The Life of a Tourist

Hello everyone! I know some of you were wondering about the delay in posting; life has been generally busy, but more importantly, our friend Terri was staying with us all week! The upshot is, we spent the week doing lots of really touristy things, getting some neat pictures, and occasionally acting against our better judgement by dressing up as vikings...

(I'm keeping the pictures small, but remember that you can click on any of them for a closer look.)


My favourite tourist trap was the Jorvik Viking museum. "Jorvik" is the Viking name for York. The museum is actually a guided tour through an underground recreation of sections of the city as they appeared a millenium ago. Not only are the recreated streets directly underneath the real ones, but the most nature of the soil has allowed archeologists to reconstruct the exact placement of every building on the street, as well as make an intelligent guess as to their functions! The reconstruction is populated by wax figures engaged in various tasks... including one who's job is to take an everlasting, groaning crap.




We also spent time in more conventional museums, the first of which is called the Yorkshire Museum, and it chronicles the history of the region. I was really amazed at the relics, which date all the way back to the Romans! I'm also fascinated by the transition from pagan religions to Christianity that happened towards the end of the Roman occupation. Here are some pictures in some kind of chronological order, starting with the Romans...



Notice in this last picture that Moses has a horn... apparently that's because of a mistranslation of a passage from the Bible! Oops...










We also spent time at the Castle Museum, which offers more general English history. There was lots of really cool stuff there, but for some reason I was especially in the mood for morbid pictures, so here are some skeletons and really scary clowns. (Erin Wheeler, if you're reading this, you may not want to scroll down...)







Watch out!





Ha ha.

One thing I've taken away from this past week is the awareness of my complete lack of knowledge with regard to European history, an ignorance which I regret. In the future I hope to have time to do some reading and increase my understanding of this fascinating subject, which is also part of my cultural heritage.

A final, unrelated note: Melissa and I are discussing and praying about our future. We're pretty much open to anything at this point. If anything develops, we'll let you know...

I'll do my best to keep posting, but I really have to keep my nose to the grindstone now, and next week my mother and brother are staying with us... so I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best! As always, thanks for reading, and leave a comment!


Until next time,

-Chris

Milestone #1

Hi everyone,

This is just an informal post to let you know how things are going...

I officially submitted my first assignment at 2:45 this afternoon. It's the first thing that I'll be officially graded on! So I'm holding my breath a little bit, but I think it'll be alright. It's a 30-minute piece of purely electronic music, suitable for quiet enjoyment in a dark room, or something of that nature. One of my undergrad professors said that my music is too gentle and controlled, that I need to get angry and have a temper tantrum every once in a while. That might be a good idea, but if you know me at all, you know that it's not in my nature... it's not that I don't get angry, but I don't really exhibit my anger as a mode of communication.

Strange as it seems, we've already been forced to look ahead and give some thought to the future after I finish my degree. Originally, we had assumed that the cost of study would prohibit me from continuing my education until I had spent some time in more profitable enterprises, but my advisor pointed out that there are avenues of funding specifically for international students! So with that in mind, I'm submitting a proposal to begin work towards a PhD. If the school accepts me, and if I get some funding, that would keep us here for another few years. The prospect of further study, and further time spent in this wonderful place is scary as well as exciting, but we would both be very happy were it to become a reality.

Along those lines, Melissa made the wonderful discovery that, because of her father, she is entitled to Irish citizenship! Not only does that make traveling Europe a whole lot easier, but it entitles her (and myself, through marriage) to remain in the U.K. for extended periods without a costly and annoying visa. How cool is that?

Finally, a word of advice: if you lock up your cycle, don't try to open the lock with the wrong key. Wrong keys have a tendency to snap off and become permanently lodged in the lock, thereby rendering your bike permanently attached to the pole. Also, if it were to ever happen to you whilst out with your wife on a cold and rainy night and you're a good hour's walk from home, I would further advise you to apologize very profusely.

Luckily for us, our landlord is very understanding, and doesn't at all mind making late-night emergency pickups. Hooray for Providence in the form of kind people! We have had so many wonderful experiences of kindness and hospitality, it's quite overwhelming. So, I'll end with one last piece of advice: you probably won't ever meet a more grateful person than a foreigner (or just an out-of-towner) who ends up on the receiving end of your grace.

-Chris

Holiday recap

Hello! I know you've been losing sleep, tortured and obsessed by the single question, "Why haven't they posted to the blog?!" Ok, maybe not, but just flatter me, alright?

I decided to wait until after the holidays died down to give you a recap. Here it is!






Melissa's Aunt and Uncle generously invited us to their place for Christmas. Unfortunately, they live almost 3 hours south of York, which is a problem when you don't have a car! Thankfully, their son Mark lives close by in Leeds, and he was nice enough to pick us up.




We didn't leave until Christmas morning, and we stayed until Tuesday. As you can imagine, driving down the Motorway on Christmas morning was a breeze... no traffic!








Melissa's other cousin, John, is married to Helen and has two children, Elizabeth and Francesca.

































And their dog, Toby!










The kids enjoyed opening their presents ...














... and some of the bigger kids did as well.
















We enjoyed spending time in their new posh conservatory.






On Boxing Day (otherwise known as the day after Christmas) we were joined by Melissa's other cousin, Peter, and his wife Georgina














... and their dog, Chester.






We even got some snow!


















It was really nice being with family for Christmas. Thanks for reading!

The Holiday Scandal

Ok, so how many people were surprised by me saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" (or "Happy Christmas" as they say over here)? This simple change of phrase has caused such an amazing amout of controversy, it would be unbelieveable if it weren't for the fact that it's the same old ideological camps in the same old turf war that's been going on for almost a half-century now. Let me highlight some recent incidents:

- The city of Boston decided to change the name of its "Christmas Tree" to "Holiday Tree." The man who cut down the tree said he would have thrown it into the chipper if he knew about the change before. Jerry Falwell has called it part of "a concerted effort to steal Christmas."

- Target decided to wish its customers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

- A city in Florida denied a request by Mr. Koenig to display a private nativity scene in a public park.

Literally thousands more could be mentioned, but these represent three fundamental areas of the Christmas battle: government, business, and private. What do all three have in common? Every decision mentioned above has been reversed by the tactics of the Christian Right, who feel that, in the words of John Gibson, "The war on Christmas really is a war on Christians."

Instead of rushing to join the infantry on either side, I've taken the chance to back up a few paces from the nativities and the trees and reflect on what we Christians are really fighting about...

Otherworldy beings in the sky. Philosophers basing their decisions about the future of global politics on astrology. People basing their hope on a line of kings. Messages coming in dreams and visions. Promises of a reversal of the political order, where poor people take over the world.

If this were a TV show, we might be entertained. More amusingly, many Christians would boycott it for having occult influences.

But this is no TV show. It's one more symbol that conservatives are trying to make sure remains permanently attached to "American culture." Are we for real?

Let's pretend this story is new, without the 2,000 years of cultural baggage attached. Pretend you're walking down the street, trying to convince people that this story is true. How many people would believe you? More to the point, would you walk into someone else's business and demand that it recognize your story?

During a carol service last night, in spite of the cultural security that comes with a traditional holiday, beyond the traditional language and comfy sweaters and warm conversation, it really hit me: we're completely crazy! This story makes the "X-Files" look unimaginative, and yet we insist that it's true! I wanted to laugh out loud and pretend I was Jack Nicholson in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Let's just face it, we Christians are nuts. Really. At the very least, we're strikingly un-democratic and un-patriotic, since we belive in a king who's not American, and we'll be leaving this citizenship entirely when he comes.

I, as an orthodox Christian, recognize that I am over the edge. I am not normal. No normal person would believe a story like that.

Furthermore, I'm convinced that if Christians recognized how absurd their story really is, they would stop going around demanding that the rest of the world recognize it. Our real joy would come from revelling together in our crazy story, enjoying it as only a crazy story can be enjoyed. Our Christmas services would stop pretending to be a safe cultural haven, and begin to reflect the wonderment of the insane. And strangely enough, our story might become a little more appealing when we've given up shoving it down the nation's throat and started figuring what it means to live it for ourselves. Many people who thought they believed in Christmas might realize they really don't, and many who don't might realize that they really want to.

The stated goal of cultural conservatives is to "keep the Christ in Christmas," and yet the effect of their legislative and boycotting actions is quite the opposite. An authentic Christian Christmas consists of people who believe the Christmas story getting together because of that common faith. In fact, we need to get together in order to keep the normal people's sanity from rubbing off on us. We need to keep repeating the story. But when we begin enforcing Christmas on the rest of the world (the vast majority of whom are much too rational for this sort of thing), it neccessarily becomes divorced from Christ and attached to such things as trees, presents, and other, less offensive stories. Sound familiar?

To my fellow Christians: Wake up! You're kicking the football into your own goal!

To my also-fellow non-Christians: Please excuse us Christians. I know we're crazy, but we're often quite dull as well. I sincerely hope you have a Happy (and rational) Holiday.

And lastly, to all the believers in our loony Story, and sharers in the common Faith: Merry Christmas!

coming soon...

Hey everyone, due to a busy Sunday, including singing at a carol service and picking up a borrowed cello, I don't have time to organize my thoughts completely. But I will be posting an official "Christmas post" shortly.

Until then, I just wanted to say that our Christmas in York has been delightful, and filled with mince pies and mulled wine... at a church event, too!

Thank you to everyone who sent us a card, it's nice to have a connection with people at home.

As a sneak peak to my "real" post, I'll just say...

Happy Holidays!