Wednesday June 24, 2009

We had a team meeting in the morning to do course evaluations (the best part of taking a course) and a talk on our cleaning assignments.  Phil had the job to clean one of the downstairs bathrooms, and it was absolutely spotless when we were done- and then someone dripped on the seat.  People have bathroom issues here.  We then had to rearrange our furniture, throw away trash and get all packed up and showered.  For dinner, they set up the tables outside with a tablecloth and pyramid of teacups and Villa Italian catered our dinner.  We had salad, bread, lasagna, and tiramasu with fruit and SODA (which is rare).  It was yummy.  It was nice to be able to be outside since it was in the 70's and sunny.  The Irish say that is is the best summer they have EVER had, ever.   After dinner we sang Irish bar songs and then played a game as a group.  We all got certificates that said we had completed the Irish studies, so I guess I can frame that?

Tuesday June 23, 2009

The poem I wrote here in Ireland.  

How did I come to be in Ireland?

Melinda Roberts

 

It was not the rolling green hills or Leprechauns

That drew me to Ireland,

But that I was once told,

Study abroad, sometime when you can.

 

I feared the weather,

Dreadfully hating rain.

Unsure of the situation,

I hoped I had much to gain,

Through spending my summer far, far away,

In a land that was foreign,

Leaving the comfort of home, warmth, and family.

 

My collywobbles have been absolved,

Off the coast they now reside,

For repose I have now found,

In the country, new friends, not to mention that bouncy van.

 

Oh bangers, oh mash, and what are those? Chips?

You can argue with me that,

For you don’t have to

Rub my fur in the right direction.

 

Wilde the Irish writers: Yeats, Joyce, and Heaney

Who inspired me with their angst.

Round towers and cathedrals remind me of the religious history,

That still affects life and politics today.

 

Oh Ireland, please find peace,

For you are a nation of beauty.

Leave the past behind for

Hope lies in your hills, your shores, and your quays.

 

My time here is short,

It waxes and wanes with the day,

But I rejoice in my sojourn,

A meatpie of a stay.

 

My memories will not be lost in the Shadowlands,

Because they are vivid and lofty.

Goodbye dear Shamrock Island,

May I come back another day?

 

Sunday June 21, 2009

We checked out of the hostel and went to church at The Vineyard.  It was a very contemporary service with really good worship music.  After church we had lunch at the hostel, which was weird because we had already checked out, but whatever.  We then went over to Dunluce Castle.  It was the perfect weather to be exploring a caste, misty and gray.  

It is in good condition, as good of a condition a castle without a roof can be in, but what I liked about it was that it did not feel touristy.  There were a couple of gates and things to keep people safe, but it wasn't overrun with modern things that would take away from the castle.  There was an archery demonstration while we were there that I didn't find all that fascinating.  

We walked down next to the castle and some people went into this cave where water splashes up into.  I didn't climb down 

because it was a dark and treacherous path.  

So then the fun begins.  Our art prof Neil, whom is not well liked because he is sorta arrogant and self-righteous wants to go see the Giant's Causeway, which as you remember we all spent HOURS at the day before.  So we are grumbling and we go and we are like so 20 minutes tops?  We are sitting in the cafe for 40 minutes sketching or staring at the wall and Neil and Mindi come in and we all mobilize, we are ready to go.  But they buy tea and its another 20 minutes.  But its okay because we have hours of homework to drive home to, but no big deal.  Oh and the reason he didn't go the day before was because he was napping!  So we are now really mad and in the bus on the way home and Mindi turns around, not Neil, and says "Neil is really thankful that you let him see the causeway" and we are mumbling, why can't he say thank you?  The tension escalates to a small argument between a student (not Phil or me) and Neil about why he couldn't be grateful etc...  Neil eventually said thank you, but he did not apologize and in his "thanks" he was saying all this stuff about not being attacked, blah blah, and blamed us for being tired, but we were the victims here.  And we still had homework to go home to.  I do not know if my short story really puts this whole thing in perspective, but all this could have been avoided if in the beginning Neil had said, "Look, I was feeling sick yesterday (diarrhea would have been a good excuse) and I would appreciate it if you would let me see the causeway before I leave Ireland.  I will be 20 minutes tops and will not drink tea for 20 minutes."  This in no way occurred and all of us all 17 felt disrespected for having to sit around for over an hour when we were there the day before and he could have easily come along.  We then drove into Belfast and ate kebabs.

Saturday June 20, 2009

We had breakfast at the hostel and then we were off to Carrick-a-rede rope bridge.  We walked quite a ways to the bridge which was originally constructed each year by fishermen to catch salmon.  The bridge seemed pretty safe, but up on the hill it was windy and a little scary to be close to the edge.  It was a beautiful walk to and from the bridge, right up on the coast.  I can't even put into words how wonderful it was, especially since it stopped raining early on.  After sandwiches for lunch, we walked over 5 miles to the Giant's Causeway which resulted from an ancient volcanic eruption.  The walk began on a beach, then we had to traverse over some rocks, and then up onto the hills.  We passed by a huge mansion that was used as a sort of correctional facility back in the day.  Some of the boys spent the walk exploring caves and other cool things, and Hadden was worried about them.  We walked even more down to the Giant's Causeway then climbed on the rock formations, then a long walk back uphill with no shoes on (where were my shoes?).  Hadden bought us all ice cream cones because we had worked up a sweat.  For dinner it was either fish and chips or chicken sandwich and chips and since I had fish and chips the night before I went for the chicken.  Hadden said that we had walked probably a total of 9 miles that day, phew!  After dinner, a very famous Irish artist, Ross Wilson came to talk with us.  He has done many sculptures throughout Ireland and has done portraits of people like Prince Charles and John Keats and had his work in galleries all over the world.  All night Mindi was saying that Phil looked like the Alphabet Angel sculpture that Ross did in the town that we were in, and when we introduced ourselves Ross asked Phil if he knew him from somewhere and then Ross said, you look like one of my sculptures.  He told the best story of being invited to a dinner at Hillsborough Castle to have dinner with Prince Charles and then being invited to Prince Charles' castle in Scotland and everything that happened there.  It was a really great story of eating with Charles and Camilla, going to church with them, and taking a walk with Charles, and not having enough socks.  He is a really good story teller, and he wasn't bragging at all.  He focuses on doing sculptures for communities that have a lot of terrorist activity and para-military action.  He also trys to spread the gospel whenever he can like giving Prince Charles a booklet on C. S. Lewis' conversion story.  We were all in awe of Ross when he left, so we asked for his autograph!  I slept well that night.

Friday June 19, 2009

In the morning we went to Ballynahinch Baptist Church for a scholarly talk on homosexuality, which turned out to be a big waste of time.  The Dr. who was talked to the group sounded knowledgeable but he talked about a whole lot of nothing to conclude with being gay is not genetic.  Then we had like 5 minutes to eat little sandwiches and were off to Bellaghy Bawn where Seamus Heaney, a famous Irish poet, lived and wrote about a lot.  I didn't feel well at all that day and we were all tired and bored and we get to Bellaghy Bawn and are first put in a room to watch a really poorly made movie then up to talk to this Druid women with crazy red hair about her needlepoint work that portrays Heaney's poems.  At least we didn't spend too long there.  Then we drove to the North Coast which is not a town but a place and ate at a nice restaurant called the Cromore Halt.  Most of us had chips with our dinner and our table of 6 used 39 packets of ketchup... ahh Americans.  Talk about injustice, the two other tables had an appetizer, which in Ireland is completely necessary because the food takes forever to come out.  Just when we got the blessing from Billy to order one our food came out.  It was Chris's birthday so we are telling Billy that we need cake, and out comes one piece for her, which is good, but we want chocolate now too.  We are thinking that we won't get any when Billy and Hadden come out with Magnum bars! They are ice cream on a stick covered in chocolate (like the dove bars), but of course better.  They told us to use the bathroom because we were going to be walking around so I did, and Hadden said I needed to see a plumber.  We walked around the coast outside in the rain, which was sorta wet.  The boys were playing hacky sack with some local boys.  We then went to the hostel in Bushmills, which is the town where Bushmill's Whiskey is made on the Bush river.  The hostel was a much better experience than in London.  We had four of us girls to a room with our own bathroom and shower in the room.  The mattresses were similar to concrete and the pillows more closely resembled sheets of paper than anything fluffy, but we made do.  I slept terribly the first night.

Thursday June 18, 2009

We had a leisurely morning mostly doing homework and whatever else.  At 2pm I gave a presentation on John Hewitt that I had prepared for honors credit.  As far as I know it went well and my prof Mindi told me that it was a good presentation, so that is all that counts.  We were supposed to then go over to the John Hewitt Bar that I presented on to read our personal poems that we wrote, but the bar said that they didn't want our big group coming in anymore because they were busy.  We read our poems to each other in the living area, which was a nice experience while sampling Irish chocolate (have I mentioned their chocolate bars here are wayy better?).  A lot of people had really serious poems about the landscape, but Phil and I had sillier poems.  All the poems, though, had to be about Ireland.  Mindi laughed really hard at my poem so I was good with that.  I will post it eventually, but it will probably mean a lot less because you are not here to understand the jokes.  Neil said that he will put together a booklet or online site for all of our poems and some of our sketches.  I hope that actually works out.  We did go into Belfast to pop into the John Hewitt Bar.  It had special significance to me since I wrote a lot about it.  We then had our classic, one hour, to be back to the bus when everything in Belfast is closed because it is after five so really we just wander around for an hour in the mist.  For the record, we did find a really cool store and an Urban Outfitters, so it wasn't a total waste of time.  What is really interesting is that in the times of the Troubles, the IRA used to bomb weddings.  So, not only would that add stress to the bride and groom but also one had to risk one's life to go to a wedding.  For dinner Billy made us pork chops, carrots, brussel sprouts, and potatoes- it was a very Irish meal.  After dinner we watched and Irish comedy called "Everlasting Piece," which was comedic as well as portrayed the Troubles in Belfast in the 1980's quite accurately.  Before bed we had to pack for our weekend away at the North Coast.

Wednesday June 17, 2009

We left at 7:30AM to go to Dublin.  We had a two hour Dubliners tour in the rain.  The tour was really good and I think we all have a much greater appreciation for the book Dubliners by James Joyce, which we read for class.  We went around to the places that were written about in the story and learned a lot about the imagery and writing style of Joyce from our tour guide.  It was raining quite a bit.  For lunch we packed out a sandwich shop called something like O' Something or another.  We then went to a tour of the Hugh Lane gallery, which is a gallery that Hugh Lane started a long time ago as the first contemporary art gallery.  I was totally blown away by the completely red canvas that is worth thousands of dollars, come on... that is not art.  There was some good Irish art in there as well as some of the French impressionists that I like.  There was also some complete crap.  After the gallery it was like 4pm and we had the choice to wander around or go home, and we all really just wanted to go home.  We drove back and had dinner at Pizza Express whose name is not anything like the inside.  Its a gourmet pizza shop that specializes in personal pizzas with all sorts of stuff on them.  An there is nothing "Express" about it.  I am not entirely sure why it is called Pizza Express because I was thinking Dominos before we got inside.  Oh well. At home there was a full double rainbow.  It was absolutely incredible.

Tuesday June 16, 2009

Last official day of classes.  The highlights are blueberry and raisin scones for tea time, meat pies for lunch, and tacos for dinner.  Salsa is very hard to find here.  Some of us went to the cinema that night.

Monday June 15, 2009

We had a more leisurely morning and didn't leave for Stormont until 1pm.  We got there a lot faster than we thought we would so we went to the Stormont Hotel for tea/coffee.  Once we were finally served, we had to drink it up really quick to get to our tour on-time.  We tried to park in the parking lot, but it was full and it took us a while to maneuver out because we were a big bus in a small parking lot.  Luckily, we didn't hit anyone's car on the way out.  We found another parking space then had to go through security to get in.  Stormont is the Northern Ireland parliament building.  Our day consisted of having a short information session with 6 representatives of different parties.  They have many parties involved in politics unlike in America with our basically 2 party system.  The parties do fall under the categories of Unionist (Protestant) and Loyalists (Catholics).  The lady who met with us from the Sinn Fein party was scary.  She outrightly told us that she was an ex-combattant.  The Troubles, the para-military violence that occurred between the Protestants and Catholics, still exists today in people's minds and largely influences politics in N. Ireland.  We sat in on a Parliament session, which for the most part was largely boring.  Our art professor really wanted to see a piece of stained glass by David Eisler, whom he did a workshop for and who also did the stained glass in the parish church that we visited.  The stained glass is located in the Stormont Castle where the higher-ups in parliament have their offices.  It is open to the public once a year, and yet we were able to get in. 

 We were escorted to the stained glass where we read the John Hewitt poem that inspired it and Neil talked a lot about the glass.  I just thought it was cool that we got into the castle.  Then we went home.

Sunday June 14, 2009

We went to St. Mark's for church which is an Anglican church where C. S. Lewis attended.  It was a very formal service with kneeling, standing, kneeling, and readings from the Common Book of Prayers.  We saw where C. S. Lewis was baptized and the stained glass window that he donated to the church as well as the rector where his grandfather lived when he was young (which has a lion doorknob- Aslan?).  The service was very different for me, but it kept me on my toes- what do I do next?!  The highlight was being given candy when we arrived.  We then drove to Lewis' childhood home called Little Lea.  We could only stand at the gate because someone actually lives there today.  This is the home where Lewis came up with the idea for the Narnia series.  His idea of Narnia came up on Holywood Hills near Belfast where you can see far across the land, but the weather was not good enough to go up there.  We then saw a statue of him in a square near his home.  In the statue he is looking into the wardrobe.  Then we went home for lunch and to do homework.  At 4:30pm we went to Hadden's house where his wife had a yummy meal prepared for us as well as blueberry cobbler and honeycomb ice cream for dessert.  We watched the move Shadowlands, which is about C. S. Lewis' life during the time he met his wife.  It was a really good movie, you should check it out.

Saturday June 13, 2009

We went to the Belfast Cathedral which is probably the most impressive cathedral I have been to so far (also the one I didn't have a camera for).  They recently installed the hope spire which is a metallic rode that starts in the ceiling and goes through the roof to the outside.  We then drove to the Catholic side of town, drove down the Falls Road (do you remember the significance?) and attended a Novena at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer Clonard.  We came in late, but we were able to get the feel for the service.  I was distracted by the beauty of the church as well as trying to pay attention to if we were kneeling or standing.  We spent like way too long in the church after the service was over, but then we got to go eat lunch.  We at at the Crowne Pub, which is the oldest pub in Belfast.  It is known for its stained glass and the fact that it is old.  Most of my table had a beef and guinness pie with chips.  For the next few hours we had free time to walk around the city.  We stopped in Mcdonalds late in the day for a Mcflurry with strange chocolate chips in it.  They were also running a "Taste of America" burger campaign, silly Irish people.  

Friday June 12, 2009

Today was going to be a lot of driving, so I brought some required reading, but with the bumpy, twisty roads that are so prevalent in Ireland I couldn't get much done.  Our first stop was at a waterfall called Glen-Car.  Earlier in the week we were assigned to groups to analyze one of W. B. Yeats' poems and my group went first since the waterfall was important to Yeats and mentioned in our poem.  I read the poem and someone else in the group analyzed it for the whole group.  We walked around the waterfall and then another group presented their poem.  Next, we went to the grave sight of Yeats.  His last wishes as stated in one of his poem's was to be buried under Ben Bulben, which is a part of a mountain that juts out.  On his gravestone is, "Cast a cold Eye on life, on Death Horseman, pass by!" also found in one of his poems.  He was originally buried in France, but they moved his body to the grave sight at a church which is located fairly close to under Ben Bulben.  Some think they may have gotten the wrong body, woops!  We looked inside the wee church a bit, all of the churches are starting to run together now.  It was really cold that day so we were sorta rushing to get inside.  We ate a packed lunch and then went to the Belleek Pottery Visitors Center, where they make really fine porcelain.  You know its good if you can see your finger through it when you hold it up to the light- this was that good.  We were given a tour through the factory where it is all made.  It was like a sweat shop, those jobs looked awful.  People sitting in the same spot making small flowers or smoothing out bowls allll dayyy looong, they looked tired too.  It was cool to see the process, no wonder that stuff is so expensive.  The tour was a lot shorter than our crystal tour, but it was interesting at least.  We had tea in the shop and then went to the Belleek Parish Church where a new piece of stained glass has just been put in (costing the church 25,000 pounds and only 12 families are members because it is a Protistant church in a Catholic area).  Our professor Niel Ward did a stained glass training with the artist so he knew a lot about it.  I liked it because it was modern, not dark and busy like so many other pieces.  The Reverend talked to us about the meaning behind the glass, so it made it more meaningful.  We then drove to Boa Island, drove up to a farm, and walked to an overgrown cemetery called Caldragh where the Janus Stone was just sitting out there in the open.  It is the oldest carving found in Ireland and dates back to a long time ago in the BC era.  It is not behind glass, it is just out there in the open to be touched and take pictures of.  On our way to get fish and chips we stopped at a famine graveyard where many were buried during the potato famine in the 1800s.  There is only one stone marking the site because no one could afford headstones.  We got fish and chips for dinner and ate it sitting on the side of the street, which I guess isn't so off because Irish people like to eat take-away in their cars.  So then we followed the GPS home, which took us all over Ireland (like it likes to do) and Hadden told Neil to shut up the wee lady up front who is giving directions.

Thursday June 11, 1009

Free day! Slept in a wee bit, then Kelsey, Andrew, Phil, and I took a bike ride to Giant's Ring and passed along the river.  It was a nice day again.  Most of the girls watched Bride Wars during the day, it was really "okay".  For dinner we had burgers on the grill that Phil helped grill, yum!  Then we watched "The Quiet Man" for English Lit class.

Wednesday June 10, 2009

We were all packed with overnight gear at 9am since we though we were staying overnight in Enniskillen in a youth hostel, but when Mindi called to confirm our stay they didn't have our reservation down because the day we made reservations the person she spoke to quit and never put in our reservations, so we were all sort of relieved, but we also had a lot of driving ahead of us.  Our first stop was the Trone Crystal factory.  We saw the whole process of how crystal is made up close in the factory and were all really impressed.  It takes the apprentices between 5-7 years to be able to be full-fledged crystal makers.  We also saw commissioned pieces that are sold for over 1500 pounds like a pistol for John Wayne's son, trophies, an old-school microphone for Dolly Parton.  They can literally do anything so if you are interested...  They had pieces for sale that had small imperfections so they were half-price, but still quite expensive.  We then drove to Enniskillen and while turning into a parking lot our big bus got a flat tire, the tire was completely busted.  We kind of just left it and went down to the dock to catch our ferry to Devenish Island.  Over on the island was a round tower which are really famous and there are not many left.  They are religious towers used for protection as well as to show wealth.  There were ruins on the island of a church and other buildings used by the parishioners.   Ruins are so cool, plus it was an island so that made it really really cool.  We waited for over an hour for someone to come and put on a new tire, we tried to do it ourselves, but the bolts were rusted on.  Luckily the rental insurance covered the new tire.  Since we weren't staying in a hostel we were able to go to a nice restaurant for dinner.  We went to the Saddleback Bistro above the Horseshoe Bar.  The food was incredible and we ate so much it was like a feast.  We passed around appetizers and during dinner there were six different kinds of potatoes along with vegetables that we could eat.  I ordered Kangaroo from Australia- it was good, it tasted more like beef, but was nice and tender.  We had then been in four counties of Ulster.  I am not sure that I mentioned this, but in Ireland they drive on the left side of the road.  At first this seemed very foreign, but now I'm getting used to it.  

Tuesday June 9, 2009

El Clase

Monday June 8, 2009

In the morning we had a team meeting about cleaning and such and then a meeting where we went around and talked about our highlights from free weekend.  I liked hearing about what everyone else did.  After lunch we went to Ward Castle, which is actually more like a really big house.  We went inside and saw the rooms decorated in the period style with mostly original furniture.  I really enjoyed this because I have been to so many old mansions it was cool to see an Irish mansion which is not too different from many I have seen in the states.  After our tour we had tea and biscuits in the courtyard.  We didn't have much time to walk around the beautiful gardens and see the front of the house, but we were on a time crunch.  I don't have any pictures from the day because my camera is broken, so I have to get some from Phil later for you.  We then went to New Castle which is a beach town nearby.  They had a boardwalk, but the beach was not what we think of.  It was mostly rocks and very cold even though it was a warm day.  We only had time to have ice cream at Maude's, which is like Coldstone with the creamy ice cream.  Here, though, the flavors were different like Poo Bear which had a honeycomb taste.  For a snack we were given chips to share since we wouldn't be home until late.  Then we went to Tullymore Forrest, which was huge and beautiful, but we only had 20 minutes to explore.  I was fine with that because I wasn't wearing hiking clothes, but the guys really wanted more time.  Back at home we has a light dinner and then later did homework.  Phil and I both found a tick on ourselves- I hate ticks!

Saturday June 6, 2009

First thing in the morning we went to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace, she was not in, and actually we couldn't get that close because the road was blocked off for a parade that we did not wait around to see.  Some people in our team actually saw the Queen in her limo, but we didn't.  Then we went to the Natural History Museum which was blazing hot inside as well as absolutely packed with people.  We sort of cut in line for the dinosaur exhibit, which proved to be a bad idea because we were stuck in there for a long time.  I was not loving it because I wasn't entirely sure if everything in there was real.  I don't want to pay nothing to be crowded and see replicas, am I right?  So we didn't stay too long.  It was there though that I took my last picture ever with my camera, which now lies six feet under.  We took forever to pick a place for lunch and ended up with a sandwich for me, pasta for Phil, and some chips.  We tried to eat it at an empty table at a cafe, but we were literally yelled at so we ate it in a sort of ally and looked homeless.  Our feet were really tired from walking for 2 days so we didn't last too long in the Science Museum, so we went to Victoria Station to wait for our bus.  We got McDonald's ice cream cones which were two for 1 quid and Andrew and I got sushi!  Then our traveling began.  Bus to Gatwick, plane to Dublin, bus to Belfast City, taxi to Lakeside.  It was like 2am when we finally rolled in.

Friday June 5, 2009

The first thing that we did in the morning was take the tube way far away to try to buy half-priced broadway tickets to Wicked, but when we got their our tickets did not work because it was out of the zones that we paid for, so we left.  We never ended up buying tickets, boo.  If the exchange rate wasn't so bad for us they would have been really cheap (40 pounds) but with the exchange rate they become expensive.  After that excursion we went to the British Library to see the Magna Carta, Shakespeare's handwriting, the Gutenberg Bible and other hand-written pieces such as Mozart's concertos, etc...  For lunch we ate paninis at guess what type of restaurant... Italian....again.  We then went to the Wellcome Collection which is a collection of old medical tools that were used and now look really primitive.  It was interesting.  Then we took the Underground to Big Ben and when I came up from below all I could see was the Parliament buildings which are impressive, but then I looked up and there was Big Ben - its huge!  We saw the London Eye & Westminster Abbey then road the really crowded tube to Covent Garden.  Convent Garden reminded me of Dublin with its cobblestone streets and expensive stores.  People give out like flyers all the time and Phil always takes them and then there are NO trashcans anywhere.  We would carry around trash for at least an hour and it is the only time I have ever considered littering because its so annoying.  So I mentioned this to Hadden and he said that they don't have trashcans in London and Belfast because they have had problems with terrorist activities leaving bombs in the trashcans... ah ha! Still its annoying.  Anyways, Phil took more flyers from Bobo, the guy told us his name, for Los Locos Mexican Restaurant.  We ate there and bought two meals with our buy one get one free coupon and ate really cheap.  So the coupons do occasionally come in handy.  In Covent Garden there was a street performer who juggled knives on a ten foot tall unicycle, and then juggled chain-saws.  He was quite entertaining as he did all of this in tiny pink shorts.  Later that evening Kelsey and I got carrot cake and mochas at a small cafe near our hotel while the boys walked around.  It was yum-o.

Thursday June 4, 2009

After putting the hostel experience behind us, we went to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station so I could go to Hogwarts.  Unfortunately it is a ruse, and I did not go to Hogwarts.  We got a hotel guide and looked for a place that was cheap where we could stay so we would not have to go back to the hostel.  We found a hotel called Stylotel which was decorated with a futuristic feel, but sorta like the 1980's gone wrong with silver walls and blue carpet.  It was clean and 75 pounds a night so we got one room to share.  There were only two twin beds in the room and they were right next to each other and wouldn't move so it was a little weird, but way better than the hostel- so we dealt with it (because of clean showers!).  Another thing about the hotel is that we were only supposed to have 2 people in the room, but they never asked how many people we had so they kind of just overlooked that rule for us.  We had pizza for lunch at a small Italian place and a Lion bar for dessert (they have the best chocolate bars here).  What was surprising is that I thought we would spend a fortune on food this trip, but we were able to eat at sit down restaurants for about 3 quid a person by sharing meals and drinking water.  The day was sunny and warm so it was the perfect day to walk across Tower Bridge.  We were on the bridge when it opened which was a cool thing to see except the boat that came through was really small.  I think walking across the bridge was one of my favorite experiences.  Before the bridge we saw the Tower of London but we never went inside, going inside was one of the things we meant to do- its huge and has "hours of exploration."  It was about dinner time now, we spent a lot of the day walking around the area around Tower Bridge so we took the Underground to Goodge Street and ate Italian again, but we had lasagna.  Andrew and I wanted sushi like every meal and once we would leave the restaurant that we chose, we would see a sushi place, oh well.  After dinner we played Spades in the room for a while, which is the card game that Andrew and Kelsey taught us.  Later we walked around Hyde Park which was close to our hotel.

Wednesday June 3, 2009

Left for Dublin early, but not early enough because we actually did not have much time there.  Mindi told us that we were going to go on a hop-on hop-off bus which is expensive, but we never even were able to make it a whole run.  I had a hard time hearing the bus driver talk about the locations, but one of the interesting places that we saw was the Guiness Store House where all of the Guiness beer is made and Ireland consumes half of all of it.   We also passed by another Saint Patrick's Cathedral as well as Dublin Castle.  I wish we would have gone into at least one of these places rather than just look at the outside.  We found a cool place for lunch and we all ran off of the bus.  I had salmon for lunch - I try to get fish whenever possible because its so fresh here!  After lunch we had some free time, so we went and found Temple Bar, which is famous for its music and probably more but I don't really know.  Since Kelsey didn't get to go to Dublin last time we were there we took here around and went into shops and stuff, we really didn't have time to do anything else.  We had a couple of minutes left so we sat in the park like the Dubliners do and the boys hackey-sacked.  At 4pm we were let loose to go the airport since most of us were flying to London.  It was exciting and a little scary to be let loose, since we kind of just go along with things here.  We already had bus tickets to the airport so we went there.  The flight was really short, only an hour.  Once at Gatwick, Kelsey, Andrew, Phil and I chose the cheaper option, a bus into London.  We arrived around 11pm and then had to take the Underground from Victoria to King's Cross to get to our hostel, Journey's St. Pancras.  Sleeping in the hostel wasn't the worst thing in the entire world, but it wasn't okay either.  I slept so-so.  We didn't have flip flops so we bypassed the showers and had a piece of toast for breakfast because the bowls and silverware looked sketchy.  This was the last night we stayed in a hostel.

Monday June 1, 2009

We drove to Lisburn to have a tour of a Linen Museum.  Ireland used to produce a lot of linen, but most if not all of the linen factories have shut down and outsourced to China.  Linen is made out of flax plants and it is a really time consuming process.  Our tour guide started out a little scatter-brained, but she got better as the tour progressed.  One thing that I have noticed about Ireland is that the tour guides are not as good as they are in America and there doesn't seem to be any pressure for them to be good.  Along with that the service in America is way better.  Here you do not get free refills on anything and the waitress is not as attentive, and you always feel like you are inconveniencing the staff.  After the tour we made felt out of sheep's wool, it was fun.  We then drove to Hillsborough Park where we met Hadden and had lunch out on blankets while basking in the sun.  It was a really nice day, bordering hot out.  We walked through the park to a small castle, which we couldn't go in, but had a look around in the courtyard.  Another short walk took us to Hillsborough Parish where the Queen goes when she is in town.  It was a very old church with boxed seats so that the worshipers would be warmer.  We then walked into the town of Hillsborough and toured the cold courthouse.  I sat in the prosecutors section, it is set up very different from the American courts.  Behind the courthouse is the Hillsborough Castle where the Queen stays when she is in N. Ireland because is is heavily fortified and very safe.  It is almost impossible to get a tour, so we just looked through the gates.  Hopefully I will get pictures up, my camera was full this day, but not broken yet.

Sunday May 31, 2009

We left for church at 10:45 and drove to a part of Belfast that most of us had never been to.  On the way one of the gates in front of a store had a cartoon on it that we were told was blatantly anti-Catholic.  The church was called Christian Fellowship Church and it was probably the best service I have ever been to.  The worship was so alive and I liked the way that between songs people would come up and share inspirational stories or insights.  It was also nice that they were so world-conscious by praying for countries in turmoil and for their own countries sectarianism.  Later in the afternoon Daniel, a former JBU admission's counselor and now studying at the Queen's University in Belfast took five of us on a 2 hour hike around Belfast.  The best part was walking through the landscape not just looking at it from afar.  We passed a mansion called Edenderry, which is now used for weddings. We saw what is called the Giant's ring which is a huge circle enclosed

 by hills with a pile of rocks in the middle that was probably a burial tomb, the secret garden which used to be a rose garden in the 1930's and is called the secret garden because for a while it was forgotten. We passed through Lagan Valley and saw some potato fields, crossed Shaw's Bridge near where the olympic team kayaks, and saw Barrett Demesne, which I believe is the town we passed through which used to be a linen mill town.  Now it is a posh town for young people and the construction company knocked down the linen mill (they were supposed to leave some of it, woops).  We passed through some muddy paths, saw cow pastures, and enjoyed the sun.  After dinner of bangers and mash I joined an ultimate frisbee game and did fairly well, blocking one of Phil's throws.  We watched "The Importance of Being Ernest" later in the evening.  It's a very good movie, now I want to read the book.

Saturday May 31, 2009

We were able to sleep in again, yes! We drove to Carrickfergus Castle, which is  probably the best preserved castle standing in Ireland.  The castle was built by John de Courcy in 1177 and was primarily used as a battery.  Over the decades, the castle changed hands many times and different parts were added.  For a castle that has been standing on the coast of Ireland for over 800 years, it is in incredibly good shape.  We had a tour guide who showed us around and gave us some of the history, but for now all you need to remember is that it is an old castle that is awesome!  We ate a sandwich lunch outside of the castle and met some 12 year old Irish boys who took an interest in some of the guys' hacky sack.  They proved to be very skilled although they had never seen it, because apparently ever kid in Ireland plays soccer.  They used a lot of words we had never heard before like for juggling a soccerball they called it uppity upp.  We then drove a few miles to a lighthouse, but first we had to climb to it.  

It was approximately a 2 miles hike up the mountain with luscious vegetation on our left and the Irish coastline on our right.  We then climbed up a rickety path up to the lighthouse which was just beautiful because as we got higher we could look down on the towns below and the sheep pastures and cute houses.  On top of the mountain, we layed down in the soft grass and I napped while others sketched in their journals our just enjoyed the sunshine.  Oh, did I mention that today was beautiful!!  We spent a while up on the mountain then made our way down the opposite way, enjoying again the blue water and sea breeze.  On the trip back we picked up an old lady whose car broke down and took her to her house while her husband watched the car.  She was actually in the car ahead of me so I didn't get to talk to her, but I thought it was a good deed that I could somehow reap the benefits of through association.

Friday May 29, 2009

Today was our free day so we could sleep in as long as we wanted, except that is a much more difficult task here when it gets light out at about 4am and the doors all close automatically so they shut loudly if you don't stand there and ease it shut.  So anyway, we woke up at about 10am and ate breakfast.  We relaxed in the morning and at 2:30pm, Kelsey and I took the bus into the city to go shopping without the boys.  We had a good time looking around the shops, the clothes are a lot more stylish here or at least look different.  Many of the girls die their hair either black or platinum blonde.  We stopped for coffee and enjoyed it outside because the weather is finally starting to get warm.  For dinner we ate bangers or burgers and had olives and a real coconut.  For the rest of the night we relaxed.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

We left early to make the two hour drive to Dublin which is in the Republic of Ireland (Euros instead of Pounds).  The weather said that it was supposed to be close to 70 degrees today, but in the morning at our first stop at the High Crosses in an old cemetery it was really really really cold.  The high crosses were beautiful as well as really old surrounded by ancient gravestones. They were used to tell Bible stories to the people.  There are also ruins of a chapel in the graveyard.  After the high crosses we headed into downtown Dublin.  Our first stop was a walk through a huge park, and since it was really nice out by this time I think all of Dublin was eating lunch in the park.  On the other side of the park was Trinity College, which is the oldest university in Ireland.  Located in the college is the Book of Kells, which is the New Testament transcribed by Celtic monks a really long time ago.  We spent a lot of time in the museum which talked about how the monks make the Book of Kells and the pictures and coloring that they used.  Once out of there we actually got to see two parts of the book and it was anti-climatic as you could only see one page of the book under glass while like 15 other people crowded around you trying to see as well.  Anyways, up the stairs from the book, we found ourselves in a beautiful library full of first editions.  Floor to ceiling were old books that people can actually check out if they have a membership to the library.  For the next 2 hours we had free time, which we spent trying to find somewhere to exchange our money and then walking in and out of shops.  There is one main drag that looks like a strip mall, with expensive shops.  We drank soda in a cafe later in the afternoon to rest our feet.  We also spent some time watching street performers who were out an about, although they were nothing that I have not see before.  For dinner we ate at a bar called The Hairy Lemon.  It was a very Irish pub.  What is nice about the waiters in Ireland is that they work as waiters as a career, not a side job to get them through college, so the service is impeccable.  I had fish and chips- yum!  There were so many people eating ice cream cones throughout Dublin, that on the way home I was like, Mindi can we stop for ice cream please! And we did!  I had honneycomb ice cream since that is a flavor that we can't get in the U.S.