Adventures in Church-Going

I must start out by admitting that I didn't actually have any such adventures today - instead I decided to sleep in. I have, however, visited a couple of churches in the past month, and have definitely had unique experiences at both. The first church I visited was an old Anglican church in the town centre of Yarmouth. It is a beautiful building, and the service seemed fairly typical of the Church of England (based on my extremely limited experience with that denomination) - except for the fact that there were dogs and cats (and some snails!) present in the congregation, along with a couple dozen humans. Apparently I was visiting on "Pet Sunday" and people were bringing in their animal friends to be blessed. That was definitely something new for me. The other church that I visited was also quite small and the people were extremely welcoming, but I don't think it's the place for me. It was a little too open-ended and disorganized for even me (although there is definitely something to be said about not over-rehearsing for Sunday morning services). So it seems as though I must continue my search for a church community - although I may check out the "pet" church again sometime.

In other news...well, there isn't much to say that I haven't already said in previous posts. Here are a few things that may or may not interest you:

The school weeks continue to fly by (which is good, because the weekends fly by equally quickly). My classes are still challenging but manageable, and the weather is still sunny and fairly warm (even though it's England! It's quite amazing, actually).

The stores here have already started selling Christmas candies, cards and decorations, which seems ridiculously early, though not entirely surprising.

I have just finished reading Marley & Me by John Grogan, which I quite enjoyed. It's obviously not great literature, but it is an entertaining read. Who doesn't like stories about precocious dogs?

I have also discovered a couple of British TV shows that I can tolerate (although I'm not sure I should admit to watching either of them...): Da Ali G Show and X-Factor, which is like American Idol except maybe slightly less annoying.

I said "pants" instead of "trousers" for the first time on Friday, luckily not in front of any students.

Other than that, I am feeling quite settled and am looking forward to doing some travelling in the next month or so. So I guess that's that.

To close, here is this week's chocolate bar tally: 5 and two thirds remaining. Of course, I consistently fail to mention the various other forms of chocolate I consume on a daily basis...