In Which Kailey Makes Friends

          This weekend I finally got an opportunity to hang out with people. Since I left Denver two weeks ago, it’s been a very rousing episode of Kailey Kaes vs. the World. This summer, I lived with the Kaes family plus in a house under construction. Someone slept on my bedroom floor for six weeks while we all carried shower water in camp style washbasins out to the back patio for dishes.  And as fun as that was, it was refreshing to be alone and in a completely functional dwelling at first.  But then life reminded me that this was no vacation. Wading through City University's administration made any poor administration I’ve ever dealt with look like a well-oiled machine. I am not exaggerating. As life hit me like a ton of bricks, I began to feel very much alone. Although I've talked, smiled, made conversation, and shaken people’s hands, I haven’t spent any significant time with any one person, and I haven’t been invited to join anyone in their goings about along the way. Nor have I met anyone very interested in being around me. So come Friday night, I closed my curtains, curled up, and fell asleep without ceremony.

            But Saturday was a different story.  A couple of months ago, one of my childhood friends and I reconnected at a birthday party of a mutual friend, and hit it off. (We were the only two post-adolescent, pre-child rearing people there, so of course we struck up a conversation.) We knew each other in the eighth grade, and hadn’t really spoken since then, but found out that we were both going to be studying in England this semester. Naturally I contacted her when I got to England to see if she wanted to hang out. She did, and this weekend she and her roommates extended open arms, very kindly allowing me to follow them around Oxford while they explored some of their surroundings. We walked through a pasture, made memories in the Eagle and Child (the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien met), went to the Pritt museum, and attended an evensong service at New College, where, incidentally, a scene from Harry Potter was filmed on the lawn. The evensong service is a whole nother story that I will tell at a different time. (Yes, I realize that is not a word. But what is an alternative?) 

            Today, I went to King’s Cross Baptist Church, not far from where I live. I happened to be there for the church’s “Global Service,” a day set aside every two months for both the people who attend the English service and those who attend the French service to come together as a body. The folks were very welcoming, and many people were visiting there from Alabama for some sort of training program. I met one guy my age who plays organized Ultimate Frisbee for a team in London. When he found out what school I attend here, he immediately tried to put me in contact with the president of the Christian Union at City, whipping out his phone and wielding social media to all of its ends.  After lunch, some of us split into teams and went on a scavenger hunt around London looking for different monuments, landmarks, and shops in the area. Please excuse my phraseology, but there are a butt load of historical landmarks in west central London. Just saying. 

            All that to say, it was nice to interact with and enjoy so many people this weekend. To know that I’m not entirely alone. And that I never really am.

Avert your eyes little brother. He was just so beautiful. 

My friend Maddie is a huge fan of snails. I respect her for this because I'm pretty sure I love snails more than anyone roaming the face of the earth.  

A wall hanging in the Eagle and Child. 

On the way to meet back up with our group, we saw hundreds of rollerbladers led by this man, rolling in droves down the street to loud music that I wasn't familiar with but that got stuck in the heads of the European among us.

The courtyard in New College