Week 2!

i saw this tiny European car and knew i had to take a picture by it because it made me laugh. you can get a feeling for how small it was by comparing it to me =)

I can't believe we are almost at the end of week 2 here at Capernwray!! The first week felt like a month and this 2nd week has flown by!

This week was fun and I'm starting to get more into the groove of things here. This week we had 4(?) series of lectures. One was presented by Mark Thomas, the founder Ian Thomas' son, on many basics of the Christian faith. It was honestly a bit hard to sit through since it was all very familiar material, but I still strove to stay attentive with an open mind. =) Then we had also had a series continuing from last week by Rob Whittaker, the school’s principal. I love his speaking style and find him really interesting, easy to listen to, yet challenging us at the same time. Rob spoke about “the transforming friendships of Jesus” and looked at 3 people in the Bible that were affected by their encounter with Jesus: Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the lame man by the pool of Bethesda in John 5. Rob showed how Jesus spoke to each person in a way which they would be receptive and I found it quite interesting.

We also had the “walk thru the Bible” program on Monday and Tuesday as I mentioned previously. I enjoyed doing that and find it helpful to remember the roadmap of the Old Testament. And the same presenter (who was really funny) will come back next month and do the New Testament with us.

Lastly, we also had a woman named Sue Gilmore, the school registrar, speak about “the habits of the heart”. I don’t think her series is done yet. I found her somewhat difficult to listen to but have been learning from her talks nonetheless.

here's the dinning hall and the pretty ornamental lawns which we are not allowed to walk on (and yet there are steps in the middle of them...?)

I noticed a few English quirks during lectures that I thought I’d share with you. For one thing, English people refer to the “first” books of the Bible (i.e. 1 Corinthians, or 1 Samuel) as “one Samuel” or “one Corinthians” instead of saying “first Samuel” like we would. Isn’t that funny? I’ve had to try hard not to be bothered by it. =) Also, they had different spellings for certain words (beyond French spellings for words that add extra e’s and such). For instance, they spell organizer, organizer (with an S instead of a Z) and there are several other words I’ve seen that follow that same rule.

For several days I had been wanting to have a time in the evening to spend just with my roommates because we hadn’t really spent any time together as a group. So on Wednesday night, we had a roommate night. I had been planning on having us share about our families and show each other pictures, but we ended up singing worship songs together and then talking about other things. And sharing our junk foods that families sent like oreos and peanut butter. (things I don’t miss at the moment, but I have a feeling I will feel peanut butter deprived before the end of our time here) In any case, it was a really nice time and we decided to make it a tradition and spent one night together every week. (but when we say evening time, it’s after lectures finish at 9pm and then we have hot drinks and internet access from 9-10pm. So it’s really like 1 ½ together from 10-11:30 ish)

I’m enjoying practicing my French with Anne-Sophie and getting to know her better. Yesterday we had a French session and spoke in French for about 45 min. and afterwards I had to remind myself to revert back into English =) the French feels like it’s coming back to me nicely and I’m really having fun being able to speak it to someone so knowledgeable.

here's our lecture hall
it's situated on a slope (which you can't see) and there's a story underneath the hall that has more girls' dorms

I thought I had mentioned this next blurb, but looking back at other blogs it doesn’t look like I have. But forgive me if I’m repeating myself =)

So the guys (all 50 of them) have split into two sections based on their lodging: the beehive and the tower. “The beehive”, because our snack shop is called the beehive and their rooms are on that side of the castle by the shop. And the tower, because those rooms are in the area by the clock tower (not the large, castle-like tower in the center of the castle). Anyway, the two teams are having competitions in sports and in team spirit. They just had their 1^st competition yesterday and played a volleyball game (the tower won) and I’ve heard a soccer game (or football as the Europeans call it) is up next. The teams have asked the girls to pick sides and the beehive even is holding an election for “queen bee”. Hahaha. I know! And what’s almost funnier is that some girls actually applied for the position! who says we’re grown up here? =) however most girls don’t really care. But my two “brothers” from my family group are both in the tower so if I had to choose…

=)

Oh! Ok, my “brother” Dan from Tennessee is like the class clown here but in a good way. He is hysterical and can almost be counted on for a good laugh. However it’s not that he cracks jokes a lot, it’s just that he is such a comical person. For instance, he was the “coach” of the tower for the volleyball game and he wore suspenders, a sweat-headband, and held a clip board shouting encouragement from the sidelines! He reminds me of a nicer, less awkward Napoleon Dynamite. I’ll get a picture of our group soon hopefully so you can see him. Until then, you’ll just have to imagine =) he is so cheerful and makes all us laugh. Whenever he sees me (or anybody else in our family group) he kinda nodes or waves and says “hey sister”. =)

Right now (and for the past couple of hours) it has been misting outside. It’s pretty and almost looks like snow but is much less exciting to be in. So just as a reward for reading such a long blog, here's some more pictures! =)

here's a view of the back of the castle.
the room that is behind the wall with the red vine in the center of the picture (the one with triple windows on the 1st floor) is our "quiet room". we can read in there, etc. but whatever we do, it's supposed to be quiet. we also have 4 other common rooms in the castle but there not in this picture =)

Castle! =) if you're wondering why the supposedly rainy and gloomy England is sunny in all of my pictures that's because i haven't bothered to take any pictures on rainy days! all the pictures i have posted are from 2 or maybe 3 days over the past 2 weeks that i have been here. sun is not extremely rare here, but it's definitely not common and it's not becoming any more frequent as autumn continues!

We have our first writing assignments in addition to the massive amounts of Bible reading. Our first book (besides the Bible) is "Alive in Christ" by Charles W. Price. I'm not too far into it yet, but it's a pretty easy read and not super heavy like I expected.

Also, this morning we had our first friday morning seminar. On fridays the schedule changes and we don't have lectures. Half of us have a seminar in the morning while the other half have a "work morning" cleaning the inside of the castle for the girls and doing outside work for the boys. Last friday I cleaned rooms (dirty boys' rooms!), so this morning I attended Rob Whittaker's seminar on managing our time and responsibilities, making goals, etc. (not only for while we're here, but also for when we move on) It was helpful and we'll see how well i do at applying all the info. =)

Coming up in a few weeks we have a travel weekend to Edinburgh from Oct. 31- Nov. 3. i don't have too much information on it yet. however i know that the school is reserving rooms at b&bs in bulk or we can choose to stay in youth hostels by our own arrangement. i really don't know much else but i'm excited and look forward to going to Scotland =)

I feel like there's so much more to share! However, I'm going to post this now and I'll share more another time.
TONS OF LOVE TO ALL!!!!
~Sarah