How exciting! Four Corners looks so much less dreary with a Chipotle rather than a Burger King. Anyway, it's good to be home. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this post... kind of posting for the sake of it.
Since I've been home, I've been to Boston quite a few times. My favorite trips to Boston have actually been when I was alone. Walked around Downtown Crossing, Park street, and discovered some really neat places, two of them being coffee shops. Ever since college, I've turned into a real coffee junkie. It's seriously burning a hole in my wallet... but anyway, there's a cute little coffee shop across from Ufood in between Downtown Crossing and the Commons named 'Common Coffee'. I've only had their chai latte and it was pretty good. Tasted exactly like how I would imagine a chai latte to taste (as you can probably tell, I'm not a very good judge of these things...) So sometimes I use my Purdue debit card in hopes of striking up a conversation with the cashier at various stores/restaurants and so this one time at Common Coffee, it actually worked! Turns out the barista has a friend who went to Purdue, which led to a 5 minute conversation between us and my friend Christina about where we're from, where we go to school, etc. Then, we find out that Barista girl is from Savannah, Georgia! And without thinking about it, I blurted out, "Heyyyy! We're going to Georgia!" Which then led to a conversation about the Passion Conference :) I really didn't find out much about Barista girl, but being able to tell her about Passion was super neat and definitely not an interaction I would have expected to happen with a stranger in Boston
The other coffee place was called 'The Thinking Cup' that Vernon and I randomly decided to go to just because we were 20 minutes early to the Muppets (which, by the way, is an excellent movie). Don't really have much to say about it except that when you walk in, the first and only thing you see is a huge tan curtain so we were thoroughly confused. My immediate thought was that they wanted us to leave. But, turns out they have some direct trade coffee with some countries in Africa. I supported that.
But my favorite place that I have discovered on my solo adventures thus far, would definitely have to be this book shop that I have always walked past but never had the opportunity to actually look at because none of my friends (ie Sarah and Charles..) actually enjoy reading. But oh boy, it was the COOLEST thing ever! Outside in this alleyway, they had brick walls and along the brick walls were shelves and shelves of super cheap books. There were Bibles, maps, encyclopedias, novels, poem anthologies, Chinese/Japanese novels, and more. And the craziest part-- some of these books dated back to the 1800s! Inside, they had 3 floors. The first two were about the same as the books outside, but probably more expensive. And on the third floor, they had a 'rare books section', and when I walked upstairs to see and touch books that were at least 200 to 300 years old, that literally took my breath away. I don't even know why, I'm not THAT much of a reader, but I guess I do love history. I also found my way to the math/science section and saw books on thermodynamics, analytical mechanics, E/M physics, linear algebra, differential equations from the late 1800s/early 1900s, which I thought was really neat! There were also old newspaper cut outs, posters, hymnals, and huuuuuge Bibles. So I guess it's not so much my love for reading, but my love for history. I love thinking about the endless possibilities of where these books have been, whose hands they've been in, what kind of shelves they've been on. I love imagining what kind of lives these authors lived, the places they've been, what the world looked like from their eyes. And the Bibles! What they meant to the people of the 1700s and the 1800s. Was it more sacred to people then, than it is to people now?
Anyway, aside from my solo adventures in the streets of Boston, I've been spending a decent amount of time at home. Mostly with my dad, since he has these 2 weeks off as well. Recently, I've been reading Radical by David Platt, and I'm only halfway through it, but I'm loving it so far. It's certainly been giving me a lot to think about and it's been very convicting. One thing that stood out to me was that we ask people to 'accept Jesus into their hearts' as if Jesus needs our acceptance... aren't we the ones that need Him? Platt also talks about how we as Americans have turned the command to 'go into the world' into a calling. There's a very big difference between command and calling. Just as we are commanded to love each other as ourselves, we are also commanded to go into the world and proclaim the good news. Man, we need to read this for scaffolding or something (along with Desiring God). :D
I think this post is long enough. I'm at the point where I'm getting distracted by everything and everyone around me. And, I don't even know if I would have the motivation to reread this for myself. But, only a few more days until Passion! Super excited, especially now that logistics are all worked out! (Now I feel ridiculously silly for stressing about all that. People are so incredibly generous :D) I'm really looking forward to what God has in store for us there :) He is good. He is good.
Later!
