My "Firsts"

My apologies to everyone who waited patiently—or impatiently— for my blog entry. Since I’m writing so late, I’ll only be able to give some brief highlights. It’s been an interesting week of settling in, making friends, and getting to know my way around London. The overarching theme for these last few days is “firsts.”

1. My first…sip of wine

So, as most of you know, I celebrated my 21st birthday here in London. I was feeling a little sad; I think this is my first time having my birthday far away from my family and close friends. Several of the Biolans here at Roehampton got together to cook dinner and hang out. To my surprise, they gave me a card and bought me a bottle of wine. I figure you only turn 21 once, and they were all kind enough to celebrate with me last minute (they didn’t know it was my birthday until the night before). So I got to experience my first (and only) sip of wine. I think the awful look on my face said it all though.

2. My first…time church-hopping.

For most of my friends at church, going away to college means searching for a new church to plug into and serve at during their four (or five…or six…) years of university. At the time, however, I sensed that God was calling me to stay at my home church, FCBCFV, and to serve in the college fellowship, ROCK. I never had to worry about searching for a new church. Being here in London means that for the first time, I have to look around for a church to attend.

This past Sunday I went with several of the girls to Hillsong. It was definitely a different kind of church than I’m used to: the service was held in the Apollo theatre, and we even had to wait in line to get in. The musicians and singers were great, save for the fact that I didn’t know any of the songs (it was almost like a concert, with the entire stage set up for Wicked). I do have certain qualms about the more charismatic churches, but for the most part, it was a good experience. Plus, the people we met were incredibly friendly.

In the next few weeks, I plan on visiting two or three other churches, including a local Chinese Christian church. And no, I’m not searching for a British Chinese husband, I’m just curious.

3. My first…time going to a bar.

Since I don’t drink, going to a bar seemed strange at first. Actually, no, it’s still strange to me. I feel totally like a fish out of water. I just stood there awkwardly, watching everyone else stand around talking, drinks in hand. When I did join a conversation, it was hard, because the music was too loud and it seemed like everyone was trying to talk over it. My friend Tom had to bend his head every time he wanted to hear something or say something. When more people showed up, the crowd began to press in a bit, so I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. I only lasted 20 minutes before I had to excuse myself.

4. My first time…going to a party.

Of course, it’s silly to say it’s my first time going to a party. So I have to qualify that. It was my first time going to what you would generally categorize as a normal college party. It’s just one of those things you can’t find at Biola unless you really go looking for it. It was actually really interesting to see what kind of drinking games they play, although we had some trouble with the multilingual makeup of the group (you didn’t have to be drunk to know that forcing the French girls to rhyme in English is funny). It was a good opportunity to get to know my flat-mates better. Plus, I wasn’t the only one who stuck to drinking orange juice and Coke.

5. My first...piece of mail.

I don't have much to say about this other than that I was super excited to get my very first piece of mail here at Roehampton. I LOVE YOU KATIE LEE! I was so happy I almost cried. Okay, I admit, I got a little teary. I actually didn't think about making this one of my "firsts," but the obsessive-compulsive in me thought that five sounded more complete, so I had to think of something to round out my list of "firsts."

As a side note, does it seem that all of my first experiences here in London have involved alcohol in some form or another? So you don’t go on thinking that that’s the case, I’ll list a few other things we did. One day, they split us up into teams of six and sent us on a photo scavenger hunt around Central London, to help us familiarize ourselves with the transportation system—the Underground in particular—and to see all of the major sights. My team didn’t make it very far into the scavenger hunt before we decided to just do our own thing, taking pictures and going shopping.

Since then, I’ve made a grand total of three trips to Primark, which is an amazing clothing with very cute clothes and very reasonable prices. I definitely have to restrain myself, since I’ve been holding off buying new clothes for the last couple of years. I’m serious, I told myself, “No, Lynnette, you don’t really need this cute top. You need to save money so you can buy an even cuter one in London.” But the Primark on Oxford Street is probably my mom’s worst nightmare (she hates shopping). It’s massive, with two stories, including men’s, women’s, and home furnishing. We made the mistake of going on a weekend. It felt like there were thousands of people all jostling and competing to purchase clothes. I felt like my competitive side was coming out, wanting to edge other people out so I could grab what I wanted. It was totally insane.

Other things I’ve done here…I registered for classes (which was relatively painless—I was really worried at first), I’ve eaten fish ‘n chips, I cooked (pasta one night, and a Portobello mushroom last night), I learned how to use my ID card to print at the internet café, and I made friends with a girl just because she had a cute panda purse. All that’s to say, it’s been an interesting week. Of course, I have more stories, but there’s still so much more here for me to discover and explore. As always, I’m on a search for yummy, cheap food in London. And I’m still fighting off some minor homesickness. The good news, though, is that I only have classes Monday and Wednesday, which gives me plenty of time to travel throughout the UK and Europe. Or to study.

***

When I first decided to go to Biola, several friends had concerns about my going to a Christian school. They felt that, at a non-Christian university, a) your faith can be really tested by the secular environment around you, and b) you have the opportunity to share the Gospel with other students. My view on going to Biola has always been that we’re receiving good solid training, so that in whatever field we go into, we can make an impact for Christ. And, we’re constantly reminded that we must be even more intentional about getting outside our comfortable Christian bubble.

However, being here at Roehampton, I feel like I can experience a little bit of what it’s like to go to a secular university. I think this is an opportunity for me to be a good witness to the people around me—my classmates, new friends, and flat-mates. I really think that my time in Malaysia and the training beforehand (Thanks Jeff!) was really helpful in guiding how I think about evangelizing to people here.

Like many of the “freethinkers” we met on our trip to Malaysia, it seems that a multicultural, cosmopolitan place like London makes people, on one hand, very open and accepting of different religions, and on the other, increasingly influenced by post-modern thinking. I was so excited because God has already given me the chance to share a little bit about my faith with a new friend. Pray that God will really be able to use me here at Roehampton, and that I would be sensitive to His leading.

Anyways, I want to end with a funny story. Today, I went with Justin, Andy, and Stephan (all Biola guys) down the street to Roehampton village to have fish and chips for lunch. There were only two tables available: one had four seats, and the other had two. Obviously, we wanted the table with four seats. So I set my jacket and scarf down onto the chair as way of saying, “I’m claiming this table.” It’s much more sanitary than the animal way of claiming territory.

This older gentleman came in after us, but he knew what he wanted right away, so he ordered before me. After he finished ordering, he walked over to our table (I was standing right next to it), pointed at my things, and asked, “Are these yours?” I nodded my head and replied, “Yes, they are.” Of course, I expected him to trudge over to the other table—the one with two seats—and seat himself there. But by the time I ordered and turned back around, he had already set his food down on OUR table. Justin just looked at me and shrugged, so I just grabbed my things. We ended up taking our fish ‘n chips back to school to eat.