No Snakes on My Flight, Please.

Who ever said you should start packing earlier than the day before you leave?

Much to the chagrin of my mother, I followed my own advice of doing things at the last possible minute and everything worked out incredibly well. Sure, I could be getting more rest and not staying up late to finish things, but I've never slept the night before a flight so why start now? My mother seems to think that if I don't get enough sleep, I'll wander in a sleep-deprived stupor to some village in Munich, but surely I'll be way too scared to be anything but alert.

Thus, I will go to Minneapolis tomorrow at which point I'll board a direct flight to London. The farthest I've actually traveled alone before is from Rockford to Orange City. Anywhere else I've ever tried to go by myself I've gotten lost so I fully expect some sort of disastrous events in my attempts to get to my home on Pullens Lane.

Some of you will be happy to know that my white board will be making the journey with me to Oxford. However, I will try to restrain myself from tucking it under my arm while I stroll the paths of Oxford so that I don't look even more like a daft fool.

One of the most dreadful parts of this trip is that I have to leave all of my books at home. Apparently I'll have access to 11 million while I'm over there, but it's just not the same as reaching over to my bookshelf to see what Bart, N.T. or Raymond has to say. I have limited myself to 2 English Bibles (one dreadfully heavy but reputable, the other light and slim but not respectable in many circles), 2 Greek Bibles, 1 synopsis of the 4 gospels, 1 grammatical analysis of the GK NT, and lastly, 1 primer of biblical Greek--good old Croy. That will have to tide me over for now.

So I'll arrive in London at 7:30 AM which seems a most dreadful time to arrive. Then commences my attempts to make it out of the airport. I highly doubt I'll be successful.

I found a delightful website today (www.effingpot.com) that teaches you how to speak British. My favorite British saying thus far is "Bob's your uncle." As the website reads: "It is added to the end of sentences a bit like and that's it! For example if you are telling someone how to make that fabulous banoffee pie you just served them, you would tell them to boil the condensed milk for three hours, spread it onto a basic cheesecake base, slice bananas on top, add some whipped double cream, another layer of banana and Bob's your uncle!"

Isn't that maybe the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard?

I have 3 goals for my time at Oxford:

1. Not eff up my GPA
2. Learn to enjoy a good pint of lager
3. View Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus at the British Museum in London.

If I can accomplish those 3 goals, then the depletion of my savings account might be worth it.

Oh, and also, I have a goal of not coming back a pretentious snob. Such is to be avoided. I plan to continue being non-fashionable and to continue saying "I reckon," which apparently makes me sound like a hick. Clearly, I'm just trying to be more well-rounded in my vocabulary.

Nonetheless, I reckon that's all for now. I hope there are no snakes on the plane.

Best, (I'm stealing this sign-off from Tom Truesdell because it's the most jovial I've seen thus far--unlike something terrible like "grace and peace," "in his love," or "you make my heart smile.")

Sara