Preparing for Spring Break!

All this week, I've been nervous, anxious, and excited. I've been preparing and planning out spring break. Our break is two weeks!! The first week has been planned out and payed for already. We are spending the entire first week in London and then the second is up to us. I had Rome planned out early, but could not decide between Germany or Ireland. Well, I finally made up my mind, and I'm going to Ireland! I'm pretty excited about all of it. This entire two weeks will be quite the experience. Although, I'm sure I'm going to be super odorous! There's a lot of time were we'll just be in transit and travelling makes one smell. But all should be well. And I'm only packing a backpack for the entire two weeks. So smelly body with smelly clothes means a real good time ;) Expect some fun adventure stories...

PS. Cole I'm going to try and chunnel to Paris April 4th, but it's an expensive ticket for just a day trip. So, I may just have to come later. I will contact you if I make it to Paris though! :-D

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. So far every Easter has been spent at home with my family, but this year I'm a few times zones and an ocean over. Despite the distance, I can still feel "home" inside of me. I miss my parents more than ever today, but God is with me and that is my comfort.

Some students wanted to meet early this morning on the beach to watch the sunrise. I think I was the only one from Baylor that made it out there, but it was worth it. I headed to the beach around 5ish and stood in awe for about an hour and a half. It was such an experience to be awake so early to watch the sun rise knowing that the Son had already risen. I stood next to a girl, who I didn't even know her name, and overheard her saying, "This makes me feel insignificant and yet very significant." It's true. I am but one imperfect, flawed human being. I am a small bit of creation, only a piece of a greater whole. However, Jesus Christ died for me. His love makes me significant. It was so beautiful being able to celebrate His resurrection this morning. And this is where the English language fails; I feel so limited and unable to convey the true emotions of this day with only words. I mean, Jesus died for our salvation and then conquered death. There is no greater love story.

After the beach, I walked over to an early Easter service held behind the old cathedral ruins. Three Churches of Scotland combined for one large outside service. The woman that preached was excellent. She emphasised that when Mary went to Jesus' tomb, it was still dark and yet the stone had already been rolled away. It was to parallel with the dark world. All the grief and suffering that is so real to us leaves us in the darkness, but Jesus arose from the dark. This is all to remind us that, yes, there will still be grief, suffering, and darkness. Satan is still here, but Jesus has ascended into Heaven and is our light during our darkest hour. So many people lose their faith. I spoke with a girl at lunch just yesterday, and she said, "It'll be weird not doing anything religious on Easter. I don't plan on going to church or anything." I asked why and she replied, "Well, I can't bring myself to believe it anymore. There's too much suffering in my life." Oh how I hope that God can give me the courage to share with her what God's love is really like. It's NOT an exemption from pain. Instead it's knowing that God will never abandon us. He shares our pain until we let go, and then takes it away for Him to bear alone.

...

After service, we took communion within the cathedral, and shuffled a bit further to breakfast. With food in my tummy, I walked down the small section of beach between the castle ruins and cathedral to sit on the rocks by the sea and listened to a group of students sing hymns. They weren't in tune, but I'm sure God doesn't care about tuning. When I finally returned to Uni Hall, I stripped a couple of layers and went to (second) breakfast and now I think I'll nap until lunch... and hopefully shower at some point. Sorry for being gross haha.

Baylor Basketball

Oh how I love my Baylor Basketball men! Henry Dugat doesn't know it yet, but we're going to get married. I was so excited about making it into the Big Dance. I wore my Baylor sweatshirt all day Thursday out of love and support. My Jesus and the Gospels tutor noticed and asked how we're doing and told me that he's predicting a Baylor win! Well Derek and I planned to go to B.U. (haha..Bottoms Up) wine and beer store after class to get some beverages and watch the game from my computer at 7 PM. It was great to watch the game with some delicious Fruit Cider, Tesco chocolate, and friends. It was sad, however, we were defeated. But, let's all look on the bright side, Baylor made it to the Tournament. And at the end of the day, we are still Baylor
University, the oldest in Texas, classiest in the Big XII, prettiest in America, and most awesome in the world ;-)

After the game, there was an Empire run, a lot of laughing, some Firefly watching, farting (adding to funk of A31), cramming into the love nest (my bed), and a slumber party! What a good day... and now today is Good Friday! What a blessing!

Making Travel Plans

Spring break for St. Andrews in coming soon. The first week is already planned out. We'll be in London with the entire Baylor group doing cool things, but the second week is left up to us. So far, I've got a one-way ticket booked to Rome and a hostel in Rome for three days... the rest is unplanned!! Panic! I'm pretty excited about Rome though!! The plan is to do Rome for a few days then make it Southern France in Marseille, and then travel north to Munich, Germany. We shall see how this turns out. It's the worthless American dollar that's killing everything about this trip.

Short version of the weekend

Wow... so basically, I've been skipping lectures left and right to crank out some bulky essays. Right around the end of my sickness, I managed to finish and turn in my Development of Christianity in Africa essay Thursday morning way ahead of time since the actual due date was yesterday!! I was pretty proud, but getting that essay out the way was necessary since Richard was coming to see me... :-)

Richard was due to arrive that afternoon. I was worried at first because I was going to skip my Thursday lectures to go to Edinburgh to retrieve my dear friend alone. The bus and train schedules are beasts to comprehend!! The plan was to just catch the bus to Leuchars train station and cry until someone put me on the right train. However, just moments before I left my room to head to the bus station, I recieve a call from Richard. He had missed his flight from London to Edinburgh and had no way of getting there until the next day. I felt so bad for the guy: stranded in London over night. He was now due to fly into Edinburgh Friday morning. Luckily, that meant that Cynthia could travel with me Friday morning. We left St. Andews early in the morning around the time Jesus Christ wakes up and found Richard around Haymarket station. That Friday was just an easy day around St. Andrews, including time at the West Sands and golf course area.

Saturday was another early early morning. Richard, Cynthia, Marshall, Eric and I all decided to go to Inverness which is far north on the island and local town of Loch Ness the home of the Loch Ness monster. It took all morning to get to Inverness, but sadly once we got there, it was rather difficult to get to Loch Ness. We were so close and yet so far. [I'm sorry, Nessie, that I didn't make it to see you this round. Hopefully, we'll have another opportunity to meet later.] The town of Inverness is nice though and it was a great day. The weather was perfect and warmer than expected since we were in the Highlands.

Sunday, I read in Chapel from the book of Isaiah 50:4-9. It was cool. I haven't read in Church since High School, and I thought it was a neat opportunity to be involved in church service again. Later on that Sunday, Richard and I left for Edinburgh. Around the Royal Mile, the area is really touristy and great. It was a good trip, although, slightly limited since it was a Sunday and most things were closing early. We ate at a great Italian restaurant that was awkwardly empty, but the food was really good. Then left back for St. Andrews.

Monday was the last day of Richard's visit. So, after my History Tutorial we left for Edinburgh again to explore more of what we had missed. I love Edinburgh. It's a clean and neat city. Parts remind me of Washington, D.C. and other parts are fantastically medieval. We soon parted so that he could make his bus back to Haymarket for the airport and I had to catch a train back to Luechars. Sadly, I missed my train and had to wait another thirty minutes for the next train. It would have been a very sad occasion, but another girl missed the train just as I did. We were both denied to board just the train was getting ready to leave the station. But she was really nice. It turns out that she was another St. Andrews student was coming back to visit some friends in St. Andrews. She has been in Spain this past term and until the end of this one was popping in to catch up before leaving for London and Spain again.

I think it great how God takes care of us like that. I was worried about traveling alone and then panicked when I missed my train, but God gave me a companion, some sort of comfort after leaving my best friend and being left at the train station. God is good.

Fast Pace Life

So, I've been absent in my blogging because of intense essay writing. I finished and turned in my Scottish history essay about the Union of 1707 Friday, and just turned in my Jesus and Gospels essay today about Who Killed Jesus:Jews or Romans? Just Wednesday, I got a wonderful surprise. One of my best friends spontaneously bought a ticket to Scotland and will be here Thursday morning!! I have another essay due Monday (St. Patrick's day), so I'm pushing to get it done super early or get an extension. But nothing can dampen my excitement.

This past Saturday was really fun. About half the group took a trip to Stirling castle. The castle is pretty neat and mostly intact compared to all the other castles. We started off eating at this great Indian restaurant and moved to exploring the large castle grounds. They did a live presentation/mini-play of the murder of Black Douglas. He was murdered by the short-tempered, paranoid King James II who flirted with me, invited me to his bedchamber until he was reminded that the Queen was awake, and called me a harlot. It was funny and yet if I weren't black, everyone would have notice that I was blushing hardcore. It was unexpected and therefore, really embarassing. After walking around the castle for a good bit, I was really feeling achy. I almost didn't go to the castle that morning because I wasn't feeling too well, and I guess everything was catching up to me again. Cynthia sat for awhile in the Ladies lounge just killing time and resting. Then we caught up with the Evans' at Argyll's manor down the street. It was a large mansion with old furniture. I'm doubting that it was all original, but at least they were good replica peices. After leaving there, we found the rest of the group in town, shopping around. By this time I was pretty exhausted and was ready to head back to St. Andrews, and apparently so was everyone else.

I thought that we were going to miss our train waiting on one of our group members who decided to stop for a hot milkshake. Luckily, we were able to get the early train that we wanted and got back to St. Andrews at half past 6. From there, it was a cheap meal bought at Tescos and a movie party at DRA. I felt pretty bad at this point and I pretty certain that I had a fever. I may been a bit grumpy, so I apologize for any rudeness. After I ate, I took medicine which helped enormously (Thanks Victoria and Cynthia).

So now, I think I'm just going to hang out around my room mostly and rest and take meds. I HATE being sick and I just want everything to go away and instantly feel better. Hopefully I can get most of work accomplished so I don't have to ask for so many extensions and can turn stuff in early. Wish me luck.

Religion

I'm taking two Divinity (Religion) modules here at St Andrews. I love both of them. Jesus and the Gospels is taught by this HOT, young, Scottish professor. He also has three folk music CDs out so he's not only good looking and educated but a talented musician. Hopefully, I can bring back one of his albums. He sounds good. Julia and I have sampled his songs from a link on the internet...hehe. But the class is great. It's basically like Christian Heritage and Scriptures combined. I just finished reading a book for that class called The Shadow of the Galilean. It's good and I'd recommend it if anyone comes across it in the States.

The other Divinity module is Church, Ritual, and Politics. I do believe that this module is my favorite one, hands down. The course calls for two profs. This first half is being taught by Dr. Aguilar. He has this great Italian sounding accent and makes the best jokes. His section of the module is about Christianity in Latin America and Africa. We are starting to explore the music of both regions and the different ways they worship. Last class, the front half of the classroom (my half) was instructed to walk around the classroom waving our arms in sync. It was strange but practical. We are learning the movements of the African Church and will eventually move to a full dance. The second half will be taught by Dr. Bradley, who I've heard nothing but wonderful things about. His half will cover Celtic Christianity and other European styles of worship. This means that during that half, we will be singing hymns. Nothing could make me happier.

I think the reason that I write about my Divinity modules now is because I feel so aware of the overall religious beliefs among the students. My Divinity modules allow me to constantly think about God and my faith academically. It's an enjoyment that's hard to explain.

Here at St. Andrews, there is an organization called the Christian Union (CU). Since the end of February, they have been sponsoring events that all fall under one big event called Forgiveness Fortnight. I think it's a great idea, but the more I seem to get excited about it, the more I notice just how many students are put off by religion. I feel like we're scoffed at by an overwhelming number of students for our faith. Each residence hall has Link Groups that are small branches from CU. I went to my first Link Group Bible study for Uni Hall and there was only six of us. Three of us were American study abroad students. It was still great to be with the few there. But it just seems that a lot of students here have this chip on their shoulder or resentment about Christianity. I feel like when I wear a shirt that reveals my cross necklace, that a few people assume that I'm unworthy of conversation or too good to hang out with at the Pubs and clubs. They say "hi," look at my necklace, express reluctence with their eyes, and resort to small talk or one word responses. They judge me and think..."Oh she's a Christian so she's probably no fun." It's hard to think of ways to reverse these ideas that some have already labelled me with, but hopefully I can break these barriers. I pray for strength, patience, and understanding.

Making Up for Lost Time

I realize that I am slow to update my blog, but I'm making an effort to do better in the future. I apologize for my procrastinations.

Everything is really starting to feel like home these days. Most nights, us Baylor kids with nothing to do, just hang around each others rooms and watch movies, eat Tesco's discounted snacks, or play card and board games. It's so good to be here with everyone from Baylor and just feel unpressured. This past week was a bit gross because it rained some and the wind here is practically tornadic (I could have made that word up). On rainy days like the few from last week, it's great to just sit against the radiator in my room with a book, which is exactly what I did.

This past week of modules has been the same basically. I go to lectures and tutorials and then do some reading. I'm currently a bit stressed (only a wee bit) because my first Scottish history paper is due on Friday and my Jesus and the Gospels paper is due Monday. The history essay is the one that I have no idea how to write. Hopefully, I'll get lucky tonight and tomorrow. I attempted to do a lot of reading this past weekend and even start on the paper. I assumed this would be possible because the Baylor girls (and Josh) all took a weekend retreat to the Burn house of Edzell. Edzell is small rural town and the Burn house is a large mansion open to people looking for a nice get-away. The living room often had a fire blazing and the couches were perfect for curling up and reading. I think my favorite part of last weekend was tea and biscuit times. It was glorious having the ability to drink as much tea and coffee at any time of the day. I went on a couple of walks around the property, and the land is simply gorgeous with the only drawback of a foul farm animal smell around the grounds. Overall, I should have gotten a lot accomplished, but instead just hung out and ate. It didn't feel like time wasted though because I enjoyed the company and all the food. I was actually full at the Burn. It seems that I'm NEVER full in this country.

*Baylor people: do not take for granted the "residential restuarants." Everything is made with potatoes and hardly any flavor... and There are set eating times so no late night eating :-(*

Sunday night, the Evans' invited us all over for dinner because on weekends, the Residence halls don't serve dinner. DJ Evans made some really good chilli for us. I ate so much! I had one and half bowls of chili, three peices of bread, carrots with ranch dressing (no one has ranch dressing here!), and two of her wonderful wonderful chocolately brownies! It was amazing... this past weekend was weekend for eating.

But anyhoo, I'm obligated to finish the history paper but I'm also shooting to finish the Jesus and the Gospels assignment as well this week. This weekend will be a trip to Stirling castle! I really hope I can go without that guilty feeling of pressing assignments. And I write this blog update as I sit in the library between classes using the computer to not do more research but instead facebook, email, and blog. Oh well, everything will get done.