I had a really nice Thanksgiving yesterday. They had a special evening, with no lectures, and cooked turkey and mashed potatoes and cranberries and apple pie and green beans. It was very delicious. And people dressed up like pilgrims and indians (although the british wore their colors and painted their flag all over their faces, and the canadians insisted that it wasn't REALLY thanksgiving. They must be jealous the pilgrims didn't land in canada or something. Ottawa rock doesn't have the same ring.) I also got to play some american football. Of note was a pass I caught after cutting out into the open, then scoring a touchdown, then receiving the congratulations of all the women of capernwray who were watching us play. It was nice to play a sport I'm actually good at. Our indoor cricket season has been dismal. I'm getting better at batting though, which had been a challenge for me before. I tended to hit line drives that were easy to catch off the walls. Low and hard is the way to go. There was a moment on the football field yesterday when I was asking a guy on staff at Capernwray the specifics of a certain play, and he politely listened to all my questions before telling me, "I'm English. I have no clue." That's why American sports are the best. They are controlled. Even monkeys could chase a soccer ball for an hour and a half. Today there are Christmas decorations all over, lights, a tree, etc., and someone brought charlie brown christmas music, which I've been playing. It's very nice.

A blog of John, to the tune of "It's Business Time"

It's update, it's update time Selah

So here are some of the things that are going on with me right now. I almost put "Random thoughts for a Saturday morning" but didn't want to plagiarize that much, whatever her name is who writes for the Stockton Record. Although I'm in a wee bit of a random mood right now. As the famous facebook flair says: I'm not random; you just can't think as fast as I.

-The last week has been busy. Although we have only a little bit of homework, it's such a relative thing that I feel I've been doing a lot of it. We had a cool assignment where this genderless woman/man named Ashley (you pick) "wrote" us a letter asking about every question you can think of concerning the Holy Spirit, somehow weaving it into the story of her/his walk with God, and we were to respond with lots of Bible verses and pastoral care...so if anyone has any questions about the Holy Spirit, I'll be happy to copy and paste for you...it'll be answered somewhere in my short but dense response to Ashley.
-They have a Christmas concert for the locals every St. Patrick's day, nay, Christmas...and I, not knowing what I got myself into, am c0-directing the choir(s). We just auditioned everyone last week, and posted the choir today. These next few weeks, until 15 December, I'll be arranging music, helping people learn to sing, teaching the hallelujah chorus from Handel's The Messiah. I'm really excited about it though. Envision how we start the whole concert off. The (unsophisticated) lighting is dim. There is a guitarist plucking away acoustically. A female voice sings O come o come Emanuel and ransom captive Israel...followed by another...until the Son of God appear....and by then the rest of the choir has formed down the isles for a loud and harmonious REJOICE REJOICE chorus. Then we'll become progressively more jazzy with fun seventh chords to emphasize the words (like Dayspring etc. very nice lyrics in this song) and perhaps some vocal percussion.
-I just caught up on the new season of the Office last night. Love it, all of it. And I recently experienced the British office for the first time....awful...alright i guess, good acting, but too awkward, the characters aren't as endearing, and a lot more offensive, especially towards minorities (in the episode i saw). it would be off the air within minutes if they showed it in America.
-One sad thing: I won't be going to Africa this spring. They had a ten-day outreach to Kenya to do sports and school ministry, but I wasn't accepted. It's a little tough to be rejected, but there were many that applied, and they can't take everyone. So I'll be doing something in the UK instead. Don't know what yet, but I hope to be in schools/working with kids or something. British children, I hear, are just as much children as Kenyan children, and they need to here the gospel. It's actually really interesting to be in England and hear about the state of the Church and all. People seem, I don't know?, desperate. As if the Church was on it's last legs here. I've heard a lot about revivalism and revival theology, if that is a term, a lot more than in America. It all makes me want to get out there and share Jesus with people, which is hard because the school's a little bit isolated. All this is to say, I'll be happy to do whatever I end up doing in the spring, and the Holy Spirit will prepare me for it.
-It's a bright sunny day, and I'm listening to Rachmaninov's 4th piano concerto in G minor...which is excellent. I'm so glad I'm Russian so I can claim to feel his music in keeping with my heritage.
-Grace, peace, and love in faith!

Well, it's a good day here at Capernwray. Of course, every day is, but it's not Guy Fawkes Day all the time (no I'm not blowing up anything) and one doesn't always wake up to the thrilling news of his country's election. I actually didn't get a lot of sleep last night...so nervous...and when I finally did, it was to be woken up an hour later to hear the development of blue states seemingly across the board...How exciting! You know, it is funny...Pretty much all the Germans and Canadians and British are happy today also...and I've been getting A LOT of "Oh, really, Obama? You're the first American I've talked to who is not quaking in fear." Or something like that. It's good that America has come to it's senses--on par with the Europeans.
Well, enough of that. Don't want to offend the broad readership of this blog...lol. I was reading Galatians today and came across that lovely bit about us all being one in Christ Jesus...neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free...it's heartening to realize that Christ is what we are striving for and that our God is a God of unity and peace.
I had a great time in Edinburgh last weekend (apparently it's pronounced Edinboro or Edinbra or something like that). We had an extended weekend for travel and so I spent Friday-Monday there. It was brilliant, as the british say. The castle is spectacular. There were so many cool cathedrals. What an exciting medieval town! I didn't really venture far into the new town, but I hear it's great as well. Some highlights: Choral Evensong in St. Mary's Cathedral...The prettiest Scottish liturgies drenched with poliphany by the most beautiful old and young voices! It was almost unearthly, which I suppose is the aim. A great free walking tour of the city...so much cool history...really interesting people and places. Edinburgh is such a bizarre little place...and very creepy. I'm glad to say I've experienced what is arguably the most haunted city in Europe on Halloween/Nevada Day/Reformation Day, but we quickly observed that Halloween means something drastically different in the UK. We were all safe that night, but their were a lot of occult practices/drinking going on. One of the coolest places in Edinburgh was this graveyard outside of St. John's Church. The leaves were falling and the sun was setting. Set apart from the rest of the city, being sunken a little down a hill, it was very peaceful, especially when the labyrinth-like path opened out into a view of the castle and a park with lots of fountains. I wrote this poem about this old graveyard.

Sunken in the softer stagnance
Where the weary earth gathers from the cold
Breathless currents of submerging--
One touch of moss and muddy flowers
To lay a tender bed.
One breath beneath the leaves
The sunken world pours
into the constance
of the city pathways and
and eyes unperceiving--
Fading Eternal repose
Where the holy lay their Head.
And so they shall Ever be with Him.

My favorite part of the trip was hiking up to King Arthur's seat, this huge volcano right outside the city. It was sunny all for days (what a treat) and it was a clear day when we hiked. I felt like I could see all of Scotland from the top--definitely the North Sea, and the hole city that I had explored the last two days. I can't wait to go to Edinburgh...although I can't think when.
I guess I should also say that I tried haggis. And enjoyed it. Probably won't go for it again. Other good foods. Irn Bru is nice, and I discovered the reason I was put on this planet when I sunk my teeth into a deep-fried Mars Bar. I had some good chips and scampy, and one night we went to a really cool jazz bar with really lively original music...the best was when the really cool tenor saxiphonist whipped out a soprano sax and started grooving for one song...and when the kind of stiff trumpet player literally started drinking up on stage and, beginning to loosen up, started playing better solos, in my opinion. It was an older band, and as free and energetic as the music was, they always new where they were going with the music. (I should say I know little about jazz, so this is just an impression). Hope everyone's doing well.