Stonehenge, Students from Stanford, and the Simple Message of a Russian Hymn

It has been a little over a month since I arrived in London, and I decided that I needed to GET OUT of London for a day. So Owen, Amanda, and our friend from St. Michael's named Edward journeyed by train to Salisbury and then beyond to the rolling acres of Stonehenge. I did not realize how aching I was to get out into the countryside. When you are around people yelling, car horns, smelly busses, and hectic traffic all the time, being out in the English countryside seemed like paradise. First off, it just astounds me as to how ancient this rock formation is. I learned about the "barrows"- ancient burial sites that are found all around Stonehenge and all over the Salisbury Plain. The first of these burial sites were put in around 2,000 years ago. Archeologists believe Stonehenge to be around 3,500-4,000 years old. That means that when these "ancient" burial sites were made, Stonehenge was ALREADY ancient as it would have been roughly 1,500 years old already. It is very hard to grasp your mind around.





After our morning at Stonehenge, we came back to Salisbury and spent the rest of the day admiring the town gardens and the Salisbury Cathedral. The Cathedral was splendid as was the men and boys choir who sang for Evensong. Ironically, they sang a piece by Sammuel Welsley which I had sung before in Cantorei with Dr. John Ferguson in my sophomore year at St. Olaf. It was very interesting to hear an english interpretation of the piece. Also in the Cathedral, we met a large group of university students from Stanford who were spending a term of study in England. Their course was ironically on English history and culture. From talking with them, they had hit all of the major sites and sounds of England and were on their way to London. In my casual watching of them, it definetly posed the question in my mind to how much English culture were they exactly experiencing? In a group, they acted distinctly American and were very comfortable in that. Ofcourse, being in a group of students is a wonderful experience. My life was very much changed after going to Italy and Germany with an Iterim group at St. Olaf. But how much does a course actually really teach you about current culture? Do you ironically need to get outside of your university comfort group to really understand another way of life? How willing are most people in doing this? It is interesting to think about.

Yesterday, I was invited over with Owen to the house of Natalia. Natalia works with me at St. Michaels School as a teaching assistant and music guide. She is from Estonia and moved over with her son and mother to the UK twelve years ago. If anyone would fit the image of a loud, confident, and boisterous Russian, Natalia would be the one. To be honest, the week had been a hard one and Owen and I were very tired and perhaps not in the best of moods to go visit someone. It also takes a lot of energy to speak with Natalia as you have to slow down your speach and really listen to her broken English. However, being that it would be rude to turn down the invitation so late, we went anyways. Our conversation at the table with Natalia and her son Sergio was one of faith, misery, challenge, and hope. Here was a 65 year old woman telling her story of how she beat the odds of being an immigrant woman who headed a family, being homeless, and having cancer. It was somthing that I have seen so many times here, but this time truly struck home with me.

Natalia was a music teacher in Estonia and is still working on getting qualified in the UK. Her love of music rings through her so much, it seemed to reach out and grip all of us. "Music makes us live!", she proclaimed time and time again. After dinner, she literally lifted me out of my chair and plopped me infront of the piano. "Play somthing that is special to you!", she stated. I shared a camp song that my youth pastor Tom Hunstad would always sing called "Dance with Me". I don't know if it was the fact that I told her Tom had died of cancer or of my horrible playing that made her eyes water, but she was very moved. Owen then played a few hymns that were special to him afterwards. After a brief pause for tea, I asked Natalia to play somthing dear to her. The short statured woman looked like she was 10ft tall when she started to play. The song was an Estonian style hymn that she heard before she went into sugery for her brain tumor. The piano hadn't been tuned for probably 10 years and was frightfully out of tune, but for Natalia's playing...it didn't matter. The lyric Russian melody of the piano was a stunning prelude to her singing the Estonian text. All of the tiredness in me was swept away as I was transcended by this beautiful piece. At the end, I asked her what the lyrics meant in English. "Simple", she said. "God's beautiful love is for you and me". How we all should be reminded of that simple fact time and again.