The guy from the Sonic Commercials!

Ok, claim to fame time. When walking down the street in New Orleans on a visit recently I walked past one of the guys from the Sonic commercials. His deadpan face looked really familiar. Of course this will only impress a small amount of you as the rest of you either a)don't live in America or b) don't watch any TV! Sadly everyone I was with in New Orleans fell into both of these categories so I had to keep my celebrity sighting to myself until finding someone who could really appreciate it!
For all of you who have no idea what I'm talking about - Sonic is a fastfood burger restaurant. The current commercial has 2 guys in a car talking about the food. The one I saw was the guy on the left in the photo below!

Woohoo!! Graduation!

Well, the culmination of much sweat and tears (fortunately no literal blood!) came to bear on Friday 16th May, 2008. I got to take part in the Graduation ceremony. This means that I got to dress up in cap and gown and get presented with a diploma envelope (sadly empty..) My degree isn't finished until I complete the 500 counseling hours, so they let us 'walk' in May if you're done with the academic stuff.

(pic above, Suz my roommate and Taneil Barbor who was in Dundee for 2 years as an OT)

We get our actual diploma when we're finished the clinical hours. It was a lot of fun and my parents and sister Jenny were able to join in the occasion. Terry and the Rahaims and Cliff and Suzette Leverette were also there for the occasion.

It was a really nice celebration. Bit tough going back to the clinic on Monday though, it's definately a mental battle to get through the rest of the hours, like the end part of a marathon (so I imagine, never having done such a thing... :))

The Storm

Friday lunchtime several tornados came through Jackson and surrounding areas. Some sites are saying as many as 5 confirmed. Thankfully, no reported loss of life, but a lot of trees down, power lines damaged and disruption around these areas. We were really fortunate that our campus was not directly affected. We did have severe weather pass over us, but it seems that this was just a severe thunder storm, rather than a tornado.

I was in an internal classroom with no windows, so our first alert was the fact that the lights were flickering. Then there was sound of wind whistling through the ceiling. We went out to the lobby and the sight outside was horizontal rain, almost as if you were under water! The hail was about the size of large peas! The tornado siren was going off, which was a bit freaky, but we just moved to the inner part of the building (according to the drill) and thankfully it moved over without touching down.

Later on a friend called me to ask if I was alright. She reported that parts of Jackson were devasted, with large oak trees uprooted and houses damaged by trees falling on them. She said she saw many roads blocked by trees, not rotten trees mind, but healthy huge oak trees with huge root systems! Many homes are still without power 2 days after the storm.


Many are reporting that the damage done from this storm is worse than that inflicted by Hurricane Katrina in Jackson in 2005.


links to news sites with more photos/reports:


http://www.wlbt.com/
www.clarionledger.com

A thing of great beauty (thanks to my Mum!)

This may look like a pretty ordinary bacon sandwich to you, but believe me this represents so much more!!
American bacon is a lot different to British bacon - it tends to be more like our streaky bacon - less meat, more crispy. Our bacon is probably one of the foods I've missed the most while living out here. So my fantastically thoughtful mother took it upon herself to research on the web to see if it were possible to get some homestyle bacon delivered to the US. Well, good old Galtee does deliveries at special times of the year - Christmas and St Patrick's Day! Mum was able to send me some bacon and sausage and other good stuff in time for St Patrick's Day - Yay for her! and Yay for some amazing bacon sandwiches and a taste from home!!
It's the little things....

That's more like it!

Ok, so after the fog cleared the beautiful sunniness came back, the beach I've come to know and love!!!

Like Top Gun, but with Fog

Ok, bet you're all wondering what in the world this post is about?!?!?

Well on a recent visit to the beach in Florida, I walked past a group of pilots from the local airforce base playing v. ball on the beach... Pretty cool, huh?! Only problem was that on the day in question, there was a thick fog over the beach. You could hardly see the water! Check out the photos below to give you an idea of this.

Pretty eerie - huh?!? I thought it was always sunny in Florida! But apparently they even have different weather here... ah well, makes for variety!

Some great sermons

The guest speaker at our church on Sunday was a guy called Joe Novenson from Lookout Mtn, Tn. He is a really gifted speaker and the 2 sermons he preached that day were so refreshing. I highly recommend you download them, especially if your sould is thirsty. He has a really unique style of being able to teach truths that may be familiar, but in a fresh way which really makes God real. They're not heavy exegetically, but just good. Anyhow, I'm done trying to explain it, just go listen!

here's the link.

http://www.redeemerchurchms.org/sermons.htm

(They're under Living with a Gap Parts 2 and 3)
If they're not here, go to sermon archive link and search for Sunday Mar 9, 2008. Rev Joe Novenson.

Winter weather terms

Just so you know (should you ever be in Mississippi over wintertime) what we Britishers call 'hail' is referred to as 'sleet' (unless it's the size of a small orange (!) then it's hail.)

Oh and what we would call 'sleet' or even thick rain is referred to as 'snow' here! We were under 'heavy snow' advisory recently, but apart from a very disappointingly wet fall of the white stuff, nothing to report...

There was a slightly more impressive snow fall in January this year, the first since 2000! Much excitement as you can gather, shown by the photos below.

Campus group

Me and Suz

He restores my soul

After a particularly stressful week with exams, long days and just continuous 'doing', my brain felt ready to burst! It was so great to go for a wee drive along the Natchez Trace (nearby National park). The area near me isn't what you'd call traditionally pretty - there are no majestic mountain ranges or stunning coastlines, but beauty is there if you look hard enough.
The Trace is great because it's not overwhelmed with traffic, there are no big lorries allowed and there are sweeping fields and forest on either side of the road. A whole lot of nothingness, in sharp contrast to the busy fullness within me.
Driving along listening to Handel's Messiah, drinking in the clear blue sky and the constrasting stark, almost bleached trees was just so beautiful. It was one of those cool 'no words' moments when you just feel.
Good for the soul.

Tis the season to be jolly!!

I'm very excited about coming back to N. Ireland for Christmas - only a week to go! In our campus appartment we've been getting in the Christmas spirit as you can tell from the picture below:

It's going to be strange being back in the UK after 12 months in the US. I know I'll probably spend the time looking for light switches in the wrong places, not turning on plugs and a host of other small, but confusing differences! Not to mention the adjustment to rain and cold! Today's temperature in Mississippi was a high of 26 degrees C!

I'm so looking forward to seeing my family again - I have really missed seeing them - talking on the phone just isn't the same.

Lost in Translation!

2 recent visits to drive thru fast food restaurants taught me that in spite of having been in the USA for over a year, I still haven't gone native!!
At the first I wanted some 'Tater tots' - or Pototo croquettes to us Britishers... So driving up to the ordering bit the scene unfolded something like this:

Britisher (with cheery enthusiasm): "I'd like some Tater tots please"
Disembodied voice: "Waaaat?!"
Britisher (clears voice, speaks slower): "some tots please"
Disembodied voice: "Maaaam?"
Britisher (frustrated): "TOTS, T-O-T-S - TOTS!!!"

The second time I went to order some frozen custard - my favorite, chocolate with banana.
I've ordered this several times before, but this girl obviously had not crossed the state line, let alone left the country and she was having a bit of trouble with my 'ahccent'...
Apparantly she was unable to comprehend my pronounciation of 'bananas' - I felt somewhat stuck how else do you say bananas?! It's not like you've got another word for it! - short of saying "I'd like some of that yellow curved fruit that's particuarly popular with monkeys, if it's not too much trouble?"

Well, you'll be happy to know my stories had a happy ending, I got my tots and my chocolate frozen custard with banana eventually, but fast food it ain't when you have to ask for it so many times!
sigh...

Joy in community

This is my class (minus 1 who couldn't be there) at the Launch party for the year above us who graduated this May. Launch is like the graduation party for MFT students, but it's a smaller and more pesonal affair. Traditionally the year below (in this case, us) plans, caters and serves the year above, guests and staff for an evening of food and reminscing. The pinacle of this night is the "presentation of towels". This is where staff give a personal memory of each student and then present each one with a monogrammed linen towel. This is to reflect how Jesus washed His disciples' feet before going to the Cross. The Master serving the servants to remind them that discipleship is a life of service. This is to remind and commission us counselors for a life of serving others.

The preparation work for the evening was a cool example of service in action. All the class worked together preparing food, serving, keeping our tempers in check (!) and genuinely working together to create something really nice for the Seniors. Memorable moments are one of the guys volunteering to iron the tablecloths and sticking at this task, without complaining even when he was still ironing 2 hours later! People putting aside personal preferences for the sake of getting the job done. Being on our feet for 7 hours, finding moments to laugh together in the midst of stress. And lastly, 2 of the guys rolling up their good black trousers so that they could go take tables back across a muddy field to the gym.

Really great to be a part of something which genuinely stretched and challenged and still come out with good feelings and memories about each other! Nothing short of a miracle- God was at work among us...

(And don't we look good in the photo? It was taken at the end of the night!!)

"Maybe you should just get a hazmat suit!"

These were the words spoken to me by my good friend Susannah's mother at the beach after the latest 'creature attack'! (the day before I managed to get 4 ant bites in the 2 minutes it took me to take a picture outside!)

Anyway, back to the latest 'attack' - there I was innocently swimming in the sea when a ferocious sea creature viciously attacked me (well ok, it was a small jelly fish about 1 inch in diameter which I carelessly got in the way of!) but what did I know?! I'm not in Scotland anymore, for all I knew it could have been some deadly poisonous critter! I mean supposedly harmless sting rays finished off the poor Crocodile Hunter...

Given my allergic reaction to mosquito bites, we thought it better to get it checked out so we waved down the beach patrol man who was just passing on his quad-bike. He was a local police man drafted in for the summer, I guess, to make sure the holiday makers didn't get into trouble or helping out with minor injuries etc.


In an instant he had called in my plight "jelly fish sting at 20th Street" and a police medic guy turned up, closely followed by another squad car - I guess crime is kindof slow in this area and they really didn't have a lot to do! Maybe they hoped for more drama than a slightly red area on my wrist!
(Me hanging out with the Mexico Beach police officers)






Mr police medic guy (in picture on left) rubbed on some vinegar and then sprayed on some foam from a can with a hand printed label 'sting spray' (turned out this was nothing more than shaving foam which was supposed to draw out any poison (?) from the sting). I'm happy to report that my arm is still firmly attached to my body and I suffered no ill effects from the sting!





I do love the outdoors, but going outside here in the US should be designated an extreme support! There are so many things here that can really finish you off! I mean on an average trip outdoors in Scotland the worst that can happen to you is you get wet when it rains or the midges get you! Here there are bears, sharks, poisonous fish, snakes, spiders and on lesser scale poison ivy/oak/whatever, coakroaches (which could easily scare you to death!) and of course mosquitoes! Wow, it's amazing that I've made it this far! I might just check out the hazmat situation, I wonder if they have it in different colors...

The Call of the Wild - Part 3

Just a couple more pictures to prove that I did some trekking (in the 106 o heat, I'll have you know! That's EXTREME trekking!)

Some pictures of some cool rocks and trees...

and one last one of me to prove that I was really there!

The Call of the Wild - Part 2

We saw all sorts of weird and wonderful beasties while camping, a couple of examples are below. Also had a scary experience in the middle of the 2nd night. We broke the cardinal rule of camping - don't leave any food outdoors. Well, we hadn't left food, but we hadn't completly washed some dishes which were on a table near our tent. Suz and I were woken by the sound of pots and pans being knocked over! Needless to say there was much anxiety! We yelled for the 2 guys in their tent and they kindly went and checked it out. Whatever it was had run off, but I spent the next few minutes just expecting a bear paw to swipe through our tent! Thankfully no more excitement that night (not a lot of sleep either...)


(L - Queen Ant (?) Huge furry red thing, looked kindof cute, not sure if it's threating or not, often the smaller they are the more deadly!

(L) Don't know it's real name, but

it looks just like a leaf with legs!

(L) This really freaked me out! Apparantly it's made by worms not spiders, but it was big and looked like something out of a Sci-fi show. I gave it a wide berth...

Dang, there goes my elbow

Got a lovely letter from my US bank today offering me "$1000 of Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance coverage." I'm a little puzzled and a lot perplexed by this! Can you accidentally dismember yourself, or accidentally suffer dismemberment?! Why the precise qualification? Can you be dismembered and not be dead!? Actually, let's not go there, too gruesome!

Gosh, I never thought about getting accidentally dismembered, now that's another thing to think about!

(maybe I should have taken this out before my recent camping trip, plenty of opportunities for dismemberment in the wild...)