Ah, Saturday morning . . . I slept in until 10:15. Some of my friends were going out to a place called Portobello and then to Abbey Road, but I was a party pooper and stayed in to do work instead. I needed to do work on the music computers in the library, and it's closed on Sundays. Don't worry, I didn't do TOO much work on Saturday. I actually started the day by making some pancakes : ) No one else was in the kitchen, so I spread out all my cooking stuff and got to work. Within a few minutes, I heard something sizzling and realized that I had set my butter container on one of the hot burners! AHHH! I immediately pulled it off, watched a bunch of butter ooze out of it onto the stove, and then tried to scrub off the melted plastic and butter residue from the burner. It was funny, actually. I had to put the rest of my butter (which was most of the container) in a tupperware, ha. Once again, my iPod accompanied me during my cooking session, but I can't remember what I listened to this time. The pancakes were delicious, and I still have leftovers!
After breakfast and doing some stuff on the computer, I headed to the library to work on the kyrie (the first portion of a mass) that I have to write for composition and musicianship class. The music writing software they use here is called Sibelius, and it is amazing! I wouldn't mind owning it sometime in the future. Because the library closes early on Saturdays, I only got to put in about 2 hours worth of work, but it was something anyway. Then, time for more food! Ever since my horrifying cellulite experience at the gym a few weeks ago, I have been keeping my eye out for faltty fish (which was on the list of "cellulite-fighting foods") in the grocery store. The tesco near the tube station has salmon, but I'm a little unsure about buying a salmon fillet from a gas station. I got canned salmon and tuna instead. Saturday evening, I cracked open the canned salmon and was very surprised. It looked like the people at the factory had literally just crammed half a fish in there without weeding out any of the skin or bones. Ewww. I picked through the contents of the can and took out the bones and some of the slimy skin. My goal was to make a spinach salad with salmon and feta, but it almost didn't happen. That salmon looked so gross! It wasn't as bad as it looked, and I managed to down a huge and healthy salad. I was trying to redeem myself from all those cookies I have been eating!
Then, it was naptime. When I woke up, I decided that it was time to start planning the trip Natalie and I are taking to Edinburgh in a few weeks. Between looking for the cheapest flights, finding train tickets to and from the airport at the right times, booking a hotel, and brushing up on details for my trip to Vienna this coming Thursday, I felt like a travel agent! Only, I wasn't getting paid for it. Much the opposite, actually, but I found some pretty good deals. My friend Sarah who lives down the hall has a printer, and she kindly let me print my boarding passes and confirmation information. We ended up talking for about 2 hours, mostly about spiritual stuff, and I left feeling very refreshed.
Sunday morning after my shower, I sat down with some leftover pancakes and some tea (which I have grown to love) and spent some time with God. I was nervous that if I didn't do that first, I would get too distracted during the rest of the day which has (sadly) been happening too often. After I refocused, I decided to head to the city to do some shopping (remember the school library was closed) and see about my money situation. On the shuttle bus on my way out, I ran into Marta and one of her friends who were headed in the same direction as me, so we all caught the tube together. It was such a beautiful day to be out in the city, except for the mobs of people who have already started their Christmas shopping. I felt like I was driving in California traffic as I weaved in and out among the crowd. The sun was out, and I enjoyed being out by myself, just roaming around the city. My first order of business was to straighten out a minor money issue I have been having. After hitting a few brick walls (not literally), I called my mom who sorted everything out for me. What a relief! With cash at hand, I headed to Fortnum and Mason to stock up on tea products, some of which to take as a gift to the American/Austrian family I am staying with in Vienna.
On my way to find a tube station to go back to campus, I came upon the 4:00 change of "The Queen's Life Guard" which was pretty cool. It's a lot of pomp and circumstance (which I generally think is overrated in most situations), but the guards looked cool in their long wool coats and shiny gold helmets with red tassles on them. There were two beautiful black horses too. When the guards had changed, I ended up walking right up to Big Ben which looked fantastic at dusk and then on to the nearest tube station where I caught a ride back to campus. There was the cutest family sitting across from me on the tube. A mom, dad, and three little girls who all had their dad's eyes. It was precious and refreshing not only to see a healthy family but also to see kids who weren't screaming or crying; I had run into a number of them that day. When I got to Oakwood Station, can you believe it??? - the shuttle bus was just pulling up. Unreal. Did I actually get out of standing in the freezing cold for 40 minutes? Yes, it was true. Thanks, God.
I made myself a very beautiful and delicious dinner consisting of garlic bread, corn, another spinach salad (minus the salmon), and gnocci with butter and parmesan cheese. I was a happy camper. After a 15 minute power nap, I left for church and missed the shuttle bus by less than 1 minute. Hooray. I will definately NOT miss that part of living in London. I was 5 minutes late for church, but oh well. It was a communion service, and it was very different. (It's technically an Anglican church, btw.) The people came up in waves and the vicar (pastor) served each person the bread with a verbal blessing and a lady followed with a community cup of wine (and a wipe to clean off the rim of the cup) and blessed us as we drank. There were people there who didn't partake, but there was no judgment toward them. If they didn't take the bread when the vicar came around to them, he just blessed them with a short prayer and moved on. It was really neat. After the service, we chatted for awhile, and then Gill and Martin (who lead the Wednesday night Bible study) gave us students a lift back to campus.
Instead of doing homework when I got back, I spent the next hour or so reading C.S. Lewis' "The Four Loves," and then I fell asleep.
Good weekend : )
Prayer Request of the Day: That I would finish everything I need to finish before I leave for Vienna on Thursday!
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