Life after Christmas...

Greetings! I hope the new year finds you well. Things in Norwich are about to return to normal. We've had a nice break these first two weeks of January, but we'll pay for that starting next week. I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but the Methodist Church here in England has been participating in a year of Prayer Without Ceasing. Throughout this 14-month year, the churches across the Connexion took part in what amounts to a really long prayer vigil. Each District takes responsibility for a fortnight (two weeks) and assigns a certain length of time to each circuit. Well, the East Anglia district took over the vigil from December 31 until January 13 and the Norwich Circuit took 18 hours on January 4. Three out of my four churches took shifts between midnight and 9:30am (the fourth one copped out and took a 3-6pm shift). Anyways, in the spirit of this time of prayer, our circuit put a moratorium on business meetings for these first two weeks of the year. A brilliant idea, really. Until next week. Now we run full steam ahead for the next six weeks until Lent starts! I miss academia. Work for a few weeks...get a few weeks off...work for a few weeks...get a few weeks off. The real world sucks! ;)

This week I started going to Morning Prayer at the Anglican Church in Drayton. I wish I'd been doing that all along! Morning Prayer, for those of the free church persuasion, is a fairly structured time of prayer taken from the Book of Common Prayer. Most, if not all, of the prayers are written out. We say the same prayers each day according to the season of the church calendar. Right now we're in epiphany, so the prayers deal with the revelation of God in Christ, Jesus' baptism, and the like. We also read the prescribed Scripture of the day and spend time in silent prayer. There's usually only two of us--myself and the Anglican vicar. I started going out of my own personal desire to be more disciplined in my prayer time and in getting up each day (having somewhere to go at 9am gets me going more quickly in the morning than having a morning to myself in the house...too many distractions!). Throughout the week, though, I've decided that it's even more important than that. It's exciting to be in prayer with one of my colleagues. I think it almost essential that we pray together. We look after the people of Drayton...what could be more appropriate and more effective than praying together? I'm loving morning prayer, so far.

And now for something completely different...

Duke basketball is in full swing, and despite being thousands of miles away and several hours ahead, I'm doing very well at keeping tabs on the team. I'm absolutely addicted to Duke Basketball Report and have subscribed to a service so I can listen to the games online. During the games, a bunch of folks who also visit DBR get together to chat about the game. Some of them chat while they watch the game on TV while others are listening to it on the radio/online like I am and others follow it on gametracker. This past week, during the Wake Forest game, I ran across somebody I'd heard of but never met. While I worked at Raleigh Wesley Foundation as a Duke Intern, I knew of previous interns who participated in the same British programme as I'm doing now. In fact, the past three interns have gone from RWF to Britain. The first one to come over stayed longer than the one year and has now been ordained by the British Methodist Church. I knew she was here somewhere, but hadn't contacted her nor did I know where she was stationed. Well, I met her in the chat room during the Wake game! She mentioned in another conversation that she was in England, so I asked her where she was. Then, as our conversation progressed, she asked me what I was doing in England. So, I told her I was a Methodist minister and she said, "Me, too!" I had a hunch she was the girl from RWF and she had a similar hunch about me. She isn't exactly close by, but we've already chatted on IM and are planning to meet up in the near future. I thought that was hilarious! Anyways, Go Duke!

Peace out.

My First Soccer Game...er...Football Match

Yesterday I got to see my first English football match. Norwich City lost to Preston 3-0. The loss snapped a 4 or 5 game winning streak for Norwich, but on the whole they didn't even deserve to win. All those in attendance deemed the team's performance as entirely lackluster and without passion. They got out hustled and out played the entire game (match). Still, it felt good to see a live sporting event since Cameron Indoor is out of my grasp.

A few observations from the game--first, griping about your team's performance and the poor officiating transcends culture. The home fans, though, weren't shy about letting their team know how they felt about the poor effort shown by the players. Neither were they overly polite in their dismay over the calls and no-calls made by the refs. Some things are just universal, I guess.

One thing I didn't like happened in the second half. Two guys went for the ball at the same time and slid into one another. The guy from the other team broke his leg. At home, for the most part, when someone from either team gets injured, the crowd goes silent out of respect for the wounded player. Not the case yesterday. Instead, the Norwich fans heckled the other team, accusing them of wasting time, and booing them...even when they brought out the stretcher! To their credit, they did applaud when they carried the player off the field, but only half-heartedly. English fans are brutal!

On the way to the game, I had a conversation with the folks who got me the extra ticket about the differences between English and American sports. I explained that soccer wasn't all that popular at home because a lot of folks considered it quite boring--especially since the score never gets very high and it takes so long to develop the game. He responded that he didn't like basketball because it was boring. I had to keep my mouth shut. Basketball? Boring? In the end, we admitted that the more one understands how the game is played and the strategies employed to win a game, the more one can enjoy that sport. But I still don't understand how basketball can be boring.

Portugal rocks!

It's not what you know, but who you know...and it's great to know people. Paul and I spent the last week in Portugal and boy did we have a good time! Pedro and his family proved to be excellent hosts and tour guides. We enjoyed seeing Lisbon and some of the surrounding countryside, especially from the eyes of natives instead of walking around with our nose in a guidebook and being completely lost--especially since we didn't speak the language! (Pedro's family put us to shame--they spoke English very well. I'm determined I'm going to learn at least some Portuguese.)

We visited several neat places (at least I thought so...I don't think Paul was quite as impressed with old churches as I am). We visited three monasteries while we were there. The first one, in Lisbon, is Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. Pedro's youngest brother, Francisco, took us there. He's studying architecture, so gave us a full report on the different styles and such in the church and the monastery. Soon after, Francisco also took us to the Torre de Belém which is a tower built in the height of Portuguese wealth as a defensive post to protect Lisbon. According to Francisco, it was a medeival version of a publicity stunt. The tower never exchanged fire with anyone and was basically built because they had the money to do so. It later became a prison, complete with 'underwater cells.'

Pedro also took us to Sintra, a small mountain/large hill northwest of Lisbon. While there, we visted Castelo dos Mouros, a fauxMoorish Castle (maybe two stones left from the original castle. The rest was rebuilt in the 18th century. We climbed to the top. I'll need a few more months at the gym before I can try that again. Even Paul was sore the next day. It was quite the climb! In Sintra, we also saw Pedro's parents' weekend home (super nice!) and the church where he got married. After lunch (more about food later), we went to Cabo da Roca, the western-most point in continental Europe. It seemed odd to be staring across the Atlantic in the opposite direction, but the ocean was still absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed the drive back to Lisbon, as Pedro took the coastal road. I love the ocean!

Our last day, we got to see two more monasteries--Mosteiro da Batalha and Mosteiro de Alcobaça and another great drive through the Portuguese countryside.

We were told on the first day of our visit, that Portugal is a very 'gastronomic' culture--they eat a lot they eat well. I can tell you for sure, we experienced Portuguese culture at its finest! Remember the gym I mentioned earlier? I'll be visiting multiple times this week to work off all the food we consumed during our stay. Our first meal in the country started us off right--at the rodízio--by far Paul's favorite place. It's a Brazilian concept where different kinds of meat are roasted on a rotisserie and then brought around and carved for you at your table. It's all you can eat meat! After not having eaten for about 24 hours (travel really messes you up!), we were hungry going in and we rolled out when we were done. While we were there, we also had a variety of pastries--pastéis de Belém, travesseiros (little pillows), and queijadas (not really a pastry, but really good!). We also ate at a McDonalds, Hard Rock Cafe, an Italian restaurant, and another Brazilian restaurant with Pedro's parents. We had dessert after every meal (my lips say yes, but my hips say no!) including three different kinds of mousse--white chocolate, mango, and passion fruit.

All told we had a fantastic time and never wanted for anything while we were there. It was good to finally get to see where Pedro lives and to meet the rest of his family. I'm already looking forward to my next visit! A very big obrigada to Pedro for all your kindness, generosity, and hospitality! I can't wait to meet Carolina!

Happy New Year everybody!