October 17-18

       It's weird not having to wake up to an alarm on a Sunday morning. It is also weird to wake up not knowing much of what I am going to do that day. I would usually (and by usually I mean the past 2 Sundays) go to the evening service at a great church nearby, but things turned out a bit differently yesterday. As I was listening to Hillsong's "Oh You Bring," I thought, "Hey, There is a Hillsong London. I'm in London. I should go." So I did. My friend Flare and I journeyed into central London which seems to take longer than it should quite frequently. Hillsong church conveniently has 4 services on Sundays, and we went to the 1:00 service. It was quite the show! Literally, they hold their services in a theatre (that's how they spell theater over here) called the Dominion where the show "We Will Rock You" (based on the music of Queen) plays during the week. Understandably, they have all the techie stuff you could ask for. Fancy lights that move to the rhythm of the music, cool visual media, top notch instruments/computers, and even a smoke machine. Afterall, this IS London - the theatre capital of the world. They know how to put on a show.
       That said, I still prefer a smaller setting for worship. (Insert Renovation plug here). As much as I might joke about people moshing at church, PERSONALLY I'm really not into that sort of thing. (If you worship that way, please don't be offended. This is just a matter of preference at this point). I've never been very charismatic during worship, in fact, I probably appear uninvolved most of the time (when I'm not leading, of course). I internalize, but I like to watch people externalize their worship as well, if it's genuine. For a worship leader, I am still awfully confused about a lot of things about worship. I could write a massive blog on that topic alone (maybe I will...), but for now I'll just say that going to Hillsong Church was a good experience. They preached the Word, the worship team was excited and musically excellent, and they believe in the power of prayer. (For those of you who are still looking for something to do when you are finished reading my volumous blog entry, you should look up "Winter Snow" by Audrey Assad and give it a careful listen. Tell me what you think...)
       We got back to our hall at about 5:00, and I decided to make a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies! Marta helped me, and we were stuck in the kitchen for over 2 hours! It was awesome, and the cookies were delicious which kind of made me feel better after missing evening church. My neighbors love me even more now after I left a pile of free-for-all cookies in the kitchen. I also set aside a few small cookie packages to give to people like our security guards, bus driver, and cleaning lady. I have a lot of sympathy for people like that after working at Starbucks. Even worse, their jobs are mainly boring (except the cleaning lady). Can you imagine driving a bus over a very small circuit for hours during which no one asks you how your day is going, or maybe doesn't say anything to you at all? Or having to clean up after ungrateful, messy (possibly, well probably drunk) college students everyday? Or having to man a lonely security desk all night as you watch students enjoying their free time or going out on the town? There are the kinds of things I think of as a grateful EX-barista. If I were in their shoes, I would want some cookies.
       That evening we watched a few more episodes of 30 Rock, and then I buckled down to do some reading before bed. Today, I went for a walk/jog to burn off some of the 5 cookies I ate yesterday. I didn't have classes, but I did a lot of reading/studying/research and felt very productive. I think I already mentioned this in a previous blog, but I'm really excited to be studying music at school. The class schedule and assignments are just what I need to push myself to learn because I'm not nearly as self-disciplined as I used to be.
       For dinner, I made a whopping pan of spaghetti and stored most of it for later. After having some delicious cookies for dessert, I did some more homework. It's a bit difficult to get back into the swing of close literary analysis. My processing skills have slacked off over my long summer, but they are coming back quickly. The week's assignment for my Shakespeare class was to read the play I mentioned in my last post and then analyze it in light of a short essay on Derrida and Rousseau. The theme was revenge, and the question essentially was, "Can revenge be a supplement to the law?" It was a very intriguing exercise, and I came out of it praising God for designing the Law with mercy in mind. It was beautiful, but explaining the beauty in depth would mean writing you a lengthy essay. (Oh wait, I think I'm doing that anyway.)
       I later joined some of my neighbors to watch some tv (of their choice), but soon confirmed that I'm not ok with such raunchy humor and foul language. I politely slipped out, and chose to write this blog instead! Is it just me, or my blogs getting longer every time I write one? I don't know what to do about that...
For now,

Prayer Request of the Day: That I would make Jesus look good.