Tis the Season

Classes are done and all assignments turned in, except for a paper due January 10th.  That means it's time to enjoy the holidays with Seth and take a bit of a break!

We have a dinky little Charlie Brown tree set up on the side of the desk with a small pile of packages underneath.  We've gotten some packages in the mail from our families, and the rest of the boxes are presents we bought for each other.  While we were together.  So there won't be many surprises this year since I know exactly what Seth bought for me, but it was really the easiest thing to do.  When you can't just hop in a car and drive to the store, it's much nicer to have company during the walk into the city centre. 

Christmas really isn't about the gifts this year (not that it is any year, but even more starkly this year).  There's no point to accumulating "stuff" for Christmas when we won't be able to bring it back home.  We bought each other things that were either edible or small things that we needed (a 2012 daily planner for me, new slippers for Seth, etc.), and asked for things we missed from home from our families (Kraft mac & cheese, Caribou Coffee, etc.).   Our real gift to each other is a trip (hopefully) to Edinburgh, Scotland for a week.  Since we're living off of loans anyway, we might as well enjoy our access to travel that we won't have again for ages.

But Christmas itself is going to be most likely the only Christmas that will be relaxing and commitment-free.  It will be just Seth and me - nowhere to go and no one to see.  In all actuality, as much as we're going to miss our families, we're really looking forward to Christmas.  Sleeping in, opening gifts together, cooking Christmas dinner... that kind of relaxed holiday doesn't come around that often.

Last Sunday, we went to a candlelight Christmas carol service at Ebrington.  It really was a beautiful service: carols alternating with scripture readings and accompaniment by a Flute band.  Since church is at 10am (instead of 11:30am) on Christmas day and we have a 45 minute walk, we're not going back until after Christmas and going to that service was a good reminder to get my priorities in check for the Christmas season.  Hopefully, having a nice quiet Christmas will also give me the opportunity to reflect on what Christmas is really for without all the normal distractions.

So, here's to a Christmas season of firsts: first Christmas with Seth, first Christmas away from home, first Christmas in another country.  God has done so much for us this year, and I know we'll be in good hands for 2012.  :)

It's Winter Again

It's getting to the point of my time here that the romance of being newly married and living in Northern Ireland is drifting away.  Now, that's not to say that I regret anything: absolutely not! I married the man I love and I know I'm following God's plan, but it seems a lot more like everyday life than an exciting adventure right now.  It's not "new" anymore.

I think it's because it's December now, and winter has a whole different feel than the fall.  Going out to the grocery store is no longer an enjoyable walk that we can do together; when the rain and icy wind sting your face and hands when you go outside, staying in sounds much more preferable.  Waking up for class seems much more like a chore when the daylight is no longer creeping through the curtains when I have to get out of bed.  The semester is drawing to a close (bringing more intense coursework) and the holiday season is just around the corner.  As excited as I am to have a quiet Christmas with just Seth, it will still be my first Christmas in 23 years where I won't be with my parents and family.  The same goes for Seth, too.  Christmas will be small, quiet, relaxed, and likely stress-free - hooray! - but possibly a little bit lonely in the deserted dormitories.

I know this post seems like I'm feeling down, but I'm not.  I love where we are and I love living with Seth (even if he is currently snoring during his afternoon nap while I'm writing this), and were I given the opportunity to change anything, I'd still be here, with him. 

Fortunately, we've had more of an opportunity to travel in the last month.  At the beginning of November, we went with the Magee Christian Union to Ballintoy, which is on the northern coast of NI.  It's right by the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, and Seth and I made sure to go and see it while we were nearby.  The coastline there is amazing - one of the most beautiful places in the world. 

It was a busy weekend, but it was blessedly free from rain all weekend.  I may not have been here long, but I've been here long enough to know that beautiful weekends like that don't come around too often.

There are a lot of good people in the CU too, and I think both of us enjoyed getting to know them a little better over the weekend.

A couple weeks later, Seth and I took a day trip in to Belfast.  It was the day of the Christmas light switch-on and the first day of the Continental Christmas market (and a Saturday), so the whole city was flooded with people.  We made it a touristy day and took a bus tour of all the landmarks in the city: Seth has never been there, and I was there with a host family on England term so I saw some parts of the city but not others.  It was good for both of us to be able to do the tour together.

The Christmas market was by the City Hall, right in the center of the city.  We stopped by to explore after we ate an early dinner (TGI Friday's - sometimes, a little taste of home is appealing) and the market was a mass of people.  I had to clutch my purse to my chest because there would be no way to notice pickpocketing, and if someone with a baby stroller stopped in front of us to give their kid a sweet (which they did - a lot), we'd be trapped for several minutes until we could shoulder our way into the crowd slowing parting around them.  Still - mulled wine and fudge made everything better.

It was an exhausting but fun day, and we're hoping to get back to Belfast sometime when the holiday shopping season isn't in full swing. 

So there's a brief update - I'm off to take my "Sabbath evening of rest" after typing up an essay outline earlier.  A little relaxation can go a long way for morale.

Diving into schoolwork

It's been a couple weeks since my last update, and in the true spirit of being back in school, I'm updating my blog instead of starting in on my homework for the day.  Once a student, always a student, I guess.

So I left off on my last post saying that I had a part time job, and there's actually a really funny story about that.  I'll preface this story by saying that when they called me to tell me when I was starting, they said, "We'll have you start this weekend.  Why don't you come in Friday morning for some training?"  Maybe my definition of "training" is different than other people's - and from talking to a lot of people it's not - but usually "starting this weekend" and "come in for training" means that yes, you have the job.

Clearly not.  I came in and worked for five hours that Friday morning, and they had me working the sandwich/bap/panini station during the lunch rush, which I've never done before.  Not to mention that I had to learn a new language of sorts - it's white, brown, or granary bread, not white or wheat.  I had to catch myself all the time.  But at the end of my five hours, the owners pulled me into the kitchen (since they didn't have an office).

They told me that from my CV (resume) they were expecting far more out of me, someone who could jump in and just start running since there would be less people working on weekends.  They also said that I wasn't outgoing enough and that it wasn't going to work out.

They paid me (cash in an envelope), but isn't the point of training to train?  I know coffee, and I know customer service, but at a new job, policies and equipment are always different.  Learning a new job is always a process of adjusting what you know to how things work at the new place.  I'm sorry if asking questions about where things were and how to make things according to their standards wasn't good enough for them.  Fortunately, I can take the word of my bosses at Dairy Queen (where I worked 5 years) and at Uncommon Grounds (where I worked 1 year) over the words of some people for whom I worked for five hours.  I know I'm a good worker and friendly with customers.

Chances are that there was something going on behind the scenes and they had decided not to hire me before I even started.  I just wish they wouldn't have told me I had the job - knowing that they were just testing me out would have been a whole lot better instead of deceiving me.  I wouldn't have done anything different - I did my best - but at least it wouldn't have been such a surprise.

The plus side of not working is that I get to spend a whole lot more time with Seth and that I have much more time to work on my schoolwork.  The first week of November I have two papers due (one in each class), one of which is 30% of my mark and the other which is 50%.  They're really important, to state the obvious.

Last week I finished the draft of my first paper, a critical review on an article.  This weekend I've been reading and researching for my second paper, an essay on why some nonviolent campaigns succeed whilst others fail.  It's only 2,500 words, but it should have around 10 sources and since it is half my mark, it has to be really good.  So I'm aiming to finish writing that by the end of next weekend so that I have time to do some editing on both.  I've always done well in the world of academia, so hopefully I'll be able to pull these off.  Come on, English degree.  You've got to be useful for something, right?

So that's what I've been doing lately.  I'm really looking forward to when I turn these papers in, because then I'll be able to take a short break before working on assignments due at the beginning of December.  Plus, since I'm not working weekends, Seth and I decided to go with the Christian Union on a weekend retreat on the 4th to 6th of November, conveniently right after my papers are due.  It'll also be the first time we're getting out of Derry, so it's kind of exciting.  Hopefully we'll get to start doing a little bit of sightseeing soon.  It would be a shame not to see some of Ireland and Northern Ireland while we're here.

But I should stop procrastinating and get on with my reading.  I still have three books I want to get through today so that I can start doing some outlining and brainstorming.  So until next time, I guess.  :)

Finding a rhythm

Seth and I have been living here in Northern Ireland for several weeks now, and it seems like just recently that life has started to seem normal again.  But with the rate that things are changing, it's only a matter of time until that's thrown off again.

This semester I only have two classes - or modules, as they're called here - and the semester lasts through January.  The weird thing is that even though winter break is over at the beginning of January, I really don't have any obligations except for turning in one paper.  A lot of that time is for final exams, and my modules are graded only on coursework.  It may sound nice, but for one module, I'm only graded on two essays.  That means each essay is worth 50% of my grade, and when I'm writing for a new professor at a new school in a new country, it's a little nerve-wracking.  I'm counting on my English Lit & Writing background to save me in that field, so hopefully everything will work out.

On Tuesdays, I have one class - The Northern Ireland Conflict - from 10:15-12:05 and then 1:15-3:05.  We've started out learning a lot of Irish history and history of the Northern Ireland conflict and we'll be using it as a kind of case study as to how negotiation and peace process work in a conflict. 

On Thursday, I have Peace and Conflict Research from 9:30am-1:05pm with a few short breaks throughout.  That class is focused on learning the basic theories and ideas in the academic field of peace studies, how the study has developed, and some of the problems and advantages of peace studies as professional discipline.

I've been doing a lot of reading outside of class, most of which is self-directed.  My first essays will be due the first week in November, so I'll have to start working on those pretty soon.

Seth and I also started going to the Christian Union here on campus, both to expand our social life and to find a good young adult group to encourage us in our faith.  It meets every Tuesday night and focuses on Bible study, prayer, worship, developing friendships, and evangelism.  We also joined small groups that meet on Wednesday nights; I just got back from my first meeting and Seth is still out at his.  I'm encouraged by the faith and sincerity of the people involved at CU, so hopefully good things will happen this year.

One of our biggest struggles in these first few weeks has been a lack of money.  Once I arrived on campus, I had to get a form from the international office, fill it out, bring it back to them so they could write an official letter to a UK bank, bring the letter to the bank, set up an account, and send my account information to the financial office so that my US loans could be transferred to my UK bank account.  Until today, we still had no money in that account and were looking at maxed out credit cards and about $500 in each of our checking accounts.  It wasn't so low that we couldn't buy food, but it was low enough that we had to be really frugal on what we were buying.  (This was a result of paying $1,700 each for accommodation in August, our wedding, our honeymoon in London, and buying a lot of necessary things we were not able to bring with us in our suitcases.)

But - thanks be to God - the money was in the account today!  We still have to work out a budget, but we can at least afford the luxury of a coffeemaker, which we bought today as a celebration.  (A whole £15, woohoo!)

We've also improved our relationship with our flatmates.  Last Wednesday, instead of leaving the kitchen after we cooked dinner, we sat around and talked with them and actually got to know them.  We still haven't spent a lot of time together, but at least we're past the awkwardness where we only say "hi" in the kitchen and that's it.  They were all curious about Thanksgiving, so we're planning to have a Thanksgiving dinner together as a flat.  It won't be the same as a family Thanksgiving, but it should still be a lot of fun.

The next big hurdle we have is jobs.  I was lucky enough to get a job at a coffee house really close to campus - just a 10 minute walk from Duncreggan.  I start training for a couple hours Friday morning and then start working on Saturday and Sunday, and hopefully I can work that into my weekly rhythm.  So far weekends have been quiet, low-key, and quite relaxing, but now I'll have 18 hours of work to smoosh in there.  It'll be a couple long days - 8am-6pm on Saturday and 10am-5pm on Sunday, but that means work will not be a concern for the rest of the week.  I'm legally capped at 20 hours anyway, so it's a pretty good situation.

Keep praying that Seth will be able to find work, though.  We're not exactly certain on the status of his visa since it doesn't give him a number of work hours like mine does, so we don't know if he has to apply for some sort of work permit (or how to do that if he does) or if it's just assumed that he can do 40 hours since it's an 18-month visa.  It's confusing.

So now that the loans are dispersed, the classes have started, and our social life is picking up, I think we're finally starting to settle in to our life here in Derry. It's almost starting to feel like home, even.  Not quite - since I have no kittens to cuddle - but almost.

Moving to the UK

What a way to start a marriage! It's been a crazy week and a half since Seth and I left everything and everyone we knew at the MSP airport. We took a honeymoon in London, and while it was a lot of fun, it was far from relaxing.

Our hotel was just outside of Heathrow and we had to take the tube into the center of London every day, which took about a half an hour. We came home each evening with throbbing feet and calves from walking around all day. I really enjoyed taking Seth to some of the places I had loved in London - Covent Garden, Russel Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Globe Theatre, The Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace, etc - as well as experiencing a few new things that I hadn't ever done before - The London Eye, getting lost, new pubs, and an under renovation Platform 9 3/4.

Basically, all of London was under renovation in preparation for the summer Olympics in 2012. The Piccadilly Circus screens were covered up, tube stations were temporarily closed for elevator renovations, and almost every building was covered in scaffolding. I guess London will look ship-shape by next summer.

On Monday when we left London, we got up way before the sun and barely squeaked by every deadline for the flight. There were some extraordinarily long queues and by the time we got our baggage checked (only a few minutes before the 40 minute cut off) and got through security, we had to run to our gate since the flight was on "last call" for boarding. But we made it!

We took a taxi from the Derry airport straight to our housing at Duncreggan Student Village. Then we had to go back and forth from office to office to collect our keys, but we finally made it to our top floor suite thing. It's a little cramped: we had to push our two single beds together in order to get a bed, but we still have a lovely crack down the middle. The bathroom is there, but just barely. The shower is right next to the toilet with just a shower curtain separating them, so if we don't towel off the floor after showering, we're left with wet feet every time we use the toilet.

Our room certainly isn't deluxe, but it isn't too bad. We share a kitchen with 5 other rooms, and we met a couple of the girls yesterday. They've been really nice so far, so hopefully everything will work out just fine.

Duncreggan Village is certainly the hot party spot, which is a huge adjustment from Bethel. I'm pretty sure there were small parties going on in just about every kitchen on campus (including ours) so it was pretty noisy last night. It should be an interesting year; that's for sure.

I started some international orientation this morning, and I actually met a couple other American students who will be in the same program as me. It's reassuring to know that I have a few people who have to register for the same courses and will probably have some of the same problems as me.

I have more orientation during the rest of the week, longer on some days than on others. But it usually doesn't go much further than about 3:30 in the afternoon, so Seth and I have been spending most of our free time out shopping and trying to find what we need to make our small room homey. It's really been quite the adventure to have to walk to every store and carry everything we buy all the way back to our room, so it's taken many trips out and a lot of leg and arm muscles with all the walking and carrying. Maybe I won't really need to worry about working out much this year.

One thing we're lacking is a coffee maker. Clearly, coffee isn't a priority in the UK. I knew they were big on instant coffee, but I had thought that normal coffee beans would at least exist. But no, so far all we can find is electric kettles and instant coffee. And buying a cup of coffee somewhere certainly isn't in a grad school budget. We'll keep looking, but we caved and bought some instant coffee (but not the cheapest, because we're hoping it will at least be somewhat good).

So life is different, and somewhat confusing right now as we try and settle in, but so far both of us are enjoying it. Hopefully things will smooth out a bit soon as we figure out a routine and how things work around here.