In the beginning...

Hello Everyone!

I have arrived. Here I am, in England. I am having difficulty comprehending a great deal of things lately, like the fact that I have entered Christ Church, eaten at the Eagle and Child, and happen to be living in Oxford at this very second... I am, at the moment sitting under a very lovely skylight in the tiny nook of a room that my roomate, Mia, and I live in. We live on the third floor of an old English house, which apparently used to be the servant quarters. :) Here is the wonderful view from our skylight.

You can vaguely see the reason Oxford is called "the city of dreaming spires" in the distance though it is a little to the left and behind a tall crane I chose to opt out of the picture. :) The room is small and oddly shaped, but Mia and I are glad to call it home.

So far I have been extremely blessed by two things I'm sure you all have been praying for. 1) I made it to Oxford. I have to say for a moment in Heathrow I thought I might be lost in London forever. It was wonderful to smell the sweet airport air again and hear the beautiful sound of planes roaring overhead, feeling you could go anywhere in the world if you really put your mind to it. However, the Heathrow shuttle system seems a little more intimidating than going just anywhere. Unfortunately I landed in the only terminal without a direct way to the bus station. My papers told me to go to Terminal 5, which required catching the right shuttle system (there were two that said the same thing, I'm still not sure where the other was going) and changing tracks. Fortunately your prayers aided my brain functions and I realized if I got off at any other terminal I could simply follow those directions instead. I caught the bus just before it left and my bus driver, who sounded very much like Alfred P. Dolittle ("I'm waiting to tell you, I'm willing to tell you, I'm wanting to tell you...") was very helpful. I got off at the right street and proceeded to pull my two roller suitcase down the lane, which was very much a lane. I didn't think cars would drive on it until I had to get out of their way. I had worried about cobblestones but got potholes instead. :) My suitcases are still in tact. After pulling through potholes for around ten minutes I began to wonder if I was on the wrong road, it feeling more and more obscure. Low and behold I arrived, and was soon happily being helped by my wonderful roomate to hoist my huge suitcases up a tiny servant's staircase to 3rd floor, number 17. Which leads me to 2). My roomate has been just wonderful. She is from Northern California and goes to William Jessup college. We have already had such a wonderful time together which included a 2am kitchen raid just this morning. Haylie, she is a morning person too. I think poor morning people should run at the sight of me coming, I have such a bad effect on them. :) Granted we are still on jetlag and it was generally supper time. Tomorrow I plan to go to church in Christ's Church, I had the oppurtunity to see it once already as I got to run around town the day I got here. (So much has happened in the last few days I feel I have been here a week!) When I arrived at The Vines (my house) a group was getting ready to go out. About twenty of us headed out into downtown Oxford, and I ended up splitting off with another student who shares one of my tutorials. We may be studying at New College and he had a way of getting into the grounds so we went to check it out, words cannot express what it feels like to be here!!! Being surrounded by the beauty and the history is something I can only dream of fully comprehending before I leave. And the minds of my fellow students. You never know what you will hear walking through The Vines. Last night, after running all around town and not having slept since Milligan, I had to go unpack and go to bed, leaving the most interesting conversation on the sin of man and perfection and "missing the mark" listening to people who knew scripture and plato so well now as I hope to ever know them. Incredible. Today I did a little shopping, though I am really still very unused to pounds. Jaywalking is a constant in Oxford and it is wonderful. I feel like I am back in the Philippines again. I have met people from different colleges (3 so far) who know people who went to highschool with me, one other MK from the Solomon islands, and just today (HA! I have only been here two days, I have to remind myself again.) I met someone who knows my old higschool principal. Please continue to pray for good fellowship and experiences, and especially that in a place and a people so rich in knowledge, fruit and God's truth will result from the meeting of minds. Thank you all for the support you are to me, and God bless.

~Your sore footed and very happy friend,

Heather