I made it to Cambridge!
I’m writing you from my hotel room at around 5:30 p.m. British time. There’s a pot of English Breakfast Tea to my left which I’ve just brewed, and, believe it or not, it’s already dark outside. The sun starts setting at four o‘clock in the afternoon here, which isn’t too different than the United States.
I’m still in shock that the long-awaited semester in the United Kingdom has at last arrived. It’s hard to believe I’ve been planning this trip since my sophomore year of college, and when I return in April, I’ll be a month out from graduating! COVID-19 really slowed things down, yet I have no doubt that January 2022 was the exact right moment for me to go.
For those of you who know me, you’ll be quite familiar with the obstacles that arose these past few weeks in trying to get abroad. When I woke up on the morning of January 17, I wasn’t even sure I would be able to get on my plane to London.
A little over a week ago, I contracted what was most likely the Omicron variant of COVID-19. My symptoms were very mild—I just felt like I had strep throat for a few days. However, because of quarantine guidelines, I had to stay at my home in Knoxville and take my pre-departure classes via Zoom. Before arriving at Lee that week, the rest of the group also tested for COVID-19, and two others came back positive, in which they also quarantined for that week as well.
Everyone going on the trip received at-home COVID-19 antigen tests we were instructed to take approximately 24 hours before our 10 p.m. flight from Atlanta on Tuesday evening. I wasn’t confident my test would come back negative on Tuesday morning, considering the virus had only been in my system for a little over a week. Unfortunately, I was correct; my test came back positive, meaning I still had Covid antigens. Even though I wasn’t contagious anymore, it was important that I would test negative when getting to the U.K. so I wouldn’t need to quarantine there. The entire 48 hours leading up to my Covid test in London was a tumultuous mix of anxiety, fear, and frustration.
However, by the grace of God, everyone’s tests after arriving in the U.K. came back negative! I was shocked. I haven’t stopped thanking God, and I’m so grateful to everyone who lifted up a prayer for my group and I along the way.
We pretty much hit the ground running when we got to our hotel. After dropping off our bags and taking quick showers, Andy—our British point-person for our entire 3-month stay—led us on a walk around Cambridge before dinner. He did this so we wouldn’t fall asleep because, as you can imagine, we were all extremely jet-lagged.
I’ve always adored city life, but I’ve noticed over the past couple of days that Cambridge is the sort of British city I’ve always pictured in my mind. For one thing, you can walk pretty much everywhere you’d need to go. We walled about 20,000 steps (literally) yesterday. If you opt not to go on foot, you can also cycle, which most everyone seems to do as well. A different chapel, cathedral, or uni gate sits on every street corner, each contributing to Cambridge University’s 31 colleges. Alumni from this very trip informed us of how to sneak into the different colleges, as some are more prestigious than others, and all have a porter who sits at the gates and verifies that only students are passing through. A few of us managed to sneak into Trinity College yesterday, which was founded by King Henry VIII. We even got so far as the students-only library and dining hall before nonchalantly slipping out!
Our group will be utilizing Girton College as our study space during the day; we have classwork to complete from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. However, on the days and weeks that we spend traveling, we don’t have assignments due. For instance, next week, we’ll be traveling to Bath and Sommerset, then we‘ll return to Cambridge for a week or so before visiting our next destinations. It’s an incredibly unique opportunity, unlike any semester I’ve had before.
I do feel, very strongly, the tension of wanting to do as much as possible straightaway or taking an evening to rest. I’ve always struggled in that area; I’m an extroverted introvert, someone who wants to do things with people but also desperately wants to be alone at the same time. The lovely thing about traveling is that you get to know yourself better in every new experience you have, which I am eager for.
I never anticipated that I would spend my final semester of college in another country, living out of a suitcase and seeing more of the world than many people do at twenty-one. I remember when I first applied to go on this semester-long adventure, I felt very guilty because I didn’t see how going on a trip like this would benefit someone else’s life; it felt like a very selfish thing to me. I think I felt that way partly because, as a Christiian, I was raised in a culture which equates ministry as something one does inside a church building or within a religious organization. Yet, my perspective of ministry has changed quite a lot in the two years since then. The way I see it, ministry and Christian fellowship can be anything from serving soup at a homeless shelter to sitting with a friend over coffee and scones. Ministry is doing life with the people in your community—being a friend, taking care of one another, sharing a meal, cracking a joke, building a relationship with a total stranger on the basis of love and friendship, not as a conversion tactic. And ministry can be done from anywhere, at any time, with anyone. We are all the body of Christ—where we go, He goes. He is not limited to showing up at the places He is most expected, but rather also the places He is least likely to be.
Just a few first day thoughts :) I’m going to try and keep these posts short, sweet, and frequent! Please don’t hold me to that, though, because I have a feeling it might be challenging to keep up blogging once classes pick up.
If you’d like to visually follow along my journey in the U.K., you can follow me on Instagram (@hannahincambridge).
Cheers!
<3 Hannah
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