T-minus 12 hours and counting!

I'm all packed and ready to hit the tarmac. It's about 12 hours until my flight leaves, and I can't wait! I took a virtual tour of the college I'll be at, Mansfield College, at http://www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/. It's the smallest of the 39 separate colleges at Oxford, and if you go to the site you can virtually tour the library, chapel, dining hall, etc...so it'll give you an idea of where I'll be living on a day-to-day basis. Like I said in my first post, hopefully I'll be able to get pictures up, and instead of trying to put them all on here, they'll be at http://community.webshots.com/user/hlpanerd4holiday. I'll try to remember to put the link up every time I post pics. Right now the only thing ones on there are some pictures from DEX nationals in Anaheim in May.

So, as exciting as it is to be heading overseas, I can't help but feel bittersweet knowing that my summer here is all but over. It's been a great one, filled with adventures with friends both old and new. And, of course, Budget. And right when you're getting to fully appreciate how amazing everything is, things change. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I feel so blessed to have had such an awesome summer, and knowing that there's still a month's worth of adventures to come helps :-)

Please pray for journey mercies for not only me, but all the Nebraskans trouping through Europe on their way to Oxford. I'm sure it will be quite an experience getting there so soon after the attacks ... also pray for healing for the British people and that their hearts may be softened in the wake of this tragedy.

Ok ... here's my flight schedule:

Depart OMA @ 12:57pm on American Airlines flight 4276
Arrive ORD @ 2:27pm

Depart ORD @ 5:10pm on American flight 86
Arrive LHR @ 6:50am (or 12:50am Central time) --->should be an interesting time change.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I look forward to sharing my adventures with you throughout the coming month ... please feel free to email me at grantmaynard@gmail.com. I'm going to go try to dream up a way to finagle myself into first class.


God bless,

Grant