Saturday, November 13, 2010

"Paper writing week"

     I'm almost caught up now on my blog posts. It got a little hectic in the past three weeks or so with the end of classes, writing of final essays, "paper writing week" aka travel week, Derry Hallowe'en, and finally moving from Derry to Ballycastle where I am volunteering at the Corrymeela Community. Oh and add on top of all that getting sick with a cough that lasted the whole three weeks (and also gradually got much worse) and getting hives my first week here at Corrymeela. Yeah, it's been a little busy-ha... So anyway, sorry for the delay on these but I'll make up for it in my last two weeks here! Yes I said 2 weeks. I can't believe the time is gone already.

     I still have a lot to experience here at Corrymeela and look forward to that but we are all anxiously awaiting our flights home. It's a bittersweet time because we have learned a lot and enjoyed our time here in NI but I think the group consensus is that we miss all our family and friends. And with the Christmas season fast approaching it makes it even harder to be away from home.

     I should also add though, I won't be home in two weeks time, because I will be traveling around Europe for 2 weeks as well. Given the chance of already making the flight over here, and having time left before needing to be home for anything, we couldn't turn down the opportunity to see more countries and more cultures.  That trip will also be blogged on here as time allows but this is our tentative schedule, leaving december 2nd from Derry-Rome-Verona-Venice-Germany (town yet to be decided, suggestions welcome!)-Paris-London.  We are hitting a lot of the main 'tourists towns' but we've never seen Europe before so we are looking forward to it all.

     Ok back to playing catch up. After our classes ended in Derry, we had a week to write our final papers. However, not everyone focuses 100% of their time that week on papers and we squeeze in some time for travel during that week. This summer when I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in California we had decided that since Ireland was a place my aunt always wanted to see, I gave her the perfect excuse for making the trip happen!  I should also mention that some of the group went to Scotland/Wales and the boys went around Ireland with Andy's parents that flew over as well. They were the lucky ones that got to join in on our Irish Dance class-that was a very fun last day for Megan and I!  Anyway so after some slight confusion of where to meet my Aunt Sue at in the airport after she arrived, we finally ran into each other. Which for some reason was difficult even though the international airport is one of the smallest airport's I've ever been in.  Then we found out that our car that she rented was at the other airport in Belfast, which is on the complete other side of Belfast. So we waited a bit and caught the next bus that went to the other airport. Also noting that the Belfast City Airport is bigger and much nicer than the Belfast International Airport. We got our automatic car and were on our merry way. Thankfully she had a GPS so as long as the battery would last we would be fine.

    We stayed the first night in Belfast. I took her on a walking tour of the city center. I have now been to Belfast a few times myself and been on a total of 3 city tours so I feel semi-confident in my ability of knowing about the city.  Wore her out a little bit and then persuaded her to go to bed early and catch up on sleep. We had a nice little wake up call when the fire alarm went off and she jumped out of bed obviously disoriented as anyone would be. Thankfully it was just a prank or something. Oh it was a fun start to our trip.

    Then the next day we headed up the coast toward Derry. We made a stop in Ballycastle and grabbed some lunch then went on to see the Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and Dunluce Castle.  Then we headed on to Derry! With our GPS slowly losing power I hurriedly wrote down some directions before it shut off but of course that doesn't help a lot. When we lost it I knew we were heading in the right direction and at least in the county of Londonderry...eventually I saw the river and was able to guide us to the bridge from there. We made a quick swing through town (me getting slightly lost in my own town because I have never driven in it before..) and made it to my University where we stopped to use the internet and to show her around. Then we made it to my host family's house, who were away for the week so we were able to stay there for the night.

    Being in Derry, I had to show her around...meaning the pubs. We went to Peadar O'Donnells and had the best night out so far. It was a blast listening to the Irish music and all of us (Megan had joined us out) having fun with the locals. The next morning we got up and we walked to the cemetery and had a nice chat before heading back down to the Bogside where I gave her the full walking tour. We grabbed a late breakfast before heading off to Dublin.

    We started our venture to Dublin a bit late and therefore arrived there in the dark, and of course our GPS wouldn't last that long, so I tried yet again to write down directions before it died and somewhat succeeded. I had been to Dublin only a few weeks before but we stayed mostly on the other side of the town. Thankfully I recognized a statue of Charles Stewart Parnell, famous politician in Ireland, and located our hotel next to it!  We stayed in Dublin for three days, walking around and looking at the sights and driving to Cork one day as well. Then as her time here was winding down, we headed to Belfast for our last night.  We tried to take the open top bus tour of the city but it was raining terribly that day. We did get to see most of the tour but there were some parts they couldn't show us because the roads were becoming flooded. After that we grabbed a bite to eat before taking a hot shower and staying in out of the pouring rain.

    Thankfully during her stay Sue had some very nice weather and got a taste of what the rain in Ireland is really like. It was great fun having someone from home here to visit me and be able to actually see and understand what I have been experiencing and learning about this past semester. I only hope that through this blog you all might be able to understand a bit more about the Irish past and present culture.

More to come as I finish catching up! Please if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask!
Best wishes!

Picking up Sue at the airport! It was really cold!!

Yay! Sue is in Ireland, in a real pub, drinking real Guinness!
To be followed shortly by eating traditional Irish cuisine, fish and chips!


Us at the Giant's Causeway! It was real cold again.

Her favorite Pub!

Us in St. Stephen's Green in Dublin.

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