Sorry I’ve been really lame with updating this week – I didn’t think my week was particularly exciting; mostly work and so on. However, this weekend was really busy, so I didn’t get a chance to do an update until now.
The only particularly notable event of the week happened on Wednesday evening in CU. I lent my Bible to a second year who’s been to CU once or twice before and I just knew her name really. She somehow looked at the front page, where I’d written my name, gasped and exclaimed “So YOU’RE Mark Zealey!”. Apparently I’m famous somehow…
Anyway, on Friday evening I went to Harry’s as per usual, although there were not many internationals there. I then went home and cooked some scones to see how the recipe worked – they tasted gooood. At about 9, I went round to Widge’s and met the guys from Oxford who were in China with us. We sat around chatting and generally catching up until 23:15 whereupon we went down to the bus station to see if the American girls were arriving on that bus. It turned out that we guessed correctly and they were rather surprised to see us as they stepped off the bus – so surprised in fact that one of them almost left a bag on the bus! We chatted until about 1am and then went our separate ways.
On Saturday, we spent the day in Cambridge. In the morning, I organised a punting trip and we then went to Jesus caf for some brunch. The girls showed us a picture of the “traditional English Breakfast” which they had had on the plane, but it looked nothing like a normal breakfast so we thought we should enlighten them. I had to dash home to give Nat some directions around Cambridge (He’d visited for the day and was going to meet with another friend). I then made some more scones whilst some people went to have a look around several colleges.
We all met up again in the market place and spent some time perusing the stalls and shops around there before coming back to mine for some afternoon tea with scones etc. I then ran off to my friend Lisa’s baptism for a few hours and then rejoined people at the fireworks. The baptism was really good – Lisa is a really lovely Chinese girl who came to Christ a few years ago and is now involved in Christian work amongst internationals in Cambridge.
We all met up at the fireworks, including Nat and Rachel who had also been in China although on the “American” team. The fireworks themselves were amazing, and we had lovely weather for them. This year’s display seemed a little patchy in places – there were several gaps and I’m sure some sort of music would have improved it tremendously, although for a free display it was very good.
After the fireworks; we all went to Newnham where a dedicated team of chefs had been working for most of the afternoon to produce us some amazing Chinese dishes – props to Katie, Daniel and Joel; just call them if you need Chinese catering! We had a little worship session around 12:30 and then went to bed for a few hours.
In the morning, we all went to our various different churches with most of the non-Cambridgeites coming to Eden. Cheng-shi also came along. We all went out for some lunch afterwards at the Cambridge Arms just at the back of Sidney. I’d not realised before, but it was actually quite a nice pub and served very cheap food. We then went back to Widge’s and played some settlers. At 5 we went to StAG for the service in which Katie (a girl from HK who was on our team in China) got baptised. It was very funkey. After that, we said good bye to the Oxford types (who almost missed their bus back); and went to Sidney formal hall. After this, we went back to my room and sat around chatting etc until midnight or so.
On Monday, I went to London with Lillian and Lindsay. We met up with Lillian’s friend there who took us to Buckingham palace for the changing of the guard and then walked to Trafalgar square for lunch on the steps of the National Gallery. After this we walked to the Houses of Parliament and along the river a little. We then went to the British Museum, which was really good although the NT section was closed. I had a little read of the Rosetta stone’s Greek but didn’t get too far.. spaces would really have made the thing easier to read! We came back just in time for the Chinese Christian Fellowship meal and then an awesome sermon by Eden’s very own Marvin. After that, I went to bed at 10 because I was so tired, although I hear from Ruth that several people stayed up with the girls until they left at 3:45 for Gatewick.
Today being Tuesday I got up at 7 for Greek Bible study, but after that I ended up sleeping for the morning and finally just doing work in the afternoon. I’ve been reading books about Mark’s account of the stilling of the storm (Mark 4:35-41) and hopefully I’ll write an essay on it tomorrow. In the evening, Sarah, the CU rep came over and we had a nice chat about CU and China (she had been there in the summer as a tourist). Ruth came over shortly after Sarah had left and we chatted for a while.
