Beeston love

This morning I had to run a few errands before class and walked out my door to discover my little village main street all in a flutter. There was a mini circus happening in the park across the street. Walking a little further, there were people walking in and out of all the little shops and calling out to their friends ("Oh Sheila is that you?!"). To give a more accurate picture, I should specify that the majority of those chatting it up in the middle of the pedestrianized street were probably over the age of 70 (my happy borough seems to be the preferred part of Nottingham to retire in - and also to start a new family as there seems to be a high proportion of young mothers about- but of course these observations are probably just a result of what time I usually walk in the street). The organic grocery store was selling giant pumpkins. The multiple flower shops had their wares out, providing a little extra color to the scene. There was a gentleman playing an accordion, supplying the tunes. The public works projects that have been fixing up the brick street since I arrived finally got rid of their ugly metal fences, and I found a new cement monument instead (of a man sitting on a bench next to a hedge). The town seemed very much alive and people seemed pretty happy- I felt it was contagious and found myself in a good mood as well.

I am pretty proud of the lunch I made myself today, and more broadly, the improvement in eating habits that it represents. I heated up some perfect-for-autumn butternut squash soup and paired it with some buttered toast and a spinach salad with balsamic vinegar for dressing. Of course I can't leave out the tea (today happened to be twinnings blackberry and nettle tea). As I sat there practicing my calculus and eating this tasty lunch, I felt a confidence starting to emerge that has generally been lacking- namely that I have the ability to play hostess, and do it fairly well. As background I should say that I've been cooking many more complete meals than I ever did at UConn, that I try for a nice balance of colors and nutrition, and that I'm no longer just eating to get some calories in my system. I'm enjoying my food a lot more. Perhaps it's all the cooking shows we've been watching here!

Well my program continues to be challenging. At this very moment I am procrastinating some serious studying, but I am justifying it by the fact that I haven't posted in a while. My goal is to work through several questions from past years' exams, so I know what I need to do as I continue to go along. I would also really like to pick a topic for my data analysis project. If you have any suggestions on what might make for an interesting cross-sectional (aka one time period) data source or some relationship between variables that you've always been curious about, do post a comment!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying by. Stephen's flight to England leaves 3 weeks from today!

Visitors!

There is so much I could update about- and perhaps because of the paralysis of too many options- I will write very little tonight. Suffice it to say that I'm getting on very well, have had weekends filled with visitors, and spent 7 whole days without an internet connection at my house (or any nearby coffee shop). I am also obsessed with the BBC mini-series of Jane Austin's "Emma."

Here are some pictures of my recent adventures in Nottingham.

Nottingham's Market Square

Marshall girls that came to visit, from left to right: Kelcie, Emma, Me, Sally

Out for a drink at Canal House (the canal is literally flowing through the middle of the pub) after the Robin Hood Beer Festival.

The beautiful Wollaton Park (complete with tudor mansion which is now a great natural history museum).

The giant slide at the park... the guys convinced me to try it and it was definitely worth 80p.

rambling in the Peak District and settling in

Today is my third Sunday in Nottingham. I am officially "settled in" to my own satisfaction, having finished unpacking/buying new things on Friday. My room is comfortable and cheerful. Last Saturday I bought a swivel chair, rug, lamp, and duvet cover at IKEA, and had previously bought small flowers for my windowsill, a bin for extra clothes, quality comforter and pillow. My previously shipped suitcases arrived last Friday night and I was too busy to finish unpacking them for the week following. What have I been busy with you ask?

I finally finished the scarf I started knitting in Sweden (!) and am already a foot into the next one. I've been attending math and econometrics reviews daily (for about 4 hours a day, with a 1 hour lunch break in the middle). Walking everywhere makes transitions lengthy (i.e. 30 minutes to school in the morning, 30 minutes home), so that takes up time. Grocery shopping, laundry (we have a washer but I dry some clothes at the laundrett down the street), and bank-related errands take time. I take a lot of tea and coffee breaks- usually with new friends.

Last Saturday I went rambling in the Peak District, aka I went hiking (about 1.5 hours away) in some really beautiful terrain. For those who are familiar with Pride and Prejudice, this is where Elizabeth went on holiday with her aunt and uncle, and a scene of her standing on the hill, wind blowing in her hair, was filmed very near to the hills we climbed. We left campus at 9, started hiking about 10:30 and finished about 4:00, and had some tea and scones before heading home. See lovely pictures below:

Starting out across green fields...

Walking towards the hills we would climb.

Standing at the top with Annie!

Ben and Rose really enjoying their Devonshire cream tea!

This weekend was again wonderful, but again, it leaves me feeling more tired than before it began! I went out with some economics students Friday night, and picked up some fellow Marshalls at the train station in the morning. It was great to hang out with Sally, Emma, and Kelcie and get to know them (and Nottingham) better. We did the touristy things, sat in coffee shops, cooked a delicious dinner, and quite enjoyed ourselves. Today we attempted to go to Wollaton Park, but couldn't find the entrance on foot and gave up after about 45 minutes of walking.

Tomorrow would be the first day of real classes, except that I don't have any classes on Monday. Instead I will do some "maths" as they call it here, and hopefully make a productive day of it. Wednesday I start horseback riding lessons with the riding society :)

A few more introductory pictures from Nottingham

Today was another lovely day in Nottingham. Each day I walk around the beautiful campus I am glad I chose to start out here. It did rain briefly, but only for about 20 minutes truth be told. Just enough time for me to have a cup to tea. Then I walked around Beeston and looked in every charity shop (there are a bunch! no good vintage finds today, but stay tuned, since I plan to check back often).

The pictures above include the lake on my campus at dusk (trent building in the background), my new friends Francesca and Jasmine, and lots of students hanging out outside the student union.

A week of transition and excitement

I have arrived in Nottingham! Momentarily I will describe it and what I've done here so far, but first a word on the past week of Marshall Orientation.

A week ago today I traveled to DC and met 38 other Marshall Scholars (the 39th had to come over early to start her program). They are a lively and charming group! Meeting so many new people over such a short span was quite overwhelming, but as of today I feel like I know enough about each of them to carry off an nice conversation if I randomly met them on the street. Of course some I ended up talking with more than others, including Emma, Steve, Kelsey, Brian, and well actually quite a lot of people that I won't bother to list here. The guy to girl ratio of the group is a pathetic 1 to 3, aka ten girls and thirty guys. Still I think the quality of the girls makes up what we lack in numbers :)

The first night we went to the house of Nic (from the British Embassy) and played a very difficult quiz game. I will stop to note that apparently "pub quizzes" where you usually have a chance to win a round of beers are very popular here! Almost every pub I've seen so far has a designated night of the week for it. Anyhow, aside from feeling terrible motion sickness both to and from Nic's house, that was a pretty good night. One of the questions on the quiz asked about the Connecticut state song, and everyone turned to me (being the only scholar from there) and I had no idea! One of the teams answered "If Michelle doesn't know, why should we?" and we all had a good laugh about it. Another side note: I wore Jenny's T-shirt with all the music notes on it and probably got 10 different compliments on it that night- so Jenny if you're reading this, thanks again!

(Me, Steve, and Emma in DC)

Monday we went to capitol hill and had a really delicious lunch with Congressmen John Spratt. We also visited the state department and had a chance to ask questions to the top (un-appointed) guy in command. He was very knowledgeable and I feel more comfortable with our foreign policy situations knowing such a competent guy is in charge ( though obviously he has to carry out the wishes of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and the administration). Monday night we went to the British Embassy where the British Ambassador held a little party in our honor and a bunch of Marshall Alum came. We mingled and tried to eat the snacks between conversations. I'm pretty intimidated by these mingling situations and probably didn't take advantage of the opportunity to its fullest extent. I did however manage to meet and shake hands with Thomas Friedman and Peter Orzag, the latter of which gave an address (no disrespect but his voice was much higher pitched than I expected for such a tall guy). The speech was quite entertaining though I would have loved to hear something relating more to economics (though I'm sure the majority of the room was glad he didn't go there).

Both Monday and Tuesday were filled with more speakers, including a panel of recent Marshalls (they gave us a lot of good info) and the founder and ceo of unigo.com (website for students picking colleges). Bruce Babbit gave a compelling talk on climate change. In general I was pretty interested in everything they all had to say, though by Tuesday late morning I had a hard time paying attention. A bunch of us went out to a Japanese karaoke bar Monday night and we were rather tired.

I didn't sleep at all really on the flight (red eye on Tuesday night- we arrived at 7 am UK time on Wednesday) so I was really tired by the time I slept Wednesday night. We went on the London Eye (which was surprisingly cool, though expensive if someone else isn't buying your ticket).

(Parliament and Big Ben at night)

Thursday we went to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK equivalent of State Department) and listened to some more interesting talks on foreign policy, often as it related to the US (again we were so tired that it was a bit difficult to stay engaged). The FCO held another mingling party for us that night. We had a chance to meet some of the 2008 Marshalls which was nice. We'll go on a trip with them in the spring.

Friday we got our bank accounts and then I finally made my way to Nottingham! My mom would be proud that I didn't talk to any strangers although people seemed like they wanted to chat. They seem really friendly around here (as opposed to Londoners, who didn't seem friendly at all). I took a taxi from the train station, signed my housing contracts and moved in. So far I've met 2 out of 4 of my housemates and they are so great! The other 2 girls should be arriving today and tomorrow. Camille and Ben and I went out to a Beeston pub on Friday night and the same group plus Ben's brothers (who are visiting) and really cool friend, Sarah, went downtown last night to a really cool pub there. Both had live music (last night was Latino music - I got to practice my spanish!) and were very relaxed. Unlike most things, beer is the same price here (possibly cheaper). Going to the pub is apparently how all socializing takes place in the evenings, though there are a bunch of clubs I can get involved in to meet people through other routes.

A note on the weather: it has been beautiful (sunny skies) pretty much every day since we arrived in England. It's rather chilly (need a light fall jacket usually) but crisp. I took a lovely walk around my beautiful new campus Friday afternoon. And it is so pretty! I'll want to get a bicycle soon to make the travel time a little shorter though. It only took maybe 7 minutes to walk to the West Entrance of campus, but then it's probably another 10 or so to get to the economics building.

Beeston is sort of like a borough/suburb of Nottingham proper and it has it's only little downtown (I live just off the main strip) with everything I need. The supermarket is really close and gigantic! It has every food item I'll probably ever need (and some clothes and house furnishings- strange). I bought a comforter and pillow from a tiny bedding shop 2 blocks down. There is a bakery super close (breakfast on the way to school!) and Chinese "take away" across the street. My house is actually set back off the main road on the back side of a tiny parking lot. The letting agency that rents the property is the shop directly in front, and they're the ones who use the parking lot. Right near my house the main road (High Road) turns into a pedestrian walk way during the day, and there are lots of little coffee shops with tables outside. I'm so glad I picked Beeston, it's the perfect size town center for me and I feel very comfortable with it (and happy!). Most of the postgraduates live in Beeston.

(I snapped this one on my campus, you can see students playing "football")

Well that's all I'm going to say for now. It's time to make some lunch. I now have a skype phone number (based in Rockville, CT so local for those in the area) that will ring my computer, so let me know if you'd like it (you can call from any phone like I'm right there in CT). I also obviously have my address and would love mail, so ask away for that too!

Weekend pictures

Congratulations to Steve & Kate! It was a beautiful wedding and so much fun!

On Sunday we had a little labor day/going away party at Stephen's. It was wonderful to see everybody!

Today is supposed to be my major packing day, but every time I look at my little suitcases and the tornado-touch down zone that is my room I get a bit dismayed about fitting everything. I'm going to attempt to be a minimalist, knowing that Stephen can bring stuff in November. I can't believe I already sent some things over!

Well I've got a little less than 3 days at home and it's still hard to believe I'm really going. I am both excited to go and sad to leave. I've been making a lot of mental notes lately. For example, my house and yard are beautiful in the summer with all the greenery and especially when the sun is shining through the trees here and there. I love the warmness of the sun on my driveway when I take Gracie to get the mail. I want to remember how walking around the less populated parts of UConn's campus makes me think of God's goodness. How Stephen's touch can change everything. How happy my whole family was at Steve and Kate's wedding. How glad I felt reading birthday cards yesterday.

That my adventure is not an attempt to escape a dreary life is certainly a positive, though it makes it so much more difficult to go. On the bright side, time races on and it will be no time at all before I am looking back on this wonderful experience and reunited again with my family and friends on this side of the pond. I thank the Lord for His many blessings and praise His holy name.

A crazy September...

Well the countdown has begun. Less than 2 weeks to departure and I'm feeling it. It's a busy two weeks. Yesterday Steve and I celebrated 2 years together, this weekend is my brother's wedding (!), next week is my birthday, and then the Marshall adventure commences. I'm taking care of some things (like setting up an IRA - strange to think about retirement when I haven't really begun working yet but it seems like a good idea) and trying to support Steve during some particularly hectic work weeks. We have such a nice cooperative system- it seems a real shame to leave!

I am of course excited. I'm very much looking forward to meeting the other marshall scholars, taking intense economics courses, and finding out all sorts of neat cultural nuances of the British. I've been reading Sarah Lydall's recent book "The Anglofiles" which I highly recommend. It's part memoir (of an American in the UK) part journalistic-style observations on British life backed up with interesting facts and anecdotes. Some of the more surprising parts so far have been her discussion of boys' boarding school experiences and the way many British newspapers print all sorts of embellishments (aka lies). I'm looking forward to doing my own analysis, but am very grateful to have some things already cleared up before I make some huge social mistake. Apparently people from the upper classes never use the word "toilet" (she also says that Americans generally exist outside the class structure so that's a relief).

I am not sure what to think concerning how busy I'll be over there. It is possible I'll have to spend most of my time studying to keep up with the coursework and won't have much downtime, or since my grades are almost 100% based on finals (first ones in January), I may have tons of time early on. Either way, I would love to correspond with as many friends and family members back home as have time to write to me. Just ask me for my address, I already have it if you want to get an early start!

I'll be living in a shared house with other post graduate students. I'll wait til arriving to provide more details on that.

Now to change the subject dramatically, I'd like to recommend another book I recently finished: The Brothers K by David James Duncan. Epic, hysterical, moving, and wisdom-giving- this long book is definitely worth your time. At times I related a lot to Peter (the intellectual brother who thought he needed to leave home (and America in general) to find himself, only to find that home was perhaps the best place to find the truth he was seeking). This is one of those books from which you can actually learn from the characters' mistakes without going through them yourself in reality because you feel such a connection to the character that you feel you already did go through it. It is a beautiful portrait of a realistic family in the 1960s learning to adapt and grow together despite their individual differences. And to top it all off, there is even a character obsessed with classic Russian literature!

Well perhaps I should get back to my statistics review (don't want to be completely lost on the first day of class). Prayers for adjustment and the heart pains that come with moving far from the ones I love are most appreciated!

The shortest and longest summer ever (part 1)

Despite being my longest summer break ever (May 10 - September 13th), I can't believe how terribly quickly this summer is flying by! Here are some pictures to hit the highlights so far.

Karen's wedding in Buffalo! So nice to see her again.
Elise and I took a very random trip to Norwalk for some Shakespeare on the Sound, outdoor theater.
Steve and I spent the 4th of July weekend in Otis, Mass. with a bunch of the Parlos+ family.
Kate's wedding shower was on July 11th. Elise and I are excited about having another sister!

Steve and I took a spontaneous trip to Boston to visit his friend's church. It happened to be when the tall ships were in town. We took a lovely sunset harbor cruise!

We spent a lovely weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. Steve showed me his old apartment (from his days stationed there in the Coast Guard) and we read for a while in Breton Reef park while lots of people flew kites. We decided I should grow up to be an economics professor at Salve Regina so we can more there.

I'm finally starting to prepare for England (packing, buying stuff, etc.) I'm finishing up my research with Susan Randolph and hopefully I'll have a chance to skim my old textbooks before I set off on my next great adventure. I'll try to put pictures up of the coming month and a half (California, Steve's birthday, Steve & Kate's wedding, my birthday... crazy but good!)

Some thoughts on orthodoxy

Today, after starting it almost 3 years ago, I finally finished G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy.

First let me start by saying that if you consider yourself a thinking person at all, you owe it to yourself to read this book. You may (like me) not quite catch all the references to the people and lingo of early twentieth century Britain, but that should not in any way detract from Chesterton's surprisingly insightful discussion of belief and meaning in the world.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of his writing is that he spells every argument out so sensibly and simply that he makes so many of the intellectual prepositions of our modern era seem so obviously backwards and contrary to common sense. I would love very much for someone who does not consider himself a Christian to read this book and tell me his opinion of it. As for me, I perhaps can not describe what an immense happiness reading this book produced in me, as it said my own thinking is rational (which I have always considered it to be despite being told the contrary by many whose intellects I respect) with perhaps the smartest and best arguments I've ever heard (from either camp). Normalcy is not something I strive for, but every once in a while it's nice to hear that your whole conception of life is not so crazy after all.

Now for my own sake (since I essentially use this blog as a journal I can go back to) I'll spell out some of my favorite take-aways while it's still pretty fresh (the end of it anyway).

The ideal is not compromise (a dilution of things) but rather an equilibrium which occurs between fiercely opposing things (such as love and wrath) in their pure, intense forms. Christianity is built out of these paradoxes.

"We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an orge's castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening."

"Rational optimism leads to stagnation; irrational optimism leads to reform."

The man who is most likely to ruin the place he loves is exactly the man who loves it with a reason. The man who will improve the place is the man who loves it without a reason. If a man loves some feature of Pimlico (which seems unlikely), he may find himself defending that feature against Pimlico itself. But if he simply loves Pimlico itself, he may lay it waste and turn it into the New Jerusalem."

Having limits enables freedom. "Every act of will is an act of self limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation"(something dostoevsky would have agreed with) "When you choose something, you reject everything else" (sounds like economics now)... chiefly he is arguing that you are not enjoying freedom when you take away all limits because limits define and provide meaning.

"As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same. No vision remains long enough to be realised, or even partly realised. The modern young man will never change his environment, for he will always change his mind. This therefore is our first requirement about the ideals toward which progress is directed, it must be fixed."

"The man of the nineteenth century did not disbelieve in the Resurrection because his liberal Christianity allowed him to doubt it. He disbelieved in it because his very strict materialism did not allow him to believe it." (this part of the book sounded a lot like Tim Kheller's book, The Reason for God, which I also recommend)

Okay perhaps I will add more later but now I am exhausted and must get to bed!

the start of a beautiful summer

May 10th has come and gone, and I can't say being a college graduate feels any different than being a student, but perhaps that is because grad school awaits me in the fall. Then again, if I had to describe the way I've been feeling the last month or so I would use the words "free" "content" "relaxed" and "happy". I suppose two of those words are less applicable to the past 4 years so that the current situation is in fact quite different from the previous.

On the days when free time abounds and social engagements do not, I often feel the need to create something. So far I've worked on my 1940's dress, started knitting a blanket, had some fun with photo editing, and tried to decorate "my" room (formally my brother's and a space which until recently has not felt like my own). A very random concoction on my desk now is an old gumball machine filled with colorful spools of antique threads. On occasion I even feel stirred to write poetry (and often to write music, if only I could play!) and include a short poem here:

A dreamer in a white dress,

dreaming dreams of white dresses

a summer afternoon

sitting contented on an expansive green lawn.

Cream in her cup matches

the Victorian mansion she calls home.

The sound of waves crashing softly on the beach;

she stands,

a line of pearl-white cloth-covered buttons

winds down her delicate back,

the moment is pure.

I love beginnings. The beginning of summer is especially wonderful because a long stretch of warm long days is still to come and the anticipation for what great adventures await is almost as satisfying as the adventures themselves. We humans love having something to look forward to. I try to set my sights on something in the not too distant future, less I risk missing the present joys because I'm too busy looking ahead. This summer has so much to offer I have barely begun to anticipate the England move. I am however on the quest for the perfect trench coat.

Stephen's house renovations are coming along really well. The new front steps are in, surrounded by all new landscaping and fresh mulch. The living room is coming together after new sheetrock, paint, curtains, etc. Now it's about time we had some people over there. I'm really hoping we can get our families together there sometime in the next month or so.

This is my first summer of multiple weddings, and I'll be surprised if it isn't the start of a new wedding era when it seems like everyone I know is getting married. June belongs to Karen and Chris, August to Jenny and Joel (hello California!), and September to Steve and Kate. I am so happy for all of them.

Elise and I took our first Waterford beach trip a couple weeks ago and visited with Nana and Yiayia; a nice day as always, complete with picture taking.

A mid-homestay update...

Some mornings, like today, when I check my email and read the international news I find myself really missing Uppsala and all my friends there. Perhaps because at this time last year I was finally getting comfortable riding my bike around town, grabbing fika with Hannah or Kayla and Karina, and I knew my corridormates a bit. I miss walking down the fashionable streets and shopping in the middle of my school day. I miss all the countless hours I had for reading whatever I wanted, for watching old movies I rented from the library, and going out with new friends. I miss the International Bible Study (from whom I still get weekly emails). But alas, I am returning to Europe so perhaps these memories can be made new.

Last year on this day, Valentine's Day, Stephen had a beautiful bouquet delivered to me in Sweden. This year I am so glad we can spend it together. Just got the word I should dress up for tonight's dinner at a surprise location. Que divertido!

I called this entry a mid-homestay update because like it says, I am currently in the middle of a stay in my home country. I returned from Sweden in June and will be flying off to England in September, so this is somewhere around the middle of my time at home. It has been great to be home and I am not in a hurry to leave this time, though the adventure that awaits me is as exciting as they come (for an obsessive academic like myself).

My school here has certainly been supportive of my scholarship. The provost and president of the university threw a little reception for me and I've had the opportunity to interact with both on several occasions since. (It's crazy to me how things just snowball - I know there are plenty of equally (if not more) accomplished students at this university and I wish I could share all the positive fall out with them). One cool thing that even the non-nerdy sports fan can appreciate is that they recognized my award during a time-out at one of the Men's basketball games (while we are #1) and gave me a game ball signed by both the coaches.

Of course now the pressure is on, or at least that is how I feel. It used to be that my own standards for myself were leagues above everyone else's expectations of me- now they're catching up. Even though I'm taking one math class as an audit, just to learn the material because I'll need it next year, I'm ashamed to hand in work that isn't perfect to my standards, despite the grade I earn being completely irrelevant.

This entry has little form but that's representative of how things work, life never takes the essay form where you introduce what will happen in the first paragraph and then it proceeds to take place just as you spelled out. God knows what He's doing though. I'm reading in Exodus right now, about the construction of the Tabernacle, and He knows exactly what he wants (right down to the blue, purple, and gold linens made by expert weavers). It reminds me that God really does care about the details even while he cares about the over-arching story. Resting in his plan is something that doesn't come completely naturally, but I can see His hand in orchestrating my past and so that helps me rest about the future. I am so thankful to God for my opportunity to study in England for the next two years. I will miss my Stephen terribly, but I trust that all things work together for good for them who love the Lord.

Okay I've got to wrap this up because a day packed with research projects is calling. I feel incredibly blessed to be living a life filled with adventure and love, especially as I consider the tragedy and injustice that is happening in such abundance simultaneously around the world. I challenge myself to do more about it.