Durham

The past few days have flown by. I spent about 9 hours in the studio and the darkroom on Wednesday getting my negatives enlarged and printed, then spent another 3 hours finishing up an accompanying research/process book to go with them. But praise Jesus I turned it in! I'm SO glad to be done with it, and I know that everyone else is too. Thursday after class, I hung out with Becky and Ash and my new friend Ellie; we cooked heaps of chili for dinner and made a string telephone out of old aluminum cans and yarn. I'd say it stretched around 50 feet from Becky's flat to ours, and even with our shoddy craftsmanship it surprisingly worked! Of course the sound quality wasn't superb, but it worked nonetheless! It's a shame it only lasted a few hours; sometime during the night a crowd of drunk people walked by and ripped the string in two... but it sure was fun while it lasted. Friday I did some grocery shopping after class, and then went to CU in the evening. Ash and I helped Becky out with the music -- it definitely feels good to help lead worship again! :)

Today we went to Durham, which was about an hour bus ride southeast of Sunderland. It was a pretty cute town, but I can definitely understand why it's been called a "York wannabe." We took a tour of the Durham Castle, which is actually the campus for Durham College. Yes, students actually live in the castle. Yes, I was extremely jealous of them. I mean, who can say that their address is "Durham Castle, Durham"? SO COOL. It was really interesting seeing such a mix of old architecture and new technology; a pool table and Xbox system in the lounge stood out like a sore thumb beside the original 11th-century chapel. I really wanted to see what some of the dorms looked like, but we weren't allowed to (I did attempt to go exploring some of the rooms, but a girl told me that I wasn't supposed to be there unless I was visiting someone... sad day). We also went to the Durham Cathedral, which was built in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. While we were there Ash and I took Holy Communion (with real wine!) with a group of other people, and sat through the daily Evensong service. The Durham Cathedral Choir sang quite a few songs for the service -- I wish I could explain how amazing it was, but the English language just can't do it justice. Sitting in a thousand year-old cathedral and listening to the the sounds of the choir bounce off the high ceilings and surround the entire place gave me goosebumps (if you want an idea of what it sounded like, check out this youtube video). It was definitely an experience I won't forget. After the service we explored the cathedral a little bit more, and found the courtyard where a few scenes in Harry Potter were filmed (way cool!). All in all Durham was a nice day trip: cute city, lots of good photo ops, and an amazing cathedral. Tomorrow we head back to Newcastle, where Ash and I will check out the Hillsong Church there with a couple girls from CU. I'm stoked!

- Back in the days of ye olde England, people would serve pineapples to guests as a sign of wealth and status. Because England was too cold to grow pineapples, they had to be imported from warmer climates, which was extremely pricey.
- There has been a giant rainbow light/projection/laser thing shooting across the sky for the past few days. I've learned it's kicking off the AV Festival, which is a month-long "international festival of art, technology, music and film." It'll officially cut off tomorrow night, but I would love to go see it up close.