A Scottish Halloween

Here we are in week 5 and I feel as though I just left home. This place has become a small community of tight knit people that are becoming more comfortable with each other every day. I absolutely love it. The problem with this reality is it has become extremely hard to manage my time wisely. I find as I become closer to these people the social opportunities/events are more present and pull me away from my studies. We had a Europe vs. The rest of the World futbol match yesterday that was actually organized by the guest speaker, Graham Sanford, who is here this week to talk about the book of Acts. It was great to see Graham, a 72-year old man, out there with many of the students (not I of course) and keeping up. I say 'keeping up' because he scored a goal in the second half! He was an inspiration for me as I would love to be playing hockey at age 72.

I have gotten off the grounds of Capernwray twice this week and it has been so cool. The first outing was to my principals house for dinner and a movie. It was only a select few of us and by select I simply mean you had to be one of the first 15 to sign-up to go. Rob (our principal) lives in such a quaint but really cool house in Preston. He is such an advocate of Apple as evident by his 23" LCD Apple monitor which was great to see. As I was snooping he showed me this program he just got that allows you to tune in to your television from anywhere in the world! Pretty sweet how technology is advancing. Michael and I cherish the talks by Rob because he is truly gifted with the ability to teach. I could talk about Rob forever but I will regress.

My second trip out was to Lancaster for PIZZA HUT!! It was amazing to have something American based. I had the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet and ate my fair share. The pepperoni still tasted different but not enough to stop me.

This weekend is our Travel Weekend and our destination in Edinburgh, Scotland. I am really excited to go because the last time I was living in this country studying abroad in London I went to Glasgow and wasn't too impressed but was informed when we returned that Edinburgh was the city to go see. We are going with about 100 of the students here and some of us are staying in a hostel. I will take plenty of pictures and who knows I may swing the sticks and play 18 at St. Andrews. You only live once.

We will be having an entire day of prayer next Thursday and in an effort to clear our minds of the day-to-day grind and raucous that fills our minds each day with iPods, television, internet, etc. the whole school will be observing an electronic fast. I am actually really excited because I think we all are too dependent on such devices for distracting us from dealing with many of the personal issues we have. I know some kids will find it harder than others but because of this I will not be responding to e-mails or Skyping anyone from Tuesday thru Friday of next week (11/3-11/6).

And as I have two minutes left before the internet cuts I will simply say: Have a Happy and fun Halloween!!

Here we go Edinburgh!