Days 20-11

20 days: High Street

Every town in the US has its Main Street.  In the UK, it's not much different, except it's called High Street and that's not necessarily its real name.  Gerrards Cross' High Street is actually named Packhorse Road, and it's the road you use to get to the train station, grocery stores, chemists, restaurants, etc.  This was also the street where you had fairs, such as the Christmas fair, Summer fair, and the odd carnival or Circus (on the common just before this photo).

19 days: Don't blink

In order to go to and leave work, I had to pass through the cemetery.  This wasn't as scary or creepy as most people would consider it to be, partially because the whole church was surrounded by a graveyard, like a lot of older churches are.  It helped take away the fear and discomfort a lot of people have about graveyards, since most only enter during funerals, whether it's their own or someone else's. Here I was entering one a dozen times a week. Frankly, the graveyard became super familiar, as you read the names of those who've come before us, and somewhat comforting during the day.  The exception was the four angels I walked past every day and night.  I blame Doctor Who for this, since Weeping Angels are the scariest villains on the show.  Eventually I became used to the angels, but then during one of my final weeks, I found a fifth one whom I had passed on several occasions and never noticed...

18 days: Advice from fellow YAGM

An interesting part of the UK YAGM program is that there are some YAGM who decide to stay on for a second year, for various reasons.  This means new UK YAGM have someone in country who went through, and are going through, the same thing you are, and they are more than willing to give you advice about juggling work, keeping in contact with your loved ones, and learning the English or Scottish culture.  One of the best pieces of advice for me was "Admit this Christmas is going to be difficult.  Those who pretend it's fine are the ones who struggle the most."  It gave me permission to miss home, to mourn yearly traditions, and then embrace the unknown of minced pies, mulled wine, and turkey dinners.

17 days: A friendly reminder

So one of the strange things to get used to was not having potable water coming out of every faucet.  I was really glad for the reminders, since I was used to drinking water from any faucet.  It was odd learning that I should only drink from my kitchen's faucet.  After some investigation we learned that it had to do with how water is stored.  To be honest, it kind of makes sense.  Think about how much drinkable water we throw away when we shower or wash our hands.

16 days: Scones with cream and jam

If you ever come to England, make sure you have a cream tea.  The first time I heard about cream teas, I thought it was simply pouring cream in your tea, which sounded a bit gross.  It's actually tea with scones topped with clotted cream and jam.  It might sound rather simple, but it's amazing. The difficult bit is there are different thoughts on how the scones should be prepared, either cream and jam or jam than cream.  Either way, it's delicious.

15 days: Learning how to serve English tea

This week I helped with the Friendship Teas which spanned two days.  It was an afternoon of prepping scones, cakes, tarts, and sandwiches, and conversing with the older generation of the church.  I learned more about scones than I knew before, and it was a nice change to interact with the older generation since I spend my days working with the younger generation.  I also learned that finger sandwiches truly do taste different from regular sandwiches, although I think it's more psychological and actual.

14 days: Pigeons

You can't escape the pigeons, and they are plain annoying to most people.  I found them interesting.  If you look at most of the pigeons, you'll notice a lot of them have some sort of foot deformity, but it doesn't stop them.  A lot of the pigeons adapt to their disabilities, or in the pigeon on the step, they don't give up.  I think it's their persistence that makes them annoying to everyone, but I found them particularly interesting.  I felt like they needed a shout out.

13 days: By the sea

We went to the sea for the day on my last weekend.  We spent the day walking along the beach, and having a picnic.  To be honest, "By the Sea" from Sweeney Todd kept playing in my head, and after our trip, I feel like I have now had the full English experience.  It also meant going on a mini road trip with friends, and we had one last day to hang out.

12 days: My last Sunday

Today was my last Sunday at Saint James, as I'll be spending next Sunday at Soul Survivor with Resonate.  I ended up going to all the services in order to see everyone one last time, and it's really nice how each service has its own flavor.  A liturgical morning service, a family orientated contemporary midday service, and a adult contemporary evening service.service.  I'm thankful that I was able to go to each service my last Sunday, since I was able to see a variety of friends in service and say my farewells.

11 days:  Testing light bulbs

One of the youth asked me a couple months ago what I do during the week.  I replied that I do a lot of prep work and admin.  A couple of the youth came to talk to us about Soul Survivor and stumbled upon me in the middle of my other task: busy, but necessary, work.  I was testing a giant box of light bulbs to make sure they all work.  Good news they do!  It's definitely not the most glamorous part of youth work, or volunteering, but when you sign up to serve, you receive some unexpected tasks.