A Work in Progress

It seems that finally, work is following me. Last week in church I was thinking about all the times I had gone to churches at work. One morning I visited three in a row! Not twenty minutes later I noticed a curfuffle in front of me as a guy fainted and was using the person next to him as a prop. A guy behind me (a doctor) noticed a second before I did and got their first. As the sermon started, the patient was telling us he was fine and didn't want to go to the hospital, and there isn't much I can do with that. The doc had taken the seat next to him and was checking him over and feeling his pulse in a satisfactory way so I went back to my seat. The whole rest of the service I watched this guy. I think he enjoyed making us nervous as he insisted on standing at all the right times and going up for communion. Nothing else happened, but I had one glorious moment of excitement. Then, today on my way to the gym I noticed a guy laying on the ground. Oh, no I thought. He was...

A hostel can be a great place to meet other people from all over the world and be annoyed by their personal habits and noisemaking. But that only happens if other people are in your room. Normally, I would be thrilled to be alone in a hostel, but the other night, it echoed my disappointment. But, it did make for a quiet night and I used all the pillows I wanted. In the morning, renewed by the unseasonable weather, I continued in my quest to discover new places in the city. I love markets, which makes England a great place for me because every town has a market going on all the time. I especially love the ones that sell beautiful looking vegetables and on the other end of the market spectrum, the ones that sell weird-ass stuff. I was advised to visit Camden to see their market. Camden market/lock area make all other markets I've seen look like boring. None have so much color, flavor, and culture. Foods from almost every continent were fresh at lunch time. New, delicious smel...

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has been looking out for me in the last couple of days. I feel truly blessed. Not to mention my parents whom I will see soon! (there are always cargo freighters, right?) Today I enjoyed a hearty included breakfast and set off to the Imperial War Museum, as suggested to me by a classmate. Wow. I have at best a passing interest in wars, yet spent an easy four hours in there. Yeah, four. It is massive and strangely fascinating. It starts with World War I and II which of course garnered huge areas of the place. In the WWI area they have a trench experience that was very cool, and in the WWII area they have a 'blitz experience' where they shake the floor and have rubble and other destroyed stuff much to the delight and horror of patrons. I knew it would be good when exiting school groups exclaimed “That was cooool!” and “That was scary!” (boys and girls, respectively). From there they had displays from almost every conflict that occurred af...

Can be easier to undo than to make. I thought I'd live somewhere far more exotic than England to have a volcano interrupt my holiday making. This morning, my parents were due to join me in London to embark on a UK adventure for two weeks. A UK adventure that I had spent hours researching and booking (not to rub it in). I had planned to go to London to meet them, and since I had bought the ticket decided to go hoping that some miracle would bring them to me. Sadly, that was not the case, which left me last night apologetically cancelling reservations. All were understanding save one, so I guess that's not too bad. I spent yesterday fretting about air travel and volcanoes but I didn't let it stop me from enjoying the greatest city on Earth. Determined to make the most of my non-vacation, I booked an extra night at the hostel and a late train home on Thursday. Though I was feeling sad, the usual sights didn't fail to lift my spirits; gleaming Westminster Abbey and pa...

About two months ago my headphones broke. Not a tragedy, but then a few weeks ago my mp3 player broke. I don't know why, like many of this company's products (which I happily endorse) it decided to stop working (cough-micro-cough-soft!) Oh, that doesn't work as well on paper. Their support was worthless as it actually suggested I mail it to them for 'diagnostics' to the tune of $159. You must be kidding me. So, I thought long and hard about a replacement. I could buy some crap that would hopefully last me until I got home, or the simpler solution: upgrade. 2/3 of the zunes that I know about broke unexpectedly so I was hesitant to jump back on that bandwagon. Plus, now you can only get the HD version which is not as super awesome as I hoped. Since their inception I have been anti-ipod, simply because everyone had one. That annoyed me. Every other person walking down the street had their blazing white headphones in, mocking the rest of us non-mac minions. S...

It has been a strange holy week for me. At one point I nearly quit lent altogether out of frustration with God, but that's someone elses story (sorry to be cryptic). On Wednesday, my Bible study group had an infomal Seder meal, which I hadn't done in many years. It was fun, and I ate a radish! Last night I watched Chocolat, my favorite lenten movie. Yes, because it's about chocolate, and yes, because Johnny Depp plays an Irish gypsy. Today I got up at 5 for the sunrise service, in the hopes that it would renew me. It was not at all what I expected, as more than five people showed up. In actuality almost 300 people were there before dawn in the cathedral ruins to celebrate Easter. The service was also not what I expected, as it lasted more than five minutes. In fact, it was about two hours later when we finished, and I was filled with shock and horror to learn that it was still only 7:30 in the morning. The service was very elaborate, and included incense, playin...