Effusions of Fancy

THE BRITISH LIBRARY

On my solo journey through London for a day, I happened across the British Library. Okay, no. Actually I got a hotel that was about 5 minutes walking distance from the British Library. It was completely intentional. 

It was a wonderful first stop on my library journey. The British Library is the largest library in all of England. I feel like I barely even scratched the surface of it! But I did manage to spend several hours there in bliss and awe. 

My favorite section, by far, was the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, where they keep the “Treasures of the British Library.” There were amazing ancient manuscripts, original copies of the Gutenberg bible, pieces of the Magna Carta, even scraps of paper and envelopes where the illustrious words of “Yellow Submarine” and “Yesterday” were first penned. 

King's Library

But most importantly, here I found Jane Austen’s writing desk and one of her original notebooks. I thought to myself: this is where the magic happened. I wish I could share pictures with you, but alas, there was a strict no-camera rule in that section of the library. And when I say strict, I mean strict. There was a man watching the whole time! No getting past those crazy librarians! ;) But there I “paid homage to Jane Austen” as one of the nice British ladies who worked at the front desk told me to do. 

I found the journal to be rather remarkable. It was Jane’s hands that touched it, her very fingers that created the genius held within it. I think my mouth was agape in a rather stupid way the entire time I gazed at it. The other visitors probably thought I was daft while they were all passing by here and there, hurrying on to the next thing; meanwhile I just stood there, staring for ages, “paying homage” to my favorite author.

It is supposed that Jane Austen’s father gave this particular journal to her when she was quite young. In the front there is an inscription:

“Effusions of Fancy by a very Young Lady consisting of Tales in a Style entirely new.”

What a remarkable description. A bold commission. And a beautiful inspiration.

To all those very young ladies out there…write on.

Au Revoir’s and Cheerio’s

I am currently writing this post from the airport in Toronto, Canada. I left for SFO at 3:30 this morning and so far have gotten about one hour’s worth of unrestful airplane sleep. So I apologize if this post is somewhat dysfunctional and/or nonsensical. 

I am officially further away from home than I have ever been. As I sit here, I am excited about where I’m headed. But it has also been very hard to say goodbye to where I’ve come from. Goodbyes are hard to do. 

A few days ago my friend Brianne shared this quote with me. I pass it on to you: 

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, like you’ll not only miss the people you love, but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place. Because you’ll never be this way ever again.” -Azar Nafis.

Goodbye America. Goodbye Canada. Goodbye friends. Goodbye church family. Goodbye work family. Goodbye biological family. I love you, I shall miss you, and I shall see you again.

Goodbye old self. I’m moving on.

The Goals

Yes, I know the stereotype: small-town girl travels to a big city in a foreign country for an extended period of time…what must she do? she must start a blog! The fact that I am an English major doesn’t help the situation at all. It is expected. It is predicted. It must be done!

But fear not, dear reader; I am determined to break the mold. And although my blog shall probably include some random musings of a hopeless-romantic English major and artsy photos of places to make any normal human being jealous, I promise that is not the point or the goal of my humble site. 

So here are the goals and the things that you can expect from this blog:

An invitation to “walk a mile in my oxfords.” I’m finally venturing away from the life I’ve always known. For the next four months I will be living in Oxford, England of all places! I can't even tell you how excited I am. I would like to give people an opportunity to share in my experiences. You’ll get little snippets of the things that I see, the things that I learn, the things that I think (which may or may not be quite frightening), and the things that the Lord shows me and changes within me.   

100 days, 119 libraries. My original plan was for this blog to be focused on libraries. For those of you who do not know me well, I have wanted to be a librarian since I was a junior in high school. As a college senior, I still have the same goal. So for a small town librarian-to-be, the chance to live in Oxford for 3 months was nothing short of a dream! I decided to make it my goal to visit every library in Oxford and document my findings in this blog. However, I discovered yesterday that there are 119 libraries in Oxford. This was not exactly what I expected. I thought 30? Sure. … 50? Wouldn’t surprise me. … But 119!? Seen as though I will only be living there for 100 full days, this should be fun! So we’ll see if I can still accomplish my goal. But I will have the help of my little Kona Africa bicycle (which has a basket, by the way. This makes me strangely excited). But I have accepted the challenge! Wish me luck!

Peeks at my bookshelf. I have the amazing opportunity to study English Literature in the place where many of my favorite authors studied and where many of their works were originally constructed, published, taught, etc. I would love to share snippets of what I am learning/reading with you all. 

Pleas for prayers. This entire experience will be brand new for me…in so many ways. But I feel so so so so blessed…and a little bit scared, I must admit. Please pray that the Lord will give me safety, and bravery, and a missionary’s heart no matter where I go. I definitely expect to be changed. But I also hope to play a part in changing people along the way. I am excited to share what God is doing, and I will probably be requesting prayer along the way :)

So grab your laptop and a spot of tea…and think of me.