In England!

Surprise! I'm currently in Cambridge, England, visiting my brother Eli, who is here studying for a master's degree this year..... As of this time last week I though I was spending my vacation at home working on re-organizing and painting our study, but Matt found a great deal on a plane ticket, so on Tuesday we decided I would leave for England on Saturday, and here I am!

I arrived in Cambridge at about 9:30 yesterday (Sunday) morning, and after making the 30 minute walk from the bus stop to Eli's flat, we headed to 11:30 church. Eli goes to a great Church of England church (reformed, great preaching) in a beautiful old building with stained glass windows and wood pews..... and a modern praise band with piano, drums, guitar, 2 electric guitars, a flute, and an old overhead projector for the words!

I crashed pretty hard after church though and slept through both lunch and Sunday evening service, but woke up for dinner and the NFL football party. Eli had organized a group to get together and watch the games (at 8pm/11:30pm local time), and brought real American snacks (real Lays, Oreos, Planters peanuts, etc).... a huge hit! (Apparently the British version of potato chips aren't quite the same.) We enjoyed watching the game (I think most of the guys watched both games, though I headed back to bed after the Patriots won) and explaining some of the finer points of American football to the Brits.... like the blitz with an extra pass rusher (to which one of the Brits asked, "and where does the extra chap come from?"). It was great.