Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I got super exciting news today. It's what I've been waiting and hoping for for a couple of months now, and finally it's been confirmed! I've been offered a place to study Masters in Landscape History at UEA, where I was on exchange a couple of years ago. It's going to cost a bucket - full international student fees, but having ummed and ahhed about applying, it really feels like it's what I'm meant to do. Which means that God will make sure the money stuff works out. I'm now looking at things like scholarships, and probably a small loan, plus finding a little job once I get there. I'm hoping my tax return will fulfil all the tax deductions promise, and that the interest rate on my savings account doesn't go down at all.

But it may be scary, it may sound like a lot of work, but it is also going to be tremendous fun! And I'll get to travel again, to see lots of old friends, catch up with a stack of friends from here who having October/November travels planned, and generally enjoy being back at full time study. I miss it. I really do. After 6.5 years I'm still keen.

Today's Maundy Thursday. May not mean much to most people, but it's the night we celebrate the Last Supper. So we had a big (simple) passover meal, and a reflective service this evening. I was asked to do a reading at the service, which was concerning because I didn't know all the ins and outs of when to stand, where to sit, whether the reading would be marked on the lectern already, but I think I got away with it, so all good. The service ends with the stripping of the altar, the removal of all the adornments, and a gradual dimming of all the lights until only one candle remains. Then everyone follows the candle out of the church in silence. It's can be a pretty powerful service, although I'll admit I was regretting drinking so much juice at dinner and couldn't really focus entirely. It was still a great service though.

This is the hotel across the road from the Cathedral. It's one of Hobart's upper-classer hotels, with high tea and ladies in hats, although I'm lead to believe it's also very nice.