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....