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...