Days 40-31

40 days: The empty hall

Every week, we transform this hall into a hangout area for the youth.  Within minutes it becomes filled with Wii, Foosball, lights, couches, sweets, four square, and music, and it becomes a space of friendship and competition.  Today was the last youth service, so from now until the end of my service here.  I wish I had taken a picture with everything set up, but I was engaged with the youth and didn't think of a photo until after everything was put away.  This photo will have to serve as a reminder of all the friendships forged with the youth here every Sunday.

39 days: Afternoon Tea at the Church of England school

Today I was a children's worker.  The local Church of England school had an event for the school's families to commemorate the school year ending.  There was a traditional afternoon tea for the adults with cakes, bunting, and, of course, tea.  My co-worker immediately told me I needed a photo, since this was as traditional as it got.  I, however, spent the afternoon with about 100 children playing with frisbees.  The best part was probably teaching 2-3 year old girls how to throw a frisbee for the first time.

38 days: MA meeting

A good portion of my responsibilities here involve setting up for all the events and meetings at church.  Since each week changes, the three MAs and Chris, who manages the events, get together every Tuesday to go over the events, and make sure there are no major time conflicts.  Most of the time, we take over the assistant rector's office while he's in a meeting.  Today we took over Hot Desk since it was empty.

*Fun Fact: Calendars are called diaries here.

37 days: Life group barbecue

We decided to switch things up at Life Group today and had a barbecue.  It's one of those differences in cultures that I've noticed.  At home I'd consider barbecues to have brisket, pulled pork, cole slaw, baked beans, and the whole nine yards.  I've noticed that most of the time that when someone mentions a barbecue it means hamburgers and sausages.  The biggest difference is the food, but the main idea of spending time with friends and family is the same.  The other similarity at this barbecue was having to keep an eye on the dog who wanted his share of the barbecue.

36 days: Summer's To Do list

The weekly youth events have ended with the summer term, but that doesn't mean our work has finished.  It simply means that I no longer work nights and that I can now go to worship services.  This week Kat and I brainstormed all the things we needed to finish before the new year starts in September, preferably before Soul Survivor at the end of August.  It seems like for every item we erase, we add, at least, one more.  We'll finish it, but we have a lot of admin work ahead of us.

35 days: Hot Cross buns

On Good Friday after service, a bunch of friends and I went out for tea and hot cross buns, a traditional Easter food.  I can't tell you all the symbolism behind these buns, but I do know that the white cross on the top is representative of Jesus on the cross.  I can also tell you that it seems like dried fruit are a huge part of big celebrations.  You'll find them in Christmas pudding, Hot Cross buns, mince pies, and wedding cakes.

My friends were excited about eating Hot Cross buns. (I remember one announcing during a meeting that the grocery store was now selling them, much like we would do for Peeps or Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes.)  I, however, was excited because, after 15 years of playing "Hot Cross Buns" on the recorder, I finally knew what the song was all about.

34 days: Root beer

One thing I truly miss from the States, and haven't quite been able to find or make myself, good root beer.  It's just not popular around here on the basis that most people think it tastes medicinal and is disgusting. (Kat and her husband, Sam, enjoy root beer.  It's been something we bonded over.)  This means that finding root beer is somewhat of a rarity, so, when I find a root beer, I've always bought it (and no two were ever the same).  Most of the time I was disappointed, since it seems that the common ingredient in root beer here is licorice.  It's been fun trying the different root beer recipes, but I am looking forward to having Sprecher again in September.

33 days: Office Shenanigans

We have a lot of fun in the office, usually it's started by Kat or I and Tim joins later on.  This includes office chair races, finger rocket fights, tin can phone calls, and water balloon pinatas.  Sometimes it involves food, such as making cake pops.  This particular photo is from after Kirsty had made profiteroles (cream puffs) and chocolate sauce and offered them to Kat and I and Breffni and Perry.  After waiting over an hour for Breff and Perry to show up for their portion, Kirsty said we should eat them or throw them out.  We naturally decided to eat them, and leave a surprise for the boys when they did show up.

32 days: The three musketeers ministry assistants (MAs)

Lena went back to Germany today.   Lena, Perry and I have been the three volunteers at Saint James this year, and we had some fun times while doing centre duties together.  We dealt with broken trolleys, watched stupid videos, shared sweets and laughs, and modeled the awesome sweaters we found in the attic. We started this year as completely strangers, but we ended as friends (in awesome sweaters).

31 days: The cinema with friends

A couple of friends and I went today to go see Ant-Man in the cinema.  This might not seem like a extraordinary event, but it's often in the similar scenarios, such as seeing a movie with friends, that bring out the dissimilarities.  It's also the place where I physically notice how different my culture is from the one I've been in.  Films have a way of pointing out differences in culture, age, education, language, and humor, especially when you see them with people from different cultures and age groups.  Imagine adults and kids watching any children's film.  The adults laugh at some points, the kids laugh at another, and sometimes they laugh together.

For example, in Tomorrowland, a PG film, there are a ton of swear words used, but Americans would never noticed it because all of the swear words, except for maybe one, are all British.  I walked out of the cinema thinking it was a good film.  My British friends walked out of the theater commenting about how it was the most family friendly because of the language.  Our reactions were solely based on our cultures.

Ant-Man made me realize how different British and American humor is.  I grew up with Monty Python and other British comedy groups and films, so I get some of the British humor.  It was while watching Ant-Man that I realized how American humor is different and our reactions to it.  It's a bit difficult to describe, but, besides my friend, Sam, I was the only person laughing in the theater. Perry, my other friend, commented on how it was both awkward and hilarious at the same time. He doesn't understand how funny the movie was.