Birmingham

It's good to get out of Oxford sometimes. It's such a world of it's own (really a University town feel) and most people say it has a sub-culture of its own. And frankly, I get sick of it sometimes. It's nice to get out, it reminds you that generally people ARE actually down to earth.

Because of my work, I have been traveling by train to Birmingham a lot lately. I love taking the train, being able to work on my laptop (with wifi!) and look out over the countryside at the sheep. Yes. Loads of sheep. Last spring it was nice to see all the little lambs too :) The countryside is really flooded these days, after all the masses of snow melted, it's amazing the railroad doesn't get flooded or houses for that matter, they don't exactly build the land up to protect against these things.

Birmingham: good shopping (maybe just compared to Oxford too!). They have this shopping centre called the Bullring (pic below) near the downtown train station. It's a crazy building, and I can't remember how it got the name again, something about it being where the Market was in the Middle Ages. Not much else to see in the city, although I haven't seen much of it, so I am sure lots of people would disagree. The university is nice, feels like a Canadian university and I bought fresh vegetables for cheap there once (at an outdoor market). I love going to Birmingham because I get out of Oxford, and most of the time I am welcomed into a lovely, cozy home (the McNeill's) and I have a productive day working on the UK national training with my colleague Ruth McNeill. Apparently there is a botanical garden downtown that's really lovely, we'll hopefully work there next time.

So that's Birmingham to me. Not too exciting, but refreshing to get out of this crazy town I live in.

Haiti

This is from my friend Stephanie's Blog...

If we’re able to spend even a few bucks on ourselves, whether it’s a latte on the go at Starbucks, going out to a movie, buying ice cream at the grocery store, etc, then we’re able to give a few bucks (probably and hopefully more) to those in need. A major earthquake has recently rocked the island nation of Haiti, killing multitudes...

My friend found a consolidated list of a dozen charities helping Haiti relief efforts I’m posting here. If you are in Canada, you can redirect to the Canadian division of international organizations (e.g. Compassion Canada, World Vision Canada, etc)

11 Charities Collecting Donations for Haiti (taken from DesiringGod.org)

1. Compassion International
2. Feed My Starving Children
3. Food for the Hungry
4. World Vision
5. World Relief
6. Samaritan’s Purse
7. Love a Child
8. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
9. Compassion Weavers
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Water Missions International

I would like to also add what Power to Change is doing through its subsidiary organization, Global Aid Network (GAiN) – you can click here to read more or give through them.

Still Learning...

Don't have too much to say today, other than the fact that I am still amazed at how many English phrases I didn't know existed or what they meant...for instance this week I learned that a grill cheese sandwich is called a "toastie"(way better word and much easier to say might I add). I also learned that wellies (my rain boots) is short for wellingtons which comes from the Duke of Wellington who brought them (although they were probably leather) into style because of the muck in the fields during his time (or so someone told me this week!).

The other frustrating thing is the fact that I still say things that don't make sense to them at times. And I know, right when it comes out of my mouth, I know it. But I don't always acknowledge it because I just want to get on with what I am saying. For instance, this week I said, 'That is what we have a beef about..." or something like that, which is a phrase they DO NOT use. Also, I told a man his puppy had a lot of 'spunk' which Tom told me afterwards mean semen. Great. Geez, you'd think I would learn.

PS: Stupid rain, it melted all my beautiful snow away. Boo. More in the forecast for Wednesday at least!

New Year, New Post.

A huge dump of snow has fallen in Oxford this past week. Most people I have talked to said that they haven't seen this much snow in England either in over a decade, and some even say their whole lives. We got about a foot of snow on Tuesday night and although we barely made it home from the conference we were attending, once we did get home, we were perfectly happy to be snowed in. This post has 3 parts.

1. Beauty
2. Beauty dampened.
3. A thought about a Bear.

1. Beauty

I have never seen Oxford so beautiful. The snow magnifies all the majestic peaks and divots in the breath-taking architecture that this city has. I have posted a bunch of photos on my flickr account if you want to browse through. We made sure to go downtown that first day, glad that the buses were running even though most of city was shut down (over 200 schools in the area were shut down for the latter half of this week!). We just knew it would be picturesque and plus we both love the snow! Unfortunately, we don't have our snow gear so we have to suffer with lots of socks and our wellies. NOTE TO SELF: don't call your snow pants, snow pants. They are snow trousers. You are basically telling people you forgot to bring your 'snow underwear'--they probably think we have such a thing in Canada!

2. Beauty dampened.

Fell on my ass. Yes, beauty slightly dampened. Last night on our way to a friends birthday (yes, all the snow is still here four days later, but now there is lots of ice too) , I slipped on some ice and fell flat on my hip...at least I thought that for that was were the shooting pain was, but today my hamstring is all swollen and painful. Anyways, embarrassing yes, but more importantly, painful. Advil is my best friend today, and hopefully I am not too black/blue this week (although I don't bruise easily so I doubt it). Needless to say, winter wonderland, less wonderful. But I still long for it to stay......it makes January so much more bearable with snow everywhere.

3. A thought about a Bear.

It's been so cold everyday here. -15 at one point, but about -5 most of the time. I enjoy it because that means the snow won't melt, but I just really feel sometimes I should be hibernating. At least until spring. My energy is low, my motivation is low, it just seems right to cuddle in my bed and not get out. Is that so wrong? I feel like the world would be a better place, if during the winter months the cultural norm was that we slept more...at least a rule that we shouldn't be up if it's dark out (which here is a lot...the days are short--sun up at 815 and down at 415...it's pretty crazy, but we are at the same latitude as Edmonton). I really long to be a bear in hibernation these days. Not depressed or anything just want to embrace winter for what it should be: hibernation time!