Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Apparently I've somehow survived two London snowstorms in the past 48 hours. I know this because Londoners have referred to yesterday and today's weather occurrences as such. I'm glad they told me; otherwise I would have missed it. All I saw (and I was outside during both of them briefly) was a few minutes' worth of big fluffy snowflakes and zero accumulation.


(Thank you to W-S-M Weather, from whose website I stole this photo since it didn't snow long enough for me to actually get around to taking out my camera and getting a picture myself.)

However, the forecast is calling for a few inches of snow to fall tonight (this is a "severe" snowstorm forecast), so maybe I'll have some exciting snow pictures of my own tomorrow! And I should also allow a lot of extra time to get to work in the morning, since who knows how much even the tiniest accumulation of snow will affect morning traffic!

Cheers!

What is Home?

I don’t know where I belong. Now, more than ever, I feel acutely that I am in fact a citizen of heaven, not of any place here on earth. There, and only there, will I be truly at home—finally free of the limbo of longing for one place even as I am reluctant to leave another.

I don’t want to go home. I have grown to love this city. It feels like home. There is so much to see, so much to do. I guess this semester accomplished its original goal. I do want to move back here, at least for a while—but not to do musical theatre like I’d originally thought. No, I think I’d like to do classically-based music instead. Never thought I’d actually say that! Yet here I am saying it.

Yet I can’t wait to go home. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my puppy. I miss the Christmas decorations, going caroling, wearing Christmas socks, baking Christmas cookies with my mom, listening to the same cassette tapes of Christmas music we’ve listened to every year for as long as I can remember, watching Christmas movies together, systematically working my way through the Christmas story in all four Gospels in bed in the nights leading up to Christmas, shopping for Christmas gifts for people, singing Christmas music in choir, and decorating the Christmas tree.

Sitting here in my living room in my flat, listening to a US Christian radio station online that’s playing Christmas music, looking at the mess I still need to clean up from the lovely Christmas/caroling-turned-'let's-make-a-film!' party we had here tonight, I feel a strange mix of happiness from a pleasant evening and underlying restlessness that I haven't been able to shake for several days, which is much more acute than usual this evening.


I don’t know where I want to go. Home is a fluid concept these days. Home is my parents’ house in St. Louis, with my dog sleeping on the foot of my bed and my parents and I sitting around the dinner table laughing for hours.


Home is Fair Apt. #29 in Kirksville, when Elisabeth and I laugh until our sides hurt, have serious conversations about the most important things in the world, and cram as many friends as we can into our tiny apartment on Friday nights.


Home is my farm in rural Missouri, where I can walk outside in the morning and see all the beautiful rolling hills and just feel so close to the land or sit on the roof of the farmhouse at night and watch the shooting stars and just talk with God.






Home is London, where there’s a new adventure or bit of history to discover every day, where I feel so culturally at home, where God’s given me good friends and a lovely church.



Home is Heaven, the one place where I can finally be together with all of the most important people in my life in the same place at the same time, forever celebrating and praising the One who loved us enough to come and save prodigals like us and bring us Home.

Merry Christmas (a few weeks early), wherever this Christmas season finds you. To my dear brothers and sisters scattered across the globe and in heaven, I look forward to the day when we can celebrate Christmas face-to-face with one another, and more importantly, face-to-face with the One whose birth brought us life.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

God is so, so good. I was supposed to work an 8-hour shift at work yesterday (Thanksgiving Day) since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here (this doesn't mean people aren't thankful; they just don't set aside a day to focus on it). Some students from HTB were putting together a Thanksgiving dinner for the other American students and anyone else who wanted to come, but since I had to work until 9pm, I wasn't going to be able to go. In preparation for celebrating by myself at work, I went to the local Waitrose grocery on Wednesday night and acquired:
-a bit of deli-sliced turkey
-a potato
-a packet of turkey gravy mix

To this odd combination of Thanksgiving-esque ingredients, I also added homemade cranberry honey walnut scones. And off I went to work with a mini-Thanksgiving dinner in tow and a heart that ached slightly to be at home just for the day or even just to get a chance to properly mark the day's festivities in the company of people who understood its significance.

I got to work at 1pm, worked box office from 1:30-2:30pm, ushered for the matinee performance at 2:30pm, and eventually at 5pm, made my way upstairs to the office to start my office work for the day. As I sat down at main worktable, my English boss wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I was quite happy. :) The rest of the staff, thus reminded, also wished me Happy Thanksgiving and then asked if I had any plans. I said that I knew some people having a dinner, but that I wasn't going to be able to go, so I'd sort of packed my own.

They simply weren't going to stand for this. Although they don't really understand why Thanksgiving means so much to us, they had apparently known enough Americans to know that it was really important. They insisted that I leave work early enough to make it to the dinner on time and decided that someone else would work my evening box office shift for me. They even gave me a box of baked goods (since one of my coworkers had brought in baked goods in honor of her birthday that day) to take to the dinner so that I wouldn't be going empty-handed! God is so good.

I spent a lovely evening filled with great food and the company of fellow American Christians, all being nostalgic for home and American football and family. Just for fun, one girl even made name tags with "Indian names" on them for everyone. So for the evening, I was "Ziracuny" which apparently meant "water monster."

Full of apple and pumpkin pie, mashed and sweet potatoes, stuffing, and turkey, and enjoying the pleasant effects of tryptophan (for those of you who don't know, that's what's in turkey that makes you feel so happy and sleepy after you eat a lot of it), I came home to my flat and skyped with my parents for an hour and a half, which was lovely. I enjoy got to see my dog on skype! :) What started out as a potentially kind of depressing and nostalgic day turned into a festive occasion! Praise God. I have so much to be thankful for.

I close this entry (since I have to go get ready for work today) with a short list of things for which I'm thankful this Thanksgiving:

1) a Savior who loved me enough to die and rise again to save me, and who never leaves me, no matter where I go--even halfway across the world

2) a family who loves me unconditionally

3) friends at home who haven't let thousands of miles affect the quality of our friendship

4) a loving church family here in London

5) the opportunity to study abroad--it has been and continues to be one of the best experiences of my entire life; it has changed me in so many ways

6) a place to practice singing--on Wednesday night I very nearly got banned from the practice rooms I had been using at Imperial College because the staff finally noticed that I was there and wasn't an Imperial student, but then when I explained why I was there and that I really didn't have anywhere else to go, the staff person took pity on me and said if I kept coming late in the evening when there wasn't a lot of competition for the practice rooms, he'd "turn a blind eye" so I could keep coming. Praise God! I was so scared during that conversation that I was about to lose my chance to practice for the rest of the semester. (He also paid me the compliment of guessing that I was a Royal College of Music student after his guess that I wasn't an Imperial student was confirmed.)

7) Skype/G-chat/Email/Facebook/Phone calls to the US for 4p a minute: Thousands of miles doesn't seem so far when you can talk to family and friends at the touch of a button! And being able to see them makes it even better!

To everyone at home, I love you and miss you. Happy Thanksgiving!

Complications & Costumes/Hiking & Haggis: A Weekend in Scotland

This post is brought to you by the perseverance of one Gregory Steimel (with assistance from one Benjamin A. Rearick), who has faithfully flooded my existence with internet communications reminding me that I have been truly delinquent in keeping this blog up-to-date.


Without further ado, here is a long-overdue record of my weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 24th-27th:

Ahem!
Chapter 1:
Mallory and I decided we wanted to go up to Scotland for the weekend. We started pricing train and bus tickets. We were indecisive. We were rapidly running out of time. Things were getting complicated. It was Wednesday night. We wanted to leave on Friday morning and we still didn't have tickets.


Then things got more complicated. We realized that overnight buses were cheaper. This meant leaving Thursday night. So we bought the tickets. Yes, 24 hours before we left.


Minutes later, things got even more complicated. Our internet shorted out. So we were left with bus tickets to Edinburgh, Scotland, the following night, but we had no place to stay and no means of getting home again on Sunday. Additionally, we had no formal plans of what we'd do once we got to Edinburgh on Friday morning.


To make things even more complicated, I had already planned to go to an event at HTB with my flatmate Tyson (it was the Alpha Launch night with special guest Bear Grylls...yes, I have seen Bear Grylls in person, for those of you who know who he is. Feel free to be jealous!) which wasn't supposed to end until about 9:30pm or so, and Mallory had a required trip to the theatre with her Shakespeare class that night. Our bus was supposed to leave Victoria bus station at 11:20pm. Mallory would be sprinting from the Globe Theatre with her duffel bag, and I would rushing to get home from the church event.


Thursday came, and things got slightly less complicated because our internet finally started working again around lunchtime, so we booked a hostel and a train home in between our morning and afternoon classes (we both had morning and afternoon classes, which effectively meant almost no time to pack). Tyson and I went to the event at HTB, which turned out to be really cool. It finished at a reasonable hour and I hurried home. But things became slightly more complicated again. I hadn't packed yet.


I packed incredibly fast, throwing only essentials into the camping backpack that Rachel Tarter graciously loaned me (which served her well during her semester abroad in London a few years ago) and bolted out the door. I caught a bus to the Tube, then took the Tube to Victoria station. Arriving at Victoria precisely moments before the time I'd agreed to meet Mallory, I let out a sigh of relief and looked around for the bus stop sign. I saw a sign that said "Victoria Coach Station -->"...


...and things suddenly got more complicated again. This sign pointed the way to others like it, and I was off on a race across a few blocks to where the bus station--which I discovered that night was a separate building from the Tube station--was located. Mallory and I finally found each other and breathed a sigh of relief. We tried to collect our tickets, only to discover that things were more complicated than we'd thought.


It was after 10pm. The ticket counter was closed. And no ticket seemed to mean no bus to Scotland. We quickly tracked down a member of staff, who [fortunately] informed us that since we had our confirmation numbers written down, we would still be okay. Phew!


And after all of that, we were finally on our way.

Chapter 2:
We arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland, at breakfast time. It was raining. We acquired sustenance and coffee from a pastry shop and found an awning under which to eat it. Soon the weather cleared and we began to wander up and down the Royal Mile.


We stopped at the Edinburgh Museum just to look around...and spent the next few hours there. On the second floor (first floor, UK definition), they had an area designed for young people (and the young at heart) complete with crafts and historical costumes to teach children about the history of Scotland in creative and interactive ways. Two theatrically inclined individuals + rack of costumes + no other definite plans = lots of fun pictures!







There was also a coloring/craft area, where we worked hard on "stained glass" souvenirs!


Such maturity, I know. We also looked at rest of the exhibits while we were there, not just the ones for kids! We also saw the Scottish National Covenant



and the Badge of the Six Feet Club


and information about historical trade patterns.



Chapter 3:
[to be added later...it's after 1am GMT and I have work in the morning!]

God Sets the Lonely in Families

Ok, now it's time to commence the back-tracking to cover important events that happened several weeks ago but which I never managed to write about here. This first one is possibly the most significant and consequently colors all the rest of my experiences this semester.

Pretty much anyone who knows me knows that I adore hugs. I think they make the world a better place. So the fact that I went a full week without being hugged by anyone when I first got to London was remarkably difficult for me. So many of you back home did an incredible job of being there for me through emails and instant messaging and such as I settled in to my new surroundings and began to adjust to the culture, but I still knew that I needed to have a physically present community of believers with whom I could fellowship if this semester was going to be even half of what I hoped it could be. Therefore I knew even before I left the USA that finding a church was going to be one of the most important tasks in my first days in London.

Last spring, a friend of a friend who'd previously studied in London had recommended that I check out a church called Holy Trinity Brompton. I looked it up, realized that it was within easy walking distance (maybe a 20 min walk) from my flat, and decided that since it was one of the closest churches to where I was living, it seemed like a good place to at least start my search for where God wanted me to be in community for the semester. I got up early and went to the first morning service on the first Sunday I was in town (Sept. 6th). It turned out that this was the service aimed at families with younger children, so although the people sitting around me were quite welcoming, I left without any significant contacts or acquaintances and unwillingly resigned myself to the prospect of another week devoid of physical fellowship with the Body of Christ.

The most encouraging aspects--the reasons that kept me looking forward to the following Sunday and made me want to give Holy Trinity Brompton (aka "HTB") another chance--were that the people who had sat near me and welcomed me had encouraged me to come back and attend the 5pm service, since that was the service that most of the students and young adults attended, and that a lady from the church had taken the time to pray for and with me before I left. She told me after she'd finished praying for me that God had given her a 'picture' of someone stepping out almost in a leap of faith only to find solid ground beneath their feet. She said that it meant that God was telling me that He had prepared a solid foundation for my time here in London and that I needn't be afraid to trust Him and step forward into everything He had in store for me this term (British lingo for "semester"). Although I was naturally wary of anyone saying that God was giving them pictures or visions, this seemed to actually apply to me (it was certainly encouraging, though a bit bewildering) and wasn't unbiblical, so I felt like I needed to trust God and come back once more to give the 5pm service a chance.

I spent that week in increasing spiritual distress as Sunday drew nearer. I was loving every minute of exploring London and taking classes, but inside I ached for a fellow believer's presence. I prayed intensely for God to send me some sort of community that Sunday--even just one or two people.

That Saturday and Sunday, I attended a festival down on the banks of the Thames (I enthusiastically participated in the swing dancing opportunities it afforded), then headed straight to HTB on Sunday in time for the 5pm service. After a week of spiritual loneliness, communal musical worship and prayer were so, so good. Once again I was pleased to find that the young lady sitting in front of me welcomed me and made a point of introducing me to the minister in charge of students (Jamie Haith) after the service was over.

During the service, I'd started praying that God would allow me to make good enough acquaintances that there would be one or two people I could invite over for dinner after the service since I hadn't eaten yet and I really wanted to share a meal in fellowship with other believers. I was feeling very discouraged that, by the time it was time to leave after the 5pm service, I hadn't gotten to know anyone well enough to actually invite them over. I nearly stayed for the 7pm service, too, in hopes of maybe making connections at that service, but I finally admitted to myself that if I hadn't made connections at the 5pm, then my chances were even lower for the 7pm. Plus, if I'd stayed for the 7pm service, it would have been 9pm or later when I would have gotten home and I would still not have had dinner. So, with downcast heart, I made my way out of the church building, not wanting to go home. As I walked out the doors, I noticed the table set up with the "Students" poster and Dan Millest, one of the Students ministry staffmembers, standing there chatting with a couple of guys. I'd met him last week when I'd visited the Students table at the morning service, and eager to delay what seemed like the inevitable a little longer, I went over to say hello before heading home. He remembered me from the week before, and within moments I found myself spilling how hard that week had been without Christian community in London. He turned to the two guys he was talking to (James and David) and said, "Well, some of the students go to a pub after the Five on Sundays. These guys are heading over--want to go with them?" And of course I jumped at the opportunity to meet more students! Thanks, God!, I thought. Dan commissioned James, "Make sure she gets connected, oh, and make sure someone prays for her." Wow, I thought, This is even better than what I was hoping for! So off I went with two complete strangers to a pub that I'd never heard of to hang out with people I hadn't met yet. And I was so happy, I could barely stand it!

On the walk to the pub (called the Zetland Arms for anyone who cares to know), we passed a cookie shop ("Ben's Cookies"--it's supposed to be great but I haven't had an opportunity to try it yet) and a discussion ensued about the difference between a 'biscuit' and a 'cookie.' *cue drumroll* British Cultural Lesson! As near as I can tell, the relationship between biscuits and cookies is a bit like rectangles and squares. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Likewise, all cookies are biscuits, but not all biscuits are cookies. 'Cookies' to the Brits are what we consider cookies in the US--often soft and chewy with things like chocolate chips in them. However, 'biscuit' is a broader term that also includes things like shortbread cookies and similar things that here are called "digestives."
Anyway, back to HTB!

When we reached the pub, David bought me a pint, I ordered dinner, and people began to come over voluntarily to say hello. God seemed to be having fun exceeding all my expectations for the evening. Not only did He send me the one or two people I'd prayed for to share dinner with, he sent me over a dozen to hang out with for the next four hours! Despite the stereotype that Brits are reserved when they first meet you, these students enthusiastically initiated introductions with me. One girl (Jess) just walked up, said hello, and hugged me immediately. No handshake necessary, apparently! Several other similar instances occurred over the course of the evening. I just kept thanking God over and over; He'd sent me to a group of people who like hugs just as much as I do and genuinely care about one another. The love of Christ is evident in these people, and I was so grateful to be there. Ok, God, I thought, I get it. This is where you want me to be. You couldn't have made it any clearer! Since it was the weekend of the Thames Festival, there was a fireworks display down by the river that night. A number of the students were going and invited me to join them. Once again, God surprised me! Standing on a bridge watching the fireworks, James remembered that no one had prayed for me yet, so he introduced me to Maz, who proceeded to pray for me right there on the bridge. As she prayed, she quoted Psalm 68:6a which says, "God sets the lonely in families" and I thought, Amen! That is exactly what He has done for me tonight!

And that, dear family and friends, is story of how God proved His faithfulness and sovereignty in placing me at HTB for this term in London. As this post has turned out quite long, I'll save more stories about HTB and the Students group for another post. Cheers!

You Don't Say...

Hey everone! Just arrived home from Hamburg, Germany. I must say, it is lovely to be back in London, even if it was raining when we got here. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed the accents (or being able to understand the language)! Time for another Top Ten:

Top Ten Things Heard/Overheard, Fall Break 2009
1) "I don't want to see you tomorrow" -the lady at the Ryanair counter to Mallory and me
2) "I look like I'm about to smack someone" -5 yr old British girl in airport, talking about her passport photo
3) "That's not my teddy!" -recurring line from a children's book that some poor mother read enthusiastically and repeatedly for the duration of our flight from London to Trieste, Italy, in order to keep her small toddler quiet
4) "Good job!" -Italian lady making fun of us as we dragged our luggage along the Venice marathon route
5) "Vatican, schmatican...who needs the Vatican when I've got tiramisu!?" -Mallory
6) "509 BC: Kings are bad" -Justin, our walking tour guide in Rome, summarizing the historical point he'd just explained in detail
7) "You don't speak English. I don't like you. You can close the door now." -Lady working on the overnight train from Rome to Vienna, after a particularly frustrating conversation with another passenger in our compartment
8) [Quacking sound effects] -waiters at a restaurant in Rome making fun of Mallory's rubber duck when she put it on the table to take a picture
9) "Nothing says love like a big Communist hug" -Tom, the bike tour guide in Berlin regarding the pedestrian crosswalk images in former East Berlin
10) "They threw on their dressing gowns, mullets flapping in the wind, and ran down to the visa office" -Tom, the bike tour guide in Berlin, regarding the events that directly led to the Berlin Wall coming down

More explanations, specific stories, and lots of pictures to follow after church and catching up on some sleep. Until then, cheers!

Top Ten: Italy and Austria

Ok, I don't have much time since I'm currently at an internet cafe in Munich and need to catch my train to Berlin in a little over half an hour. However, I wanted to give a brief update to let anyone who was interested know that Mallory and I are still alive, made it through Italy and Austria, and now have arrived in Germany. We will head to Berlin tonight and Hamburg on Friday night. We fly home to London on Sunday morning, November 1st. So for now, I leave you all with a Top Ten of interesting things that have happened to us in the past six days. (Dear family, please don't worry; most of these aren't quite as bad as they sound. Love, Emily)

Top Ten Snapshots of Mallory and Emily's Tour of Italy and Austria
1) Italian Air Traffic Controller Strike
2) Venice Marathon
3) Home video in Malcontenta
4) Hitchhiking (accidentally) to Fusina
5) "Dove una farmacia?"
6) Registering for spring classes from an internet cafe in Venice
7) Catching a train out of Pisa, White Christmas -style
8) Catching an overnight train from Rome to Vienna, White Christmas -style
9) Student protest in Vienna
10) Power-walking to train in Vienna

That's all for now! More to follow for sure...

Globe-Trotting

Ok, so I know I haven't posted the Ireland pics I promised (or the Scotland pics from before that), but in my defense, this was a really busy academic week because two of my classes are ending now to make room for the internship I'll be starting when I get back from fall break. I promise I'll make it up to you blog-followers once I get home from fall break with a plethora of photos and anecdotes from the last several weeks. In the morning I embark on a 10-day whirlwind trip through Italy, Austria, Germany. My flatmate Mallory and I are flying to Milan, then going to Rome by way of Pisa, then north to Vienna and Berlin. We'll then head to Hamburg, from whence we'll catch our flight home on the morning of Sunday, November 1st. I should be home in time to make it to church that Sunday evening! There's not a lot of details planned in between the flight there and the flight home, so we should have plenty of adventure (code-word for lack of planning!) and hopefully really awesome stories and pictures and memories from the trip.

A seven-fold smattering of thoughts on my mind as I tie up the last loose ends before fall break:

1) I can't believe I've already been here 7 weeks and the semester's already half-way over. NO!!!

2) I can't believe how blessed I am to have the opportunities to travel so much. This week's trip will bring the country count for this semester up to six (and push the photo count for the semester over the 1000 mark, probably).

3) I've been running a bit of a math experiment and I think I've effectively determined the following to be true:

Let productivity = p
distractions = d
coolness factor of London = L
family in town = f
trip to Ireland = t

where d = (f+t)^L

as d --> infinity, p --> 0

Let's just say there have been very large values of f, t, and L lately.


I think this week would have been so much easier (and have included a lot more sleep) if I had not put off some of this academic work until the last week. However, I suppose procrastination was aided by the fact that I went to Ireland last weekend and my parents were in town the two weekends before that, so I have had really good reasons to not be spending my time studying and writing papers. Now, though, is crunch time. Another essay to write before I can leave the country in 10 hours...

4) God is so, so good. I'll elaborate on this in a future post, but He faithfully led me to a good church about 10 days after I arrived in London. The first 10 days were pretty lonely spiritually, but He clearly pointed me to this church and really answered my prayers for a strong, welcoming community where I can worship, fellowship, and grow this semester. I'm pretty sure that Sunday evening service and Tuesday night students Bible Study are the highlights of my week!

5) I'm growing a lot. I've learned a lot about being independent and about relying on God. I've been spending a lot of time just by myself running in Hyde Park, exploring London (or another country like last weekend), and relishing the time to just process life and chat with God.

6) I love fall--the leaves are changing colors here and the weather's been remarkably good and non-rainy, which it seems is rather unusual for autumn in London. I've been spending a fair amount of time outside since I walk or take public transport everywhere and since I've been running in the park regularly.

7) Speaking of running, I've been lengthening my running distances significantly as of late. Today I ran about 7 miles, which I think is the furthest I have ever run at one time. And I still felt really good at the end, except my feet were aching somewhat. Even better, I managed to do that at a pace of approximately 8.5 min per mile, which I was pretty excited about (not sure if that's good or not in the big scheme of things, but I was pleased with it).

Ok, enough for now...I'd better go finish that paper since I'm supposed to catch a flight to Italy in 13 hours!

Ireland, here I come!

First: I'm so sorry for not posting for the past two weeks. I shall hopefully get things a bit more caught up when I get back in London...which leads me to my second reason for this post.

I'm leaving for Ireland at 06:20 tomorrow and will be traveling around the country until Sunday afternoon. I'm really excited, but I'd also appreciate prayer since I am going to be traveling by myself.

Lots of pictures and anecdotes (including, likely, a narrative of my first encounter with Guinness) to follow upon my return!

Company

I've been so blessed to have family come to visit me while I've been here! My grandparents were traveling across Europe in early September and routed their return flight through London so that they could spend three days with me, which was amazing! I will definitely treasure the memories of that time I got to spend with them for the rest of my life. I got to show them around and share all the things I'd learned about local, non-touristy London, and they took me the theatre twice (to see Jersey Boys and The Lion King). I was thoroughly impressed by The Lion King--I think it had the best use of costumes I've ever seen on stage. Simply beautiful. I would highly recommend it.

This morning (in just a few hours), my parents are going to arrive! I'm looking forward to sharing my life here in London with them. I have so many places to show them and stories to tell!

Music Major's Paradise

Just after I arrived, I discovered the most wonderful thing: the BBC Proms were happening just a few blocks away at Royal Albert Hall. This would have been exciting enough in and of itself, but it got even better: there were £5 rush tickets available before each show. If you waited in line, you could get a standing room only ticket for the arena floor (they took out the seats on the floor in the center of the auditiorium) and see great musical performances for a fraction of the normal cost.

It was a fortunate thing that the Proms, which is an approximately 9-week series of 70-odd concerts featuring world class musicians and repertoire, was in its final week when I arrived, or--£5 tickets or not--I would have been completely broke and my flatmates wouldn't have seen me for weeks. As it was, I went to four concerts in the first week I was here!

I saw Handel's Messiah, which I already love, but it was thrilling to have the opportunity to see it live in the country where it originated. I also got to see a performance of Mendelssohn's concert overture The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, and a few decidedly 20th century works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who was conducting the orchestra that night in honor of his 75th birthday. In fact, the musicians and the audience actually sang "Happy Birthday" to him at the end of the concerts (there were two concerts back-to-back that I went to that night). The fourth and final Proms concert I have the privilege of attending was Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Yes, Yo-Yo Ma, live, for only £5! I was so excited! I really like music that combines different cultural traits, and that is exactly what the Silk Road Ensemble does. They bring together both the instruments and the musical traditions of the East and the West and blend them into an exciting and interesting new style. Complex polyrhythms were regularly present, and some of the melodies used Eastern scales. However, there were also passages that featured traditional Western scales and instruments. I absolutely loved it. And I think the musicians performing were having as much, if not more, fun than I was having. It was contagious--they clearly enjoyed working together and sharing such fun and different music with their audience. That's the kind of ensemble atmosphere that I'd love participating in professionally someday. Anyone want to start an ensemble with me?

Home Sweet Home-away-from-home

The time has come to describe where I'm living, since a lot of people have been asking me about it. I live in Hyde Park Gate, just across the street from the Queen's Gate entrance to Kensington Gardens. My flat is on sixth floor (in the US sense); you can see a little round window at the top of the narrow white building in the center of this photo. That's our lovely window, set in a little bay window-style alcove.

For a 360˚ view of the street, click here. From the street view, the big brick building on the right is the Dutch embassy, and the building immediately on the left (attached to ours) is a royal family from Dubai--or so I'm told, at least. A few doors down on the left is the Algerian embassy, as well.

Now for the inside. That little round window mentioned above looks out into Kensington Gardens directly. It's a lovely view; I can't believe how blessed I am. There are four of us sharing this flat--Mallory, Lauren, Tyson, and myself. Lauren, Mallory, and I share a room, and Tyson (logically) has his own. We have a cute little kitchen and a common room with an abundance of couches and chairs, a TV, a table, and a couple of coffee tables. The bathroom has the tiniest shower I've ever seen. It would be almost cute in its minuscule state, if it weren't for the fact that it is just barely large enough to fulfill its function! Because we're the top floor--in what would have been the servants' quarters when this Victorian townhouse was first inhabited--we have slanting walls in every room. I like it; it really adds to the character of the place. There is a lonely wall hook in the middle of the biggest (and only unslanted) wall of our common room, so we're hoping to find a print or painting at a craft market or something like that to make it not look so forlorn. I'll put up a picture if we find one.

Please Mind the Gap

Someone once said that Great Britain and the United States are two nations divided by a common language. There are quite a few things here that are clearly different on first glance and others that are different in more subtle ways. But as the days go by, I'm growing more and more comfortable with the culture.

The first strange cultural experience I had was when our program provided us with a boxed lunch the first day (which my flatmates and I took over to Hyde Park for a picnic), which contained a bag of crisps (potato chips in the States). However, these were no ordinary crisps. They were "prawn cocktail" flavored crisps. After debating amongst ourselves what prawn cocktail was, we decided to be brave and try them anyway. I was pretty sure that prawns were shrimp (turns out I was right), and the crisps had a very, um, distinctive taste, like ketchup mixed with barbecue sauce along with something else that was kind of spicy/tangy mixed in there. We were brave enough to try them, but not quite brave enough to actually finish off the bag. Since then, I've noticed an abundance of prawn- or prawn cocktail-based dishes on menus all over London. What is it with these people and their shrimp??? It would probably have been a more positive (though less amusing) experience if I were fond of shrimp to begin with...

One of the most obvious differences between the States and Great Britain (and the British Cultural Fact Of The Day for this post) is that they drive on the left side of the road (and the steering wheels are consequently on the right side of the vehicles). Any Brit will argue that they drive on the correct side of the road, and I've had at least one or two joking debates with British individuals about whether the British or the rest of the world is right about this. This directional difference adds another level of hazard to crossing busy city streets. However, as if in condescension to the rest of the world who drive on the "incorrect" side of the street, the Brits have kindly labeled the sidewalks at crossings with helpful reminders like Look Right--> or <--Look Left to prevent us from checking the wrong direction out of habit and walking blithely out in front of an oncoming taxi. Turns out that the exhortation to "Look both ways before crossing the street" like we were told when we were little really can save you from being run over here! Speaking of getting run over, I've had several close calls myself. Day one, I nearly got hit by a cyclist. Not a motorcyclist, but a regular peddling cyclist. He was not about to stop, and I accidentally walked out in from of him, then jumped back just in time. Next day, the same thing happened with a double-decker bus. In addition to those instances (and other similar ones), I think the reminders on the crosswalks have probably saved my life on a number of occasions.

Speaking of transportation, I've been quickly getting used to the public transportation. The Tube (London Underground System) is extremely efficient and relatively easy to navigate. I wish we had one like it in the Greater St. Louis area--I would definitely use it! It's also an interesting example of little differences between British and American English, like "Mind the gap [between the train and the platform]" instead of "Watch your step" and "Way Out" signs instead of "Exit" signs. As an extension of the Tube system, the buses here are also useful. Some British buses are double-decker ones, like this picture:
I can, for example, navigate from my flat in central London all the way to the South Bank of the Thames and not have to make more than a few blocks of it on foot. It's pretty impressive how efficient and problem-free the system usually is, especially considering that there are approximately 7 million people living in London, and approximately an additional 1 million commuters and tourists on any given weekday. It's truly one of the most impressive things about this amazing city!

Delayed reactions...

My goodness, has it really been two weeks since I last posted? Wow. My apologies to everyone who may have taken the time to check this in the interim! I hope I never go that long again without writing again. So much happens in just two weeks--I've been keeping a daily travel journal and I've already filled at least 40 pages. I'll break these weeks' updates up into several smaller posts to get caught up. There's way too much to try to compress into a single, coherent post!

Somebody please pinch me

I actually get to live here until Christmas? Wow. I can't quite believe it. I'm living right across the street from Hyde Park, sandwiched in between the Netherlands Embassy on one side and the Algerian Embassy a few doors down on the other side. I can see the top of the Prince Albert Memorial over the tree tops from the front window in our common room. I haven't gotten to take pictures of the flat yet, but hopefully I'll have a few to post within the new few days. I'll describe the flat in more detail then. For now, it will suffice to tell you that it's on the sixth floor (US definition), which is the top floor of our townhouse, and there is no elevator. Dragging my luggage up there was more than enough exercise for today, but the view is definitely worth it! My flatmates and I ate lunch today in Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park, and then three of us walked around Cromwell Road and the nearby shopping district. Also more than enough exercise for the day! I guess I'm going to be in really good shape by the time I come home.

In other news, I've decided to start including an interesting fact, cultural difference, or language difference/definition with each post:

In the USA, building floors are numbered as follows: The street level is the "first floor," the one above it is the "second floor," and so on and so forth. Makes sense, right? Well, in the UK, the street level is called the "ground floor" and the floor about it is the "first floor" and so on. This means I am currently living on the fifth OR sixth floor, depending on how you look at it. Makes things a bit confusing at times, doesn't it?

Hogwarts Express

And so it begins.

September has come, and with it, a new adventure. Next time I write, I'll be on the other side of the ocean. How weird.

Just for the record, I won't have my same cell phone number--I'll probably get an international SIM card just for local calls. So if you call or text me between 6pm CST tonight and December 21, 2009, I won't know that you did until December 22nd. So now email, Skype, Facebook, or owl post are the preferred methods of communication (just kidding about that last one).

Countdown to Launch

My flight is in less than 12 hrs. I'm packed and now it's time to wait. I don't particularly like waiting--I'm not exactly the most patient person. I hope I can sleep tonight.

The dregs of summer

Here it is, the final week before departure. So much has fallen into place, but a lot still remains to be done. Last week, I found out I was supposed to have business formal attire for my internship interview in London, and after figuring out that that meant I needed a business suit, which I didn't have (because I'm a performance major and consequently know a lot about auditions and next-to-nothing about traditional interviews), I proceeded to scour the entire mall store by store for one that fit both me AND my budget, which I eventually succeeded in finding (praise God!) several hours later. One more thing off the checklist! I also checked in with my academic advisor and did some last-minute paperwork up at Truman this weekend, while visiting friends and helping my former-and-future roommate Elisabeth move into her apartment. I spent a lot of quality time with some of my favorite people in the whole world, thirstily gulping the dregs of summer. Highlights included watching shooting stars (the leftovers of the Perseid meteor shower earlier this month), playing a raucous multi-hour game of catch-phrase, meeting some of the new freshmen, baking lots of cookies, chatting over coffee, listening to music, swingdancing in dormrooms and apartments, and just enjoying life. It was a wonderful 48 hours.

I also said a lot of good-byes in the past four days. I really don't enjoy good-byes, and I admit I've had a lot of mixed emotions. I am unbelievably excited about this semester--so much so that I can hardly sit still as it gets closer and closer. But it hit home the past few days while I was in Kirksville just how much I'll be missing out on this semester. It's senior year, and even though I won't be graduating in May, the majority of my classmates will. There will be things I'll miss that even Skype in all of its glory can't compensate for. However, I realized, too, just how incredibly blessed I am to have the kind of community I have in Kirksville and St. Louis. There are so many people who love me unconditionally, people I would trust with my life. And with friendships like that, four months and hundreds of miles don't really change a thing.

Anticipation

September 2, 2009. It's getting close! It's hard to believe I leave in two and a half weeks. So much to do before then! I hope that this blog will be a means of allowing you, dear family and friends, to stay informed if you wish about my wanderings and experiences this fall. Instead of sending (ir)regular emails and cluttering inboxes, I'll instead write short weekly posts and you can read them at your leisure. If you have any suggestions of how I can make this blog more useful or informative, let me know. Cheerio!