First Day of School

"Back to school. Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight. Oh! Back to school... back to school... back to school."

                                                                              Adam Sandler in Billy Madison
 Tuesday was my first day "assisting teachers" at the primary school Lidget Green. Primary School ranges from the nursery age babies to year 6 (age 11).  The actually space that the school is made up of at the moment is about half of the size of the school I went to, but twice the amount of kids are there. Lidget Green is under construction, and hopefully by February more space will have been added. I will be working three days a week and for the first few weeks I am going to be going to different grade levels to find out what age of kids I like the best. The first day I started out with year 2, which are 6-7 year olds. I think in the States that is usually 1st grade. Today I got to go with year 4, which is 8-9 year olds. For me the difference between the two age levels was incredible. Right now, I am spending much of my day helping kids with their work and trying to be extra eyes to help them stay on task. The teacher of the classroom I was put into today was brilliant with the kids. I really liked her teaching style! I really could learn a lot! I may also be moving around a bit when the teachers find out that I do art, because from what most are telling me, they don't enjoy it and therefore are offering me jobs already! I guess we'll see!

To learn more about the school that I will be working with for the next 10 months, click here.
www.lidgetgreen.net/

Angie & Malcolm

Angie & Malcolm

Sunday morning we went to the church service at St. Wilfrid's, the Anglican church that Paul is the priest of. A huge difference that Mennonites would find, was the music. They didn't even have any written music. The words were written and the tune apparently was just known by most. No four part harmonies or any harmonies at all. No piano and no organ. Just voices... It had a very special feel to it though to be in an old cathedral with our voices echoing around the walls. It was a bit brass though! After a gorgeous meal at the Biltons, we were picked up by Angie, a member of Great Horton Methodist Church. She took us back to her house and from there we took her dog for a walk, but as much as Nellie needed the walk, she was actually walking us! This was our first real experience out in the woods and countryside. The weather was pretty good and the landscape was beautiful. It was how you picture it in your head! It was a luv-lay walk and we really enjoyed it. Their dog Nellie was a very smart border collie who was obsessed with her stick. She always had one! She would trot ahead of us and strategically place her stick on the path, that way when we would walk, hopefully someone would pick it up. We ignored her for a lot of the time, so she would ran back behind us, pick up the stick and trot ahead and leave it for use to step over. This continued the entire afternoon. Midway through our walk we stopped at a little village pub that was built 1500's.

Nellie, waiting for the stick to be thrown!

On the way back to Angie's we had a few exciting things happen to us! Leigh touched her first cow! Our Floridan girl was pretty excited to say the least! So was the cow!  Also, while we were walking back on a path/road a car came and we had to sit on the fence so that it could pass. I thought that is was straight from the movies!
When we got back we had a nice sit and had a wonderful meal that ended with ice cream with fresh pineapple and a sauce made out of apples and blackberries. It was an amazing combination! Yum!
It was great to see the real England countryside and we offered to join on the walk in the future!

This past weekend...

This past weekend was an eventful one. So eventful, I am having trouble writing about it. It is a daunting task to write about something that seemed so jammed pack with “blog-able” material. So…. This might in return be short and will most likely not have all of the “great valuable material” that I was looking forward to including. Plus, it’s bit late….
This weekend we were invited to go to a Christian/Muslim faith integration seminar. We we got there, we realized that we were actually going to be planning an event for youth in the area to participate in a faith integration day.  We happened on our own little faith integration event, as we stayed up late discussing our differences in our religions.  We spent a lot of time with two Muslim women that were our age. We talked about customs and similarities and differences in our two religions. One of the girls, Samia, but better known to us a “Shaniqua” spent much of the night perfecting her American accent which oddly enough sounded like it had a lot of “Southern Soul” to it. We laughed much of the night! It turned out to be the most valuable experience thus far to coming to England.
Some may have thought that we would not experience the culture that some of the other teams are experiencing in their countries, but we feel blessed, because we really are being surrounded by many cultures!
If you look at my previous post, I have a link to my flatmates blog and she really has done a beautiful job explaining the events of this weekend! Have a read!

Hey Guys!
If your into it, check out my flatmates blog too! Super funny!
www.leighsradjourney.blogspot.com

This Darn Cold Sore

I would just like to say that right now I am experiencing the 2nd worst cold sore that I have ever had in my life. It is huge, painful and right on the front of my lip. The worst part about it is that I am meeting many new faces and the fact that I can not move my lip comfortably is making me not smile much or actually show much expression at all...sad. It's hard to talk too...

The only positive that I can find in this situation is that the worst cold sore that I have ever had, (this one may soon surpass it) I ended up with my best friend, so that keeps the hope alive!!!!

Ok. bye!

Finally to England... and I'm sick...buggar...

Ok, so I am writing this alittle under the weather...no poking fun...

To catch everyone up, we flew out on Saturday, but only made it as far as Atlanta. Georgia that is. Wonderful state from all that I saw. We stayed there one night in a Hyatt, and ventured out to a Wal-Mart because we knew they would have the snacks we needed for the long flight...for me that was Gardettos! Love em! Leigh's bestie, Kellie drove the 5 hours from Jacksonville (Florida that is...) to spend the night with us! We flew out of Atlanta with great ease! The guys at the ticket counter "helped" our luggage all get on the plane! Thanks guys!
The flight was long. I didn't sleep a wink on the plane, but the biggest disappointment was that we were on one of the older planes which does not have a personal tv on the back of the headrest, but instead plays only one movie for the entire plane. terrible. gosh we are so spoiled these days! We made it though, with minor irritation to my ears for those of you who know about my ear problem. That was very good news indeed. The massive cold sore causes by financial stress was horrible though. I eventually got up and asked for ice from the flight attendant because I thought that my lip was going to swell to the point of exploding!
Getting through customs took a weeee bit and explaining to them why Leigh and I had different visas issued to us was fun. We managed to confuse them with our own confusion and they let us through. (We both had this feeling that they were going to change there minds and "ring" us up to come back so that they can ship us out!
We were met at the Manchester Airport by Paul (minister of the Anglican Church that we live behind) and Barry, another member of the church. Good thing they brought two vehicles because we barely managed to fit all of our luggage in them as it was. Bethany and I rode with Barry and got to hear a little bit about the area and our neighbors that we were going to meet. Jet lag and a scabby lip make it hard to be very expressive. I feel bad meeting all of these new people with a giant green growth on my lip and a very non-epressive vibe about me.
Anyways, we made it to our cute little flat. It is like a duplex with two stories. The top one has the 3 bedrooms and the bathroom and the bottom one has the living room and the kitchen. It's small but cozy, and definitely big enough for the three of us and WAY bigger than we have been living the last month. We found out when we got here that the boiler was not working and we were preparing for a very cold night. Boy, did we get that one wrong....
Barry had the landlord come over an the boiler was fixed and it was turned up on high to heat up the place a bit. I woke up at midnight after not sleeping for 36 hours sweating! We couldn't open the window because you need a key to do so and we didn't know how to turn the heat off! It was so unbearable that I went downstairs where it was a bit cooler to sleep on the tiny couch. An hour later, I was joined by Leigh and we both couldn't sleep. We tried for a while, but on those couches, the circulation was being cut and it wasn't working. Leigh tried to sleep on the hard wood floor...didn't work.
After a while our deliriousness set in and we began to laugh so hard that we were crying. We just kept saying that it was a fire hazard because here we were, no key to open a window and we didn't know where the key was to even open the door to get outside. We had no idea was time it was and the best solution for us that we could come up with was to skype one of the girls from last year to ask them how to turn the heat off or open a window! We didn't do this. After a while, we had to unlock two doors to go outside to get into the boiler room and turn off the heat. After we relocked these doors (it is proving to be a giant task) we went to see if the heat was actually off. It still felt like it was producing heat and by then we were awake, so we watched a movie at 3 in the morning...My Best Friend's Wedding. Finally after the movie ended we went back upstairs and apparently we had actually turned off the heat because it had turned livable. Still hot, but livable. This morning (mean 2:00 pm) after I woke up I looked and it was still 79 degrees in my room and I can only imagine how hot is was before. I estimate 95 degrees at least...
....This all happened with our flatmate Bethany still asleep......
Paul came over with a key to the windows and we turned the heat to low and I think we are all set now! BUT, Leigh and I will NEVER forget our first night here!

Conquering Chicago...

When I heard that I was coming to Chicago for orientation I was excited for the opportunity to "conquer" the windy city.  After being here for 27 long days, I honestly feel that I have a good start on that goal.

Team England: Bethany, Marie, and Leigh

 

 

 

• Mastering the El
• Navigating after blindfolded
• Chinatown
• Little Italy
• Evanston
• "Cloud Gate" a.k.a. "The Bean" x 6
• talked to Vince Vaughn
• Chicago style pizza
• Cubs shirt
• Anglican church
•  Henna tattoos
• Chicago Art Institute
• Conquered fear of Buses
• Chicago Library Card

Oh, and so much more... Chicago has been Grand, but we are off for new and exciting things. We will miss Chicago and all the memories, but more are yet to come for us! Bring on Bloody Bradford!! 

The Day Vince Vaughn talked to me....

Disclaimer: I am from Kansas and we really don't have the resources to EVER randomly run into a celebrity.

         So Friday afternoon we wanted to go get some pizza with one of Bethany's friends and Kartsen and J.D. downtown, and I was going to go after and pick up my friend Liz. After the pizza Bethany and her friend had to leave to get to a prior commitment and Kartsen and J.D. were too tired to walk with me to go get Liz so they decided to go home. Now, it really doesn't bother me to walk around Chicago by myself, but I was thinking that it would have been nice to have some company...

        I was walking through Millenium Park and I glanced over at the two big walls that have water on them with water coming out of them for kids to play in and I saw this man from the back..."That looks like Vince Vaughn...naw it couldn't be..." So I walked super fast so that I could get in front of him to take a picture of the art without it being obvious so I could prove that it was him. Mission accomplished! The picture proved it was him.To not look like a crazed fan, I acted like he was in my way for me to get a good picture of the art. He obviously was either used to getting his picture taken, or he just didn't care, because he made no attempt or apology for being in my picture. He just kept walking and put on his shades.

But for the final test...

I didn't actually figure I would hear his voice but apparently I happened to be standing in his path and he said..

"Hey, how you doing?"

"Good, how are you?"

That was the extent of the conversation and yes, his voice is the same as we have all heard in his movies. That's right, Vince Vaughn talked to me first...
  (Karma for those who left me by myself)

One B E A utiful weekend with many of my favorite people...

Liz and I at the Bean!

This last weekend was a good one for me. They had warned us that it could be weird to see your family again after already saying your goodbyes, but for me, I was seeing some people that I don't get to see very often anyways. On Friday night I went and picked up my good friend Liz Goering, one of my most treasured friends. We grew up going to camp together since 3rd grade and thus shared many many awesome adventures and special times creating a bond for life! She took the train over from South Bend and spent until Saturday late afternoon with me. We had some more good laughs and lots of fun!

Morgan, Me and Kristen

On Saturday afternoon, I was planning on meeting Morgan at the EL. There was going to be a little bit of an overlap with Liz and Morgan. I started walking down the stairs to the EL and I looked and saw Morgan, but I also saw my cousin Kristen who has been living in Utah. My grandmother had flown in Kristen to spend the weekend in Chicago with Morgan and I. What a GREAT surprise! We all went to the Renegade Craft Fair, which for those of you who are familiar with the Etsy website this was a huge gathering of vendors. All the homemade crafts were really neat to see, but 5 blocks of booths was a little overwhelming. After the fair we went back downtown and Liz and I ran to the train with 2 minutes to spare! That night I got to stay with Leigh and her mom Jane in an apartment in downtown Chicago on the 26th floor. The view was AMAZING! The apartment was AMAZING! The beds were AMAZING! The whole weekend was tiring, but AMAZING! We walked around, talked, viewed, and ate yummy dove chocolate given to us by the Dove boys on the corners. We saw "Cloud Gate" multiple times, and walked many miles. Kristen and Morgan even got to stay in the awesome apartment too. What a fun-filled weekend!

View from the balcony on the 26th floor!

The Silent Treatment

Today, I am giving the silent treatment to the world... It's not out of anger or frustration, but because I am on a silent retreat. Sometimes you need to be silent to hear or see God.

When you are very quiet, you tend to hear how loud everything else is. I walked to the beach, and though the beach was breezy and peaceful, the streets on the way there were not. I noticed how quickly it is turning into fall, especially with the cool air coming off the lake.

I reflected on my time here so far. How sometimes it seems I have been here forever, and sometimes it seems like I just got here. I think about how Chicago at times, seems familiar to me and other times, I feel lost.

I think how my fellow team members and other team members sometimes feel like old friends and other times, they could not seem more foreign.

I think about the future and how God is going to work in my life, but it is hard to think about the future without assessing the past.

For those who know me, they know that I tend to fill the silence instead of embracing it. Today, the silence was embraced...

Thinking of You...

 I can't explain why, I just know:
 
I smile when I think of you...
I smile when I think of our times together...
I smile when I think of your love...


I admire when I think of you...
I admire when I think of your tolerance...
I admire when I think of your determination...


I cry when I think of you...
I cry when I think of losing you...
I cry when I think of you crying...


I pray when I think of you...
I pray when I'm with you...
I pray when I leave you...
 
I can't explain why, I just know...

A Fun Surprise!

The 2 Kansans, Isaac Shue and I were excited by this surprise when we got off the brown line stop at Armitage! A KU bar! If it was only basketball season! Now, I just have to find one in England.... ROCK CHALK

Random Acts of Hospitality...

Today ended up being one of my most favorite days since being here in Chicago. This morning with were given the instructions to spend the day being hospitable around the city. Those were our only guidelines to follow. Bethany and I had a few ideas on how we wanted to spend the day, but we also knew that we wanted to be random. To start the morning we went down and walked the "Magnificent Mile" starting at the bean. There we found people who were struggling to take pictures of themselves and offered to take a picture for them with their loved ones. This also is a great conversation starter and proved to be AWESOMELY fun...:) One of the couples there was so excited and said that they had been in Chicago for 3 days and hadn't taken a picture with the 2 of them in it yet. Apparently we looked trustworthy enough for people to let us hold their property because I did get to use some extremely high dollar equipment. After a while we left because it was obvious that some of the people we were taking pictures of were noticing us walking around taking pictures of other people. Kinda wierd...

After we left there we walked around downtown some more being very conscience about doing every hospitable thing we could do whether it was a big or little thing. From opening doors, to giving our seats up on the bus, to picking a little girls bike up after she had fallen on the street. I feel that during a normal day, many of these were things that I would do anyways, but this day we were thinking about it. We found ourselves in Borders ( book store) with the mission to read to little kids, but unfortunately the kids didn't come. Our other idea was to find a flower shop and get some daisies or something and hand them out on the street, but since it was Labor Day, all the shops were closed! We still want to do that on another day.

That evening, Leigh really wanted to invite someone to dinner with her at McDonald's and she asked me if I wanted to go. I am so glad that I sad yes because that McDonald's experience will always be one of my favorites. I had just come from that way, so I had told Leigh that there was a women who we could ask in front of one of the churches. But at the end of the alley we saw a man and he smiled at us. We both just couldn't walk away from this man. That could have been Jesus sitting there... We asked him what he was doing later that night and he said that he was free, so we invited him to join us. We both found it a little odd when he popped into a convenience store for a second as we walked across the street to the McDonald's. After some deliberation "Terran" decided that he really wanted the classic Big Mac; that was his favorite:) 

We got our meals and were settling in and Terran mentioned that he had a fiance' and that she was sitting "in their spot" where we had found him. She had been the one who he had told he was going to McDonald's to in the convenience store. I practically yelled, "Well, GO GET HER!" He gave us a sheepish grin and went across the street to explain the situation.That was when we met Candy...

Later we found out that when Terran went to get her he told her that he had met some ladies, and she replied," WHAT?! Where are you going with this?" We laughed about this later. They were a HOOT! We didn't know how the conversation would go, whether or not these two people that we had just met would open up to us about anything in their lives or not. Honestly speaking, the conversation went really well. Terran (friends call him T.J.)  and Candy are 23 and 20 years old and have been engaged for a while now and they have 3 kids. Unfortunately their kids are in Kansas with Candy's sister because at the moment they are not able to care for them under their current situation. We got to see pictures and it was apparent that they love them and miss them very much. Terran was the first person that I have met who struggles with multiple personality disorder. Brandon Young comes out in aggressive times, and Tony Williams comes out during "business time". (Flight of the Conchords reference-look it up!)  We talked about so many things: church, flowers, jobs, school, careers, family, and other random things. Though they are down on their luck at the moment they were so nice and were telling us where we could get food and what shelters were available at what times. We were showing hospitality to them, but they were definitely showing it back to us. I think that was the most powerful thing about the whole evening was that they didn't ask for anything, they didn't expect anything from us, but we could sit down and have a "nice" meal with them.

A Peace think-piece

peace

  /pis/ Show Spelled [pees] Show IPA noun, interjection, verb, peaced, peac·ing.

–noun

1. the normal, nonwarring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.

2. a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations: Try to live in peacewith your neighbors.

3. a state of tranquillity or serenity

 

4. silence; stillness: 

Peace. Shalom. Fulfillment. Wholeness. Soundness. Harmony.

When I think of peace I think of a settle feeling deep inside. When I think of peace, I think of friendships forming. When I think of peace, I think of God's creation all over the world in the beautiful landscapes. When I think of peace, a hand sign. When I think of peace, I think of lollipops and rainbows....just kidding. But seriously....

Over this last week our focus has been on peace. We have learned about the Anabaptist history (which I found extremely neat because both girls I am going to England with are not Mennonite).  History is important to me and I feel like it affirms my faith when I hear what my ancestors went through. Also, James Krabill of Mennonite Mission Network came to share with us the similarities between evangelizing and peace. He also explained the meaning of Shalom, but expressed how hard it is to actually define. Below is an excerpt from James Krabill's (J-Krabes as some of the boys renamed him) book, " Is it Insensitive to Share your faith?"

..."Shalom is a broad concept, essential to the Hebrew understanding of relation between people and God. It covers human welfare, health, and well- being in both spiritual and material aspects. It describes a condition of well-being resulting from sound relationships among people and between people and God…
For the Hebrews, peace was not merely the absence of armed conflict. Rather, shalom was assured by the prevalence of conditions which contribute to human well-being in all its dimensions. Not mere tranquility of spirit or serenity of mind, peace had to do with harmonious relationships between God and His people. It had to do with social relationships characterized by His people. It had to do with social relationships characterized by justice. Peace resulted when people lived together according to God's intentions. Peace, justice, and salvation are synonymous terms for general well-being created by right social relationships." 
 

The Dancing man...

This little guy was in our flat when our group got there, and needed to be shared with the world...

Chit Chat

The past few days have been filled with a lot of talking and sharing and learning. We did activities in the park to challenge us as a group to work together and solve problems. It taught us a lot about setting goals and trying to achieve them. Later that day we shared our spiritual narratives with our team and with Darrell and Lyz (our program directors). This was a time to share how God has worked in our lives, where we feel closest to God, and the trials that we have gone through thus far. I feel that throughout the next year, my teammates, Bethany and Leigh, will probably know absolutely everything about me. I do look forward to that connection! 

A fun thing happened this weekend while doing laundry...We went over to Unique thrift store and I found a Chicago Cubs t-shirt and Anneliese had an unusual find! Anneliese is a JPUSA girl who was actually born and raised here. She has a 1 year old daughter named Chloe who is absolutely adorable! We have been getting close to many of the single women here at JPUSA, which has been really fun because we are able to spend some quality girl time. Anyways, Anneliese is getting married this next May and has been trying to find a wedding dress at thrift stores for a while now. She found one that she really liked and Bethany wanted to buy it for her, but she didn't have her money with her so she borrowed part of my rolls of quarters! It was so neat and special for Bethany to be able to buy her new friend her wedding dress for $3.75!!! Amazing! In the next few weeks we are going to alter and add to the dress to make it her own. We are all really excited for her! 

OK Bye!