Chinese New Year of the .......... penguin?

Hey team. I've been cracking onto a few assignments these past few weeks and so I've been a bit slack in updating this badboy but you probably didn't actually notice anyway so let's pretend I didn't say that first bit. I could have just deleted it but then I wouldn't have an intro so it's gonna stay......

There's only one thing that I need to say before I spill my beans and that's 'Happy Chinese New Year!'- I'm a bit late but happy year of the rabbit(?). I think we just had the year of the tiger so you can say goodbye with a bowl of Frosties or something.

So, 'what's been going down?' I hear you ask......well I've managed to put a deposit down for a house which is very good news. At first, the issue of a house was a bit of a palaver because one of the two guys I planned to live with started to consider leaving the course at the end of the year. This would mean going travelling and there being no chance of us getting a house whatever the decision. Before he actually decided what to do, some friends on the course asked if I wanted to live with them, so when he did decide to quit, I had a fantastic offer (which I was very happy to accept!). The other guy lives in Oxford anyway so he is living at home next year which means it's worked out nicely for all of us.

At church I decided to join the welcome team. I'd been to St. Aldates most weeks during the first term of uni and I knew enough people to get by but I didn't feel like I was giving anything back to the church. I didn't just want to go, hear a sermon, listen to some worship music and then toddle off home because I could do that from my room via the internet and not have to worry about the 'getting home' part. I went along one Sunday evening and asked if I could join and they were really grateful that I wanted to do it so I knew it was the right move. On my second time I was giving the bread out for communion! Didn't expect that one! It was kind of a last minute thing which meant I may have forgotten to wash my hands....... I blessed the bread before giving it out so I don't think there's much cause for concern! I am getting to know people a lot better within the church and a lot faster than I would have done so I'm glad I've started doing it! I'd recommend it-even if you only did it once!

Last weekend I went home for my dad's birthday meal. It's funny because I was thinking about where my home actually is. When I go home, it's great but it feels like a holiday rather than going home. It's weird! My family are there and I have a place there but I don't know if it's my home. At first this confused me because whilst I was in Finland, I knew my home was England and I had the longing for 'home'. Here it's different. I miss Worcester but it's not the same. I guess that I always knew my Finland trip was for a certain period of time and I knew that after 6 months, I'd go home. It's not the same here because I'll be spending the best part of at least 3 years here. The old phrase goes 'Home is where the heart is' and I think that's very true. Oxford is where I work, sleep, eat, socialise, laugh, live. In that sense, it is where the heart is. And I'm comfortable with that. This may not be great reading for you but for me it was good to realise. I think I'm the type of person who like to do things whole-heartedly if I can and sometimes things stop me. I need to see where my heart is before I do anything because commitment is very important. For me to live here 100%, I need to know my heart is here. My point is that 'making your home' is important (my point is also very unclear!) and that people should do it more instead of trying to have several- because you might end up without a 'home' altogether. This might make a connection with someone.......somewhere........on a year out or moving away etc.........or maybe it won't but I'm cool with that too :)

Take it easy

To infinity and beyond!

I thought I'd do another post because I had a long break (probably due to snow!) and I was thinking about this topic yesterday. By the way, to anyone who has a new years resolution of losing weight- I had a sudden guilt trip about what I said in the last post and so actually I don't think it's boring :) (please keep reading my blog :D)

Last night I got thinking, what's it like to actually live for eternity? In the day it doesn't seem that big of an issue but last night it seemed to worry me a bit. I mean eternity? What happens after that? It's not the first time I've thought about it. I first thought about it when I was quite young and it scared me. I'm not used to thinking of things in terms of infinity! I need an end.....somewhere. But then I thought that the option of an eternity under the ground doing nothing but hanging out, having a big sleep (that never ends) is even scarier! So I would always choose the less scarier option. An eternity living over eternity doing nothing.

When I talked to people about this I would usually come to the conclusion that 'I'd rather spend eternity in Heaven than in Hell' but this didn't exactly comfort me much. I still got that stomach feeling (like you do when you get to the top of a massive roller coaster) when I thought about eternity. What would I do with all that time? When I just stop and think, my mind runs a riot thinking about it. I might also think that 'Well, all humanity is in the same boat!' but again, didn't find much security in that! Surprise surprise.

Last night I thought about it a bit more. Usually I have to stop because I think I'll explode with confusion. But I continued to think and I'm glad I did. Firstly, I realised my thoughts were not very 'Godly'- what I mean by that is they were either from me or from the devil or somewhere else but not God. If they were from me then God help me because what do I know about anything. I don't know what Liechtenstein is like let alone eternal life. If I base my worries on what I think it'll be like, then that is VERY stupid- I've been wrong many a time!- again, surprise surprise! So if they're from the devil then he's gonna WANT me to be scared. He'll want me to prefer reincarnation or whatever over living forever as normal ol' Nathan. So if what I'm feeling is what the devil wants me to think then surely that's wrong and God wants the opposite for me. Right?

Anything I feel towards 'eternity' which makes me scared/worried or whatever is probably exactly the opposite to what it will actually be like! That makes me feel good! AND it doesn't contradict the nature of God-which the other way did. Bonus! He isn't gonna want me to be petrified about dying or going to Heaven! So yeah, relax! You all probably already know this but just incase I thought it might help- helped me! Peace.

Resolutions and revolutions....

After taking a month off for Christmas, I'm back with some bloggage for you to read.

Here's some final Christmas nostalgia!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgcY2W5qs6M

Hope you enjoyed that and your Christmas time was awesome and that Santa didn't miss you out. I spent my Christmas day making this with my little brother....

It was one of the best spent Christmas days I can remember! A great finale for 2010! When I wasn't making LEGO castles, I was spending my time selling cameras to the punters inside Jessops. I'd already worked there for almost two years before taking a year out and then returning this Christmas to do some temping. It was good to get some cash on the side but I also realised how amazing my 2010 had been because I saw the contrasting difference between then and now. My 2010 gap year had been incredibly exciting! Best so far! This is what it's supposed to be like when you live for Jesus. It ain't boring. If it is, you're doing it wrong!

"A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other."

As it's the 1/1/11, it's generally the time when people think up their new years resolutions/ what they want to do in the next year. I've never really taken much interest in this because there's generally a negative connotation surrounding it. In the past it's always been a cop out and I'll revert to 'stop biting nails' or something generic. This year I've decided to take it seriously but I want to concentrate on the positives rather than the negatives. The most typical resolution I've heard is 'I want to lose some weight' or 'Eat less chocolate'.........how boring is that. Notice it's always the same each year which generally concludes to failure. How about setting something fun? One of the top ones on my list is 'Take my brother to see England at Wembley'. I'm looking forward to that one!

Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to improve at things and learn from experiences. One of the main things I've taken from my 2010 year is how big the issue of poverty is. I find it really strange to think that 7 or 8 months ago I was in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere... it makes me realise really how grateful we should be and it stirs me up to try and do things about it. Another resolution is therefore to remember to tithe 10 percent of wages. I've known about tithing for a while but never taken much interest- I guess because I didn't think anywhere needed it. At that point it seemed strange giving it to church because they were richer than me! It also felt like it might get lost and I never knew what happened to it. Although my views have definitely changed- due to UNBELIEVABLE amounts of generosity towards me- I still feel that it's good to know where your money goes because it's not giving for the sake of giving but also so that you can be 'blessed'/whatever you want to call it by doing so.

Another few resolutions are to watch at least 150 of the top 250 IMDb films (I'm on 98 so far!) and to learn to cook better/actually do some cooking!

In other news, I went to a Tesco extra en route to Scotland for Hogmanay and it was huge. Probably bigger than most football stadiums in the Premiership/airports in Europe. Also, some of our family managed to complete a 3D model of the world in puzzle form. The details of completing such a model are far more complex than you could ever imagine but here's a picture anyway!

Christmas?! Already?!

So this is my last week before the Christmas break- yeah I know, it's early! I said this in the last post but my time has just gone so quickly. Just trying to remember all the stuff that I've done this month has been pretty hard but I'll do my best to give you some of the highlights...

On the university front, we've entered the essay title giving time. Assignments have been well and truly set and so I'm going about collecting bits and pieces which relate to them. It's going well actually and I'm feeling pretty comfortable and unstressed which is cool. I think I'm generally efficient in getting jobs done and I put it down to one major factor- a list. I can't get enough of writing the things! And the first item on the agenda is ALWAYS 'Make list' so you can cross it out straight away. There is definite satisfaction in that. So now I'm on a roll and I feel the urge to cross the rest off and that's how things get done!

Another issue at this point in time is HOUSE. Not the loveable doctor character portrayed by Hugh Laurie but rather the big thing that most students go nuts about during the first term of uni. I think I may be one of the only ones not to have actually thought about it until today but it didn't strike me as much of a big deal. The problem is that now, in their state of panic, most people I know now have accommodation for next year.... and I don't. But ultimately I do believe that God will help me get the perfect place so yeah, I'm not worried :)

Church and C.U. business is also flowing quite nicely. We had a comedian (Andy Kind) on at the C.U. last month which was a laugh and a good night out. The C.U. here is pretty big- I think there's somewhere between 50 and 80 depending on what sort of event it is but then again I could be totally wrong with those numbers! There's a lot. That's for sure. Church is also good and I've been going along weekly now since the first week- I really do enjoy it! I think I've settled in at the 6 o'clock which is somewhere in between a family service and a soul survivor style service. Last night there were 6 baptisms and some of the testimonies were really powerful- I'd forgotten how inspiring testimonies can be and so I was glad to hear them. The 6 o'clock topic is 'Romans' so we usually have a sermon on that but it was nice to have a change.

Here's the St Aldates website if you want to check it out: http://www.staldates.org.uk/

Last week I also went to see Greg Davies AKA Mr. Gilbert from the Inbetweeners who was performing at the Glee Comedy Club on Thursday. He was hilarious. Possibly the funniest stand-up I've seen. He is also a giant of a man! Here's one of a series of videos he did for students at uni:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt2bhIEoIvE&feature=channel

Something else I saw this week was that the new soul survivor CD, Light The Sky, is out. If you have a look on http://www.soulsurvivor.com/uk/soulfood/news/index.html (third article down) you can listen to 5 or 6 of the songs from it. Sounds really good- especially 'Light the Sky', 'Praise Overflows' and 'Nothing to Hide'. Definitely worth a listen!

I suppose the final thing to talk about is the weather- everyone else is so might as well jump on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, we are severely lacking in the white and fluffy department here in Oxford. But not the cold temperature bit. That is most certainly here. In fact, to say it was freezing this morning makes it sound warmer than it actually was. Fortunately, I now have an awesome, knitted, Finnish wooly hat which was hand-made by my friend Johanna (if you're reading this then thanks!!) so my head is very warm! Also, as I live on a hill, people at the campus seem to be worried about snow because 'we might get stuck'. I can only see this as a good thing! The only way down is either sledge or snowboard and the only way up is walking very carefully- which will inevitably result in hilarious consequences. So I say bring it on snow!

Blah blah blog

So my time over the last 2 weeks has been split between Oxford and Worcester. I had a Reading Week and so came home to see the fam and some friends. The Reading Week kicked off with some good old classic taxi japery with some mates-which I believe is a good start to anyones week. This basically meant that some of us got in a taxi and one said that he would pay the driver double if he left without the others because they were taking so long. This then led to a slap-stick inspired performance by the taxi driver who decided that his moment as a comedian was nigh and decided to drive down the street, wait for them to run and catch up and then drive on a bit further. He did this for about 200 meters mainly because as an audience we found this hilarious but also, I think partly because he had nothing better to do. I also went to see the new Karate Kid with my brother, Matt. It was actually pretty good and included the legendary Jackie Chan which automatically meant the film was going to be good anyway. Incase of any uncertainty, I refer you to Exhibit A.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEIrBmZSUJU&feature=related

So after a week of 'reading' I arrived back in Oxford but I accidentally left my wallet in the car and by the time I realised, my wallet was long gone which meant that the first few days I was without a meal card which I found a bit irksome. So to take my mind off the fact that I had no card for food I decided to watch the Masterchef final. If you missed it, this sums it up pretty well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjckqAU8IkM

Most of my free time this week has been spent playing squash at the local gym. Squash is about the only thing I can do at the gym because it's the only exercise where I'm not being watched my people far more athletic than me. When I signed up and got my gym card, I thought I'd try swimming. Naively I got straight into the fast lane but was immediately demoted by the life-gurad who said 'That old lady doesn't like it if she has to wait behind you". The old lady was surprisingly nippy but I've rarely been back since.

On Wednesday night I popped along to the Oxford Brookes Christian Union for the first time. It was a good night and we spent most of it praying for different things around Oxford and the Uni. Then we went to the Sports Bar on the campus and chatted. It was a good chance to chat to people who live in the main Oxford Brookes campus because my campus seems like a bubble compared the main campus and you don't often get the chance to meet people from there.

The next night some of us from the Primary Education course went out to a bar called calledCamera which was ironically situated just about opposite Jessops. This made me think that it would be amusing to see other bars connected to the shop opposite them e.g. 'Stationary' opposite WHSmith or 'Waste of time- but some good deals' opposite T.K.Maxx.

Tonight is the bonfire night in Oxford which is apparently renowned for putting on a good show but to be honest, I'm not too excited by fireworks anymore. If a firework spells my name out in the sky, then I'll be happy with fireworks...

I've gone and done a blog....

Here's a little something for those of you who are interested in what I'm involved now. The point of the blog is just to keep people updated on what I'm doing, share a few lessons from uni for anyone going to uni and at the very least to kill an hour from my week. I hope this is intriguing so enjoy...

I've been in Oxford-town now for about a month and I am really loving it. The city is quite quirky and as I walk through the streets, I'm surrounded by bourgeoisie creative people. It's hilarious! The attitude is very open and friendly which is very welcoming. Just the other day I was in Tesco Metro and there happened to be a '10 for the price of 5' deal on some Muller Corner Yoghurts which I rapidly snapped up- only for a lady to comment 'Ooo, you certainly like your dairy products...'.

The reason for my being in Oxford is because I'm currently doing a course in Primary Education at Oxford Brookes which is well underway by now. I must say that I'm also really enjoying every part of the course as well. There are 90 people on the course- 9 of which are boys. I also have the added extra of living in a block with 7 girls and 1 other boy, Matt. Me and Matt have to do our upmost to play squash as frequently as possible at the local gym (and I do mean local- it's a 1 minute jog) to avoid having all our masculinity taken away from us! But in all seriousness it's definitely the right course for me.

I recently started going to large church in Oxford called St Aldates. The congregation is huge and can reach up to 1500 on a Sunday across 3 services. I wondered how such a large church could feel like a family and if people could easily get lost in the crowd. My first visit was a pizza & pub quiz night which I went to with 2 flat-mates (1 christian, 1 atheist) and we all thought it was great. We didn't quite win but the evening was a success nonetheless. I'm so glad I went because it's nights like these where you get the opportunity to sit around a table and get to know people. We went to a local bar afterwards and chatted some more and I left thinking how great it was to have chatted to so many people. This was the ideal stepping-stone because it meant that when all 3 of us went to the following Sunday's evening service, we had some people to chat to who would introduce us to others etc. I'd advise anyone who's a fresher to get to a church event or CU social and check it out. Just by going to one CU event, God led me to meet great people who I'd never had met before. It's amazing!

Church has already led me into a mentoring scheme which is also a great tip for new freshers. A christian who you can talk to and is a couple of years above can do you the world of good- they've been there, they've done it and they've lived to tell the tale. My non-christian flatmates like to ask a lot of questions and I love to answer- or at least give my opinion on them. On one of the first weeks about 13 of us sat around a table in McDonalds and discussed our beliefs from abortion, to homosexuality and sex before marriage. They had a lot of misconceptions due to the Christian stigma but they all said how 'they didn't realise Christians could just be normal'. Because of the openness between all of us, there is a massive mutual respect which follows. For instance, someone said 'Oh my God!' and then someone asked if I'd prefer it if they didn't say that so now they try and say 'Oh my gosh'. Simple but it meant a lot!

Anyway, that's about all I can think of right now so until next time....