The Last Goodbye

Today was my last day in Oxford. I hope so much that it will not be the last day I ever spend here, but for now, it is the last day for a long time. This week has been such a great last week. Saturday we went to University Parks and had a picnic lunch in the sunshine - it was gorgeous! We sat by one of the playing fields and watched a couple of field hockey games that were going on and Kara played her guitar and we just laid on our blankets and soaked up as much of that beautiful English air as we could. Sunday, I decided to have my own church time here at the house and enjoyed an empty kitchen for a while with just me and God. Sunday night we had our last "9 at 9" devotional time - it was really sad that it was our last, that has been such a great time to have together each week to catch up with each other and get to see everyone. Grant and Jessalyn and I made a slideshow of pictures and songs from the semester for everyone to watch. It was a lot of fun to see pictures from a few months ago. Monday, we had a lot of packing and cleaning to do...bleh. That was not too much fun, but it needed to be done. After all the cleaning was over, we had our big group photo in front of House 9 and then we got to go to dinner together! All 40 of us headed downtown to Pizza Express, a really nice pizza restaurant in the Covered Market. ACU was paying so we were told we could order absolutely whatever we wanted...so we did! Everyone got their own appetizer(s), their own pizza, and whatever desserts we wanted, plus as many drinks as we wanted! We took full advantage of getting our money's worth from ACU! Haha - it was so much fun! We had a blast just enjoying a good dinner and not worrying about exchange rates or bank accounts or any of that mess. After a long, very filling dinner, we headed back down Cornmarket towards home - it was my last walk through the city center. Today I woke up and headed down to University Parks to enjoy one last day in the sun there. I just sat on a bench and read for a while (I finished Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - awesome book!) and wrote in my journal and then just laid down on the bench for a while. I came back to the house and had my last On the Hoof sandwich for lunch. After that we wandered into the backyard to see who was there. There were a few people having a picnic lunch, and slowly people started drifting outside to enjoy the sun until nearly our entire group was laying in the backyard on blankets or playing frisbee or sitting around the tables just enjoying each other for a little while longer. We were probably in the backyard for a few hours - Jacque and Mike brought us all popsicles (it was perfect weather for popsicles) and we listened to Grant and Kara play guitar. It was a perfect last afternoon for our group! Tonight, we went to Ali's for our last dinner and then a big group headed to Port Meadow to watch the sunset which was absolutely beautiful! I unfortunately didn't get a very good picture (they never turn out as good as I see it with my eyes) but the sun was as big and red as I have ever seen it - it was amazing!
It's so weird that in 12 hours, I will be on a plane to Dallas. I don't know that it's really hit me yet. I am going to miss this place so much. I have had so many unique experiences here. I will miss the unique way of life that is so different from America; I will miss the atmosphere of living with so many fun people (sometimes...); I will miss walking everywhere; I will miss beautiful parks where I can just sit in the grass and enjoy life; I will miss learning so much about what amazing things have happened in the history of everywhere I go; I will miss this semester very much - but I am so glad to be going home. I can't wait to see you all! One thing this semester has taught me is that I am very lucky to have friends and family who love me so much - I have loved getting messages from all of you who keep up with this thing just to tell me you miss me and you are enjoying reading about my life here - it means a lot to me to know I have so many people at home who care as much about me as I care about y'all! Can't wait to see you all! Much love from Oxford!