Thursday, 2-22-96
12:24 AM London
6:24 PM E-Town (2-21-96)
BUZZZZ…. That’s me right now! J/K ☺︎ But not really… I am quite happy at the moment! Just returned from a beer after Canoe Club, w/ my Canoe buddies, at the ULU “Duck & Dive!” Tonght was a fabulous evening at Canoe Club! I arrived a bit late, but got to play in 3 games! And I didn’t play 1/2 bad! Actually, I got many compliments, even from the blokes, on how well I did tonight! ☺︎
I spoke a lot w/ Rita & Chelsea after practice, while we were getting dressed. We exchanged #s & even e-mail addresses! Rita wants me to come to some 80’s dance club w/ her one night soon… She sounds like she ❤︎’s 80’s tunes & knows them well, like me! ☺︎
Before Canoe Polo I had my marathon God worship at Newman…. Beginning at 5:30 PM w/ Ash Wednesday mass! Jill, Ruth, Nick, Anne, Lori & another gal from Birkbeck all came as well for their ashes & mass… I was so happy to see them all there (they had been to visit me last night & today to ask directions to Newman for mass ☺︎)!
Then was “Growing in Faith.” Topic being “Christ as Our Savior.” Fr. Tim wants us to proclaim this to ourselves, God, & then him in the coming week… We’ll see!?! ☺︎
I continue to get to know the Catholic students active in Newman activities, such as “Growing in Faith.” I enjoy chatting w/ them! I stayed for all of the Charismatic Prayer group tonight & really enjoyed it! The song & praise helped to lift my spirits & feel closer to God & the community here…
Prior to this spiritual awakening, in a sense, this evening, it had been a long & tiring, and even somewhat stressful day!
It began with having over planned my day… Then, when I received my Mortar Board & Ma-Wan-Da applications in the mail, from Alison, I just got overwhelmed…
From my London History class I went to do e-mail & work on the applications…
I had messages from Dad, Meg, & numerous Koinonia friends, responding to a letter I had sent the K-List yesterday! I also got a message from Kerry Weston, who is due in from Galway, Ireland for the ISA “London Weekend” on Thurs.! She is excited for our rendezvous, as am I! ☺︎
The Ma-Wan-Da application took longer than I’d hoped, which was frustrating… I e-mailed the answers to the ques. on it, cuz it was due today in Champaign. I hope they still consider me for the Senior Activities/Leadership Honorary, even though I am overseas!
After that, I stopped into STA travel, at the ULU, to gain info about flight times & costs for Lori & my weekend in Ireland the weekend after my b-day, in March…
While there, I came across a travel brochure for a guided Europe trip, on a coach bus which involves a lot of camping! It seems fairly economical & covers much of what I care to see here, after school is over… So my options remain open, I suppose?!
I would like to travel w/ Ruth, but this just sounds so brilliant! Maybe she’ll want to go too? Well, rounding it up… After getting Ireland info, I cam home for a quick “Cheesy Mac” lunch/dinner & then was back to campus for mass, as I said before!
Time for some sleep…
CHEERS! ☺︎
P.S. Dad played phone tag w/ T & Mark at Camp Algonquin, but quoted, word-for-word, a message Mark left on dad’s voice-mail, that said he would really like to offer me the position of AUD this summer! I am not sure if that means he for sure is asking me to be an AUD, but it sure sounds that way… Oh, I do hope so! As always, time will tell & I know what’s meant to be will…
P.P.S. Got a message that Ron called, while I was out this evening… I am so looking fwd to some quality time w/ him this weekend! ☺︎ It is too late to return his call, so it will have to wait till tomorrow…
Zzz
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Note from Present Day Kathy: This entry was such a mix of joy, stress, faith, wonder, and anticipation! I got tired just reading about everything I packed into that day/Ash Wednesday…
At 43, I still struggle, at times, with over-programming my life and my family’s.
I don’t recall ever going to an 80’s dance club with (not her real name) Rita that semester or hanging out with her a lot more, other than going for drinks at the Duck & Dive (after Canoe Polo Club on Wednesday nights) and our awesome night at the Purple’s Ball, but I do think we stayed in touch via e-mail, briefly, after I returned to the states. Rita was the person I felt like I got to know best from Canoe Polo Cub, and there was only so much time for me to socialize during my time in London. So I get that I wasn’t going to do everything I ever discussed with some of the friends I made there.
The K-List was an e-mail discussion group that people in our Koinonia (what the K in K-List stood for) faith community, from the Newman Center back at the University of Illinois (U of I), used to talk (electronically)about questions we had related to our faith and religion. I believe we also used it for prayer requests. I think I shared some of what I learned and was discussed at one of the previous “Growing in Faith” sessions at Newman House in London and was curious was some of my Catholic friends back in the States thought.
(Not her real name) Kerry was one of two of my fellow sorority sisters at U o f I who also studied abroad that semester. Kerry was in Ireland and (not her real name) Suzie was in France. It was awesome to share that experience with them both, as we understood what all three of us were going through, during our time overseas, and when we returned, having been gone for a semester.
I don’t recall the details of how (not her real name) Ruth and I ended up traveling together, after our classes ended that semester in London. I think timing certainly had something to do with it, as my roommate (not her real name) Lori’s classes ended significantly sooner and she planned to return to the States before I did. So Lori did most of her travels to other countries on the weekends. It is interesting to see what options I was considering back then. I imagine camping with a group like that would have also been in fun way to see Europe, especially at that age/time in my life.
I think it’s interesting that I mention in this entry believing that whatever is meant to be will be, as I’ve shared in previous commentary on my journal entries, my perspective on that has changed since then and I no longer think we are destined for anything to happen (or not happen) to us.
Also, I appreciate how excited I was to see both (not their real names) Kerry and Ron that weekend, as though I was having the time of my life that semester abroad in London, I still got homesick a lot and spending time with familiar faces, whom I knew previous to my time there was fun and comforting.
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Reminder: Unless I’ve been given permission to use people’s actual names, in most cases I’ve removed or replaced the names of the real people who were part of my journey/experience there, in effort to protect and respect their identities/privacy in my London Semester Journal entries. I will also not share details that I think and feel are too personal for anyone I interacted with, my loved ones, and me.
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Here’s the back story of My London Semester Journals from 1996, including what prompted me to revisit and decide to share them here in 2018. And here’s a list a list of the entries, which I will update as I share them.
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