Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just take the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy.......The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

i LOVE this!!! : ) ~jen

hey there! well today was pretty fun : ) i only had one class today, wisdom and literature with dr willis, and it started at 12:30pm!!! so after it was over, me and sarah and josh decided to go shopping. i dont think josh knew what he was getting himself into though... our first stop was this little french pastry place. i got a chocolate filled croissant!! : ) it was SO yummy!!!! then we went to w h smith to get school supplies, me being stupid figured it would be better to buy them here... but everything here is twice as much as in the states. so i bought my paper, planner, highlighters, pens and pencils that cost about $30... : / i guess that was all josh thought "shopping" entailed lol but he was so wrong! me and sarah went into a million stores shopping for black flats and jeans and purses and just clothes in general. poor josh! but he did get a pair of pants : ) so i bought a hot pink skirt that has light pink tulle underneath and multicolored sequins on top. and two pairs of black sequined shoes, a cute pair of jeans that fit me well ; ) and a coral shirt and a creme sequined shrug. i spent about $200... oh well. so then we came back and i talked to carino for a bit- awwww i miss her so much! and then me, sarah, brent, kelly and josh went to summertown(a small town about a 15 min walk away) to get groceries at the co-op because they deliver to your house if you buy more than 35 pounds of groceries. so then we trekked back and talked about our travel plans. brent and josh decided they are going to try to fly to portugal over thanksgiving break(we have six days, but if we skip two classes on monday we can make it a nine day trip!) and see coldplay and then hit the south coast of spain and spend six days there and then take a 30 min ferry to morocco and spend a day or so there. im so jealous! i would love to do that! can you imagine how cool that would be if i could say i went to africa??? but me and sarah are planning on going to italy for those nine days and going to spain in october. well im quite distracted right now because i am again talking to people here in the lab lol so ill post later... ~jen

lisakay719 (10:52:18 PM): HEEEYYYYYY
Bumblebee1185 (10:52:54 PM): i love your little L up in the corner there
lisakay719 (10:53:15 PM): haha i love when you "accidentally" touch my butt
Bumblebee1185 (10:53:31 PM): i know you do lol
lisakay719 (10:53:38 PM): I LIKE IT
Bumblebee1185 (10:54:16 PM): its no accident when i whack it hard lol
(LISA SAYS ACROSS THE ROOM "THAT LINE YOU JUST TYPED SOUNDS LIKE A LINE IN A RAP SONG")
lisakay719 (10:54:50 PM): *beat boxing*
Bumblebee1185 (10:54:59 PM): lol yes def
Bumblebee1185 (10:55:11 PM): we should get a group going
Bumblebee1185 (10:55:17 PM): and brent can step
(BRENT IS IN STEP TEAM AT ACU)
Bumblebee1185 (10:55:18 PM): lol
lisakay719 (10:55:45 PM): and dustin can do michael jackson in the background
(DUSTIN DOES MICHAEL JACKSON DANCING)
lisakay719 (10:55:51 PM): and courtney can play the triangle
(COURTNEY DOES NOT PLAY THE TRIANGLE LOL, THERE IS NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER)
Bumblebee1185 (10:55:55 PM): yes we should def plan this!!
lisakay719 (10:56:17 PM): DING DING DING
Bumblebee1185 (10:56:17 PM): the triangle is perfect for her lol
Bumblebee1185 (10:56:41 PM): you know she would get confused with the three sides and all
lisakay719 (10:59:02 PM): maybe thats how we can raise more pounds for oxford! u think people would pay us?
Bumblebee1185 (10:59:19 PM): probably but only to make us stop lol
lisakay719 (10:59:44 PM): ahha or they can pay u and u can slap their butt
(ME AND LISA HAVE AN INSIDE JOKE ABOUT SLAPPING BUTTS, I DO NOT HAVE A THING FOR BUTTS!!!)
Bumblebee1185 (11:00:22 PM): lol i would do it
lisakay719 (11:00:38 PM): YOU would probably pay them if they would let you slap their butt
Bumblebee1185 (11:00:49 PM): yeah probably
lisakay719 (11:00:56 PM): here's 5 pounds! can i have you for a sec?
Bumblebee1185 (11:01:23 PM): can you imagine if i said that to someone?
Bumblebee1185 (11:01:25 PM): lol
lisakay719 (11:01:45 PM): say that to someone in the room right now...brian = target....GO!!!
(BRIAN IS WAY QUIET LOL)
lisakay719 (11:02:05 PM): GOOOOO
Bumblebee1185 (11:02:12 PM): no way!!!!!
lisakay719 (11:02:17 PM): DO IT!!!!!
Bumblebee1185 (11:02:22 PM): no!!!
lisakay719 (11:02:30 PM): just think about that butt!!!! it would SO be worth it
Bumblebee1185 (11:02:30 PM): i cant!!! you!!!
Bumblebee1185 (11:02:44 PM): lol
lisakay719 (11:02:54 PM): NO! youre the one who likes it
Bumblebee1185 (11:03:04 PM): lol theres no way
lisakay719 (11:03:07 PM): it wouldnt make sense for me to just randomly yell across the room to brian
(BRIANS SITTING NEXT TO ME ON THE COMPUTER OBLIVIOUS TO ALL THAT IS GOING ON)
Bumblebee1185 (11:03:24 PM): maybe half way through this trip when we know everyone better
Bumblebee1185 (11:03:28 PM): what would i say???
lisakay719 (11:03:48 PM): or you can say that to get to know them better!! speed up the get-to-know-you process
lisakay719 (11:03:53 PM): you would say :
lisakay719 (11:04:18 PM): "BRIAN!!! i have a favor to ask of you. if i give you 5 pounds, would you please bend over for me?"
lisakay719 (11:05:02 PM): no i change that. it would be:
lisakay719 (11:05:22 PM): "BRIAN!!! here is some money. i just love butts. can i have yours?"
Bumblebee1185 (11:05:46 PM): lo;
Bumblebee1185 (11:05:47 PM): l
Bumblebee1185 (11:05:50 PM): i dont think so
lisakay719 (11:06:39 PM): fine!!!
Bumblebee1185 (11:07:16 PM): ppl in here already think im obnoxious for laughing, no way am i going to make them think even worse of me lol
lisakay719 (11:09:38 PM): haha whatever, i love your laugh! i mean i cant speak for them though...so they might think you're obnoxious. haha jk :-)
Bumblebee1185 (11:09:49 PM): lol
Bumblebee1185 (11:10:02 PM): well they need to get used to it bc i laugh all the time
Bumblebee1185 (11:11:03 PM): how about if i show him the convo??
lisakay719 (11:11:23 PM): NO MAAM!!!!
lisakay719 (11:11:30 PM): i dont even know him!!!
Bumblebee1185 (11:11:34 PM): so??
lisakay719 (11:11:41 PM): i would not talk to you ever again
Bumblebee1185 (11:11:46 PM): lol
Bumblebee1185 (11:11:53 PM): it might be hard to do...
Bumblebee1185 (11:12:03 PM): im the life of every party!
Bumblebee1185 (11:12:04 PM): lol
Bumblebee1185 (11:12:07 PM): jk
lisakay719 (11:13:45 PM): haha yeah girl!
(SARAH ENTERS THE LAB)
lisakay719 (11:16:24 PM): does sarah know about your love for butts?
lisakay719 (11:17:48 PM): HI SARAH!!!
(BRIAN LEAVES THE LAB)
lisakay719 (11:18:10 PM): dangit opportunity missed! you lost your chance
lisakay719 (11:18:14 PM): im sorry

hi everybody! so we had our first day of classes and im a little nervous... first was old testament with dr willis and im excited about that one. we meet twice a week and have alot of group work, we have a group each week that does a devo and a group that does creative presentations about the theme we are studying that week. its so cute, he sends someone down half way through class to retrieve a platter of cookies from mrs willis down in their flat in the "dungeon" : ) then right after that we had oxford through the ages with dr morgan. i really like him, hes very funny and i like his voice lol that sounds so weird. anyways but im nervous about that class because we have to write a few papers and he said he enjoys ripping peoples writing apart in front of the class... i think he was joking... hopefully!!! : / then that class ended at noon and i went straight upstairs and fell asleep, one of my favorite things to do : ) ...and i slept until 4pm, which is when my christian worship class started with mrs morgan. we had class in the backyard because it was such a pretty day. that class intimidates me too... we are going to have to lead worship on sunday nights for the whole group. i have never done anything like that ever, i dont even like to pray aloud!! well stretching is good right? we will see how all that goes... plus we have to write a huge paper on the nature and style of worship... anyways then we had a tea and cookies break about half way through. it was so much fun! then after that a bunch of us went out to eat to celebrate denyce's birthday. we ended up at this little place called fish! and me and sarah split a pepperoni pizza. we all ate at this little place that was covered in trees, it kinda looked like a deck but it was near the river. we had fun singing songs from musicals lol then we headed back to the house and made plans for a dance party but sitting here in the lab, everyone has decided to move it to tomorrow night. so now im just talking to westley my friend from middle school that i havent seen in five years and carino : ) i miss everyone so so much!! i keep thinking that i will be back in the states in a few weeks and i definitely wont be!!! its so sad!!!!! but i am having a blast!!!!!!!!!! europe, well england is amazing!!!!!! i need to start planning all my trips soon so that i can get cheap airfare but im so lazy, i dont want to plan i just want to go! lol but i think im going to go to italy, spain, austria, belgium and ireland. and then we are going to france as a group in september. but i really need to get my act together because my dad is trying to get my mom to come visit me for a while so i need to know where we are going lol ok i will have to finish this post later bc i am talking to lisa whos in the lab also about slapping butts(an inside joke) and i am laughing too hard!!! : ) ~jen

hey everybody! ok im starting this blog so that i dont have to email everybody... i know... thats so lazy and impersonal, but im in europe! i dont have much time to be on the computer : ) and let me just warn you that i will probably be an infrequent updater... lol but i will try to not disappoint you : ) so... let me see if i can start from the beginning and recap the last 72 hours or so... ok wednesday morning carino dropped me and my luggage off... late. the stupid lady at the mailbox place on campus took FOREVER to mail my phone and keys back to my parents. she asked me if i wanted bubble wrap or peanuts... regular or priority mail... blah blah blah and all i wanted to do was yell at her "im leaving for oxford! hurry it up!! i dont care how exactly it gets there, just that it gets there!" lol maybe i should work on my patience... so anyways we waited around in the parking lot awhile and we finally boarded the bus at 10am. we drove to dfw airport which took about two and a half hours and while on the bus me and sarah got to know caryn. shes great! shes a red headed sophomore with a lot of siblings : ) and shes our ra in house 10. more about that later. so we got to dfw and sarahs mom met us there at the airport to say goodbye to sarah. we ate in the airport at the railhead which is so good!! and got to know this guy named josh, hes really nice and from tyler and a christian ministry major. then we played in this cool thing near our gate. it had a maze(kind of) of blue glass sticking up out of the floor and when you walk through it there are lights on the floor that light up and play nature sounds when you step on them. this guy brent was obsessed with it lol so we finally boarded our plane at about 5:30pm and it was so cool bc all the flights attendants had british accents, i mean granted we were flying british airways. but it was still so neat to hear! so then we were on the plane for eight and a half hours, which wasnt too bad bc it was overnight. although it was hard to sleep sitting almost upright and in the freezing air!! but i finally had my first taste of alcohol-they offered us wine with our dinner. of course i didnt take it, but the guys in front of me(travis and dustin) did and dustin insisted that i try it. it was white wine which is supposed to be the better wine, but it was so disgusting! so then he had me try the red wine and it was even nastier! just tasted like i had drank rubbing alcohol or something... so we got into london about 9am and had to "queue"(british for standing in line) to get grilled by the immigration people and get our passports stamped(my first one ever! but trust me, its SO not exciting! its very plain and quite ugly, just the date and a line that says gatwick london) and then we grabbed our luggage and headed for the coach(bus) that was to take us to canterbury road. everyone was so tired and falling asleep on the ride. but for some reason i was wide awake, looking like crap but wide awake : ) so then we arrived at our houses, 9 and 10, and dr morgan came out and assigned us to the houses. in house 10, where me and sarah are, theres 14 girls. in the other house theres all the guys(6) and the rest of the girls. house 9 is where the morgans stay and house 10 has one of our professors, jaque, and the willis', mr willis is one of our professors and his wife is just here for the ride. they are so sweet! so after we had sorta unpacked, we all met in the backyard of house 9 and had some sandwiches for lunch and just sorta mingled. then we split into small groups and went with a "guide"(ours was dr morgan) around oxford. dr morgan showed us all kinds of neat things, where the banks and groceries are and really old pretty buidings and the covered market which looks like the market in san antonio and the american places like mcdonalds and starbucks and the gap. we saw the outside of the infirmary in harry potter and the outside of christ church where they filmed the dining hall scenes in harry potter. then he let us loose to walk around by ourselves. it was so cool! me and sarah had lunch/dinner at this cute little cafe place, the guy there was really nice and had a great accent : ) it was pretty good.... i had a pepperoni panini with jalapenos, except i didnt know there were jalapenos in there... it was HOT! and they say british food is bland... lol then we ended up having coffee with josh and this guy named kyle(hes from amarillo, a biblical text major, real quiet). it was a cute place called georginas. i wanted to get something similar to a mocha frappucino but the lady ran out of ice.... weird. so i ended up having a mocha latte, which is the same thing i guess just without ice. then we went back to the house and.... hmm i dont really remember what we did after that... must not have been exciting. so then on friday morning we went with lael to on the hoof, this really great sandwich place only one street over on north parade. dr barnard had told us to try the sexy brazilian : ) but i got just a brazilian, its just chopped chicken, slices of tomato and supposedly cheddar cheese, but the cheese is white... anyways and i got it on ciabatta bread and they toast it. it is SO good!!! then we went to sainsburys and bought some groceries and then headed back to the house for orientation with the morgans from 1-5pm. they just told us how the houses work and about traveling and stuff around oxford. i was about to fall asleep by the end, mrs morgan was talking and me and sarah were sitting on this comfy couch and i was so so tired! but i managed to stay awake somehow... then after that was over we all had tea and desserts in the backyard. it was my first time to try tea, it wasnt too bad... not my favorite but definitely not as bad as wine lol so then we just sorta mingled. we talked to the willis', they are so sweet. we have a standing invitation to have tea and coffee down in their "flat" anytime : ) then me and sarah decided to go eat dinner down in the center of town. we thought it would be easy... but the english like to be difficult! alot of places close after about 6pm, and we found out the hard way that most dont serve food on friday nights... only drinks... whatever. so we ended up at this place called bella italia after an hour of walking the streets of oxford. it was really good and probably the most familiar meal i had had since leaving the states. i had penne pomodoro which was fabulous and a glass of water, without no ice.., and some lemon. then we had to pay extra to get some garlic bread but it was so yummy and also extra for a few marinated olives. sarah ordered a glass of white wine and i tried it.... bad decision! it still tasted gross! but we just sat and talked for about two hours and out waitress was very nice. but it cost both of us 11 pounds,which is about 20 dollars, so it was rather expensive for what we actually ate. then as we were leaving we ran into courtney(graduated from achs, bio major, loves to shop, kinda ditzy) and lisa(switching to nutrition major, from north carolina, very fun). they were in heels and very upset because they had just walked about two miles. first they went with some of the ppl from the group to go take pictures but ended up not taking pictures bc they couldnt find everybody and then again to find a place to eat at. we told them our story of hiking around town and advised them to eat at bella italia. afterwards we went back to the house and hung out in caryns room where lisa and courtney joined us later. then it was off to bed. on saturday we were going as a group to warwick(pronounced warick) castle and were meeting at 10:30am to leave to catch the train. so me and sarah and caryn went to on the hoof and bought sandwiches and water then met everyone else in house 9. then we all walked about a mile(actually im a bad estimator so i have no clue...) to the train station. the train ride was nothing spectacular but it was my first. we ate our lunch on the train bc we couldnt wait to taste their yummy goodness : ) then we had to change trains and finally arrived in warwick about 12:45pm. we spent about 5 hours at warwick castle, its SO beautiful! i wish i could live there now!! but it was quite a workout!!!!! the stairs to go up to the towers are very narrow and steep and plus there are alot of them bc the towers are SO high! but it was very much worth it! ill have to find out how to put pictures on here! so then after that we rode the train back and dr morgan set us free to do our own thing from the train station. so me and sarah and lisa and courtney and lael went to starbucks and got some coffee and made plans with josh to eat dinner at eagle and child, a pub where cs lewis and tolkien ate and discussed literature(its dr barnards favorite pub lol). so we came back to the house, freshened up and then headed to dinner. i was a bit nervous about eating there bc dr morgan said it was very smoky and i hate the smell of smoke, it makes me very nauseous. but it ended up only being smoky in the first room and we ate in the back room. we were really confused about the process of getting your food and everything but this nice lady at the bar explained it to us. you sit at a table, decide what you want to eat, go up to the bar where you order and pay. then they hand you your drink and silverware and you go back to your table. then someone brings you your food. so i ate a chicken caesar salad and some bread and butter that lael ordered(you have to actually pay for bread here, its so crazy!!) and i tried sarahs fish and chips which isnt so bad. oh and i tried a sip of sarahs beer.... just as bad as wine... again, i dont know how people choke it down! lol then we went to this ice cream place dr morgan recommended called g&d's. it was very very good! i got super chocolate but they have weird flavors like green tea and lavender/honey. then we went back to the house and didnt do much of anything... hang out in the lab, which seems to be the happening place now and load pictures onto our computers. then this morning mostly everyone went to church with dr morgan at st aldates. me being the heathen that i am decided to sleep in and catch up on my sleep. then me and caryn went shopping around 2pm. it was so discouraging though!! everything here is twice as expensive when you convert it to us dollars. like at the gap... jeans are 45 pounds but when you convert that to american money its like 90 dollars!!! its so ridiculous!!!!!!!!! i was really looking forward to spending my money but i cant just blow it! im gonna need money to travel... so all i bought was a tan shirt at gap that was on sale for 3 pounds which is about 6 dollars... just about the only deal i will find the entire time im here... oh well. then we had to be back at 4pm for some class time with dr willis for our message of the old testament class. hes a very funny old man : ) his class doesnt seem like its going to be too hard, but alot of people are worried that he will be a hard professor. we will just have to see. so now i need to go eat some dinner, im starving!! and then at 9pm we have worship in the commons room in house 9. im looking forward to that, we have it every week and it will be a time that we will get to see everybody. so bye for now! hopefully ill update tomorrow : ) ~jennifer