Home.

So, I'm home.

sister-daddy date

I got back to Lusaka a couple of weeks ago, and have had a great time getting back into the swing of things here - waving down the guy on the street corner to bargain for tomatoes, going on runs in my neighborhood and high-fiving all the cute little kids playing in the streets, taking Kelsey to school for finals and trying not to get hit passing tractors on Leopard's Hill, baking chocolate avocado cake, going to Bible study, catching up with old friends and getting to know new friends - I love being back!

grocery shopping with Cowie and what does she find?
HAPPY COW CHEESE! so perfect.

taking Kels to her first IB Exam -
nothing like a little T-Swift singalong to get PUMPED!

After living with an impressive bunch of literature buffs for the past 3 months, I've taken it upon myself to make a personal summer reading list. I know, I dreaded them in high school, but this summer I'm really excited for it. Without papers to write, I have so much more time to read (and bake, and paint, and play piano, and sing, and run....!) . The list is now nicely magneted to the fridge so it won't get brushed aside and forgotten (another flashback to high school summer reading, and my mom's constant reminders to get my books read before the last week of summer. Somehow, the time always seemed to fly by and the books seemed to remain unopened until that last week...). I just finished the first book on my list: C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy (one book done, a minor feat in and of itself, if you know how little I read for fun...).


Surprised by Joy, as some of you may know - and probably all of you Oxford friends do know since you're all crazy Lewis scholars - is the story of Lewis' life and his faith journey. Having spent time in England, I had a much greater appreciation for his tales of growing up and heading off to university in England. He also goes to war in the book, which I can fully picture now that I am caught up on both seasons of Dowton Abbey (watching tv: another result of neither Kelsey nor I being at school or working yet!).

However, one of the most meaningful parts of the whole narrative, in my opinion, happens near the end:

I was going up Headington Hill on the top of a bus...I felt myself being, there and then, given a free choice. I could open the door or keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armour or keep it on...The choice appeared to be momentous but it was also strangely unemotional. I was moved by no desires or fears. In a sense I was not moved by anything. I chose to open, to unbuckle, to loosen the rein. 


So, although I am no longer riding up Headington Hill every afternoon to get home to the Vines, it was and indeed always will be the very hill upon which C.S. Lewis finally opened his heart to believe in God. I'd say that's a Highlight from Headington Hill if there ever was one. :] I miss it, but I can look back and see the awesome journey God led me on this semester and the great friends I've gained for a lifetime. No more ridiculous midnight cookie baking adventures, study breaks at the Vines' piano, bike rides through Port Meadow, afternoon teas, or Simon Schama videos....but SO many great memories that will last forever!

And, I am really getting excited for the fall - it will be great to be back at W&M....singing with the beloved Intonations, running in CW (....and maybe hitting up the richmond half marathon again with Katherine), rooming with Annie (!!!), getting back into church at Relevant, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones - I can't wait!

Thanks for reading along this semester! If you have any book suggestions I should add to my summer list...leave a comment!

Time of Our Lives

Tyrone Wells pretty much sums up this past term in this song.....

This is where the chapter ends
And new one now begins
Time has come for letting go
The hardest part is when you know
All of these years 
When we were here 
Are ending
But I'll always remember

We have had the time of our lives
And now the page is turned
The stories we will write
We have had the time of our lives
And I will not forget the faces left behind
It's hard to walk away from the best of days
But if it has to end,
 I'm glad you have been my friend
In the time of our lives

Where the water meets the land
There is shifting in the sand
Like the tide that ebbs and flows
Memories will come and go

All of these years 
When we were here 
Are ending
But I'll always remember

We have had the time of our lives
And now the page is turned
The stories we will write
We have had the time of our lives
And I will not forget the faces left behind
It's hard to walk away from the best of days
But if it has to end, 

I'm glad you have been my friend
In the time of our lives

We say goodbye, we hold on tight
To these memories that never die
We say goodbye, we hold on tight
To these memories that never die

We have had the time of our lives
And now the page is turned
The stories we will write
We have had the time of our lives
And I will not forget the faces left behind
It's hard to walk away from the best of days
But if it has to end, 
I'm glad you have been my friend
In the time of our lives

I'm glad you have been my friend, 
In the time of our lives

Wrapping it all up

beautiful england...on a sunny morning

As I ride through the English countryside on my post-term family vay-cay to Scotland, the world is whizzing past us in a blur. I realise now that my final weeks of my term at Oxford have come in gone in the same way. The term is over, and I can now smilingly look back and see how far we’ve come. Between the eight weeks of term and the subsequent five-week crash-course on British history, I feel that my mind has been stretched a refreshing, new way. The Oxford educational system really knows what it’s doing with the whole tutorial deal.

The hills outside my window, now cloaked in a blanket of cheery, mustard-yellow wildflowers display the vibrancy and life of this place, despite the dark clouds hanging low in the sky. England is an absolutely magical place. It’s different from what I expected, to be certain, but it’s a pleasant kind of different. Life seems to move at a more reasonable pace here, leaving time for long held traditions like afternoon tea and scones. In Oxford, almost everyone walks or cycles, rain or shine. No getting caught in afternoon gridlock, no road rage. You can take the train all over the place, and actually have time (and a view) to experience the journey. It’s something the US has quite unfortunately moved beyond – so it thinks – in search of becoming more efficient, quicker, and more accessible. No part of me wants to go back yet, but I know that I have to.

I have learned so much here – and made some of the BEST friends I’ve ever had – and I hate to say goodbye to all of it. But, I am looking forward to a great time in Scotland this week to wrap it all up and - as my dear friend Jesse would say - "process" everything before heading home.