Big News & Little News!

Hello friends and family!!

Yes, it’s finally time for us to announce the big news: we’re going to have a baby! Little Suel should arrive at the end of January 2008. Needless to say, we feel incredibly blessed and SUPER excited! We had our first scan yesterday, and baby is doing fine. I’m just over 10 weeks along. Basically, I have been sick for about 5 of those weeks, and I’m praying that that goes away very soon. I could definitely use your prayers in that respect. You don’t want to know the gory details of me being sick…trust me.

We are excited to be having our first baby in England for a number of reasons. For one thing, I get 6 months paid maternity leave. For another, having the baby in hospital here is free…no medical bills. Jason also gets a couple of weeks paid paternity leave. These are pretty big benefits, and we’re glad about those blessings. After my 6 months off, I will have to go back to work for a few months, but then we will be looking at moving back to the States (who knows where!). That’s the plan anyways…we’ll see what God has in store.

Other than baby news, things are going along pretty normally. My job is great, very busy. I love my patients, and I keep busy every second of my work day, which I enjoy. I am teaching a Chronic Pain Management course right now, and it’s sort of the downside to my job at the moment, as the psychologist I’m working with on it is completely scatterbrained. For my organized, structured working self, I find this very hard. Only 6 more weeks to go, though.

Jason is still at the Courtyard theatre, but having a stressful time. His supervisors are VERY demanding, and even though he is working 45 hour weeks it still doesn’t seem to be enough. If you can pray for him, he is pretty worked up about it all. He is hanging in there, though, and we are hoping they will start to notice his hard work and praise him for it.

We are still leading the 18-30s ministry at church. We are meant to be going camping this weekend with the entire church (70 of us), but as of this past weekend, the campsite was underwater…it’s been raining/flooding in Herefordshire all of June. It was the wettest June in years (and it still hasn’t stopped). We are still wearing sweaters and jeans here and it’s already July! We do miss Arkansas summers!!

We haven’t been on a trip since Norway, but will be going to Morocco with Claire and Jez in August. Jason has something exciting planned for our 5-year anniversary in a few weeks, and it may involve a little trip, but as I’m not allowed to know anything about it, I can’t really say. I’ll let you know afterwards!

Jason just finished climbing Snowden Mountain in Wales, the highest peak in the country. I am pretty sure he wants to tell you about it here:

Yeah, Snowden was great. It was a rainy, foggy day and we didn’t have much of a view. But, the climb was great fun. My buddy Jez and I decided to tackle the mountain because it was on his “To Do” list for 2007.

Also, another bit of little news, I finally saw Mute Math in concert in Birmingham. For all you Mute Math fans out there…it was a great show. If you don’t know who Mute Math is check them out! They just recorded the “Transformers” theme tune! It’s sweet

Okay, Happy Independence Day!

Jason and Sarah

Pics: Above: Sarah's family finding out about our big news over the phone. Below: 1) Crib Goch...the scary part of Snowdon. 2) Jez and Jason near the top. 3) Jason in the fog. 4) The fog has lifted!

Come Like the Fall

Hey all,

My cousin Tim has just released a CD entitled “Come Like the Fall.” Tim is one of my closest friends, even though we don’t get to see each other very often. I mean, he was the Best Man at our wedding, and the fact that he has finally released some music thrills me. Anyway, check him out…and buy the CD if you want, I’m sure it will bless you…

The song "Take Me" is amazing and touches me everytime I listen to it.

Find him at www.timsuel.com or to listen to samples, check out: www.independentbands.com/cd/timsuel/comelikethefall.html

Cheers,
Jason

Norway in a Nutshell!

Hey, hey, hey (to be said like Fat Albert),

I seems that I just sent an installment out not too long ago, but it’s time for another one. If our stories annoy you feel free to save this one for a rainy day, but I warn you, you’ll be missing out…Here goes:

So, a couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Norway. We flew into Oslo. We stayed there one night, in a hostel. The next morning was their “Constitution Day,” The equivalent of the 4th of July for our American friends and something akin to Bonfire Night here in the UK. It was a day of parades, hot dogs and red, white, and blue…lots of fun and we were glad to be there on this special day.

We then boarded a train for our pre-booked excursion…Norway in a Nutshell. Over the next two days we had the great pleasure of exploring the fjords of Norway by train, bus, and boat. We went took a ride on the steepest railway in western Europe, witnessed 300 waterfalls (no exaggeration), and slept on the Night Train (an overnight train ride from Bergen back to Oslo). Just talking about this trip does not do it justice. It was probably the highlight of all our time in Europe so far…please have a look at our pics, they speak volumes.

When we returned to Oslo, we still had another day and night, so we got to know the city pretty well. I was totally into Vikings that day…a couple of weeks ago I wanted to be an ancient mariner, who I have decided were the cowboys of the sea…now I’m on to Vikings who were the ancient mariners of their day…other than a lot of killing and overtaking unarmed villages, they did a lot of good stuff…

For instance, I just discovered today that my last name, “Suel,” could come from the Norse “Sigvaldr” meaning “Victory Ruler.” Because I have no idea about my heritage, I like this idea…probably because I’m into Vikings and Norway is flippin’ amazing!

A couple of other exciting tidbits I might throw at you…last weekend Sarah and I had the honor (term used loosely) of being leaders for our church youth group’s weekend away. Despite the fact that we stayed up till all hours of the night and got up at the crack, it was a pretty great weekend. I got to pray with some guys and one guy accepted Christ…that was pretty cool. However, it did rain the whole time…imagine being stuck inside with 40 teens…rough!

We love you all and hope to hear from you. I’m sure that many of you are having exciting summers…we’d love to hear about them.

Peace,

Jason (Sarah, too!)

P.S.: The pictures are of us in the fjords and travelling on the train.

May is Okay!

So, so, so, much has happened since I last emailed and I will have to fill you in…I’ll try not to bore.

Poland

Sarah and I travelled to Krakow, Poland this month and made a day trip to the infamous Nazi concentration camp: Auschwitz. Krakow was one of our favourite cities to visit. We are really becoming fans of Eastern Europe. This city reminded us of Prague because it was easily manageable and complete with history, art, and culture. We took several walks around the city and learned so much about the Polish. One of the most interesting things that we found was the story of the trumpeter who plays every hour from the church bell tower.

Legend has it that during the Tartan invasion of Krakow, a trumpeter blew the warning song from high atop the church bell tower to warn Krakowians that the invasion had begun and because of his warning song, the citizens of Krakow were able to defend their city. Then an enemy arrow pierced his throat before he was able to complete the song. Therefore, every hour on the hour, a trumpeter plays the same song from the same location and stops before he finishes…calling to mind the time that Krakow was almost overtaken by the Tartan’s had it not been for one brave trumpeter who gave his life to save many.

As I mentioned before we took a day trip to Auschwitz concentration camp. It is hard to put into words exactly what you feel as you walk around an international monument to the cruelty of humankind. It feels odd to smile in pictures or even to take pictures. And although the site is in ruins, we found the entire day to be emotional and stirring. If you get a chance, while it may not be the most exciting of vacations, it is a day to remember… “lest we forget…”

Somerset

A friend of Sarah’s from work had mentioned to her a long time ago that she had a place for us to stay in Somerset, if we were ever up for a weekend away. Well, all of the UK had a bank holiday on Monday the 7th; so we decided that we would use that long weekend to go to the beach in Somerset. Now, when I say beach, British beaches are not all fun in the sun type experiences, but they are nice in a different sort of way. Taking costal walks, for instance, is one of our favourite things to do.

One of the main highlights from our weekend was going on the old fashioned steam train that runs along the coast. We made a day of it, taking the train to a nearby village and having a meal. The stations and the train itself are all well preserved and they take you back to the times when steam trains would have been the new and only way to travel in style.

Friends

We have had the pleasure of opening up our home, once again, to some friends from the States. We have had three young ladies staying with us for a few days. The girls are all at the beginning of what will be a summer abroad for all of them. Kim and Jody are off to study music in Florence and Cat will be studying French in France. To be honest we only knew Kim before this trip. Kim is girlfriend to one of our nearest, dearest, and closest friends Stateside, Mr. Patrick Peringer. Kim and Pat are both in the music dept. at Bowling Green State University…and Jodi and Cat are her friends. Now that they’ve been snoozing on our floor for the past few days, we feel we know each other really well. And Kim was able to go into Wales and see some live music performance, which was great because she is writing her Thesis on Welsh Music…cool, huh?

Justin Timberlake

That’s right…Justin Timberlake! You see, as a partial joke and partial curiosity our friend Claire got her husband Jez tickets to see Justin live in Birmingham. Jez claims that he, not Justin, originally brought Sexy Back (Jez has actually registered the domain name “ibroughtsexyback.com” although he hasn’t done anything with it yet). So, we quickly decided that we wanted to go and see Mr. Super Bowl Controversy himself with our friends.

I have to say, it was a fantastic show! He was an excellent showman and he made the ticket price worth the experience…once we got over the screaming teenage girls surrounding us!

What’s Next?

With a month that had so much going on, how will we ever top it? The next email will include our trip to Norway, which we leave for later this week! And we will be informing you as to how our Youth Weekend goes. Youth Pastor Claire has again roped us into helping her with this event and we must say that we are looking forward to this event with great expectations!

From us to you, that’s all for now…

OK, Happy End (for all you Eurovision fans!)

Jason and Sarah

Pics: 1. Artist's wall in Krakow 2. Auschwitz rememberance cards. 3. Auschwitz monument. 4. Sarah in Somerset.

Stonehenge in the Willows?!?

Well, well, well,

It’s time for another email update from the suelfam! I have a couple of exciting things to update you on so perk up those ears and read on :)

A couple of weekends ago we went to Stonehenge! This was part of my Christmas present from our friends Claire and Jez. They promised us that they would accompany us on a trip to Stonehenge or the henge as I like to call it. So, on Easter Monday we woke up early to a foggy morning and hit the trail to Stonehenge. Now, I love Stonehenge. I have a healthy obsession with it! I don’t really know why, but I do. I love the mystery surround those stones. Some people say, “It’s just a pile of rocks!” But, I say “Stonehenge Rocks!”

So, after we walked around the henge and got our share of pictures, we had a picnic lunch on the hill overlooking the stones. Now, my friend Jez has bought this kite. And when I say kite, I mean KITE! It’s somewhere between a normal kite and a paraglider! It will definitely lift you off the ground if it’s windy enough. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t windy enough so we had a pleasant afternoon of kite flying while watching the spring sun cast shadows across the mystery of Stonehenge. What a day!

The next bit of excitement comes in the form of a boastful Toad and his band of friends. I am, of course, referring to “The Wind in the Willows,” which I had the pleasure of directing here at the Courtyard. The cast involved 180 children (in two different casts). 180 kids aged 7-14 is a nightmare for some and it is hard work…but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

As you can imagine, we have been in intense rehearsals for this since about January and last weekend was the payoff. And what a payoff it was. Parents and kids alike love it and it had a very positive vibe. The Courtyard is still buzzing from the success of the show, both in numbers and in quality. Of course, I couldn’t have done it without help and there were a large number of supporters who worked on the production as well. Complete with live North African drumming, stunning dance sequences and even involving shadow puppetry, this was “The Wind in the Willows” as you’ve never seen it. It was a joy to direct and I’m glad for it!

Sarah is fine. I think she and I are both grateful that we can now spend more time together now that the show is over. Her work consistently brings her challenges and rewards. Now that spring is upon us, we have lots of trips and events in the pipeline!

Speaking of trips, this weekend Sarah and I are taking a trip to Krakow, Poland for a relaxing weekend away. We plan to go to Auschwitz prison as well…that will be intense, but if we’re gonna be that close, we might as well take it in. So, another email update will be coming your way in the near future!

Thanks everyone for being so supportive of us! Please email us and let us know what is going on with you!

Jason (and Sarah)

pics: 1. Jason stoked for Stonehenge 2. Jason, Sarah, Claire and Jez posing 3. Stonehenge in its majesty 4. Jason flying a KITE!

Our Spring Visitors...

Hi Everyone,

Thought it was about time we sent out another email update…so, strap in!

A few times in your life you have the privilege of meeting those rare people that you feel like your soul connects with. This has happened to us a few times over our lives, and last week some of those people, our dear friends John and Heidi Sebestyen (whom we frequently refer to as our “couple crush”), were able to visit us. I’ll back up a step for those of you who aren’t familiar with John and Heidi.

We met them during my first semester at BGSU in Ohio. I was working on my Masters, John on his Doctorate, and Heidi on her Bachelors. We soon became great friends through our connection with the Theatre Department. They weren’t even dating at the time…then they were…then they were serious…engaged…married…then they moved to the Chicagoland area for John to take a teaching position at a University. We lived with them for about a month before we made the transition to the UK…I really cannot say enough great things about them. We truly love them.

What’s more, they were able to visit us! What a blessing! They stayed from Saturday to the following Sunday. And we did loads of stuff together, which I will now tell you about. Sarah and Jez picked John and Heidi up from the airport (I was in rehearsals for my upcoming production of The Wind in the Willows). They made a day of it in London…doing the usual…seeing the sights, etc. Then back here for a day of church and kite flying on Sunday, which again, I had to miss because of rehearsals. Apparently it was hilarious as Heidi was able to entangle a bystander in the kite strings…by the way, we are talking a serious kite here…2.5 meters across…just short of a paraglider. Anyway, I think they had a great time.

Monday we went to Bath, which has become a frequent stop for our visitors. On the way we stopped at Tintern Abbey, in Wales…gorgeous. We did the usual in Bath…toured the ancient city and marveled at the architecture. Then, off to the neighboring city of Bristol to have a meal and see a production of the musical “Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang.” It was brilliant.

Tuesday, John and Heidi were introduced to Hereford as Sarah and I had to go back to work. They putzed around in town and we worked. On Wednesday, we went for a walk in the Malvern Hills. I wish I could take everyone there, especially on a day like that Wednesday. The weather was amazing and so was the walk…it’s something they don’t get to see everyday in the Chicago area…as you can imagine. Friday, we went to Goodrich Castle…another frequent stop for our guests. Just a beautiful, rustic, castle 30 minutes from our front door…it’s always worth a trip.

Other highlights would be eating fish and chips; going to the cinema to see “Hot Fuzz” (the second time for Sarah and I)…it’s totally worth checking out when it comes to the States; watching “Nacho Libre” and laughing our heads off; watching “Nacho Libre”…again; and going to a local pub.

We had so much fun it’s hard to put it all in words…But, mainly we just enjoyed each others’ company…I’m glad God blessed us with such close friends.

Other than the smashing time we had with John and Heidi, I’ve been very busy with rehearsals for “The Wind in the Willows.” This is the play I’m directing with 2 casts of 90 kids in each cast from 7-14 years old…I know, you don’t envy me. It’s busy and has been a big learning experience so far. The show happens April 11-14 whether we are ready or not!

Sarah and I are great and we have booked our next trip…we’re going to Krakow, Poland at the end of April. So, God willing, in our next email you’ll probably receive loads of information about Krakow…very exciting!

Bye for now,

Jason (and Sarah)

PS: As always, if you’d like to see pics of our time with John and Heidi, check out our blogsite…www.suelfam.blogspot.com…Also, Claire and I put together a video with the youth group from our Church. It’s nothing special, just a video about fairly traded chocolate but it is on “you tube” if you want to check it out… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZyMUe-l5gc Or just check it out below.

Pictured: Top: Us at Goodrich Castle. Bottom: 1. In Bath at the Royal Crescent 2. On top of the Malvern Hills 3. Jason and Sarah, John and Heidi, and Jez and Claire at a local pub.

Fair Trade Chocolate Video

Here's a video I made with my friend Claire and the Youth Group from our church. I did a lot of editing on this thing :) Check it out!

Shreddin' the Slopes in Bulgaria

Well, Hello Everyone,

We are fresh off the slopes of the Rila Mountains in Borovetz, Bulgaria and we thought we should tell you about our fun experience. We left our home here in Hereford after work on Valentine’s Day. Myself, Sarah, Claire and Jez drove down to London to stay at the Marriott Hotel before flying out the next morning. The Marriott is nice, especially on Valentine’s Day. I mean who doesn’t love a really nice hotel? Come on!

The next day we flew to Sofia, Bulgaria (the capital) and we were met at the airport by Bobbie…our contact whom we affectionately named Bobbie Bulgaria. Bobbie met us at the airport holding a sign with our name on it and everything. The four of us crammed in his van and we drove to the town of Samakov. Samakov is where we rented our apartment. It is a town about 7 miles from the ski resort of Borovetz. Now, Samakov is a city that appears to be trying to recover from the effects of a communist government. It’s trying, but it’s not there yet, to say the least. Bobbie drove us to our apartment which was nice enough…but, now I’m not kidding because we counted…20 dogs lived on our street. Some roamed the street and some were fenced, but still…that’s a lot of dogs! Needless to say, there was plenty of barking in the night…

Now, it was hard to imagine that while we were in this struggling town about 7 miles away was Borovetz…a ski resort community with all the perks a capitalist community could offer: Endless supplies of trinkets and ski paraphernalia. Plus, hot Bulgaria meals, taxi rides on a horse and carriage, and the friendliest Bulgarian people all wanting your business.

The skiing was ace! Being Claire and Jez’s first ski holiday, they easily found their footing on the easier and intermediate slopes…and Sarah and I had a blast enjoying helping them learn the difficult art of skiing. By the end of the time I was skiing reds and blacks and Sarah would ski a red if push came to shove.

Four days of skiing has left us sore but feeling accomplished! Bulgaria…who would’ve thought? All the fun of skiing and at half the price that some people pay for a ski holiday in the Alps. It was an experience I wouldn’t change for anything…going to sleep to the sound of dogs whimpering and breathing in that fresh mountain air in the morning…ace!

On a separate note, Sarah and I went with Claire and Jez a couple of weeks ago to see Switchfoot in Swansea, Wales. That was a great concert! AND, Monday, Sarah and I are seeing Keane in Cardiff, Wales. So we are definitely trying to keep up with the music scene!

Both of our jobs are going well and I am really looking forward to directing this production of “Wind in the Willows” with our youth theatre. Sarah is doing a week of training next week to become certified in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), so she’ll be able to call herself a psychotherapist after that. This will help her with treating her patients with depression and anxiety a lot.

Our great friends John and Heidi Sebestyen will be visiting us in March and we can’t wait! If not before you’ll hear from us after they visit, because I’m sure we’ll have pics and stuff.

For now, if you want ski pics, go to http://www.suelfam.blogspot.com and you can follow the link on the right hand side to our pic archive.

Email us with what’s going on in your lives. We love hearing from you!

Jason (and Sarah)

Pictures: 1. The cure for a foggy cold day...hot chocolate! 2. Jason and Jez matching suspenders and drinks! 3. Beautiful Rila Mountains. 4. Jez in an action shot.

How We Spent the Holidays

Well, we are back in the UK and settled in nicely. But, I did want to send around a little message and let you know what we’ve been up to. I am assuming most of you know that we travelled to the States, albeit for too short of a time, over Christmas and New Years. I’ll tell you a little about our trip:

We left London just before a massive front hit the city delaying flights for three days because of fog. Thankfully, none of that affected us. And, we had a short layover in Chicago, so our great friend John (of the infamous John and Heidi) rescued us from the clutches of the manic airport and took us to a travel plaza…we shared a few precious moments with John…unfortunately Heidi happened to be working that day. But, not to worry…they are coming to visit us in March! Hooray!

After all our flight and connections, we arrived in Little Rock, AR a little jet lagged and anxious to see everyone. My (Jason’s) family greeted us at the airport. They were there to simply provide us with transport. They let us borrow one of my family’s trucks. Now, this truck is probably a normal size truck in the States but to me, it felt like a tank. I’m pretty sure that you could fit the car we drive here in England in the bed of this truck. Anyway, once we got over the initial shock of the tank-ish truck I had to get used to the road again. I mean, it’s been 10 months since we were in the States so driving again on the other side of the road took a bit of adjusting. Not to mention, the size of the road…the road itself seemed like I could land an airplane on it. Additionally, Sarah had decided she wasn’t going to drive the whole time we were in the States. She said that it had taken long enough to get used to driving in the UK and she didn’t want to have to relearn it again. So, once we got back into the routine of driving we went straight to Sarah’s house in Ft. Smith.

We stayed in Fort Smith until Christmas. We saw all, or most, of Sarah’s family/extended family and we even had some of our best friends (the David’s, the twins, and the Suels together again!) come to visit us there. Then, on Christmas, we made our way down to Camden and stayed with my folks for 5 days. During this time we got to see most of my family and extended family and a lot of old high school friends that I haven’t seen in ages. It was good to catch up…especially since I probably won’t be coming to my 10-year reunion this summer. We went out to eat and then stayed up late talking about old times. Finally, we went to Little Rock to see some folks there and then we were on to Bowling Green, Ohio.

We had the best time in Arkansas, and we were interested to see how our time in Ohio would compare. And, to be honest, it was awesome! We got to see most of our friends there from our church and from my grad school program. In fact, we arrived at about midnight on a Saturday and I got a phone call from the worship team wondering if I wanted to help lead worship on Sunday morning…just like old times. Needless to say, I accepted and had a blast. Like I said, we caught up with a lot of friends there and shared some laughs and some tears.

My mother probably said it best when she pointed out that we will probably never have another time when we see all (or most) of the people that we love in one trip and over a two week period at that…it was truly a blessing. So, thanks to all of you who made a special effort to see us. It truly made us wish that we could see all of you on a more regular basis.

Then, it was back to the UK and that means back to work. I am, at this very moment, heavily involved in preparations for directing “The Wind in the Willows.” The show goes up around Easter time and we are beginning the process of rehearsals. It’s hectic for me…parents with all kinds of questions, etc. But, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t relish the opportunity. It’s exciting! Sarah’s back to work too. She is still enjoying all the experience she is gaining and loving what she does.

Because we had a little free time over the Holiday season, we had the opportunity to plan. So, here is what you can expect to read about in the coming months:

February – Ski Trip to Bulgaria (with best friends Claire and Jez!) and Keane Concert
March – John and Heidi Visit
April – Wind in the Willows, Jason Runs another Marathon, European Weekend Trip
May – European Weekend Trip, Justin Timberlake Concert, Church Youth Retreat

Okay, we’ll write again soon with updates. Hopefully when we write again, we can report that we had a great time skiing in Bulgaria and no one suffered any broken bones!

Turn off your computer and give someone a hug,

Jason (and Sarah)

Pictures: 1) Jason, Sarah, Heather, Shannon, David M., David J., and Brett...Great friends hanging at the Abbotts 2) The Suels and the Abbotts ready for Church on Christmas Eve 3) Suel Family (get into the antlers on the wall!) 4) Eating with friends at Easy Street in BG, Ohio

Budapast is the Best!

Hello Everyone,

We’re refreshed after our weekend trip to Budapest, Hungary and I just wanted to fill you in! Yes, we went to Budapest this past weekend…that’s our 12th country since moving here, and it was just as exciting as the first! Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better autumn trip. We saw and did just about all there was to do.

We arrived in the evening and we got the layout of the city, strolled down Vaci street (shopping district) and went for a big Hungarian style meal. Hungarian means meat…and lots of it (at least that was our experience). So, Sarah and I went to a place that was mentioned in one of our guidebooks. The portions were big and the place was friendly. We went to leave a tip at the end of the meal and our waiter said that we had left too much…so he only took about half of it. After that we went back to our Hotel that was on the outskirts of the town so we had to take public transportation and such.

The next day we awoke to a breakfast at the hotel and then we were back on the tram headed into the heart of Budapest. I wanted to hit the Turkish baths first so we headed over Liberty Bridge to the Gellert Hotel, which is also famous for its baths. We bought our ticket and found ourselves in the infamous Turkish baths with all the other tourists and locals (and yes, I did experience the steam room, Milliken…and you were right). After spending the morning in the baths we left and went up Gellert hill to the Citadel were there is a statue that can be seen from anywhere in Budapest. It was quite a hike to the top so we stopped and took some photos and stuff before heading back down. On the way down we stopped at the monument to Saint Gellert himself. He was a Bishop who was a martyr.

We then went to the Castle District, and saw, well, the castle! Had lunch at another place mentioned in our guidebook—a cafeteria of sorts. We ate bean soup and chicken and potatoes…good hearty food again. Then on to the Parliament building. It wasn’t open cause it was Sunday, but it’s a great old building. Then on to St. Margaret Island, in the middle of the Danube River. We had been walking all day long, so we rented a hilarious 2-person bike thing, where we sit side-by-side and pedal this little car together. The island was beautiful, basically just a park, but with the autumn leaves changing, it was amazing. By the time we finished here it was dark. We headed across town to the State Opera House, a beautiful old building with winding staircases and 3 ton chandeliers! All red and gold inside. We asked if there was an opera on that night, and there was! It (an Opera called Jenufa) started in an hour, so we bought some great seats in the middle on the floor (not balcony). This was our biggest splurge—about 25 pounds. A ¼ of the cost of our entire trip! (Notice it was a CHEAP trip!) We were the only people there in jeans and backpacks, but we didn’t care! The opera was simply amazing, the best part of our trip.

We got back to the hotel late that night, then woke the next morning to check out. We put on our packs and headed back into town for a few more hours of wandering the streets and shops and the Jewish Quarter before heading back to the airport. The trip had basically no hitches, and ended up being just perfect!

So next up is our trip home to America for Christmas! We are so super excited! We will spend most of the time in Arkansas, but will be spending New Year’s Eve till the 3rd in Ohio. Now, Ohio friends, we did want to surprise you all and just show up at a party, so we confided our secret plan to Liz Dally, the only one who was supposed to know…but she let the cat out of the bag! All of a sudden we are getting emails from Ohioans saying they are excited to be seeing us over New Years! So, no surprise anymore (never tell Liz a secret!! j/k), we are definitely coming up to old BG. We’ll be there a few days, so we hope to see you all.

Write us soon with any updates, and we look forward to seeing almost everyone on this email list hopefully at Christmas!!

We love you,
Jason and Sarah Suel

PS: For all the music fan out there, on Sunday (Nov. 12th) Sarah and I went to see MUSE in concert in Cardiff, Wales. They were ace! Rockin’ tunes and great beats. Get into that!



At the Gellert Thermal Baths (check out Sarah's awesome rental suit!)
Sarah with a view of Budapest Castle
Jason (looking cool in his Tapes t-shirt) with a view of the Parliament
Inside the awesome State Opera House

One Year in the UK!

Okay, so this blog is a little late. We actually celebrated our one-year anniversary of living here on October 28th. One year in the UK…we can’t believe it! So, I thought to celebrate I would list 28 things that we would not have experienced if we had not moved here. Here goes:

Meeting a wonderful new group of friends whom we cherish
Hearing the waves crash against the shore of Wales
Finding Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station in London (thanks to Harry Potter)
Celebrating Christmas on a crisp day in Paris, France
Listening to everyone’s “America” stories…Brits all seem to have at least one
Eating a true Belgian Waffle in Brussels
Coping with our extremely unstylish flat…complete with mismatched furniture
Lighting fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day…the 5th of November
Experiencing the Marionette Theatre in Prague, Czech Republic
Getting “Footloose” with our friend Suzy in Bristol
Biking up to the highest point of Corfu, Greece
Learning how to order a meal at a Pub
Exploring ruins in Saronda, Albania
Learning the intricacies of the British driving system
Taking in the sunset from the Algarve in Portugal
Involving ourselves in the ministry of Hereford Baptist Church
Chalking up 900 miles on the odometer as we experienced Ireleand/Northern Ireland
Running a marathon in Blackpool
Chummin’ around with Patrick in Gaudi’s home: Barcelona, Spain
Remembering to call them “trousers” and not “pants”
Seeing and hearing Big Ben for the first time
Using a myriad of new terminology, like: mingin, bangers n’ mash, bits, and burgle
Taking pictures with friends outside of London’s “Filthy McNasty’s”
Changing from Fahrenheit to Celsius
Teaching our Hereford friends the difference between a taco and a burrito
Learning how to make British style flapjacks…not the pancake kind
Watching Sarah perform in the musical “Singin’ in the Rain”
Establishing ourselves in Hereford, England and all its quaint beauty

Of course all these things, as great as they are, will never replace the memories and experiences that we share with all of our friends Stateside. And family, we miss you more today than ever. We hope to see all of you, family and friends, very soon so that we can make some more memories. Thanks for reading all the communications we send out and, as always, we would love to hear from you.

Sincerest Love,

Jason and Sarah

Rugby, Running, and Random

Hello gang,

It’s been a while, so let’s talk. Since the last email, Sarah and I haven’t visited any new and exciting countries…we’ve just had a nice relaxing time here in the UK…but that doesn’t mean our lives have been dull and mundane…I’ll fill you in.

We went to a concert in Cardiff, Wales…the band is called Embrace. They are pretty big here in the UK and getting bigger in the States. The night was fun…Sarah and I haven’t been to a concert since seeing Gavin DeGraw in Toledo…we’ll be in Cardiff to see Muse on Nov. 4th…that’s another concert I’m looking forward to!

My birthday, as you may remember, was on Sept. 3rd. Sarah bought us tickets to a Rugby match in the nearby town of Bristol…the game was Bristol vs. Bath. These are two cities that are close to each other so the match was something of a local rivalry. We went with our friends Claire and Jez and had a wicked time! I’ve been to a few football (soccer) matches, but Rugby was different. The rules are similar to American Football, so it was easy to understand it…and even when we didn’t understand it, we still were able to enjoy getting into the game with the crowd around us. The final score of the game…I think, was Bristol’s 27 to Bath’s 22, which was good because we were supporting Bristol. So that was a lot of fun.

The next exciting thing I did was run the Cardiff Half Marathon on October 15th. There was much more support for this event than when I ran the full Marathon in Blackpool this past June. I did feel like a sell-out because I opted for the Half Marathon instead of the Full, but it was a good challenge and it was fun. Sarah is such a trooper…she always goes to these Marathons and walks around with the camera and takes my picture…so we’ve got some pics now.

As for traveling, we’ve got a trip booked for Budapest, Hungary in November. Then in February, we’ve booked a trip with our friends Claire and Jez to go skiing in Bulgaria! We are SUPER excited about both of these things.

On the other hand, some rather tragic news nearly stopped us in our tracks this month. A very dear friend of ours was killed in a car accident. His name was Preston Pahl. He was a great friend of ours in Bowling Green and he was the fiancée of another dear friend, Suzy Dally. You may remember that Suzy is one of the few people who have come to visit us here in England. We lived with the Dally family for a couple of months before we moved to England, so we are close to the whole family. To say the least, everyone in Bowling Green is aching over this loss. We are too. He was killed on his way back to University when a Semi ran into him from behind forcing him to go head first into oncoming traffic. He died on the scene. My heart aches for Suzy. They were engaged for one day shy of a month, by my calculations. I can’t imagine the situation that Suzy is in, but I do know one thing…it made me consider how blessed I am to still be living the life that I love. And, I encourage you to look at your life as well and think if you died tomorrow, would you be proud of the life you’ve lived? It’s a hard question and it’s okay to wrestle with it.

For our friends Suzy and the Dally family, and the Pahl family, we ask for your prayers and support. They need it. Needless to say, worlds have been drastically changed.

For those of you who don’t know, we’ll be coming home this Christmas. We’ll be home for 2 weeks, which will be great. Anyone interested in meeting up with us, please get in touch. We’re happy to meet up with as many friends as we can.

We hope to hear from you all soon, and love getting updates and pictures from all of you.

Love from England,
Jason and Sarah

Pictured: 1. An English Country Lane. 2. The Rugby Match. 3. Finishing the Half Marathon in Millenium Stadium. 4. After the Marathon, outside Cardiff Castle.

Singin' in the Rain w/Louie

Gang,

So, It’s been a little while since we last informed you about our exciting lives…I’ll pick up where I left off. Our friend Patrick left and as soon as he was gone Sarah started rehearsals for the Courtyard Theatre’s production of “Singin’ in the Rain.” She is now into the run of the production. It’s going great for her. She is having an interesting experience to say the least. She is working from 9 to 5 as usual and after that she’s off to the theatre from 6:30 until 10:30. I think she’ll be glad when it’s over, but she is enjoying it while it lasts.

Also, Sarah made friends with another member of the community cast. She is in the community cast but she is not from this community. She is from Winchester. She had accommodation for a little while but when that was over, she didn’t have anywhere to stay. And, we decided to invite her to stay with us. So, for most of the month of September we will have the lovely Saira Belle staying with us. It’s been a trip. She stays in the living room and we have to be as quiet as mice ☺

My job is going well. I really don’t have much to report about that except to say that I love it!

Get into this…we totally met Louie Giglio. I realize that name may not mean anything to some of you. But, he is a huge evangelical preacher in the US. His name is associated with the Passion Movement, One Day, Chris Tomlin, and the David Crowder Band. We have heard him speak on a few special occasions. However, we are always in the crowd with thousands of other people. Well, before Louie was a big speaker and he was just a campus pastor in Texas, he used to do short term missions to England and even to the county of Herefordshire! So, he was back. Speaking to a crowd of about 800. And at the end of his talk, we walked right up to him and talked. It was totally weird. Before, we had only seen him on a platform surrounded by so many people and now we were just talking to him. We heard him give 2 messages…they were both inspiring. Anyway, I figured some of you who are Louie fans would want to know that.

Our next trip will be to Budapest in November. We just booked it yesterday. But before then we have a slew of other interesting things to look forward to. We are seeing two concerts: Embrace and Muse. And I’m running a half-marathon in Cardiff. Also, for my birthday (Sept. 3…27 years) Sarah got tickets to a Rugby game on Oct. 1st. It’s going to be fun. Our friends Claire and Jez will be going with us. That will be sweet!

Speaking of my birthday. We had a really nice time. We barbecued up at Claire and Jez’s and later that night we went old school and set up a fort in the living room. A fort is, you know, made of clothespins, sheets and chairs. We watched a movie under there. Sweet!

Also, be thinking about us on Tuesday. We are taking the first part of our Driving Test…the theory part. I know you probably think it will be easy because we have been driving…but the test system is so different here. About 50% of people fail their first time. If we fail…it will stink for both of us…so, pray for us on Tuesday.

I guess that is about all. Again, we have more photos available at www.suelfam.blogspot.com AND I have finally bitten the bullet and set up a myspace account. I have been avoiding setting it up, but now it’s done and I would love for you to add us as a friend. You’ll find us at www.myspace.com/suelfam. Email back with exciting updates!

Happy September and good luck to all you students!

Jason (and Sarah)


Pics: 1. Sarah in "Singin' in the Rain" 2. Jason and the ole b-day cake 3. Sarah and some of the cast (Saira, our houseguest, is next to Sarah) 4. All the friends in "the fort" for the b-day party!