Back to Basics

Don't worry, we haven't died. I stopped blogging weekly in January and turned to biweekly. And then one week we were working late on blog Tuesday. The next week it just didn't seem right to break the even-dated blogging routine and then by the following week, the habit was broken. Not the best excuse I've come up with. In fact, it's probably in the bottom 5. Basically our views were slowly dwindling down into double digits and I couldn't be bothered to put some thoughts on the internet. Sorry, guys. That isn't to say it won't happen anymore. I doubt I'll keep this up biweekly, much less weekly, but I'll try to come back here and give you something.

So now, an update on the last 3 months. Time, as it does, is flying faster than ever. Jodi and I have grown increasingly busy and that time just keeps slipping away at its usual stealthily constant and fleetingly transient way. Returning to the blog will also encourage me to take more pictures. I find blogs quite boring without pictures so I would force myself to take pictures of events in our lives despite the fact that I despise doing so. I've found photos often diffuse the ingenuity of a given moment but without them, it can be difficult to remember specific details about the moment. This usually leads to exactly one picture taken during each "moment" with little care given to it until it's time to return to the memory. This paragraph was NOT supposed to be about my photographic philosophy. That's what happens when I haven't written in a while.

On the subject of photos (though this paragraph will not be about them) the ones in this blog will be random. Or maybe not. I haven't actually arrived at the photo selection process yet. Anyway, March was a pretty standard month. Nothing too exciting happened although British Summer Time began which keeps the sun out longer, right? Also we took a holiday just after St. Patricks Day and did nothing. It was wonderful.

In April, the snowball effect of Congress planning really took off. While big projects are ultimately coming to a close, it takes a myriad of micro-projects to seal them up. For example, in order for the back stage passes project to be closed, we have to go through staff and performers' schedules and make sure they have the exact access they need in the exact venue (or sub-venue) they will be on the exact day they need to be there. And there are about 2,500 people on that list. That's one of my 3 main responsibilities.

So far in May, we've continued snowballing but it's reached a terminal velocity that kind of allows us to ride it right up to congress. It's fun, but if you lose your balance you will fall o ff and get smashed by everything that's been picked up so far. Deepest analogy evaarrrr. Maybe not. Anyway, we're busy. But enjoying it. Since moving to Norwood in South London we've continued taking the 6:41 am train into work but now we tend to leave between 4 and 5 pm... sometimes 6. Turns out helping plan an event like this takes time!

 Isaac, one of my best friends from high school, happened to have a layover in London!

 SAVN.TV was filming on location in London a few weeks ago...

We went to a theme park with the youths from our corps. It was a bit cold. 

History in the Harbour

Jodi and I aren't big on holidays. Well, I'm not big on holidays so Jodi is only big on a few. Mainly Christmas. Anyway, Valentine's Day, being a holiday, was all but ignored. We made (Jodi made) eggs Benedict which apparently has to be capitalized that way and it was delicious. End of blog-safe celebration. Most of the Boundless 8 came over for dinner and desserts which turned into mostly dessert and watching Hercules. No selfie came of this party, though.

Last week was fairly normal until Friday, when Jodi and I took the day off. We spent the morning cleaning and packing for a weekend holiday to Fareham and Portsmouth with Alexa. We have mutual friends, the Malletts who live in the Portsmouth and they had offered for us to stay at their house while we were living in England so this weekend we took advantage of the offer. We went to the UK's TYB/TYC (Territorial Youth Band & Choir) concert in Bournemouth which was very good but made me miss performing with the territorial groups from the West. It made for a late night but we were on holiday so we didn't really care.

On Saturday we went on a Portsmouth tourism extravaganza. We started with local sights near Fareham- Titchfield Abbey, St. Peter's Church, and the coast. The first walls of the church were built in 680. I didn't forget a digit there. 680. As in a millennium before our country's founders were born. It has since been expanded and modified several times over the last 1335 years but I was still severely impressed. Even Titchfield Abbey, the newer of the two structures, was built almost 800 years ago!

After a quick lunch at the Malletts we headed to Portsmouth for more history. I'm usually a selective and somewhat ambiguous history buff- there are random things I'm interested in like medieval architecture, pirates,  and renaissance era ships but I don't actually know much about any of them. We first visited the Mary Rose museum, which is a huge black structure with bits of a ship inside it. At least, that's what I was expecting. The Mary Rose was brought to the surface in 1982 and was a pivotal discovery in the realm of naval artifacts and culture. There was a lot discovered from what was under the ship that I always thought has been common knowledge since the 1700s but has actually only been known for the last 30 years. The way the museum is set up is also quite impressive. The inside is shaped and formatted like the decks of the original ship and parallel the parts that were brought up from the excavation. There are windows on one side showing the ship and artifacts on the other in places they would likely be placed when the ship was in use. There were also recreations of crew members based on bones and clothes found inside which gives a unique perspective into life on a 16th century warship. Check out the wikipedia page. It's legit.

On Sunday we went to Portsmouth Citadel and had a lovely roast dinner with the Malletts and one of their daughter's family. We're always down for roast dinner. As if our Sunday couldn't be any more British, we watched two football games and lazily lounged until it was time to head back to the train station. We learned that Sunday trains back to London are ridiculously busy and may not even have seats available. Usually on commuter trains this is fine but we were 90 minutes from London so we ended up walking pretty far down the train before we found suitable seats. We took the tube from Waterloo to Elephant & Castle only to discover there was no rail service from that station and the bus was our only alternative. After an annoyingly long bus ride we finally made it home happily enough.

 Eggs Benedict.

Titchfield Abbey and beautiful coastal weather.

Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth.

Us in front of the HMS Warrior.

The skull of the Mary Rose's purser. 

Biweekly Blogging is Best

This every other week blogging seems to be working well with our schedule. It seems like we always have an uninteresting weekend followed by an interesting one. The last fortnight was no different. Last weekend we stayed home and the week was spent working. Nothing exciting to report aside from a delicious dinner with Mark Nelson (whom I know from Pasadena) who is here for ICO. The most recent weekend, however, was full of excitement in the most normal sense of the word. Because of a bus strike on Thursday I wasn't able to make it to Wood Green for worship practice. I was texting our worship leader a live report of the unfortunate news and she invited us (Jodi, Alexa, and me) to their youth music night, which is on every Friday before the second Sunday of the month. I know this seems oddly specific, but "Second Sunday" is a special day at our church where the youth stay in the whole meeting and the service is done slightly differently.

Friday we stayed in town after work so we wouldn't have to deal with Southern London trains to get back up to Wood Green. We went to a Mexican place behind the Top Shop in Oxford Street that had the second best burrito I've ever had in my life. It was good. It might just be because we are so far removed from burrito country that my standards are dwindling... the only downside was the price- nearly £10 for a burrito! That's like $15! I'm a volunteer! Anyway, we continued on to Wood Green only to discover that one of the sinks had flooded into the main corridor. We assembled an emergency flood response team out of moms and one kid and after an hour of mopping, dabbing, and wiping, the floor was mostly dry. Our corps officer Jonny actually had to climb through a tunnel or something to stop the flood. I wasn't there for that part so it might be a little exaggerated. The music night itself was loads of fun. We hadn't done much with the youths of our church before then but they were all open to hanging out with us which was nice. We played a Taylor Swift song together which I had never heard and Alexa got two of the boys to do some choreography with their cornet contribution. After the jam, we played a game of around-the-world table tennis but the corps only has maybe 8 or 9 ping pong paddles and there were definitely more of us than that. The rest of us used song books which, surprisingly, worked rather well.

On Saturday Jodi went to the corps again for a women's breakfast while I stayed home and played Civilization V. If you like Risk and/or Settlers of Catan, don't play Civilization. You will get addicted. When Jodi returned from her event that afternoon, we went grocery shopping which was the one unexciting thing that happened that weekend. On Saturday night we went out to dinner with Gabriel Carrión, a friend from the Chicago Area who is on a surgery rotation in London for Med School.

Sunday was long but undeniably fun. Church was the usual second Sunday craziness and I was still able to play bass with the worship team despite skipping practice. After church we took 11 of the youths down to Elephant & Castle in Southern London to wait for a tour bus with about 80 other teens from the Central London Division. The tour wasn't actually the exciting part of the trip- it was spending 3 hours in bus with our teens. Any Salvationist will tell you if you want to get to know someone, spend an extended period of time with them in a cramped vehicle headed to an Army function. Loud laughter, sweets sharing, and jeering jokes were spread in overwhelming abundance throughout our old school double decker buses. We turned into a bit of a tourist attraction as well, waving regularly at other tour buses and and yelling friendly hellos to walking tourists. We are on a lot of Europeans' Facebook pages this week.

Monday was a mostly uneventful work day until we decided to make cookies that night. We decided taking whoopie pies to THQ the next day (Jodi and I now work from UK & Ireland THQ on Tuesdays) would be a good ice breaker for our new colleagues. The oven was a little warm from when Jodi had made dinner so I put the butter in there to soften it up. We started the rest of the prep work but soon discovered we were lacking one ingredient. Rather than walking all the way to the grocery store (about a half mile) we walked to the corner store which conveniently carries powdered sugar (or icing sugar as it's called here). When we got back we finished the prep and preheated the oven. We were ready to start baking when Jodi smelled something burning and opened the oven to discover the butter melting onto the bottom crumb tray in the oven. My bad. What didn't melt was nicely softened but unfortunately we didn't think to take a picture of the mishap for our blog...

Around the world.

Jodi and Gabriel.

Transport Troubles

Moving to Southern London has not been without it's troubles. Overall it's easily a better fit for us... not having a kitchen was getting old. There is, however, something Northern London has that the south side of the Thames is still lacking- the tube. The Underground is a fantastically frequent and conveniently commonplace method of travel throughout London, mostly because of the fact that it's, well, underground. No traffic, no pedestrians, and no weather means the trains can run almost seamlessly year round. The trains in Southern London, however, are mostly on the National Rail system which is almost entirely aboveground. The National Rail is notorious for it's tardiness and tendency to cancel routes altogether without much warning. Additionally, the stops are often miles apart instead of a few city blocks which means getting to one often requires taking a bus. This weekend somehow seemed to be particularly challenging for our travels...

Thursday should have been a typical work day. Worship practice at Wood Green is on Thursdays so Jodi will usually bring Alexa home so they can bake something- and I never complain about that. Last Thursday, however, I wasn't needed at rehearsal so we decided to go to Chipotle in Oxford Street for dinner with the Boundless 8 and a new guy from the International Audit Department, Jonas. After dinner Jodi and I went to Starbucks with Alexa and Cameron where we chatted until about 7:30. We took the Victoria line to Brixton as usual but when we came out of the station, we saw that our bus was already at the stop on the next block. We ran to the bus and got there as the last two people in the queue were boarding. The driver, however, didn't think our sprint was worthy of his time and he closed the door before we could get on. We ended up having to take three buses to get home. Stress.

Friday we decided to have an impromptu family dinner, which ended up actually being most-of-the-family dessert. We stopped at Denmark Hill, where the others live, because some of them wanted to change before heading to our house. The bus ride from Denmark Hill to Upper Norwood is usually about 30 minutes. For some reason, on Friday it was 75. Strike two, London transport. Strike two.

Saturday was both fantastic and awful. We had decided a few months earlier to help out our territory at the Camp America job fair here in London so they had more people to operate the booths and didn't have to send as many from the States. But this meant waking up at 5:30 for me and Jodi. We usually wake up at 5 for work, though, so it wasn't terrible. The commute there was easy, too, so all was well. For a while. The fair itself was a lot of fun- it made me miss working at camp but we were able to find some quality staff members for several camps in the West. After the fair we started home but only made it halfway. Trains to our neighborhood were all cancelled because of a "problem on the tracks". We managed to make it a few more stops on another line but then got stuck in New Cross Gate. I still have no idea where New Cross Gate is. Fortunately, we have apps that tell us what to do in these situations but the bus route it put us on took us right into the heart of the only area in London we were told to never visit at night. And it was definitely after dark. We never actually felt in danger but we've also walked the streets of Tunis with armed military police (as in M16 armed) so we are considerably more seasoned travelers than we used to be. Ha. Yeah right. Anyway, we got on the wrong bus, switched back to the right one, transferred to our homebound bus, and then finally made it home 90 minutes later. Strike three, London transport.

By Sunday transport had already struck out so we were good to go... or not. We got to church fine and after church we had a lovely lunch and chat with some new friends from the corps. They also lived conveniently close to a National Rail Station that could get us all the way home with only one transfer at King's Cross! We made it to King's Cross just fine but when we checked the prompter, there was not a single southbound train leaving the station. Now, King's Cross is not exactly a small station by any standard. There are 27 platforms if you count the international platforms and NONE of them were going south. We live in the south. We decided to take the Victoria line (one of six tube lines through KC) to Brixton again, despite the poor luck we had with it two days before. The bus driver was insanely fast this time, which kind of made up for the whole we-aren't-sending-any-trains-through-Farringdon fiasco.

On Monday we were back to our typical travel schedule. No more weekend random maintenance and closures, no more transport issues. We got to our train station and when we got to the platform noticed that they were still announcing issues with Farringdon. A few minutes later, a Tulse Hill employee came onto the platform to tell us there weren't any trains going into London from our platform. This wasn't the end of the world... there is one other platform that goes into London. When we got to that one, however, the train due to arrive at 5:56 wasn't there yet. It was 6:45. It ended up coming only 5 minutes later so we weren't delayed by much but we still had to walk about a mile to work when we got into the city. Fun times.

Today's travels were normal and only one train was a little late. While these situations were all pretty terrible, they are usually few and far between. I'm just funnier when I'm annoyed at something. This week should be good as far as transport goes but there's snow in the forecast for Thursday which the trains dislike...

We didn't take any photos this week but here's a tube and rail map!

Back to Blogging

So it's been a while since we've posted a blog. Like, a month. Lots has happened but we won't go through it all here. I basically decided that while we were on holiday, we wouldn't blog. And then that continued for another week. I doubt we'll keep up the weekly pace.

Anyway, week one of our holiday. The cruise. We took a Mediterranean cruise through 6 cities and 4 countries and I'm going to limit myself to one sentence for each. We first flew to Genoa, Italy, which was pretty uneventful. We had to take suitcases on buses which is not fun but if you're going somewhere cool, like Italy, it's worth it. Our first city on the actual cruise was Rome. Rome was Jodi's favorite city and the only city where we paid for a full tour. Our tour, as you can see in the Facebook album, included most of the typical touristy sites including the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Vatican City. After Rome was Palermo on the island of Sicily. The port was conveniently close to the main part of the city so Jodi and I explored on our own and managed to get some fantastic photos and gelato. No wifi, though. Even in restaurants that said they had wifi. We then crossed the sea to Tunis, the capital and port city of Tunisia. some words of advice: if you travel to Tunis, have transportation ready or be prepared to walk through gauntlets of taxi drivers that are NOT afraid to literally run after you in search of a fare. After Tunis we had a day at sea where we officially grew tired of our ship's entertainment amenities. We decided it would be a good idea to visit the outdoor jacuzzi when it was 40º F and ridiculously windy. Then we realized how terrible that idea actually was. We were happy to leave the ship the next day when we arrived in Barcelona, which was my favorite city. While Jodi was hoping to exercise her Spanish here, we learned instantly that locals speak Catalan in Barcelona. Neither of us speak Catalan. But Barcelona is beautiful and clean and full of artsy, food-loving culture so I was okay with that. Our last city was Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. It was probably the coldest city but there was something incredibly homey about it. It felt like a movie. I was able to use my painfully rusty French and we found a cafe that served crepes and espresso so, naturally, we indulged. We then returned to Genoa, spent way too long in their tiny airport, and returned home.

Our time back in London was short. Three days after we returned from our cruise, we left again for Los Angeles. Our friends Sam and Leah were getting married and we were frankly growing homesick. a welcomed retreat. Fun fact: the couple that got married met at our wedding. It's kind of our fault. Anyway, we paid visits to old friends and bought more American things than we should have at superspeed because we only spent 6 days in LA. And one of them was reserved for Disneyland. Unfortunately in all of this haste, we forgot to take any pictures of anything ever. So enjoy the cruise photos.

Last week we were at work catching up on everything we missed the three weeks preceding. Exciting.

Click here to see our cruise album.

Safety drills...

When in Rome...

Tuning a tuun in Tunis, Tunisia.

Dodging Devilish Donkeys

So the last week and a half was spent without internet. That's why there wasn't a blog last week. Also, losing internet for two eventful weeks might make for a long blog. First things first: new house. Jodi and I have moved to Norwood in South London for more space and a real kitchen. We will be here until we finish our positions at IHQ in July. We could pretty easily fit 3 of our old flats into the bottom floor alone. The commute isn't as convenient but it's worth the extra effort. Before we moved, we would take an Overground train to the Tube in Whitechapel, which run every 7 minutes and 3 minutes, respectively. Now we have to bus to a National Rail train which leaves every 15-30 minutes and transports Londoners at about 241% capacity. At least, the normal train does. Jodi and I have decided to not have our faces shoved into strangers armpits every morning and take the train an hour earlier, even if it means waking up at 5 am.

On Thursday we went to Trafalgar Square for the Christmas tree lighting which was, frankly, underwhelming. Maybe I've been to Disneyland during Christmas too many times. The tree is interesting because it's a gift from Norway, which has been a tradition since WWII. Apparently the first tree was given to the UK as like a thank-you-for-helping-us-during-the-war-here's-a-tree. And they keep doing it. Touching.

Saturday was easily the most interesting day of the last fourteen- we planned to do all the things in a matter of only a few hours. The first stop was Denmark Hill to meet up with Alexa. Uneventful. We came, we saw, we gathered, we moved on to Stepney City Farm. Stepney City Farm is exactly what you pictured in your head when you first read the phrase 19 words ago. 19 if "Stepney" counts as first. Literal literary humor. Wut. ANYWAY, Stepney City Farm is a farm in the city. We weren't really sure what to expect but the Stepney Salvation Army, who was hosting the event at the farm, is known for being lively and exciting so we were optimistic. And rightly so. The people from Stepney were incredibly warm and cheerful, despite the near freezing weather and curious smells emanating from nearby pens. Our job was to lead the crowd from one area to the next and play carols with a brass band as they watched different parts of the nativity unfold right in front of them. The crowd was led by a toddler dressed as a star and carried on her dad's shoulders. Adorable.

The first few stops were not terribly exciting but it was fun running around the pens and trying to beat the crowds to the next location. The last are was just outside a donkey pen but since we couldn't fit with the crowd, they decided to put us IN the donkey pen. Now, I've never been particularly afraid of animals (much less donkeys) but just before leading us through the barrier, one of the men nearby said, "Watch out for the donkeys- they kick." Awesome. Bucking donkeys. The last thing I need for Christmas is a brass mouthpiece being kicked through my teeth by an irate beast in a country that I'm not sure cares about my insurance coverage. We started playing "As with Gladness" and the first verse progressed without any issues. The donkeys had come over to investigate but I figured they were used to people being around so they wouldn't pry too much. We started the second verse and I felt something touch me. I could see all of the band members in my peripheral vision and there was only one other creature in the pen. I pretended to play as I turned and sure enough, the larger of the two donkeys was uncomfortably close to us. I turned back around but before I could find my place I heard a terrible noise behind me that sounded a bit like an exasperated child that is too cranky to verbalize why he is making the excruciating sound he feels so obliged to exude. It wasn't a tantrum. I'm sure from outside the fence it was a cute sight: Christmas carols played by a band and a donkey walking up to them so he could sing along. From my perspective, it was a battle cry. He was ready to show this braying bunch of brass players whose territory they were invading. I may have had a panic attack. I may have involuntarily cried a little. I don't know what emotion I was feeling but I suddenly was the child incapable of understandable communication.

The song ended eventually. We moved on to the stable. The STABLE. That's where it lives. It already hated me for being near the outermost sanctum of its realm and they wanted me to trespass in its domicile?! Not only that, the entire crowd came into their fenced off field so they could join in the final carols around the donkey house. I was worried. No; I was petrified. A child was going to be bitten, kicked, trampled, and there was nothing we could do. Still they marched. Still they dredged ever closer to their impending death. But it didn't come. The donkeys were fine. We played 3 songs and all the donkeys did was play with the children and shake their long devilish heads innocently. Taunters. They knew that I knew what they were thinking. "Get the baritone player". But again, nothing really happened. We finished the last song and started dispersing and my heart started beating an its average pace again. As we were leaving the pen, however, the smaller donkey escaped. Turns out donkeys are all about companionship. I learned this quickly because as soon as the larger, eviler donkey noticed his friend was gone, he decided it was a good time to start kicking things. My favorite part, in the most sarcastic sense possible, was that Alexa and I were standing right behind him. Naturally, we screamed out of sheer panic. While my being kicked in the face by a rampant donkey makes for a good story, it didn't happen. I saw every muscle on his back tense up as he prepared for the kick but he never followed through. He simply ran around the perimeter of the fence for a while until he was safely reunited with his counterbeast. And I was several large paces away from both of them.

The new house, complete with little English car... which isn't ours, by the way.

 The Norwegian tree in Trafalgar Square.

 Stepney City Farm

Pulling his stupid innocent face again...

Busy Bees

This week has been absolutely crazy at work. Both of us have fast approaching deadlines for massive projects that are significant to Congress. Jodi's main task has been organizing the volunteers we will need and constructing a program that includes roles, project planning, and recruiting. Among a million other things. My main project this week has been organizing the performers that are coming and trying to synchronize 40 schedules across 7 venues and myriad rehearsals. It's fun. Like the stressful kind of fun. Not sarcastic.

This weekend was also packed with adventure. Or at least events. On Saturday we went to Angel with Alexa for Chipotle. Again. Burrito bowls. We then continued up the Northern Line to Camden Town, which is a lot like Pike Place or Fremont in Seattle. Or any other hipster sub-nation. I was really only looking for a new umbrella after mine was tragically retired last week but I was tempted several times by just about everything else Camden had to offer. I didn't actually need any of it and, as John Murray would likely point out, none of it was of particularly high quality. John Murray works at IHQ. He's the one that deemed us Ken and Barbie. Anyway, we had been planning to see Mockingjay in the week but hadn't yet so we bussed to the nearest cinema to watch it. Being volunteers we decided grocery snackage was a necessity. This snackage, however, spoiled our dinner appetites. Nevertheless, we went to Southbank after the movie which is the literal south bank of the Thames. There is a new Christmas village that started earlier this month that Jodi tried to convince me to go to the previous night but I convinced her it would be more fun to go with another person. Southbank was a pretty typical Christmas village aside from a Christmas tree maze, which I don't think I've ever seen before. Exciting as it was, I wasn't about to pay £4 to walk through a fake forest...

Sunday. We went to church at the usual time and did the usual things until lunch. We had lunch plans with a family from the Wood Green area that sometimes attends the corps but they weren't able to make it that morning. They were kind enough to call a taxi service for us so we wouldn't have to walk through the rain which was pretty torrential that day. The food was fantastic. They're a mix of Jamaican and Trinidadian which we learned is actually a very uncommon mix for marriages. The food was fantastic. I know I already said that. We were supposed to leave by 2:30 to go to a divisional event in Hoxton but the conversation (and dessert) were too good to leave on time. We still wanted to go to the event so we left after dessert. It took us considerably longer to get to Hoxton than we had anticipated and we ended up arriving about 20 minutes late but it was a relaxed event so it didn't seem like anyone cared. They were just happy we were there. Dinner was provided at the event but we had eaten just a couple hours earlier so we didn't actually eat anything.

Oh yeah. And we're moving to South London on Saturday. While it's nice to basically live in a hotel, it's not suitable for an extended period of time and we would like to have a proper kitchen where there's more than a microwave.

Camden.

Us in Camden.

Not Camden. As in Southbank.

An Abbey in Autumn

Autumn has been slowly but surely leaving its mark on London. The trees are turning, the temperature is decreasing, and the rain is getting more intense. I was expecting it to be colder than it is by now but we still have 4 months until Spring... The rain isn't terrible here. After living in places like Hilo and Seattle I consider myself accustomed to rain, though, so maybe it's just me. Never mind. Jodi just said she thought it would rain more too. I also haven't experienced a heavy rain since my umbrella broke yesterday so maybe my opinion will change.

This week was pretty normal. Work, some O2 visits, and then the weekend. I went to worship practice at Wood Green on Thursday and played bass with them on Sunday. That was pretty fantastic because I haven't played in months. We attempted to go shopping on Saturday but ran out of energy almost immediately and didn't actually know what we were looking for.

On Sunday we went to church as usual. This Sunday was one of the days where we have a coffee break half way through the service, which is Jodi's favorite variation of Sundays here. Going to Wood Green has been particularly nice for us because we have had free lunch with someone every week so far! The first two weeks were at the Smiths' house and then this week we went to Steve Burnett's house with Alexa. Steve is Glen's owner- the dog we watched in September. He is actually the person that suggested we try out Wood Green in the first place. After lunch he took us to Waltham Abbey which is just a few minutes from where he lives. I've found that I really enjoy cathedrals, abbeys, and old churches. They're impressively beautiful particularly because when they were built there weren't any design programs or motorized cranes. There was barely geometry. Also, Waltham Abbey is about 1100 years older than the United States of America. That's crazy.

 Orange trees!

 Waltham Abbey.

 A closer view of the end of the abbey.

St. Paul's reflected in the rain. 

Christmas, Coffee, and a Concert

We learned that Oxford Street was turning on its Christmas lights last week and thought it would be fun to go. The reason we originally found out was because someone from the Rink's Songster Brigade had posted it on Facebook so everyone knew to avoid the area and plan ahead but we turned it into a reason to visit the shopping district. Carmen, Jeremiah, Alexa, Cameron, Kersten, and Karl all went as well. While the actual lighting was underwhelming, hanging out with friends in central London is always fun. That was Thursday.

On Saturday we had a concert with the London Central Youth Chorus... also known as Central. The concert was in Hendon but we met up with friends yet again to watch the Lord Mayor's parade in Queen Victoria Street. When we went through our initial tube station we learned that our destination station was closed because there was a person on the tracks. This meant we had to get off at Moorgate and walk the rest of the way. It wasn't particularly far, but because the streets were closed there weren't any cars or people roaming around which made it fell eerily empty. The parade itself was pretty similar to American parades aside from the amount of military personnel and machinery. There were a lot of guns. They handed out everything from candy to lemons to sausages to show how much they supported the new Lord Mayor. There was one band that played on horseback which was pretty much the most impressive thing ever. The parade wasn't quite long enough to warrant going straight to Hendon for our rehearsal so we stopped at a coffee shop on the way there to kill some time. We killed a little too much, though because it started to rain torrentially and it was a 10 minute walk from there to the corps. We were prepared for rain but it was still incontrovertibly wet. After the concert we started looking for food. This always takes ages when we're in a group of 10 because we can never decide or agree on one place. Eventually, we decided on Chipotle because it's delicious and it was on the way to all of our stations.

Sunday was pretty normal. We went to Wood Green and discovered that the second Sunday of each month is done almost in a Bible Study style where everyone sits around tables and works through a passage of scripture together. After church we went to Jonny and Catherine's house again for lunch and, naturally, Monopoly. I managed to beat both Jonny and Gerard (an alleged Monopoly guru) which helped boost my Monopoly ego after painfully losing last week.

Yesterday we went grocery shopping and did laundry. In case you were wondering. Maybe we should blog biweekly.

Christmas lights in Oxford Street.

 The empty streets before the parade.

 A giant fish and a smiling European. 

The Lord Mayor. He was waving to the other side...

Skillz. 

Bashful Birthday

This weekend was my birthday weekend. Now, if you don't already know, I'm not a big fan of making a bigger deal of things that ought not to be a big deal in the first place. Birthdays fall into this category. When you're turning 7, 10, even 16, making it a big deal makes sense to me. Once you've passed 21, though, it's just a waste of energy. Moreover, it's downright embarrassing. The last thing I need is 10 people singing an overly repetitive song at me in public. And that happened.

On Friday, which was Halloween for those of you unAmericans, our department was planning to go to lunch on the roof of a nearby building because it was going to be a nice day. We probably won't get very many more of those. The fact that it was Halloween isn't really important, I just wanted to type unAmerican because it's a real word. Look it up. Anyway, Halloween is the day before my birthday so I was expecting little more than a few costumes and a sunny picnic lunch. Wrong. This is the part where I was sang to in public. Sang at in public. I tried to sing along and make it look like it was actually Jeremiah's birthday but you can't throw fake extrovertism at a real extrovert. It bounces back. We ate some random candies and baked goods we had brought to the office at varying times that week and the Hobgoods gave me a gift wrapped in Harry Potter World adverts. I don't know if that was a really well planned thematic idea or just a fluke, but I was appreciative nonetheless. The gift was a stone plaque with scripture on it and, most importantly, eagles. Birds of prey are my favorite types of animals so I thought at first that was the reason for the theme of the gift. I never actually found out otherwise so we'll say it was true. It's also the first grown-up thing I've owned. As in something that you always have and has a place in your home but it doesn't really have a funny story from college. It's a big step. The only problem is that our bags were already at the weight limit on or way over here.

On Saturday we made no plans. We had breakfast at the usual time, I played some video games, and we eventually settled on McDonald's for lunch. We were going to go shopping with some of the other Boundless 8 but I couldn't be bothered to travel AND spend money. I'm just like my dad in that aspect. I don't like spending my money in general and now it's amplified because I don't actually make money anymore. When I do buy things, however, I'm a quality over quantity guy every time. End of tangent. We decided to go to as-fancy-as-we-can-reasonably-afford dinner in Oxford Street. Our plan was to simply walk from place to place until we found a restaurant that seemed to meet our needs. We got off the tube at Oxford Circus and started the walk east. And kept walking. For a while. We made several detours off of Oxford and into alleys and around various buildings but nothing had the right balance of quality, price, and available tables. We eventually made it to Covent Garden where we ate at a quaint Italian restaurant called La Ballerina. Jodi kept saying "Happy birthday" because it was funny. Ha ha.

On Sunday we went to Wood Green again. I was in a particularly good mood because my birthday was over and I didn't have to relive the trauma of being sung at for another year. Church was different yet again than any format I've been in. We split into groups Bible Study style and talked about a specific passage within our group. There was a set of questions at the end that Jonny, one of the corps officers, then asked with a mic, bouncing from group to group for answers. It reminded me of BSF but in a slightly larger form. We went to the officers' house after church for a proper English roast dinner. We have had several of these and I love them because it's like Christmas dinner but whenever you want because Sunday. They have 2 boys, Samuel and William, who both took a liking to me because that's what young boys do for some reason. It may or may not have been because of my Minecraft knowledge. But don't tell anyone. Anyway, after lunch/dinner/tea/whathaveyou Catherine brought out a rolled pavlova, put a massive candle/firework in it, and everyone started singing. Again. This one wasn't so bad because there were only a few people singing and no strange onlookers to gawk. Also, it was pavlova. With a firework in it.

 On the roof of One New Change, which I just remembered the name of. That's St. Paul's.

Cold dinner in Covent Garden. The food wasn't cold... the night air was.

Birthday/Guy Fawkes pavlova.

Coffee Corner and a Cruise

This week was pretty normal. We are starting to get to know the menu here and so we know which days they serve things we don't like. Last Tuesday was one of those days. Jodi had some leftover pizza from Sunday so we ate that and then went to a cafe off Upper Street called Coffee Corner that we hadn't visited yet. We really only chose this place because they are known for their crepes. They also had good ratings on Yelp. True to its ratings, Coffee Corner was delightful. The coffee was surprisingly sweet, which is unusual for Europe.

Friday night was another London Central Youth Chorus rehearsal. Obligatory singing, obligatory McDonalds. The night before, Oxford Circus (the nearest tube station) was exit only and the crowds trying to get into the station anyway forced normal foot traffic off the street. That isn't related to Central rehearsal but I just remembered and wanted to let you know.

On Saturday we slept in until 8:40 which is quite an accomplishment for both of us. Usually one of us will be up by 7-7:30 and, naturally, the other person gets up too. We had a lazily slow morning and then went to the Tower of London to see the poppies which are a "100 years since WWI" memorial. They added a few every day and now the area is full of ceramic poppies. They will be taken down on November 11 and some people asked us to send photos. When we got to Tower Hill, however, there were thousands of people that had the same idea. It was a sunny Saturday so we probably should have known that it would have been inundated with tourists and locals alike, but we were on a mission. After several London shoves, some bus dodging, and a brief climb onto a half plinth, we managed to get a few photos.

On Saturday night we went to the William Booth College to have dinner with the Boundless 8 and a few friends we've made here in London. We ate a lot of pasta, played some American games, and then ate some more. On the train home there were a lot of very wound up people. Maybe they were excited for the time change. Oh yeah. The UK stop saving daylight a week before the US. Fun fact.

Jodi and I have wanted to visit some other European countries while we were over here but finding a fiscally responsible way to do so has been challenging. We set some money aside before coming so we could do something but only last week decided what it would be. We had toyed with the idea of going on a cruise a few times but there were never any that fit our schedules, budget, and wants. We kept looking, albeit half-heartedly. Eventually we found one that was perfect and decided to book it. It's a little more than we were intending to spend but when will we ever be this conveniently close to so many countries? Anyway, the cruise is one of Mediterranean nature and stops in 4 countries. After deporting from Genoa, in northern Italy, we head to Rome for a day, and then to Palermo on the island of Sicily. We then make our way to Tunis, which is the capital of Tunisia in Northern Africa. After a day at sea we head to Barcelona, Spain and then to Marseille in the South of France. On the final day we return to Genoa and fly back to London. One of our favorite parts about this timing is that we leave 3 days later for Christmas in California!

 Coffee from Coffee Corner

Tower of London. And tourists. 

Always Alliterating

Most of what I do at IHQ involves some form of video production, media management, or social media work... or some combination of them. Tomorrow the Congress Office is hosting an event we have titled "Lunch and Learn", where you lunch, learn, and share in the love of alliteration. One particular project Jodi and I worked on was a video to help rally the employees and officers of IHQ in excitement for Boundless. We recorded three things from several people: what they were excited about, the same thing said in a particular way, and then the phrase, "I am Boundless". Sweetly simple.  Anyway, some of the people we were eagerly excited to record were the General, Chief of the Staff, and their spouses. It isn't every day you get one-on-one time with the first- and second-in-command of this abundant Army. While our interactions were briefly basic, it was cool to have an actual conversation with them. Each of them is a people person so it makes conversing incredibly easy.

Our pesky pests have finally finished their tormenting tantrums. Pest control has all but obliterated what was left of their repulsed residence. We definitely didn't use the light for a few mornings but now we are pretty positive that they won't be back.

On Saturday we went to IKEA with a few friends. While we can't actually accumulate any more items (particularly furniture), we do enjoy Swedish meatballs and perusing the showrooms. We also learned that some bus routes in London don't go in a straight line but rather roam in a circle around an area. This unknown fact caused us to wait wondering why we were not getting any closer to our destination. Sometimes you should really read the map.

Sunday was our last day of our "corps tour" and where we ended our search for a church family at Wood Green. Interestingly enough, Wood Green is also where we decided to keep attending for our year here in London- at least, when we aren't out on Boundless duty. Wood Green is a contemporary corps that has integrated brass into their worship team making for a nice combination of old and new Army. There is a solid structure and core of people already but still room for us to contribute, which is one of the biggest things we looked for in a corps. Of course, we forgot to take a picture to post here.

My semi-dramatic image of our pesky pests.

Fake food... there was real lunch before.

Swedish selfie.

The Significance of Shoes

We have reached our 2 month mark of living in London. Like all time, it somehow feels like it has been a lot of time has passed and somehow no time has passed at all. That leaves us with 9 more months until Congress and a few more weeks until we’re done here. The time passes more quickly when we have more active weekends, and this past weekend was one of those. On Friday we went to a Friendship Matinee Concert a the Royal Albert Hall performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert was a tribute to John Williams so we were, naturally, stoked. They played all of the timeless classics you would want to hear at a John Williams concert from E.T. to Jurassic Park to the Star Wars theme and Imperial March. When we were walking back to the tube station, however, I realized I had left my bag under the seat and quickly doubled back to get it. I was particularly worried about leaving in a concert hall because London venue and public areas are particularly wary of bomb threats and mysterious bags left under seats. Jodi and I made it back to our seat quickly enough to retrieve my bag and a sweater that one of our colleagues had also left behind. I may have had to push some people out of my way but hey, it’s London.

On Saturday we decided to go shopping. Being volunteers, this isn’t as exciting as it used to be. Whatever non-essentials shopping we do comes out of the savings we allotted for such expenses. And it isn’t much. Anyway, we both intended to get brown shoes (because color coordination) so we set out to find some. We knew there was a Chipotle in one of the shopping districts near Highbury so we decided that would be a good place to start. After a burrito bowl and a quick discovery that we were searching in the wrong price range, we decided to go to Stratford, which is a massive mall in East London. Stratford, if you don’t know, is always crowded. Like, can’t-walk-without-bumping-into-someone-oh-my-goodness-Disneyland-isn’t-this-bad crowded. And it’s the off-season. It’s also huge. After searching a couple dozen shoe stores (and that’s not an exaggeration), some coffee, and more London shoving, we finally each found some shoes in our price range. By then we were tired of people so we headed home for a quiet night in. But we had new work shoes!

On Sunday we actually made it to Hendon. We intended to go last week but I woke up feeling ill and preferred to miss going to a corps that wasn’t expecting us over missing work. Like many of the other “big corps” in London, the building was far smaller than I was expecting. Maybe I’m just used to American real estate where we have room to build out instead of just up. Their songsters, senior band, youth band, and singing company all participated in the service and we were probably greeted by 15-20 different people over the course of the day. We told Alexa (who, along with Cameron, also came to Hendon) about our trip to Chipotle and she told us that she had been looking for one. We were definitely down to go again because Chipotle is delicious so we did. Burrito bowls. 

On Sunday night it was very cold and very rainy and very tea worthy. However, we were (much to our dismay) out of Digestives. Digestives aren’t something that helps you pass food smoothly, as I wrongly assumed. Digestives are a type of biscuit (or cookie) that pair excellently with tea and all other things British. So this was the dilemma: I wanted Digestives but the nearest shop open on a Sunday evening is a kilometer away from our flat and it was raining. Hard. After some convincing, Jodi bundled up, intentionally put on water proof shoes, and followed me to the local Waitrose. We didn’t get too wet on the way there because we managed to time our commute with the bus schedule but when we came out of the store the wait was longer than the walk so decided to tough it out. After a cold, soggy commute back to our flat we were very ready for tea and had digestives to pair with it!

This morning was interesting. I was brushing my teeth when I suddenly saw a bug flying toward me from the window. It looked like a wasp so, naturally, I ducked and spun and did a backwards summersault out of the bathroom. Maybe not quite that dramatic, but I abruptly avoided it. When I regained my bearings and looked back into the bathroom I discovered that it was indeed a wasp. I finished brushing my teeth and grabbed a shoe. I noticed it was trying to fly into the light so I turned it off. When the demon bug realized the light was gone it moved on to the next light source, which was the light over our bed in the flat. Jodi was very helpful in this ordeal. When the wasp flew into the bedroom she helpfully covered her head with the blankets screaming “Kill it! Kill it!” So I did. When I walked back into the bathroom, however, it was back. When I confusedly shouted there was another one Jodi asked if I knew for sure that the other one was dead. It was. Two wasps? What were the chances? I didn’t actually take the time to think this through because, well, there was a wasp flying around my bathroom and I wasn’t wearing very much clothing. It seemed to move every time I was within swinging distance and would have to dodge frantically, swing wildly, look for it, locate it, and then start my approach over again. After more stalking, which may or may not have been accompanied by the Jaws theme from Friday playing in my head, I finally killed it. And then two more flew in from the window. And then two more. At this point I was shaving (or at least attempting to) but wet shaving and dodging wasps at the same time is a dauntingly dangerous task. I ended up only trimming a beard-shaped stubble pattern and pursued the wasps yet again. I managed to kill 3 more (that’s Mejee 5, Wasps 0) but the last two kept hanging around the glass light fixture on the ceiling and I didn’t want to risk breaking it. We decided locking the wasps in the bathroom with the light on was the best idea for the time being. We told the manager of Highbury about the invasion and she said she would have someone look into it. I’m typing from our flat now with the bathroom door open so all is well. For now. 

 Royal Albert Hall

Chipotle!

Hendon Songsters

The aftermath

Art in Autumn

On Thursday nights after Songsters we have just a short walk to our tube station from the corps and it is normally an uneventful walk. This week however, we saw a street performer playing a tuba with flames. Yes, there were flames coming out of the tuba. There isn't really an important reason for this to be in our blog, but we have a photo so we thought we would share.

On Friday night we went out to dinner with a a new friend of ours, Steve. A few weekends ago we watched his dog while he was out of town and he wanted to take us out as a thank you. We went to a place that was just outside the main city area which was great because we also got to see a new part of London. The food was fantastic as was the company. Steve has a long history with The Salvation Army here and was able to tell us about corps near where we live that we might want to check out while living in London.

Mejee and I decided that on Saturday we should explore more of the city, specifically a few of the museums. Alexa met us at our first destination, the National Gallery. There were portraits of historic figures, landscapes and depictions of historic events. There were also a lot of elaborate gold painted frames...a lot! Next, we went to the Tate. The Tate Museum is very different from the National Gallery. The Tate is a museum of modern art created by artists from around the world. I must admit - it was my favorite out of the two. We saw everything from drawings and paintings to sculptures and artistic structures. The variety that you can see within one building is amazing. Sometimes quite abstract, but amazing. They also have a cafe and "art bar" where you could draw your own art piece. By the time we made it through all the floors and exhibits at the Tate we decided to call it a day. It was a good thing that we decided on an indoor tourist activity for the day because it rained for a majority of the day.

We had originally planned to go to a corps that we have not yet been to on Sunday, but Mejee woke up feeling quite sick so we decided that it was best to avoid sharing germs at a new corps. Over the last few weeks we have heard about so many corps that we want to check out, so hopefully next week we both will be feeling good.

It finally has begun to feel like Fall here. The temperature has dropped a bit and it has started to rain. The fun part is that now we The overground station that we wait at in the mornings to go to work has outdoor platforms which are not ideal in the rain and wind. We've learned that the key is to try to arrive at the station just a couple minutes before your train leaves so you don't have to wait in the cold too long. I'm sure this will become particularly important in the dead of winter. This is of course a perfect plan only when the trains are all on time.

The Flaming Tuba Player.

Taking Glen for a walk.

 Art at the Tate Museum.

Normal Nothing

I knew it would happen eventually. A week would pass where nothing interesting happened. This week was the first of those. Normal office work, a few site visits to the O2, and church on Sunday. This week we went to Chalk Farm and everyone there wanted to know if we knew Kevin Larsson and Duncan Sutton. Eventually the CSM was telling people he had already asked and yes, we know them. Apparently they went to Chalk Farm when they were at university. Well, that's what everyone at the corps wanted us to know. Chalk Farm has some serious history. One of the corps officers showed us the band room where they have a collection of old photos, books, and various memorabilia from the glory days of the corps. One of the most impressive items to me was a framed Order of the Founder certificate that was signed by General Evangeline Booth. Pretty cool. I'm really regretting not taking any photos now... we'll just have to go back.

On Friday (I know this isn't chronological) we went to the South London Divisional Youth Chorus rehearsal, which will have a new name soon. It's led by Nick Hampton (and Alan or Allen whom we just met) whom we met at the Regent Hall Corps and was a good way for us to meet more locals and start promoting Boundless to youths in the UKI Territory. We aren't as involved locally as some of the others but we have been able to get to know several people from what we have done. That wasn't a well-composed sentence but I'm not changing it.

The last thing I have to say is about nicknames. Somehow we have attained the nicknames "Barbie" and "Ken"... it's mostly John Murray's fault. John works in the Communications Department at IHQ so we've seen him around a lot. He's also one of very few Americans (Canadian, that is) in the building. Jeremiah attained the nickname "Congressman" from how he dressed for a video we did a couple weeks ago. It suits because he works in the Congress office. Lols.

The youth chorus. Photo credit: Suzanne

Barbie and Ken.

Faking it at Football

On Friday night we decided that instead of having our usual family dinner with our team at the boys' flat, we would all go to the traveling fun fair. Earlier in the week, Mejee and I saw a sign advertising a fair at the park up the road. We had no idea whether it would be amazing or terrible but we thought we would give it a try. After arriving and paying our £1 entrance fee we took a look around the fair and noticed the target audience was much younger than us...significantly younger! After deciding which rides we each wanted to go on, we all bought our tickets - also only £1 each. To our surprise the rides went much faster and longer than any of us expected. We drove bumper cars and went on far too many spinning rides. By the time we used all our tickets we were all feeling quite dizzy and a bit sick so we decided to call it a night.

This weekend we stayed in Beckenham so we could dog sit a dog named Glen. It was nice to stay in a house for the weekend and cook our own dinner. The only part that was not quite as nice was the commute there and back. On the weekends there is often engineering work being done on different tube lines so traveling on the weekends is usually quite the chore. We also learned this weekend that if you're traveling outside the city on weekends, the buses and tube stations don't always announce bus stops or times of train arrivals. I'm sure that people from the neighborhood are used to this but for others, like us, it proved quite challenging. Fortunately, with the help of our phones and travel apps, we got off at the right bus stop and were waiting on the correct platform when the train arrived.

We were able to go to Bromley Temple on Sunday which reminded us quite a bit of our corps at home. There are a lot of IHQ employees and officers who attend Bromley so we were able to immediately pick people out of the crowd and felt at home. We were also able to meet people after church in their coffee house which is a cool ministry of Bromley for their community during the week.

Sunday was our one-year anniversary! It's hard to believe that a year has already gone by. To celebrate, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Shoreditch. It's fun to be able to say that we spent our first anniversary in London - I certainly never would have guessed it. It might be hard to beat that next year...

Last night (Tuesday) we got to go see our first proper football match. For our American friends, I'm talking about soccer. Peter, one of our co-workers, was able to get tickets for us which apparently not everyone can do. Here you either have to be a part of a particular club or know someone that is. Despite Arsenal losing we had a lot of fun. There are a lot of cheers and chants that the crowd uses to intimidate or excite the other fans (depending on which side they're on). We didn't know any of them but we could mumble along and join in the fun. Eventually we learned the Arsenal chant but it only has one word... Arsenal!

Family Fun Fair

Emirates Stadium - Home of the Gunners

The team with Gunnersaurus