Settling in...

Oi to the vey. It’s been far too long since I posted. But life got busy, as it often does with me. I decided being so ill I couldn’t climb out of bed my first week in Oxford was a grand plan. And then proceeding week and a half has been spent in a dizzy spin of trying to settle in, make friends, and yada, yada, yada. 

However, I thought we would take a tour of the house. It’s pretty sweet. I love our house. It has five bedrooms (all occupied, sorry family, you may NOT come move in), a common room, and a kitchen. Our house definitely has some older appliances, like our ancient stove that doesn’t always like to work, and is missing some things other houses in the program have, like a dryer, or a dishwasher (oh wait.. we have five...) but it has a lot of charm. 

Anyways here are the photos of my room and then the house:

This is my desk, looking in from the door.

The bed.

Yes, that's a fireplace, complet with mantel.

View from the fireplace.

And now the house tour:

This is the front of our house. I'm the windows on top.

Front door. Even the flagstones on the front stoop are cute.

View from the front door.

In the kitchen. Lora. dong what we do a lot, sit at the kitchen table with our computers and pretending to be social. Yes, that's my Macintosh on the other side.

The Common Room. I don't spend a lot of time in here, but I do peruse that bookshelf a lot.

Other side of the room. Those curtains are actually really pretty.

The hallway to my bedroom. Can you guess which door is mine?

The bathroom. Tiny.

The stairs to upstairs.

That's pretty much the house. Isn't is lovely? I like it. Which is handy, considering I live here. ;-P

Preludes

So I’ve been a bit remiss in the updating realm. I promise it hasn’t been purposeful, I have plenty of excuses involving being ill, not having working internet, and Word eating my documents. I’m now switching to the Mac Word Processing program – Pages. Obviously far superior. :-P

But this is an actual update, not just a post to antagonize PC users out there. 

After leaving KC I spent about 5 1/2 days with my brother in Chicago. We discovered that he has become old and boring, which suited me just fine, because I was born old and boring.  We mostly stuck to quiet pursuits, but we did have about 2 or 3 adventures.

First, the Sunday I was there, my brother had the cute idea to drive to Wisconsin to surprise his wife, who was staying there with her parents while they took care of a few things. This required us getting up at 5:30 am. He’s charming, non? 

Our other fun day came on Monday. Matt (brother) and I decided to head down to The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. This photo basically sums up that trip:

Yeah, I know. 

Tuesday evening was spent wandering downtown in Chicago while I waited for Matt to get out of his class. He’s working on degree number three. Clearly this need for school runs in the family. 

Wednesday kicked into high gear getting ready for the flight, which left at 6 pm that day. 

Oh yes, that flight. Here’s the ups and downs:

1. Virgin Atlantic in flight service rocks. 
2. One of few airlines that knows how to cater to the Celiac (or Coeliac) community. 

3. Heavy turbulence for five hours of flight = not a lot of fun. It was kinda like being on a roller coaster for part of the time. For those in doubt, I’m not the roller coaster type. 

4. Tea served two hours before landing is a great plan. Just saying.

5. Nasty customer service people who tell you despite your obvious injuries (I mean, I’m wearing a whiplash collar around my neck), you’ll have to manage your own luggage because she has no record of you calling to request help. Doesn’t matter that a call was made, if she doesn’t have a record of it, you’re still on your own. Fail Virgin Atlantic. Fail in large ways. 

Despite these ups and downs (literally in the case of the turbulence) I made it through Immigration and Customs without any issues. Leading up to coming over here, various folks made it sound like Immigration would be a nightmare. The following is my conversation with the Border Patrol Official:

Border Patrol: Where are you studying?

Me: Oxford

Border Patrol: What are you studying?

Me: Music.

Border Patrol: Great. Have a good time. *stamps passport*

Not really a big deal at all? 

However, I was greeted very enthusiastically on the other side of Customs by my older sister Rebekah. I felt fairly special. She then drove me to the other brother and sister-in-law’s place, on the outskirts of London. They live in between the last couple of stops on the Picadilly line. The other end from Heathrow. 

That was Thursday. I proceeded to nap and enjoy a fairly quiet evening.

Friday morning I babysat my nephews for a couple of hours, and then once they were down for their naps and my brother back at their house, I decided a bit of exploring was in order. I may be the only person to ever get lost in between their house and ASDA, but at least I have distinction. After finally locating ASDA (the English Walmart) I also located the gluten-free section and bought some of the most reasonably priced, and tastiest items I’ve had in awhile that are gluten-free.

Dear America, could you please catch up with England? Thanks, Karen. 

Saturday Rebekah drove over and she and I went sight-seeing in London. We decided to hit the Charles Dickens museum (long time obsession) and then the Buckingham Palace State Rooms. Obviously, you can’t take photos inside, but here’s the outside of the Palace, as well as a picture of me trying to get the Palace in the background. You can tell I wasn’t terribly successful. 

After the Palace we walked to Hyde Park (famed in storybooks everywhere) and took a few photos. This is where we learned, Karen really isn’t great at getting much beyond the people in the photo in the photo. I can’t get a monument or building in the background to save my life. 

Saturday night Rebekah spent the night at our brother’s place so we could get up Sunday and hear him speak at their church. He’s definitely the intellectual one. I’ll settle for being the artistic one in the family. :-)

If you think about it, keep a few folks from my program in your thoughts and prayers, they’re having trouble with the British Consulate. And that’s NO fun. 

Sunday evening we came back to Rebekah’s place, so I could catch a train to Oxford. Unfortunately, I picked up a flu bug and have spent more of the last 24 hours in bed than not. We’re going to drive up to Oxford tomorrow and see about getting me into the flat so I can go back to bed for portions of tomorrow. Another post is soon to come, with pictures of the flat, and hopefully of housemates. 

Stay tuned...

Goodbyes, Lessons, Expectations, and Gratefulness

I’m sitting in my brother and sister-in-law’s apartment in Chicago, blatantly ignoring the repacking I should be doing, in favor of writing this, my first blog post. I still have two days for that. Besides, have you ever tried to make your stuff fit back in suitcases? Especially when you didn’t pay much attention during the first time you packed? Yeah, get back to me when you have.

My last two weeks in Kansas City were rather bittersweet. See, I’m not exactly new to the overseas travel thing, but the last time I left, I wasn’t very attached to too many things and people. Oh sure, my family, but I had almost no close friends at that point. Certainly not close friends I saw on a regular enough basis to miss while I was away. Preparing for leaving was decidedly different this time.

The last two years have introduced me to many new people, places, things, and experiences. While I am thoroughly grateful for this growth as a person, I did find myself recently remarking to a friend “this whole leaving thing would be easier if I didn’t care about you so much”.  That remark has been thought  (and voiced) many, many times in the last two weeks, as I prepared to hightail it out of the country.  My life has been so rich with wonderful people, especially in this last year. Whether it’s family, friends, coworkers, teachers, or just random people I’ve met this last year, I know I have so much to miss, and while that makes me sad, I also know I’m blessed beyond imagination. It’s a confusing feeling.

People ask me if I’m ready to live on my own for a year. But then they try to explain away that I’m not really living on my own, I’m with other students, I’m near family, whatever the excuse is at that moment.  I am ready to live on my own, and trust me, it’s a scary prospect no matter how many family members are nearby, no matter how many fellow students are there with you. I get an extra helping of fear, because I’m going into this with more than my fair share of health problems. Sometimes I really worry about how those problems could drag down this year and mar the experience.

But that leads me to my biggest set of lessons from this last year, as well as to a major expectation for this next year.

1.     God never gives us more than we can handle. I can believe this with the full assurance of someone who has been stretched to the limit, not just once, but over and over. Each time I thought I had reached the breaking point, that it was time to give up my strength was renewed and I was ready to go further than before. I am still confused as to how I made it out of this last year alive, but I know that no matter the challenge, I don’t have to face it alone, and that’s a great source of comfort.

2.     I have an amazing support system. It’s a multi-layered system, but I think I sum it up best by saying: when you know you have more than one person you can call at 4:00 a.m. merely because your joints hurt, you’re zonked on medicine, and depressed, you’re an extremely well-blessed person.

3.     It’s okay to speak my mind. Just because I voice an opinion doesn’t mean someone will be upset. It might, but as long as I’m not going out of my way to be offensive, it’s probably okay. And not speaking up could cause more harm in the long run.

Now, there’s a long and complicated explanation behind those three points, but I’ll leave you with the Reader’s Digest version, my entire year summed up in three points. I’m actually a little impressed it didn’t take more! :-D

But my expectation for myself for this next year: I will not let myself drown in a sea of worry, a sea of depression, or any other sea I can come up with. I will take advantage of my support network, continue to speak my mind, and continue to grow as a person.