Before I head North

Lovely encouragement I got from Laura.

Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, a good way to experience culture.

My first Chihuahua :) named Juno, very friendly.  Owner named Angel, a young school girl out walking him.  I really do love Chihuahuas!

Top of Bray Head. Oh so windy!  But oh so sunny!

View of Greystones from a distance

The small cross in the distance on the mound top is where we came from.

My co-PA Alyssa.  She called herself the horse whisperer so I only thought this fitting.

So here are some current random things to update all of you on before I head to the North of Ireland!

Random things:

·      Knitting (but I recently dropped one of my knitting needles in the heating radiator, hoping to retrieve that soon).  The yarn I am using is authentic from Cork, and green!

·      Irish drum and dance, both ridiculously grand: auditioning for Riverdance in the near future.

·      I will be babysitting for a family of the church I attend this coming Saturday night

·      Election:  the TD candidate that came and spoke with us last week will most likely be elected!  Simon Harris, you are grand!

·      Coffee at the coffee shop called Poppies filmed in Leap Year where they fall asleep on the bench and the next scene in the morning is just him on the bench and you think she left, but only went to get coffee J

·      Saw Cripple of Inishmann at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin

·      Went to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin

·      Bought hike top shoes!

·      Made PA Pancakes

·      Hiked Bray Head (as seen in photos above).  I love that this hike is right in our backyard, I will definitely be doing it again.  Along this hike while Alyssa and I were traveling along the cliff tops we heard bagpipes playing in the distance, magical!  It was so unreal but what a way to spend a sunny afternoon.

·      Irish piper Martin Nolan came to visit this morning with his talents

·      Going to the North to study the conflict Wednesday to Friday

·      Feeling under the weather, but the actual weather is very sunny and grand

·      Finding a lot of support in this community and ability for me to learn as a leader

Isn't she so cute!
Well it surely made my day

Inspired by Green

Jerpoint Abbey 

Jerpoint

Last photo of Jerpoint.  When here on Friday it was unbearably cold!

Today I loved all the sunshine, blue skies, castles, and abbies.  This is Cahir Castle, CO Tipperary.

View from  inside Cahir Castle

At Cahir. A 13th century castle.

A tower wall still contains a half embedded cannon ball

Hore Abbey is right behind in the distance

Hore Abbey.  Beautiful ruins, and sunny sky.

Holding St. Patrick's Rock, Cashel.

SO many shades of green.

Just got back home from our first overnight adventure to Kilkenny.  It was a great outing, especially because I was feeling healthy!!! I was pretty sick for about a week but am completely better now.

Since we last talked: I threw a Valentine's Day party for the group with homemade heart shaped sugar cookies and all, we had an Irish drum lesson which was awesome, coffee dates, start of small groups, bought watercolors for a creative outlet and therapy, and rising early to watch the sun rise over the Irish Sea!

One thing that gets me every time we see castles and abbeys like those above I always think of how difficult that must have been in the 13-15th centuries!

I hope you all enjoy viewing my pictures mainly, and hearing about Ireland!  Currently I am trying to plan my spring break... Where to go?!

Oh and I really want to go see Never Say Never! anyone see it? heard it was great (I am sure it is) and I am also missing watching any type of basketball, especially the All-Star games this weekend.  And Justin got MVP last night at the all-star celebrity game, so proud!  So ya watch some sports for me and the Bachelor (can't watch that either) Love, Em.

Field Trip #1

Newgrange

entry

Ancient Monastery

The whole group! all 20 of us

Tallest cross in Ireland

These are pictures from our first field trip!  Many castles and crosses.  Unfortunately I got sick mid-trip so I was unable to see the last sight.  I am starting to feel better, I have been sleeping a ton, and eating toast and bananas.  Hope you enjoy my pictures and are enjoying your own adventures back home in the states! 

Today.

Missing you all.

Anyways....

No worries.  Kimchi made it to Ireland.  Lovin life.

Very useful!

Everywhere

A little gloomy and wet for scavenger hunt, but still so fun!

Menu

Coffee break!

Hanna and I with matching mochas

Most of my group with Oliver Wilde

"Tart with the Cart"

These are various pictures taken during the Dublin scavenger hunt.  We were divided into teams with a list of riddles to places in Dublin and left to find them, and be included in the photo.  It was fun getting to know more of the group.  In the last pic here is the whole group I was with, Hanna, me, Kellyn, then Adara!  All my Taylor girls are so fun.

This morning I traveled into town for a church service at Hillside.  It was grand!  I thoroughly enjoyed coffee and tea time afterwards.  I chatted about topics such as the wind (which I found out is not typical about the area, good to hear), how Americans pronounce our "a"s, visiting pubs, surfing, using the word "savage" (similar to sick or narly).

Tomorrow we will be traveling as a group to Newgrange, which are ancient burial sites.  Whenever we tell the locals we are going there, they always say, "Oh ya, you know they are older than the pyramids?!"  (Just so proud :)  I am loving the Irish ppl.

Missing you all. Love from Ireland.

Windy in Ireland?!

 Yes Greystones, Ireland is extremely blustery on this Friday afternoon!  I have heard things like cold and wet to describe the weather here, but never windy.(Like 50 mph wind)

Here are some pictures of my room; which I share with Audrey and Alli.

My bed ;)

Since when do people have a sink in a bedroom? (We do!)

This is the whole package folks. The space you see, for three!

Had to buy rain boots.

Of coarse I found art work of a mouse!

What I spend the most Euros on. Coffee, specifically mochas.

The coffee photo above is from "class" yesterday as we were given 5 Euro and told to take the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) to a neighboring area, find a coffee shop, order, and observe!  So grand.  They love the word grand.  Everything is "grand" :)

And I got the PA position here for the semester!  PA is very similar to RA, but in Taylor language.  There are 16 girls on the trip and 2 girl PA's, myself and Alyssa!  So excited to work with Alyssa and see were God leads us!

Thanks for all who are in prayer.  Very appreciated.

*If you are interested my roommate keeps a great blog.
http://aspoonfuloflifeblog.blogspot.com/

So check it out if you are interested.  But don't compare to mine please. lol. She is so experienced and good at blogging!

Love,
Emily