More from England!

Notes from England…

• Its one thing to know that other places in the world are thousands of years old, and unexplainably it’s a whole other thing to experience them. Sunday I worshiped in a church that was built in the 1100’s and is still standing today. Tomorrow I will go and visit a house that is the ‘longest continually inhabited house in Great Britain, with over hundreds of years of occupants.

• I’m staying with an absolutely fantastic couple and their adorable two children ages 8 and 4. They are all Americans but the children have been here since they were four years and six months respectively so they sound like little Brits themselves! Cute!

• The front and back yard are called the front and back garden, appropriately so. Their gardens are fenced in with large hedges and beautiful plants. The grass is lush, dark green and grass bur-free!

• Pants are called trousers and panties are called pants. I went shopping for trousers yesterday. Sizes are different!! If I wasn’t careful I’d think I’d jumped up six sizes in the waist! Of course, with regard to shoe size I am a 6 in Great Britain and a 39 in European sizes (9ish in the States). Shirt/jacket sizes are much different. Instead of S, M, L there are numbers. Can you imagine how long it took me to buy an outfit?!? I wouldn’t have messed with it except I had no clothes for 13 degree weather, Celsius that is- just one more thing to convert!

• I went to market today in St. Ives (which I learned is home to the song of someone having 100 wives or something.) It was just like you’d see in Beauty and the Beast, well, kind of. They were selling all kinds of things in the middle of the street: rugs, shoes, music, greeting cards, mattresses and pillows, produce of all kinds, frozen meats, all sorts of clothing, just LOADS of stuff!

• The British and Americans are similar in the respect that they like to keep to themselves. Most cultures, if you see someone along the road or path you greet them. Not here, not typically anyway. I struggle just to catch someone’s eye! In businesses people are friendly enough.

• In the states, I don’t think any clerk has ever checked the back of my card for a signature. Here in England, every business does. I tried to sign the back of my card when I got home but no pen would work on it. Oh well, what can you do? They look at me like I’m stupid though, like I haven’t got enough sense to be handling money. Haha!

• I do wish I’d had a sidekick to travel around with me. It’s a shame to experience all of these neat things by oneself. Again, what can you do? Next time I plan to get stranded due to a volcano, I'll make sure someone is with me.

• I’ve had all different kinds of foods than I typically eat. Things like- Haddock, Salmon, Leeks, some spicy, odd-sounding pasta, baked beans for breakfast (apparently that’s as common as cereal is back home), some kind of chewy, raw fish and loads of other stuff! I did have ramen for lunch one day.

• I think the coolest thing so far was to be able to worship in a church that’s nearly a thousand years old. And not just that, but also to worship with believers here and hear their heart for the people in their community, wanting them to know Jesus. We sang typical praise songs with slightly altered words and music. I will be able to worship the same God with families of believers on three different continents, all within the same month, Lord willing!