Church, Essays, and much more.

I had Greek salad for dinner.

Thought I'd give an update and FINALLY throw down some more differences to keep the tally going.

School's been pretty busy - in the next 2 weeks, I have two papers due and two books to read. The paper I'm writing this week is on the anti-slavery movement in England that began in the late 1780's, so I've been Wilberforcing it up! In the meantime, I'm trying to finish my Oxford bucket list before I leave. This consists of having a picnic in the University Parks, possibly going to a formal dinner at a college, driving a car, and visiting Tolkien's grave and the Kilns. There's more random food places and libraries I've been wanting to visit as well. Speaking of Tolkien...

On Friday, everyone gladly watched Return of the King on my behalf! I had never seen it before, so naturally, it was necessary. It was INCREDIBLE. Most definitely, everything I expected and more. No wonder there were 11 Academy Awards squeezed in there - props, Peter. Samwise is the bomb diggity, too.

I'm sure I'll have a whole blog post dedicated to how much God has done in my life this semester, but I just want to take a moment to say how much my church, St. Ebbes, has blessed me here! Out of all the churches I've been to, I have never been with a congregation that displays the body of Christ so clearly. They are SO intentional about their community, and if you talk to anyone in Oxford, they'll say that this church is known for being welcoming! They include children in the large service as much as possible before they leave to go to their children's Sunday School. So, for example, they recognize children's birthdays and take a quick moment to pray for him/her as a congregation; they also give them little kid instruments to play on while the whole church is singing (and the music's so loud that it's not as if it affects or distracts people). It's just so beautiful to see a whole congregation worshiping God together! For the college group, we all eat together before Bible study at round tables, and then we split into our regular groups of girls or guys. I know this isn't the only ways that a church can run things, but I just see so much joy in the congregation and PASSION because Oxford is known to be very humanist and atheistic/agnostic. Really going to miss this church!

Here are more long-awaited differences!!! Dun dun DUN!

• Maths = Math. So, instead of saying, "I'm studying math," you would say, "I'm studying maths." Though I do quite dislike the sound of "maths," it seems to make more grammatical sense as it is derived from "mathematics." Darn you, England.

• Cluedo = Clue. As in the board game. The history of it is actually quite interesting. Here, take a gander. History of Cluedo. Cluedo is the original name, and you gotta give the creator some recognition. Here you go, Mr. Pratt - you just got yourself a point for the UK.

•  "You've Got Mail" vs. "You have e-mail." Here's what I hear every time I log on to AOL..."You Have Email". "You've Got Mail" is just too classic, though. Tom and Meg - thank you. US for the win.

• Chinese Whispers = Telephone (game). It refers to when European/Chinese first started interacting consistently, around the 1600's? The British could not understand a word of Chinese - hence the game name. Recently, the UK has come under fire because the name is thought by some to be racist/offensive. Hmm...sorry Britain...America's never racist, so we win this one too.

Current score: England: 13, USA: 12 (including the 3 bonus points from TGI Fridays giving me so much pride in my loud, crazy, and lovable country.) Oh, by the way, my friends and I put together a list of which countries would be which family members in the giant family of the world. America would be the young, hip aunt that everyone follows and loves but is known to be slightly irresponsible at times. Great Britain was the grandfather with a long life history who is more reserved and stern on the outside but secretly sweet and lovable. He smokes cigars and tells stories and occasionally rolls his eyes at said aunt.

Tonight I'm super excited because our program's student coordinator (the one that organized the Wales trip) is joining us for dinner tonight. He's bringing the pudding! (Bonus points if you remember what that's referring to!)

Oh by the way, I did not, in fact, have Greek salad for dinner. I fooled you on this lovely April day.