Echoing of Voices

Today was our last day in dear Oxford, and as it is Sunday we had a day off!

In the morning, we attended the said mattins service at Christ Church, in a beautiful cathedral with large stained-glass windows and a beautiful text to read! Psalm 107. Incidentally, Christ Church is the place where they filmed the Great Hall scenes in Harry Potter (!!!!), and though it was closed when we went, still, WE WERE THERE. 

Then we walked through Magdalen College, pronounced "Maudlin"(confusing), the college C.S. Lewis taught at. It was beautiful, even more so than everything else we've seen here, which is something. The gardens in the quad are incredible, full of different kinds and colors of flowers! We saw the building his office was in, and then we walked the same walk he would take. Although it is a tourist attraction, it was not crowded and the area had a very introspective but welcoming atmosphere about it, and, of course, I loved it. 

 Flowers in the quad

walking on the path with the chapel spires in the background

Afterwards we went to tea! Which was delicious, very fun and quaint, but there were a LOT of us that went and I think we were a little overwhelming for the small restaurant. We went to the Old Parsonage hotel!

And we had vespers tonight! Which was amazing. As I wrote Bren:

It was incredible. We met in the small chapel next to our dorm, it had high, vaulted stone ceilings and red velvet cushions on the old dark wooden benches with beautiful tiles on the floors, and we sang! Our voices FILLED the chapel and echoed and it was beautiful, everybody came!! Then I got up, and i've really felt that our group needs to be open and candid with how we're doing with each other, so I started! I got in front of everyone and told what I was feeling (I'm not sure what God's purpose is for me on this trip...) and read them the verse that I had been praying through (Colossians 1:9-14--real good) and encouraged people that it is very important that they were on this trip and that God had good work to do in each of us! And then I invited other people to share whatever they were feeling... and they actually did! Girls AND guys! (which is important, because guys aren't really "sharers".) People sang at the top of their lungs, and prayed, and took communion, and afterwards they all said they loved it, were so refreshed! God is AWESOME. AH!

I love you!

This, My Friend...

is Oxford!

I'm thriving here. There are buildings here from the 1600's. There are buildings here from the 1300's. Old stone architecture lines the cobblestone streets and coffeehouses boast about the year they were created (hundreds of years ago),  the modern shopping street is divided by an old graveyard. The atmosphere  of rich academia and secret beauty seeps from the history of this place---I'm not doing it justice. It's indescribable.

 Me, posing with the old door that leads into St. Edmunds. We have keys that get us into St. Edmund's library, chapel, and dorms! St. Edmund is very, very generous.

One of the many tucked-away gardens in our college area, this is next to our dorm building in the courtyard. :)

Needless to stay, I will come back here.

But what an opportunity we have as a study group staying in Oxford! We are staying in St. Edmund's Hall, one of the colleges that makes up the university. Guys and girls are separated into different dorms but out windows open up to each other over a courtyard. When we first got our keys and went up to our rooms we looked out the windows and discovered that, though we were separated, we could see each other. Two/three stories up, we flung open the windows and sat on the windowsills, waving and yelling and laughing and acting like complete idiots but it was fantastic. Already the group camaraderie is strong and we feel like family. I can't imagine what we'll be like in a few weeks time!

Hey! We know them!

Now we can say that we lived and studied at Oxford.

The first night we were here, last night, we went to The Eagle and Child tavern, the "watering hole" of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. It was so amazing to think that these writers had sat in the very same place we were, plus, the food was very good. To embrace the England-ness I orders and "steak and vintage ale pie", and it was delicious. It also came with mash. Today I tried mushy peas. Why, oh why, is that the thing to eat in England? Why mushy peas? Why not normal, grown-up peas?

The Eagle and Child! (or, as they called it, "The Bird and Baby"

 Fish and Chips! The best we've had so far.

The only quote on the wall, but what a good one. Quite appropriate.

Today we had class and then went hunting for a good afternoon tea place. We found some, but we needed reservations so we made them for Sunday at 3! I'll keep you updated on how that goes :)

Today was very, very wet. It poured for about an hour two times, and both times I wished I had brought my good umbrella from home! Mom, you reminded me and I didn't listen. I can buy a crappy one here for 5 pounds or a good one for 12. I might have to break down and do it. On a happier note, I wore my ouchy leather shoes today, they got wet, and I think they finally stretched and formed to my feet! Toes crossed!

I'm feeling good, living out of a suitcase isn't as weird as I thought it would be, granted it's been what, 9 days? Some people are starting to wear on my nerves, I think it's sleep depravation, but everytime I ask God for patience and he, thankfully, gives me plenty and we're all friends again. :)

Tomorrow we're off to Salisbury and Stonehenge and maybe the Dover Castle? for a day trip. We'll miss dear Oxford but learn so many great things.

Good night! Enjoy the rest of your friday :)

I love you!

The Friendly Tube

Last day in Londontown!

I leave full of mixed emotions. It feels like we’ve been gone at least two weeks but it’s only been one! I’m ready to get out of the big city—I think everyone is. We stay so busy here, we’re always on to the next thing, even when we have free time there’s so much to see we don’t want to miss out on anything! I’ve loved exploring this city with these people, and I’ve loved having a taste of what it would be to live in London!

On the tube no one acknowledges each other, something it is infamous for. Tonight a load of people came on and among them was a man and his daughter. About 8 years old and a little pudgy, she was pink from her tank top to her crocks. As the man on the loudspeaker intoned, “Mind the doors, please, mind the doors” the little girl grabbed hold of one of the poles the same time a businessman did. The girl had reached up the bar as high as she could, meaning her little hand was at the same spot on the pole the business man would naturally use. He got hold of the bar a little lower underneath her lifted arm, a little awkward but it would work. As soon as he did so she, looking through the corners of her eyes, slid her hand down where his hand rested. I watched as he, eyes averted, let go and held on to the spot where the girl’s small hand had left, only to have the her’s follow and hold on at the same spot. With the smallest side-glance he looked at her and returned to his first position but down came the other hand to rest on the top of his. The businessman can no longer feign indifference, now he knows she’s doing this on purpose and definitely not following convention. As I’m watching this I catch the guy’s eye and I smile and he gives a little exasperated smile back. He moves his hand again, her hand follows, he catches my eye and we smile again—now we have a joke. The first normal stranger interaction I had all week in London! It was fun.

Then the train makes a stop and the car clears, opening a spot for the little girl to sit right next to me. As the train accelerates she sways into me from the momentum and says “Oh, sorry!” in a loud voice. I smile, “That’s ok! Do you have pink crocs?”… “Yeah”…“I used to, too”, I say and smile again. She smiles back shyly. Then her dad says something about a picture, and she pokes me and says eagerly, “Do you want to see our picture?” “Yeah!” “Look, this is me and Daddy on the Eye! Don’t we look like spazzos! I think that lady wanted a nice picture, she’s smiling, but we ruined the it!” And laughs with her dad about being “spazzos” in the tourist picture taken of them by the ride. I laugh with them and they tell me about their day when her British dad says, “I’ve gotta take my little American girl to all the tourist places! She’s from Seattle.” Of course she’s American J

Needless to say, it was a friendly last tube ride, I enjoyed the solidarity I found with these people who aren’t as unfriendly and apathetic as the appear.

Today we had our last class in our little St. Olave’s and then the leaders took my fellow chaplains and me out to Pizza Express (YUM) for lunch. It was really fun to get to know our leaders (Kim & Ken, Gabriel, our teacher and guide, and Nif, our organizer/chaperone/in-charge-of-details extraordinaire) more and talk about what our plans are for leading the group to keep our eyes on Jesus during this trip. I'm praying that God will really work in people during this trip and that we will be open for him to do whatever he has in mind. I'm excited to see what he has in store for us.

A group of us also went to the London Library’s Treasure room where I saw:

--Shakespeare plays from when they were first published,

--The ORIGINAL Canterbury Tales

--The Lindisfarne Gospels

--The Gutenburg Bible

--The (exactly) 400 year old King James Bible

--Bits of the Bible from the 3^rd Century (what??! How did they survive??)

--The Magna Carta

AND  my favorites:

--Jane Austen’s writing desk (where she kept her ink, pens, and with a surface to write on)

--An early story Jane Austen wrote to amuse her family when she was about 17, (handwritten! It was so cool)

--Charlotte Bronte’s handwritten Jane Eyre, turned to chapter 38, the conclusion. I read her writing: “Reader, I married him. A quiet wedding we had:  he and I, the parson and clerk, were alone present.  When we got back from church, I went into the kitchen of the manor-house, where Mary was cooking the dinner and John cleaning the knives, and I said -

"Mary, I have been married to Mr. Rochester this morning."  The housekeeper and her husband were both of that decent phlegmatic order of people, to whom one may at any time safely communicate a remarkable piece of news without incurring the danger of having one’s ears pierced by some shrill ejaculation, and subsequently stunned by a torrent of wordy wonderment.”

I loved it. It was fantastic. You should go.

Tomorrow we’re off to Oxford! …and Bletchley Park to study de-coding during WWII. Dun dun dun.

I love you!

Me, Nif, and Hannah in Notting Hill before getting a great dinner of Indian food :) 

In my Vans

We walked ALL day today. Literally.

9:00-Walk downstairs to breakfast.
9:40-12:30-Walk through Cabinet War Rooms
12:30-1:00-Walk to find Lunch (and see Big Ben!)
1:30-4:00-Walk through Imperial War Museum
4:00-4:45-Walk to Westminster Abbey for Evensong
5:45-6:15-Walk to Cha Cha Moon restaurant
7:15-9:00-Walk around downtown, through Tube Tunnels, stand on Tube
9:10-11:00-Walk to Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and back the the hotel.

The Thames, Me, and Parliament. Note that Sherlock Holmes jumps out of one of those windows of the Parliament building into the Thames, so that's pretty cool. 

Yeah. Me and my Vans shoes did that. All three of us hurt but it was worth it.

Besides being a pretty low-key, museum go-as-you-wish day, the highlight was going to Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Every day at 5 pm the Abbey has a worship service of about 45 minutes. The 5 girls I went with and I felt very exclusive when the Abbey people turned away people who wanted to tour the Abbey but let us in to attend the service.

I was struck by the immensity and the beauty inside.

The ceilings soar in high stone arches, columns line the hall, stone statues of every famous man in the last 3 centuries cluttered every corner and gold accents in surprising places glint in the soft light. Quietly, we were led through a gate into the nave and were seated. Behind the gate the decoration of the alter was incredible. Gold was everywhere, painted on the seats for the choir, on the alter, on the decorative carvings, the little stars on the ceilings, incredible. Ornate. Then the service started, and our voices echoed throughout the cathedral as we prayed and the choir sang the Magnificat. It was a place of strength and of beauty; I'm thankful I was able to be a part of it.

Now that we're beginning to settle in to the newness and the traveling, I am beginning to wonder what my role is here. As a comm major I can't help but ask: how do people see me? How do they think I see them? What do I need to cultivate? What do I need to change? I'm also wondering where I'm going to find my "worth" here. Today, people got really excited about something another girl does and were asking her about it, giving her great attention. I can do the same thing and I wanted everyone to value me as they did her, but it was too late to say, "hey guys, hey! I can do that too! Me! Me!" I was kind of frustrated at first, but really, is it that important? We are all trying to find our place in the group on this trip, and I know we are each equally vital to the group dynamic. It's something to think about but it is also tempting to devalue myself. Why? I don't know. But I'm not going to! Woot!

 I haven't set aside time to sit and spend time with God and that needs to happen. We've had some brief interaction, while we walk or right before I go to bed, but that doesn't count. Without him my life goes to pieces, and I need all my pieces here!

Tomorrow we have class and then what? I'm not sure. But our group leaders are taking my fellow chaplains and I to Pizza Express for lunch tomorrow and I'm excited to get to know them better. :)

80 Pence Chocolate

Today was all over the place. We met for class, which had lost some of the excitement of the first day but it was still a good way to start the morning. Afterwards, my fellow chaplains and I dumped our backpacks at the hotel and set off for lunch.

Taking the Tube is great, you go down into a long tunnel with lots of stairs and people, hop on a train, move fast through more tunnels, climb more stairs full of more people and viola! You're in a totally different place. Each area of London has a different feel, and I can't help but think that it's like the pools in C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew when the two kids step into one pool (they are pools, right?) and step out into a different world than the one they came from and the ones associated with all the other pools. In my mind, London isn't connected, it's one name for a lot of different areas.

(I also love walking. Besides the inevitable blisters I LOVE that we have to walk everywhere, it feels good to stretch our legs and walk every time we finish eating, sitting in class, or getting up in the morning.)

Anyway, we chaplains met to set out our goals, so we got Pret de Manger and sat on a grassy square and talked. It was sunny again today :) Then we went to the British Museum for a few hours and then ran all over town trying to figure out how to get tickets for plays and find the half price booth and then there weren't tickets but we were starving and where is the best place to get fish and chips and how do we get there and then half our huge group wants to leave to go to the Globe theater instead but they might not be able to get tickets and where is the globe theater and how much does it cost and should they take the tube wait where did Joe go oh there he is ok let's just get on the tube and go back to the hotel. Controlled chaos. Lots of guys trying to lead and they got stressed because no one would be led. Curses.

So that was weird. BUT at 8:30 Laura, Hannah, and I went to The White Hart, a very classy but relaxed pub by the Liverpool Station, (full of red-leather booths, dark wood tables, dim, glowy glass light-fixtures with gold accents-- very classic) and, yes, I had my first beer. A very small half of a half-pint of bubbly bitter yellow stuff with a not-to-bad aftertaste, to be honest. Couldn't even tell you what it was called, but it started with a P? We had a great time though, it was the first time I've been able to sit down with a few good friends and just talk and enjoy each other's company :) Plus, I've been craving sweetness all day, as have Hannah and Laura, so we happily discovered that they sell Snickers and Mars bars at the hotel bar for 80p. Win!

Shout-out to Bren, who starts on her own adventure very soon. I love you Bren, you're going to do great :)

Joyfully Giving Thanks

Today was exquisite.

(exquisite is a nice word, don't you think?)

Half our group piled in our coach and travelled two hours to Little Gidding, a tiny town of about four buildings tucked in the countryside among fields dotted with fuzzy white sheep.

I know, but it gets better.

For the first time in days we breathed in deep breaths of full, fresh air as we walked into the Ferrar House Retreat Center through the garden. Nice ladies smiled and greeted us and offered us tea and biscuits :) Many young Americans experienced shortbread cookies for the first time today. When the cups were cleared Graham Fawcette, the amiable father of our tour guide and guest speaker, began reading the parts of T. S. Eliot's Quartets poem, written while Eliot stayed at the very garden we were. Mr. Fawcett, as he explains it, speaks in prose. His words have the rare and valuable quality of breathing life and warmth into that of which he speaks, enchanting the most ordinary sentences into color, luring his listeners to step into his world of poetry. As president of the T.S. Eliot society and a professor of many years he knows what he is talking about.


Class in the sunshine

We would spend an hour in class, reading the poem out loud, discussing what it meant, our reactions, practicing "stepping into" the poem as one would step into a church, each stanza a room to explore. Then we would have a ten minute break to traipse around the garden, run on the lawn, take pictures, some people even tried eating the crab-apples. Then it was a home-cooked lunch, a fantastic dessert, class outside on the sunny lawn, the breeze blowing off the fields into our hair and then in the old chapel, where our words echoed off the stone, making us sound much more intelligent than we probably are.

My favorite lines are from part I,

"If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you would have to put off Sense and notion. You are not here to verify, Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more 
Than an order of words, the conscious occupation
Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying. 
And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living. 
Here, the intersection of the timeless moment 
Is England and nowhere. Never and always."


Mr. Fawcett says that as we step into poems they become our own, and I agree with this. Never before Have I been able to express exactly how I feel about prayer, and this is it. It is when I submit, rest, look up, let go, give respect, praise, honor, fear, become holy, set myself aside, take up a new commission... timeless and placeless. :)


Me in the garden :)

It was a day of sun, dirt, a full blue sky! Fresh air, flowers, growth, exploration, friends, beauty, silence, peace, communion, strength, love. We needed today. :)

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 
Col. 1:9-12.

 I love you!

Ending with Apricots

Today was long--we did so many things I feel like this morning was a week ago! This morning we met for class for the first time. We walked to St. Olave's church on Hart Street--and incredible place to use as a classroom:

It felt so peaceful and timeless in there, even with 40+ students fidgeting in the strait-back benches. Introduction lectures were very good, I'm excited to learn more in each of our subjects--we talked about the value of poetry: “Who says you have to leave poems behind the way you hand in your locker keys?” Poetry is not only for university. “Poetry supplements life’s dullness.” We learned about cathedrals, castles, wheels. We began to uncover what it means to value a primary source and were told bluntly: "If you don't know Patton you might as well go shoot yourself" (Dad, I thought you would appreciate that--suddenly I was very thankful for our movie night). All in this old medieval church tucked between two office buildings. 
 
Afterwards a small group of us went to Covent Garden and got pasties! They were delicious, filling and quite apropos I would say (though we avoided the steak-and-kidney variety). On the Tube platform wall was this advertisement:

It says:
"So what about that Judi Dench, then?

"She's a damn fine actress, isn't she? I think we can all agree on that. Well, most of us can anyway, that's what the research tells me.

I've just been looking at some research that tells me what kind of person is most likely to be looking at this ad. (Not for fun. It's my job. I decide where to put posters to reach the right people.)

And it turns out that most of you looking at this will admire Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Richard Brady(?) and Judi Dench.

Not all of you, of course. You're not all exactly the same. If you were, my job would be easy-peasy.

In fact my job in Insight is becoming increasingly complex. There are lots of new types of posters (or
"Out-of-Home media"  as we like to call them). And you guys-thanks to your smartphones-can now do all sorts of thing searching online and even buying while you're on the move. So I need to understand haw the medium works, who Out-of-Home media reaches and where, and how it contributes to consumer communications.

Frankly, I need a manager to help me! If you reckon you could do this job, and if you've sound knowledge of how to do research, or advertising, email your CV to teamworldwide@posterscope.com, adding a few sentences telling why you would be the right one.

You can also find more about us at www.posterscope.com"

I thought that was amusing.

Then it was another walking tour, ending at St. Paul's Cathedral. I tried to wear in my new shoes today and I'm fairly sure my feet got worn in more than the shoes did!

We were "famished" by the time the tour ended and it was time for our first group dinner! We took the very hot, stuffy, crowded Tube to a little greek resaurant that put the whole group in a special private room downstairs. They loaded our tables with pita, hummus, and tzatziki (sp?) and we gobbled it up! Then they brought in lamb meatballs, sausages, and prawns, so we ate those too. Then they took away those empty plates and asked us all if we were vegetarian, and our pescatarian raised her hand and they fed us deep-fat-fried fish (whole-with eyes-and I ate it! eek!) By now we're getting full, and they take our plates away, and we lean back and get to know each other while our servers disappear. Twenty minutes later, while we're submitting comfortably to oncoming food comas, the little greek family walks down the stairs. What are they carrying? Salads. Ok, a nice salad to finish up, maybe it's a greek thing. They disappear. Tromp tromp down the stairs they come again and they have HUGE platters of meat: chicken and pork kebabs! They come back with racks of lamb! We stared dumbfounded--We thought the meal was done half an hour ago only to find it had only just begun. So we each had a piece of meat, as much as we could stuff in.

And then they gave us Apricots.

______

Tomorrow I leave with half the group to got to Little Gidding! I don't know what to expect, but it's late and we leave early.

I love you!

So we begin!

Hullo!

Flying alone overseas? Check. I sat next to a Canadian woman named Wilma, and she was the greatest. We were friends and tackled security together. :)

Finding Hannah at Cafe Nero in Terminal 4 on the third floor: easy peasy. (after asking a great many airport workers how to get there... "How can I help you, love?")

Getting a Tube ticket, changing trains, and getting to the hotel: Did that too.

And now, today was our first day!! Sun streaming from a clear sky, we went to the Tate Museum to refine our tastes for modern art, some of the pieces I had studied in my art class last fall, adding to the interest that accompanies... intriguing... modern works.

The group met up today! All 40 of us crammed into the hotel bar area and hugged and introduced and it was so good, and a little overwhelming,  to see everyone again!! We went on a 4 hour "scandals and royals" walking tour through London which I enjoyed just for the chance to see more of the beautiful architecture and the "posh" people walking about.

The way they phrase things here is so funny to me: to "nip around the corner", find the "way out" and avoid somewhere because it's "dodgy". They also say "sorry" instead of "excuse me". Those aren't even my good examples, but I can't think of anything else at the moment. I'm suddenly very aware of all my "awesome"s, "cool"s, "bummer"s, "oh my gosh"es--so American.

For fun on weekends, Londoners meet at every bar, order a pint, and stand outside talking to one another until all hours of the night. That's it. That's what they do. It's so funny to see a bar, and then, sure enough, the sidewalk outside has a small crowd gathered around its door just standing there smooshed together. Apparently in the 1940's (I learned this on the scandal tour) workers manufacturing things for the war started to get paid more and they spend their extra money on alcohol. They would stay out very late and work very poorly the next day, and it had such a negative affect of productivity that they had to make it a law that it was illegal to drink after a 11PM. The law stayed into effect until recently, I think.

That was free, just a little tidbit.

I'm doing well, a little tired but that's expected. It's crazy trying to get 40 kids on the same train at the tube station. "Ridiculous, is what it is". We're like one big blob of people making a mass exodus or something. But it really is so good to see everyone here!

Tomorrow we begin classes from 9-12 in a church! I love you all!

Hannah (back), Laurel (front) and I got quiches at the Borough Market after the Tate and ate them in a cathedral's courtyard with other picnic-ers!

Half of our group during the walking tour.

Like a bird

Today I fly!

It's the leaving part of this that I've been dreading, and now, here I am, leaving. Mom, Dad, and Bren walked me into the airport and after some lunch they said goodbye to me outside security. It was emotional for all of us, which is new for the Lanphear family, but after many hugs and some sniffing and eye-wiping we were ok. :)

I have recieved so many encouragements from all of you, and I just want to say I love you all so much! One of you sent me psalm 84, which is beautiful, and as I fly so far away all by myself, I'm reminded of  verses 3-5:

Even the sparrow has found a home, 
 and the swallow a nest for herself, 
where she may have her young— 
a place near your altar, 
   LORD Almighty, my King and my God. 
Blessed are those who dwell in your house; 
   they are ever praising you.

 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, 
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.


Today I am a sparrow with a nest, a home on my "pilgrimage", and I'm ready!


Walking into Concourse A they have 10,000 paper cranes flying along the windows! I thought they were beautiful! 


They're calling zone 2, I'm zone 3! Wish me luck, I love you all!

I think I might go to London today, what do you think?!