It's been a while...

More accurately, it has been two months since I last posted.  Two.  Months.  Can you tell I'm just having too much fun over here to mess with a blog??  Even so, I am disappointed in myself that I have not documented my time here very well for friends and family.  I'm not very good at social media, updating, and the like.  At the rate this virtual world is going, too, I'll be left behind soon enough.  Oh well.

In about ten days I will be returning home.  Where has the time gone?  There are only two final exams, one essay, and a few days of last minute sightseeing, souvenir shopping, and packing (bleh.) between me and America.  Wow oh wow oh wow!  Since I have such little time left, here's what I've been thinking recently.  Yesterday, in fact, I wrote this in my journal while taking a lovely study break walk down Lade Braes in the warm sunshine.  Yes, you read that right.  Warm Scottish sunshine.  Without further ado:

"Inexorable Love"

"Nothing is inexorable but love. Love which will yield to prayer is imperfect and poor. Nor is it then the love that yields, but its alloy... For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection, even that itself may be perfected--not in itself, but in the object... Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed. And our God is a consuming fire."

-George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, "The Consuming Fire"

Inexorable. Unmovable, unpersuadable, unyielding. Is it true that "nothing is inexorable but love"? The foundations my feet have walked seem very strong. The rocks that line the rocky shores of this coastal path, my hand cannot break. Yet, Mam Tor is eroding. It is the shivering mountain that it is named. The rocks my hands pick up are changed over time, even if I cannot see it. If change happens to such seemingly steadfast things as these, what else may move?

Walk with me

Everyday, I turn right out of Regs onto Queens Gardens street. Flats line the pavement on my right, and cars line the street on my left. Across the street on the left are several gardens, most of which only have small windows between the vines through which you can peek. At the end of Queens Gardens is South Street, and I turn right just a bit to reach the magical crosswalk that traverses South St. If you step onto the bold white lines, cars automatically stop for you. It's a wonder, really, that cars would give way to pedestrians. I like Scotland for this.

Becoming a St. Andrean

For the past two weeks I have been settling into the comings and goings, ups and downs, and heres and theres of being a student at St. Andrews. I successfully moved into my dorm room in St. Regulus hall and have met all sorts of wonderful people that live here in this cosy community. It's a smaller hall (just about 175 people live here) and we take meals together in the dining hall everyday, so it is a very friendly and welcoming environment. People are often sitting together in the common room or library, or congregating in larger rooms like mine, and piano music is frequently heard through the thin walls and floors. Luckily enough, there are some great musicians living here! In sum, I love living in "Regs" and already feel quite at home here.

A few firsts.

The past nine days have been filled with so many "firsts" in my life that I probably cannot remember them all. On Sunday, the 22nd of January, for the first time by myself, I boarded a jet plane and set off for the land of...kilts? sterling silver? bagpipes? golf? Gerard Butler? Pick your favorite. I won't bore you with details of my flight, but after a rather uncomfortable nine hours I eventually made it to Edinburgh, Scotland (my first time being in Scotland) and met up with the rest of the Baylor group (you'll meet them all eventually) for dinner later that night in all our jet-lagged glory. Not my first time being jet-lagged, but that doesn't make it any less fun... The next day we took the train to London (first!) and there many adventures (and more firsts) ensued!!