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| Windsor Castle - gloomy morning |
July 16 – August
14, 2018 – “The London 15” – OBU Student Abroad in London, England
This summer, I had the privilege of spending a month
in England with a group of 15 students from Oklahoma Baptist University. Dr. Lindsey Panxhi (an English faculty
colleague) and myself, along with our respective spouses, conducted a
faculty-led StudyAbroad that spent four weeks on the ground in London teaching
OBU courses to OBU students while being immersed in the culture and history of
Great Britain. These are our stories!
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| Windsor Castle panorama |
Monday, July 30
– Windsor Castle
Well, today we are missing Alethea’s 15th
birthday, and I feel tremendously guilty about it. I wish we were at home. I’m having a great time in London, experiencing
and learning SO much, but it can’t possibly be worth it to miss our daughter’s
birthday. Worse still, we’ve committed
to doing the London trip next summer as well, which will mean missing Alethea’s
16th birthday too. What kind
of a father misses his girl’s 15th and 16th
birthdays? I say I love her, and I
surely do, something fierce – but do my actions demonstrate that love adequately?
I wonder. 
From where that girl started, with a difficult
pregnancy, premature emergency birth, and early surgery, she continues to
astound and inspire me. She is so smart
and funny, musical and pleasant – she is the most amazing kid we know! I worry that missing her birthday conveys the
impression that she matters less in our eyes than the other kids, but that is
not the case in the least.
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| St. George's Chapel |
Our day in London … today we took a trip to Windsor
Castle, where Prince Harry and Megan Markle were married earlier this
year. The town around Windsor train
station was quite touristy and trendy, and a bit on the pricey side.
The Castle itself was huge and beautiful. There was a very nice tour of the State
Apartments that was quite pleasant, and then St. George’s Chapel (wedding site)
was amazing. But overall, Windsor was a
let-down.
