Currently Reading Idylls of the King (Penguin Classics) By Alfred Tennyson see related

Exploring, biking, beering, Londoning & reading.

I won’t be cheap this time and just copy my E-mail into here. After I sent out the last E-mail, I realized that I left quite a few things out of it.

The past week has been really awesome. Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way…classes. They are so much work. In most of my spare time all I do is read—that’s all everyone around here does. I’m fortunate to have mostly literary classes, so it’s plays and novels and poetry that I get to read, not textbooks. But still, it’s a lot of reading.

The staff here do a lot for us. In addition to cleaning the rooms and doing our linens and stuff they plan all these little extras. Last Thursday they had a big bonfire for us. They cooked all sorts of delectable meats over the fire and made baked potatoes. They bonfire was an enormous ball of flame over which we roasted marshmallows. I got mine near perfection, then dropped the whole s’more as I tried eating it. It was a sad display of humanity.

Me + Kelli

We went exploring at the bonfire. We're in the woods.

On Wednesday we went into the nearest real town. (The village of Wroxton is right out our gate, but it’s just homes, churches and some pubs. Thatched roofs and everything.) Banbury is roughly five minutes up the road and it has everything one could possibly desire. The group I was with ventured around town like hooligans until we found a pub suitable for our needs. It was big night for me—I had my first pint of beer. This was a bittersweet experience. Sweet in that it was a good time and it was my first beer. Bitter in that everyone that it would have been the most fun/would have wanted to be there most wasn’t there. So, I promise all of you, we’ll recreate it at a later date in time. Perhaps December 16^th.

Our Valiant Knight

Kelli, Chivalry + I

We took this while waiting to go into Banbury. There are just random suits of armor around the Abbey.

The Priory

Dilara (So lovingly nicknamed "Dilli"), Mike, Christina, me, Beth, Lalah + Amanda

Yeah...it's a picture.

Lalah, me + April

Ummmm, please. Take note: my drink is empty.

Early Friday we left for London. What I love most about cities is how each one has a completely different feel and atmosphere than any other. London definitely is unlike any other city I’ve visited, so that was exciting. The history is truly astounding. It just pounds in from every direction. Going into detail about everything would take way too long, so I won’t. We went to museums and saw Big Ben and the Tower of London and all sorts of things. We didn’t have a real agenda, so we just kind of flowed around the city. Which was neat; we could do it at our own leisure and not worry about schedules. We saw Chicago. We tried to see about five other shows, but we got there too late in the day to get a good deal on anything but Chicago. It was funny because I kept forgetting that I was in London, and that everything they were saying about America was just blatantly making fun of us. It was good. My goal before leaving this country is to see Mary Poppins.

Generic

Beth, me + Christina

I think we chose the worst phone booth ever. It was still fun though.

Westminster

Kelly, Amanda, Beth, Krystin, Christina, me, April + Lalah.

We were just hanging around Westminster, figuring out what to do next.

Tower Bridge

It was so beautiful here. We were there just as the sun was setting.

Mt. Water

April, Krystin + I

Ridiculously packaged and priced "bottles" of water in Harrod's.

The past few days have mostly been comprised of classes and tutorials. Last night we saw Cyrano—a ballet based off Cyrano de Bergerac. It was so good. I’ve never been to a ballet before, so it was completely new experience. It was really beautiful, and the way they told the story was incredible.

The best news ever is that it’s snowing today. We’ve already gotten several inches, and it’s still coming down. It’s unusual for Britain to get this much snow, so everything is pretty chaotic outside of campus. But it’s all very serene here. I feel like I’m in Narnia…the landscape with snow is breathtaking. There a few lampposts sprinkling the grounds as well. We’re hoping to find something to go sledding on, because we have some perfect hills out back. We’ll see. There’s bound to be something doable around here. I'll have pictures up later.

Hahah…now it’s time for some Wroxton foibles. We’d heard that there were bikes available for student use, so Kelli, Bill and I decided we wanted to go on a quaint bicycle adventure across the English countryside. We got the keys to the shed and picked out a few bikes…only to discover that each had at least one flat tire. We trekked back into reception to get the bike pump. I’m going to condense the following 45 minute period because it included us doing everything in our power to fill the stupid bikes with air. There was even a roll of Scotch tape involved. Finally, at our lowest point, a gentle old man came out and offered his assistance. In our shame of inability, we agreed and within minutes he’d gone in to retrieve the working pump and had filled each tire sufficiently with air. Well, we were uncontrollable excited and were off for our adventure. Sadly, the tale does not end there. We were just out of the gate, and I noticed something off with my riding. Just as I turned to look at my tires saying, “It feels like I have a flat tire” Kelli sighed, “It’s because you do.” Wahhhhh. Bill and Kelli’s bikes were fine, but mine was still in no shape to ride. So we dejectedly returned to the Abbey. We’re going to conquer the bikes by the end of the semester. There’s one in the shed that’s just my size call the Free Spirit. I’m going to try that one out next.

Victory?

Bill + I

This was at a point when we thought we'd figured it out. Unfortunately, we hadn't so our sense of accomplishment was comopletely false.

True Love

Kind maintenance man + I

hahahaha. I was trying to sneak up to get a picture. I wasn't too sly.

Defeat.

Me + Bill

My tire is flat, and Bill is gleefully gloating that his bike is still operational.

I was going to tell about my first experience doing laundry, but it’s far too involved and involves so many people that it would take too much time. And I don’t have fun pictures to accompany it. Hahahaha. Oh, I wish I had photos of that.

So tomorrow I’m going to Oxford for the day and Sunday it’s Kenilworth castle. After a slight mix up, I’m not going to Liverpool. Which will upset Joe for the sake of the Beatles and Jen for the sake of the Titanic. I’m sort of sad, buts too late now. I’m outta here. It’s only 10:05am. I don’t have class today so I’m going to kill some reading.

Here's a picture from last weekend in Statford:

Kelli, Selena + I

hahaha. I don't know what we're doing. But it's pretty funny.

Shakespeare, Disco & a Dove Cote

I'm going to be super lazy and rip off the E-mail that I sent to a lot of you as this Xanga. Sorry if you're a double dipper. I promise I won't do it all the time.  BUT, Xanga gets the photos that the E-mail doesn't.

Cheerio!

Ok, so I haven’t really heard anyone say that—yet. For those of you who I haven’t been in touch with for a while, and are wondering why you’re receiving this, I’m spending a semester in England. And this is my update to all of you.

Sorry it’s taken me a few days. I think I’m almost used to the time change; I’m five hours ahead of you. Most of you probably aren’t awake yet, it’s not even 8:00am on the East coast.

Life here has been pretty exciting so far. It’s a castle, for real. It was built in the 16^th century and lots of famous and noble people have lived or stayed here, including the former prime minister of Great Britain. Insane.

My friend April and I are rooming together in what’s labeled the “Queen’s Room”. It’s appropriate. We’ve gotten into the habit of making people take off their shoes upon entering then kissing our rings.

The Abbey (the castle) is really neat. There are several sweet libraries, a million rooms—all of which have interesting quirks like winding staircases or secret hutches—a chapel, lots of mysterious staircases. The list goes on. The best room, and my current location is a big reading room. It’s got a really intricate plaster ceiling, wood paneling on the walls, a giant carved fireplace and the most amazing fleet of red leather chairs and couches. I feel like I should be wearing a smoking jacket, smoking a cigar and swirling a glass of brandy.

The grounds are beautiful. There are lakes and miniature waterfalls and gardens and swans and sheep and dove cote (!?!?!) and rolling hills. It’s unbelievable, really. When everything is more in bloom I’ll be sure to send pictures.

The flight was good, they just kept feeding us and I didn’t get much sleep. Friday was such a long day because we hadn’t really slept and they had a bunch of activities for us to orient us to the Abbey.

Saturday was fun. We went into Stratford-upon-Avon and saw the generic sites of Shakespeare’s various homes and affiliations. We wandered around and got some shopping done that we needed. After we got back to the Abbey we had dinner* then they hosted a “disco” in the pub. (We have a little pub in the Carriage House here on the grounds; it’s called the Buttery.) It was a lot of fun, we all just relaxed and hung out and had a generally ridiculous time.

Yesterday they gave us some more formal tours of the grounds and house, very educational. Then we had a terrible 7 hours of lectures, with tea time and a meal injected in there.

I had my first two classes today. It ended up being four consecutive hours with the same husband-wife tag-team professors. They’re going to be really awesome classes. Between those two classes alone we’re already seeing 8 plays in various theatres. Next week we have to get dressed up because it’s a world premier!

**My asterisk about “dinner” is to give my impressions British food. It’s absolutely delicious. I have absolutely no complaints. Some things are different. As the Dean here would say, “Not better, not worse; just different”. It’s really good though. I approve whole-heartedly.

 Sorry I don't have a whole lot of pictures yet. Hopefully I'll be modifying that shortly.

The Reading Room

The aforementioned room.

Wroxton Abbey 

My home.

I'm the the second floor, third window from the left. The first window is hidden in shadows. 

"Just imagine them all in church, in their little dress clothes."

One week from right now I'll be flying over the Atlantic. Insane.

Life, generally, has been boring. The most exciting part of my week was going into the city with Jen to meet Ben for din din then Joe and Joel at UCB. It was my first time, and I loved it. At one point, the whole audience was quiet and Ben snorted. Then everyone laughed. I'm sorry, Ben. It was just too funny. The boys wanted to kill Jen and I because all we could talk about were J--- and S---- S---- and, on a slightly lesser note, J--- P----. I'm leaving their names not filled in for fear that they read my Xanga, or that one of you is strangely close to them and would tell them. Really, the only other person who would be slightly amused by our fleeting obsession would be Annie. So, Annie, I'll let ya know.

I've been working for the Dahmers every morning. Today we had a "Pot Fest" in the kitchen. It was a good time, Jen and Robert are budding musicians. Not. They're not even a year; who can tell? Some bookstore action here and there.

Warren Hills Idol was tonight. It was a riot, as usual. But we won't go into the politics of if all via the Internet. (QUESTION: Is the Internet supposed to be capitalized?)

If you want to recieve some updates while I'm in England, send me your E-mail address. I don't think anyone reads this, though. And if you do, and are too ashamed to admit, that's ok. I've definitely got a list of people who I stalk via the Internet who I don't think I'd ever tell. Uhhhh..what?

-Krizzle

Currently Listening Mute Math By Mute Math Ummm...all of it. see related

^^Amaaaazing.Current favorite? Chaos. Some choice lyrics are as follows:

I know you stay true when my world is false,
everything around’s breaking down to chaos.
I always see you when my sight is lost ,
everything around’s breaking down to chaos.

WhoWhat?

I know, this is pretty remarkable. I find that my Xanga entries are far more profound if I let months pass between them.

Ok. That's a lie. I'm just too lazy and or busy to update. My life just isn't that interesting.

Ok. That's also a lie. (Will you ever believe anything I write on here again?) My life has been incredibly "interesting" over the past few weeks.

Umm, first of all. I'll do a speen re-cap of life since the last time Xanga and I have met. The summer was absolutely remarkable. I love my friends. There's really no other way to express it. This past semester was pretty rad, as well. Break has been good. But weird. Which, I suppose, brings me to the present which also means that I did a lousy job of summing things up. Oh, well.

I went to Christmas Conference with Campus Crusade for Christ over New Year's. It was in Washington, DC. It was a really neat time. I got to hang out with a lot of really awesome people and hear a lot from God. He decided that it was about time I really gave control of my life to Him. I'd pseudo-accomplished that. But for real, He turned my life upside down in a matter of 12 hours.

I'm not really one who makes New Year's Resolutions. At least serious ones. Occasionally it'll be something like, "I'll drink more water" or--my favorite--one year I said that I'd really chew my food 42 times. Yeah, that lasted one bit up to count number 27 when I realized it was way too much work. But leading into New Year's God kept putting the word change on my heart. I didn't really understand it. How does that even make sense for a Resolution? One needs a little bit more direction than simply "change". Well, as my time in DC wore on I realized that He wanted to change a lot of assumptions and plans I'd made for my own life.

Ok, I can deal with that. It hurts, but I'd rather obey than lead a life based on my own plan instead of God's.

This past Tuesday my dad was asked to resign. There's really not much bigger of a change that could occur in my life. Starting one week from today, my dad does not have a job. In a matter of months we'll have to move out of our house. Weird stuff.

When God works, He really works. Honestly, I'm ok with all of this. My family has been more joyful and content in the past week than I can ever remember. It's awesome.

The future? For once, I have absolutely no clue. But the excitement lies ahead in the unknown.

What I do know is that I have a flight that leaves at seven something on January 25th for England, and I'll be there for the semester. Yeah, I'm pretty pumped. If you want mail with an English postmark, give me your address. I'll send you something wonderful. I have some requests already. K-Flem gave me specific requirements: something British dealing with alcohol that costs less than $2.00. I'll do my best. Any other requests? Ehhhh. We've got time.

If you have any inclination, you're welcome to visit me. I have accomodations available for pretty cheap. I'm super excited because I have three people from Jersey that rendezvous plans are in the making. Honestly, who says, "Yeah...I'll meet you in Paris." Who has a life like that?? I will for 3 1/2 months. Insane. I love it.

Hmmm. Some other things in life. I'm finally obssessed with The Office. It's been a long time coming, with recommendations from multiple people. I can't get enough of it. I'm also obsessed with the 11 1/2 month old twins I nanny for. One of which, ironically and oddly enough, has a strangely coincidental resemblance to Dwight Schrute. I'm working on a mini-photo shoot to prove this theory.

My plan is to update this while abroad. (Weird. I'm going "abroad".)

Cheerio!

Oh, some nuggets that I've been loving lately:

If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.  Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.  2 Corinthians 5:13-15

Isaiah 6:8
And then I heard the voice of the Master:
          "Whom shall I send?
           Who will go for us?"
 I spoke up,
             "I'll go.
              Send me!"