"The term is over: the holidays have begun."

• The picture is merely a sample of creative genius of our God, taken at the Oxford Museum of Natural Science. There was so much more there. Adam and I spent about 3 hours in the museum on a field trip that was supposed to last about 30 minutes when we had some serious papers to write. It was worth every second.
  
  My goodness, did I really forget to post last week? Well, I guess it’s understandable. In the last two weeks, I’ve written over 30 pages worth of papers (yes, that’s excluding bibliographies), in the midst of tying up all the other loose ends that come with leaving a place you’ve lived in for three months probably forever. I have very mixed emotions about the whole ordeal at this point. While I was still working, it was easy to say I can’t wait to leave and just be home again. But now that all the work is done, I beginning to realize all the things I’m going to miss.
  
  Yesterday I took a three hour walk around the city, taking the chance to kind of say goodbye to everything. The weather was unseasonably gorgeous and I felt the makings of sadness panging away at my heart. Taken as a whole, my experience here has been an incredible opportunity for my personal growth and maturity, and I am extremely grateful for the chance to study here. My token catchphrase for the term has been “God is bigger than that” and I really believe my acknowledgement of this is the most beneficial things I will take away from my time here. We serve an incredibly diverse and wonderful Creator who absolutely refuses to be packaged and handed out in manageable doses. All of our attempts to understand Him in all His glory are bound to fail, yet this should not stifle our attempts to know Him more and in that knowledge increase our love for Him. Wow, I better turn this engine off before it gets warmed up, or I’ll end up with a sermon instead of a report on how things are going ;0).
  
  I think the thing I’ll miss the most about my time here will be Jamie, Adam and Travis. Rooming with them has been such a blessing. Our Tuesday morning Mancake breakfasts were delicious, our room ab and pushup workouts were just the thing to wake me up when I was falling asleep reading, and the memories we have made will stay with me indefinitely. God is so good.
  
  In the last couple of weeks, I’ve compiled (or started to compile) two short lists: Things I’ll miss about England and Things I won’t miss about England. I thought yall might like to have a look-see, so here we go:
  
  Things I’ll miss about England—
  1) The ability to drink alcohol in moderation without the stigma attached to it in the sates.
  2) The celebration of High Tea every afternoon (most specifically PG Tips brand tea).
  3) These gramcracker-esque “tea biscuits” known as Digestives. They come plain or with chocolate or caramel on top, and they are drop dead delicious.
  4) Bathroom wall writing in Greek and Latin, where subsequent artists have corrected the original artist’s language usage and grammar (how dorky is that).
  5) Cooking/grocery shopping for myself.
  6) The discussions that come in house full of Christians, some of whom are ardent pacifist, others soldiers; some fundamentalist, others as liberal as humanly possible and all honestly seeking to follow Christ.
  
  Things I won’t miss about England…AT ALL—
  1) Toilet seats that feel like you’re sitting on a block of ice.
  2) The absolute non-existence of Mexican food
  3) Dinner portions my little sister Katie could consume as “snacks.”
  4) No free refills on any cokes.
  5) The lack of really good thunderstorms (or any thunderstorms for that matter).
  
  That’s that I think. I’m sure there’s more and I’ll have a long time to think about them on the plane ride home, though I probably won’t be thinking about much besides making it back State-side. It will be a very welcomed homecoming, that’s for sure.
  On Thursday around lunch, I’m meeting Mom in London and from there we’ll hop and a train for Edinburgh, Scotland. In the next week, we’re planning on hitting Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin in a big loop that leaves us in London for a 7:30 AM flight on the 20th. I’m really looking forward to the time with Mom and the chance to see the Scotch-Irish countryside by rail and ferry. And with that, I will conclude what should be my second to last post, for a while anyway. ;0). I’ll let everyone know how the touring with mom goes when I’m safely at home in Georgia, where I know I can count on gnats and mosquitoes to greet me with ravenous delight.