Getting There.

Hey y'all,

Nearly four weeks have passed since we arrived in England!

I'm getting used to life here. I love walking everywhere. City life means lots of people, new languages, crazy drivers and mass transport.

[Pick a language, any language.]

It's twenty minutes to Oxford by train. The train takes us through lots of sparsely populated land. The cities are so full of people, but there's very little in between cities, mostly crops, cows, sheep and soccer ("football") fields. People rush through the train station in the mornings, all going places fast. A different crowd moves through at a different pace in the afternoon. Evening, when people are going home from work and school, is my favorite time to be going through the train station.

[Running for the 18:23 on Platform 2, Oxford Train Station]

We’re looking for a house in Oxford, which is an amazing town. The architecture and history are incredible! There are so many beautiful buildings and hundreds of years of history.

For example, just walking into town, I passed a huge hill that was the base of a castle built when William the Conquerer invaded in 1066. I kept walking and crossed a bridge over a stream where Christians were baptized hundreds of years ago. After a while, I came to a cobblestone marker in the pavement. It marked the place where the queen "Bloody Mary" had two church leaders burned at the stake.

I went to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford the other day. It’s the oldest museum in England (founded in the 1600’s, I think). There were at least four paintings in there that I learned about in Art History class at Southeastern. And there were whole sections of ancient Egyptian walls. And almost none of it is behind glass. It’s just sitting out there.

Oxford is actually a town, not a campus. There are more than 40 “colleges” in the Oxford system. A “college” is basically made up of whatever students, dons (teachers) and books fit in the building. Most of them were founded and built 500-700 years ago. Because Oxford is a medieval town, the streets are really narrow. The bikes have to ride on the street. The bikes go really fast. So do the cars. It’s crazy.

It rains every day. But it’s a light rain. It’s gray outside (almost) all the time. The sun rises late and sets early because it’s winter. I can’t wait for summer! They say sunset in summer is around 10pm.

I especially enjoy walking through Oxford, and trying not to get hit by the famous black cabs of Oxford.

[Off-duty.]

Walking through Oxford is like walking through history... a bit of recent history: I pass New College everyday. Your new governor studied there. :]

[Windows on New College.]

The colleges are so old and each one is unique. These pictures are from Trinity, which was founded in 1550.

The Trinity College Chapel is incredibly ornate. Like so many things in Oxford, it gives a striking first impression, but has so much more detail.

[Trinity College Chapel, front.]

[Trinity College Chapel, rear.]

[Trinity College Chapel, ceiling.]

Seems like the old and new just blend in Oxford.

[Christ Church and Modern Art, that way.]

Oxford has some pretty interesting places.

[Opium den?]

No, we haven't been in there.

***

Being here with my family is such a blessing. God is using this move to teach me about hanging onto him and being comfortable in Him, even when the new things around me aren't comfortable. I'm getting past apprehension and really enjoying this completely different place. Peace and joy!

In Christ,

Sarah

Medieval Town.

Just a few quick pictures from Oxford, which is about 20 minutes from Reading by train.

The last picture is a part of the Bodleian Library and the room where the parliment scenes in "Amazing Grace" were filmed.

Settling In.

Hey y'all,

We walked to town yesterday and today. There are so many little shops: world-famous brand name shops, distinctly British shops, and that little Polish shop where we bought sugar and cinnamon. There's also a farmers market on Wednesday through Saturday.

The farmers at the market hawk their produce, "Pound a pound, pound a pound! Get your carrots! Get your pineapples!"

St. Mary Butts, the church across from the farmers market.

The streets of Reading's shopping district are busy all day long.

It's strange to see the new shops in the old buildings.

We listened to the street preacher man as pigeons walked around and flew overhead.

Flowers are for sale everywhere. I guess the people crave color - the days are so short that the Sun hardly has a chance to shine here.

The Sausage Men selling the food that looked so warm.

Getting Here.

Happy New Year!

We had some problems getting Internet, but we have it now! We are still working on setting up the phone. The fact that none of our electrical appliances work here without adapters is just one of the ways that everything is different.

Also, we were saving the camera batteries until we could get the right adapter (which we have now), so there's not much here as far as good pictures go.

We left Baton Rouge around 2:15 on Saturday afternoon. Eight hours later, we arrived at Gatwick airport in London on Sunday morning, just before sunrise. (London is six hours ahead of Baton Rouge. For example, 12 Noon in BR is 6pm in London.)

That's the pickup lane outside of the airport where drivers run over anything that gets in their way!

Then it was time to rent a car. Dad strategically packed the luggage, but it barely fit into the Scion-like 7 passenger vehicle. So Mom, Nathan and Aaron took the train, Dad drove the car and I navigated. Sitting on the right side of the vehicle, driving on the left side of the road, going through roundabouts, reading the street markings and trying to get to a specific location is a job for no less than two people.

Only by the grace of God, we arrived safely at our apartment building.

Welcome.

Then it was New Years Eve and there were fireworks over Reading.

We watched them from the second floor of our apartment.

The sun was shining today! The days are short here; it doesn't get light until about 7:30am and it starts getting dark around 3:30pm.

More later.