Its been a while since there's been a real one of these...

Hello!
Here's the weekly update on my life:
We had our first old testament assignment due this week, on the books of first and second samuel. it was really easy, so that went well. I managed to get in an argument with one of my room mates as well as Karen, and have made up with both of them, but learned humility and forgiveness in the process. then two of my roommates got in an argument and I learned how to be compassionate and to be patient. we went to manchester yesterday and that was really overwhelming... to be thrown back into the real world... aka a mall.
as for the full update here is is:
Physically- I am tired, and starting to feel a cold comming on, so I am popping vitamin C and echanacia, and trying desperately to get more sleep, but that is far easier said than done.
Acidemically- as usual, I am behind, and am now counting on Christmas break to catch up with my work, but am working really hard to be caught up right now so that I can make the most of my time at christmas.
Mentally- we all know I'm going crazy, so lets not even go there. haha.... no seriously, its starting to be hard mentally to be in the same place seeing the same people all of the time... I am descovering how fabulous it can be to just go out and walk.
Spiritually- I feel like I am getting back into the Godly life that God designed me to live. and its feeling so good. When I was home I was so dry and drained that being here, I feel like I'm full up, but in reality I'm probably not even half full yet. So what I'm really saying is that I am doing really well spiritually- learning alot and very often, which can be almost overwhelming, but its so good!

This upcoming week we have our first memory verse test, which I am scared spitless about, because I have yet to even start memorising verses, but am going to work on that this afternoon. I also have a new project that only I can work on... I have a new penpal from Israel that is at the torchbearer's school in Germany, so I'm really excited about that!
Otherwise... there is not much happening here at Capernwray Hall in England. we only had church once today, instead of twice so that we can have quiet time tonight, which will be really nice, I always apreciate the designated quiet time.. because otherwise I find myself getting occupied with the other goings on of the castle. Its not even really exciting things either. actually thats something Karen and I were talking about last night, how we have started to be REALLY excited about really small things. like going bowling, or having spoons at tea (that means there is desert), or clean sheets, or doing laundry, or real coffee, Pretty much the things that were I at home would be trivial, but here we are for real excited about because life is so simple and often times boring.
Internet is on now, so I'll go down and post this. I hope you all are well! perhaps this a good a time as any to remind you of my email (laurel_j_baillie@hotmail.com) if you ever want to write, or even my snail mail... which I would love to get even just a short note from you!
Laurel Baillie
Capernwray Hall
Carnforth, Lancashire
LA6 1AG
England

I love you all!
Laurel

quick update

Hello friends,
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your prayers last night! I went to bed in a complete and total awkward situation, and woke up with my three room mates, all friends. Praise God for his work in all of our hearts! he is so good to me! and again.. thank you for stopping to pray for me.... I apreciate it more than you know!
God bless,
Laurel

Prayer Request

Hi Friends,
I am sorry to make this a very vague post, but I just would like to ask you to please pray for me and one of my room mates, Kelsey, I am afraid that our friendship maybe broken because of something I said... and I have done all that I feel I can to repair that friendship... please pray for God's healing in both of our lives right now. You have no idea how much I would appreciate that!
Much Love,
Laurel

Internet is too Slow For Pictures... sorry!

Alright, so another pre- written blog. thats alright, isnt' it?
This week has been really uneventful, nothing special. We had another test, on personal evangelism, where I had to answer the way Rob lectured, not the way I would have answered, so I didn't like that. And we got back our first test, on Luke, where I did REALLY bad. so we wont' talk about that too long here either.
Right now I have two extra friends in my room, as well as two of my three room mates. They are 'working' on our assignment thats due on thursday. that I should be working on, but you know how I work... I procrastonate untill the last second. I'm working on that though, on being less of a procrastonater, in fact, my day today is devoted to my assignment on 1&2 Samuel. which the consensus of my comrades in my room is 'this is going to be easy' as Liz just declaired. oh right , thats what I was talking about, room mates. haha. Rachel, our English Room mate, is getting quite annoying. and I think she is catching on that we are kind of excluding her from all of our 'events'. I feel really bad about that, and am working on being a better room mate, but at the same time, I don't understand how she can be so inconsiderate of the rest of us, literally banging around the room while we were still sleeping. ugh. actually, she is loud ALL OF THE FREEKING TIME! she never shuts up (often talking in her sleep even), and goes a million miles an hour, and never stops!
Wow! this room never stops. I just had a visit from my friend Alex, from Dalmeny, wanting to borrow one of my movies. Its funny how we didn't meet until we were here, we have so many of the same friends and groups of friends, and aquantances that it is unreal that we haven't met before now. So pretty much when we get back from Capers, we are going to be like best friends. ok, well, Ashley you will always be my #1, but Alex is going to be up there a bit!! Haha, ok, well, that was a pointless topic right there.
Last night Mom called me to talk about our trip to Ghana. she'll be booking our tickets this week, and I may have to book my own from here in England to make it cheeper, but its so exciting to have this actually start in motion. I am so excited to spend that time with my family getting to know them all as adults and stuff. AND I am so excited to spend that time in the sun. I know that sounds a little silly, but my skin is becoming transparent with my pasty whiteness. its almost disgusting. haha.
Boy, I am in a silly mood this morning.
Have I ever told you what our saturday brunches are like? let me tell you. they are gross. like every other meal. we have roasted tomatoes, baked beans, canned muchrooms, nasty english sausage, Bacon that is really really fatty ham, and wanna be hashbrowns, and if we are lucky we get toast. and then if we are really lucky, they will have PB or Jam. And lunches are like this random meat in this random sauce with rice. and suppers are sandwiches. not even kidding you. meals here are nasty and they suck. and they never change. friday lunches are good though, cause its fish and chips. YUM!

Funny story. this week I have already been paired with two different boys, and been asked if I like either of them. haha. thats #2 and 3. and I've been told that another guy flirts with me all the time. Its a funny thing, because I have never had those kinds of relationships with guys, I am always the friend, or the sister figure, so this is a new experience for me, and well... I don't think I like it. I like being just friends with guys, I mean, I really am not looking to step away from this year with an awkward long distance relationship with any guy. Plus the ones this week makes it really funny. because they are two totally different guys. Jeremy is from Calgary and he's really athletic, and he and I are floss buddies- we floss in class together. and then there is Mike, and he is from Seattle and he and I are Internet buddies- we check our emails together on week nights and share music and make fun of those emo kids that lie to be impressive. or make fun of... pretty much anybody together. Its fun. and then there is always Paul. but he flirts with anything that has boobs, and I think I qualify for that one.

haha, I just realized how awkward this paragraph could be for some of you (sorry Dad)! So maybe we'll move onto the next topic!
Well... I don't know if there is another topic, I mean thats all we talk about, who is pairing up with who, and who shouldn't really pair up with who but are doing it anyway, and well... its really gossipy, but its what happens. there is deffenetly a 'bridal school' feel to this place. even with the 2:1 girl/guy ratio here. People are so funny.
well.. perhaps I should coninue on with life, and work on my assignment, even though I've let the other girls borrow my bible, because the opening pages of each book pretty much answer the questions that we need to answer for this assignmnet. is that cheeting? I think not, I mean, I am still reading the books to get what I can out of it. so I don't think its cheeting.
Have a really great week! I miss you all!
Much Love,
Laurel

No Pictures on Saturday?!

Alright, so I was going to post pictures today from London, but apperently the internet is really slow here at school... who woulda guessed? Instead, you get a LAME update of my week! LUCKY! (haha, FYI- Napoleon Dynamite only JUST made it to England, so the english students are only just starting to make Napoleon jokes, and the Canadian/ American students really make fun of them)
This week was super good, actually. I am still recouperating from my weekend in London, so I'm tired, but it was a really good week- socially. Acedemically... not so good. I had my first test (on the book of Luke) on tuesday, and Got my first assignment back last night- 77%... not so good.
But alot of people stopped me (aka my roomies) saying that they noticed me hanging out with alot of different people than usual, and that they were impressed... and that made me feel really good. Again, I have found myself without one specific group of friends, rather a whole collage of different friends and groups, and of course, that is how I like it. But let me tell you a couple of stories:
As you all are well aware of, I am of a small stature,and well... some guys find it amusing to pick me up, or put things in high places so that I can't reach them. Well.. on thursday evening, Paul and Rudolf kind of ganged up on me! They stole one of my shoes, and my seasoning salt. of course I chose to chase Paul with my Seasoning Salt- I mean, who would choose shoes over salt? obviously not me. so I seriously chased him around the castle 10 times before he ended up throwing it up onto a REALLY high ledge that he couldn't even reach (need I remind you that he is like an 8 foot giant... ok, only like 6"4, but still) so in order to get my seasoning salt back I had to sit on his shoulders. originally he wanted me to stand on his shoulders, but I completely refused that one. so I got it back. but I was stuck on his shoulders... and he descovered that my feet are ticklish... not so fun. I was stuck for like 5 minutes there. and when I was returned to the sturdy floor, I had to find my shoe... that rudolf hid... really high.
so that was thursday. what about friday?
well.. my friday dutie was cleaning the boys rooms. SO MUCH FUN! haha, they were disgusting, yes, but nonetheless it was fun. we danced and sang really loud to some nasty music, and left notes for pretty much every boy. ALOT OF FUN! And some of the guys came back early and gave us chocolate, or sang and danced with us... and pretty much just had the best time EVER. And then last night, we had roomie night in my room, and we watched Phantom of the Opera and ordered Pizza and drank soda. It was super fun, and totally worth it. like you have no idea.
Today is just a lazy day, and I'm not doing much. I was going to spend the time to put up pictures, but it would seriously take about an hour to do that, and I really need to get some reading done. we have another test on tuesday, on Personal Evangelism, and apparently its the hardest test that we will write, and I have to memorise like 7 verses by then. so I need to get onto that. plus I am officially like 3 books behind in my reading, with an assignment on 1&2 Samuel due next week. AH! school is getting a bit stressful, and I'm going to have to buckle down and be a good student... for once in my life.
Have a great day!
Much love,
Laurel

I WENT TO LONDON!!

Alright, so this is the first time I have pre-written a blog, but I wanted to get down everything that happened in London before I forgot, because I am certain I will forget before I get the chance to post this online!
So the adventure started on Thursday night, when we left for carnforth on the minibus, driven by the lovely and wonderful Jo, aka the RA, aka my family leader, and favorite staff member. once there, we hung out at the train station for about an hour, and then got a train to Preston, where we had to get off to catch the coach to london. the only issue was we got to Preston at 11:30 pm, and the bus didn't leave till 5:45 am. and we had no where to stay. so.... we found a Subway (as in the resaraunt) that was open untill 4 am, and got permission to hang out there (oh, by the way there were 13 of us at this point... our smaller group of 4, and a larger group of 9) untill it closed. That was an interesting experience in itself as it was right next to all the popular clubs in the city, and we got to see alot of the after effects of partying a little too hard on a thursday night. After Subway closed, we wandered around and found this tunnel underground that was warmer than just being out, and there we were able to take off our packs and sit donw and sing songs and laugh, and just generally have fun. FINALLY the bus stationopened, so we went to the bathroom and boarded our double decker bus. The 6 hour bus ride was spent sleeping.
When we got to london (this is friday now) we split into our respective groups and went on our ways for the weekend. this ended up being for the best, as my group was getting quite annoyed with the other group. My group consisted of Karen, Stacie (from wisconsin) and Rudolf (from germany). We were later joined, at the hostel, by Stacie's friend Markus from Sweeden, who met us there. so we got settled in our awkward and tiny hostel with 3 random room mates that we never really got to meet, becasue they were out clubbing untill 4 am, and slept far longer than we did.
So friday night, we went out to Lecister Square to get some Chineese food and buy tickets for Les Miserables on Saturday night. we also stopped at starbucks. Then, we went to see Big ben, the westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, the Marble Arch, and walked through hyde park. pretty much all of this was done on foot, and a million pictures were taken, and alot of jokes were laughed at. it was really fun. Probably one of the highlights of the weekend, even though we only saw the outsides of all of the buildings and nothing super exciting happened.
So, we went back to the hostel, climbed into bed, and fell asleep right away. And when we woke up all seemed normal.... untill I noticed an extra body in the bunk below mine. AH!
Saturday started with us Going to Herrod's, which is like the hugest and richest department store of my life. All the workers dress like they are in an old time trading post, and everything is uber decadent and expensive. I bought tea. And we got Gelato, which was oh so good! From there we went to the National Gallery, and saw paintings By Monet and Picasso, as they had a special display on, and the only permanent pice that we sought out was Leonardo Di Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks, which was super cool to see... to stand in the shadow of greatness. WOW! and then we went to the British Museum... and saw the Rosary Stone! I had no idea that this is where it was located, and everyone got a kick out of how excited I was to just stand and look at an engraved stone, but I don't think they understand how pivital this one piece of earth was in changing the way modern society views and interprets history! wow! and we also took time to see the greek and roman displays... where we got to see statues and engraved rocks and pillars... very cool. This is the one place that I would love to have spent an entire day exploring and taking tours of. Then we went to H&M- a trend store that is famous in England... so that was cool. really busy though. Then we dropped off our days findings at the hostel, ate a 5 minute supper at KFC, and Ran to catch Les Miserables. which was super good. The boys didn't join us on this venture, and when we asked them what they did they responded 'we found a drug dealer'. of course we thought they were only joking untill Rudolf asked us what Dope was. SO FUNNY! Lamely, we went back to the hostel after this and fell asleep.
When we awoke, we had a brand new experience. The bunk below mine was blocked off with extra sheets... and there were two (2) naked bodies in the bed. OH SO AWKWARD! Thank goodness I didn't have to hear anything... thanks to dad's job, it takes alot for me to wake up. whew.
So Sunday morning (early) Markus left us, so we were left to navigate the underground by ourselves. so we set of into Hyde park (walking) to find the statue of Peter Pan. that took about a half an hour, and so we continued on to see the (under repair) Fountian put up for Princess Diana. so... we continued on throughthis HUGE park to buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. it was super hard to see anything through the hoards of people, so we only really saw like 3 minutes of the event. After this we hopped on the tube and went to find the theatre that Hillsongs London was located in. we found it no problem and found ourselves with about an hour to spare and really hungry tummys. So, we just happened to ask the exact right couple if they new of any good restarants in the area, and they walked us to a GREAT Chineese buffet, and on the way we found out that they go to hillsongs, and know people that went to capernwray. how good it was to talk to someone who was genuinely lovely! So lunch was good... and we headed back for church. and WOW! it was so good! the worship was unreal, even though I didn't know any of the songs, and the sermon was good... even though I fell asleep! ok, seriously, it wasn't because it was a bad sermon, I was really just that tired. wow. but the thing that impacted me the most abotu this church was how many people aproached us after the service. For such a large church (about 3500, which is HUGE for england) I didn't expect people to pick us out as visitors, but they did- about 5 of them. and that was so good.
After church we went to see St. Paul's cathedral, where we got to hear the endings of an Organ concert, and then we started walking to find the globe theatre. on the way we saw THE most amazing sunset of my life. so good! we got lost a bit too.. of course, but eventually found it- 15 minutes after the last tour started. that was a dissapointment, but it was alright! From there we walked through a series of sketchy back allies, and along the warf of the canal river to the Tower bridge, on the way we saw a movie filmed. Walking across the Tower bridge was one of my favorite things of the weekend. It was just fun to walk and take pictures and be silly. After this, we seriously spent 2 hours wandering around getting lost trying to find something to eat. on the way we saw another scene of this movie being filmed and learned that it was the sequal to 28 days later called 28 weeks later. real original, but whatever. now I have to go and see a Zombie movie, just because I saw 2 scenes being filmed. dang. that kinda sucks, but it will be totally worth it!
Finally we found a cheep pub and had fish and chips. then we went back to the hostel to pack up and go to bed.
the weekend finished with another 6 hour bus ride back that consisted of sleeping and studying for the test on luke that we had today.
My finial words are this- if you EVER have the chance to go to London, take it. Seriously, I think it is a place that everyone needs to experience- with the right people of course. but take the opportunity. see the museums and the buildings. You won't regret it.
But at the same time its good to be back. and I lied these aren't my final words.
God taught me so much this weekend through this trip. mostly through my room mates. He taught me what it was like to be in their place for a few days. I mean, some of these people were seriously living in this hostel, and had to deal with these situations everyday, and some of them created these situations. and no matter what they did, these were the people that Jesus would have spent his time with. the people that God calls us to serve. Not nessicarily evangelise to, but to serve. to Show them that we Love them, that we have time for them to just chat about whatever, even if its the cheepest and best Asian buffet in the city, or exactly when you should go to the changing of the guards to catch the best part. or maybe explaining to them why we aren't into the whole clubbing scene- and not just because we arn't allowed to because of school, but because we choose not too. These are real life situations that happen every day, and God just showed me how little my mind is, and how much he has the potential to stretch it in just a few days, but he doesn't, he paces me perfectly, and he backs it up with a blessing- like the wonderful roommates I have back home. I mean, sure, we have our issues, but in the end, no one is having sex on the bunk below mine, and at the end of the day, I have 3 lovely people telling me 'goodnight, I love you' and I couldn't ask for more than that. So God also taught me a lesson in thankfulness.
well.. congradulations on making it to the end! thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this
Laurel

PS- I only have one more thing to say, and it is a confession- Ben, Ashley..... I was the one responsible for Barlow Girl on my computer. ok. It wasn't me. it was Russel, he gave me a Rebecca St. James CD with a song on it by Barlow Girl. how embarassing. But just for laughs... Ben, its still your fault!

Greetings from London

Ok, this is going to be a quick one.
we are here in london, Karen, Stacie, Rudolf and myself. the last two days we were joined by Markus from Sweeden. We have had alot of fun seeing the sights and just being away from the stress of school.
Our hostel, on the other hand, is a real stretch. the first night we had the alarm going off periodically from 4 in the morning till we left for the day. and, we woke up with an extra person in the bunk below me.... two of the opposite gender. this morning, those two had a bed sheet in front of them. whoa, is this uncomfortable or WHAT? needless to say our little minds are being stretched, and we are learning alot.
this morning we are going to church at Hillsongs London... can you say excited?! because thats what I am! Pretty much we are avoiding the Hostel at pretty much all costs, and having the time of our lives in the HUGE city of London!
ok, so thats the quick version of what is going on right now... a full play by play to come- quotes included!
much love,
Laurel