The Adventure Begins...

Here I am at the Vines! A quick recap of the last two days.

I love it here. It is beautiful. My room is like a magical attic room with windows that open onto the roof and a view of

the treetops blowing and the spires of the city in the d

istance. We can hear the church bells!

My roommate is a gift from God. Her name is Heather, and already we are making our room feel like home.

Highlights thus far:

Walking the city.

It is just unbelievable that I can walk through buildings of the 1300's. With our special Oxford Student card, we can tour just about every building for free, where the public cannot usually enter. How exciting!

Building look like this everywhere:

By our home at the Vines, there is a community garden! I volunteered my services th

ere, in hopes of working in the ground and receiving veggies as payment. The lady kindly took my email down and gave me some fresh (giant!) beans! Made my day!

Went to the Eagle and Child. For my first drink, I sat where the Inklings would have held their writing discussions.

Laura and I shared fish 'n' chips, while my roommate, Heather, had Banger

s and Mash.

Today, we visited Christ Church for our first Sunday. It is the oldest church in England, so I understand. Amazing. I wish I could have captured the interior.

And a quick look at the Bodleian Library. Here my roommate and I stand next to one of the entrances.

We have yet to enter into the actual library. Mariah, Harry Potter had two scenes filmed in this room.

Ta ta for now! Must go seize the day!

London, England

September 4, 7:42 AM

I am here! I cannot believe it still - on the bus to my new home! So ethnic, diverse, and big!

It's becoming reality!

Oh! And as of now I am starting a travel tip and memory guide with a wacky twist:

1) Before departing - buy a strange flavor of gum. Like mint mojito (a cocktail in a gum... odd.) It will forever remind one of the excursion.

2) Same thing with a playlist on the ipod.

3) Choose a theme song for your trip. Mine is "Breakaway." Not corny... very true.

4) Have awesome friends that send you off with all manner of goodies!

5) Of course, thank the awesome friends profusely and realize you do not deserve them.

6) Pack a bagel. They're like hardtack... only better.

7) Don't journal while on the first bus ride. There is so much important sights to see!

8) Look starved - people will donate airplane food to you! Amazing compassion! (Or is it that people don't value airplane food?)

Cheerio!

Raleigh

Expectation and patience do not mix well.

Only a day left until I am there though - I will wait patiently (or attempt to...)

The last flight was more interesting. I acquired an alias - Amitava Sarkar. (Do I look like a dashing East Indian man?) It was a bit confusing (and there was even a time when I thought I might not make the flight!) But, I figured if God has helped my blunders thus far to succeed, He is in control. I made it into my seat with my proper name restored, seated by the window for my second flight! What a pleasant surprise!

And for my troubles, I received a free snack! (It is worthwhile to possess an alias!) And I had the opportunity of speaking with a soldier returning from Iraq. We spoke on his views of the War. Interesting yet melancholy views - he sees America should not be in Iraq. He feels his years served were wasted time, not spent fighting for his country, but another that did not desire his aid. What a perplexing situation!

Well, boarding starts for the last flight! Must say cheers for now!

Just arrived in Dallas.

Since I spent some quality time with George Eliot's Middlemarch on my flight, I thought I would relate my enriched experience. Simply love the book (even though it is over a thousand pages!)

Here was my favorite conversation between Will and Dorothea. She's a passionate philanthropist/intellectual, while he is the artist. After they converse (quite bluntly, in fact) over the value of art, Will confronts her impetuously with his idea of the "fanaticism of sympathy." Dorothea states that art does not better the social injustices of the world, yet Will retorts, "I suspect that you have some false belief in the virtues of misery, and want to make your life like a martyrdom." And when you think that they should never embrace their opposing perspectives, the next conversation shows otherwise.

Will tells Dorothea, "'To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern, that no shade of quality escapes it, and so quick to feel, that discernment is but a hand playing with finely ordered variety on the chords of emotion - a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of knowledge. One may have that condition by fits only.'

'But you leave out the poems,' said Dorothea. 'I think they are wanted to complete the poet. I understand what you mean about knowledge passing into feeling, for that seems to be just what I experience. But I am sure I could never write a poem.'

'You are a poem - and that is to be the best part of a poet - what makes up the poet's consciousness in his best moods,' said Will, showing such originality as we all share with the morning and the spring-time and other endless renewals."

Can anyone say beautiful, witty, intelligent, and romantic in one breath?

Dorothea is a marvelous character... I find so many shortcomings in her that resemble a crazy, passionate girl I know rather well. And Will... he's quite the chap.

Over and out.

Departure Dead Ahead...

Saying goodbye is probably one of the worst parts of living.

Some people have a talent for waving a quick "ciao" and finding the nearest exit. I am not one of those people.

Theoretically, within the confines of my mind, I imagine that I could easily gain nomadic status. Stick around one day, then pick up and leave the next. And then, when the time comes, God just has to remind me of all the people I love so dearly. I like to think I am a free-spirit, but in actuality, I have a lot of reasons to stay.

I am so blessed to have so many reasons to stay. Family, friends, professors, my favorite jujitsu class... so many good reasons to want to stay.

Yet, it is time to go. God's opened this door, and it's time to step through. Another episode of Child's [grand] adventure will emerge in five days.

And to all those that I love, I look forward to seeing you when I return!

Sadly, I have not taken the gumption to express any thoughts lately.

It takes thought to write, and in the midst of my secretary's hectic scheduling that I am forced to comply with, I have not wished to think lately. (That sentence is ironic by two means... I am my own secretary, and the idea of a life devoid of thought. A life devoid of thought... let me see... first cognition... Hollywood? My apologies for the massive generalization.)

Stop. Back to original thoughts. I haven't all night for mental wanderings.

I took a lackadaisical wandering tonight literally. Like Bilbo says to Frodo, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." Tonight I was swept off to an African safari in the midst of the rural lands of northern California. I spied two silhouetted giraffes in the dusky light of the faded day. I sprinted through jungles, ran through giant geysers, and was engulfed by the glorious silence. You know those moments when the world around you holds you entranced almost as if it radiates enchantment? Those brief seconds when magic nearly becomes visible? When imagination is reality? When all seems to be peaceful, and the sense that all will turn out overtakes everything?

It was in this time span that I realized my common thought pattern. I muse over how the world has dissolved into multitudinous wrongs. Seldom have I dwelled on how the world has been held right. Allow me to explain.

With all the atrocities in the world and how toxic the human being can be, this irony is often neglected. In history, humans are capable of creating gas chambers, the guillotine, brothels - the insatiable sense of destruction within the human being is remarkable. What then holds this world together at the seams that should be so easily rent apart? In a world where each person learns survival entails protecting oneself, how on earth is there any such thing as peace? How is there any such thing as happiness? Society and laws and the need for some sense of community protection may be inadequate excuses.

What if we ask God too often, Why is there so much bad done on Your watch? Should we not wonder why there is not more evil? It is a wonder that God still intermingles with this paralyzed creation. He must have great hopes of restoration.

Much greater than my wildest imaginings.

But... then again... is that just not His way?

A Holiday [from the world]

A Holiday

Catapulting cherry pits out the window

The lever being my tongue

Conducting the symphony (of life) with one hand

Gripping the steering wheel for the sake of hairpin turns

Wind rushing through my hair

like an adventurer blazing a trail

like I just did

to find shelter from the noise

(or the stifling silence)

...your choice...

To find the One that is often so hard to find.

There is my five minute approach to what I prefer to nominate as "hack poetry" (otherwise dubbed modern poetry.) It serves its place, but (as some fellow English compatriots agree) it is simply overrated. It functions best for journaling (which is the purpose I have granted it here.) However, lest some poor soul stumble upon my post only to find disillusionment in misconstrued verbiage, I must henceforth explain any “hacking.”
Today was one of my first “holidays” from the “real world.” Or perhaps this holiday was actually more akin to the “real world,” whereas what I live within normally is more artificial. But, to save the poor reader (oh, brave soul!) from my amateur philosophizing, I will proceed with my tale. No work today. It began on a melancholy note, for I accompanied my dear friend off to the airport for departure. Prompted by my inner despondency, I retreated on a hike out in the lonesome country. And, out where only the hicks (and/or marijuana farmers) reside, I blazed a trail to a hidden gem of a waterfall. As I basked in the sunlight, I pondered the crazed world, the sometimes seemingly (but unrealistic) remoteness of God. It was a shelter from the paradoxical noise of survival of the workplace that I find myself treading endlessly and the stifling silence of my heart in my new/old living environment.

As this post is growing cumbersome relatively quickly, I will interject. In the midst of my weighty thoughts in the midst of God's resplendent creation, I was prompted to read my hiking itinerary fully. And I learned a valuable lesson. Hear! Hear! Always read the full hiking instructions before you embark! (Lest you journey a perilous quest without even realizing!) The area I was thoroughly enjoying, my hiking instructions warned, was known for some riff raff. In the conclusion, the hiking instructions read, "Be wary!" With this, adrenaline kicked in, and I raced back to my car. Thankfully, it was untouched... thus it was off for more of the adventure.

Skipping some minor details* I, in my race car (or is it a Cessna?) nearly flew off some cliffs, attempting to not utilize my brakes. Those yellow signs of recommended speeds are rather conservative, don't you think? But, when I almost fishtailed out, I decided ten over was safer than twenty. And somewhere, in the midst of my race against the wind, there was a sign for cherries. Only a few signs can turn my head. Cherries are one of those things. Thus, I was drawn, like an insect to the light, to wherever these signs were leading. I say without hesitating that where these signs were leading was heavenly! There were orchards upon orchards of tantalizingly ruby fruits. Two words - must return.

And then, to top it all off, when I drove down the mountain of cherries and back wilderness, I unexpectedly met with my sixth grade teacher (one of my favorite teachers) in a random parking lot.

What a holiday.

The rest of the hack will need to be self interpreted. Wishing all those hack readers luck.

*specifically that I need to go back to the area for more hiking, but preferably with a bodyguard/friend. Lindsay... what strong, buff guys do we know in the area?