Thankful Thursday #13

IT'S THE FIRST THANKFUL THURSDAY OF 2014 (for me, at least)!

I have MANY things to be thankful for at the moment:

- I am now working part time at a cafe!

- Issue #1 of Harley Quinn

- Seeing Dealer's Choice at the Crescent Theatre Tuesday evening

- Getting good grades in my mocks

- New episodes of Kill La Kill and American Horror Story

- Sorting out a sign language course with Elizabeth

- Planning all my fundraising and my skydive

- PARTY FRIDAY (tomorrow)

- Old, blank tatty books from Camden

- Visiting the Wellcome Collection

The last two weeks have been fantastic. I've done so much and things are continuing to go really well at the moment. I would not change one single thing. 

Maybe I'd ask for no English essays though. I'm sure that would be very pleasant.

Here's an old photo from one of my first trips to London in 2012. You're welcome.

Chennai Challenge Meeting #1

Last Saturday, myself, Sarah, Mary and Chloe trekked on over to London for our first meeting for this year's Chennai Challenge. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am very excited about this and was sincerely looking forward to the day. 

Our meeting was held at the Young Vic (where I'll hopefully be seeing A Streetcar Named Desire later in the year) and here we met the rest of our group who we'll be heading over to India with. There was a grand total of thirteen of us and everyone was very friendly and motivated for the project. It was great hearing from people who had already been before and helped explain their views on what it would be like for us when we go over. 

We had an introduction from Emma and Rob (our project leaders) and some background information about Chennai Challenge, what they have previously achieved and what they keep striving towards. We go over to India for up to three weeks, helping at the YMCA orphanage in Chennai with after school sessions and then also take them on a holiday up to Yellagiri where we give them a fun week of activities. The Blue Edge aspect of the project also sounds very interesting; helping and teaching young adults English. 

We then discussed our expectations of the project and what we think it would be like over in Chennai. As I haven't been to India before, I'm completely clueless as to what it would actually be like. From what I've heard, I'm assuming it will be loud, busy, colourful and eye-opening. 

Mary gave us a song (which is not surprising) which is going to be perfect for when we're over there. Many people said that the crazier you are, the more the kids love you and enjoy themselves. This should be a lot of fun and shouldn't be too embarrassing seeing as everyone will be in it together!

The discussion of fundraising also came up and we discussed various methods of raising money. Someone suggested to me on a train journey not long ago that I hold a variety show evening at a local theatre (possibly my school's). Isaac told us that we should focus on doing as less as possible, for example it may cost us a lot of money to rent out the theatre and then possibly not many people would turn up, causing there to be no profit! We're going to aim on breaking up our fundraising into chunks, doing little parts at a time. Mary, Chloe, Sarah and I are thinking of buying some wristbands to sell for Chennai; helping everyone get something in return for their money! We're going to get on this as soon as possible as we don't want to leave the fundraising until it's too late. 

After Emma's Thought for the Day (which is something we will be doing each day in Chennai), the meeting finally ended and I had a true sense of who I will be working with and what I will expect in the summer. After seeing many video clips and hearing many stories from people who have been previously, I know that I have everything to love forward to. Hopefully this will be a large eye-opener and will give me a different perspective on life as I currently know it.

For the rest of my day in London (as I didn't want to go home straight away, I mean it's LONDON), I visited the Wellcome Collection and then went for dinner at a fish and chip shop in Camden. The day was extremely busy, but terribly worth it.

Here's a few picture's from the day:

After ANOTHER £22.90 train ticket  (I never have any luck with trains) and a #yolo henna pattern on my wrist, I finally made it back to Birmingham successfully. I feel that I'm in London so much; time for an Oyster card. 

"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi

Chennai Challenge 2014

Here's a sneaky little blog post in a small break that I'm having from school work.

A few nights ago, I found out that I've been accepted onto a team to travel to India in the Summer 2014 to help out at an orphanage and then take all the kids to a place called Chennai where they will receive a holiday! A good friend of mine went a few years back and highly recommended it to me, so naturally I am very excited and exhilarated about being accepted onto the team.

Over the next few months, I will be doing plenty of fundraising and letting people know about the work that Chennai Challenge does, as well as attending training days to prepare me for my trip to India. 

As I said before, I am SUPER excited about being able to go along! As it's on my bucket list (on the left of my blog), it'll be nice to get that ticked off. Hopefully if I enjoy it that much, I'll get a chance to go back again in the future.

I'll be keeping a small update here every now and again about how my fundraising is going and keeping everyone updated on my preparation for going along. 

As well as this, I will be having to keep on top of rehearsals, learning Japanese and school work. The next few months are going to be SO exciting. 

HELLO 2014 - NYE, Henry V & Faith Winter Break

WELL HEY EVERYONE. Today is one of my work days as I haven't been dedicating enough time to my school work, so this may just be a quick one. 

The last week has been extraordinarily busy. With NYE, then London and then Stonyhurst, I have literally been non-stop. It's been BRILLIANT.

For New Years Eve, I had a girly night out with my best friends. We all went over to Tuesday's to spend the late afternoon together and gradually got ready throughout the evening. Spending New Year's with my favourite girlfriends was definitely the best way to be entering 2014. 

I hit the sales a few days after Christmas but never managed to find anything that took to my liking; the shops were just so busy and I hate crowds so I didn't really spend that long looking anyway! I decided to outfit repeat and wear my white River Island dress complimented by a simple pair of black heels with a small pearl necklace and red lipstick. LESS IS MORE. 

My main Christmas present was tickets to see Henry V at the Noel Coward Theatre in London, starring Jude Law. My wonderful parents managed to get us tickets somehow and it was absolutely breathtaking.

Jude Law is one of my favourite actors, so it was such a brilliant evening being able to see him in action on stage. He was completely enveloped in the role of Henry, performing with both sheer brilliance and passion. I can only dream of being that good at acting! LIFE GOAL SET.

I bought the poster from the theatre (as seen in the first photo) and today I am hopefully framing it and putting it up in my room. It was such a wonderful day out; hopefully I'll get the chance to see more West End productions throughout 2014.

I left London early the next morning and made my way over to Stonyhurst for the Faith Winter Break. I've only previously been on the younger faith breaks, so this was my first year at the older conference. I was a little nervous of not knowing anyone, but it turned out that plenty of people who I knew from years and years ago all came along aswell! 

The break consisted of prayer, discussions and socialising. It was brilliant being around so many other young people who practise the same religion that I do, so that was always a plus. I've definitely made plenty of new friendships of which I hope to sustain for a long time to come.

The main quote that the session was based around was:

"I have called you by name, you are mine." (Isaiah 43:1) 

This meant that the session was based around vocations and this was the subject of all four of the talks;

1) Baptism

2) Marriage

3) Religious Life

4) Our Place in the Mystical Body of Christ

If not a little difficult to understand at times, the talks were all superb and was presented eloquently and accessible. All four of the speakers were brilliant and they answered the questions from all of us excellently. My eyes have been opened to many different things and I have thoroughly been enlightened to certain topics that I didn't understand before the session.

As I said, there was plenty of socialising involved, including a Ceilidh (my first ever). It was sad how the session was so short; I felt that as soon as everyone was starting to get to know eachother even better it was time to go home. This makes me all the more excited for the summer break though which is a whole five days!

To conclude, happy new year. Hello 2014.

Lord Jesus Christ, we believe in you and all your Church teaches. We give ourselves entirely to you because you are truly the Son of the Living God. Confirm and strengthen our faith. Amen.