Days 50-41

50 days: St Pancras International Station

Today the London Underground (Tube) system completely shut down (for the first time in 13 years) for the day during a workers strike.  This serene picture of St Pancras International was flooded with travelers and commuters trying to find alternative ways of getting home, such as a bus or taxi.  It makes you realize how important public transportation is to the population.

49 days: My home

This is a simple explanation. This is where I've lived for the past year with Lena, my roommate.  Here  I learned just how different English houses are from American houses.  The differences include outlets, light switched, door locks, tea kettles, washing machines, refrigerators, showers, toilets, heating, potable water, and there are probably a few I'm missing. Mainly, it was a place where I could go home at the end of the day, make a cup of tea, and catch up with people back home or simply relax.

48 days: A full English breakfast

As much as I love pancakes and waffles, I have come to appreciate the English breakfast.  It consists of toast, English (not American) bacon, sausage, roasted tomatoes, egg, beans, black (blood) pudding, mushrooms, and, of course, a cup of tea.  It took a while to get used to the idea of eating beans for breakfast, but without them, it's just not the same.

47 days: Saying Goodbye Resonate Style

Today was the End of Year party for Resonate.  It's made up of more food, games, and water balloons than any other event we have during the year.  It's the last event of the year, and it's when we say goodbye to the youth leaving for university and the leaders who are stepping down from their position.  Each leaver is asked to share their plans for after Resonate, and, then, the rest of Resonate prays for them.  However, the goodbyes are not complete until all the leavers participate in one last Resonate challenge.  This year it involved eating profiteroles (cream puffs) as fast as you can without your hands while blindfolded.  (The guys had an added secret ingredient of Nandos hot sauce.)  Anyways, this was the result of the challenge, and thankfully this isn't totally goodbye, as I will be spending a week with Resonate at Soul Survivor before I leave.

46 days: Where's Tim?

This was the sight that greeted me when I came into work today, and it's only half of it.  The worst part of big events is the clean up afterwards.  Pool noodles, water jugs, mocktail ingredients, signs, cool boxes, badminton equipment, and so much more were waiting for us Monday morning.  The benefit of it completely filling the office is it gives you motivation to clean it as soon as possible.  The downside is you have to clean it up before you do anything else.

 45 days: Edda's last staff lunch

After 13 years, Edda has decided to step down from her position as Children's pastor, so, during her last staff lunch, we put up bunting, had some cake, and celebrate all the kids, families, and church members Edda worked with over the years. A lot has changed since Edda started. There was no centre. Sunday School was taught in a small building with plants growing through the windows, and there was no AED on site.  Thanks Edda for all your work.

44 days: Cleaning out the attic

One of the fun parts of my placement is that we get to go places that no one else knows exist, and one is the attic.  Whenever we've gone into the attic, someone responds "We have an attic?!"  So today we went up into the attic to put away the Christmas decorations (Yes, I know it's July), and while up there, we noticed that how unorganized everything was and decided to cleaned it up a bit.  During the process we found a whole bunch of random objects, such as boxes of clothes, WWI coats (real or replicas, we have no clue.), and a half finished model boat.  After we finished, the only thing I can say is "Thank God for showers."

43 days: MA breakfast

Even though I don't leave for another month, Lena leaves next week, so the church cooked us an English breakfast and had us wear crowns as a thank you for the year.  The decorations were put up the night before, so when I left work I had to be escorted out with my eyes covered to keep the surprise.    In order to remember my time at Saint James and in England, I was given a Great British Bake Off cookbook autographed by Mary Berry herself. (This is actually a huge deal.)  It might have been the official goodbye, but I'm glad I still have time to make the informal, personal goodbyes.

42 days: Thanksgiving in July

I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving this year.  I made short blog posts about what I was thankful for during the month and made a cranberry cheesecake pie to share with the staff, but that was the extent of my Thanksgiving.  Part of it was because Thanksgiving doesn't exist here, and the other part was because we were too busy during the actual holiday.  On Thanksgiving, we had a youth leaders meeting, followed by a youth weekend away the next day, so Thanksgiving was not really on my radar. (Something I was thankful for since it kept the homesickness that comes with family holidays at bay.)

Anyways, one of my friends expressed her disappointment about not experiencing a Thanksgiving dinner, so we picked a date, invited some friends, and made Thanksgiving dinner.  We had all the classics: turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, and roasted veg (Sadly, no cranberry sauce due to the season.), and paired it with some British puddings.  It was in July, but it didn't matter since Thanksgiving is really about spending time and giving thanks for the people God has placed in our lives.

41 days: Health and Safety

I think I can say the youth office is the most dangerous in the church.  Health and Safety is occasionally mentioned in England. Scratch that it's mentioned all the time, and in our office it's mentioned even more.  It's not because of all the risk assessments we're creating, but because of the situations we create in the office.  It's usually because the telephone line is draped across the desk, increasing the risk of tripping, and, sometimes, as this picture shows, we stand on furniture to increase our height.  Kat isn't the best role model in this case, since she chooses furniture on wheels.  Don't worry Mom! I haven't followed her example...much.