I can’t believe it.

I’m coming home. Today I will be HOME!!!!!!!!!

Giving Thanksgiving

Pop culture has told us all that preparing ones first Thanksgiving dinner is a defining moment in our lives. Maybe it wasn’t definitive but it was awesome. Last night some friends and I went shopping in preparation of our 27 person Thanksgiving feast, the total cost ended up being around 150₤ which would be something like 290 US dollars, and I was probably carrying over 60 pounds of food on my back as we left the grocery store. We could only find a 17 pound turkey but it worked wonderfully.

Today we started cooking. I didn’t so much cook as prepare. I washed and prepared the lettuce for the salad, peeled yams, washed pots, peeled and sliced apples for the apple crisps, and then watched and rotated the turkey (which, lets be honest, is probably the most important job…okay maybe not but let me pretend). You might be asking…”Rotate the turkey?” and yes, fortunately I knew from cooking many a pizza that the ovens here do not cook evenly and because of the fan in the back often blacken that back while the front is left a perfect golden brown. So, we would check and rotate. Eventually all the food was prepared and we took it all over to the room we had reserved in Newman hall. The room was unseen to us but was actually perfect, the table was big enough to fit everyone around and had kitchens nearby to warm and freeze what we needed to.

I was (as was everyone else, American or British) amazed at how well everything turned out. It was literally perfect. The food was all delicious and there wasn’t a single disaster or even a change of plans. The yams were to die for, the mashed potatoes were delicious, the green beans with bacon were BACON!, the stuffing was fantastic, the cranberry sauce…not as good as my family’s but still great, the turkey moist and delectable, the breads were wheaty, the punch satisfactory, and the apple crisps BRILLIANT! I probably forgot something but it was good too.

It was fun to be able to do this for all the British students since a lot of them had never had a Thanksgiving meal or celebration before…which of course makes sense…but still is weird. A couple British girls brought down American flags and hung them in the room (which was weird, but what are you going to do…my favorite part was when they taped a couple American dollar bills to one of them…and I thought, “that’s an interesting way to look at it”). Some of them came down dressed normally but then when they saw the magnitude of the food decided to go back and get dressed up a little more which was really fun. I said a little prayer for us and then we dug into the food. There was totally enough food for everyone which was a blessing and as we sat there with our belly’s food we went around the table and shared what we were thankful for. It was just a great time, and interesting to not be on the receiving end of a cultural experience. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and all of us who put it on were completely satisfied and probably enjoyed it even more than anyone else.

Standing on Cambridge

So last Friday I was supposed to have a badminton match. They forfeited. I looked forward to it all week. Sad.

But Saturday the Biolans went to Cambridge. We were supposed to meet at the bus at eight AM but for some reason or another I got a little less sleep than I intended on Friday night and then was woken up at six by a fire alarm and had to go stand outside in the cold for twenty minutes. When I got back inside I debated on whether or not I should go back to bed, since I got less sleep than I thought I would I decided to jump back in for another couple minutes. I woke up to some nondescript noise and thought to myself, “it seems like I’ve been sleeping for longer than I should.” So I sit up and look at the clock and low and behold it’s 8:08. I don’t like to be late. So I jumped up and put on the pants closest to me, slipped on slip-ons, grabbed a sweater…decided it didn’t match and grabbed another, brushed my teeth while I gathered my jackect, camera, iPod, and ran. I think I probably got to the bus at 8:10 so I wasn’t super late but I hated being the last one.

The coach took us up to Ely cathedral which was possibly more externally beautiful than Canterbury (not the interior though). We had a really great tour guide who kind of hobbled and waddled in a jolly old fashion. He showed us the places around the cathedral where the apprentices had been left to finish the work but ended up “mucking around,” which included a mermaid hidden in a doorway and faces carved on the backsides of facades. We also had a chance to test the seven second echo in the lady’s chapel. It was weird to yell in the chapel. We left the cathedral to make our tour times in Cambridge and about this time I realized that my rush had left me without socks…and that it had been a very poor choice. I was freezing the whole day.

Cambridge was beautiful, all the leaves were turning and the colleges were fantastic. Our tour guide took us all over the city. Showed us C.S. Lewis’ room in Cambridge and the lab where DNA was discovered…and the pub where it was announced. We also saw an apple tree planted outside Isaac Newton’s room at Trinity College which people ardently claim is descended from the one…THE one. It was a really good trip. I love having a tour guide, you just get so much more out of your experience.

Oh yeah, and I purchased plane tickets to Ireland. So, I’ll be there December 13-16. Before I come home on the 20th…which just happens to be one month from today. Can you believe it? I can’t.

He’s quite a Fawkes that Guy

That’s right. It is indeed Guy Fawkes Day today. And the fireworks have been going on for about week, I can actually see a pretty good show through my window right now and all the explosions are echoing off the walls. Besides having more color in the sky this last week we have also had a lot more…cold. I usually wake up to 36 degree mornings with frost on my windows and on the grass outside. Hands, noses and ears are starting to freeze.

Yesterday the Biola students went on a tour of a few museums. We saw the Rodin exhibit (think The Thinker) at the Royal Academy of Arts and then the Velazquez exhibit in the National Gallery. I really enjoyed the work of Rodin. Even though he is really only famous for his sculpture I think my favorite work of his was one of his watercolors called Chaos…unfortunately, it’s not famous…so you can’t find it anywhere or buy anything with it in it (that’s an unfounded speculation but I looked around the exhibits store and couldn’t find anything). Velazquez was good too but I preferred Rodin, my favorite piece from Velazquez was titled Mars. And our trip also meant we were right in the middle of this.
We’re now having badminton practices on Friday nights too and this last Friday I had a pretty fun experience. We were practicing on the two center courts and off to the side a boy probably in the third grade was playing basketball by himself. I assumed he was the son of the rec center manager. So after we finished practice I went over and started playing with him. We played around for a little while and then he kind of stopped and asked me what country I was from. I know I should be used to this by now but I was again blown away that I was a foreigner to him. I told him I was from Bushland (no, I told him America) and he said he thought I was Australian. So we kept playing and had a good time, after I packed up the rest of my stuff and was leaving the rec center he was standing with some of the staff in the lobby. As I passed by he thanked me for playing with him and I said, “No problem dude!” When I got outside I realized how much of an American I was.

Tonight I leave for the airport but I don’t leave for Spain till morning. Ted left this morning while Jake and I are going to spend the night in the airport to be on time for our early morning flight. I am really looking forward to this trip. I had a lot of people tell me I had to make it over to Spain but I didn’t think I was going to be able to and then this trip just kind of formalized…and now I’m going…but I’m not going to drink the water. Our flight leaves at six in the morning tomorrow so compute that into your time and remember me. I love you all. Especially those of you participating in physical therapy, circuit training, or banjo classes.

Jack-o-London surprise!

It was strange to experience Halloween over here. Not because it was so different but because it was so similar. I mean it was nearly identical to how it would be at home…the difference was that I was not at home. As much as candy and costumes are part of Halloween there is so much more to it that is indescribable and personal and cant really be replicated outside of your home. Little things that you never knew you associated with Halloween that make it Halloween for you and no one else. That aside…I had a good time. Me and some mates baked and decorated some sweet holiday cookies, carved out some wicked pumpkins and revelled in the bliss of a 90’s American pop playlist.

Badminton: I won two of my three matches, which was good but you can never stop thinking about the one loss. I guess badminton works like tennis in that you rank your doubles teams one through three and then each set of partners plays each of the others sets. When I refer to myself in the singular I really mean my partner and I. Apparently the rules of badminton have just changed (fortunately I didn’t know them to begin with) to incorporate a rally scoring system (point per play as opposed to scoring points only on your serve) much like volleyball and games go to 21. So I lost to the first ranked team 24-22 (win by 2), 21-18, 21-18. I KNOW, we should have won. Then beat the second and third ranked teams but each time taking three games to do it. A lot of that was just simply making mistakes, I missed a lot of serves which didn’t used to matter as much because you just lost your serve but now it also gives the other team a point. So for my first badminton match ever I think it went pretty well. We have a home match in a couple weeks so maybe I’ll try and score some video of it…and knock someone unconscious with the shuttle. Surprise!

This is the day…

It’s been a while I know, but sometimes with the combination of nothing and things to do there isn’t time to blog. However, I have come out of retirement to remind you guys that today is my first badminton match. I don’t know who we’re playing…I think the college is a medical school in Hammersmith, Charings Cross maybe. Anyway, all I know is that I show up at the bus stop at 5:15 and bring my game. It’s weird to be getting ready to compete again. I haven’t played in any official match since the Biola volleyball season ended last…March, April? This week at practice I felt pretty good like the rust is beginning to wear off and I finally got my racquet back today with new titanium strings. It’s really remarkable how much difference the racquet and the strings make, of course I’ve been playing with mediocre racquets since I got here so I hope I can handle Excalibur. That’s a joke, sort of.

Wicked Good

This morning I woke up and headed out with the group to Leicester (pronounced “Lester”) Square to procure some tickets for tonights showing of Wicked. We managed to find some for 18 pounds which is a fairly reasonable price for London theater, although there had been rumors of fifteen pound tickets but I think those might have been for an afternoon showing.

From Leicester Square we moved on to Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guard. Which to be honest…was less thrilling than I had imagined. We also followed Rick Steve’s directions to stand away from the gate and up near the statue, which gives you a better view of the bands and soldiers marching but basically removes you from being able to see and hear what happens behind the gate (the actual changing). So for a tall person I would stand by the gate but I guess for those who arent blessed with abnormal height the fountain would be better. The bands were the best part with the uniforms following in a close second. It was kind of funny because one of the bands played a rendition of the theme from Phantom of the Opera…which was unexpected, at least to me.

Next stop was Notting Hill. Which was fun to go to again and I had a fantastic spicy bavarian sausage. I was kind of bummed thought because I am looking for an album by a group called Jo Mango which is basically just a Scottish folk singer…anyway the album was only released in the UK and so I stopped through this really sweet music store and was sure they would have it. But they didn’t. What a world.

We returned to Roehampton and I took a couple of four minute naps before we headed out to see Wicked. The theater was the Apollo Victoria theater in East London. The play was really really well done and I enjoyed it emmensely. Idina Menzel has an amazing voice, wow. The music was really good too, mostly i mean the drummer was spot on. And I loved how creative the stage production was. The lighting and the props and scenery were so varied and well done that it was beautiful on its own. The staged appeared to be magnetized (or at least there were magnets under the stage) so the props would be brought out on the stage with out any assistance and it allowed for some really seamless transitions. Not to mention a bed coming out on stage all by itself is just fun to watch.

Also good news! The match was moved to next friday so I can both go on the field trip and play in the match! Of course that means I have to get up tomorrow at 7 AM but I guess it will be worth it…

I’m just glad

This has been a fantastic week. Not only were there a lot of people visiting from Biola over the Torrey break but I also got a couple packages from family and friends. I got to see familiar faces and hear friendly voices (whether it be in person or on a DVD). Much of my time here is spent alone but not usually in a lonely manner, the separation from family and friends has really just helped me to realize how much and particular things that I appreciate about the person and the role they play in my life. There’s obviously a lot more to these thoughts but how can I convey them on a lame blog (as awesome as it is…come on).

I am also feeling a strange tension between the freedom of the future and the pressure of it. I was talking to Ted last night (he, Jake and I are planning to go to Spain in November) and we were just talking about how there is really nothing stopping us from pursuing what we feel is important. Whether it be travel or work or people or anything. I just have so many opportunities in front of me that the quantity of them and the perceived importance of choosing one seems to turn them from opportunities to obligations. I don’t have to go to grad school, I want to. I don’t have to start a life long career in two months. I could get an apartment with a friend and work at Starbucks. I could come home work for a few months and go travel again. I could go teach English in Japan for a year. There is nothing forcing me to do any of these things and nothing stopping me from doing anything of these things either. Even though England is as close to America as you can get in a foreign country the slight differences put such a vitality and freshness to the things that I was taught as concepts and history. There are so many things I want to have be apart of my life and who I am and will become that its hard to see where the next step should land but at least I know I have 360 degrees to choose from.

And to my family and friends: Thanks so much for the packages and notes. They mean so much to me. I could probably tear up a little thinking about them and you. I look forward so much to seeing you all and being able to see hear and touch you.

The daily kind of stuff…

Grocery shopping…

Richmond Park Before Dark

Today I went over to Richmond Park which is the big open area near my campus if you ever google earth that bad boy. I knew where it was but hadn’t been there yet so after lunch I set off in the direction of the park and after about twenty minutes of walking I ran into a wall…which I followed almost all the way back to where I started. Apparently all the gates are locked on the weekends. Even though that was super la-HAME I did get to see my first fox. I was trudging along between the line of trees and the wall and all of the sudden a little red face pops out of the bushes and stares at me. I thought to myself “release the HOUNDS!” but had none to loose. He ran, I continued walking.

After another bit of walking I reached the park and followed some populated paths, apparently there are a lot of rugby games happening on Saturday afternoons. The farther I got past the fields the more open the park became and after I crossed a little bridge over water I walked into a herd of deer. The King’s deer. I thought about trying to poach one RH style but decided it would be unwise. I walked around admiring the deer for a while and then just sat under a tree and read until sunset (which wasn’t really sunsetty through the fog).

Some other guys from Biola (Jake’s friends) arrived today and so we went down to Westminster and walked around Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the likes. It’s really strange to to walk around London and to recognize street names and buildings from history books…or Sherlock Holmes…