19 January 2010

I took 10 pages of notes on oversized paper yesterday during the plenary session, and my handwriting is not large.

There are hardwood doors on the bathroom doors in the British Museum.

Space is a thing of beauty - architecture is not afraid to leave things strategically open.

The word 'lyric' comes from the fact that poems were sung to the music of the lyre.

If I had a million dollars - I could spend it all at one of the shoppes in the British Museum and not have wasted a penny of it, but bought lovely and useful things for my family and friends.

It truly is nothing to walk 4 or 5 miles to get somewhere - although as I understand the public transport system better (ie: get a map)it may become less frequent.

On second thought to the above, walking around London is wonderful and if I have the time I will probably continue to do so.

Dollars and pounds can be equivilized to each other culturally. A nice book might be 16 pounds, and a cheeseburger at McDonald's was advertised for 99p. Recall that with the exchange rate, that means a $30.00 book and $1.70 cheeseburger (roughly).

It is weird to Not have an umbrella when it's raining. People don't seem to wear hoods much.

We arrived in the worst weather (according to the mobile phone salesman) since 1995 - there were patches of snow on the ground.

The cashiers at Tesco's do the self-checkout for me - although it's just like home, and their questions are harder to understand than it would be for me to do it alone! It is very nice of them, though.


There is no garbage in London. Clean city? Well, they call it rubbish or litter.

I will never have to buy phone minutes. Unlimited calling? Well, I might have to top-up my account.

This afternoon I was looking at Roman art and realized I needed to go. So, I walked briskly through pre-Greek Italian art, down several flights of stairs, took a wrong turn into the Parthenon gallery, ended up near a sphinx, and blundered into ancient Japanese (I think) before finding the open area (I would term it a courtyard . . .) and finding the others. What a way to get lost!!! Great scenery and all :) GStQ

18 January 2010

This morning I woke up at about 0750, went to breakfast, and went to the first plenary session at the Church. Plenary – wow. It was amazing! We were leaning about Ancient Greece, a time period I am very interested in. I have a feeling that my major will end up being Literature or Philosophy, which are the Lipscomb’s specialties, or else History – or maybe some kind of combination! There was so much that I learned. I had lunch in the library, then went magging. (Note: MAGGing stands for Museum And Gallery Guides and was not original; I learned it from last year’s Londonerds.) We had received our assignments this morning at plenary, and this week’s included going to the British Museum.



Most of us went there, although there were two other museums listed that I will go to later in the week. We took the 19 bus to Chinatown, then walked to the museum (which wasn’t very far). I had forgotten to put the memory card back in my camera after uploading the pictures to my computer, so my camera was useless since the internal memory only holds 8 or so pictures and they were pictures of my family. So, Bethany very kindly let me use her camera. She probably figured she would get more pictures that way, anyway . . . We looked at pots of various and sundry and many and lots and quantities of ancient pots and figurines from the Minoans and Myceans and Athenians and Spartians and Corinthians and Egyptians.















It was fascinating. I especially liked the Egyptian saragophous, of which the placard said the lid alone weighed over 900 kilos (2000 lbs).



It was beautifully decorated.

We stayed and looked at other things, which were also amazing, then had to go.



We went downtown and bought cell phones, looked for maps, resisted the urge to buy chocolate, etc. It was getting dark by the time we got home, but things were fine. I got my phone set up, went to dinner, (which was Chinese food - yum!)and enjoyed the evening since I did my homework yesterday. The day was amazing, and we even managed the public transportation system without any 'professional' help! I am looking forward to the discussion tomorrow - we're going to be discussing the Peloponnesian War and Antigone. Should be fun. GStQ

17 January 2010

Well, today being Sunday it was time to experience church in London! A group of us wanted to go to Southwark Cathedral, and since our TA Laura was going there it worked. We left around 0830 because we thought the service started at 0915. Well, it turned out that the service didn’t actually start until 1100, so we walked down the Queen’s walk to London Bridge and walked across the bridge. It was amazing. We also saw the Tower of London, since it’s right across the river near the bridge. On the river was a large boat that Laura said they probably had to raise the bridge to let through. I wish I could have seen that – one of the things I want to see before I leave London! We walked back in plenty of time for the service and went in, got service orders, and sat down. The order was 17 pages long, and included pretty much every word that was spoken except the pastor’s (I know that’s not his Anglican title, but I don’t know what the correct one is) sermon. They had a baptism service – a baby named Charlotte and a girl who looked to be about 5 named Katie. That was neat to see. We also had the Eucharist. I had always called it communion, but it was different enough that it makes sense to call it something else. We went up to the front, knelt at the altar railing, and held out our cupped hands. One robed man put a wafer that was about 1 inch in diameter in my hand, saying “the body of Christ”. Then another robed man came by with a cup of wine which he held for me to drink a little from, saying “the blood of Christ”. We then stood back up and went to our seats. (For anyone who is from Houghton College and is concerned over the fact that there is a ban on alcohol, I offer the following explanation: members of the London program were told, when we arrived here, that the rules of Houghton still applied. [They added a further restriction that we are not allowed to go to dance/night clubs, but that is beside this point.] We were not allowed to drink, unless our parents gave us the drink, or parents of our friends. This was said citing the Houghton College Community Covenant, which states that parents overrule the college and so if they gave us some alcohol we were allowed to drink it. This authority, specific to the London program, was also extended to the parents of friends, essentially making them in loco parentis. Back to the states: the legal drinking age is 21, and yet priests in the states serve wine as a part of the Eucharist to minors. When questioned about the legality of that, my political science professor responded that it was because the church had been given special rights of in local parentis since the parents, by allowing their children to attend the service and take communion, were giving tacit approval to allow their children to partake of the wine. Last night, I Skype-called my family and in the course of the conversation told them that I would be attending Southwark Cathedral today. They did not object, giving the same tacit approval. Therefore, I believe that I am exempted from the ban on alcohol in this case.)(I did think this through before I went up, just in case you were wondering. One of the penalties for drinking can be dismissal from the London program, and I didn’t want that.) After the service we went to a small reception place where they were serving tea, coffee and cookies, and we stood around and talked. There was an older gentleman who was very interested in talking with us. He wanted to know where we were from, etc, and Laura asked him for recommendations about what to see. He strongly recommended the Tower of London, History Museum, Tate Museum, and so on. He was very friendly and had a rather noticeable accent.

When we left the cathedral we took the tube back to the HC where we were a bit late for lunch, but not so late that we missed it. (Most days lunches aren’t provided, but on Sunday they are and dinner is not. Breakfast is provided every day, and dinner is provided Monday – Saturday.) It was green beans, potatoes and carrots with ham and gravy. We each also got a bowl with an orange and a clementine in it. After lunch I read more of my homework assignment for Tuesday’s colloquy session, then at 1510 we met to go test for our walking course. We walked briskly around a lovely park that was a little more than a mile around and tested our pulse at the end. Mr. Prof. Lipscomb recorded it, and we will do the same at the end. The point is to see if there is any physical improvement over the course of the semester. We came back, and I did more homework, ate granola bars and raisons for dinner while I read, read more . . . and just finished. But I’m done with my readings for the next few days, and ready for the plenary session at 0900 tomorrow morning, so it’s all worth it! I’ll post this and get some sleep so I’m ready for tomorrow. I love London. GStQ

16 January 2010

This morning I woke up at 0630 and realized that my Houghton friends would almost certainly be up, since it was a Friday night, and I could Skype them. However, I went back to sleep. J I slept until 0830, (thus getting 11 hours of sleep last night!) and am now sitting on my bed, with the sound of running water and wind in the trees in my ears and daylight streaming in our large window that doesn’t have a screen. Lovely! I skipped over breakfast in that, but it didn’t deserve it. There was real bacon, scrambled eggs and waffle potatoes on the hot plate, three kinds of cereal, plums, apples and oranges in a bowl, and rolls. There was apricot, strawberry and raspberry jam, orange marmalade, chocolate spread, peanut butter, and creamed honey to go on the rolls. There was also tea and coffee!

(1659)

Well, a lot has happened since I wrote! At 1000 we had a meeting with Sue, the manager of the HC, the assistant manager Deborah, and our three professors. The TA’s were there, too, but they sat with us. We learned the rules of the HC, suggestions for where to go to church, received our textbook Living Traditions and a map of the Highbury/Islington area, got information about safety and security, the walking course, and varied and sundry random things that we needed to know that we hadn’t heard before like that nightclubs are off limits. That let out right around noon, and we had half an hour to grab a bite to eat before we left for our walking tour of London at 1230. Well . . . all the wonderful food I bought yesterday was in the library, (where it was supposed to be, since that is where the Houghton refrigerators are,) and there was a meeting in there! So, I couldn’t get in and couldn’t make myself a sandwich. So, I ate some snack foods that I had here in my room and bought a French Butter Crescent roll near St. Paul’s Cathedral this afternoon for 99p. I certainly don’t have London figured out yet, but the walking tour helped a lot! We walked more than 5 miles, (this doesn’t count the bus and tube rides, so we traveled much further than that) and saw St. Paul’s, the British National Theatre, the London Eye, the Thames, the Palace, Westminster Abby, etc. I was taking a picture of some building by the Thames (I don’t know what it was, or if is significant) and looked to my right and saw Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. I gave a happy sigh. My life was complete. Well, maybe not. But I took a lot of pictures. In fact, I got teased about how many pictures I was taking. But it was fun. I suppose I’ll have plenty of chances, but I’d like to get the tourist look over with while I’m in a group of people, and when I’m in a smaller group or by myself look like I know what I’m doing. (Hopefully, I really will know what I’m doing!) Laura Jackson and I walked around the block when we got back to the HC and I saw again where the professors live. I really like this place! GStQ

15 January 2010

Greetings from London! I am staying here in London with Houghton College as a part of their honor program, and will have classes starting Monday and concluding April 19^th. The trip began on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Newark, NF. We arrived in the Heathrow Airport at around 1000 this morning (all times being London time) and got out no problem, met up with our professors and TA’s, and took a pre-hired bus here to the Highbury Centre arriving here around 1230. We got our room keys in the conference room, (Bethany and I are sharing a room this semester as well,) and had a few minutes to get settled in. Each of us was assigned to a group of 5 and given a leader to familiarize us with London. Prof. Chamberlin led the group I was in. Also in the group were Kathryn Dygert, Joel Ernst, Hannah Hannover, and Annelise Hein. I drew 10 pounds at an ATM, saw where the Highbury/Islington tube stop was bombed in WWII, studied the tube map I got at the HC a little, and went to a grocery store and bought bread, mayonnaise, and turkey ham at a self-checkout kiosk for pounds and a few pence. When we got back at around 1430 we had free time until dinner at 1800, which I used to go online, make contact with my family, and catch up on what was going on at Houghton. Dinner was vegetable soup, vegetable lasagna, and apple crisp with pudding and raisons on it. The soup was self serve in pitchers, with stacks of bowls there. The lasagna was served on plates. Each plate had one piece, and that piece was about six inches by four inches by two inches. Laura Jackson, one of our TA’s, explained how to save food (for lunches, since they aren’t provided). This evening I organized my stuff, (I’m done unpacking – so much easier than moving to Houghton!) and started my homework that’s due Tuesday. Things seem good so far. GStQ

A New Year

Hello, Everyone!

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season, and Happy New Year! I have been very busy with getting ready to go to London, and I know it's been a long time since I have written anything. That is not, however, because nothing has been going on!

I think I said that I survived my first semester at Houghton College. Well, I did much more than survive; it was wonderful. In so many ways, it was so much more than I could have ever expected. I learned a lot, (both in my education and in living pretty much on my own,) made wonderful friends, and in general had a very satisfactory college experience. I now approach with confidence a semester in London, a study abroad program offered by Houghton College. The experiences I had over the last few months have taught me much about living outside the life I grew up with as a relatively protected, homeschooled farm girl, and I am thankful for having my time at Houghton as a more controlled environment for learning about the world before jumping into it. But now, I am anticipating living in London and by God's grace, I fully intend to have a wonderful time there.

One of the things I have learned over break is the importance of living and not merely existing. I had probably heard it/subconsciously known it before, but as I was reading Erwin McManus's book Chasing Daylight ( http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Daylight-Seize-Power-Moment/dp/0785281134 ) it was brought to my attention that I must not hold back when God is clearing the path for me. I need to be watching for the opportunities He puts before me, and when He says 'go', I need to throw myself into it instead of asking "are You sure?". I am praying that He will give me courage and wisdom, because I sure need it! But, perhaps just as importantly, I'm praying that He will give me passion and vision, joy and strength, and that everything I do would honor Him - including taking off running when He says 'go'.

Life has been busy with getting ready to leave, a game night with the homeschool group, and still spending time with my family. We are also getting ready for Half Way Day, my family's annual mid-winter celebration. (This is usually held on February 1st. Since I will be out of the country at that time, my family kindly moved the celebration up to this Saturday so I will be able to join in!) We enjoy having something to look forward to in the middle of what can become very long, cold winters up here on Kelly Hill - an astonishing bounty of delicious food, and gifts for each other.

I hope you are all having a fantastic day/week/month/whenever you read this. If I don't blog again until then . . . I'll write from London, England!!!

Winter Break

Hello again, everyone! I know it's been quite awhile, but I haven't been on my blog at all recently and as such have not blogged.

Break has been good - we have been getting lots of snow, lots of cold weather, and lots of fun. I find it difficult to believe that it's only 13 days until I fly off into the sky . . . well yes, I'm planning on coming back, but not for awhile :) It will be my first flight all by myself, which is very exciting. I probably should be scared, but I'm not: after all, the airport is very small and I I could scarcely get lost!

I'm planning to blog from London, but you know how I can be about blogging! It should be interesting to see if I actually do it, but I certainly will try. And if I get a camera from which I can get pictures to put here, then I will attempt to share pictures as well.

Hope you all are enjoying your winter, and happy new year!