Home!

Hello!  I just wanted to let everyone know that I made it home safe and sound!  My last day/night in Ireland was a wonderful one as I spent it at the home of my friend Izzy in Tramore, Co. Waterford.  We got some pretty amazing sunset views at the copper coast on my last night! It was wonderful! And, luckily, both my flights went smoothly - a lot of my friends are still stuck in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, etc. due to weather cancelling flights! I got lucky...thank goodness!  But anyways, all is well on the home front.  The last couple days I have just been relaxing, going to basketball games, watching movies, having family time, etc.  Thanks much for reading and I look forward to talking about this experience with all of you in person - trust me - there is a lot more to tell!  PEACE!

Copper coast!

Good friends!

Great way to go out huh?

The End: PArt tri: Last post from Ireland

Cork from the air!

I love flying!

Yes, the Liverpool airport is named after John Lennon

How one survives while traveling...

Well I traveled back from England this morning and everything went according to plan - no mishaps with the unpredictable weather over here in Ireland!  It was a great visit all together!  Yesterday, I took a walk around Lancaster's campus while Connie took her last test, and it gave me some good time to reflect and just take in this part of the world one last time!  It was a beautiful afternoon/sunset, and I even saw a deer in the woods right on her campus!  haha...deer are not exactly as plentiful over here.  Anyways, then, we just made some dinner and hung out with all of her English friends!  It is quite amazing to see the differences in Irish and English students especially. I don't know how to explain it, but a couple times, I remember I just thought to myself how different her friends were compared to my Irish friends. Not bad..just different!  I also stopped a couple times and just thought how cool it was what I was doing - what we were doing.  Hanging out and going to school with English annd Irish and German and French and Spanish and Norwegian and Chinese and more students?  How sweet is that!  haha.  It was a great visit all in all, and once again I really enjoyed traveling back to Cork.  I am going to miss public transportation I think when I go back home - but who says I can't take it back home? Although I know it isn't exactly as easy as over here!  we will have to see!  Oh and one more funny thing - while hanging out with her flatmates last night, we had a ridiculously funny discussion on pill bugs/roly polies/potato bugs/wood lice/etc.  Hahaha.  Her friend, Mike (From Manchester I believe) said something about "wood lice" and Connie and I looked at each other all confused.  But after he explained a bit, I was like oh yeah "Pill bugs" and Connie said "Roly polies?" haha And after looking up pictures for all of the names we came up with for this bug, we discovered they all refer to the same bug! haha.  I'm really gong to miss those things that really do have different names to us than they do to the Irish or English or whomever even though we speak the same language!  All in all, great fun - great craic!

Lancaster at its finest

Now, I am just finishing up packing before heading to up to Kendall's for dinner and then to my Bible study group's Christmas Ball with Elena and Marie!  It should be a great way to end my time in Cork!  okk...so you will read this all as one post but I am going to stop now and finish later tonight- haha - alright cya later.........

Alright, so I didn't get a chance to do this last night so this will have to be extra short:

Last night was awesome! I had dinner with Kendall which was great to see her one more time - she was one of my first friends here!  And, then the Christmas ball/party at the Bible study group was just great!  It was so much fun, and it made me realize how much I'm really going to miss that group of people from my Wednesday night!  Elena and Marie and I were living it up on the dance floor!  then, after the ball, we said goodbye to Marie and Elena and I got some ice cream and came back to watch all the little videos I had taken over the semester! haha. It was great!  I really am going to miss those girls.  Both of them were amazing friends that I wish I could transport back to SNC! 

As for now, I'm all packed up ready to go eating a piece of toast and some biscuits left over in my cupboard.  This will be the last post from Ireland seeing as I am going to my friend Izzy's house in Tramore until tonight when I head to the Dublin airport.  I will most likely have at least one post when I get home to share about my journeys home - which hopefully go according to plan without any problems - I do currently have some friends stuck in airports due to snow - we got about 2 inches here yesterday which equals about 2 feet of snow in Minnesota! haha!  alright, I'm off!  Thanks so much for keeping up with me all semester!  It's been something to remember!  Peace

The End part deux!

Well hello hello!

Pink buildings = my apt.  (I'm going to miss this river!)

The goodbyes just keep on getting harder and harder - yet it still doesn't seem like goodbye!  I'm just leaving for a little bit and then coming back right???....

Yesterday, my friend Elena and I had a good day of hanging out which included some good walking around the city one last time and Christmas shopping!  Then, last night, we headed over to Mark and Laura's apartment for dinner.  I don't know if I have ever mentioned Mark and Laura so for a brief explanation - Mark is a study abroad advisor for one of the big U.S. programs that sends many students over here.  He is kind of a live-on-sight advisor for the students and he is also taking some masters classes too.  His wife, Laura, came along for the ride and is doing multiple little things herself.  They are quite a young couple still - mid 20s - and are just awesome people to hang out with.  However, they also kind of interrogated Elena and I about our experience in Ireland.  Mark studied abroad in Scotland during undergrad as well, so we were all sharing experiences, feelings now, and feelings that will most likely come when we return home.  It was a very enjoyable night, and it made me really reflect on my experience in some ways I haven't yet!  I really have grown a lot - I realized this last night - in multiple ways.  It is great to recognize this, and I can't wait until I gain even more perspective when I'm home.  Although, I know it will most certainly be tough at times wanting to be back in Ireland - having the freedom to just take random trips to other countries! haha.  In essence, I'm starting to realize how much this trip has changed me!  wooohoo! haha!

Anyways, I am actually currently sitting in Connie's room in Lancaster, England. (She had a previous engagement - a dinner with her townhouse - before i booked the trip so she is just out for a couple hours but it's giving me time to reflect which is good!)  hahaha!  So, I took one last trip over here this morning, and it was a very fun day of travel!  The sunrise this morning was absolutely astonishing - especially from up above the clouds.  And, as I jumped from one mode of transportation to the next - bus, plane, train, bus again, and walking - I realized how much I will miss the feeling of traveling!  I definitely have the travel bug!! In other words, I WILL come back to Ireland - Europe and also visit new spots such as Africa - Asia - South America - basically the whole world.  Coming over here really has helped me realize how much the world has to offer - not that I didn't know that already - but to see it first hand....crazy!  I just want to keep traveling!  But, it's time for a little taste of home for sure...sooo this may be the last post from abroad.  I may get around to a short one on Friday when I return, but otherwise my flight home is at 8:40 am on Sunday!  Keep my and all the rest of those traveling in your thoughts and prayers!  Thanks for reading!  Peace!

The unexpected snow....and the end part uno!

Alright, so as my time to come home grows closer and closer, I continually get more and more perspective on this experience...which is good!  haha...and one thing in particular that really tested me in the last couple weeks was the weekend after Ben left.  As you can imagine, I was on an extreme high the week after Ben left, but at the same time I was ready to see the rest of the family- emotional ups and down - quite normal over here let me tell you! :)  That Wednesday, I performed at UCC's got talent in a venue in Cork with my Irish friend, Izzy from Tramore.  I accompanied her on piano as she sang Regina Spektor's, "Samson."  It was a lot of fun, and it felt very neat to play in a venue in cork, Ireland!!!

Look at all the people watching us!!! haha

Anyways, the plan for that following weekend - Dec. 2-5 was to take a trip to Stockholm, Sweden with Connie as kind of an end of the semester holiday thing! Needless to say, we were both stoked about this trip!  But...then the snow came....I flew to Dublin on the morning of the 2nd at 7 am and then sat around all day waiting for Connies flight to get in around 3 pm so we could catch our flight to stockholm at 7 pm.  However, as the day went on...the snow kept falling...and flights were delayed, then delayed longer, then cancelled.  At 3 pm...her flight was cancelled altogether soo then what right?  Well after calling mom and getting my anger out...I did my best to pull myself together at get on a bus back to cork.  Luckily the buses were still running...there as a lot of snow - about a foot in some places around Dublin!  The bus ride home took about 5 and a half hours and it was not the best night of my life....it really challenged me to figure out what I was supposed to be taking from the situation!

However, I did my best to take it in stride - as did Connie - and I tried my best to keep myself busy that weekend.  Luckily, I have some great friends here who were more than willing to hang out with me.  I ended up taking a trip to the Jameson Distillery in Midleton, Cork on Saturday with my friend Chelsea..and it was an awesome day.  And guess what? - I became an OFFICIAL Irish Whiskey Taster myself!  The tour here in Midleton was better than the one in Dublin I thought - and Midleton is the actual place where Jameson is made today!  Then at night, we had my friend mary come over to her apartment and we made pizzas and watched movies.  Later on in the evening, Chelsea came out with me to actually meet up with some of Connie's roommates from England who were visiting Cork for the night!  It was great showing them around and listening to some music!  Sunday was also good because I got a paper basically done, and then I went to a carol service with my friends Mark and Laura - Mark is the leader of a study abroad program from Connecticut I believe.  They are a young couple who are so much fun!  All in all....even though the weekend was rough because I wanted to be in Sweden...it turned out alright!  That's normally the case in the end isn't it: Everything will turn out for the best!

Chelsea and I!

Jameson!

The world's best dessert - well one of them..

Last week was then my week of tests, essays, and group projects.  And, they all turned out pretty darn well.  It was also the beginning of the goodbyes.  Which is really hard to swallow right now.  On Tuesday, the Christian Union took all of us Americans out to dinner one last time to say goodbye which was great - they have been a great support and loving friends!  I am actually going to spend my last day (Saturday) at my friend Izzy's house in Tramore before heading up to the Dublin airport in the middle of the night - and I believe a bunch of them will be there to see me off which will be great!  Wednesday, I went to my last Bible study and it was hard saying goodbye to that gang too!  And, on Friday there was a retirement service/reception for George, the Chaplaincy's Church of Ireland pastor.  So, I said my goodbyes to all the chaplaincy folks then.  Yet again, another great support and group of friends...(I didn't realize how many people I really created relationships with until this last week!)

CU dinner!

Chaplaincy Christmas Party

And, this last weekend, I got to spend a night at my friend Rachel's house near Kilkenny!  It was awesome!!!! A true Irish home experience!  My friend Amelia (from Colorado) and I took the bus home with Rachel and her brother Michael (who also goes to UCC) on Friday afternoon.  We had a wonderful dinner with her parents on Friday night and then curled up in their sitting room next to the wood stove and watched a film!  On Saturday, Rachel's mom took us into Kilkenny to check it out, and then her dad drove us to a beautiful park area!  And, then it all concluded with another wonderful meal of Irish stew, dumpling, peas, etc.  Oh and by the way, we had a freshly baked apple pie and tierra misu (no idea how to spell that) for dessert!  It was quite wonderful to get a true Irish home experience! 

Amelia on left - Rachel (house) on right

View from their house!

Wood stove...ahhhh

Fresh fish...it was a stretch for me...but it was good!

me, Rachel, Amelia, Michael

Unbelievable

Once I returned on Saturday night, we went out to An Spailpin Fanac, our favorite pub, for Jordan's last night before heading to Rome with the Chaplaincy.  It was a very enjoyable night!  I think I got pretty lucky with my two roommates this semester! Jordan and Ryan are both great guys!  Alright, I'm sure I'll have at least one more post before heading.home!  I'm off to England one more time this Wednesday to Friday to see Connie and Lancaster.  Peace!

Ben's visit!

Alright alright, so I know I haven't posted anything in like two weeks! But, I've been busy!!!! BUT IM DONE NOW! Wow...it really is a crazy feeling to be done with schoolwork here.  All my exams went pretty darn well and my papers weren't too bad either!  anyways, I'm going to take the next few minutes that I have free of everything to share a bit about the last few weeks especially Ben's visit here!

My two roommates, Jordan and Ryan, and I headed up to Dublin on Friday, Nov. 19th and spent the night roaming around Dublin getting a couple great pints of guinness in a pub! The next morning, I headed to the airport to pick up Benny boy!  It was pretty unreal seeing him walk through the doors in DUBLIN? haha...anyways, we spent the rest of the day checking out some cool sites such as the Jameson distillery before meeting up with the guys again for dinner in a pub.  The Jameson distillery was great fun, especially with Ben...who became an Official Irish Whiskey taster that night by volunteering to do the tasting.  Of course, Ben's hand was the first to shoot up like one of the giddy fifth graders I remember having in class last spring.  haha!  Then, at night we found a great pub with some great music and Ben was loving it! Right ben?

Jameson!

Official Irish Whiskey Taster

The next day, we went on a James Joyce tour just for Ben.  We walked the route of Leopold? I believe that was his name from "Ulysses."  After that, we caught sight of a "Double Rainbow" in St. Stephen's green.  Check facebook for more on that....Later on, we met up with Jordan and Ryan for a tour of the Guinness Storehouse!  Again, another great experience to share with a great older bro, and the tour ended with the best pint of guinness anywhere up in the Gravity Bar - 360 degree views of the city!  A great trip to Dublin I must say.

Oh James Joyce

Just Ben..

On Monday, Ben came to classes with me, and he seemed to enjoy himself even in my Gaelige class.  I learned later that he had been listening to his "One minute Irish" podcasts to get ready...only Ben!  Tuesday, I sent him off to visit a local town called Skibbereen where he actually had more connections than I did.  He knew someone that had grown up there.  The rest of the week included visits to Blarney castle, a variety of pubs, a few other apartment buildings, and weekly routines of Christian Union, Bible study on Wedneday night, and the music pub An Spailpin Fanac after!  It was something else having him here!! 

The Aftermath of kissing the stone..

Ben and friends!

Then, on Friday, we headed off to Glenstal Abbey in county Limerick.  And, boy were we in for a treat.  Again, Ben had made this connection - he had actually driven one of the monks there from the Minneapolis airport to St. John's University sometime in the past year on a visit.  (I felt like Ben knew more of Ireland than me at times...)  Anyways, Fr. Gregory - Ben's connection - was great!  The weekend was full of wonderful prayers in the abbey church, walks around the grounds which were beautiful, plenty of laughs and story-telling from some of the older generation as well.  On Saturday, Fr. Gregory and Fr. James actually took us out to the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and a few other abbey ruins around that part of Ireland!  It was absolutely great!  Sunday morning, we even woke up to about a half an inch to an inch of snow....something absolutely unheard of here in Ireland (but you will see in my next post...this was only the beginning of the so called "non-existent" snow in Ireland.)  It was quite the adventure getting us to the bus station as everyone driving their cars were extremely cautious...haha!  Once, we got to the bus station I sent Ben off and headed back to cork!

Cliffs of moher!

Snow!

Abbey church

Brothers...

Thanks for coming Ben!  There are more stories of our adventures to come when we talk in person everybody! For now, this will do! Another post to come shortly here...