First weekend in the UK

I still can't get over the fact that I'm here in the UNITED KINGDOM! Never thought I would be here, doing this. But I am, and I am enjoying it here immensely.

This weekend was incredible, spending time with people and exploring the city. Friday night we went to Birmingham city for the arts festival, and even though it was raining the entire time, we had a blast watching the different reggae bands play and dancing along to the music. The air smelled of cigarettes and weed, and people were standing in front of the stage with umbrellas. Some were moving around to the music, and we started our own little dance cluster among ourselves. It was so much fun!! We made up funny moves, laughed at weird people around us, and just went crazy dancing to the awesome music. I've never liked reggae as much as I did that night.

I know it's not on my bucket list, but 'Dancing in the rain to reggae music in the UK - check.'

It was good, clean fun, but I was honestly struggling quite a bit at the concert because we walked past clubs and bars, there was music blaring everywhere and people all dressed up and ready to party, and every fiber of my being was crying out, 'To heck (I was thinking of another, more crude word, but I won't write that down) with this mission trip, I want to join those people.' 

I know I'm here to do God's work, but I'm still human, and I still struggle, especially since these struggles are very fresh and recent in my life. So I'm glad that I have this wonderful community to keep me in check, to keep me accountable, because there are all these rules and curfews here, and for once, I am grateful to live under them. I just have to keep reminding myself that there are more important things in life; things like partying may be fun and fulfilling for a night, but the emptiness still lingers the next morning.

Then we went to the gay village and to one of the largest mosques in the city to do a little prayer walk. It was a very sobering experience, seeing all these people who are God's children live their lives in a way that hurts Him.

Lord, I know You still love these people as much as You love us, because they are Your children. I know it breaks Your heart to see their lives go down this path, and I pray that Your grace and mercy will fall freely in their lives and guide them back to You.

Today (saturday) was our first free day, so almost our entire group took one of those double-decker red buses to the city to explore. One of the guys who had been around for a while gave us a tour, and we got to see the arts festival again, a canal where they had boats going up and down (like in Venice), tons of shopping streets, beautiful old churches, shopping malls and markets, museums, and even Chinatown. Birmingham is not as boring as I thought; it's full of interesting people, gorgeous architecture, and really expensive stores. We ate at a chinese buffet place in Chinatown, where the food tasted just like American-Chinese food. Figures. I guess chinese food is the same in every western country. But we got to go to the asian supermarket, where I stocked up on asian food and snacks!

We did some shopping afterward, but it was mostly window shopping because we are missionaries and don't have much pocket money. Plus everything is ridiculously expensive in pounds and even more expensive when converted to SGD. A lot of the shops here already exist in Singapore anyway.
Looking around at the young people here, I've come to the conclusion that they dress very fashionably but provocatively (for the girls). It's pretty bad. They look like they're going clubbing, but they're only at the mall or walking down the street. Low hole-y tops, super short skirts, and high heels were everywhere. And I heard that partying England is trashier than in America, which is already horribly trashy enough (it's about a million times worse than partying in Singapore).

Some girls and I commiserated about our misconceptions of missionaries - we all thought that since we were coming on a mission trip, we wouldn't have to bring much stuff with us, because, you know, missionaries are supposed to be poor and live off two t-shirts and one pair of underwear. So most of us didn't bring much. At all. And now we're living in regret and missing our dresses, bags, accessories, nail polishes, skirts, shoes, and every piece of material comfort we left at home. Oh well. I guess we'll learn to live without them for a period of time.

We ended off today by snuggling up together and watching 'The Blind Side' on the projector screen in one of the rooms. Good ending to a good day.