School, Freindships, and God

Now that I have had meetings with both of my professors, my time consists of reading, reading and more reading, followed by writing, writing and more writing. But, I cannot say that I have not ventured out of Oxford, for as you can see I have done some traveling. But before I go into any detail about my trip to Bath and Stonehenge last Saturday, I will debrief about the week.
On Tuesday I met my second tutorial professor where I will be concentrating on Entrepreneurship and how to start a business. My professor has a lot of international work experience and has told me that the majority of my work will be self directed. He wants me to dive into what interests me about trade markets of South America and look at the different industries that are working well and not so well. This professor also has a tourism  business to Antarctica from the southern most point of the Americas, Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. After our meeting he told me that I had to send him an essay by Monday (today) so that we would discuss it during our next meeting on Wednesday. Other than this tutor I have my primary professor who is going through the history of trade with me. Last week I wrote about Germany, this week is France and next week is Russia. It is quite amazing how both tutors are very different in how they instruct the tutorial, but both seem like to pile on the reading. When I read that we would be doing a lot of reading, I did not think it would not be as much as they said, but it is. During the week, I will spend around 7 hours a day reading material and then 5-10 hours writing the papers. I am a slow reader and writer, but what challenges me will only make me stronger. What I also have realized is how amazing the brain can be. For I could be spending one day of reading and thinking to myself how nothing makes sense, but by the end of the day, when I look at the essay question or even the titles of the material, it all comes together. This reminds me a lot about being patient and not giving up. When I went to the Hillsong church service last week, the message was about pushing yourself a little more, even when you think you have had enough. It is a simple  message, but there are so many times where I would love to just quit or stop reading or writing or listening.
I just do not have an excuse to stop working, for when else will I have the opportunity to learn from this country or my professors? And not only that, but it reminds me of the 40 days that Jesus was in the desert without any food or water. He could have given up while satan started to tempt him, but he did not because Jesus thought with his mind not his feelings. He knew the end goal and was not going to let satan get in his way.
During the week, my roommates and I talk about our tutorials. I have gotten very close with them and they each show God's glory differently. One (Kasey) can brighten my day any time. I believe I laugh about three times a day when we are together. She is so cheerful and will live very long. My other flat mate, Jody, is older than all of us and carries a lot of wisdom, but relates with us so well. She and I have a lot of similar food preferences and have spent a lot time talking about faith and meeting people at where they are at with their relationship with God. That has been my biggest challenge while being here. And as for Jacqueline, she is engaged to one of the guys on the program, her dedication and sweet temperament is always great to talk to. This past week I got sick again. And the ladies were all very nice with me. I think this sickness is for my pride, for I normally never get sick and here I have already gotten over two colds and it has not even gotten below 27 degrees!
By the end of the week I had an essay to submit to one of my professors and on Thursday my roommates and I celebrated Jody's birthday. We surprised her with breakfast and then we went out later for afternoon tea. Afternoon tea is pretty much the best snack in the world. It normally consists of finger sandwiches, hot cakes, scones with clotted cream, tea and jam; but as we are college students and Oxford in general is very expensive, we only did the scones with clotted cream and tea. It was still amazing both in taste and in company. For the whole Summit group spent some time together for Jody's birthday.
On Friday we went to Kevin's house for the Summit aspect of our program and we talked about the economy. We have been reading from the book Idols for Destruction, The Conflict of Christian Faith and American Culture by Herbert Schlossberg. It was written in the 1980s but it still pertains to the US economy today. This book is very well written and someone could even say it was prophecy because of how are economy is doing exactly what he said about inflation. It scares me to think about who we put in office when they know that what they are doing is hurting the economy.
We got on the topic of healthcare as well, and from what I have heard about the UK's healthcare, ours is not going to get any better.Kevin always has so much information for us and books that we should read on every topic. If I was not doing the tutorial, I would love to read the books he recommends. Kevin also assigns us readings for our Friday meetings.

As for this past weekend, the OSAP group took us to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge looked really pathetic from interstate but closer up it was kind of cool. The sheep around the rocks were cool as well. Later that day we went to Bath, land of the Roman baths and Jane Austin! The city is very beautiful and the buildings have a roman flare. Only five of the Summit group went on the trip, but we had a great time looking around, climbing some trees and talking about the Roman baths that were made to the goddess Sulis. The Roman name for the town was Aquea Sulis.The next day was study day where I spent most of my time reading and writing my essay that was due today.

What miss about the US are following
-family
-Maranatha
-friends
-warm/hot water the whole time you are showering
-my guitar so I can try playing and doing a mini worship when I want a mini study break
-hills to run up
-not getting sick
-driving

I know that it is a random list but you would be surprised as to the random things you miss when abroad.