Emails from A Few Weeks ago

Good Morning all!
If you have recieved this, you are either a friend, mentor, teacher,
family or someone who I thought might care enough to read what might be
happening on this Island I now find myself stranded on. For those who
don't know I am living in Nottingham England for the entire school
year. 9 students from Luther all live together in a flat in
Nottingham, and we will be registering for courses in a couple weeks at
the large university. School doesn't start until Oct. 2!
The flight went swimingly...er... or maybe I should just say very well
and we arrived in Heathrow London at about 10:45 in the morning. It
was a long overnight flight in which neither of the three of us (Kevin,
Hilary or myself) slept as much as we should have. After two days
though, that whole jet lag thing is a very distant memory. Most
everything was your typical airport experiences, minus one curious
incident. I flew with Air India, and they now have you go through a
second check of your Carry-on before you get on. I happened to have a
ravenous, kinda crazy lady look through mine. Here is how it went
down.

Woman: "I always get so hungry when you kids come through with your food."
(this is after seeing my bag lunch which I was looking forward to, she
then proceeds to begin to unzipper my bag when I say,
Me: "You know, I got chocolate covered raisons in there."
(Now I said this in a kinda of sing songy voice of temptation as a joke,
but she freaked out and dang near had a heart attack. She was peering
all over the place and eventually drew out a little cup in which I poured
her some, and we have a great pic of this which I do not have currently.)
Now in doing this she acted all secretive and just waved me through
without ever touching my bag, nor busting out the wand. Kevin, my buddy
behind me, seeing a great oppurtunity, offered her a cookie which she then
repeated the whole ordeal. The checker lady next to her noticed.
other Women: "______ are you eating again?
Woman: "No I ain't I'm wanding him see! I was just wanding him!"
She jumped up to cover her tracks in a hysterical manner and hilariously
started throwing the wand all around Kevin, eventually beeping it on her
own necklace as a joke. Well this was a long account that was actually
very hilarious, but I probably failed to capture the whole humor in the
situation. Sorry.

We arrived monday around 5 to our luxurious flat. It really is
amazing. It is built for 12, but we only have nine so there is plenty
of space around the flat. Furniture and decorations are very nice, and
overall it is very beautiful inside. It surpassed all my previous
ideas as to what it might look like which is tough to do. Check out
the pictures on snapfish of a walking tour of the whole place to get
some idea what I'll be living in.
We are slowly becoming acquainted with the area. We met our grocers,
Jon and Margaret, two older hilarious british folk who we will get to
know personally throughout the year that give us all our fruit and
veggies throughout the year. Now for those of you who think I'll be
getting fat and lazy over here, I just want to say that I spent
yesterday afternoon mowing our directors' lawn and raking apples,
while the rest of the group took naps and such. I jumped at the
oppurtunity to use a strange and kinda scary electric lawnmower, and
proceeded to cut grass that was more than six inches long. They might
as well have given me a scythe. I finished that "backbreaking" labor
in a matter of hours using all very unadequete and pathetic rakes and
buckets etc. I'll include pics in the next email. I miss cutting
lawn.
It is currently 8 in the morning and I feel fine, or at least coherent
enough to write this email before we leave. I now have 15 minutes to
finish getting ready for a 5 day trip to yorkshire which promises to be
a good time with much to see. I will be sending ya'll an update on how
that went when I get back.
I hope this finds everyone well and in the best of spirits!
If you would like to contact me in the old fashioned manner of the
postal service here is my address, and also the phone number in my flat.

67 Homefield Road
Nottingham, NG8 5GH
UK

Telephone: 0115-929-3353

I love and miss everyone dearly!
Brandon