Northern Ireland... a Whole Other Country

We're in Northern Ireland now.  It's a part of Great Britain, though that is hotly contested, and it even uses a different currency, Sterling instead of euro.  We we're supposed to leave on Wednesday morning at 6:30... and Lauren and I woke up at 6:36 sharp.  Oops.  We've been having serious alarm issues because our normal one broke, and now we're using a watch that can normally wake us up, but sometimes can't.  Oh well, we made it out the door semi-on time for Ireland at least.

We headed up to Belfast the first day, which was a pretty... heavy place.  If you don't know the history of the city and the Troubles, you probably won't understand what I'm talking about, but you should look it up.  It's interesting stuff.  There are "Peace Walls" throughout the town to divide up the Unionists (people who want Northern Ireland to remain apart of Great Britain, usually Protestant) and Nationalists (those who want a united Ireland, usually Catholics).  The hatred and the deep scars from the Troubles are almost tangible when you walk or drive through this city divided up by walls and gates that can shut automatically in case any violence erupts.  I've been in poor communities before, but I've never been in such an oppressive place, where the whole city seemed to be so buried within hatred that nothing else existed beyond the conflict and their dead heroes.  You could almost feel the demonic forces in the city, with Satan at work dividing the town.  All over Belfast there are murals, some from both sides and some from people who want peace.  There's this one where a masked gunman literally follows you with his gun no matter where you stand.  It's crazy to me that the children of Belfast grow up under these murals of masked gunman and dead heroes.  Well, as you can tell, that whole tour was very depressing, yet extremely enlightening to Ireland's political and social situation.

However, we ended the day on a higher not, for which I was extremely grateful.  We went to the Giant's Causeway, this place with awesome rock formations.  All the rocks are six-sided in shape.  I really enjoyed that, and I felt an almost physical relief to leave Belfast and get out into God's awesome nature.

Today, we got up early and headed out to see Derry, another city in Northern Ireland, toured there, and then went to some cliffs.  I can't remember their name... Sligo something, but we hiked to the top, and the view was absolutely incredible.  Just massive cliffs, and we were the only people out there as well.  I really enjoyed that.  Tonight we're staying in a hotel in county Donegal, back in the Republic of Ireland.  We'll get back to Greystones sometime tomorrow.  But tonight we're going to eat out at the Hotel restaurant, and I'm pretty excited.  We've been eating paper bag lunches for a while now, so this should be good.

No Heat!

The heat is not working at the main house at the Y, which means that I have five layers of clothing on right now.  Quite literally.  So we're all working at staying warm and keeping fires going in the Red Room.  We're headed up to Belfast/Northern Ireland on Wednesday.  That should be a lot of fun, but we have some homework due in between now and then... ugh.

Today, after church, a couple of us were invited over for coffee at a family's house with some of the other members of the church.  That was a lot of fun.  The family has a huge mastiff.  The dog was literally a foot or two shorter than me.  I could have ridden it like a horse it was so huge.  Now my coat is covered with dog drool and hair, but we're going to walk the dogs with them tomorrow morning.  It'll be early, but I can't wait!

Tonight, on the other hand, will be a cold one.  All the girls are thinking about having a sleepover in the Red Room with the fireplace for warmth, but I don't think we'll get much sleep there.  So now I have to choose between sleep and warmth... hard decision.  We'll see what happens with that.

Back Online Again!

The internet here at the Y has been going in and out, but we have steady service for now... Hopefully it will stay that way. Things have been going pretty normally around here after the profs left last Saturday. I cooked all weekend because it was my group's turn to do the weekend meals. Saturday night I went with another friend to help out a this place called the Lighthouse Mission. They give a free meal along with clothes and other things out to the homeless of Dublin on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. If you guys back home could pray for them, they would really appreciate it. They're trying to build new facilities so that they can offer more, but they still need a lot of funding.

Since then, I've just been doing homework and hanging out at the Y, except for yesterday. My friend, Katie Moore, and I decided we wanted to go to Dublin Zoo, so we headed out on the Dart to Phoenix Park, where the zoo is. Easy, right? Not exactly. The Dart ride there took forever, and then we got off in the middle of corn fields. Phoenix Park was about a 15 minute walk from the station. Then we walked for 2-3 miles through the park itself towards the zoo. By that time, we didn't have enough time to actually go into the zoo because we had Irish dance class at four. So we slowly made our way back using multiple modes of Public transportation as the Dart broke down and such... It was a fun adventure, even though we didn't actually get to go into the zoo.

Tomorrow we're heading off on another trip to Hook Lighthouse and some other places. I'm not exactly sure where, but it should be fun. Our Art as an Experience final is due on Friday, and then we have a Halloween Party. We're all attending this party with different roles to play in an Italian mobster family, so it should be great fun. In the game, we're trying to solve who killed the head of the family, and I play his daughter Angel. I'm definitely looking forward to it. The costumes should be just as outrageous as 80's night.

Whew!

We've been going nonstop with two of my profs here to teach the Art as an Experience Course, all over Dublin and county Meath.  On Monday, we saw three monastic sites and an ancient site called Knowth, and then had Irish dance lessons followed by a short class at night.  Tuesday, we had class from 9:00 until 4:30 and then I helped with our ESL class at the Y.  Today then, we headed into Dublin at 8:30 to do an architectural tour of the area.  We hit the first public library in Ireland (which has remained unchanged since the 1700's). St. Patrick's, Christ Church, an art gallery, and Dublin Castle, followed by a long sprint to the DART station.  Let's just say we're all exhausted at this point and looking forward to our free days on Saturday and Sunday.  Tonight we still have class at 8:00 and then tomorrow will be class all day again... Hopefully we'll all survive until Saturday.  As of right now it's looking doubtful.

Big Hair and Pink Eyeshadow... Agh! 80's

Yesterday, I was sick all day for my birthday... ugh.  But it was still a good birthday.  My roommate and my friends put signs up all over the Y, and I got a cake with my name on it.  I got some cards, presents from home (thanks everybody!), and a present from my roommate.  We had class all day, and then headed into Dublin to see a play.  It was a pretty abstract play by Samuel Beckett, and then I headed home and fell asleep thanks to some good medication : )

Today, I feel better, thankfully.  We had our pick-a-date earlier tonight.  It's a Taylor tradition where you go out on a "date" with a guy's floor, and it's a lot of fun.  The guys in the group picked their dates out of a hat, and then had to come up with a creative way to ask them to go.  I got asked with cookies in the shape of a bowling ball and pins because we were going bowling.  We actually had a group of three (two girls and a guy) because we don't have that many guys on this trip.  So my group and another date group went out to pizza and ice cream and then headed out to meet the other groups to bowl in Bray.

The thing is that the theme tonight was 80's night... and the Irish did not dress the same way that Americans dressed in the 80's.  Let's just say we got a lot of strange looks walking down the main street of Greystones towards the DART because our costumes were pretty much all-out craziness!  Then, later at the bowling alley, a song came on that a group of guys had used to ask their dates out.  They created this dance to a pop song, and did the whole thing in the bowling alley.  Again, we drew a crowd... All in all, it was a very fun night.

Home again, home again!

Well, after surviving on baguettes, cheese, and apples for four days, let's just say that I'm glad to be back at the Y where I'll get meat and veggies and a big meal for free!  Paris was incredible, with all the fall colors in the trees, but I'm glad to be back in green Ireland.  We saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Musee D'Orsay, Sacre Coeur, Sainte-Chappelle, the Tuleries Gardens, Les Invalides, and a bunch of other stuff all within three touring days.  I successfully navigated the metro, and didn't get us lost too many times.  We had church Sunday morning in the Tuleries Gardens, we survived the the sea of people trying to sell Eiffel Tower keychains, we ate Nutella Crepes along the Seine River, bartered for apples and bread in an open air market, and did a whole bunch of other stuff that I don't have time to talk about.  Ask me for stories when I get back, because there are some good ones...

But we're back now.  I think tonight Lauren and I are going to curl up with a cup of tea and a good movie.  Homework and all that other stuff can wait for tomorrow.

Attacking Paris

Well, after taking the DART to Dublin, a bus to the airport, a plane to France, a bus to Paris, and a taxi to our apartment, we finally made it at about 1:00 in the morning. We were just going to rent hostel rooms in Paris at about 25-30 euro per night per head, but then my friend had the brilliant idea of renting an apartment. It was much cheaper, we have a kitchen, our own bathroom and bedrooms, as well as internet. It is also very nice to have a place to hang out at night that is not shared with complete strangers!

Today was a fun, but very stressful day. To start it off, one of us got locked in the bathroom accidentally. After we sprung him free, we bought croissants for breakfast at the bakery across the street. Then we had the daunting task of navigating the French metro with our terrible grasp of the French language, but we succeeded in figuring out the system after some wandering around aimlessly. We saw Napoleon Bonaparte's sarcophagus, Les Invalides, le Arc d'Triomphe, and Sacre Coeur. (I know I'm spelling that name wrong, but it's this beautiful basilica with a wonderful little market outside.) Finally, we made it back to the apartment, had a great adventure finding a chicken, some bagguettes, and some cheese that smelled seriously like BO but tasted pretty good. All in all, I'm exhausted, but excited to see the city after figuring out how to use the Public Transport today.

Tomorrow we're off to see Notre Dame, Saint Chappelle, and the Musee D'orsay. It should be exciting...