When you start your week with a firedrill

You are tired, the whole week, so exhausted. Not as bad as jet lag exhaustion but still pretty freakin' exhausted. Let me back up a minute and explain. Leading into this week I figured that it would be a good example of what I could expect from a typical Keele week. Homework, activities, class time, I thought this would be the week that I could use as a measuring stick to know what to expect from other weeks. The great flaw in this otherwise well thought out idea was the fire drill.

Keele has quite an interesting policy goal for fire drills. They would like to make sure that the fire drill will without a doubt wake you up from a deep sleep and so they choose a time when they know (hope) everyone will be sleeping. My dorm's lucky time........6:05 am on Tuesday morning!

Now on to my week as a whole. Monday went pretty well, classes, time in the library homework. Tuesday I don't have class until 2 in the afternoon and so I had made this grand plan of the things I was going to get accomplished Tuesday morning, but the fire drill and following exhaustion (I did go back to sleep, but not well) made a mess of all of that. I got the bare minimum accomplished Tuesday morning, didn't go running finally had lunch and went to class. Tuesday evening was the first of my all-American, British Culture 101 class. It was really interesting and I enjoyed the free pizza knowledge that I am not the only one experiencing culture differences and wondering. I closed out Tuesday with Sacred Space at the chapel where we had prayer stations and I had a good long cry sitting at a map of the world praying over Oregon.

Wednesday and Thursday blended together with classes and homework. Wednesday night I went out with the Christian Union to do Acts of Random Kindness which this week took the form of doing dishes in the kitchens we could access. Thursday night was Jesus Jam with songs and great discussion. They even snuck in one of my favorite worship songs "Lord I Lift Your Name on High"

Friday was math day. Math class, math homework and doing the math on how in the world I am going to have the Scarlet Letter finished by Monday. The last equation has yet to be solved.

A break in the math came in the form of a British-Canadian Thanksgiving Celebration. Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, green bean casserole (with onion rings on top), peas and carrots, broccoli, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and stuffing with sausage in it. Finally we had pumpkin pie, ice cream, and cranberry bars for dessert.

Tomorrow I am taking a day trip to Manchester with the restless Americans. Sunday marks the set-up (and in my mind unofficial start) of Vision Week. So next week will be spent almost entirely at the chapel but when I come out on the other side I will be in Dublin!

As a reward for surviving the entire blog I give you: The Great Cheese Misunderstanding

I LOVE string cheese. I will take it any time I can get it. In fact I love almost all kinds of cheese. I paid more than I would have in the states to make sure that I had a supply of cheddar cheese in my fridge. Today I went to buy lunch from the select and save on the way back to my room, I picked out a Cornish Pasty (Pronounced like pasta but with a y instead of an a not like kindergartens eat paste-y) and then I saw it. STRIP CHEESE, 'that must be string cheese' I thought to myself bursting with excitement at this treat that reminded me of home and deliciousness so I grabbed it up and purchased a 4 pack. So thrilled with the idea of string cheese I tore into the package the minute I left the store. Opened the individual cheese and took a bite. 'What in the bloody hell is that?' I thought in my best british accent. It tasted like gross, plastic, American cheese. The worst of the cheeses. Of all the things for them to take from America and pass off as there own why would they take the worst tasting cheese we produce and turn it into strip form. It was awful and I have 3 more in the fridge. What is a bug to do?