tense in my writing.

Spain and Germany

Thursday
This morning, I awoke a frazzled mess at 10:30, seeing as we had planned to leave at 11, and I had such a late night with wrapping up big projects that I hadn't finished packing or checking into my flights. Mind you, I could only take one backpack.. So packing was tricky. Europe isn't a fashion show anyway, right? After a whirlwind of a shower, packing, and quick goodbyes to housemates, we made the 11:40 coach to Luton just fine.

I've been feeling sick to my stomach all day- probably because of the bus, airport, and airplanes. I'm a fragile little kid. You can guess the rest- fast forward, smooth trips, no tossing my cookies. Then we landed in Madrid about 8:30 local time.. An hour forward! We had to take a LOT of metro rides to get all the way from the airport to city centre, where our hostel is! Props to Grant on the kickin location. We're in the Cat's Hostel, which used to be a castle? Or something. Need to double check facts. Went to Museo de Jamon (literally, 'the ham museum') for dinner, Cailee and I split some seafood paella while the boys had some sort of ham, eggs, and French fries combo. The waiter was a very patient older Spanish man who spoke NO English. I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about not knowing ANY of the language. Uh oh.

Wifi usage and a military shower this evening, since the dadgum things operate like push-button sinks in public bathrooms: water on, off. Soap up. Rinse and repeat.

Big day exploring Madrid tomorrow!

Friday

Madrid was busy busy. Breakfast at the hostel, then we basically just explored the city while the boys navigated.

Got kicked out of a church,

saw Plaza Mayor,

Palacio Real de madrid, ate lunch from various little kiosks inside Mercado San Miguel, and enjoyed Museo del Prado.

Logging the days by pedometer make them seem even more tiring.. And this was a whopping 10 miles. We also spent a lot of time on the Metro (subway), so I can't imagine how many more miles that would've been on foot. Overall, a very entertaining city that we regretted not being able to spend more time in (mostly due to the fact that we couldn't find a hostel with openings for Friday night). Instead, we utilized a journey we have now nicknamed the 'bustel'- foregoing a solid night's sleep for a patchy 7 hour nap on an overnight bus to the next location. Hey, save the Euros you would've spent on a hostel AND the travel time that would've eaten up your day!

Great idea, but dadgumit you need discipline and patience to survive this one. Our bus left Madrid around 11, we had an unknown layover around 12, and we finally arrived in Alicante around 5:30 am. That was a painful, painful little experience here. My closest family and friends are reading this, knowing EXACTLY how this went down for me- I was straight up exhausted the rest of the day. We sat in a cafe at the Alicante bus station until 7ish, then decided we better get started exploring the city. First thing you should know about this little gem (and the rest of Spain, really): nothing really opens until 11 or 12. Nothing. You know how McDonald's is open 24 hours in the states? Try a third of that: 11 to 7. Joke was on us! Here our 'family' of four was staggering like zombies around a Spanish city no tourist has ever heard of, while many of the Spanish partiers were just getting home from their eventful evenings. I guess now is the time to break the second piece of Alicante information to you- it is not a tourist city. We literally planned this trip looking at bus routes to the coast, and settled on this one. Many people may not find this appealing, but I loved it. It was just a genuine Spanish port city, with us passing through for a couple of days. The best part (well, one of them) was that it felt undiscovered, almost 'unruined' from becoming a tourist hub. I find something alluring in being able to say that I didn't hit up all the typical tourist-ridden destinations while traveling, although I will do plenty of that elsewhere.

Around 9:30 (we've been up for 4 hours now, remember) the consensus was one simple goal- find the hotel. What.an.adventure. We walked, hiked, climbed through very interesting outskirts of Alicante's city center for 4 miles.

It was absolutely hilarious, kind of frustrating, and I will never forget it, no matter how much my memory sucks. Definitely a major group bonding moment. Can a moment last 2 hours? A mile or so before we arrived, we stumbled across a random city park that was literally an oasis. It was gorgeous, and so out of place in a eyesore-type area of city.

Finally, 11 am spelled victory. Used the self timer on my camera to take an arrival picture, and we checked into our very first hotel of the trip!

(Zoom in on this picture. You won't be disappointed.)
Holiday Inn Express, I never knew I would love you so. By this point, we could barely stand from fatigue. One blissful four hour nap later, we hiked BACK into city center (why in the world?) for dinner. However, we did treat ourselves to a cab ride back to the hotel after dinner. No way we were going to trek that in the dark. Nuh-uh. Yay for showers back in the room! I looked as badly as I smelled. Sicknasty! Then, I did something I haven't done in years: I went to bed at 9. And baby, it felt so good. Taking the hint from the previous morning, we saw no reason to head into town, especially with noon check-out, so we slept until 9! What a great 12 hours it was, too. Kinda too-realistic trippy dreams, but I got over that pretty quick.
This morning (Sunday), we were in no hurry to get back to downtown. That's the great thing about being in an unheard of city. You don't feel pressured to get anything done, and really get to unwind.

What a perfect day.


For 2 hours, we just played and read and relaxed on the beach. Somehow, everyone else got a sunburn but me! Success. Well not for them, but it would've been torture for this fair complexion. That's a joke, y'all.

I think this was, overall, one of our favorite days of all of our travel breaks. More exploring en route to city center, and then chilled at the beach with a picnic lunch through the early evening.

We played cards and sampled the 'euro' menu at McDonald's, which I know is shameful to do while vacationing in Spain, but I learned how to play hearts!.. Because that totally matters. Another 'bustel' experience tonight from Alicante to Barcelona, except I doubt it will be as rough, being so well-rested. A girl can dream, right?

---

I'll be blunt- that was the bus ride from h-e-double hockey sticks. But really. I tried to remain passed out for most of it and succeeded, but poor miss Cailee witnessed an argument that disrupted the entire bus- apparently there were little men everywhere, yelling about seating arrangements. It got pretty heated, and got some police and other bus drivers involved. Morning hurt when it came with our 7:30 arrival in Barcelona, but things started looking up pretty quickly.

Barcelona was, by far, our favorite (up to this point. Berlin ended up winning). We spent time getting a little sunburned at the beach, gawking at the architecture of Gaudi,




seeing the Olympic village (Parc de Montjuic),

seeing the aquarium, the FC Barcelona stadium, walking, and eating lots of good food.

After all of my stress from last week, I feel like I was finally able to unwind and not have to worry about a single thing. Having an entire city to explore at my leisure was such a liberating feeling. The main impressions I took away from Spain are: as long as you're cautious, it really is safe. Sunshine and warmth feels amazing, especially after England has caused you to forget the idea. Signs are usually in three languages: Spanish, Catalan (a mix of Spanish and French), and English. Buying a 10-trip metro card is a good idea. So is ice cream. And local markets. This culture is beautiful. I can't say it enough. Colors are vibrant, buildings are bold, and there is so much to be learned.

Germany


I am obsessed with Berlin. Really. I'll admit, I was completely apprehensive hopping on a plane to a place that, in my mind, would be cold, stark, and boring. Luckily, I was wrong on all three counts. The weather was absolutely beautiful and sunny, except for the day we took a tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside of Berlin. How fitting. Our first full day, Cailee, Spencer, and I went on a NewEurope tour of Berlin- and it was free! For 3 and a half hours, my mind was blown as we walked around the city, learning about the intriguing history that transpired not too long ago.


The guides for these tours make money solely off tips, so you are free to pay what you feel suits the worth of the tour- and it was certainly a wonderful one! I highly recommend NewBerlin/NewEurope tours.



It was just amazing to us how a city had reunited only 20 years ago, and was flourishing so greatly. I loved the very elegant architecture, graceful pillars and statues, and thought-provoking momuments marking the events of the Holocaust. Because of the tour, our curiosity to further explore each of these areas was piqued- unfortunately, we didn't have a week to spend there, as we wished we could've. Our second night in the hostel, Nicholas and Jacob actually joined us from their excursions around Germany! We had dinner together, and also toured the Reichstag and Sachsenhausen as a group (with our same tour guide as the day before!) the next day.


It was so wonderful to meet up and share stories.


Sachsenhausen was one of the original 'models' for concentration camps because of its triangular design that worked so efficiently for the Nazi rule, and it was sobering to stand on the ground where such horrific repression and abuse took place against people Hitler labeled as inferior. I don't want to sink the mood, so if you want to hear more about it, I'd love to tell you what we learned.


After navigating the S and U bahn and a flight to London, we actually reunited with Grant (who had deviated from us to see his family in France) on the bus ride home! Haha, so fun to exchange stories about our partially-separate spring breaks. It was a wonderful 10 day trip, and such a blessing to be abroad with wonderful people.

Phew! I need a nap after all that. Hope you enjoyed reading my silly little details.
Always,
Sydney

No, I have not disappeared off the face of the earth.

But thanks for worrying.

The past ten days, I've been traveling to Spain and Germany.
I had the time of my life, and have ever so much to say about it.. which will be posted in a timely manner. Hopefully with pictures, goodie!

I will continue documenting life as I know it, future trips permitting. Posts are going to be fewer and further between, but worth the wait (in my humble opinion).

I hope your Saturday was equally lazy as my own. Dang, it felt good.

All my love from the Kingdom that is United.

Sunshine & suffering

Started a little P90X Kenpo workout today.. then Ben came to tell me that a whole bunch of people were going to play ultimate frisbee. My reserve to stay inside- out the window, literally. I met the group at the park, and even though it was pretty dadgum chilly, the sun was out and the game was epic. And that's all that matters.

I left early to shower, eat a quick bite, and get ready for church! Natalie, Brittany, Jacob, and I went to the 6 PM service at St. Aldates, which was absolutely fantastic. One of the American guys at the church, Vince, gave a GREAT talk about the reasons why God allows suffering. I got choked up at a couple of parts, and time just flew by!

Trying to get back early for my 9@9 meeting, I had my first experience with the Oxford public transportation system. Uneventful. I led 9@9 with Becca, Bradyn, and Dr. Bennett, and am so thankful for the fellowship this brings us every Sunday night.

Gearing up for a busy busy week, getting projects done and preparing for my first spring break, which will be to Spain and Germany! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..

An epic meal.

Malia's birthday was today! Her first restaurant choice was too busy, but we ended up at cozy, warmly-lit All Bar One. Oh.my.goodness. I had no idea what to expect, and it blew my socks off. Needless to say, today's post will be about what I ordered.

I felt a little adventurous but also wanted something healthy. I noticed a dish called 'halloumi with vegetables' under the Salads and Skewers section of the menu. It didn't say what exactly halloumi was, but I knew that veg skewers with roasted veggies on the side would at least be a good meal by themselves.

When the waitress brought my dish to our (tightly packed) table, my jaw dropped. It was colorful and beautiful! Two skewers with bell peppers, onions, and halloumi drizzled with a sweet and spicy glaze, accompanied by roasted bell peppers, onions, and zucchini on the side. Absolutely delicious. I thought the halloumi tasted and looked like a fish, a cross between cod and scallops. Just looked it up on Wikipedia- it's actually a Cypriot cheese with a high melting point, so it can be grilled. Whatever it was, I think I found a new favorite dish.

To top it all off, Natalie, Brittany, Cailee, Allison, Wyatt, Nicholas, and I went to G&D's afterwards for sweet treats. No sitting room, though, so I enjoyed my brownie at home with a little ice cream on top.

Whoever claimed that food in the UK was disgusting and bland was terribly wrong.

Pretend it's still Friday.

I completely forgot to mention in my birthday post that my dress arrived in the mail that afternoon! I am wearing it for our trip to London today. in love.

I couldn't fall asleep Wednesday night (even though I had been exhausted all day!) and got to bed pretty late.. You can figure that I slept in considerably on Thursday morning. More like, Thursday afternoon. Becca's family was in the kitchen when I walked in, and it was so funny not to have college students on our floor. They're in town for her birthday, which is today! Happy birthday, Becca! :]

Katie told me I had a 'surprise' downstairs, which Cailee so kindly dropped on my doorstep. A package from my family! I love seeing my mom's delicate handwriting when I get mail. I didn't have scissors in my room, and was too stubborn to search for some. I broke a pencil in my valiant attempt to open the package, but it worked, after a bit of a finagle. Inside were some birthday treats, streamers, balloons, a birthday poster and card, and a bottle of maple syrup! Oh, I was ecstatic. I don't even use the stuff THAT often back home, but I miss it, and it's ridiculously expensve in the UK.. Probably because they have to ship it from Canada! Definitely going to have pancake night sometime soon. It makes me feel so special to be thought of, and all the emails, texts, and facebook wall posts made my birthday just wonderful.

For thursday's run, I was curious and wanted to experience the city outside of my normal route. So I ran until there was no more Oxford to be had. Down Woodstock, St Giles, Cornmarket, and forevermore until I hit the roundabout directing traffic to Abingdon, turning around to pay another visit to the beautiful Christ Church meadow.

On the way to St Aldates college night, I passed Anna Popplewell on the sidewalk. Totally recognized her, stared, and she shied away as to deflect attention. I freaked out trying to tell Allison who we had just walked past, and Cailee (walking about 50 feet behind because she had waited for Kelly) recognized her too! If you aren't familiar with the name, she plays Susan in the most recent Chronicles of Narnia movies. She was much smaller in person than I had expected.. Makes me wonder how large I would look compared to her on the silver screen if I had expected her to be 'normal' sized! Then again, a large majority of the girls here are shorter than me. At least I'm easy to pick out in a crowd if I got lost!

What anther fantastic college night. Kelly, Allison, Cailee, and I sat a a table with some strangers and got acquainted, and even invited one of them to our Sunday night devo! Worship was awesome, and I loved the talk about being willing to follow after God, harkenig back to our childhood memories of mom asking if you'd jump off a bridge if your friend did it too. Great thought- Jesus doesn't want us to dawdle or make excuses, just trust. I know that I can certainly find area for improvement here. Let's do it!

When I got back to the house, my Italy group got some flights and a bus ride booked, and I am much less stressed about the entire thing. The group is Becca, Katie, Ben, Jacob, Grant, and I- it'll be wonderful!

Left the house this morning at 7:30 for London, catching up on blog posts by typing on my iPod notepad as I fight the urge to nap on the 'coach' (bus) ride. Trying to fix my 'mental' (there's some british vocabulary for you) sleep pattern.

Back again. Lloyd's was really cool- and by that, I mean interesting, over my head, and at times bland. We walked up to this great glass building and took the lift up to a ninth floor conference room for some tea, coffee, cookies, and introductory session. With the exception of lunch, the rest of the morning up to 1:30 pm was spent broken up as three separate groups floating between 'the floor', a session about credit, and a crash course on the British vs American banking systems. The floor was definitely cool. It was a huge workspace filled with stations of 4 computer screens, stock rates and breaking news scrolling on the tvs overhead. Each of us was paired up with an employee, who explained the whole thing, answered questions, and let us listen in on phone calls that they receive. Cailee and Grant both ended up getting the same guy that I did over the course of the afternoon. I told him that I wasn't actually a business major, even though I was on the trip, and I think that confused him a bit. Kinda an awkward experience, but the 45 minutes didn't drag on too slowly.

Reloaded onto the coach to go to Parliament. We were literally on the exact street of our destination, and all of a sudden, traffic was at a standstill. Upon closer evaluation, we saw a huge demonstration being escorted by countless policemen, along with their cars and horses. The South African president or ambassador (someone important, I know those are extremely different positions) was in town, and these people had something to say about it. Once the mess broke up, we had a few minutes to walk around the Westminster/Big Ben/Parliament area. It was so much prettier now that I wasn't occupied with being so cold, like last time! The tour of Parliament was pretty snazzy.. No pictures allowed, and that was so unfortunate. Many of the ceilings and walls were gilt in gold, with intricate paintings and impressive sculptures. The oldest part of Parliament was a hall dating back to 1097, the whole ceiling carefully constructed solely of wood, with the use of wooden dowels rather than nails or screws. It was the only part of the building salvaged after a fire burned a large majority. Sick.

Not much else happened tonight, just came back home and watched the Dark Knight for our Bible class. Still trying to get caught up on blog posts, hang in there!

happy birthday to me!

To my precious lambs/committed readers/total and complete strangers,
I have not blogged in a while, and for that, I apologize. During this mysteriously undocumented period of time, my adventures have included traveling to Ireland and ending my teenage years of life. Bless you if you find those exciting, and stay tuned as I slowly rehash my life from the past week.

Tuesday (yesterday as I know and love it) was phenomenal. For the first time since I've been living in Oxford, it warmed up to almost 50 degrees fahrenheit. I went on a run to Christ Church meadow, and it was so beautiful! University Parks was full of purple, yellow, and white crocuses. The first little hints of spring are my absolute favorite time of year, and this was a perfect birthday present.

Even though it was a teensy bit colder outside, today was a pretty good birthday abroad. :] Allison, Kelly, Grant, Jacob, and I went to University Parks to feed the ducks our moldy bread. I met an elderly man with two cocker spaniels named Enzo and Porsche, and he was just the sweetest. He told us he lived in the states, and had even heard of ACU before! Pretty cool. Kel went home to shower, but the rest of us went to the outdoor market for some fresh fruits and veggies! I filled up a huge reusable Sainsbury's bag with avocados, apples, limes, chili peppers, bean sprouts, okra, and strawberries for just under 8 GBP. Awesome deal! Grabbed a latte, and made myself a huge veggie stir fry for my birthday lunch back at the house. Absolutely delicious. Went to my (only) class, Oxford Through the Ages, after a relaxing afternoon, and toured the Christ Church meadow area (again for me) as well as the Museum of Oxford. I think Dr. Bennett was very astute to label it 'kitschy'.. not the most impressive of exhibits, but we can always use a little crash course on our British 'hometown'.

I bought cupcake ingredients for a celebratory sweet, and Kelly was so wonderful to make all the chocolate ones for me during class! I whipped up a few vanilla cupcakes once my nose stopped running from the cold, and decorated them all with chocolate buttercream icing. I felt like such a cheater using mixes and pre-made materials, but hey, I didn't want to spend my birthday hours cooking!

Around 6 this evening, 15 or so of us went to a restaurant called Freud over in Jericho to celebrate Jackie's birthday, as well as my own. (jackie's & me? jackie & i's? hence the awkward wording in the previous sentence.) Dr. Bennett recommended it for their excellent pizzas and salads, and I am a recent convert to the sentiment. I ordered the garden (artichoke, tomato, onion, mushroom) pizza and pretttty much inhaled it. No big deal. Someone sneaky let slip to the waiter that there were a couple of birthdays, so Jackie and I each got little plates of ice cream, complete with tealights and singing. I love it when my birthday rolls around, but for reasons unknown to me, having all the attention (aka singing the birthday song) turned to me for extended periods of time is just not fun. Too many pairs of eyes watching to see what I'm going to do next.. kinda makes me feel like a caged animal. So I suffered briefly through, and went home to share cupcakes with my Oxford family.

I spent the rest of my night planning out our 10-day spring break trip to Spain with Cailee, Spencer, and Grant. We got so many things ironed out and booked. Feels good to have my blood pressure back down. Now, if I could just get Italy figured out, too..

It's been a great birthday abroad. I am loving my study abroad group more and more every day, and it is such a blessing to live with amazing, quality people. The hard part to admit is that many times today, my mind has wandered to recall memorable birthdays spent with my family and very closest friends back in Texas. I wouldn't give this trip (and especially the people on it!) up for anything, but such a stark contrast with past tradition every March 3rd has brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. It's ridiculous how extravagantly God has blessed my life, and this has become increasingly evident by the day. I miss everyone back in the states so terribly. I was thinking of each one of you today, wishing I could share my special day with you. Know that I could not possibly replace or forget you.

I feel like now would be a good time to mention my parents and sister. Life in my family has been nothing short of loving and blessed. They have influenced me in countless ways, teaching me to love God, treasure faith, and spread this compassion to the people around me. I can only pray that I can accomplish a portion of what they have dreamed for me. My family has graciously allowed me to transplant myself to another country for an entire semester, supporting me in literally every manner possible. Their sacrifice and love has given me a unique opportunity to experience the world and return home a better person than when I left. For that, I am immensely grateful. I love you three so much, and I wish that I could have at least been able to spend one of my favorite days with you. You were here with me the entire time, and the month of May will come soon enough! As silly as that may have sounded typed out on a blog, there is no way I could have vocalized it without crying my ridiculous 'ugly cry'. I meant every word.

We're heading to tour Lloyd's and Parliament in London on Friday, and I'll try to get the Ireland trip documented on here before that goes down!

"In my own way, I take you everywhere I go, and it feels like home."

a perfect lazy day

It's so much easier to get out of bed when it's snowing. Who wants to miss out? My motives were more school-oriented this morning, but I woke up and went down to the common room to watch this sort of documentary thing called Manor House. I don't really know how else to explain it quickly, so.. use your Google browser.

I roasted a butternut squash for lunch. It was really quite heavenly, sitting in the kitchen pretending to read snippets of assigned reading while actually watching the snow gracefully fall, with the rich scent of squash wafting out of the oven. Don't forget the hot tea. Never mind that I didn't get ANYthing done for class, I had a wonderfully peaceful morning. God is good at reminding me when to breathe.

After continued failed attempts to do work, I finally put on my comfy clothes and did some Yoga X. Perfect mindset, not to mention some pretty intense moves. Running just seemed a little harsh for the day. A shower and some accomplished homework later, I took a walk by myself to Greens Cafe, where I ordered a delicious chicken pesto salad for takeaway. I now plan on eating at Greens much more often.

I have finally begun to set in stone some trips for both of our Spring Breaks, and feel relieved from the stress those were imposing on me. Planning gives me stability. I like that.

Later in the evening, I walked with Nat to G&D's to meet a friend from St Aldates.. we thought we were late, turns out we just missed each other, and he ended up meeting us at the house. We had a fun chat with Brittany for a while, and I called it a night and came upstairs. Unfortunately, I have to wake up early tomorrow morning as well, so it's off to bed at an almost decent hour. Lots to get accomplished tomorrow, and then catching the bus to London Stansted for our Ireland flight! Let's do it.

If you didn't get the chance to catch our Study Abroad Sing Song act..
With love from the United Kingdom, http://vimeo.com/9381120

Sydney's informal travel tips

When you're traveling, remember to check the weather. Especially if you happen to be in England. The thought never really crossed our minds until this morning, when we woke up to three fresh inches of snow on the ground in Shipley. Our trek up the hill at 10 am to the train station was a direct path this time (thank goodness!), but oh so ridiculous. What a sight- four American girls with backpacks dragging suitcases through snow while freaking out. Luckily, we left early enough to account for this sort of delay. Arriving in Leeds after a slightly delayed train, we discovered that the wonderful city bus that we had used to travel to the coach (bus) station DOESN'T run on Sundays. A drunk guy tried to tell us how to walk to the station. Riiight. He kept apologizing for how inebriated he was, and we thanked him for the 'help' and quickly walked away. Travel tip #2: A short cab ride is very cheap when split amongst 4 passengers. And that, my friends, is how we avoided a fiasco en route to the bus. One cafe latte and a bathroom break later, we finally boarded the bus. No unexpected layovers this time, but we had a few brief moments of panic in Milton Keynes when our connecting ride was a few minutes late. These few minutes provided opportunity for me to buy a water bottle.. which ended up making me miserable. For some dumb reason, I can't drink the dadgum thing slow. Ever. About 40 minutes outside Oxford, I could no longer focus on anything else aside from the urgency to find a loo, fast. I reached a state of desperation, and caved to use the charter bus restroom. Your mental picture of the whole thing is probably bad enough. Sorry that you'll probably smell that for the rest of the day. Fast forward.. arrival in Oxford. We succumbed to another taxi ride back to the house. Please read this with mercy.. we had been traveling from 10 am to 5 pm, and were not enthused about lugging suitcases through another city. For 1 pound 10 each, heck yeah I rode a taxi back to the house! I love spoiling myself on 'vacation'. It pulled up to the front door and everything. It's the little things.

I haven't recovered. Traveling nonstop is stupid exhausting. Dinner here, a little homework there, and 9@9 devo. It's such a great way to start the week back up. Had a little meeting with the people on my Ireland trip, and am SO excited about the trip, which starts late Tuesday night. I laughed so hard tonight that I got side stitches! If that is any indication of how the rest of the week is going to be, I can't wait.

Hitting the hay. Hard.

Leeds

I need to apologize again for the awful writing skills displayed in the past two posts. Worn out!

We began our day yesterday as many people do- with a frantic powerwalk to the bus station in Oxford. Cailee, Kelly, Natalie, and I made it with plenty of time to locate the right bus and grab a water bottle. What transpired next.. was one of the longest days of travel ever. Our bus took us to a little stop, where we had a 40 minute 'layover' which we spent in the cafe, that resembled a portable building more than small eating establishment. Back on the bus at 11:10, and then we had another surprise bus change around Milton Keynes, where apparently another bus was supposed to take us all to Leeds. We ended up being stuck there until the bus driver was allowed to leave at 13:00, and found ourselves at the Leeds bus station a long nap later. Groggy, we were ecstatic to find a free city bus that would take us, hassle-free, to the train station. I basically ran to the platform, unaware of what time it was and if we'd be late, and ended up looking like a fool with ten minutes to spare. Our stop was Shipley, and after all this bus nonsense, our group was more than ready to make it to the flat of Natalie's friend, Mary Beth.

Let me spare you the long narrative about what went wrong and tell you that we basically went AROUND the route we were supposed to take. The initial main turn we were supposed to take was missed. Shipley saw plenty of us for the next hour or so through many failed attempts to locate the flat. A quick call from a security guard's cell, and we were finally united with Mary Beth. A little hot chocolate inside her flat was a perfect way to get settled in, and we relaxed on the couch for a bit while Mary Beth made us homemade pizzas! We watched the Bachelor online (and got pretty into it, I might add). Around 8, we met MB's friend Ellie, and walked to a local pub to talk. The atmosphere was really comfy, but the volume of everyone around us made it difficult to hear each other super well. Exhausted, we trekked back in the freeezing cold to spend the rest of the night cuddled up in the living room.

Started the day around noon with a train ride back into Leeds with MB, and she graciously guided us around the shopping district for quite some time. After lunch at a Spanish tapas restaurant, we parted ways to contiue shopping. Literally, until we dropped. Dinner at The Slug & Lettuce was delicious. I ordered a 'tostada' of grilled onions, red peppers, green beans, and other weggies with goat cheese on a tortilla spread with red pepper tapenade. I was ridiculously full.. and then we split dessert! Apple pie crumble and chocolate brownie torte. I don't want to think about food for a long, long time.

The girls and I finally made it back to the flat around 8 and have been drinking hot tea/chocolate while watching snippets of Mamma Mia online. We're coping without a tv! Overall, it's been a great 'girl' trip- plenty of relaxing and shopping. We still managed to cover a lot of ground over the past 36 hours or so, and plan on leaving the flat around 10 am to begin the journey back to home sweet Oxford.

If I don't turn into a popsicle first. Goodnight, dear readers.

Rain all day makes for cold feet.

I valiantly tried to wake up early this morning. At 8:30, I rolled out of bed and went into the kitchen for some Weetabix to start my British day right. This is where the downturn begins: I walk back into my room with my cereal, eating on my bed in the darkish room as to not disturb my sleeping roomie, finished, and.. laid back down. I just couldn't muster up enough energy for the day at this point. I'll work on it. Finally awoke at 11:30 and made plans for the day at the top of the stairs.

Allison, Becca, Cailee, Kelly, Grant, Jacob, Wyatt, and I had originally planned to take one of our Oxford Through the Ages 'rambles' today (required pre-planned route to explore the city), but it was too muddy and rainy! It rained all day. At least the grass and trees will be beautiful now. :] We all went to University Parks instead to feed the ducks and geese our moldy bread, then journeyed over to the Thursday market. The rain may have been to blame, but today's market wasn't very impressive. Thursdays are more centered around antiques and trinkets, whereas the Wednesdays are chock full of fresh produce. Next week!

We were all pretty damp and cold, so we stopped at the Swam & Castle for tea, coffee, and food. Jacob fell asleep, hard, at the table. We decided to all get up quickly and asked a British guy sitting nearby to tap Jacob on the shoulder. After a few prods, the guy said, "Hey, I think your mates left without you" and Jacob jumped up from his drooling stupor. Poor dude was tired, and ended up leaving his Nalgene water bottle at the pub and remembering too late. Sorry, Jacob!

Did a little homework until 6:40, when Cailee, Kelly, Allison, Brittany, and I left for St Aldates' college night! We got drenched in the still-pouring rain, and ate dinner in the main sanctuary. It was so weird being a guest there, seeing as I am usually helping set something up when I'm at Aldates. Dinner was pasta, salad, bread, and a variation of apple pie. I got way stuffed. We met some really cool guys that Allison and Brittany had already met with their volunteer hours. I think their names are Tom, Paul, David, and James. Worship and the speaker was awesome. Being at church is always so uplifting, and it really reminded me of Kingdom Life again! Please excuse my sentence structure and attempted storytelling.. I am exhausted as I type this, but I need to get it done! Anyway, I plan to make it back to Aldates' college night as many times as I can for the rest of the semester.

Allison and Kelly suffered with me through P90X Plyometrics afterwards, and Cailee joined us for an intense ab workout. Maybe I won't come back in bad shape, like I thought :] I just finished packing for Leeds (we leave at 8:15 am from the house) and am so excited for a relaxing weekend with Natalie, Cailee, and Kelly!

Peace out, girl scout.

the fish that wrote Canterbury Tales

I knew today would most certainly make up for the lack of action yesterday. I also forgot to mention that yesterday's mail brought me the CUTEST little Valentine's day cupcake card (and letter!) all the way from Austin, Texas! My mommy was so sweet to take the time to send me some sweet snail mail- my favorite! Love you :]

Took my first test in Humanities at 9 am.. and it was a little more difficult than I had hoped. I spent so much time studying last night, but I guess you can only prepare so much. Doesn't really help that my memory isn't too sharp. That put a damper on my day (and everyone else's from that class..), but I took a nice run through University Parks to make everything better. The only drawback was that the groundspeople had covered about a third of the trails in thick gravel/dirt, making running slow and laborious. Definitely got my hamstrings screaming.

So I come back home and shower, wake Katie up with my ruckus, and we went to On the Hoof together to grab some sandwiches for lunch. I am ashamed to say that this was only my SECOND visit to the nearby sandwich joint, while some of the boys are boasting of their tenth entry (free sandwich) on their loyalty card! Trust me, it's that good. I got the chicken pesto rosso (red pesto, obviously) with cheese on a panini.. and it was a.maz.ing. Anyway, as I was sitting at the kitchen table with Katie and Allison enjoying lunch, the fish 'bowl' (really a tall pitcher) was sitting between us, holding the beloved pet. Earlier that morning, Kelly had divulged to me the (unfortunate) information that The Fish (whatever his name is) had died. Not wishing to spread the news, I said nothing. Until Katie and Allison were like 'uhm, why is he at the bottom'? Should've moved the pitcher, Kel. My response, "Well, he's dead." I suppose my answer was so matter-of-fact that they confused this with my (terrible) sense of humor, so they laughed. "No. Really.. he's dead." Lunch was not the same. We couldn't eat with our beloved pet passed away in front of our very eyes, so Allison graciously moved his corpse, pitcher and all, to a corner of the counter. When I had earlier learned of the news, I had returned, sweaty from my run, and Kelly said, "What is your reaction?" while pointing Cailee's camera in my face. I need to destroy that picture. Thanks for the reminder. So while my past betta experience was a little too long-winded for my liking, we somehow managed to cut dear old Chaucer's life a bit short. We're going to give The Goldfish Bowl a ring tomorrow and consult on what may have gone awry.

Got my Oxford Uni hoodie in the mail today! It's pretty sweet looking, in my humble opinion. I was so excited, I proudly wore it to today's Oxford Through the Ages class. We visited the Bodleian Library, which is in proximity of the Sheldonian Theatre. Please Google for further information, but it was incredibly old, and thus, absolutely cool. One of the downstairs great rooms was used in Harry Potter as the hospital, and then a portion of the upstairs library was also utilized in the films. I just think it's really neat to occasionally tie this in to my dorky Harry Potter obsession.

Groceries were next on the agenda, seeing as I was oh-so-completely out. I've been pretty much worn out from then on, so I've worked on homework in bits and pieces, since there's no assignments really due tomorrow. Kelly and Cailee made chicken enchiladas with rice and beans for dinner, and my tummy is so so SO happy.

As a side note: I have had countless people tell me they read my (ridiculous) blog posts. You are obviously one of them. If you have anything to comment on, laugh about, anything- feel free to leave a comment! I just recently opened it up to ANYONE, whether you have a blog or not, so if you're a 'say the last word' kinda person, let it fly. Or any other kind of person, for that matter. This is not a plea for comments. Just wanted to let you know the opportunity is available. Thanks for reading :]

Also, whoever invented curling was silly.

We put the STUDY in Study Abroad

Yesterday and today were pretty much filled with homework. Until a couple hours ago, I had literally not set foot out the front door all day. Let me explain- tomorrow is our enormous Humanities test, and tonight we had quite a bit of Bible homework to tackle. My afternoon was productive, but at a sacrifice- I had so much going on, I had to skip Alpha Prep today. I was pretty bummed about it, and then Ben and Ryker came back telling me that Jules is back and they actually got to cook! Argh. Next week, for sure.

I'm at a loss now. That's life at the moment. Heading to Leeds on Friday morning for a fun little weekend, and shopping at the outdoor market tomorrow. Oh, and I've been sniffing my pathetic little nose into tissues all day. Poor thing is just raw.

Excitement soon to come, I promise.
I hope your night was more relaxing than mine.

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

Our quest for a pet

One night at dinner last week, one of the girls somehow suggested that we get a fish to keep in the kitchen. I know, weird. The joke was that we'd keep him in the blender.. without the base on it. So no risk of fish smoothies. Now, past experience has taught me that these pets are pretty, but get a little smelly and never die unless it is on accident OR they live to be like 4023894038 years old. Not really, but that's what it felt like. Then it came up again, and the decision was made- we were going to find a betta fish. Pet stores are hard to come by in City Centre, so after a few Google searches, we located a shop cutely named 'The Goldfish Bowl'. Once I escaped my comatose state this morning, Allison, Kelly, and I set out to find this beloved pet. Our friend Becky gave us directions last night, and it sounded cool, definitely an exploration to a part of town we hadn't frequented yet. We walked. And walked some more. Kept going. I wore my pedometer, and it was about 3 miles, one way. At one point, we weren't sure if we had gone too far, but the guy working at Oxfam assured us it was just another 4 blocks away, then a turn for a few more. No biggie. The sight of the storefront was a 'hallelujah' moment, to say the least. We were shown the wall of bettas, and a really nice guy working there helped us get all the supplies we needed (chlorine drops, food) so our little pet will survive all semester. If he lasts longer, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The walk back was hilarious as we switched off trying to walk smoothly with the fishy bag, with the occasional dart into a store that we thought might have marbles for his (I think it's a boy) home. Variables currently up for debate: the gender and name. Right now, the name pool consists of something like Chaucer, Elmo (he's red), Toto.. who knows what else. I think I heard a Fluffy thrown in there at one point. The whole thing ended up costing 2.40 GBP a person, so totally doable. Let's just hope we can keep him cleaned and fed consistently. Poor dude.

I deviated from the direct walk back home, and spent time browsing stores on High Street, which were all pretty cool. I also walked in and out of many a University apparel store, searching for the right hoodie. It's so frustrating when you have a mental image of exactly what you want, and can't seem to find anything that will approximate it. All in all, I basically walked for 3 hours straight today. Goodness.

Tonight's dinner was the first flop. I tried to make polenta and spinach, both of which were terribly bland and reminded me of baby food. No good, plus they burned my tongue. I wasn't in a super mood after that. Took a little nap, then caught a bit of Olympic speed skating, which was so intense! The athletes had ridiculous leg muscles. Norway was pretty good. Go motherland!

I baked my cookies for tomorrow! The brown sugar here is really weird.. it kinda has a molasses flavor, so they turned out a little differently, plus the temperature conversion cooked them a bit fast on the outside, which I finally perfected by the last batch. They should be edible, at least. Aaaand I purchased the present for my secret valentine. Boys are so hard to shop for.

Happy Valentine's Day! :]

secret valentine

Kristi came up with this awesome idea- anyone in our study abroad group could elect to be a part of this 'secret valentine' exchange. We put our names in a hat, literally, and it was almost a 1:1 ratio (a couple of guys have two names). For Sunday night, we're getting little fun gifts for each other, and it's been really mysterious not knowing anything. A couple of people (like Cailee) that elected not to participate get all the insight into who has who.. and won't give any hints. Bum. I guess I'll hold out for the surprise. But that's just been a fun little change of pace here, the only problem is my lack of creativity for my valentine. I'll pull through, don't worry. Love to be crafty.

Literally EVERYONE slept in today. I actually woke up before Cailee and Kelly, who didn't even budge until 1! Never saw that coming. We kinda bummed around, Allison and I did Kenpo P90X, and after a desperately needed shower, I went into City Centre with Allison, Cailee, Jacob, Nicholas, and Wyatt. Got a few little errand-y things, and got ingredients for cookies at Sainsbury's. OH! And Sunday night, we're having dessert and movie night. So much fun. Anyway, shopping for chocolate chips was interesting. The UK just doesn't bake with choc chips as often as Americans do, I guess. I found little teeny tiny (redundant, yes, thank you) portioned bags of them.. but to get the amount I need for my recipe, I would've had to purchase close to 5 GBP worth (that's 8 dollars for you Yanks). No. So substitute time! I found the hugest Cadbury bar available (drool) and will be chopping it up for chocolate CHUNK cookies. Slight change, but I cannot wait to make these! This is my absolute favorite recipe because of the combination of chocolate and oatmeal, and is perfect for all you unfortunate raisin-haters. It will certainly be different. Cross your fingers that nothing tragic happens.

Cailee and I had a nice walk back home, and then Kelly brought guests up to our tiny third floor! Their names are Alice and Becky, and they attend Oxford Brookes Uni. They are such sweet girls, and they joined us for a pizza dinner with most of the SA crew in the Lytle's cozy basement apartment. It was really fun getting to chat with these girls, which we had met at the Woodstock Baptist Church. They're majoring in Nursing, which made me immediately think of all my nursing friends back home. Miss you. After dinner, we popped the Lindsay Lohan version of Parent Trap in the VHS player.. man, that brought me back to third grade. Classic. Then I attempted (keyword) to learn the domino game '42' with Ben, Ryker, and Wyatt. I think my brain exploded. My excuse is that I was feeling a little under the weather, but I just couldn't handle all the little details of the game! Not so brilliant of me. Poor guys had to deal with that.

I've been spending the night catching up on podcasts and such, in my very lonely room, as Katie left for London for the evening. It's weird having a room all to myself. I heard the opening ceremony for the Olympics was on, but let's be honest here- I legitimately doubt that anything could top Beijing. A least, for a long time. Once the actual events are on, though, I am SO there. Snowboarding? Check. Ice skating? Bobsledding? I could go on. I love the winter Olympics.

It would be really cool if I could manage to get to sleep at a decent time in the near future. That goes on the ridiculous to-do list in my planner. Bahaha.


From England, with love

10 Things I Hate About You

No, not the ABC Family show.. the original movie. I can't believe I haven't seen this before. Perfect 90's movie. With Heath Ledger. Honestly, I can't brag about any extensive movie knowledge, and the only other movies that I've seen him in are the Dark Knight and A Knight's Tale. Ironic. The fact that he and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, anyone? I bought the soundtrack and was not disapppointed.) are both in this movie make me happier than any storyline based off of Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew'.

Today was awesome. Woke up late to the cleaning crew rolling around the 3rd floor, and ate some bran flakes. All those years of Mom trying to get me to eat them paid off. Kudos, Ma. After my shower, we rehearsed Sing Song and worked on logistics of filming outside. During breaks, I got a phone call (?!) from a person with this company I am ordering a dress from. The story of this dress.. I found it in York in a precious, Anthropologie-esque store. I told myself that I didn't need to be shopping when I could be sight-seeing, took note of the website, and carried on. Well, I didn't forget about it. I checked it out online, and the light pink color I wanted wasn't available! A couple of phone calls to the London store later, I worked out a deal that the company web people would send me the pink one. Wonderful. But get this: right when I tried to order it online, the website gave me an error message. I think my US card isn't cooperating. So the support guy are currently trying to get to the source of the problem, so I can order this dress (from my parents!) for my birthday. Trust me, it is so classy, and worth all the drama and trouble. Can't wait for this to work out. Hopefully.

We filmed the Sing Song act, and then I took a powerwalk to City Centre. It was so peaceful alone, exploring different shops and running little errands. At dinner, I watched part of the Bachelor (stop rolling your eyes) with the girls, and then.. I was PRODUCTIVE! I got my powerpoint assignment done ahead of time for Bible, and I am so so happy. Not much else went down, had a fun chat with people in the front entryway, then popped in this movie, bringing us to.. now.

And we're all sitting in the Common Room in the dark. We're all just to the point where no one cares / wants to bother changing that. I love this group.

G'night, mates.

I am Oscar the Grouch

It's been a bad mood kinda day. I completely blame school, because life is wonderful otherwise. It even SNOWED. Gorgeousness.

Quick glance into my schoolwork load this evening, which is now completed to boot.
Finished my Persuasion paper.
Bible online course.
Tried to navigate my now-online Humanities course.. the organization throws me for a loop. I'm not kidding when I say I neeeed hard copies of my school work.

This is really testing my patience. Add a sore throat into the equation, and I am NO fun to be around. My poor housemates.. I hope I don't get kicked out into the snow. Only joking. I just haven't been perfectly perfect nice.

Today during Oxford Through the Ages, we toured Christchurch. Is it one word? I still can't figure that out. But our tour guide, Winnie, was British to the core. She had a sense of humor I didn't expect. Fun lady.

The Lytles invited us (the hall) over for dinner tonight. It was no coincidence this happened, because it was a perfectly timed study break in between paper-writing sessions. They are such a sweet, generous family. We had great conversation, and of course, the food was delicious spaghetti with meatsauce! I am so thankful for them- especially Kelly, who gets to put up with me on a daily basis. :]

Singsong is coming along! Filming and submitting the video tomorrow. Lots of other things on my to-do list for tomorrow, so I plan on getting to bed soon after I cross off the other things on my agenda for this evening. Need to wake up at a decent hour and take my vitamins! Sickness is starting to go around, I think. We're all getting worn down with all this homework business.

Life is such a blessing. Now, if I could just be less of a grump..

a lesson in humility

I woke up late yesterday, took a run through the snow (ouchie), and then powerwalked to the Co-Op in Summertown with Katie. We made grilled beef Gyros with veggies and tzatziki (spelling?) yogurt sauce, with corn garnished with bell peppers. Needless to say, Greek food was a hit. Our special guest, Ben, had some awesome stories to share, so dinner was really fun!

Then it was down to business. I sat in my room for what seemed like forever, doing assignments for Bible and Humanities, with a Sing Song break in between. I was really productive, and am so pumped about our little production! I have the songs stuck in my head. :]

Woke up a litttttle earlier today and worked some on finding material for quotes in my Persuasion paper. It's wearing me down, man! After a little lunch and shower, it was off to Alpha Course prep with Ben and Ryker.

When I signed up to volunteer for meal prep, I envisioned flourishing chops and dramatic culinary feats.. not really. But I did see myself doing a lot more cooking. However, Jules is still in Sierra Lione, so the people handling his duties have been doing a considerably HUGE amount of advance prep for meals, just in case. I don't blame them, it's a lot of people to cook for. Consequently, our helping hands have been used more to the tune of table assembly and dishwashing. What really swept the rug out from beneath my feet was literal cleaning. Let me explain before you reach some wild assumption that I am a prima donna. Stop it. I just have this general aversion to housework (sucks for whoever I marry, you gotta help me out. please?) and really need to be in the right mood to tolerate it. For some reason, Etienne's thick French accent gave me trouble today, but I finally realized what he was saying- I had to clean the coffee/tea area by the upstairs offices, dust all the trim/baseboards, and Windex the windows (especially the ones on the doors).

Truly, this brought me down a couple of notches. People passing by on the stairs or in the halls would give me a couple confused glances (who is this girl? why is she lugging cleaning supplies?) and carry on. This kind of attention weirds me out, because no one really wants to distract you from your task at hand- but I hadn't said a word in an hour and a half. I just wanted someone to say hello! Cleaning is certainly not glamorous, and I know that in American society, we view it as a less prestigious occupation. The stigma in my mind associated with the janitorial duties just hit me.

I am a student, blessed to be living in an (expensive) foreign country.
I am no more important than a local student, a bus driver, a cleaning lady.
I am called to be a servant.
I am supposed to be living in the example of my Savior, who was God, and then washed the feet of his followers.
I am a mere vessel through which real work can be accomplished.

Which brings me to feel about 2 inches tall. I've got a lot to learn, and plenty more notches from which I need to be knocked down. I think that's what this semester is for. Knowledge as I continue to seek truth, challenge as I am separated from the people I hold closest to my heart, and growth as I (do my best to) rely on God to make it through. Coming back unchanged would be a failure on my part.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Love and miss you.

I know you're curious.

The first picture I post on this blog.. is my mutilated thumb. Enjoy.

York and Whitby

If time could literally slap you in the face, I'm sure that's what I felt at 0630 Thursday morning. We all hopped on the bus that was pulled up to our front door, and drove quite a ways to York. It occurred to me- this is the York that became the namesake for New York when colonization of North America went down. Yeehaw.

York remained true to the general English characteristics: foggy, cold, and cute. Some of us took Holy Communion at the Minstrel (Cathedral), which was an awesome experience! We walked around the shops at the Shambles, which used to be a big butchery street, and found an old pub at the bottom which is supposed the most haunted in York. As we examined the sign, a woman walking by pushing a stroller stopped to tell us that it was true- she had seen a ghost there! We figured we'd try it out, and ate some yummy pub food (I got the Mediterranean vegetable risotto- not so traditional, but delicious). We basically spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around York. Jacob, Kelly, Becca, Cailee, and I walked to the National Rail Museum and saw so many trains from different eras- they made me think of Grandpa Holman. After we reconvened, it was time to get on the bus, continuing on to Whitby. It was dark pretty soon after that, but it wasn't long before we got to the hostel. Let me just say that this hostel and its location alone were enough to make the trip amazing- we were situated at the top of this hill, next to a huge graveyard over looking these cliffs that dropped into the ocean, and on the other side of us were the old Whitby Abbey ruins. Nearby stairs led down into the cute little town, and all of it was absolutely precious. That night, though, we dropped our things into a room and had dinner, cafeteria-style, with various British dishes. Dessert was Rhubarb pie/crumble/cobbler. I don't know. It was just tangy and good, although a lot of people didn't think so highly of it. After dinner is when we wandered around the graveyard and checked out the view in the mist. So so so creepy. It didn't help that the church bells kept chiming every 5 minutes or so. Whoever was inside must've wanted to freak us out, because it worked. The group walked down the 199 stairs to the docks, where some people told scary stories until we were too cold to be comfortable anymore. I took a nice hot shower (the water pressure was so much better than back in Oxford) and got to bed.

Friday morning, I slept through breakfast, and regretted it as soon as the girls came back to tell me how good it was. Oh well. The people in the kitchen had put together some things for us to make our own sack lunches- so I never had to pay for food! Pretty awesome when you can save a few GBP here and there. We were out of the hostel around 10, and were greeted with gorgeous fog surrounding the Abbey, which we got free admission to. Lots of pictures followed, see Facebook for reference. I feel so general saying 'some of us', but I really don't remember who was in the group.. it kept narrowing throughout the day. We took a brief walk through town, across the bridge, and then decided to eat lunch on the beach, so a couple of the boys picked up fish and chips. Mmm. The beach was stunning- all the cliffs, fog, and rocks around were awesome! We ran around, wrote our names in the sand, and checked out a little cave. Back across the bridge for a thaw session at a Hot Chocolate shop, where they made your hot chocolate by dipping a cup into a chocolate fountain, and then mixing in steamed milk. It was absolutely perfect. My pedometer got plenty of steps logged as we trekked up more stairs to the Whale Bones (which were a little disappointing), and then over Northwest through the town, where we found the coolest playscape ever! I don't even know how to begin to describe it to you, but we were literally giggling the entire time we spent there. By this time, it had started to rain pretty consistently, and many pairs of shoes were soaked through. Aka, cold toesies. More walking, lee dee da, down through town, did some window shopping, got Wyatt some new waterproof shoes in lieu of his suede slipons, and then I found some wellies (rainboots) for 10 GBP! What a steal.. and my feet were so waterproof and happy afterwards. I've been wearing them ever since. The group split in half, with some going down to the other beach before high tide, and the half I was included in returning to the hostel to warm back up and play some card games. I taught Prof. Bennett (can I call him Cole on here?) how to play Presidents with Wyatt, Grant, Nick, and I. So hilarious. Dinner came and went, and despite my earlier promise to go back outside to explore, I couldn't bring myself to freeze again. Just no. We played Cranium instead, which was pretty intense.. and then watched the Disney animated 101 Dalmatians downstairs on the VHS- brought us all back to childhood. Great way to end the night before I enjoyed another wonderful shower (see, I knew I would bathe at a hostel at some point!) and got in bed to read 'Tuesdays with Morrie', which I finished. You HAVE to read it. I cried as I finished the final chapter. I wish I could explain more about it, but I'd rather not inadvertently spoil for you.

This morning (Saturday?), I actually woke up for breakfast, and then had time to chill around the hostel before heading out on the bus for the football (soccer) match! The game wasn't Premier League (like Man U), but it was really exciting seeing all the fans getting riled up, shouting chants and singing songs. I could barely tell what they were saying, but it was so loud! Nottingham Forest beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1, and it was such an exciting game, I barely noticed how cold my feet were. :] Once we got out of the parking lot, it was another 1.5 hour bus ride back to Canterbury Road. I haven't done much except put clean sheets on my bed, unpack, and eat. What a busy weekend! Church tomorrow morning, and plenty of homework as well.

Toujours,
Sydney

P.S.- Happy Birthday to my wonderful roommate back in Abilene! I can't believe you are 20. You were on my mind all day, and I'm sure everyone thought I was crazy when I kept exclaiming "it's Amanda's birthday!" I'm so sad I can't be there to celebrate in person, but know that you hold a very special place in my heart, love.

Thumbs and knives are not chums.

The last two days have been quite uneventfully filled with class and homework. Last night, Ben, Ryker, and I went to 'cook' for Alpha Course again, and Kelly joined us a bit later. The meal had already been prepared ahead of time and only needed to be popped in the oven, so the boys and I chopped and washed salad greens. I was having one of those clumsy days (actually, when am I NOT?) and chopped into my thumb instead of the cabbage sitting next to it. I'll spare you squeamish folk and just say that it wasn't pretty. Etienne got me a plaster (there is no such brand as 'Band-Aid') and I wore that, along with a glove, for the rest of my time spent in the kitchen. At one point, I was borderline on whether the incision needed stitches, but thankfully, it stopped bleeding. So here I sit, with an encumbrance of an awkwardly-placed plaster on my thumb. It's hilarious thinking about how I have coped without the use of my right thumb- putting on jeans, washing my hair. Since Humanities got out early today as a result of Jacque going to America (sad note), I will probably run to the chemist (pharmacist) to see what they think I should do. Apparently they're pretty knowledgeable, and can save you a trip to the doctor's office if your case isn't dire. Which, in fact, mine is not. For now, I'm just enjoying a hot cup of peppermint tea at my desk and toying with the idea of going out into the ever so consistent England drizzle. Oh- after I cut my thumb..blah blah blah, we went into the main church to help set up the tables. We were really impressed with how nice the Alpha Course dinner is, and slightly jealous of the food, to boot. But I had fun. It's been a nice opportunity to get to know wonderful British (and French!) people, as well as spending time with the people studying abroad with me.

Nothing big should be happening today. Last night, we didn't have hall dinner because of schedule conflicts, so Allison and Becca are taking care of lunch, and then Cailee and Kelly are preparing dinner. I'm being spoiled today :]

Probably going to work on upcoming papers and such (I have no life), since we leave for York and Whitby tomorrow morning (at seven. this may not be possible). It's supposed to be beautiful, one of the towns is seaside, and then we are watching a football match (not Premier League like Man U, but 'minor leagueish') on the way back home! Should be awesome.

à bientôt.