Welcome Home

I have returned home to Indonesia. The concept of home in this case is convoluted. I'm not going to go into depth; I'm only going to state that in this case I'm calling Indonesia home because it's where my parents live. So far, I have been home for around two weeks and I'm beginning to get used to the heat again. It's beautiful here. Nothing quite equals waking up in the morning and being able to walk outside and watch as the clouds brush over the mountains that surround Malang.

It's warm enough to stand around outside in nothing but pyjama shorts. Much to my parents chagrin, I have often taken advantage of this fact. Don't get me wrong, tropical heat can be overbearing and oppressive at it's worst. However, it is nice to not have to carry a coat everywhere. I have also enjoyed living in my flip-flops, or thongs as the Australians have christened them (but why?!). I haven't actually left the house yet without my flip-flops on. I see very little point getting sweaty feet wearing other types of footwear. Sure everywhere else is sweaty, but not my feet.

I have managed to eat at a variety of cuisine. I believe that in these two weeks I have eaten Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Italian (yeah pizza hut isn't really Italian but what can you do), English, and American cuisine. I'm not entirely sure if describing some of the food I've eaten as cuisine is entirely accurate but as it's the most simple course of action I'm going to stick with it. Tonight I had duck and it was, simply put, really good. The restaurant we went to also serves what is, in my opinion, the best nasi goreng in malang. For the uninitiated among my readers, nasi goreng is the Indonesian phrase for fried rice.

While eating and enjoying the weather have been a large part of my vacation, it hasn't been the most important part of my return home. Spending time with people who I grew up with, and spending time with my family has been the highlight of being home. I've had the chance to catch up with Bethany and Jamen Gallagher who are really dear to me (they're Australian so I'm not sure if they'll find that last statement a touch mawkish). It's been amazing finding out what they've been up to while I've been separate from them. It has also been really rather entertaining spending time with the Buckners. I spent a lot of time with both Jon Mark and Dorothy while growing up and they matter to me a great deal; so finding out how they're lives are shaping up these days is a real privilege. Spending time with my family has also been really interesting. They are all insane. No member of my family is normal, whether it's my huskies or my parents. That's probably the reason I've missed them all so much. I've missed being with people that I know are as loopy as I am.

That concludes my holiday post. I'd like to leave you with a song you may recognise from the Nikon advert:

A social media revolution

My father recently brought to my attention how much rubbish is posted on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Google+. With this in mind I viewed my Facebook news feed and was ashamed to find that the social media generation was actually posting rubbish, unhelpful, boring, and quite often degrading things all over the social part of the internet.

It is such a waste. Social media is such a powerful tool, as everything we post can have an effect on a relatively large group of people. We have the power to influence not just the people we are directly connected to but also the wider network of people connected to us through friends.

If this is true, then why do we repost stupid cat videos and degrading images? Moreover, why do we continue to be mindless meme slaves subscribing to brain killing trash and subjecting others to posts that don't reflect the thoughts and passions of our generation. This repost culture its comparable to endless nyan cat ! This analogy goes further than you might expect. Bad posting is both annoying and endless.

Imagine how much better the internet would be if we posted things that were edifying, that were helpful, that actually mattered. Moreover, imagine how much better people we would be offline. We have to stop pretending that what happens online doesn't affect who we are in the real world. We have to stop filling the internet with rubbish and we have to stop being meme slaves. We have to stop this nyan cat culture.

Worlds Apart (the end of me numbering these posts as miraculous)

Administration: I have decided to stop numbering these posts and calling them miraculous for these three reasons: it's pretentious to continue doing so, my prose isn't all that miraculous, and laziness.

Post: Last lent I gave up coffee and made it my plea that God take my world apart. I made a reference to the Jars of Clay song 'Worlds Apart'. Since then my life has undergone changes, as lives do when left so long. This summer my God made it very clear that this year he was going to do some amazing things this year in both my life and the lives of people I go to school with. I fully expected to be taken out of my comfort zone, to see people's lives changed, and to have my world taken apart. However, these past few weeks I have truly seen what having your world taken apart means. I am unbelievably far out of my comfort zone.  I am in a state of brokenness, but with the joyful anticipation of being rebuilt by God. I truly anticipate that through this process amazing things can and will happen. I have no idea what those things will be, but surprises are fun and life without adventure is boring. 

Also, go listen to 'Worlds Apart'. It's a great song.

YWAM, Jon Mark, Dorothy, Kieran, Tents and Radical Servants (The miraculous thirtieth post)

I went to visit Jon Mark and Dorothy at the weekend. They are both working on the YWAM base in Harpenden. I took Kieran with me. Kieran incidentally isn't a name you get in America. Many the American on the base was struggling with it. 

Anyway, more on to the weekend. We arrived in Harpenden in the afternoon by train and were greeted by Jon Mark (he needs a haircut). We were then taken to the base and we put our stuff down and went and ate some fantastic bangers and mash. After food we helped Jon Mark tidy up some of the base that he is responsible for (he's staff now). After that, was the session (bare in mind that I may have mixed up the order of these events but, meh to that). The session contained some amazing worship and some fantastic speaking (seriously, this guy was as funny as Brian Raegan). The speaker spoke on Humility and radical servant-hood; it was rather fantastic. At the end of the meeting I saw Dorothy and an epic "OH MY GOSH I'VE NOT SEEN YOU IN AN AGE" moment ensued. Eventually after hanging out in one of the buildings Kieran and I headed to the Jon Mark's tent and fell asleep. The weekend involved a lot of catchup time and fellowship. Also, some time was spent drinking the Oval special mocha on base, which has both Irish cream and white chocolate in. I kind of wish Costa did the Oval special mocha. Kieran and I left on Sunday about midday. It was so good to spend time with Jon Mark and Dorothy for even just a weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with them.

I'm now in Beeston, doing work experience in Nottingham University's department of Physics and Astronomy. I'm staying with my grandmother's friend's niece and nephew. They are a lovely family and it's actually really nice staying with them. The bike ride too and from the university is slightly less pleasant, but at least I'm getting exercise. I'm far too busy these days. At least I have a week off next week to just hang out with people. 

Nottingham University (The miraculous twenty ninth post)

I spend a lot of time at Nottingham University for some reason. I'm going there for work experience, for a week, soon. Today I went to one of their open days. Might I note that they have a beautiful campus. I have noted that Nottingham is the benchmark for campus based Universities; what a campus it is. They have a lake, massive swathes of green area, beautiful trees everywhere. I cannot express how pretty the campus is very easily without cliché and hyperbole. Instead I will not attempt to describe the campus further than I already have.
I attended several lectures today. The first was a nano science lecture delivered by Professor Moriarty (yes there were Arthur Conan Doyle references made), who is a very charismatic speaker. This is the second time I have heard him lecture, and I may be considering Nottingham purely based on the fact that he might be delivering my physics lectures. Another good lecture I attended was on gravitational lensing, and the mapping of dark matter. The speaker, Dr Grey, was also very good. While not quite as good as Professor Moriarty, she was still engaging, as was her subject (though I think Grandma fell asleep durning the lecture). The physics practical demonstrations mostly involved fourth year students messing around with liquid nitrogen. It was a good opportunity to interact with Nottingham students first hand, and to gain insight into university life right from the source.

A good day was had by all.

Tropical Storms (The miraculous twenty eighth post)

Well, I've been in England for over a year. While I wouldn't say that I've completely settled in, as one does not ever "completely settle in" after growing up over seas. However, I believe I'm used to many aspects of life over here, that I wasn't accustomed to when I first arrived. For example, I now am used to the weird changes of weather. Or at least I thought I was, until today. Today was unnatural warm and humid for the UK. Then, about midday the tropical storm started. It wasn't exactly a full blown tropical storm, but it was near enough that the locals panicked and several schools sent their student's home. My school bit the bullet and carried on with lessons. I am fairly sure our school will carry on with lessons during the Nuclear Holocaust. The weather has carried on being tropical all day. Allegedly there was a small twister that we were on the edge of as well. This weather has caught me out a little. In the same way, while I am used to living here, some days I am still caught out by bits of culture I don't understand.

Unruly Youths Outdoors (The miraculous twenty seventh post)

Hello readers, I appreciate that this space has been rather quiet of late. That is because I have been sitting exams. Now that I have finished bleeding from my academic pores, I feel that it is high time I began to blog again.
Yesterday, I spent all day in Ashby with some rather entertaining folk. We met up outside of Costa, after I was half an hour late. After many complaints about my inability to show up anywhere on time we headed to the Bathgrounds with promise of cake and merriment. After laying the picnic blankets out, the cake was sliced and, as Tom Wilkinson and I had brought guitars, there was much jamming. As it began to rain a decision was made to move to a more sheltered area. So, we relocated to a more sheltered area and the merriment once again commenced. It must be mentioned that Tom Wilkinson and Harry Turner commenced several matches of Yugioh. Beth Adams ended up having too much Dr. Pepper and Coke which was entertaining for the rest of us. Nothing is more entertaining than a hyperactive ginger. However, while this little shin dig was rather enjoyable, there was an element of sadness as this was really Richard's last official day with us (sadface). We will very much miss you Richard. As a side-note I shall probably do my next Friends series post about Richard. At about 3pm the vast majority of people had to catch a bus. Charlie and I went to Harry's house to play some Dragonball. I lost very badly to both Charlie and Harry. We met Harry's brother. I shall say nothing on the subject of Harry's brother other than that he is completely different to Harry. I had a fantastic day with some very good friends, and I believe there shall be more days spent with friends to come as I have another week of study leave left to fill.