Trades

Now approaching my seventh week in the UK. It is amazing how fast my time is going. I have finished one of my tutorials and have doubled up my work for the other. This means that my work load has gotten a little larger, but only for the next two weeks. In the tutorial that I still have, I am learning about the history of trade. I started out with learning about guilds and then moved towards the history of France, Germany, and Russia. Later I did a paper on the Jewish and Islamic culture and their impact on trade, and last week I did a paper on the spice trade of Portugal. The trade of Portugal really interests me. A lot of the history is sad, but it is incredible to think that the reason why the Americas were discovered was to find a fast route for the simple ingredients of black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves! Isn't that amazing? Well, it is for me and my time reading about the history of Portugal last week made it my favorite week yet. As for this week, well by Tuesday, I am writing on the Dutch and English trade in Asia and moving toward the Americas.
What I forgot to mention in my last blog is that two weekends ago I went to Portsmouth. This was the popular sea port of England during the time of trade. That day I was able to go on a couple of ships where they have left them as they were during their time at sea in the 1700s and 1800s. I was surprised as to how well they were built. The engineering and precision for each ship catered to the captain and the crew. That evening a couple of friends and I watch Master and Commander to finish off our day at sea. I had not seen the movie and really enjoyed it, but what I enjoyed the most was the music. The soundtrack to that movie is quite good, there is a nice mix of strings.
Yesterday I went to Cambridge, the rival university of Oxford. It is nice, but not like my Oxford. I am biased. The town is smaller and the appeal is different. There are more stone buildings in Oxford, Cambridge had a lot of bricks. What is nice from Cambridge is King's College, Great St. Mary's church, Trinity College and Queen's College. The church of King's college was very beautiful, it had large stained glass windows that made up the majority of the walls of the church. The cool thing about the windows is it told the story of Jesus on one half and a the stories of the Old Testament on the other half.

Spring comes early here, flowers started blooming at the end of January and the country side stays green. The weather has been rainy but with some vitamin D, it does not really phase you.
I have been trying to run a little, just to see if the pain comes back to my foot and it has not quite yet, but I am trying to be very cautious about it.
Other than that, life here is going well and it is going to be hard to leave.

Meet Emily, my new British Friend

It is Friday in Oxford and I just got back from having dinner with a friend I made a couple weeks ago while attending a church. Her name is Emily, she is from England, studying French and Linguistics and is a first year. I met her when my friend Jordan when we attended an evening service of church that was supposed to be more charismatic. Emily was just standing there, pretty close to us with no one to talk to and so I started a conversation with her. Jordan and I talked to her until the service began. I liked her. She was smiling, she was friendly and was happy to meet another "American." Jordan and I left a little early because he had a skype date with his family and girlfriend, so I gave Emily my e-mail address so we could stay in contact.
Since then we tried another church service together and tonight she invited my friend Kasey and I for dinner and authentic chai! The food was amazing and she was such a great little host.  As we started talking about how the Brits perceive the Americans and vice versa we came to talking about how Emily became a Christian. Emily is of Indian decent so I was expecting this amazing conversion story about how her parents got saved or how she got saved and is living a life for Christ, but to my amazement, this did not happen. Our conversation went to Emily's belief that everyone's religion ties to the same God, that Jesus was just a "jolly" prophet with good practices, and that everyone wants happiness. My bubble of beliefs popped and my mirror shattered of what I thought my friendship was going to look like with Emily. We talked about why she believes what she believes for quite some time and after butting heads on many topics, and me being very vocal and passionate on what I believe, our conversation came to a halt, it almost broke our friendship. Kasey and I talked with Emily for some time after and then we left. Our conversation reminded me about how long it has been since I have shared my faith with anyone. When I was in Cru (Campus Crusades for Christ) it was expected of us to go sharing and I did, but I would get frustrated when I could not see eye to eye with people. What is wrong with them? What is wrong with me? Emily did ask good questions that any non-believer would ask such as, why can't all paths lead to God, what makes you so sure about the Bible and why are there contradictions, or why do Christians think they are so right about how to get to heaven? These questions are so important to understanding God's compassion but somehow we miss the point of Christianity. The frustration I feel right now and while talking with Emily is probably exactly how God feels with all of us, and yet he loves us, me! It is so hard for me to see anyone do or go in a direction I know is not right. It is just how I think. But that is something I am learnig to work on and spending time with Emily has been worth this whole trip.
Emily and I plan on going to church this Sunday together.

As for this past week, not too much has happened. On Valentine's Day the girls from the flat below invited me for dinner, chocolate and to watch a movie. I liked talking to Elena and Jenna. Elena is from Ithaca and so we reminisce about the area, and Jenna is so sweet to talk to. Later that week I simply had school work and Kasey and I went to some lectures on Christian worldviews. They were led by Micheal Ramsden from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (Kasey is a huge fan of RZIM). I enjoyed seeing a British outreach led by St Ebbes Church. Other than that, the week went by super fast and I only have three more weeks of the term before our Summit session begins.

Patience

The past week and a half have not been too eventful. Last week I had the regular 2 papers due along with the readings, Kevin Bywater readings, and mini adventures I find myself in when looking for a library that has a book I need to read. It is amazing how large this campus  is, I only thought Minnesota was big! The university is clearly  spread out across the city. I think  it is nice when you have the time to walk around and discover different areas, but when in a time crunch- not so much.

It is surprising at the amount of libraries there are. Each college has a library, but also every department. Yesterday as I was looking for the Sciences and Continuing Education Library for a book about Russia during the 1910-20s, I came across three other libraries that looked like they were in a house. I also ran into a running store and had a peek of what they were selling.   ;-)

About running, so last Wednesday I must have pulled a ligament in my foot because Thursday, while I was walking, I had a pain on the bottom of my foot. I did not think too much about the pain because I had done so much walking that day. Friday morning, went for a run and hated it. My foot killed! Rested the foot as much as I could-everyday there is a 10-25 minute walk to the library or anywhere-but it did not get better. I tried orthopedic cushions and they made it feel worse. So I decided to go to the General Practitioner (there is no way to see a Podiatrist without seeing the GP first) and they had nothing new to tell me. I paid 30 pounds for 10 minutes of what I was already doing and aware of, but they did give me the order of not running for a MONTH! I am not sure if I am more mad about the money I feel like I wasted or the news they told me which did not surprise me.  What is done is done and I am just trying to think of this as another lesson for me to learn from. This past year I have had three leg or foot injuries and now I am beginning to wonder why. It is a little frustrating because I truly love running because of the peace and challenge it gives me. Around Oxford there are a lot of trails and some in the pasture with the horses. I guess I will just have to wait until I am strong again. 

-Patience

If anyone knows more about foot injuries, let me know. It has not felt any better since last week and I am not sure how I can strengthen it!

Other than running, this week I have been learning a lot  about Russia's history. It is really sad how the leaders of Russia have tortured and killed their own people. A lot of people might think of Stalin-who is responsible for about 70 million deaths IN THE 20th CENTURY- but turmoil and strife run far into their past with Ivan the 'Terrible' and Peter the Great. I have never been drawn to the Russian history or people probably because I did not want to face the facts of their history. In some ways, I feel like that is how a lot of life is in general. Why read or look for hurt in the news or in history if it makes you feel bad? Maybe because it is a duty as human beings to realize that the world is chaos and before you know it, it might be in your own backyard! Or so that you do not repeat history.

But how do you deal with the news today? I am not quite sure, but what I am trying to do is ask God for wisdom. He holds the moral standards of man and eternity, why would he not know how to guide us in our everyday walk? I hate hearing about the desperate and the inhumane treatment of people, especially innocent people. Yet, God sees our actions and suffers with us today, yesterday, all of history and into the future. How much longer will we wait for the second coming?

-Patience