I just want to dwell on who you are

I just finished my breakfast and it looks like it is going to rain again today. As much as I missed the rain when I was in Texas, I'm sick of it here....already. I know that without the rain Cardiff wouldn't be as beautiful as it is, so deep down I am thankful. Imagine when it rains where you are and all you want to do is stay in bed, well here it is cold and rainy...even more reason to stay in bed, but you just have to go out in it and conquer the day.
Yesterday was a good day for the most part. Church was different because the pastor is out of town, so they had a "family service," which basically meant it was kid friendly. Many different people from the church spoke and told testimonies and different things the Lord has asked of them. It was very interesting and I really enjoyed it, I've never laughed so hard in church! This 82 year old man was being interviewed and he was hysterical, jumping up and down on stage, cracking jokes, oh man! After lunch we went to Marc and Charity's house for lunch, which was wonderful! It is always good to be around family and so many people. Later that afternoon I was here at Ellie's house by myself and homesickness began to really set in. It is such a different world around here. It is quiet beyond belief, which is great, but not even close to what I am used to. It is too easy in America to surround yourself with things that keep us from hearing what Jesus is telling us and keep us from really knowing who we are. Charity and I talked for a little bit about being homesick and how quiet it is and she was very encouraging. She was reminding me that being homesick is normal and for the times I think it is too quiet to remember that Christ calls us to listen to him, and we need to be listening for the still small voice of Jesus. This is something that I continually forget.
I am moving in with my host family today so please pray that everything goes smoothly. I know they will be wonderful. Oh and incase you are wondering, I think my clothes are still a bit wet...

I need a dang dryer!

This is a view of Cardiff from the top of a tower in Cardiff Castle, absolutely amazing!

Well today was BEAUTIFUL! It was sunny all day and "quite warm," and by that I mean that I was comfortable in long sleeves, a scarf and flip flops. We spent the morning shopping and fortunately for my bank account I didn't find anything that fit. The sizes here are very different, a 0 in the states is a 4 here! I did find this really cute dress in a store called Next, but they only had it in sizes that were way too large or way too short. We then had a taste of home by going to Subway...mmmm, it has never tasted so good. The look on the man's face when we asked for "chips" was priceless though because here chips=french fries and crisps=chips.

I forgot to tell you of my experience of getting my bus pass. I have a monthly pass and here those passes contain your picture. We went to ASDA (Wal-Mart in the UK) and sat in a photo booth thing and followed the instructions, 1. Sit still. 2. Keep all hair in the frame. 3.Don't smile. This last one made me laugh, naturally, therefore I tried not to smile, while laughing and it took my picture. Needless to say I look dumb in my photo, but I show it to the bus drivers many times a day. Hopefully they at least get a little laugh out of how dumb I look in it.

Pam moved into her host home today and Ellie is out of town, so it's been somewhat quiet around here this evening. Luckily another friend is staying the night with me. In my spare time today I did my first load of laundry, Mom you would be proud because I still have clean clothes and I have already washed some of my dirty ones. The washer took some time, and didn't allow me to wash very many clothes at once. When they were finally done I took them out and went to hang them on the line. This was NOT a success because there was a spider web (with a spider on it) in the path I needed to take. Let's just say my clothes are in the dinning room on a clothes rack and my "pants" are all over the bathroom....probably more information than you need to know but in the UK pants=underwear, this can be quite confusing if you are talking about jeans and you call them pants. As I was putting my clothes all over the house I could only think how grateful I would be for a dryer and how everyone at home should be thankful for the dryer I know they have. Word on the street is that these clothes will take 2-3 days to dry, I wish it was 45 min to an hour!

Oh I have also found that my name is a Welsh name and that the original spelling for "Jennifer" is actually "Jenifer," so thanks Mom and Dad for looking deep into the spelling of my name and taking my name back to the roots of where it came from! :)

I just firgured out how to add pictures to this, so this is a picture of Pam and I when we got lost the first time.

This was a warning sign at the hospital that I thought was funny. No worries I wasn't at the hospital as a patient, I was only passing through the parking lot to find a bus stop.

It has been another wonderful day here in Cardiff. The weather has been beautiful so far, but I'm told it won't last too much longer. This morning Pam and I decided we were going to go running because "we hadn't been walking enough." So we began our morning trying to run, but there are hills here and although it may look flat if you start running it will become a hill. Due to these massive inclines, compared to Texas, we ended up mostly walking, but it was quite enjoyable.
We then headed into town after lunch to get some stamps and as a result we missed our bus to the church...it slowed down and then drove right past us...some bus drivers aren't so nice around here, but most are. We caught the next bus, but because of the frustration of missing the first one we got off about 3 stops too early and ended up having to choose left or right to get to the church. The Lord was definitely with us because somehow we ended up at our usual stop and then found our way to the church, 20 minutes late. After talking about the importance of prayer walking for a little bit we went back into town and went prayer walking around a park. This is something that I have really enjoyed doing. I can't wait to begin to see the results of people that have gone before us and have been faithful in prayer walking in these area way before we ever came.
It seems to me that the "honeymoon" phase of this trip is beginning to fade for me. I am beginning to realize that I have been here two weeks and I'm not just on a holiday and I will be heading home in a few days. It scares me a little bit, but it also excites me because I know that in this time I will be able to build meaningful realtionships with the people around me. Last night Ellie had her house group over and so we were able to meet some people from the church that are around our age. It was amazing. We had a prayer time and everyone went around the room to say prayer requests and it was just amazing to hear where they were at in life and the honesty that each of them had. I felt as though I had been part of this group since it first started. After everyone left we were able to sit with Ellie and hear her views on some things. It was interesting to hear what she had to say and it made me want to search for my own opinions on certain things.
Have a great day!

I know...I'm blogging!

Ok well I know I said I would not do this, but I think I have decided that I should in fact blog! Today was a nice day here in Wales, we woke up to the rain, but by the time we actually got out the sun was in fact out! We had the day to ourselves today just touring the city and trying to get to know the bus system and such. It was quite an expereince.

The main thing we did today was to go to Cardiff Castle. It was absolutely lush. (lush means awesome/cool here in Wales). We were able to walk through the place where people used to live, but I don't seem to remember what it was called. After we left the castle we went to a local coffee shop and sat and talked. I have made a wonderful friend, Pam, that is from Texas as well. We were put in the same hotel room during orientation in London and now we are both living together for this week because each of our host families are on holiday. We are staying with a girl named Ellie who is 24, and her parents are currently out of town, it is sort of like being in a college apartment again. It should be interesting and fun to move in with our actual families here pretty soon.

The bus system here appears fairly difficult at first glance, but we have found that it is not. Yesterday Pam and I rode the bus alone for the first time in Wales and we managed to get off at the right stop, but then we turned the wrong way, twice, to get to the church. After climbing a hill and not knowing where we were at all we called Emma, one of the Hands On staff here in Wales, and she came and picked us up. The people here are all very friendly. Well have a good evening, I'm off to bed!