pense pense pense

that is winnie the pooh, for those of you who don't know. in french he is "winnie l'ourson" which means "winnie teddy." and instead of "think, think, think" he says "pense pense pense." i like taking french words and then anglicizing them. for example, "i was pensing the other day..." it's very descriptive of how i am most of the time. just living, traveling and pensing.

since you last heard from me i have been to newquay, edinburgh, york and cardiff. and three of them were beautiful and wonderful. cardiff was a dud. but more on that later.

newquay - the cliffs at the coast. sunshine, new shoes. the ocean. breathing and being. i climbed on a lot of cliffs that new year's weekend. and i sat and breathed in non-city air and watched surfers and listened to non-city sounds and it was good.

edinburgh - i wrote to a friend of mine: "while i loved the city of edinburgh, with its cobblestone, its castle and its 'closes' or alleyways, what i loved most was the high beautiful hill and the strong feel of the earth beneath my boots as i scrambled up the steep slopes and came upon hidden hollows on my way to the edge of the cliff." i hiked that hill twice, once to watch the sunrise and run about with my arms out, catching the scottish wind with my body. it was wild. and then i went and sat in the coffee house where harry potter was born and drank strong coffee and wrote. check out the pictures on the website. they are epic. once you see them you will understand why i visited that coffee house four times in three days - www.elephanthouse.biz

it was truly delightful. mmm....scotland.

next up: york! there is one place in york where you can stand and look about and see seven different buildings built in seven different centuries - 3rd and 4th, 13th and 14th, 18th, 19th, and 20th. it's ridiculous. there's a medieval wall running almost uninterrupted around the entire city and chunks of roman walls left as well. oldness seeps out the ground there. it's thoroughly haunted. :) and i went to an evensong service in the massive "minster". oh choirs....magic.

cardiff. hmm...what to say? basically cardiff (wales) was a big fat nothing. cardiff was ugly, uninteresting, dodgy and full of teenagers purposelessly wandering the streets in packs of similarly dressed friends. i hated it. that's a little extreme. but literally the only redeeming thing about the weekend was the four wonderful phone talks i had with four wonderful friends when i ended up back in my hostel at 6.30 that night with no plans to venture forth again until late the next morning.

and now i'm home with a head cold and a pocketful of cold-eze. london has made me sicker than i've ever been. it is truly stupid. but besides that i'm really really happy. i love the people in my life - here and at home. my journal is filling up with thoughts and my heart is filling up with psalms. i just learned how to write my name in chinese and my roommate made cookies. it snowed tonight and my church continues to be wonderful and beautiful and i am a good waitress.

good good things.