Surprise! Guess where I went for spring break?
I believe the last time I wrote was in October... that's lame... While I do have a good excuse (as always?) I do wish I could have kept my readers (do I still have any?) updated!
This semester has been quite an interesting one in so many ways.
1. I have come face-to-face with my mortality thanks to Business Statistics
2. I have had the privilege of working with an amazing Christian Magazine and Advertising Agency as an intern
3. It has taken me a while to pin down my summer plans, but it looks like I will be spending the first third in Asheville, the second third in California, and the last third in Miami :)
4. I have come to the realization that I will have to come back to the city early this summer to figure out where I am going to live and *gasp* sign a lease! (yay for being an adult...)
5. I went to freakin LONDON for spring break! (which means in one year I will have been to New York, London, L.A., and Miami... All I need now is to schedule a last-minute trip to Tokyo with a pit-stop in Paris)
So... London.
I realize that the majority, if not all of you, didn't know about this trip. I kinda planned it that way. I feel that the best trips are the ones that no one knows about until after the fact. Anyway, I've been planning to go since October, and thanks to so many caring and wonderful friends and family members, I was able to raise enough funds to go. My team consisted of ten students (including me) and three team leaders.
Our flight left from JFK at the butt crack of dawn. We spent roughly seven hours in the air (the longest flight I had ever endured) and landed in Heathrow airport at roughly 10pm their time (it was confusing: we spent 7 hours in the air but the actual elapsed time was 12 hours... )
 |
| The Royal Naval College |
We spent our first day exploring the area of London in which we were residing: The Isle of Dogs and Greenwich. Among the many things I saw was the prime meridian, the royal naval college, and
 |
| Inside the Royal Naval College |
I should mention that at this point, only half of our team was present. The team was split into two groups because there wasn't one flight that had enough room for a group of 13. I was pretty happy when I found out that I would be flying with the earlier group and thus having a whole extra day to enjoy the city, the amazing weather, and eat lunch in an open-air market!
 |
| Greenwich Market |
 |
| St. Paul's Cathedral |
 |
| Tower Bridge from London Bridge |
Saturday through Sunday was mostly spent sight-seeing. The second part of our group came in Saturday afternoon from their layover in Iceland, after which we rode the tube to Canary Warf (London's version of the FiDi), did some shopping, and rode bikes along the Thames (I almost died several times btw... not only am I bad at riding a bike to begin with, but I also kept looking the wrong way when crossing a street). After a service at the community church Sunday morning, we spent the rest of the day on a Harry Potter walking tour through the greater part of London (yes, I am that much of a nerd).
My team spent Monday and Tuesday volunteering at the community center/church and making Bible runs. If you, reader, have looked through my old blog posts (on the blog I kept in high school) you will know that I took several trips with my church to Honduras. I value those experiences, but in comparison to my experience in London, they couldn't be more drastically different. Honduras is the poorest non-island nation in the western hemisphere. So if you set up a church, you can pretty much guarantee that you will have a pretty healthy congregation in a short amount of time because they need the help and support of the church - they have nowhere else to turn to attain basic necessities such as food, clothing, and medical attention. London on the other hand, and I dare say, the rest of developed Europe, is a completely different story. The church my team was working with, for example, has been operating for over thirty years and their congregation on a good day, can best be described as anemic. Merely 50 people showed up for the Sunday service we attended. It's different with the Brits... you can be in a community for decades and still not see a difference. It is such rocky ground, that you rarely, if ever, see fruit come of it. That is why I commend the missionaries that have heard the call to minister to the citizens of a first-world country.
Wednesday, I had the opportunity to take tours of the local Mosques and learn about the Muslim culture and faith. This was one of the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had. Not only did I have to cover my head and wear a skirt (which - and I'm going to sound rather American and feminist when I say this - was so demeaning... I mean, I automatically felt like I was being repressed and looked-down upon when I had to cover my head) so as not to stand out as an American/tourist/Christian, I had the rather unpleasant experience of interacting with Muslim men and being treated as if I was a Muslim woman. I have never experienced such outrage as when I would ask one of the men a question and instead of answering me directly, they would turn to one of the men in my group and answer them as if they had asked the question. They wouldn't even acknowledge my presence. I've never felt so insulted, so demeaned, and to think, there are millions of women that deal with this kind of disrespect day in, and day out. Now I know this sounds crazy, but have you ever entered a place and had this gut feeling that something is off? I had that feeling while touring these Mosques. The women in my team were luckier than most in that we got to enter areas of the Mosques where women aren't traditionally allowed (can you believe that? They actually have separate prayer rooms for women, and I don't need to tell you that they aren't half as nice as the main ones built for men. Women can't even enter through the same doors as men. Oh no, they have to make their way through the back door to perform their daily prayers...). But as soon as I entered this building, I experienced this sensation of spiritual deadness... It genuinely unsettled me. I know that sounds crazy, and I know that I'm sounding uber "christiany" right now, but I just had to share that.
So what can I say about the rest of my trip? I did a lot of sight-seeing. I got to fulfill a lot of childhood dreams including, but not limited to, seeing the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens (if you've seen the movie Hook, it's the statue that he wakes up underneath at the end of the movie), seeing the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum (nobody ever told me it was that big!), getting to see Buckingham palace (and the changing of the guards, of course...). Oh, and did I mention... Michael somehow finagled his way into getting us seats in debates in The House of Commons and The House of Lords! It was INCREDIBLE!
 |
| If you are a Sherlock fan, You'll know what this is... ;) |
 |
| If I were to do ONE touristy thing... |
 |
| Childhood dream = fulfilled |
I am so thankful to have had this experience with wonderful team members and leaders. I am also grateful for the experience to live one day in the shoes of a Muslim woman. I was so sad to leave, and I hope to have the opportunity to go back very soon (*cough* study abroad? what?). Oh! I almost forgot... let me leave you all with this picture of me seeing my nephew for the first time:
Cheerio!
