X-Ring!!!

Hello everyone, I'm back from my hiatus wherein I was doing a lot of schoolwork. (I still have a ton of schoolwork to do...) Let me first say hi to my mom's friend Heidi who will especially like this entry, even though it probably won't be that hilarious. Anyway, yesterday was X-Ring, and under the special circumstances, I think I should write about how it happened here in Harlow, England.
Four kids here in England were due to get their X-rings yesterday and we thought it would be a sin for them not to have a nice ceremony just like all the Nishers. So, with the help of the really great local priest from the Catholic church, and a couple enthusiastic and organized X students (and some from MUN!), we pulled off a great X-Ring ceremony.




So, here is the Church of the Assumption, where the ceremony was held. It was really a great venue. The guy near the front is my super-organized friend Marc, who I ended up calling "pageant mom" because he....well, let's just say he was a really great speaking coach. Anyway, we didn't decorate it a lot or anything, but the lighting was good, and it was perfect size for our small group of about 30-40.



This is Dr. Clancy with the rings on a pillow he brought from home. I thought that was hilarious and laughed secretly to myself, but apparently the situation required a little more solemnity in public. Anyway, Dr. Clancy spoke on behalf of the school administration, and introduced our guest speaker, Jennifer Webb. By the way, Jennifer's speech was probably my favourite part of the ceremony. Very well done.



And here are this year's Harlow X-Ring recipients...
Andrew Cameron, Adam McKecknie, Jessica Baxter and Jay Heisler. (Jay was raised Buddhist, and was pretty uncomfortable in the whole situation. Which was a source of endless entertainment for me.) P.S. I'm in the background there: check it out!

Later there was a reception/afterparty, and I've included some pictures from that for my mom's enjoyment, mostly.



Me and the boys, only 2 minutes before Marc spilled coffee all over me. Luckily I was wearing a black dress. Anyway, Donnamarie (the photographer) pointed out that in one year, we will be forgetting all about putting our arms around each other for the picture and shamelessly flashing our rings instead. She's so right.

See? Adam's doing it in the picture below! But can you blame him? They're so shiny.


Anyway, another great Feast of St. Francis Xavier goes by, and we not only pulled off a whole X-ring ceremony across the ocean, we introduced the idea of X-ring to MUN, made the day of about three or four alumni, and confused a few British people along the way. (No, it has nothing to do with Freemasonry. Sheesh.)

I'm sure I'll see all of you soon!
-Nat