Matt Haugland - 140 Days in England

31 July, 2005

Day 5 - What happened to the Church?

Today I went to two church services: a baptist in the morning and an Anglican one in the evening. They were both very different from any I have ever been to in the U.S. (and I've been to quite a lot).

The Baptist church had a relatively small building and a congregation of about 50. What was most unique about it is that there was nobody my age. I think I was the only one there between the ages of 13 and 35. The vast majority of the congregation (80-90%) were well over the age of 60. The people were nice, but I felt a little out of place.
The Anglican one was a giant, old, beautiful building, with a 164-foot spire. The inside was amazing. But what was even more amazing was the lack of people inside. The church could easily fit 500 people, but only 13 (including myself) were in attendance - not including the choir, which may have had more people than the pews. Of course, this was a Sunday evening service. I'd expect more people on a Sunday morning.

Large (especially non-denominational) churches in America often are criticized for conforming too much to the culture. But on the other hand, those churches tend to be full of young people. Now I know Reading has a large number of high school and college-aged people -- I saw hundreds of them at the pubs last night. But why are there none in the churches? Is it just the two particular churches and times I visited, or is there something bigger going on here? This country has a lot of history in Christianity. In some superficial ways, it is even more "Christian" than the U.S. (for example, Christianity is still the established state religion -- that could never happen in the U.S.) So what happened?

I don't have the answers to this one. But I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

Day 4 - London

Today I took my first day trip to London. It was a 30 minute walk to the Reading train station, then a 25 minute ride to Paddington Station in London. My first destination was the British Library to see the early Bible manuscripts. The Circle Line was closed because of the bombings, so I had to stop at Baker Street and walk from there, which was kinda nice. The weather was perfect.. partly cloudy and about 68 degrees.

Wow. The gallery at the British Library was amazing!! They had original copies of the Tyndale bible and Wycliffe bible. But the main attractions were on the other side. They had the Egerton Gospel fragment!! If that doesn't sound like anything to be excitited about, I'll explain what it is. It's a piece of an unknown gospel written around 100AD. Unlike the later gnostic gospels, it does not contain any heresies or sensationalism. It's actually quite similar to the gospel of John. I have read about this fragment for a couple years now, and wasn't even expecting to see it there, so it was a great surprise. Right next to that was the Codex Sinaiticus! It is a complete bible, written during the 4th century. It's one of the most important manuscripts of any kind. It helped in the translation of almost every Bibles available today. They also had original writings (in ink, from their own hands) of DaVinci, Shakespeare, Beethoven, and many other well-known people. Wow!

After that, I explored London a little, and eventually made it down to the "posh" shopping areas in Kensington & Knightsbridge. I spent some time in the world-famous Harrods and Harvey Nichols, where a lot of celebrities (including many from the U.S.) are known to shop. One interesting observation: a few of the more upper-class people in Kensington & Chelsea seemed to talk (or try to talk) with a more American accent. Their "r"s were like ours, but the other letters were mostly like English. But it may have just been a few individuals who are from America or spent a lot of time there. Later in an underground train, I heard someone talking about wanting to get into acting, someone else told him he should take speech classes to learn an American accent. I thought that was interesting too. Most of the American accents they hear here are by people in movies or relatively rich tourists, so maybe it is a sign of wealth. I'm not sure. I'll ask around.

Of course, after that I went looking for the poorest/most dangerous parts of London -- the Hackney and Tower Hamlets area in east London. They really didn't seem that bad, but I didn't go very far away from the tube stops. I can see how some parts could be pretty bad though.

After a little more exploring on the south bank of the Thames and the big touristy areas (Tower Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben, etc.) I went back home to Reading. When I arrived, at 11:30pm, the place was so alive -- nothing like Norman at 11:30pm. Of course, this was a saturday night when everyone was out at the pubs. And parts of the Reading town centre seem to be nothing but pubs & clubs up and down the streets. It was quite an interesting walk through there.

Tomorrow I'm planning to attend the nearby Tyndale Baptist Church. I've never been to a church service outside the U.S., so it will be interesting. For the next Sunday I'll probably visit Christ Church (Church of England), which also is quite close to where I live.

29 July, 2005

Day 3 - Settling in

First, the important news: yesterday the UK was hit by one of those most destructive tornadoes in the past few decades. It hit Birminghman, the second largest city, about 80 miles NW of here. It was a T3 or T4 on the tornado scale, which corresponds to a weak F1 on the Fujita scale. A T0 tornado here has wind speeds as low as 39 mph. In other words, a typical dust devil has strong enough winds to make it on the tornado scale here. However, even an F1 tornado in a city of over a million people is big news, especially in an area where tornadoes are relatively rare.

As for me, today I unpacked all of my stuff, and that made a big difference. This place doesn't feel so much like a hotel anymore. I also set up an account with an internet-based phone service. It's great! Now I can call anyone in the U.S. for only 2 cents/minute. I still don't have a phone number yet, but I will get one soon. When I do, I'll probably post it here.

I also got a bike today! It makes it SO much easier to get around. Reading is a good place for bikes.. not quite as good as Boulder or San Jose, but definitely A LOT better than Norman. Now it is much more convenient to get things. I can get almost anywhere in Reading within 10 or 15 minutes (except for the western part, which i hear is better to stay away from anyway).

I discovered a Mega Safeway and a PC World nearby. I'm sure I'll be returning to those. Unfortunately, the Lasagna I got at Safeway was nasty! However, I also found a fish & chips place nearby called "Mr. Cod". It was VERY good. So now I have at least one good/close place to eat. Hopefully I'll find more soon.

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to London to take pictures, look at the old Bible manuscripts that I missed last time I was there, and just explore a little. Reading has been awesome so far, but London is more than 50x bigger, so I can only imagine what neat places can be found there. Maybe I will post some pictures tomorrow.

28 July, 2005

Day 2 - Life without a car

Today I woke up at 11:45, 3 or 4 hours after I planned, and 45 minutes after I was supposed to stop by the international students office. But it was good because I think i'm caught up on sleep already. Today I'm surprised at how early it is in Norman, as opposed to yesterday when I was surprised at how late it is here.

Life is a lot different without a car. It's good in some ways, but it's definitely less convenient. The biggest problem for me is that there is NOTHING good to eat within walking distance. I think I'm gonna go get a bike tomorrow, even if only so I can get to some better restaraunts and grocery stores.

Today I went to ASDA, which is owned by Wal-Mart and is a similar concept, but the actual store is quite different. I think I bought too many groceries, or at least put too many in each bag. 3 of my 4 bags broke while I was walking home. Fortunately, a couple nice girls helped me carry my stuff the rest of the way.

It was an interesting experience shopping at ASDA. The store is different from any in the U.S., and so are the prices. I don't understand them sometimes. For example... a 2 litre bottle of Coke is £1.35 ($2.36), but a 2 litre bottle of ASDA generic cola is only 18p (32 cents). Clothes were very cheap. I saw fairly nice dress shirts for £3 and jeans for £10. Even in the mall I saw shirts advertised £2. And yet a can of pringles is £1.38 ($2.42, compared to $0.99 at the U.S. Wal-Mart). Fruit, milk, bread, and orange juice are cheaper than in the U.S. But almost everything else is about 50-100% more. All the prices include a 17% tax, so that might have something to do with it. Minimum wage here is almost $9/hr, which might help explain the outrageous prices at fast-food places. Also, many items here are imported, and those tend to be more expensive.

I like trying all of the different and interesting sodas here. However, most of them have a strong aspertame taste, eww. I guess they don't like real sugar here. But some of the ones that don't have artifical sweeteners are really good!

By the way, the road system near the Reading Town Centre makes no sense at all! I spent an hour walking around in circles last night trying to find London Road, which is actually two different streets that seem to intersect each other. With the cloudiness and lack of consistent direction with the streets, it's nearly impossible to know north from south. I'm even thinking of getting a little compass to carry around with me.

27 July, 2005

Day 1 - Arrival

Wow, there's a lot to write on the first day!

It was a very long day of traveling, and I've been tired ever since the day began. But around noon I finally arrived in Reading. My first big surprises were 1) how easy it was to get from LGW to Reading (I really like the idea of riding trains instead of driving) 2) how nice the Reading train station and Town Centre is (i don't think I'd seen either of them very well on my last trip, and I was quite impressed this time), and 3) how Reading feels like a very big city and yet it's only a little bigger than Norman. It's a lot like a miniature London.

When I arrived at the University I found out that I did not get either of the dorms I requested, but I actually ended up getting a better one. I didn't know about it earlier because I wasn't able to find it on my last visit. It's down the slope of a hill and covered by trees, which made it hard to find -- which is why I like it so much! And I think it's in a relatively nice area compared to some of the others. The drive from the train station to my dorm is beautiful!

The room itself is not that great, but it's at least as good as I thought it would be. It's basically just a typical single dorm room, with a tiny bathroom. I'm quite happy with it. The only bad part is that I only get to keep it until the end of September. After that I'm supposed to move into another one that's closer to my classes but not quite as nice.

The international/housing people were extremly nice and helpful. They seem to take politeness very seriously here, which I like. After I got my room, I took a ~20 minute walk to the town centre. I was amazed at how many stores there are. Almost every street there is like walking through a mall. Some of the streets are for walking only which is neat. The city was definitely built for walking, at least more so than cities in the U.S.

This afternoon I knocked out the power to my dorm by plugging in my surge protector, which apparently only accepts up to 125V (the power here is 240V) oops! I also bought a keyboard that doesn't fit my laptop, which I need to fix somehow because I hate typing on this little keyboard.

As good as everything was today, there are a few negative points. So far, I have not been able to find a good place to eat around here. Hopefully that will change soon as I talk to more people who live here. Also, it's been kinda lonely. Most of the Reading students who I know are not yet in town because it's summer. Otherwise my nearest family and friends are thousands of miles away. But I remember feeling the same way when I first moved to Norman, and that didn't last long. I think a few days/weeks of not having many people to talk to will help me get closer to God (who's always there) and help me appreciate the friends I have back in the U.S. And I know I will be extremely happy to see my family in a week or two!

This won't be so long in the future, but today was an unusual day. Thanks for reading.

23 July, 2005