Livin' in the moment.

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” 
-Dr. Suess

It's funny how true that statement really is. We (yes you AND me) tend to take the simplest "problems" and turn them into the most complicated situations when in reality the answers are laid out in plain sight.

This was my dilemma with missing home. Just like in the States every chance I had I was checking Facebook or Twitter, looking at Instagram and seeing how much fun my friends and sisters were having at home. I couldn't help but wish I was there. So this week (I think on Tuesday) I deleted my Facebook and Twitter app on my phone. It was weird at first but then I just stopped carrying my phone around in general. If I am looking for someone or someone is looking for me we can't  be to far away in this manor house.

My attitude has done a 180 since doing this. Granted I still will post from my computer and do the occasional creep on an unexpecting person but I am not tying myself to technology that is showing me what I am missing at home. Because quite honestly I need, and want, to live in the moment.

This weekend called for no travels but was still filled with so much fun and getting to know new people. I went into Grantham yesterday with Carly and Erin and bought new hiking shoes for my adventures to come. I finished one and a half papers and had a night filled with chick flicks and watching wedding videos with some amazing people.

Don't get me wrong, I still wish on occasion that I was at home with my Little Bit and Gens but I love it here and have decided to live in the moment. Sunday will my day to catch up with 'Merica and talk to all the people I love back home.

This week will be filled with stress and excitement as I get ready to leave for Scotland but I am so ready to spend a weekend in my first other country!

So the question of what to do to stop myself from missing home so much was a bit complicated but the answer was easy - live in the moment!

hope, we have as an ANCHOR for the soul.

Hebrews 6:19





I was asked a very unusual, and personal question yesterday during an interview for a job that I have dreamed about for the past three years.

"If you could choose one symbol to use on your own personal coat of arms, what would you choose?"

I paused for a moment and said the first thing that came to my mind, an anchor. A simple symbol that holds so power for me. It reminds me of hope, of love, of travel and adventure. It reminds me to stay grounded in my faith, to my friends and to my family and is a reminder to never loose sight of where I came from, my home.

I truly believe in the saying that "everything happens for a reason", and at that moment that I was asked this question a feeling of relief set in around me. It was a feeling that I had been looking for since I walked through the front doors of Harlaxton. I realized that no matter how far I go away from home, I will always be anchored down to the person that I was raised to be. I may be 6 hours ahead of time in a foreign country but at that moment I knew I was going to be okay and the homesickness that I had previously been feeling would slowly dissolve.

An INCREDIBLE first two weeks.

 

Home

 

I have been a bit behind on this whole posting posts. As I said in my first post I really wanted to keep up with this but between writing in my planner everyday, emailing my family and updating my Momma and Daddy I have gotten behind. So let me quickly recap the past two weeks. Two weeks that have been filled with adventure and incredible memories already.

The first weekend was full of orientation "stuff." How to get around (which is a maze in itself), how to not burn down the manor with foreign appliances (honestly we all needed this - I'd feel terrible if I was the person to cause this beautiful creation to go up in flames) and an introduction to the crazy course we all have to take called British Studies. Basically the class is a fast paced course on how this country started, starting at the very beginning (which was a LONG time ago, way before the United States was formed). The challenging aspect is that in the states we have a base of knowledge of the history of our country, even from a young age. Living in another country that has such a rich history that I am very unfamiliar with has been so differnt. Now add to the fact that the professors teaching all have incredible accents and you have the perfect situation for me to get very distracted from the material at times!

The first week honestly FLEW by and I was boarding a coach and heading to London before I knew it. I had no idea what to expect. We've all seen "London" in movies and on television but how can you really picture something that you have never seen in real life? It is quite hard to do. We rode in at night (which didn't help for painting a picture of the city) but I still had my nose to the window looking out at all the buildings. London is full of just that, buildings and tall ones at that. We got to the hotel, threw our stuff down and headed out for the town. I was just following the crowd at this point. I had never ridden the Tube or even looked at a map of London before coming to the big city.

Piccadilly Square

 

 

The first night we ventured to Piccadilly Square and my first experience of a pub. O'Neils treated us well that night and we ended the night full of laughter! Throughout the weekend I visited: the British Library, the British Museum, the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Those are just the major sites too. I saw people from all over the world, heard a multitude of languages spoken, ate at hole in the wall cafes and thoroughly enjoyed myself in a huge city. I loved not knowing where I was or how far away from the hotel I was standing. There was no agenda and no specific time and I ate it up.

London Eye

Pulling back up to the manor on Sunday night was unreal. I was home. That's right, home. To a massive 153 room building, one mile from the road, in a little village, in the middle of England. It finally sunk in that I was here and I smiled as the coach pulled down the drive.

The second week of classes have flown by as well. I have gotten used to taking naps and walking into my friends room to sit around and just talk. I wake up in the mornings, throw on my slippers, brush my teeth at the sink in my room and wonder down a corridor to whichever class I have that morning. It has snowed twice and the grounds have been covered in a white blanket that makes the manor look like a page out of a story book.

I am thoroughly enjoying myself here! I am so proud of myself for stepping out (I could say leaping, jumping and sprinting out of my comfort zone) and coming to England. I'm always been a homebody and this is the furthest thing from home that I have ever imagined and I am surprising myself every single day.

..and so the journey begins!

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
-Dr. Seuss

As the title states, the journey has begun.
I left all that I have ever know yesterday morning. I said see you later to my Daddy at home, which was terribly hard. I get my soft heart from him and yes we but heads a lot but I wouldn't trade him for the world. Mom and Whit drove me to Louisville (Mitchell had surgery) and I hated saying see you later to them. You see, you can't really say goodbye. Goodbyes are meant for when you know you won't see someone again and I will be back home in four short months.

The plane ride from Louisville to Washington D.C. was uneventful. The lady sitting next to me did not utter a word so I was able to get in a good nap. In Washington D.C. was where we ran into the first trouble and adventure of this trip. We all ate our last "American" meal, at Wendys, but we really wanted a juicy burger! Our plane started boarding at the original time and we started taxing out on the run way when we suddenly stopped. I had begun watching Pitch Perfect and got about 20 minutes into the movie when I noticed 3 fire trucks pulling along side of the airplane. Firemen got out and walked to the plane and then the pilot came on the intercom stating that there was a problem with the fire detection system on the right engine. At first it sounded like he was saying there was a fire, hence the firemen and fire trucks, and I panicked a little. I just knew it was a bad omen but thank god that we had not already taken off. We were towed back to the terminal and were told that they were not sure what they were going to do with all of us passengers. Thankfully when we exited the plane and entered the terminal again we had another plane waiting to take us to London.

Once again we boarded the new plane and the whole ordeal had set us back about 4 hours off of our original plan. We knew that we had to make it to Heathrow at 9:30 and had to make it through immigration and get our bags before the 10:30 deadline. Luck was on our side and the Harlaxton individuals picking us up at the airport waited for all 19 of us on the flight. Let's just say that plane ride, and ordeal before we even took off was quite stressful but we were all prepared to make our own way to Harlaxton if needed.

We took buses from Heathrow to Harlaxton. I once again passed out on the bus and missed a lot of the "country side" but I did open my eyes a few times and noticed how flat the land in England is. Much different from the hills that I am used to.

The drive up to the manor house was unreal. I got my first glance at my new home and that is when everything started to become real. I had this gut feeling that I was going to be stuck in the carriage house instead of the manor (since I applied so late and was the last on the last coach to arrive) but luckily my feeling was wrong. I live in room 511 with three other roommates ((one from Kansas, Michigan and Indiana - I'd say we are pretty diverse).