Home again!

Made it back! I'm in the castle this time. YES. Have two lovely roommates, and our room is nice and close to everything, and not frigid, (and has internet)--I foresee a good term. :) I went into my old room today--other people, other names on the door, felt a bit odd.

Just finished watching some Doctor Who with Lucy and Megan. I liked DW before too but it's SO much more fun watching it with other people, and jumping and gasping and squealing and criticising collectively instead of crouched in my basement with headphones. Fans are few and far between in Canada :P

Ok, Zoe, here are a couple pictures, to reedem myself after the recent famine of uploads:

This is the Royal Albert Hall; in front of it (as in, behind my camera) it is the Albert Memorial; and in between is...a hockey game. Hahaha. Who would have thought? (Dark and blurry. Sorry. You'll just have to take my word for it, it was indeed a legit game of ball hockey.)

Here's a piece of our hostel. The outside was lovely, the actual room was fine, the in-between parts were...um yeah...

The Eagle and the Child!

Tower of London. The second picture is the green where Lady Jane Grey (and others) were supposed to have been executed.

Inscription/carving by Lady Jane Grey's husband (on the right). So much interesting graffiti in those rooms, many of it by martyrs or other people who suffered for their faith (not him though), whether Protestant or Catholic. "The more suffering for Christ in this world, the more glory with Christ in the next."...wow.

Do you hear the people sing?

Yesterday we went to see Les Miserables. (First time with a proper revolving stage, first time with proper English accents!) And it was perfection. I love this story. A lot. (Spoilers inevitable here. So is nonsensical-if-you’re-not-familiar-with-the-story rambling.)

I cried during Lovely Ladies. Not at any other part. Just Lovely Ladies. Which was odd; that’s either a crude and profane piece of the musical or an upbeat amusing one depending on how you look at it, and I always thought the former, but I never realised how incredibly SAD it is. Not just for Fantine, who has pretty much the worst life ever, but for all of the women there. It’s not trafficking or slavery per se, but it’s the next thing to it. It must have taken an incredible amount of desperation to end up in that place, and once there, there’s no hope of escape. Behind the cheerful facepaint and outlandish costumes and bouncy music, there’s nothing at all funny about that song.

Gavroche. Have to mention Gavroche. :P I had the hugest crush on him when I was twelve or so (and it seems like a younger kid plays him every time I see the show, what’s with that?). I took my fiction very, very seriously back then. :P Still one of my favourite characters...but I have a lot of favourite characters.

One of the best parts: Javert, Valjean, and Thenardier and their views of God. And their reactions to grace. So much food for thought there. Thenardier believes God is dead, Javert believes God is vengeful, Valjean believes God is merciful. Grace would be wasted on Thenardier, Javert’s world shatters and burns because of it, and Valjean not only accepts it but gives to others what he has been given.

Anyhow. Random observations. I could talk about this story forever so I’ll shut up about it now :P

I finally realised not very long ago—um yeah, don’t ask why it took me so long to figure out—that the primary way God speaks to me is through stories. Through the Bible's story, obviously, but more and more when I watch and read fiction, look at art, listen to music, He brings to light shards of truth in the corners I was least expecting it in. This is cool enough when the author was a Christian and intended it but even more so when it seems like a complete coincidence. It's like He’s pulling strings to make His message heard and to slip into people’s hearts when their guard is down, when they think they're just being entertained. There are“types” or imperfect symbols/examples of the Real Story hidden all over the Bible...and I think God enjoys seeing the same thing in our own works of art. Even though they will always be small and flawed compared to His.

So Perseus is Jesus. Aslan is Jesus, but Robin Hood has pieces of Him too and so do Jean Valjean, Maximus, Batman, Gandalf and Aragorn and Frodo, Doctor Who, dragon slayers and kings in disguise and those who give things up so others can keep them. His story is whispering when Harry sacrifices himself to Voldemort, when Atticus defends the innocent no matter what the cost, when Dym refuses to give up on an unworthy Tony, again and again and again.

They’re all shadows, echoes, copies. None are the real thing. But all of them point to Him. How exciting is that!

Anyhow. Just something I've been thinking about lately. Right now we're in Oxford--did a lot of walking and observing of beautiful buildings, saw the Eagle and the Child which was very cool; now sitting at Starbucks waiting for our train back to London because I foolishly booked it way too late. :P

"...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?]