Soup-Er Thursdays and More

On Thursday nights at Canvas, we have free dinner. As you might guess from the title, we cook soup! We have a Costco nearby, so we stocked up on Lloyd Grossman's soups and a few other brands that are all quite tasty. At 8pm students come over to Canvas to warm up with some hot soup and bread followed by games, poker, the pub, or just chatting. There is also an open mic night at a nearby pub called The Soak that we often go to after dinner. We have students at Canvas that like to play at that open mic and so it is fun to go watch and listen to them play. Poker has been a big hit this semester and as you can imagine, Mike loves it. He already won one time! And as always, table tennis and foosball are quite popular on Thursday nights.

We went to the city last night to run some errands. We finally got an umbrella which we have been needing lately. The cold and rainy days are upon us now in Birmingham. We also had to get Mike's macbook to the Apple store because his battery is slowly expanding. Apparently that was a common problem on his version of the macbook pro, but it is the strangest thing. It is literally expanding and popping open. So we will be sharing my computer for the next few days until he goes to his appointment at the Genius Bar. Hoping to watch the Tech game tonight while we attempt to wallpaper over the new plaster work. Go Jackets!

Happy Halloween

At Canvas, we work as a team and we play as a team. Once a month, the team members get together for "team dinner" to hang out and enjoy each other's company in a non-working atmosphere. On Friday night, we all got together at the Braden's house to eat dinner and carve pumpkins for Halloween. We cooked a tasty feast of devilish dogs (chilli dogs Rachael Ray-style) and some dips and "crisps." (In England, french fries are called chips and potato chips are called crisps.) Then we each carved a pumpkin and baked pumpkin seeds. It was a great night for us to get to know our teammates a little bit better and just have fun with each other.

Pumpkin carving fun

All of our pumpkins in a row

Mike was sick for most of the weekend, so we didn't do too much. But he went to the doctor this morning and is already doing much better. We are hoping to get some more work done on our flat this week. Since we both have been out of commission for a while we haven't gotten much done. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have made lots of progress. As soon as we finish a room, we will post some pictures!

Tuesday Nights @ Canvas

Tuesday nights at Canvas are welcoming and fun. Free dinner is served starting at 8:00 and last night we made quesadillas. They were a big hit! The band plays a few songs after dinner is over and then we have a prayer focus where a staff member talks about something and then prays for it. A few more songs happen and then there is a talk. The talks are funny, honest, open, and enjoyable. After that we have more live music and then we end it with some announcements. The team has worked really hard to create a calm and  welcoming atmosphere that is also fun and intriguing. We had around 50 people last night and it was so much fun. Mike and I were in the kitchen helping and we made 120 quesadillas. Not a quick process, but they were so good. 


After everything was over, we sat and chatted with students for a while before heading down the street to hang out at the pub. A majority of social interaction takes place at pubs in Selly Oak. Last night we went to The Goose to hang out with some students. We had a great time and had to call it a night early since I was going to the doctor first thing in the morning. We are truly enjoying each moment that we spend here. Getting used to living in another culture is not always easy, but it is an adventure and a process and we are so thankful for the opportunity. 


In other news, I had my "toe cast" removed this morning and the nurse said that everything is looking good. My toe is quite bruised and purple and my nail is MUCH smaller, but it is healing well. I still can't wear anything but flip flops, but hopefully by the end of the weekend I will be ready to wear shoes again. We are making lots of progress on our flat. We have some more flooring and painting to do in the bedroom and living room, but we are almost done. We hung up curtains and hooked up the TV and are starting to feel at home already.


Happy Wednesday!

Canvas Kick-Off Party

Last night was the first official Canvas event of the semester. We invited anyone and everyone over to the Canvas house for free chili and live music. It was a really great night. Mike and I got to meet a lot of students that have been around and Canvas and students that were new. Every new person that we meet is just so friendly and polite. The music at the party was awesome and everyone enjoyed it. We called it a night at about 11:30 so we could come home and get some sleep to get up early to start more painting!

Tomorrow is Soup-Er Thursday which is free soup and bread and a game night at Canvas, plus a cook-out in the afternoon. (Can you tell free food is a big hit with university students?) We are hoping to make a lot of progress on our flat this weekend. We have a guy coming to do some plaster work tomorrow morning and then we will be able to paper and paint the walls and finish the bedroom. And we hope to finish the flooring in the living room by Sunday evening. That just leaves the kitchen and bathroom!

Finally getting a few pictures up... (Thanks to a few of the exchange students for taking pics!) Enjoy!

The Canvas House is in the center and our flat is on left. The exchange students live on the second levels of the houses on the right and left.

This is the artwork around the stage at Canvas. David Perez Jupin from Spain painted all of this and it is fantastic!

Hanging out before the party started...

The band playing at the kick-off party.

Settling In

Today we finally picked up some plug adapters for our electronics. So we charged up our computers and are ready to go. We put up curtains and sheets on our bed so we will be sleeping in our bedroom tonight for the first time. (We slept in our own place for the last three nights in our sleeping bags. We actually like our sleeping bags a lot, so it was no problem.) But we are really happy to have our own place starting to feel like home.

We still have a lot of work to do on the place. Lots of painting, re-flooring, papering the walls, etc. Construction is a good bit different here, so we are learning a lot. And Mike is so good at this stuff; I am lucky. :) We have been to the B&Q and Homebase more times than I can count now. B&Q is like a smaller Home Depot and Homebase is like Target and Home Depot combined.

Some CMF missionaries are leaving England this week and so we got some of their stuff for free. It was really wonderful! We got night stands, a coffee table, a kettle, an iron, mirrors, dishes, flatware, a bookshelf, and the list goes on. Thanks to Mary Ann and Bruce!! We also got a bed for free and we already bought a kitchen table and chairs from IKEA for super cheap. Later on we are hoping to get a couch and a washer. Lots of people here only have washers and they are all kept in the kitchen. Strange.

Things at Canvas are really great! We have met a lot of students and are really enjoying living next door! Next week the official Canvas events start and we are really looking forward to it! Kick off party on Tuedsay night, wahoo!

That's all for now! Oh and PS, happy birthday to Mike's dad!!