Hello from Berlin!

Guten Tag allerseits,

Its been so long since I have written a post! I don't even know if anyone reads this anymore. But since I've been asked by a few people to start writing again, I am now writting a new post! This week is my reading week and I have visited a few different places! On Monday, I went on a tour with two of my friends to Stonehenge and Bath, which I thought was amazing! I was told by a few people that Stonehenge is not as cool as you might imagine, but I personally really enjoyed it. The audio tour was a bit disappointing though. As for the city of Bath, it was really cool to see the Roman baths and the city itself was extremely beautiful!

For the rest of reading week, I travelled to Berlin, Germany (where I am now writing this post) to visit Linda, a friend I worked with over the summer. My first impression of Berlin was that people were all really nice here and that it was much much cleaner than London! When I was meeting Linda after getting to Berlin, I asked a stranger to borrow his phone and he just gave it to me right away! I spent the first day in Berlin at Alexanderplatz where I saw the famous TV tower and the Weltuhr! I also saw the Berlin town hall and some really old churches! Some other things I did in Berlin include: visiting the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate, seeing the Olympic Stadium, eating pretzels, currywurst, and döner, playing UNO and Taboo in German, learning how to count from 1 to 11 in German, getting free cooking lessons from Linda and meeting up with some other Davidson folks who are in Berlin right now! I still have all of today and tomorrow in Berlin and am not sure what I will do yet. But I have really enjoyed the city and Linda has been such a great host! On an unrelated note, it has been freezing here!

Well, that's it for now from Germany. I still have so much to write about being in England the last month but I should probably get off Linda's computer now so she can finish writing her thesis. I plan to write a longer post in the next week talking about my past month in England!

I hope all of you guys are doing well and sorry for such a long delay!

Eugene

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.

Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
O while Thou dost smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me,
Show Thy face and all is bright.

Man may trouble and distress me,
’Twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me.

Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine.

Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

© 2001 Bill Moore Music

1st week in London!

Friends,

I have been in London for about a week now and have been pretty busy! I was having a lot of trouble finding wireless internet earlier in the week (the only place I found was a McDonalds nearby) but now I am all moved in to my flat and classes have started here too!

Although I've only been here for about a week, it feels much longer than that. I feel like I have already been able to see a lot of London. I have been able to check out Big Ben, the London Eye, Camden Markets, local pubs, and other attractions. Last saturday, my friends and I spent all day in the British Museum and it was really cool. My school also had a boat cruise event for international student on River Thames one night. It seems like I've already done a lot but I'm sure things are going to slow down now that classes have started.

Classes here are really different than they are at Davidson. First off, I will never complain about webtree again. Registering for classes here is almost impossible. Its like they don't want you to take any classes (its not that bad...). Anyways, my classes are all sorted out now and it looks like I won't have class on Wednesdays(which is today)! Classes meet less often and students here are expected to be more independent in their learning. There aren't too many assignments during the semester so the final counts for most of your grade in the class!

Enough about school, last sunday I was able to visit All Soul's Church and really enjoyed it. In fact, I am planning on going to their student bible study tonight.  Its really strange to hear people sing hymns in British accents. The church is about a 30 minute ride on the tube from where I live but on the weekends now, part of the tube is going to be closed because they want to repair the tube before the Olympics next year. So last week, I had to walk 30 minutes after getting out of a 20-minute tube ride to get to church...Too bad there is not a Rich circle here where I could just meet up with people for rides!  I am still not use to having to leave like an hour before to get somewhere thats only a few miles away...

Thanks to everyone that I have already skyped with! It's been really nice to hear from people because I'm starting to feel a bit homesick. I hope to skype with everyone soon!  I also heard from Ben Krause earlier today that people on the classics trip are in London now! I plan on seeing them soon! It will be nice to meet up with some Davidson students.

Hope the first week of classes goes well for everybody!

Eugene

Traveling

Friends,

I am currently sitting at a coffee shop in the Istanbul airport typing this post on TextEdit because I can't connect to the internet here. I will post this when I get internet. I have about 2 hours before I can board and there's not much to do here right now because it's 6 am here and everything is closed. I've flown about 12 hours from HK to Istanbul and am not sure how long the flight is from here to London.

Since my last post, I have been spending alot of time with my dad and other relatives in HK. To all my ping pong friends out there, I've been playing an insane amount of ping pong and also got a new paddle. I've also tried to run some shorter distances but my achilles is still bothering me...Other highlights in HK include watching fireworks on New Year's Eve from the building where they filmed part of the Batman movie, eating tons(literally tons) of sushi, and shopping. One noticeable difference between HK and the US is that Christmas is much more low-key here. It seems to me that not too many people even celebrate Christmas here, and Christmas seems to be more focused on Santa instead the birth of Jesus...

It is a bit strange to think that I won't have any family and friends waiting for me at Heathrow. Even at Davidson, I am close to home and can see my family pretty often. I have no idea what the next six months will be like....Anyways I should check on my next flight and explore the Istanbul airport some more!

Eugene

Getting Ready to Go...

So I'm not sure whether people write their first post before or after they arrive to their destination, but I am in need of a break from packing...so here is my first post!

Since finishing up exams and moving out of Davidson just a few days ago,  I've been getting ready for my trip by running errands, saying goodbyes to friends, unpacking from Davidson,  and packing for London. It has been surprising to me how difficult packing is! Some questions I've had to answer the last couple of days are:

How much winter/summer clothes should I bring?
How will I bring my tennis racquets?
Will I be able to fit everything into 2 suitcases?
How many white hats will I need over there?
How many colored hats will I need over there?
Should I stop wearing hats altogether so I can save some luggage space?

Having so much to do before leaving has distracted me from the fact that I will be in a foreign country for about 6 months...(maybe longer?) Tomorrow morning, I will fly from Charlotte to NY, NY to Hong Kong, where I will spend Christmas and New Years with my dad. Then on January 3rd, I fly from HK to Istanbul, then Istanbul to London! Why Istanbul? Because my dad booked the first flight he saw...As Jeff Tolly put it earlier today, I will be quite the world-traveler.

Despite not being too excited before, I am becoming more and more excited now. I cannot wait to play tennis on the red clay and grass tennis courts. I even hope to make it to Roland Garros and Wimbledon during my stay! I will be sure to keep you guys updated on other cool things I will get to do while I'm over in London.

I should probably get back to packing. I will be leaving for the airport in about 12 hours and there's still so much to do before then! Maybe I'll write another post in an hour or so when I'm tired of packing again...