I am so so glad that I got to come to England in the Fall...
I 
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| Its like Narina! =) |
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| Enough sun for a sunset?! crazy. crazy beautiful! |
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
The Life of an Oxford Student... Charlie Brown Style.
Book Report from the musical "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown".
I think as Oxford scholars we in the house have all felt all of these things at one point or another over the term... Just for laughs =) Hope you enjoy!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Ladies Tea= Encouragement.
There is something here at Oxford called the fifth week blues. 5th week is kind of the hump week of the Oxford term, half-way through with the weeks of lectures but almost no end in sight to the mountain of papers still to write. This is the week when nervous breakdowns are common, confidence is at an all time low, and the light at the end of the tunnel is dim and hard to see.
As you can probably tell from my bleak description, I got hit bad by the 5th week blues. (As we are now going into 7th week you can probably also tell that it has taken me some time to process this Oxford phenomenon and that is why this post is so late... sincere apologies!)
So amidst the papers that had to be written, the books that needed to be read, the fact that it now gets dark before 5 o'clock and that I have now been two months without seeing my family, it is suffice to say that I was kind of a mess by the end of the week. Add on top of that, a discussion in our weekly Vocation and Scholarship lectures about graduate school and the future, reminding me that in the intellectual world, I am quite the odd duck, I was no longer sure what God was doing and why on earth I was here in Oxford.
Just to elaborate on this idea a little bit... As far as I can see into the future, I have no plans to go on to graduate school. I have a laundry list of reasons why, and if you want to hear them, I will take you to coffee when I get home so as not to bore the rest of my wonderful readers... I think for now it is enough to share that my dreams have never pointed towards a higher degree or even a professional lifestyle. That is not to say that I will not work after college, and I am very much hoping to find a job that I love and that I am passionate about. But I know that my calling, which I firmly believe to be from God, is to be a wife and someday to be a mom. To raise a family that will serve the Lord and bring Him glory. To create a home and a ministry of relationships alongside my husband and our family someday. And this is not a new dream, this has always been something that I greatly desire and feel like God has gifted me for. I am just so blessed to know that I am on the cusp of that, ready to begin that journey with an incredible man of God. And beyond that, there is a call on my heart to be in some form of relational ministry with other young women- I have no idea what that looks like yet, I just now that I have a heart for young women coming to understand that they are beautiful and loved and to find their worth in God. (total side note, I know, but I just wanted to throw it out there...)
Needless to say, being engaged, planning to be married and to start a family and a ministry, is kind of on an entirely different planet from Oxford. The discussion of my 'obligation' or 'calling' to attend graduate school sort of put me off of the academic world for a little while.. Not to say that I don't love being academic and having intellectual conversations, but I don't think I want to define myself as an Intellectual, because that is not all that I am. I want to be more than that. I love school, but it is not my life, and I definitely do not want to be a professional scholar.
With all of this building up, plus a paper still to be started that was due the next day equaled a breakdown for Lexi. On the phone with my momma, she reminded me not only that to her I am precious, but that I came here for something bigger than school. I knew when I started this trip that it was not about the academics. At least, not all about the academics. I love that I have the opportunity to read in these libraries and attend these lectures, but I was here to learn something more than 17th Century women's literature or the Modern and Post-Modern movements of poetry. I came here to learn something about myself.
Today I attended a ladies tea for the young adult group at the church we have been attending while here in Oxford. And like a precious little gift from God, I was reminded why I am here. I am here to seek God. I am in Oxford to seek God, I am in college to seek God, I am alive and here on this earth to seek God. That is my passion, my goal, the thing that consumes me. Amidst the tea, cakes and the sound of women praying for and with each other, I was reminded that God is doing something big in my heart, and that he is not done with me yet. Three weeks from this very moment I will be home. I will be with my family and my Aaron, in a city that I know, and a world that makes sense again. It would be so easy to coast to a stop these last three weeks. To hide in my room, write my papers and count down the seconds until I am home. And I am really tempted to do that. However, God is not finished with me yet. Three weeks are going to fly by, but that is a long time for God to continue to teach me to rely on Him, to have faith and know that I am strong and whole in Him. Three weeks is a long time to know that I have a lot to learn, and a lot to give, and there is still a lot to see here in Oxford! I am still visiting colleges and exploring this place that has become home. I am still growing friendships that will last a lifetime, learning skills that I will take with me the rest of my life. And doing things that I never thought I would be able to do. Three weeks is a long time for God to still work on this stubborn heart. So I am going to listen. I am going to seek God. And when I get home, it won't matter that the 5th week blues got me down, or that talk of graduate school made me cranky. What will matter is that I let God teach me something. That I learned to love Him more, and that I will take this journey with me in my heart for the rest of my life.
As you can probably tell from my bleak description, I got hit bad by the 5th week blues. (As we are now going into 7th week you can probably also tell that it has taken me some time to process this Oxford phenomenon and that is why this post is so late... sincere apologies!)
So amidst the papers that had to be written, the books that needed to be read, the fact that it now gets dark before 5 o'clock and that I have now been two months without seeing my family, it is suffice to say that I was kind of a mess by the end of the week. Add on top of that, a discussion in our weekly Vocation and Scholarship lectures about graduate school and the future, reminding me that in the intellectual world, I am quite the odd duck, I was no longer sure what God was doing and why on earth I was here in Oxford.
Just to elaborate on this idea a little bit... As far as I can see into the future, I have no plans to go on to graduate school. I have a laundry list of reasons why, and if you want to hear them, I will take you to coffee when I get home so as not to bore the rest of my wonderful readers... I think for now it is enough to share that my dreams have never pointed towards a higher degree or even a professional lifestyle. That is not to say that I will not work after college, and I am very much hoping to find a job that I love and that I am passionate about. But I know that my calling, which I firmly believe to be from God, is to be a wife and someday to be a mom. To raise a family that will serve the Lord and bring Him glory. To create a home and a ministry of relationships alongside my husband and our family someday. And this is not a new dream, this has always been something that I greatly desire and feel like God has gifted me for. I am just so blessed to know that I am on the cusp of that, ready to begin that journey with an incredible man of God. And beyond that, there is a call on my heart to be in some form of relational ministry with other young women- I have no idea what that looks like yet, I just now that I have a heart for young women coming to understand that they are beautiful and loved and to find their worth in God. (total side note, I know, but I just wanted to throw it out there...)
Needless to say, being engaged, planning to be married and to start a family and a ministry, is kind of on an entirely different planet from Oxford. The discussion of my 'obligation' or 'calling' to attend graduate school sort of put me off of the academic world for a little while.. Not to say that I don't love being academic and having intellectual conversations, but I don't think I want to define myself as an Intellectual, because that is not all that I am. I want to be more than that. I love school, but it is not my life, and I definitely do not want to be a professional scholar.
With all of this building up, plus a paper still to be started that was due the next day equaled a breakdown for Lexi. On the phone with my momma, she reminded me not only that to her I am precious, but that I came here for something bigger than school. I knew when I started this trip that it was not about the academics. At least, not all about the academics. I love that I have the opportunity to read in these libraries and attend these lectures, but I was here to learn something more than 17th Century women's literature or the Modern and Post-Modern movements of poetry. I came here to learn something about myself.
Today I attended a ladies tea for the young adult group at the church we have been attending while here in Oxford. And like a precious little gift from God, I was reminded why I am here. I am here to seek God. I am in Oxford to seek God, I am in college to seek God, I am alive and here on this earth to seek God. That is my passion, my goal, the thing that consumes me. Amidst the tea, cakes and the sound of women praying for and with each other, I was reminded that God is doing something big in my heart, and that he is not done with me yet. Three weeks from this very moment I will be home. I will be with my family and my Aaron, in a city that I know, and a world that makes sense again. It would be so easy to coast to a stop these last three weeks. To hide in my room, write my papers and count down the seconds until I am home. And I am really tempted to do that. However, God is not finished with me yet. Three weeks are going to fly by, but that is a long time for God to continue to teach me to rely on Him, to have faith and know that I am strong and whole in Him. Three weeks is a long time to know that I have a lot to learn, and a lot to give, and there is still a lot to see here in Oxford! I am still visiting colleges and exploring this place that has become home. I am still growing friendships that will last a lifetime, learning skills that I will take with me the rest of my life. And doing things that I never thought I would be able to do. Three weeks is a long time for God to still work on this stubborn heart. So I am going to listen. I am going to seek God. And when I get home, it won't matter that the 5th week blues got me down, or that talk of graduate school made me cranky. What will matter is that I let God teach me something. That I learned to love Him more, and that I will take this journey with me in my heart for the rest of my life.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Taking the Waters of Bath
Last weekend, three of the lovely girls from my program and I took a train to the city of Bath to explore the Roman Baths, the Jane Austen Society house and the Fashion Museum. It was such a wonderful day off from reading, writing and libraries and for me it was so sweet to deepen the relationships that have started here in Oxford. I have met the most incredible young women here on this trip, friendships that will last for life, and the joy of spending a day exploring a beautiful city with such wonderful girls was a blessing to my heart. Here are a few of the things we saw and did =)
' Taking the waters' was a part of any visit to the Bath's during Victorian England. The water, which is high in minerals and vitamins, was thought to heal just about anything. Not to mention it was very fashionable to do so...
This was also a place where the rich and fabulous
had their summer homes, in the Circus, which are there houses here...
And in the Royal Crescent, which is at the very top of the hill over looking the rest of Bath. This is where the King's house was and where the wealthiest lived.
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| Bath, England |
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| The leaves are all changing- so beautiful! |
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| The Roman Baths |
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| Yucky water... |
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| The water is kind of warm, it is a hot spring after all. |
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| So, of course we had to try it! |
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| Doesn't smell too bad... |
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| Taste? |
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| Yep, gross. |
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| All in good fun though! |
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had their summer homes, in the Circus, which are there houses here...
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| View from the Royal Crescent |
The city had started to put up their Christmas decorations already, and while most of the lights weren't on yet, these ones were and we were just a little bit excited... We did lots of window shopping that day, and all the stores had Christmas stuff as well. It was so homey to see Christmas stuff in the windows. This is the first time I have been so far from home while thinking about the Christmas season and so for the first time I am looking forward to what it really means to come home for Christmas. Needless to say, I simply cannot wait to be home with my family, and the fact that I will be coming home during the Christmas season feels so cozy and wonderful. I can't wait! =)
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