York Adventure #1

2-1-09 (or 1-2-09 for all you english folk)

So, here I am at the end of my first Sunday here at Calvary Chapel York. Church this morning was interesting. It is sooo much smaller here than my church in the tri. I wanna say there were maybe 90 people or so at the service. And there is only one service a week as opposed to our 4 plus the additional Spanish service at home. The fellowship hall is just out the pack patio of our flat so it’s nice to just walk out your back door and be at church. And goodness it’s beautiful inside! I miss hearing steve speak. Hopefully this new pastor will grow on me…a few of the other girls mentioned they missed their pastors as well and are used to a faster paced, more upbeat, and in my case, more humor in the sermons. But we’ll see. It is just always weird trying out a new church…and not something I do very often. I can’t say I’ve been to more than 2 churches in the past 10 years or so.


So, a quick update on the people. I finally met some of the students in other flats. Apparently I was lucky enough to get stuck in the fullest flat. The boys have a flat the same size and have 5 less people in it so at least one less person per room. And the other girls are in smaller flats with far less girls. I think that would have been more up my ally…but like I mentioned in the last post I’m sure God put me in this place for a reason…he knows how stubborn I am and that in a house of 16 girls I would still find a way to stick to myself if I could! Anyway, we all went out for lunch after church and that was fun. There are a couple girls in the other flat I really enjoyed chatting with.

After lunch I decided to steal my first bit of alone time since I’d got here and went to explore town a bit. So, I did a little shopping…it is soo cold here and I needed another long sleeve shirt to wear under things. But mostly I just walked up and down the little streets looking at all the cute little shops. York is absolutely beautiful. So many old castle like buildings, a roman wall that used to run all the way around the city is still mostly there around the center of town so I walked on the wall part of the way, and walked by the city art museum and Yorkminster the biggest, most beautiful church I’ve ever seen! Did I mention how cold it is here?! Let’s just say, it’s rather windy, and it was dusting snow all morning and as the day went on the flakes just got bigger and bigger.

About 2 ½ hours into my excursion I figured it was probably a good idea to try to find my way back to the flat as I was getting way to cold. But, if you know me…you know how AWFUL my directional skills are. Of course, I was completely lost. I should also mention all I know about where I live is it’s a flat that looks like almost every other flat in york…but my flat is next to a Cantonese restaurant and the church office…so if you find the building with the Calvary Chapel sign you’ve found it…haha…not much help! I ended up on what must have been the complete opposite end of town. And kept finding my way down streets that looked promising but turned into sketchy little alley ways or quiet residential streets and I really didn’t feel comfortable walking by myself, so I was constantly trying to walk right behind a group of people when possible…and hurried my way back to the town center right away, I was about to give up and just find a taxi and pay for them to drive me back because it was starting to get dark and I was starting to worry about being out alone.

By this point I had been wandering the streets of york for probably a good hour and a half or more before finally remembering I had a map they gave us when we got here. Of course…I’m no good with maps either so I wasn’t sure that was going to be any help…After another half hour or so of walking I was finally back on the right end of town and was slowly but surely making my way back. By this point I was absolutely frozen and the snow was falling down in huge flakes and the wind was blowing harder than ever. And of course it seemed no matter what street I walked down I was walking into the wind so even hiding under my hood didn’t protect me from the frigid air.
And slowly but surely I found my way back to familiar territory. I’ve never been so happy to see a red door with the number 9 on it.

My face and hands were redder than red and my coat and jeans soaked from the snow melting on me as I walked up a sweat on the way home…so I was ready for a good cup of tea and climbed in to bed to warm up for a bit. It’s been a nice quiet night…I think most of the girls are in the other flat hanging out, but I’m exhausted, and needed a good chance to sit and write and draw for a bit. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have this week to myself so I’m taking advantage of it now!

I honestly have no clue what time or where I have to be tomorrow…I think we have an orientation of some sort, but no one has given me any information about it…hopefully someone in my room has a clue!

Things are pretty strict here…and I haven’t even been given the rules yet! I’ve just heard bits and pieces of what we can and can’t do from people…so I’m looking forward to getting the real rules so I don’t have to keep guessing at things.

Okay, well I’m sure I’ve bored you all enough by now! I’m sure I’ll have some good stories to share tomorrow as well after my first day of college…I don’t know that we actually have any classes yet, but I should at least find out what my schedule will be like for the semester.