Great News + RRotW

[Posted by Rachael]

Well, my life has been interesting lately. Very much of it (all of it really) has been God blessed. So a quick overview of Europe. Followed by a small rant of the few weeks after Europe. Followed by God's latest blessing and showing of His providence.

Cambridge was AMAZING! So relaxing. I made new friends there and was able to strengthen bonds with people I had known, just not as well. Aside from lots of reading, there was lots of exploring. I went off solo on a bike most days, finding nature preserves and the like. I found the pond Lord Byron, as well as other famous Cambridge residents I can't remember, used to swim in. I found a goose on her nest near a stream. I almost got kicked by a cow :D I rode one day through a shady area of town which is totally not as shady as anything I've found over here in the states. Leah C. (she's a Comp Sci and Physics major who's in Torrey and on the archery team) and I went to a cathedral in a town nearby called Ely (pronounced "eely"). It was gorgeous. I wish we had been able to go to evensong there. We did go the evensong at the King's College Chapel in Cambridge though.

Then, after Cambridge, Leah, Sarah, and myself went to our hotel in London. It was great! Free breakfast and wonderful service. The only real downside was that even though it is a non smoking hotel, cigarette smoke still filters in from somewhere, so half of the time my sinuses were inflamed and I was choking. We did so much walking I bruised the bones in my feet. Leah's purse got stolen, so we had to go the US embassy and get a replacement passport, but other than that it really didn't cause too much disappointment (well, other than the camera that was inside with all of our day's pictures inside). We got to see a ton of sights: Big Ben, British Museum, British Library, Warwick Castle, Houses of Parliament, Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral, Evensong at Westminster Abbey, Greenwich Observatory, National Maritime Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, MI5 (that's their local sort of FBI), Scotland Yard (they're kinda FBIish too), Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the Tower of London (though we didn't go inside, to darn expensive), the Eiffel Tower (yes, we went to France, and there was a marriage proposal at the top of the tower, it was cute!), and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. BTW the marching band at Buckingham is enough to make you weep (and I generally *sorry Lydia* don't like marching bands), they played Pirates of the Caribbean and .... *drumroll please* a James Bond medley of songs! They were amazing and put most of the bands I've heard in the States (including the military bands) to shame.

Okay, now onto me being home. No sooner I get home than I get sick.Violently so. I have lost ten pounds already because I have no appetite and what little I have eaten gets... "revisited". I'm on the mend, but GRRR [in case you haven't noticed, this is the rant part] I HATE being this sick. It has sucked away my last few weeks of freedom before school starts. I'll be lucky to have this thing fully licked by the time school starts on Monday. Stupid cough that cough medicine doesn't help. I haven't been able to sleep lying down in days. I have to find new inventive ways of sitting up to sleep. One night I sit one way, then my body learns and if I try to sleep that way the next night I wake up every fifteen minutes hacking and coughing.

But in good news: I had a job interview today about a position at my new school. I was scared to death of having to jump right into a teaching job my first week at graduate school. I like to think (maybe delude myself) that God and I have a small "Gideon's blanket" relationship. If He opens a door, that means He wants me to go through it. I've made some bad decisions on that assumption, but God is amazing at correcting those. Anyway, so I get to the interview today and the professor basically asks me if it would be alright for me to wait until Spring semester to start teaching. He'd like me to get my feet wet in the graduate studies part of the program first. I was elated. I was praying for either a "you're hired" or "you're not" statement and what I got was "you are guaranteed a job a bit later after you've adjusted to the culture shock". I cannot be happier. I am on air. I love God and all of His mercy and grace.

There was a bit of sadness today though. I couldn't talk about God in the meeting today. I wanted to. I wanted to tell the prof all about His providence for me and His planning, but I had to keep my mouth shut. I'm going to miss Biola. I'm missing all of you, my friends, already. Please keep me in prayer: Pray that not only am I healed of this illness but also that my relationship with is God strengthened even while at my new school and that I can be a good witness for Him while there.

Adieu.