Bake me a cake!

birthday cake for connor!

One of the most fabulous aspects of living in the Vines is a shared joy for baking. I have LOVED getting to bake with my housemates. While oatmeal banana chocolate muffins are still my go-to, we have also made some delicious berry scones, a chocolate (with mocha frosting!) cake for Connor’s birthday, and all sorts of cookies. A few girls have been creative enough to venture into the realm of granola bars and baked oatmeal bars for breakfast. And it’s not just the girls - Christoph makes dinners rolls from scratch, I’ve tasted Anthony’s great Irish soda bread, and Tom is quite the banana bread baker…so much baking talent!

Kim and Jesse

However, with so many people living in one house, it’s pretty much a given that whatever you make will be consumed by everyone in sight in just a few minutes. But, I love the community aspect of our house, and I love having my baking be appreciated by my many hungry housemates (and I’ve quickly learned to freeze any muffins I want to save for future breakfasts!). There's nothing more fun than late-night baking with friends and sharing the tastiness with whoever is passing through the kitchen. :D

Got any good baking ideas?? Send them my way and we’ll check them out!

decorating time

the finished product!

3rd Week Update

the Bodleian Library, a perfect place to escape
the cold rainy weather (HP scenes filmed inside!)

Upon noting the other day that nobody gets any sunlight here because they’re always trapped in these dark libraries being studious and escaping the rain, I was told the wonderful theory that Oxford is a perfect spot for academia only because of its dreary weather, and that if in fact it had nicer weather, people here would be far less studious and intelligent. It’s a thought, for sure.

I had two tutorials last week, which meant lots of reading/writing. But, everyone at the Vines is extremely supportive of each other…meaning that on the night before my second essay was due, I was greeted in the study room at midnight by Laz with a mug of hot tea and a word of encouragement, and Andrew with a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie from his food group. Such. Good. Community.

focus group breakfast at Bex's - complete with tea and crumpets :)

On Friday, I caught up with Jake Hill, who’s also studying at Oxford, and then I finally accomplished one of my top priorities for being in England: to attend a football match! Wycliffe didn’t win (we were playing one of the toughest teams, I hear), but Connor – and the rest of the team – played great! As the sole supporters, Elisabeth, Jesse and I have decided to make it a weekly event….and to encourage everyone else to come along too (and hopefully wear our team’s colours next time, or at least not the opposing team’s...)!

Over the weekend I also had the chance to attend an evangelism seminar at St. Ebbes with my Focus Group. We met up for an early breakfast of tea, crumpets, and marmalade (the british know how to do breakfast) at Bex’s place in Queen's College beforehand, and then headed to St. Ebbes to learn about being an effective evangelist in our own communities. It was great!

Overheard in the Vines kitchen:

Bystander A: What is that in that pot?

Bystander B: Um, it looks like onions.

Bystander C: No, I thought it was potatoes.

Me: Really? It smells like peaches.

Bystander D: I have no idea. I’m guessing it’s Laz.

(Found out later….it was pears. And not Laz’s.)

Zak: I typically boil the water before I add the pasta. But, you know, that’s just what I do. I’m sure that putting it in first is like a thing….. 

(pasta is removed from water)

(10 minutes later, water still is not boiling)

Tom: I definitely turned the stove on. Hmm. I think maybe I turned it up sooo high that I turned it back off.

(another successful dinner at the Vines)

a fun night out in oxford!

love these girls

So brill.

downtown at sunset...it's magic

One week of class down! And, I finally attended my first tutorial yesterday morning. I admit, attempting to read (seemingly) every text ever published on the purpose of Luke’s writing in less than a week to prepare for it seemed daunting. Especially when I opened the first book on my reading list to find that a) There were whole paragraphs in Greek, and b) Theology has an entire vocabulary of its own, which, in the same way as the Greek, seemed like a foreign language to me.

However, seven short days later I arrived at my tutorial with two crisp copies of my essay, ready to read it aloud to my tutor. The process took almost an hour as he paused me along the way to discuss my arguments and offer other insight into the topic. Stressful? Slightly. Incredibly rewarding? Definitely. Such personalised feedback to my research and clarification of my understanding will make for a good deal of learning over the next eight weeks, that’s for sure.

 St. Ebbe's Church!

Last night, after making dinner in a kitchen bustling with friends, music, and all sorts of interesting food, I headed to Focus (the student small group Bible studies at St. Ebbe’s). Diving straight into the scripture, we discussed the way we as Christians too often forget the commands Christ has given us because we are so focused on the “Christian” traditions we practice, and how, like the Pharisees, it's so easy to say all the right things while our hearts aren't in the right place (Mark 7, it’s worth reading!). It was an important reminder at the beginning of a new semester, and it was such an encouragement to see hundreds of students gathered to get into the Word here in Oxford.


I cycled home from St. Ebbe's in a light drizzle (and about 45 degrees out), and in that moment I just knew that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. It’s a hard feeling to articulate in writing….A sort of tingly warmth and happiness and contentment and peace and eager anticipation for what is to come, all at once. It's great to know that regardless of the workload or anything else this semester, I'm where God wants me.


In other news:
1. I think I'm becoming weirdly well-adapted to the weather here. Yesterday, when I saw that it was a balmy 45° F out, I left my gloves at home to bike into town. Since when is 45° no-glove weather?! 
2. The Brits have shortened a word before we Americans thought of it: BRILL. Short for brilliant. I can't get over it. New favorite word.

First day of school!

Love these girls!

It really is impossible to say what the future will bring. And I’m the last person to recognise that; I spend way too much of my time dreaming up exactly what my future will look like. But today, as I woke up and realised it’s the first day of school, and I’m in Oxford, England, I was reminded that dang, God has sweeter plans for us than we can even imagine. A year – or even 4 months – ago I would never have dreamed of waking up for the first school day of 2012 being at Oxford. But here I am, backpack on and ready to go!

After a brief and very cold run this morning to wake me up, I set off to attend my first Oxford lectures: one on applied Christian ethics (also the topic of my secondary tutorial), and another on 20^th century Christology. I found my way to the examination schools (lectures building….) with the directional help of some friendly Oxford students on High Street, and made it to both lectures on time. The lecturers were great, and the topics were fascinating. The lecture rooms were unnecessarily cold, but perhaps that’s the British way of keeping everyone in class awake and encouraging us all to drink more tea when we’re done, both of which I did. Not that I need an excuse to drink tea.


The Oxford system is completely different from the US system; we attend lectures (of our choosing), and then take 2 tutorials. Tutorials are one-on-one courses taught by scholars in a certain field, mine being theology. This term I am taking Christian Moral Reasoning and Luke-Acts. Each week I'm given a lengthy reading list and expected to write a 10-page research paper for each tutorial answering a question my tutor asks. I bring a printed copy of the paper to each meeting and read it aloud to my tutor and then discuss it, no pressure! 

found a sunny spot in Wycliffe - time to read!

When I asked my Luke-Acts tutor which translation of Luke-Acts I should read before my first tutorial, he told me that he'd prefer that I read it in Greek. When I admitted my lack of experience with Greek (aside from the yogurt, of course), he said that I could just read his translation if I'd like. Turns out he's translated and published the whole New Testament (and most of the OT, to be completed soon!), and his translations and commentary are available at bookstores. This fact certainly humbled me, but I feel honored to be studying under such an accomplished theologian. 


Enough procrastinating - it's essay time!

Weekend adventures

Londonnn

Over the weekend, we took a whirlwind day-trip to London. With Simon and Sam as our guides, we learned and experienced much more of London than most tourists do in a week, I’m quite sure. Between the monument of the fire of London, Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, the first coffee shop in London, many of Wren’s chapels, the tower of London, Trafalgar Square, an evensong service at St. Paul’s cathedral, and dinner in a pub – we did it all. It was a lot of fun to be a tourist, but we were all ready to get back to Oxford at the end of the day.

First dinner with the FUN FOOD FAMILY!

Yesterday was the first day of food groups! Instead of all 40-odd people in the Vines cooking for themselves every night, we have devised a system (rather loosely…) of groups who trade off cooking and eating amongst themselves. Connor and I were on duty last night, so we took a trip to Iceland and then cooked up one of my all-time faves, Sherri’s Greek pasta :) I look forward to sharing meals with these folks every night!

London from the top of the Monument - So worth the 311-step climb!

Tower Bridge, London

Buckingham Palace

And so it begins...

Oxford spires from The Vines

I thought blogging was obnoxious. Amusing yes, but obnoxious nonetheless. In fact, I still think that. But alas, here I am, pen in hand. I love adventures. I love mystery. I love culture. I love dreaming. I love exploration. And, I enjoy writing. So, here goes.

To me, visiting a new place is like tasting a new menu item for the first time, rich with unexpected flavor, a bit of exotic spice, a punch of heat that surprises you as you swallow. England, despite it's lack of culinary grandeur, is definitely a place that has been a refreshing, new, bold taste in my mouth. One that I can't get enough of.

Sam's world class city tour. 

Thankfully, I am in Oxford for four months, so I will have plenty of time to take in the best of British culture, and undertake as many adventures as I possibly can. In our first days at our new home, The Vines, my housemates and I began a bucket list...it looks like we'll be keeping ourselves pretty busy. :) Within less than a week, I have learned to ride a bike the British way (No sidewalks. No left turns on red. No riding without lights on your bike at night. Who knew bike headlights even existed?!), carry my groceries home on my handlebars, walk around the city without getting lost (or at least without looking lost...), kneel at the appropriate times in church, stay awake during orientation, cook with 10 other people in the kitchen, and navigate the incredibly ambiguous - not to mention huge - library system of Oxford. We have certainly taken the city by storm, stopping to sip tea in any spare moment we have, of course.

Rad Cam library....puts Swem to shame I'm afraid.

I am ecstatic to be here, and as excited (and terrified!) as I am for classes to start next week, I am even more thrilled simply to be part of a true Christian academic community. It's a breath of fresh air I have waited much too long to take, and I can't express how invigorating it is to be living with 40 other SCIO students. Coming from across the US and a wide variety of backgrounds, we all have different views (....and thus some heated debates), different academic interests, and different extracurricular passions, but at the end of the day we all are here to glorify the same God. It's a phenomenon I've never experienced, and I absolutely love it. God is good.


Tutorials (and reading, and stress, and papers) start next week. For now, it's time to hit the local pub and enjoy each other's company!

at The White Horse with Connor, Jesse, and Katie