A Look Inside our Apartment (aka Flat)

We realized that we hadn't posted pictures of our apartment here at the Summertown House, so here are the highlights below. It is an older building made for student housing, thus the cinder block walls and hardly any electrical outlets.  However, the rooms are actually decent size and the layout is good too.

We still love the location and its proximity to Summertown as well as how simple it is to get into Oxford.

Here's our living room - or lounge as they call it here. Good space, nice windows.

 

And then looking back into the kitchen past our dining table.

 

Here's the kitchen which is not big, but could be smaller. New oven, nice cabinets and clean fridge!

 

Here's the hallway...

 

 

Our little bathroom with the shower/tub and sink. Not much room here, but we make it work.

 

 

Amy's and my bedroom complete with a double bed, window and good size closet.

 

 

Emily loves her room here below and it is the room we have decorated the most to this point. She's got her butterfly duvet cover and then her reading/play area over on the big pink pillow.

 

 

So that's a quick look at our new home!

"What time is it in Oxford?"

 

 

Some of you have asked how many hours ahead of U.S. time is Oxford, so we wanted to let you know. Oxford/London are five hours ahead of Atlanta/New York (the Eastern time zone).

So what we tell Emily is that when we're eating lunch here, our friends and family in America are waking up and eating breakfast. And when we're eating dinner, you're eating lunch.

Of course the main ways this time difference affects our days are with Skype calls and college football Saturdays. When UGA plays in the afternoon, it's a nice prime time game here, but night games in the States are a challenge!

The UK does observe Daylight Savings time so we are about to "fall back" as well and will stay five hours ahead through the winter.

Homesick



Emily had her first bout of homesickness this week. 

She started off the week with a cold and because of that was a little more whiny and clingy.  But even as she started feeling better, the whining and clinging tendancies have remained.  Today, she told us that she didn't want to go to school anymore.  This was after a crying episode about not wanting to take books back to the library.  It's all very dramatic!

For me as a parent, this is always a difficult balance to strike.  I have very little tolerance for whining, yet at the same time, I don't want to ignore her needs and just tell her to get over it.  So what to do?

It finally occurred to me that maybe there was more to this mood of hers than just surface stuff.  Was there more going on underneath?  With a three-year old, you are never quite sure if they are just being three and going through a stage or if there is something else going on.

But then, my suspicions were confirmed when she was drawing pictures today and telling us that they were different places in Georgia.  Ah, I thought, here's my chance.  So I asked her if she was missing Georgia today.  She said yes.  So I asked what she missed about Georgia.  She said, "I miss the cats and dogs (stuffed animals) in my toy chest at home."  Sweet girl! 

So we talked about missing Georgia and how we would visit later.  After that, she has been better.  I guess, like all of us, sometimes it just helps to talk it through.

I tend to feel homesick about food, which is not really surprising since my life pretty much revolves around food!  It's been Mexican food recently, which I was not expecting.  It is not easy to find here.  There is plenty of Italian and Indian food, and some Chinese.  But Mexican food is a rarity.  I did find enough ingredients in the store to make chicken fajitas one night, but I have yet to find black beans.  How can I live without black beans?! 

It's funny the things that come up that you aren't expecting.  And it's good to remember that our little ones feel these changes and losses as much as we do, even if they don't have the means to verbalize it.  Sometimes neither do we, and it comes out in weird moods or over-reactions to minor things.  But that is for another post!!



Starting Over

We've been in Oxford for about 2 1/2 weeks, and so far we feel like we are adjusting well.  Life has yet to take on its real routine, but the coming week will begin that journey.  My classes start this week, we are finalizing Emily's preschool schedule, and Johnny begins helping out with the Alpha course at the church.  So life is getting ready to ramp up, which is a good thing!

I like routines!  I enjoy free days as well, but only so much.  Eventually, I am ready for a schedule.  Johnny will tell you that on day 3 or 4 of our week-long honeymoon (10 1/2 years ago), I told him that if we stayed much longer, I was going to have to get a job!  Yes, I like routines.  Having a child has probably helped me to calm down about some of these things because she has a routine that I am very much clued into.  It gives my day the needed structure, and therefore I don't get too antsy.  Maybe a little antsy, but not as much!

Coming to another English-speaking culture has probably made our transition easier in many ways.  We can communicate with people pretty well, even though we do have to ask what things mean some times.  We can read signs and labels in the grocery store.  The food is recognizable, for the most part.  These things have made our acclimation easier, I am sure.

But there was one feeling that we were not expecting:  the uneasiness of starting over!  Starting over is one of those things you expect in your twenties.  For many of us, we started over a lot.  Lived in various places, started new jobs/careers, made new friends, went to new churches, etc.  Starting over was just part of the deal.

But in this period of our lives (on the other side of our mid-thirties now!), starting over is not something you expect.  I know this seems kind of silly.  I mean, we did just move to another country.  However, we weren't really ready to deal with the uneasiness of starting over.  Of having to buy basic supplies for our house that we have had for a decade in the states.  Of learning our way around a new city.  The one that really hit me:  Having to start over in relationships by making new friends.

Again, I know this sounds so obvious and makes me ask myself, "What was I expecting?"  Obviously, I knew all of these things were going to happen.  I just wasn't prepared for how uneasy I would feel about it or how settled I felt in our former life. 

In some ways, even though we were ready for this new adventure, I didn't realize how comfortable I felt in my daily life.  How much peace it brought me to have a home to come to or family and friends that I could see regularly or a church that we connected with so easily.  All of these things have been a great blessing!  I wouldn't say that I have taken them for granted because I have felt truly blessed. 

I guess starting over just makes you realize how you can't manufacture these things.  You can try your best to make a place feel like home or cultivate friendships or feel connected to a place of worship.  But really at the end of the day, it's God's grace that provides these things.  And if He has done it in the past, chances are He will do it again!  We just have to be open and willing to let Him start over with us!

"What's Your Address?"

We know some of you have asked where to send a letter/card/package to us while we are here, so here's the scoop.

If you want to send us a letter or card, send it to us at our home:

Flat 125, Summertown House
Banbury Road
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX2 7RD
UNITED KINGDOM (or ENGLAND is fine too)

If you want to send a package (possibly a sweater for Johnny ;), send it to Amy's school in Yarnton where she can pick it up:

Amy Winkle
Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Yarnton Manor, Yarnton
Oxford
OX5 1PY
UNITED KINGDOM

We look forward to hearing from you!

Amy's Studies

Amy will be studying this year at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS), located four miles north of Oxford in a little town called Yarnton. Because we live in Summertown, we are only about 2 miles away and it is not difficult for her to catch a bus and be there in 20 minutes or so.

She is studying at a 400-year-old English estate known as Yarnton Manor. She has already been there several times to meet faculty and the other students in her program and her classes begin this coming week. Emily and I joined her twice to visit and meet some of the faculty, students, and administrators.

Here's our Hebrew scholar at the front entrance! The year is sectioned into three terms, beginning with the first term which is called the Michaelmas term that runs this fall through December.

Here's the Manor in which her classes will be held. She'll be studying Biblical Hebrew, Jewish Liturgy, and the Religion of Israel. Talk about insights into the Old Testament!

That's also the OCHJS shuttle bus in the picture that she and the students can ride to/from Oxford when needed.

Here's a few of the rear of the manor along with the gardens. Emily had a lot of fun exploring!



 

Here's a place Amy will spend many hours this year...you get one guess...that's right - the library! It's actually a converted barn! She also will be studying in Oxford at a couple of libraries there.

 

We are excited for Amy and know this year will be a great year of growth and preparation for her future teaching ministry - the theological training and equipping of international church leaders for their own ministries!