Just a quick update from the last couple of very eventful days.
- Thanksgiving in Britain was great I spent most of the day at Rhodes House in the kitchen preparing mass quantities of Mac'n'Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, and assorted other goodies for the Thanksgiving festivities that night. Nearly a hundred scholars joined together at the Rhodes House that night for a great evening of giving thanks. We got to introduce the holiday to a number of our Australian friends which was tons of fun.
- I also competed in the Christ Church Rowing Regatta in Oxford starting last Wednesday and ending on Friday. It is one of the largest regattas in the world and is only for novice boats (aka people who have only been rowing for about 2 months). It was a great time, Katie came down and watched the races on the river and cheered her heart out for me, which hearkened to old days of swimming. It was a seriously cold sport but tons of fun. We won our first two matches pretty easily, but our third match was a very close race that came down to the last 200 meters. The cox called for a "push for 10"(10 really hard strokes) and the seat of the man sitting behind me popped off the runners and the rhythm and balance of the boat was totally thrown off. He continued to row from the seat of his pants, but we ended up losing the race. However, the experience was well worth it.
- Following our enormous Thanksgiving feast on Thursday night we had to step up our game to enjoy the Iron Bowl Friday night with a country Thanksgiving tailgate. We cooked up Mom's sweet potato casserole, Mrs. Watson's green been casserole, cranberry salad, pecan pie, and two of our friends from Texas came over and cooked some sausage rolls. After stuffing ourselves, yet again, we watched an incredible Iron bowl on a tiny computer screen in our living room. The funny thing about watching American TV on your computer over here is that you only get to watch the same two commercials at every break. So we know every second of the Coke Zero "Time Machine" and Nissan Maxima "We're having a baby!" commercials.
- On Sunday we woke up early with the intentions of traveling to Bath to see the Christmas markets with our friends Tom and Kira. Little did we know, the train system runs a little slow on Sundays. Upon finally arriving in Bath 4 hours later we were left with about 40 minutes to peruse the town before heading back to the train for the ride home. Although short, the trip was wonderful and Bath was an absolutely beautiful place to visit, especially if you like to shop.
- Finally, the last listing in our hodge podge compilation of the past couple day's events was my Birthday yesterday. It was an awesome birthday, and one that didn't involve two long arduous swim practices for a change. However, on a more nostalgic note, I did miss going to Cracker Barrel with all my best friends in the world. Instead Katie and I went to dinner at an Italian restaurant and then returned to the flat for unbelievably tasty chocolate cake made from scratch (Not too unlike the coca-cola chocolate cake served at the Old Country Store). Following cake, we made our way up to the local pub close to our flat and were joined by probably 30 or 40 friends who came to hang out and celebrate with a few ales.
It was an awesome time and we both returned to the house at midnight thanking God for such a wonderful life.The last couple weeks have been a roller coaster of up and down victory and defeat but we are learning so much through our experiences. God has given us the amazing opportunity of living life together and learning from mistakes and failures. We cherish every moment we have here and look forward to seeing everyone sometime soon.
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