"...but there's no place like London..."

After a few days, I like London, but goodbye to Kelsey’s days of romanticising it from afar. Up close it’s a grimy, often unfriendly, frequently ugly city. But it’s impossible to ever be bored—and so much has HAPPENED here, and that I love. So many stories, even if they’re hidden beneath a layer of litter and tacky souvenirs.

Met up with Christy tonight! [Er, four days ago now. Delay in posting blamed on my dodgy internet access, ok?] Human companionship is a wonderful thing, I have realised this (again) after two days alone :P Our hostel seems to be disintegrating daily but it was super cheap so I’m pretty happy with it. We’re in a 10-person room on the third floor (i.e. North American fourth floor)—and there’s no elevator, possibly God is preparing me for life in the Upper Tower next term. It’s also close to all things of importance: a. Tube station, b. Tesco, c. Starbucks. So. All set.

Yesterday we went to Westminster Abbey which was AMAZING. I don't really know what else to say about it except that it's ancient and gorgeous and magnificent. Favourite parts were the memorial to William Wilberforce, because he's one of my favourite people in history ever, and Poet's Corner--the section full of tombs of and memorials to Shakespeare, Carroll, the Brontes, a heap of others. And the grave of the unknown warrior. And the RAF chapel. And Elizabeth and Mary's tomb. And the fact that I got in for £6, instead of £15, because I'm 18 for another two weeks. Ok, there were a lot of favourites.

We also watched the Changing of the Guard (half of it, before we got too cold and decided that fifteen minutes of shouting and marching was enough) and saw the Imperial War Museum, which was evacuated right as we were about to leave for reasons which remain a mystery ("Due to unfortunate circumstances, we must ask that all visitors leave the building immediately by the nearest exit." repeat with siren sound effects x100). Unfortunate circumstances aside, the Imperial War Museum is one of my favourite places in London, I could happily spend days there.

So that's what's up... :) Going back to Capernwray on Saturday. I love it here and I love travelling but part of me can't wait to go back--the longer I'm away the more it feels like home.

Farewell Durham, Farewell 2010

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

And he replied,
'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.'

The Dark Knight, Christmas leftovers, Jon Foreman and Sky Sailing, the book of Job, and trying to figure out bus times have dominated the last day or two. London tomorrow!

and I, I celebrate the day

SO, it's been forever since my last update, as Zoe and assorted others keep reminding me *ahem**ahem* Merry Christmas everyone! Right now I am sitting under three blankets in a drafty house northeast England, munching a candy cane and chocolate Euros.

School ended on December 15th. Most people left that evening; I was there until the next afternoon, and in between the castle was weird and silent and empty. And our room was actually clean and lunch that day was delicious. Bizarreness, all of it. It seems ages ago now.

Megan and I spent a day in Dublin (thank you super cheap Ryanair flights), a trip which involved snow, a delayed flight, a diversion to Leeds, a very late bus, and finally arriving back at the Manchester airport at 3AM. We planned to spend two nights in the airport to begin with (who wants to bother with finding, getting to, and paying for a hotel?), so that all worked out ok. Oh yeah, plus the luggage crisis... Anyway Dublin itself was a lot of fun; very touristy and very cold, but we explored and popped into shops to thaw whenenever we could no longer feel our fingers. We saw Trinity College--Ireland's oldest university, founded in 1592--and its magnificent library. Actually we saw only a sliver of the library from beneath the stairs because ordinary people can't get in (either that or you have to pay, I forget) but the library is still magnificent. Witness this. I also found two Tim Hortons! There of all places! It was quite the occasion.

Then we took the train to Durham, where Megan has cousins who are letting us stay for eleven days. Durham feels a little bit like Edinburgh without the touristy-ness. Megan's cousins are some of the nicest people ever and although they've only lived here for a year (he's a student at the university here), they're full of stories of the legends and history surrounding this place. So yeah: university, castle, cathedral, those are Durham's main selling points according to the travel guides.

I used to be awed by cathedrals and old churches; now, after seeing a dozen of them, not so much--but Durham's cathedral is a massive Gothic monster that is impressive any way you look at it. It's almost a thousand years old which kind of blows my mind. "It's like there's a story in every hewn piece of stone," I heard an old lady say to her friend at the Christmas Eve carol service yesterday. Yes.

And that service was awesome--choir, procession, the works. Even though we heard rather than saw everything, thanks to three large pillars directly in our view. We got there 35 minutes early and the place was absolutely packed! The service was basically Christmas carols--some familiar, some obscure, some with familiar words but completely different, "traditional English" melodies--and Scripture readings. I thought it was cool that they started not with "In those days, Ceasar Augustus issued a decree," but with the Fall, and traced the promise of Jesus all the way to the beginning.

Christmas Day was nice too--we had dinner with the neighbours--but it didn't feel like Christmas. Christmas happens at home. The end. :P

So that's pretty much it. On Thursday I take the train to London, kill two days there alone, then meet up with Christy! Pray her flights don't get messed up because of the crazy weather!

To close, here's the end of my dad's Christmas message:

Finally, mom tearfully said something like, "Tell her I love her, miss her, wish she was here, yet didn't have time to send a note" - all in between hurriedly scrubbing some obscure cooking device that I have never seen before, neither could I explain what exact purpose it might have. In fact, it could have been some sort of alien power device or protective radiation plate - it really did look unearthly. Well, I can assure you that she is thinking of you in between brush strokes.

So that's a comfort. Happy Boxing Day everyone. All seven remaining minutes of it.

[Completely unrelated; I'm quite excited about this. A bunch of different Christian artists have put together an album of songs that are more or less justice-themed for International Justice Mission. And it's only $5, which is like £3.75! and it includes the At the End of Slavery documentary! and it supports IJM! What reason is there not to buy it?]

Today

I thought November at home was windy, with our traditional yearly power outages, but today the wind slams into you like a wall the moment you open any door. Then you run and it carries you along and if you spread your arms out it feels as though you might take off. I was experimenting with this and ended up doing some complicated but accidental dance steps down fifteen cement stairs. This put an end to my ambitions of flying.

So I moved to the library, where I'm typing this now, and it's unusually quiet except for the wind which is screaming above the roof and flinging dried leaves against the windows. It's been a long time since I've actually been alone, but right now it's just the bookshelves and ridiculously comfortable couch and photos of students past for company.

I came here to write my testimony (which is, notably, not what I'm actually doing right now)—we all have to share ours in our family groups. I have never had a good experience sharing my testimony because I hate being scrutinised and I hate opening up so it always ends in awkwardness, but I like hearing everyone else's so it's only fair. My family group has done six testimonies so far and every one of them has been interesting, but the thing that has stuck out to me the most is how every person has their own struggle. Nobody's life is charmed—now matter how much someone seems like they have it all together, they had or have their own particular battle to fight.

The wind died down for a while and now it's roaring again. When it rattles the bushes against the glass the sound overpowers the chatter of students in the hall outside. My battery's dying and it's almost lockup and I had better face the storm and run back to my loud and chaotic and wonderful room. Hello hurricane!

Edinburgh Adventures

Friday-Monday was travel weekend and most of us went to Edinburgh. The city is beautiful: old buildings, cobblestone streets, history in every corner, skeleton trees everywhere. I stayed in a hostel with seven other girls, roommates and honourary roommates (plus some random other people) but you couldn't walk two blocks without running into one familiar face or another.

On Sunday five of us decided to go to St Giles' Cathedral for church. Surprise surprise, thirtyish other Capernwray people showed up too. The service was interesting to observe, but there was nothing to take away from it...nothing challenging, nothing deeper. Beautiful words and that was all. There were no families there and pretty much no one under age 60.

The best part was the pipe organ (I think when I get back I will begin a Buy ROS an Organ Fund) and the most amusing part was Communion. Capernwray laws strictly forbid drinking alcohol—and the wine was legit wine, not grape juice—and not everyone realised this until they took a large mouthful of it. Some people did better at remaining solemn and unsmiling during all this than others, I was one of the others :P

After that some of us went to The Elephant Café (J.K. Rowling once wrote in the back room, but the only evidence of this is a sign in front and HP quotes graffitied all over the bathroom) and shared a haggis. Jaimee pointed out that it tasted very similar to Capernwray food and this is terrifying.

Went to Greyfriar's Kirkyard and the National Museum of Scotland both of which are filled with awesome old things. And Covenanter-related things. Google the Scottish Covenanters if you haven't heard of them, it's fascinating. The Covenant was first signed inside Greyfriars' Kirk, and part of the churchyard was at one time a prison that held 1200 Covenanters before they were executed or deported.

And it was Halloween. Gabby and Harmony decided to buy some food and give it out to homeless people, so a few of us came along. We walked around the city for a long time amongst the vampires and Jokers and Frankensteins and handed out sandwiches. I saw the Phantom of the Opera and someone who was obviously Doctor Who even if didn't realise it. :P There was occasional creepiness but the atmosphere was mostly lighthearted, just people having fun.

Until we stumbled across a crowd in front of St Giles', with an enormous burning branch in front on a stage in the darkness, and dancers in black robes and masks in a circle leering at us. And then people started chanting or stomping or something and it became louder and louder, and Megan and I got separated from the others by the crowd and panicked for a minute before finding them again. Creepy. More than creepy. Oppressive. We slipped into the Starbucks down the street and sat about talking until they closed and kicked us out, and then came back to the hostel and rejoiced in its amazingly fast free Wifi. So that was Sunday.

The next day, other than finding six fake moustaches on the ground, everything was back to normal. And now we're back at Capernwray with dinner and lectures just as if we had never left, and it's raining just like it was on Friday...but it's good to be back.