Happy New Year!

I'm a little late in this, but happy new liturgical year B. The church year begins the first Sunday of Advent (Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving). This weekend we celebrate the fourth and final week of Advent. And next Sunday is Christmas. I honestly don't know where the months of November and December have gone. They literally flew right past me. And yet, in some ways, September and October seem so far away.

I was on the bus Tuesday on my way to do last minute Christmas shopping for my family when I realized that I experienced 2005 in three very distinct chunks. Coincidentally enough, the three chunks are also roughly 4 months each. A brief overview:

Chunk one: January to May 5. My last semester as a college student. That whole time was spent stressing about classes and jobs, extracurricular, what I was going to do next, how obviously stupid I had been to take 20 credits my last semester when I only needed to take an art elective and SO408. I burned out.

Chunk two: Graduation to Orientation. After graduation weekend was over, most of my concerns were boredom related. I suddenly had no classes, no jobs, no extracurricular activities. What was I supposed to do with myself? I went crazy with boredom. I went to synod assembly for fun! [Now that's just sad.] Gradually, I found little things to occupy my time and I really did enjoy my 'summer of nothing.' I got to work at Vacation Bible School, go out with friends and not have to worry about homework or getting up early, I did a sort of internship collecting signatures against a proposed sulfide mine. And eventually (ok, the week before) I 'prepared' for what lay ahead: a residential home for adults with learning disabilities in Hackney.

Chunk three: Orientation to Now. August 22 my parents put me on a plane headed for Chicago (actually, they took me to the security line and then waited in Detroit until the plane took off about three hours later because of 'minor engineering problems'). Among their parting words were 'try the food in England,' like shepherds pie which has meat in it. Do my parents really think I'm going to forgo vegetarianism for the sake of trying more (presumably) bland British food? Anyway, after Chicago I came to London and have been here since working in Hackney and adjusting to coming from very white small towns in Michigan to a very big, very diverse city. There are at 30 different ethnic/nationalities in Hackney.

I'll expand on my chunky reflections later, but for now, the timer on the library computer is telling me that time is about up. Talk to you again soon!