So, we are really not very good at consistent blogging during term, its a realization that has come through practice, kind of the same way someone figures out they're not good at doing english accent impersonations because they end up sounding like a country jamaican leprechaun.
Nonetheless, we would like to blame our inconsistency on our work load, we have been exceptionally busy over the past 8 weeks and if this blog is intended to inform all our friends and loved ones back home about life over here. It can be summed by one word BUSY. But not bad busy... the good kind of busy that keeps you stimulated and encouraged to work hard.
I finished my last tutorial essay this past week on the anorexic body, a topic I had never really researched very much. I am now on a 6 week spring break from classes where I start reviewing material and studying for my exams at the end of June, while concurrently organizing my ideas and plans for my research this summer back in the deep south.
Katie is continuing to work hard at her job in Rhodes House and remain the self-less breadwinner of the family, and I love her so much for that. We are starting to get more acculturated to life over here and our different schedules, we've made unbelievable friends, and life over here is beginning to feel normal. Probably the biggest component of that change is that spring is finally around the corner, just this week we saw the sun 4 times haha, and the birds are starting to sing in the trees. My expectations for the English spring are unbelievably high for 2 reasons:
1. We've endured so much rain on this cold wet island that when the sunshine finally does come out I am convinced that it has to be incredible
2. The bar for a beautiful spring is already set pretty high considering spring in Auburn and everything that entails from azalea blossoms to 280 boogie to impromptu music jams and dance sessions on the front porch followed by trips to the 221 pool
Beyond the expectation of spring we are also very much looking forward to a vacation trip to Greece at the end of April and getting a chance to unwind a bit.
I do feel like I have a lot to talk about but I'm sure it would get boring so I'll highlight one thing. This past weekend, a couple guys decided to rent a car and drive to Belgium for a Belgian beer festival and I was very fortunate to be among them. Katie isn't a big fan of beer so she stayed behind and went to London with a friend and saw Jersey Boys and then went to the London Sunday Markets, which I'm sure she will talk about sometime on here. However, shifting back to the main continent, we got to our bed and breakfast/brewery in a little town called Watou and they provided us with crates of their home-brewed beer to sample. Pretty Great. The next day we went to one of six remaining Trappist monasteries that continue to brew beer, said to be the rarest beer in the world because its only sold at the monastery. Equally Pretty Great. Then we headed to Sint. Niklaas, home of the Zythos Beer Festival, and we tried all different kinds of beer from 60 different breweries in Belgium. Its getting hard to be better at this point. But, on the last day, we put our beer drinking aside and toured the city of Antwerp, and it certainly topped it all for my book. Coincidentally, at the Antwerp cathedral, there was an art exhibition of renaissance Flemish and Belgian painters including Reubens, Metsijs, Frans Francken, and Frans Floris. The artwork was really powerful and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Anyway, after copious amounts of waffles, frites, chocolate, and bier, we piled into the tiny volkswagon and headed back across the chunnel (which is kind of strange, you basically drive the car on to a train and the train takes you across) all quite post-apocalypitic as my friend Zohar put it.
Well thats it Hope everyone is having a great March and thanking God for the Spring being around the corner.
Love,
Jordan and Katie
