Filling Free Time...

Hello hello from Cork!

Pink building on right = my apartment

The last couple days have been very loosely filled days with quite a bit of down time so not much to say other than for a few things:  On Sunday, I was invited to an Alice in Wonderland church party at a non-denominational church pastor's house!  Some of my friends had gone to mass there earlier in the day...well let's just say it was a very interesting and fun experience!  The pastor's wife, a very young energetic woman, had cooked all day!! Their backyard was very long and narrow with high hedges on either side, but probably the cutest house/backyard ive seen in awhile! hahaha.  There were a bunch of other members of the church there as well, so I got to meet a bunch of new people that were very awesome.  And, I had two very crazy encounters with people:  Barbara, a very nice young woman, had a 13 month old girl that has the same birthday as my new nephew and Godson Chris!! and her name was Christina! hahaha...It was funny!  Then, I met another younger lad (yes, I am a "lad" not a boy!) who actually knew of St. Norbert College!  Get this: his parents are the host family for all of the St. Norbert student teachers that come to do their student teaching in Ireland!  CRAZY right?!!! All in all, a great time: I'll let the pictures try and capture a little of the Wonderland feeling!

Yesterday was a little bit of a tough day for me...we just have so much down time especially my class!  I am definitely starting to learn different ways to occupy myself!  But, Jordan and I did some great cooking for dinner!  I had a wonderful meal of chicken, pasta, rice and beans, yogurt, and of course a capri sun!  Then, Jordan, Kendall, Catherine, and I watched Valkyrie so that was great! 

I think I should be a cook (Linguini?)

Today was quite a bit better!  Class was still a bit lame: our teacher is very nice but not the most organized!  After class however, I headed over to the chaplaincy building to just poke my head in and ran into Tim.  He was on the trip over the weekend and is kind of like a "retreat czar" (that was for you Ben) for the chaplaincy.  In other words, he really helps start up the discussion groups and helps Richard (the other young fella) plan the retreat weekends!  Anyways, he showed me around the other IONA society building on campus and then more around the first building!  Then, we just talked some more about the regular term and my hopes were lifted quite a bit when he said how busy the campus gets.  He said that there is so much to get involved with if you want to, so I will definitely be looking into that!  He is a great guy, and I'm sure I will get to know him even better over the course of the semester! 

After that, I met up with Jordan and Kendal to go to the library shortly where I read the Irish Times for the second straight day.  It is fun to read a foreign newspaper!  Then, we headed to the gym and i biked for 35 min: about 15 km!  (Cycling merit badge memories....)  Now, we are just about to cook a pizza and chill out for the night...maybe play some cards!  Farewell! Peace!