In Which I Sit for a Long Time

    Today was a very different sort of Sunday than what I have grown used to here in the UK.  In the morning we all woke up, packed our bags, had a quick breakfast free of haggis and hopped on the bus to begin our journey home.  We had eight hours of traveling to be excited for.  Fortunately since we were out very late last night because of Tattoo I was exhausted and managed to sleep for a big chunk of it.  But you can only sleep through so much of a bus ride that goes that long, especially when you are with teenagers/semi-adults who like to visit and make noise.
     While driving we watched two different movies, Hope and Glory, a film about a family growing up in World War II times.  I had to watch this one intently because we had to write a paper on it as soon as we got home.  We also watched Chariots of Fire, which I did not pay too much attention to.  From what I did see I can now confirm that the play we saw did in fact follow the movie very well.
     Fortunately we had a few stops during our journey.  Our first was in the small/adorable town of Durham.  Picture in your mind the quintessential small town English village and this is what you would get, at least from what we saw.  They had a little square that was thriving with activity of a different sort that what we had seen.  Instead of buying stuff, people were lounging about or playing games or listening to the live music provided by bands.  It was so much fun and quite relaxing to take it all in.  We made our way up to their giant Cathedral where we attended their service.  It was a great experience to actually be able to sit in on some sort of religious service as we wouldn't' be able to attend one of our own.  It was interesting to see the way that they administered their sacrament, having all members of the congregation stand up and go to the back of the room and drink from a single cup.  I was quite impressed by the calm that I felt there and the little glimpses of truth that I saw all through the meeting.
     When our big group first came in and sat down we were greeted by a grumpy man that kept commenting on how there were far too many of us.  I was a little annoyed with him and how he would be upset that there would be people that would want to take part in receiving the word of God.  It felt very hypocritical to me, and I wasn't sure that I would enjoy the service.  Fortunately the rest of the experience was wonderful.  There was a part where the priest (or whatever their official title is) came into the audience to shake people's hand to wish them peace.  A woman priest walked through and was all smiles to our group as she waved to us.  After the service was over the leaders approached our group and asked us where we were from and asked about our travels. They were all so welcoming and it was a great feeling.  I realized that sometimes there will be those grumpy people.  But often there are those that have so much kindness in their hearts.  I've heard stories about those that have had back experiences with our church and how they were offended and left the church.  I think that sometimes they just didn't let themselves stick around long enough to find the truly Christ-like people that will welcome them with love and kindness.
     Another stop on our bus adventure was the tiny town of Kibworth.  For the past few weeks we have been reading from a book called The Story of England by Michael Wood.  In the text Wood explores the history of England through artifacts and texts found in this very town.  We have become quite familiar with the history behind it, so it was neat to visit.  We were welcomed to the town by the owner of the local pub.  He has been working to try and turn Kibworth into a tourist attraction of sorts.  He provided us with dinner and took us on a tour through the town.  As we walked around we had people honking at us, waving or taking pictures.  They were all quite excited to see us, which was very different.  They all seemed to know our friendly landlord/barkeep as well, adding to the whole small-town feel.  There wasn't really too much to see unless you knew what you were looking for, and after having studied this little place for so long we sure knew what we were seeing.  This is what is so great about the study abroad opportunity.  The history is really right in front of us!
    We made it back to the Center around 10 and then began to unpack, do laundry and cram in some homework.  Classes pickup again tomorrow and we will start studying for finals! I was calm before, but I am starting to freak out a bit now.  It's the final countdown, and now I'll have to find a balance between homework, adventuring and sleep.  Wish me luck!

 Durham Cathedral

Awh. Good ole Kibworth