The British Summer.

Even though I spent about three years at NTC, I was never in England during the summer. Let me just say we have been having FANTASTIC weather. It's been in the low 70's with tons of sunshine. I'm soaking it up because England being England...it will rain again. 

Last week was a busy work week full of meetings, lunches, and students coming and going. Even though the work week was busy I still managed to have some fun. 

Wednesday night I was able to go to the Didsbury Craft Club. This is a craft club that takes place once a month and is put on by the Didsbury Community Church. The Didsbury Community Church is a church that meets here on the NTC campus. The craft club is a great way for the church to reach out to the local community. It was fun to meet new people. There were several people there from the community as well as people from the church. We made ribbon flowers and some other paper crafts. I made some birthday cards! 

Friday night I went to the Levenshulme Food and Drink Festival with a couple of friends. I had a fantastic burger and the most delicious brownies I have ever tasted. It was fun to go somewhere new and enjoy the sunshine. 

Saturday was once again beautiful outside so I decided to go to the City Center. As you can see from the pictures a lot of other people decided to enjoy the weather and get outside. I love the vibe of the big city in the summer. 

Ok... so this particular picture looks like it wasn't very sunny but it was.
These clouds went away five minutes later.  

Sunday after church the pastor and his wife invited myself and a couple of friends over for a BBQ. We spent the whole day sitting outside enjoying food, the weather, and fellowship. We all have slightly pink faces today to prove it. 

It was a busy week but a very very nice week. I'm so glad I'm here. 

Community and Squirrel-gate 2014.

Community.

One word that has come into my mind several times in the five weeks that I have been here is community. NTC is a community itself but it is also connected to several other communities. NTC is like a hub. You never know who you are going to run into. You never know who you will meet for the first time. It's exciting. 

I'm blessed to be a part of the NTC community and the community that is the Church of the Nazarene. We are a connected church, we are a global church. It's amazing to be able to hear and see what God is doing in other communities connected to NTC. 

Squirrel-gate 2014.

So...there are a lot of squirrels here. Especially around the NTC campus. They are pretty mischievous and pretty greedy when it comes to food. They have chewed a hole in the lid of our dumpster and it's pretty common procedure to kick the side of the dumpster before you open it so you don't have a squirrel jumping towards your face. 

Last week, in the building where I stay, a squirrel came in through an open window. It was found by some students (after it had made a mess and eaten some people's food) and promptly shooed out the window again. 

The next morning we awoke to find the window sill chewed to bits and another mess made in the kitchen. Thus began the squirrel hunt. Apparently not one but two squirrels came in the previous day and one had been hiding somewhere in the kitchen. After a day of searching, said squirrel was finally found and shooed. It hasn't been seen since. 

We thought we had found all the "squirrel damage" until I went to open the freezer yesterday evening. We think that the squirrel knocked the freezer plug out of the outlet resulting in a defrosted freezer and rotten food. "The squirrel strikes again!" was my thought. It has provided us with a good laugh and will be hence forth known as "Squirrel-gate 2014!"

Hope you have a great (squirrel free) weekend!