Home Sweet Home

Hello all, I apologize for the lack of posting over the weekend. After leaving Corrymeela on Saturday we headed to Derry to meet our host family. My family is very pleasant and we are finally all settled in. Unfortunately they do not have Internet at our house so my blog posting is going to be slightly limited to when I am at campus but I still will find as much time as possible to do it. 

Megan, my roommate, and I are very fortunate with our host family choice. In fact, our first night home she took us to a party, granted it was a 50th birthday party...that started at 10 pm-past 2 am but it was a blast! I could not believe how they all know how to party over here, regardless of the lateness of the hour. We were told later it lasted through the morning till like 4 am, and I'm talking like 50-80 year olds out partying! ha  Anyway we got to meet a lot of her family and "extended family" so it was a very interesting night. After Sleeping in a bit on Sunday the group met at campus and walked around the town a bit to help us all get our feet grounded and a better feel for the city. It is the 2nd largest city in NI but it doesn't feel like a big US city by any means. Just an extended Bluffton really. We are living on the Bogside which is predominately catholic, as is our host family so Megan and I hope to experience mass this Sunday with them. It is quite an interesting experience living here and very difficult to put into words. This week I will try to take some pictures of my neighborhood to give you a glimpse. The emotions are still tender in this area from the past events during the Troubles. They are a very proud people as well.

Well we began our classes yesterday. Starting off with an Introduction to Northern Ireland History....surprisingly I did not fall asleep in a history class but instead it was very interesting.  We have a class each day of the week so shortly we will be heading to our Practical Mediation Skills class. 

I forgot to tell about our sad farewell to Corrymeela. We got to experience a great week with a truly devoted staff. We were very lucky to have a guide that was willing to put up with Americans and hopefully we were able to bust a few stereotypes, like being really talkative ha! We are a much quieter group currently... Anyway we all experienced our first pub together and then on Saturday had a sad goodbye. So after loading the luggage and giving hugs we boarded the bus and our 2 friends jumped on for a farewell singing of the Moose Song.   Oh it is a very funny song (with actions) that we all came to love and hate. I will share it sometime I think someone got it on video...ok well I'm off to class now hope all is well in the States!

Oh the beautiful sights...

It is absolutely beautiful here in Ireland. It is still hard to show in pictures as I try to upload more in a bit, I have a hard time in choosing which ones will best represent the beauty I see, because it is not simply the scenery or history, but the people, their struggle and their passion for living a fulfilling life.

I am here, in Northern Ireland not simply for the chance to travel abroad but to learn about this culture, to appreciate their struggles with prejudice and violence. We are now and a pretty peaceful place though  every day is a tentative struggle. There are still a lot of unanswered questions from the Troubles thirty years ago and many families are still bitter over losing their loved ones "dishonorably".  I mean that they did not get an honorable funeral for what they felt was the right fight. Mervyn, our director was speaking to us during our orientation the other day about the struggle we will have in learning about their past and the difficulty they and we will have in identifying the victim. Who is a victim here? There are two sides fighting, each for something they believe is right and the right way to live. So who is at fault? You may ask why they can't live in harmony but their situation is more muddled and confused than our own issues of race.

Well sorry for that deep discussion but I really have been pondering those questions on our drives. Speaking of....here are some pictures!

Beginning of Giant's Causeway

Megan, Ashley, Sean (Corrymeela volunteer), and myself
sitting on the 'Giant's wishing chair' 

Unique rock formation comprising the Giant's Causeway

My favorite view/time here at Corrymeela. 

At Corrmeela looking West toward the US. The closest town
there on the right side is Ballycastle

This is Derry. I will be living on this side of town. This is taken from the walls of Derry.
Please also note the murals on the sides of the buildings.

This is another beautiful coastline of Northern Ireland. This is
the starting point for the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.

The group going over the rope bridge! There is about an
80 ft. drop below us. “from the Scottish Gaelic Carraig-a-Rade,
 means the rock in the road. The road is the sea route for
 Atlantic salmon on their westward journey past
Carrick Island.”
There is also Sheep Island in the near distance.

This is Dunluce Castle. Long story short, “The castle as we se it today dates
largely from the 16th and 17th centuries, but part of it may have been built in the 14th Century.
The MacDonnells mainly controlled this castle. In 1639, during a grand dinner, the Duchess
who hated the sea, and living near it, had fate work in her favor when part of the lower kitchen
courtyard fell into the sea during dinner.  A few kitchen hands were lost during
this incident and the family moved houses.“

Well I hoped you enjoyed the pictures I know I have certainly enjoyed the last few days. I will also be posting a picture of the group photo/meeting with the mayor of Derry. We were very lucky to meet him Thursday when we got to spend our first day in our new home. We spend the day touring the city walls, which are one of two still standing complete city walls in the UK, and getting a better feel for the city we will soon call home. Actually very soon! We move in with our host families tomorrow evening! We have been going through much more orientation these past few days as well as sight seeing around the beautiful coast.

The First Day

In my last post I mentioned we were in Corrymeela near Ballycastle NI. So we had some downtime (like all day yesterday) and we went on a walk to the town (Ballycastle).  Here are some pics:

The view's from my room

My Room

Walking to Ballycastle:

Yes they drive on the wrong side of the road here...

and they have a lot of roundabouts. Mervyn told us 

last night that gas is about 5 pounds/gallon. That's about $8/gallon!

On our way back to Corrymeela this is the view. Also we 

could see Scotland from Ballycastle. I walked in the water here

and let me tell you it's about as cold as the Pacific...not pleasant.

It is definitely interesting to hear people talk here. They also use different words for different things. For example do not say 'pants' when talking about your jeans, etc.  Pants here means underwear and trousers are "pants".  Also a 'rubber' here is not referring to a condom but an eraser for a pencil. Their reference to time is different as well, using 'half past' and 'quarter of' and I'm sure the differences will continue. Mervyn was telling us they still deliver milk to your door everyday if you'd like it fresh and it's not any more expensive than buying it at the store. Everything is really more expensive here than the US but right now I'm not complaining. We have warm beds and hot showers and plenty of new food to try. Oh and Dad they don't make mashed potatoes creamy like we do, almost like just simply mash the boiled potatoes.  

Well we are all rested from the jet lag, or most of us are, as we stayed up as long as we could yesterday to get on the right time schedule. So today we are getting ready to go to the Giant's Causeway, the 8th wonder of the world. Pics will come later as time allows. Have a wonderful day!

My New (temporary) Home

Well thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, all ten of us made it safely to Northern Ireland at 8:30 am my time (3:30 a.m. Ohio time). It was a very hectic travel experience as having one flight delayed left us literally running to get on our last plane before they closed it up for take-off.  Thankfully we made it as well as our luggage (another concern of mine).

We are now outside of Ballycastle at a Christian retreat center called Corrymeela. This is one of the largest Christian reconciliation centers in the UK. It is situated right on the coast of the Northern tip of NI, I could seriously fall off a cliff here--I'm going to try not to do this...Anyway it is a very pleasant place that will be our recuperation stop until Saturday. Then it is off to Londonderry (Derry) to move in with our host families.

We will be doing a lot of sight seeing and orientation these next few days and getting used to living in another culture. To answer a few questions, yes it is very green over here, yes they speak English but some accents are so thick it's hard to tell, and no I have not seen a leprechaun. Here is a pic of our group at Bluffton before we left:

And so it begins...

Well the day is finally here. We've all been planning for this day for about a year now and it's finally time to head off to Northern Ireland. This morning I'm heading to Bluffton to move up part of the stuff for my room as well as, see friends, co-workers and professors at the "Sending off Service" they are holding for us. Then this afternoon we will load the vans and actually begin our journey. We have an overnight flight so please pray for safe travels and sleep!!  Good bye everyone!

Recap of my summer

So just as a little introduction of my current situation I guess you could say. Normally, I enjoy being home, with family and friends. Love my dog Buddy (adorable Golden Retriever) and love cooking as well. But instead of staying within my comfort zone, living at home during summer break, I decided it was time to find a job. Having no luck in my hometown with my job search and seeing the daunting numbers roll through my head of traveling in Europe, it was time to be productive. So I set off in May to spend 12 weeks in San Diego living with family who not only are amazingly kind for offering me a place to stay but they were also able to find me some summer work. It turned out to be more than I ever imagined to experience in a summer and the lessons I learned are priceless. So thanks to everyone who helped make my summer a success, my family for supporting me, and God for making it all fall into place. Below I will place some pictures of my adventures this summer.

My Sister, Abbey and I (and her dog Nikko)
in Sedona,  AZ

Imperial Beach: such a clear day we could see up to
downtown and to the Coronado Islands to the South.

This is me at the top of Rock House West
standing with the "Rock House"

View from hiking up Rock House West With my Uncle
In the far distance is looking toward the Ocean and you
can see downtown San Diego, Point Loma, and Coronado.

Me walking down the mountain! It was actually hot out.

Preparation

Well all loose ends are being tied up and clothes being washed for a final time before being packed. Now that I'm home from San Diego it's time to get ready to leave again. I spent a wonderful 12 weeks living in San Diego with family and working to earn money for my next trip to Northern Ireland. (Just as an initial note, I will be shortening Northern Ireland to NI when talking in this blog; and the town I will be living in is called Londonderry but shorthand will be called Derry as most locals do) Now being home for a week I'm spending as much time as possible with my family and friends before leaving for 15 weeks in Derry and 2 additional weeks of traveling Europe after the Semester. Ok I read a classmates blog a minute ago and he already has his bag packed...not only does this tell of our shared excitement to go but I'm realizing the need to get everything ready! I, being a girl, am going to struggle to only take 1 bag of 50 lbs or less...oh my! Well I hope you enjoy following my blog and I will try to keep it updated weekly at the very least. My Dad says I have to do it daily!--And post lots of pictures!