Nice shocking title, eh? I went to church yesterday - woke up early and thought, it's Sunday, I should just give it a go, see what the London church experience is like. There's a Methodist church about 5-7 minutes walk from my house, so I got up and got ready and walked to the cute little old-school style building. Walking in, the first thing I notice is the Bible and hymnbook I'm handed are about 50 years old. The second thing I notice is that everyone in the building is at least 60 years old. The third thing I notice is that at least half of the people are black, and I thought, did I misread the sign that said AME church at 2pm? And then I mentally slapped myself in the face and thought WOW. How sad is it that I am so accustomed to Sunday mornings being completely segregated that this seems abnormal. How sad that when I walk in a Methodist church and see more than the one or two 'token' black families, I question for a second if I'm in the right place. How sad that for all my self-righteous beliefs that I don't have any racist leanings, I can find such a train of thoughts come so quickly and so fast I don't know how they happened. In my defense, it wasn't a negative reaction, I didn't think "yikes, I'm outta here", I found a seat and everything was fine from then on. But it was still an unsettling moment.
I really was the youngest person there, which was kinda fun, just to people watch and wonder how long everyone had attended that church, what their stories were, what the major landmarks of their lives had been - it's funny thinking how the experiences my generation's grandparents had in the US is somewhat similar, but also so very different to that of the same generation in the UK.
I had trouble with the hymns...I choked up a bit when I was sitting there waiting for the service to start - partly because of the strong association with home and family, and partly because it wasn't quite right - the hymns were strange and hard to sing. As I walked home, I was longing to temporarily transport myself back to NC and end up in my house, fix grilled cheese and tomato soup for me and my brother, and curl up on the couch and watch the playoffs. Ah well, instead it was taking a nap, going to the gym, watching Saturday's highlights online and following the scores on nfl.com.
Went to Whole Foods market that night - I love that store! It's so nice here - I can just wander for ages looking at all the stuff. And spending lots more than one should on groceries :D At least I'm more than set for the week - continuing the hard-core dieting I started after christmas. I have already made enough progress to fit back in 50% of my clothes! I was at a dismal 25% there for a while I think. :)
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