status update

We are now a week into our second term, and I thought a quick status report would be helpful. As you know, we are reading Aquinas's Summa Theologiae cover-to-cover over the course of this year. The edition I am reading is split into five volumes, and we are just about to finish the second. Well, to be precise, we are scheduled to finish the second volume next week, but I'm a bit behind. I'll explain why in a bit. The first volume discusses the nature of God, the Trinity, creation, man and angels. The second volume covers human acts in general - the nature of happiness, right and wrong, virtue and vice, decision making and emotions, and law and grace. All that in the first two volumes!

So that is what we are reading. When we meet in seminar - Tuesday, Friday and sometimes Wednesday - we are moving at a slightly slower pace. The Summa is divided into questions (topical sections). We have read through about 200 questions, and in seminar we are still working on the fifth question. Of course we all knew we wouldn't get to cover everything in discussion, there is just too much. The quality of the seminars (the more important aspect) has been outstanding. The professor leading the seminar lectures and leads the discussion. He has forced us to really grapple with Aquinas's claims, not only to understand what it is Aquinas says, but to make it our own. This has been a challenging and rewarding process.

Finally, last term I decided to apply to a Masters in theology program here at Cambridge. Putting the application together required a lot of work (which is why I got behind in reading over break), the most painful part being the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). This is a standardized test that operates for graduate students the way the ACT or SAT do for undergraduates. I took the exam on Dec 30th and did fine, so now we are just waiting to hear back from Cambridge. The program I applied to is an MPhil in Theology and Religious Studies. I would be taking the philosophy of religion course. Hopefully we know something in the next month or so.

our rucksack got nicked whilst in london

While visiting London with my parents and brother Paul (more about their visit in the next post) we stopped for lunch at a pub near the Tower of London (read: tourist area). We had a large group (including an Aussie we met on the tube who spent the day with us), and as we were distracted with our feasting and pleasantries some guys walked by and swiped our bag as it was sitting at the end of the table. No one noticed a thing until we got up to leave and the bag was nowhere to be found. I was frozen in complete shock that it could be gone. Frustratingly, there were signs all over the pub saying such helpful things as: "Is your bag safe?" or "Where are your belongings?" and so on. I had even read them and thought about how they were a good idea and how I knew where my belongings were.

The scene of the crime! Please note the sign on the pole to the right. (click to enlarge)

I guess living in safe quaint little Cambridge has made me more relaxed than I once was walking through the streets of Paris with a money belt under my shirt and my backpack on the front. We had to laugh at ourselves as we felt like little country folk in the BIG CITY. "oooo this city be real purty and gots real bigs buildins!" It turns out ours was the 92nd crime committed in London in 2010, only one week into the year.

The backpack contained my nice digital SLR camera, wallet, credit cards, cash, check book and our external hard drive with all our files and pictures backed up on it. If it weren't for Flickr all my England photos would be gone! I love Flickr.

We spent nearly the entire afternoon cleaning up the mess, reporting it to the Police, calling and canceling my cards &c. It turns out that both of my credit cards were used to buy train tickets about half an hour after they were stolen. Luckily, the whole scene was captured on the pub's security camera!

This weekend we got a call from P.C. Whicby (awesomely English name, right?), the officer working our case. He told us that they had ARRESTED the guy who stole our bag, and he has been in jail since Saturday!! They had suspected him of other thefts and got his fingerprints from a beer mug at another pub. With the circulation of the video footage from our case and the fingerprints they were able to find and arrest him! None of our belongings were recovered. They also discovered that he is an illegal alien and have served him deportation papers. It's bittersweet because if he is deported they won't be able to try him for the crimes he committed in the UK.

We are just happy that he is off the streets and hope he will get his
just deserts.

a cambridge christmas

We had a nice Cambridge Christmas this year, but hope it will be our first and last Christmas away from home.

We started out the festivities with a Summa Group Christmas feast and game night. It was a really fun and relaxing evening with friends.

Christmas Eve we went to a candlelight service at church and met our friend Dave's family (who were visiting from New York). They invited us out for dinner and we went along. They were so fun and it was really nice to spend time with a family, Christmas really isn't the same without it! We went back for a midnight mass after dinner and drinks. At about 2:45 am we skyped with my family because that was the only time we could see them all together.

Christmas Day we skyped with Brandon's dad and family and got to watch them open presents for a while which was really nice. Afterwards we went over to the home of a woman named Joy, who has grown up in England and lived here her whole life. She takes in international students and shows them a traditional English Christmas. The food was very similar to ours but included things like bread sauce, parsnips, and lots of desserts containing fruit soaked in brandy and covered in brandy creme sauce. The English have about 4 desserts made from this - christmas pudding (which can either be a cake or just the fruit in a bowl), christmas cake (baked several different ways), and mince pies to name a few. After a big Christmas lunch the tradition is to watch the Queen who gives a yearly Christmas address on the tele. After a few hours of relaxing and watching movies we had a cold supper with salmon sent from Scotland. We didn't get home until about 9:30 at night so it was a really long but enjoyable day. When we got home we skyped with Brandon's mom and family.

We found that family Christmas isn't quite the same when attended via satellite, but we were thankful to be able to see everyone and for the friends and families we were able to spend our English holiday with.

white christmas.

Last thursday we got our first snow! We had heard from many people that we wouldn't see snow here but maybe twice all winter and only then an inch or so. I guess it arrived early this year and was a welcome addition to the holiday season! A blanket of snow looks wonderful on this city.

It had been flirting with the idea of snowing all day - first it was raining, then sleeting, then turned to tiny flakes, then back to sleet, then into giant flakes, then back to small flakes again all melting instantly on the ground. By about 9pm, however, it was coming down fast and heavy. Then the wind joined in. We were on our way back from a movie when it got worse and had to bike home in it. It was awful - my legs were sore from biking into the wind (and because I'm STILL in horrible shape) and my body was sweating while my face was freezing, my eyes were watering and I was getting pelted with tiny ice bullets! We finally made it home and sat in the dark by the tree listening to Christmas Carols and watching the storm rage outside. It was so cozy! The storm slowed way down around 11 and Brandon introduced the idea of walking to city centre through the snow and taking pictures. We both hesitated because we were so warm, but finally decided we would regret it if we didn't go. We are so glad we did! We put plastic bags around our feet, bundled up and walked through the lightly falling snow into town. We nearly had the entire town to ourselves, it was so wonderful! To see the pictures we took that night and the next morning see our album "Yule Tide" here.

We got about 4 inches of snow total and it is still on the ground. The custodian at our flat told me they haven't had a white Christmas in Cambridge in 30 YEARS!!! I am so happy that we are here to enjoy it.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

The Christmas season is in full bloom here in the UK. They don't have Thanksgiving standing in the way of hanging lights and playing Christmas Carols. (Not that people really let it stop them in the US either). Cambridge is beautiful in the winter! So far we have had heavenly weather in the mid- 30s and 40s and a couple of beautiful fog "storms" which I have decided will be a very nice alternative to blizzards this winter. It is so mild here, but also wet wet wet. Everything outside is always damp.

A Cambridge "blizzard" of fog. (more fog photos)

In preparation for the season we bought a cheapo little Christmas tree at ASDA the UK's Walmart, and I picked up some ornaments and decorations at a local charity shop for nearly nothing. I also picked some holly from right outside our building. :) We spent an evening listening to Christmas Carols and trimming the tree. And I have been listening to them a lot since.

Brandon also surprised me by getting free tickets to the Advent Procession at King's College Chapel, right after Thanksgiving. It was so beautiful. The choir and ceremony moved from East to West through the chapel to represent the coming of Christ! That was the first time I had ever heard the chanting of the seven great "O Antiphons" of Advent. The "O Antiphons" are ancient chants (thought to be from the beginning of the sixth century) each addressing Christ with one of his scriptural titles, and then inviting him to come and help his people. One Antiphon is the basis of our popular song "O come, O come Emmanuel," one of my favorites!

"O come, O come Emmanuel. Redeem thy captive Israel. Who ache in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appears. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. "

Last night we went to the pub "The Eagle" to hear the King's College choir sing Christmas carols. They have a concert this Thursday but it is £10-£20 for tickets and they told us they were basically doing all the same songs for us! It was the first "cold" day we've had here at a brisk 32 degrees, and this was the day we chose for sitting outside on the pub terrace for over two hours. I considered this to be the next phase in my "cold weather training" (thanks Dan!).

still giving thanks

So, I probably missed the gap for posting about Thanksgiving and everyone has moved on to Christmas, but I'm going to do it anyway.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Cambridge with our American friends from the Summa Group. The food was amazing and we ate lots of it! Preparing traditional American dishes while in the UK was a bit of a challenge. They didn't have a lot of the ingredients I needed and I had to improvise. After a year of improvising on recipes and cooking in a kitchen with hardly any supplies I think I am going to be a very resourceful chef. I ended up buying a whole pumpkin for use in my pumpkin/pecan pie and making homemade creamed corn and corn syrup. I also found out that you CANNOT buy cornmeal over here. We midwesterners really need to share our corn products with the rest of the world! I am proud to say, however, that I found and served GREEN GIANT canned corn in the corn pudding that I made!

Transporting one pan of corn pudding, one pumpkin/pecan pie, and one peach/raspberry pie to over a mile to your Thanksgiving feast using only a bicycle was very interesting, but we made it safely.

After hours of eating and chatting Brandon and the other men played FOOTBALL in the front yard/street. Shocking, I know.

Brandon and I had to take off early to catch a movie that we had bought tickets for way in advance not realizing it was on Thanksgiving day. It was put on by St. John's College film club. We left with plenty of time and biked over to St. John's. Brandon had been joking that this would be the first time I would feel what it's like to be early for something. When we got to the room the movies are in, no one was there. We were really confused and didn't know if we had the correct time or location so we started wandering around St. John's to see if we could find some information about it. As we walked around the College at night we felt like we were in a castle or at Hogwarts! It was so beautiful and enchanting and we kept discovering more beautiful sights around each corner. As we were walking through a corridor the walkway became very narrow and sloped up and we suddenly realized we were IN THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS! It was beautiful. We finally found a brochure about the movie and found out that we were TWO HOURS EARLY! Turns out, I don't like the feeling of being early.

St. John's College at night

Inside the Bridge of Sighs

View from the Bridge of Sighs

We celebrated Thanksgiving two more times over the weekend. On Saturday we were invited to the home of some friends we met through an old family friend of mine who was studying here last year, and on Sunday we went to a large "ExPat" party with some friends we met through the Visiting Scholars network. The Sunday shin-dig was complete with a ho-down -- a guitar and fiddle, a sing-along and dancing!

We are both so unbelievably thankful to God for His blessings, for our families and friends that make being away so difficult, but also for this opportunity He has given us.

I googled myself today...

Every now and then I google myself out of curiosity. Today I found this:

http://www.winst.org/ethics_and_university/cambridge_scholars.php

I'll be writing an end of term update soon.