Scotland, Castles, Cousins...(oh my!)

Here's a wrap-up of the last week from my journal!

So it's been a week since I wrote a decent journal entry, so I'll try and make up for that here. With regards to my project, the week from June 23 to June 28 saw considerable progress. I was able to interview Matthew, Mark, and Peter, and I was able to spend several hours reading the collection of research found in “Mission-shaped Church”, which has given me a lot of insight into societal changes that may have contributed to the decline in religiosity in the United Kingdom and that is affecting most of the western world.

Last Tuesday, however, my group and I left our projects behind for the good part of a week when we boarded a train at King's Cross Station and traveled to Edinburgh (pronounced “Éh-din-bur-ah”) for our mid-semester retreat. It was a lot of fun, and a true vacation. That is to say, it was not a vacation in the sense that it involved sandy-beaches, five-star hotels, or big rides and roller-coasters. No, Edinburgh was a vacation because we were free for five days in a beautiful historic town and countryside where every element, alive or dead, had something interesting to say—from the street musicians on bagpipes and violins, the shops selling kilts and scottish wool blankets and the two-hundred-year-old pubs that adorned each street corner. As I said to my brother on the phone late Friday night, even the old brick walls of the High Street Hostel where we we stayed were constructed before than the United States (I checked the history, and it's over two hundred years older!). In the time we had my group and I managed to see three different castles, go on two different site tours (one of them an all-day bus tour), climb the 900-foot Arthur's Seat, visit the botanical gardens, stroll out barefoot on the cool windy beach, and eat at almost half a dozen local cafes. We even ate at the famous Elephant Palace, an eccentric and comfortable coffee-shop cafe where J. K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter on napkins. Stories, old and the new, seem to flow through the city's cobble-stone and brick like the rain—and there was plenty to be found of the latter. We were lucky to catch four days when the sun came out, and the grass and trees were just an impossible green.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the trip was the experience of living in a hostel. A hostel, of course, is a place where you rent a bed to sleep in for a few nights. The High Street Hostel calls itself the “cool” Edinburgh hostel, and I would say it mostly holds up to that description. The vintage front sitting room with the stand-up piano and leather couches was my favorite spot in the place, although I think it would have benefitted a lot to the addition of a big, lit fireplace. The room was a bit drafty. Otherwise, the experience of sharing bedrooms with a mixed group of traveling young students and (mostly) young adults from all around the globe was very unique, and I enjoyed the chance to meet some new people from places like Spain, New York, Ireland, and (of course) Brasil. There were actually seven different brazilians that passed through the place during the five days, and I have to say that seeing their surprised expressions when I—the tall, white American—started speaking Portuguese to them in my strong São Paulo accent. I even got up at 3:40 a.m. on one of the nights to watch Corinthians (my old São Paulo team before I wised up and chose Santos) win the Libertadores South American Tournament with Gilson, who is also from São Paulo. That being said, sharing bathrooms with everyone was a little weird, but everyone was very respectful and polite, so there was nothing to worry about.

The trip almost ended in disaster when I left my US passport in the locker safe next to my bed in the hostel, and only remembered when I was at the train station with twenty-five minutes to go before our train was leaving. Truly, I think that was the most panic I have felt in years. Sprinting up the close (which is sort of thin Scottish alleyway that are all around the city) to the hostel a few streets above the station, I felt deeply grateful for all those years running track and cross country. Four minutes passed and I got to the hostel, quickly explained to the girl at the desk, dashed up the stairs, burst into the room, and managed to stay calm while I awoke my old bed's new occupant (a large, bearded man) and explained that I had left something in the safe. Luckily, the man's size was made up by his good humor, and he had only been dozing anyway. Chuckling, he handed me the key and I was able to quickly retrieve my passport, leave my sincere thanks, and skid back down and out to the street. I narrowly avoided disaster galloping down the wet and slippery close, but when I reached the platform I still had six minutes left on the clock. Not bad, but still too close.

The four-hour train ride back down to London was quiet and uneventful, and I was content to spend it reading. I reread Stormbreaker, a teenage-spy favorite from my middle-school years, but this time I knew half the locations mentioned because most of the story takes place in London. Although he probably didn't know it, Alex Rider, who is the fourteen-year-old main character, actually crashed through the ceiling of the Science Museum ceiling in his parachute right across the street from the Hyde Park chapel. Reading about all those locations in London helped me realize how much I enjoy living here. I may have only been away for five days, but I am happy to be back. It's been just two months, but London really does feel like home.

                        So here are some more recent photos!! (click to see the full-size photo)

 St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

View from Arthur's Seat in 

The map of Sterling, Scotland

View of William Wallace tower from Sterling Castle.

My favorite castle - Linlithgow Palace

View from the top of the highest tower.

Hallway above the ancient great hall.

My scruffy face (I left my shaving cream at home) in front of Sterling Castle.

Check out the castle from Monty Python!!

Our Hairy Coo (cow) tour bus.

View of the cemetery and castle from the Elephant Palace

A rather furry Ben next to Greyfriar's Bobby!

That's me and Carlee outside Speedy's Cafe from Sherlock

Another Day in the Life of "Benjamin"

Hello everyone!! Sorry, it's been a looooong time, but I thought I would post my journal entry from Friday (I wrote it today, but the events are yesterday's), as it marks a pretty good snapshot of how my life is and how my project is doing.  Hope you enjoy it :)

Today was interesting. Because my planner is out of pages I wasn't able to plan today on paper. Nevertheless, late Thursday night I was able to contact Father Matthews again and plan an interview with him for this morning (Friday). So 8:30 saw me attending their morning prayers service, and Father Matthews seemed happy to see me (“Is it Ben or Benjamin? I like the name Benjamin...”). He had me sit in the stall next to him and showed me when to speak the verses in Psalms and recite the prayers for the fifteen minute service, and the only other person in the chapel was another woman who also helps run the church. I had been to a similar meeting before, but I think this time it was better because Father Matthew treated me like a friend, not just another visitor. After it was over, we made our way back to Father Matthew's office and started what would end up being an hour-long conversation.

Father Matthews is a very thoughtful, careful, and yet simple man, and I think he relished the opportunity to share his life and feelings about the church and Christianity with someone else. Our conversation lasted a bit more than an hour, and although I really liked listening to him, I will have to do better about guiding the conversation next time toward the topics that are most important for my study. For most of the interview I think I was just a little too happy to be interviewing :-P Before we started the interview I wrote this about him while he was in the other room finishing off an email:

Father Matthew is the real thing. I feel that if he had lived half a century ago he would have been equally comfortable and suited for the calling as a priest in a traditional Christian church. His clear singing voice for the ancient hymns, his amiable way with people, his sense of humor that manages somehow manages to be both dry and warm at the same time, and his sincere concern toward his parish uniquely qualify this man for his position in the Church of England. At age 44 and standing at around 5’10”, his receding grey hair and penetrating eyes give him the undeniable look of a leader even while his manner retains a distinctly common touch.

Although I was surprised to hear him swear once or twice during our conversation (and perhaps I shouldn't have been), overall he seemed a very good and sincere man. He isn't terribly pleased with the status quo in his church, with numbers declining each year and society as a whole drifting away from regular church attendance. I will always remember the ways he spoke when he talked about his son (“the apple of my eye”, as he put it), nor the way that he described how lost he would feel if he didn't believe and trust in God.

As we walked out at the end of the interview he turned to me and said with a smile, “Now it's time for me to go and play the piano. Yes, I'm taking piano lessons – that's what happens when you reach your mid-life crisis and need something to do!” I laughed and returned that my mom had started taking Spanish classes recently, now that she had more time on her hands, and as he opened the front door he told me that I needed to come back and that he would find some other individuals for me to interview who were older members of the church. I was very happy to say yes!

The rest of the day can be summed up like this: three Avatar episodes with Richard, scripture study, a lesson with the missionaries and a wonderful black woman named Carol, dinner, choir practice, and latin dance party at Kennington

Oh, and here are some recent photos :)

 Squirrel at Hyde Park :)

It's the Brown cousins in London!!

 Trip to the Natural History Museum

Getting ready to watch Henry V at the Globe

Let's face it: the standing tickets are cheaper

Muslim Mosque I saw in the neighborhood by the Indian Market

All the photos I've neglected to post here...

Westminster Abbey!

Carol (hostmom), Sister Hall, and myself

Paul and Ben and...shiny reflections in our eyes

Outside the British museum with Natalie (left) 

and Ariana (right).

This guy is more than 3000 years old...

Inside the British Museum.

View from below St. Paul's...

 Me on the Millennium Bridge.  So glad Voldomort didn't really destroy it...

Liz, Aspen and I after seeing Antigone!  That's St. Paul's behind.

A rare pic of my flatmate Richard Sheppard.

Admiral Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

St. Martins in the Fields!

Just down the road from Westminster Palace...

View of Parliamnet from the bridge...

"Can I read your Captain's blog?"

It's Justin Bieber.  And Lany!

Lany giving Hitler a piece of her mind...

 "Does it hurt?"  "Every time."

Cami Shiel came to visit! 

Buckingham palace :D

Stuff you hardly stop to think about...

Hello Everybody!  So if you were wondering about my London living conditions...


...for my social spaces assignment I made a rough (emphasis here) drawing of Carol's apartment where I live, labeled it, and made some notes about the space and it's uses.  I also talked to Richard (my roommate) about it and he added some interesting comments that helped shape my thinking. Hope you enjoy it:

One thing is for sure: Carol's flat is really small. Composed of a living room, a small kitchen, two bedrooms, a small outside porch, and a uniquely split bathroom composed of a small room with a toilet and another with the shower and sink, the resulting lack of space means, as Richard put it, that “everything in it is multipurpose.” The small outside porch is for food storage and for the clothes dryer. The washing machine is in the kitchen instead of a dishwasher. The second bedroom is also the library. The living room, which is equipped with a small fold-down wooden table and several fold-up wooden chairs, is also the dining room. However, due to the unique rental situation that has placed Richard in the small bedroom and me in the larger, double-bed bedroom, the living room moonlights (literally) as a double bedroom for Carol and her daughter Alana. This means that the primary public gathering place in the house is also a private space depending on the time of day.


Furthermore, and partly as a result of the semi-public nature of the living room, the kitchen serves as a secondary public gathering place. The only problem is that the kitchen is very small, and there is only a place to sit if you hop up on the large countertop by the window or if you bring in one of the wooden folding chairs from the living room. Hence, while the kitchen does serve as an additional place of social refuge, its sore lack of comfortable furnishings only makes it survivable for about a half hour before everyone either moves to the living room or gives up on the conversation entirely.


That being said, since my bedroom is the larger of the two it has become a private social gathering place for Richard and I when we hang out in the evenings. The double bed works as a mostly-comfortable platform for watching Youtube videos and Avatar episodes, and we have exchanged many stories while one of us sat on the one wooden chair and the other on the bed. When I get tired of sitting on the bed I often just sit on the floor. That's why we have carpet, right?

Perhaps the most interesting social space in the house is the entryway, which could be renamed “the transition zone,” because nothing occurs in it for it's own sake. Instead, the entryway is just a passage from one part of the house to other: from the kitchen to the living room, from the kitchen to the bedroom, from the bedroom to the sink, and for leaving from or arriving at the apartment. The list of uses goes on and on. Yet this ambiguous nature of entryway activity turns it something akin to the stack of “Chance” cards in monopoly. The slightest sound coming from it sends all the heads turning. After all, just what could be going on in there? Is it someone going out? Is Carol making food? Has the mail arrived? Is someone trying to break in? Make no doubt about it, noises in the entryway means something is about to happen and nobody can be quite sure exactly what it is, making it, ironically, the greatest point of interest in the whole flat.

The last, and perhaps most curious element of Carol's house is her bathroom. Because, well, it's split in two: the small room with the toilet and the other with the bathtub, sink, and cupboards. You may not think much of it, but I am not used to using the restroom being a two-room activity. Although I suppose it's useful since it makes it possible for someone to be using the toilet while the other is using the sink or shower. I still think it's a little weird though.

A note from Ben

Hello everyone, it's Ben here.

So I've been a little lax on this blog lately--I've really only been posting some of the more interesting and universal parts of my journal here for everyone to see.  But I think I will repost part of a message I sent to my family here because it gives a better idea of the way things are going here in London generally.  I promise that I'll be preparing some more posts in the near future that will have a greater sense of direction and clarity than the last few have been.

So thanks for still listening, and I hope you enjoy this letter (it was originally written to my Mom with my family in mind as well):

I guess I'll give you a quick update now that I'm already writing you. So this past week has been quite good, and it feels like time is really starting to fly now. Can you believe I've already been gone for three and a half weeks? If I was at the ranch I would be coming home Wednesday! 

I have a pretty good routine now, but I'm working to spend more time on homework and my project during the mornings and afternoons so I don't have to work on things in the evenings (like I am today). I go to church at rhe Whitechapel family ward on Sundays of course, then Monday evenings Richard (my roommate who served his mission here and now is going to University at Imperial College, which is a very good school, studying Biology) and I go to Family Home Evening either at one of the group FHE's that are put on by leaders in the YSA ward or ward FHEs at the chapel (it switches between the two every week). Tuesdays are my free day for getting work done, and it's the best day for going and seeing a play or something because I have the evening open. On Wednesday I go to Institute at the Wandsworth chapel in South London. It's actually with another stake but Richard goes that day because he sings in his university choir on Thursday nights, which is when the local YSA ward has Institute. For that reason I have been going on Wednesdays for the last couple of weeks, and I've really loved the group that goes there. The pre-mission young men are really friendly and I've actually been spending more time in the mission prep class with them rather than the normal Institute class so they have more ppl in the class. Plus I just love talking about missionary work :) Afterwards ppl always stay and play either indoor soccer (football) or volleyball :) :)  So Thursdays have been somewhat free for the past few weeks, and I went and saw "Antigone" last week (Greek play, really cool, had the actor for Dean Thomas in it) and War Horse the week before that because we got free tickets from a married couple who are serving as missionaries. That play was also really cool, so I guess I'll have to see the movie now :)  This week I did make it out to the local YSA ward's Institute on Thursday, so that was fun, and because my roommate Richard has his hands in everything in the church around here (he's also ward mission leader and meets with several companionships on a weekly basis), I'm now helping out with the choir and a small six person male choir that will be singing Be Still My Soul on the 27th for the Hyde Park Chapel open house, since the building just got renovated to act as both a chapel and visiter's center (the chapel is right across the street from the London Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum is on the same road just a little further down). So yeah, having Richard as a roommate has been a really amazing blessing. I feel very involved! 

Oh yes, and Thursday mornings we also have our weekly meeting as a field study group, so thats always fun because whoever is in charge can choose a place to meet and an activity to do for a couple hours or so before we get food and talk about how our weeks and our projects are doing. We've been to Westminster Abbey, the Borough Market (really good food and loads of free samples), the London Museum, and Trafalgar Square/Picadilly Circus. I've really seen our group grow close together over the last couple weeks as well, which is really neat :)

On Fridays there have been a couple of YSA activities that I have gone to, including the May Ball (formal dance) which was last Friday, and yesterday I went to a dance/fiesta put on by members of the Spanish branch that I was invited to. Haha, luckily there were a group of brazilians who were there (I felt quite at home with them) and two people who spoke only English, haha, so between the three languages of Spanish, Portugues, and English, it was the craziest night ever. One of the activities was to play act a fairy tale, and our group got chosen to put on Snow White. Just try to imagine a Mirror that spoke only Spanish, a Dwarf that spoke only English, a snow white that spoke only Portuguese, and the rest of us switching between the three languages depending on which version of the movie we had watched growing up....haha, it was quite a mad spectacle, but really fun :) And man, I wish I could Latin dance better. 

So that's pretty much it. My Saturdays have been pretty quiet, and like today I have tended to use them to catch up on school work for the week. This next week should be quieter with Richard on a family vacation until next Sunday, although that means he put me in charge of teaching the investigator class at the YSA ward tomorrow, so that should be fun :)
So that's pretty much it. 

 
Life couldn't seem any less exciting, that's for sure.

Picadilly, Indian food, and religious freedom

Thursday, May 31

Today was a pretty good one. I got up and got my journal entry from yesterday typed up before I got showered and changed so I could leave to the meeting. I was in charge this week, and we met at Trafalgar Square below the Nelson Column, and from there we walked to the Picadilly Circus and walked around the neighborhood for a bit. The wide boulevards had been brilliantly arrayed with hanging British flags hung from wires across the streets at about fifty foot intervals, preparations for the Diamond Jubilee that would commence tomorrow and continue until Tuesday. The area is decorated enough as it is, and in our half-hour walk around the area I saw at least seven or eight different threatres showing musicals and plays like Thriller, Les Miserables, The 39 Steps, and Chariots of Fire. We wound our way back through a side street that was part of Chinatown—the entire street was lined with Chinese restaurants, and every window sported silver spits where various types of meat, chicken, and seafood hung shining with oil. It was a very mouthwatering spectacle, but I couldn't see prices and none of us were particularly in the mood for chinese. We dropped by a gigantic, five-floor bookstore that Natalie (the creative writer in the group) was extremely fond of, but after finding only a few spots to sit down inside, we decided to go sit on the steps below the statued fountain in the middle of the square. We talked about our highs and lows, and I was pleased to hear how everyone was doing—I would say it was our most cheerful meeting so far. I led a short discussion about personal organization of a field study, and although I don't think I did a great job (if I could do it again I would do it very differently...), I feel like it was still useful.

When we were finished we went a found a pretty decent Indian restaurant that had a lunch special going on for only 5 pounds. I think we surprised the rest of the customers in the restaurant by how much we talked and laughed together while we were there ;)

We all had things to do afterward, so I made my way home and got my scripture study done. I got thoroughly distracted by the news afterwards, but to be honest there are a half a million interesting things that are going on in the world.

Of greatest note was a religious conference in the United States where representatives from almost every large religion was present: Catholics, Mainline Christian, Protestant, Evangelical, Jewish, and LDS. The topic being discussed was the threat to religious freedom in the public square that has been made in recent years. Most worrying have been subtle moves in government hat have threatened the validity of religious arguments as a legitimate basis for rational decision-making in the public square, an argument highlighted by a statement made by President Obama in 2009 where he asserted that noone can know with “certainty” what God asks of us. This development is especially interesting to me in light of the interview that I conducted yesterday with Richard. In the opinion of many people that he knows and interacts with there simply isn't a place for religion in the modern world. People with religious beliefs are considered old-fashioned, and many religious teachings are considered ridiculous. Those that follow them are seen as “blind followers”. Richard also spoke about prevalent negative stereotypes that exist for Pentacostals and hardliners in Christian churches, and how for many people mentioning those religions conjures up images of people speaking in tongues and writhing on the floor or refusing to read Harry Potter books because they have spells in them. Then there are the well-documented incidents of sexual abuse in the Catholic church, and Richard mentioned some people he talked to on his mission who had gone to Catholic schools when they were younger and had been beaten by the Catholic nuns. Today, they wanted nothing more to do with religion. All of these arguments and stereotypes become very convincing, especially in the face of some very convincing rhetoric from the other side about gay marriage and “fairness”, or evolution and the scientific explanation for the universe. In the wake of all this, it makes sense why religion is in decline in Europe and will most likely continue to decline in the years to come.

-Ben

Excerpt from Journal - 25/5

Today was my turnaround day. With the echoes of yesterday's lack of direction still in my system, I found it difficult to find any more sense of purpose this morning after waking up around 10 am. Richard and I were both here, and we carefully avoided seeing each other, and both of us actually managed to shower and eat breakfast without seeing the other. I finally said good morning, and he quickly left for school, leaving me in my mode of hazed distraction for another hour or so before I shook myself out of it. Something interesting to note here though: I made a goal last Saturday that I wouldn't listen to any “normal” music until I went to the temple, and this morning, despite how distracted I was, I was still loyal to that commitment, which probably made it a lot easier for me to shake myself out of my state of distraction. I felt terrible after being distracted and directionless for so long though, and I made a series of short-term goals of things that I could do in the few hours before the May Ball, which I had to be at 6:30 pm at the Wandsworth chapel. I didn't do too bad either, although I nearly fainted after working out: a set of fifty-seven pushups followed by 120 crunches had me breathing hard, but the second set of forty-three pushups floored me (literally), and I hardly survived the set of forty-five second bridges that finished my four sets. Man, I am weak!! I left the apartment afterward and made my way across the street to pick up a Boris Bike to ride to Victoria station with my ears still ringing, and my whole body felt like I had just finished a track workout when I had actually completed a puny set of exercises. It was a good wake-up call though—I can't keep living my life in this lazy way or I'll be a dead man next time I try to heft any object heavier than a large book.

The ride on the Boris Bike to Victoria station was actually quite exciting. Driving on the left side of the road is really, really strange, but I found it strangely exhilarating to be on the road in such crazy traffic. It took me a good ten minutes to find my way around the bendy, unintuitive streets to the HSBC bank, where I got out 260 pounds to pay Carol for two more weeks rent. The way back was a piece of cake—just a straight shot down Charlswood Street. I wish I had figured out that path on the way over :P 

The rest of the afternoon had me doing my wash and cleaning my room, but most of it was spent working on a personal budget for the summer. First I counted up all my expenditures for the summer so far, and although I still ended up with about thirty pounds unaccounted for, I haven't kept a very good record of my expenditures. To be frank, I have never kept a good record of my expenditures, despite having attempted to do so at least four times before. I've just never had the time or the patience to do it, and I felt today that if I ever had time, I have it now, so I might as well do it and make a good job of it. I decided, in the end, on a $900 budget. That translates to about 562 pounds. With the days that I have left, that ends up being at about 5 pounds a day for every day except Sundays (when I don't spend money, of course), and excludes transport, which should be taken care of by purchasing season passes for each month until the last couple of weeks.  

Of course, this plan will only work if I'm committed, so that's part of why I'm posting this here today, as a part of that commitment.  This is going to work.  For the first time in my life, I'm going to live on a budget :)  So, although these first weeks haven't been characterized by perfect discipline or organization, I feel like I"m getting there piece by piece.  This budget is just one more piece.