Today they taught me how to eat...

...properly. If you've ever eaten with my dear housemate, Claire, you may have noticed that she has a rather peculiar way of eating. She holds her fork in her left hand (upside down, as in, well, you know, the eating part looks like a hill instead of a valley) and her knife in her right hand and she scoops up a little pile of food with her knife then repeatedly stabs at it with her upside down fork while pushing food onto the hill part of the fork with the knife. I just thought this was something quirky that adds to the flair of our dear, sweet, awkward, friend Claire. (Just kidding, I totally knew it was influenced by her time living in Britain.) Regardless, I didn't have any great desire to learn how to eat this way but was informed today that if I ate with anyone from an older generation here in England without using the bizarre Claire method, it would be offensive. So, I gave it a go and it took me forever to eat! It doesn't make any sense at all--forks are curved so you can both stab and scoop your food and when it's upside down everything falls off. And yes, of course we were eating peas! Why wouldn't we have been? I was still sitting at the table trying my best to finish my meal 15 minutes after everyone else had left the dining room. My word.

Oh, by the way, I might have told the kids the other day that I speak both "cat" and "dog." Kids that I babysit for at home would have known straight away that I was just being silly but these ones didn't. Imge started asking about my pets. She asked how long I'd had them and then said "wow! You've been learning their languages for a long time!" Then when she found out I didn't have a cat anymore she was concerned that I would stop learning and forget all of it. I assured her we have enough other cats in the family to keep me fluent.

Church was lovely today. Very, very similar to the City Church except a little smaller and not quite so dressy/formal. I felt right at home from the minute I walked in. AND they sang Hillsong worship songs. It's always better when I know the lyrics right away. It makes me happy. Hopefully I will be in a "young adults" small group by the end of this week.

Peace.

Steph

Claire, you're wonderful and your awkwardness makes me smile--I know you're laughing about this right now or I wouldn't have written it ;-)