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...

Catch-up!!

Alright, hello!  This post will be a catch up of the last month.  For the sake of time, I think I will just post a bunch of pictures (as promised) from my London trip, Croagh Patrick trip, and Dingle Trip followed by a brief rundown?  Sound like a plan?  Good…

London:

               
I went on this trip with my two friends, Mary and Marie. They are both wonderful people who were fun to take a trip with.  We arrived on a Friday afternoon and you guessed it, it was raining.  We wanted to save money, so we decided to walk from where the bus from the airport dropped us off…hmmm…questionable choice.  BUT, I thought it was a great adventure.  It took us about 40 minutes to walk to where our hostel was – and then about another hour to actually FIND the hostel, which ended up being right where google maps said it was.  We did get a chance to meet some of the locals in this search though, and got some interesting directions from them…basically all of them pointed us a different way.  Haha.  Needless to say we found it.

WICKED

               
Wicked was, as I mentioned before, quite amazing.  Connie was meeting her mom in London so she was able to come as well.  The British, Scottish, and Irish accents created a unique performance that simply cannot be achieved in the states. ;)  The various other sights around the city were just as amazing as well.  I must say, I did not expect much from London, but it had a lot to offer!  The fireworks for Guy Fawkes day were some of the best fireworks I had seen in ages!  And, Big Ben was simply beautiful…even though it is only a big clock.  We met several people in the hostel, including our friend Kyle from South Africa who might appear in some of the pictures.  He met us Saturday morning at breakfast and asked if he could come around looking at sights with us.  Sure why not right?  He was a great guy who was an up and coming R&B artist just trying to get his name out there!  Ahh, the life of a musician...  All in all, a very successful trip that culminated with a great dinner of pizza and red wine and delicious chocolate cake at some Italian restaurant in London.  We enjoyed it thoroughly! 

Ohhh..Big Ben!

Tower Bridge!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Croagh Patrick:

                Although this trip was really only two days/one night long, I feel like I could go on forever about it.  When we look back at what we did in 48 hours, Jordan and I just laugh.  The bus ride to Westport (which is about 8 km from the base of the mountain) was around 7 hours with a 1 hour layover in Galway.  And, the thing is: Westport is probably only about 150-200 miles.  Oh, backroads in Ireland…  The bus ride was quite long. Then, when we got there, the hurricane began…haha.  Literally, around 50-60 mph wind gusts that Jordan and I had to attempt to ride our bikes to our B&B in.  Again, an experience to last a lifetime.  The couple at the B&B treated us like kings the entire night.  We were to comfy to leave the house at any point in the night and we knew we needed energy for the next day.   We were just praying for the weather to clear up….AND it DID!

St. PATRICK!!

The last 200 meters...AHH

              
We woke up bright and early, got our gear on – not particularly the best gear for climbing a mountain in frigid temperatures – and biked the 8 km to the base.  It was a beautiful ride but man was it cold.  Then, the hike.  I must say we truly underestimated the mountain.  I believe it is around 800 meters from the base…but it is straight up the mountain side, especially the last 200 meters or so.  Needless to say, it was well worth it!  The pictures do the talking.  We even got a few flurries of snow on the top of the mountain for about 20 seconds.  Simply amazing.

Success

Victory!

Dingle:

          Connie arrived the day after Croagh Patrick.  So…I was tired…haha.  But ready for her!  I picked her up from the airport on Saturday morning, we stopped back at my apt, and then jumped on the bus to the Dingle Peninsula.  And, I don’t think anything could have prepared us for the astonishingly gorgeous weekend we were about have!  Let’s just say if you’re ever in Ireland…GO TO DINGLE!  The B&B was absolutely heart-warming again and we were treated amazingly.  The night we got there turned out to be a beautiful night with a gorgeous sunset.  We walked around town looking for a place to eat and then found Murphy’s Pub (Can’t get more Irish that that right?).  The atmosphere in there was amazing…open fire, pictures everywhere, good food…ahh! 

Quite the sunset?

         The next day we went to a mass in town which was quite unique: parts were said in Irish, English, and even Latin I believe at some parts.  Only in Ireland!  Then, we hit up some shops…I got a pretty amazing hat (or so Connie thinks…I like it too I suppose)  And then we went on nice long walk!  Gorgeous is the only way to put it.  That night when we asked Angela (our B&B host) if we could cook up some noodles we had brought along…she very innocently asked, “and..how do we actually do that?”  haha.  So, we taught her how to boil noodles! Haha!  It was fun! 

Dingle - Berries...hahaha

Our reaction to the scenery!

Ventry bay

Mt. Brandon

        
We left the next day, but once again enjoyed the scenic drive to its fullest.  Then, Connie and I went to campus and she met some of the folks in the Christian Union who really treated her like family.  I truly have met some great people here!  And, the next morning I took her back to the airport.  It really is quite amazing the way we have been able to see each other over these last few months.  I need to remember this!

My Irish farm...

That should catch you up on the last month…I think I’ll wait to the next post to talk about the last week with Ben!  Peace!

p.s. Remember that I have plenty more stories to tell – just not enough time to write them all down!  Don’t forget to ask me when I get back!

Dingle was amazing - so busy - Off to get Ben!

Helloooo!

Soooo, I know I have been really bad at posting these past couple weeks.  But, just think, once I get the time to write a little bit I will just load you all up with plenty of information about my various travels.  This past weekend was simply amazing.  Jordan and I had quite the adventure getting to Westport, Co. Mayo and then climbing Croagh Patrick on Friday.  And then Connie got here on Saturday and we spent the weekend in the Dingle Peninsula.  SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL! I cannot even explain.  And, I have come to the conclusion that people that run Bed and Breakfasts are the nicest, most sincere people in Ireland.  Stories to come.  Anyways, the last week here went super fast and now I am off to Dublin with my roommates tomorrow where we will spend two nights.  Benjamin will be arriving in Dublin on Saturday afternoon so I will pick him up then.  His presence here will certainly provide some comic relief in times of stress I'm sure.  It will be great!!  I cannot wait!  Perhaps I will get more time to post some pictures and all next week when he is here?  I will keep ya updated!  But, I do have plenty of pictures from all of my trips posted on facebook so please find someone's facebook to go on if you dont have one, and look at them all!  I can write pages upon pages on here, but it will certainly be much easier to tell of these experiences in person!  Thanks for reading and keeping up with me!  peace!!

London introduction/Croagh Patrick tomorrow!

Hello!  Sorry this is going to be so short but I have to get to bed...

Was in London all last weekend - saw it all! (well just about!)  Wicked was quite amazing especially with accents!  Added a whole new element to the show!  The rest of London was just as great: Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Pauls Cathedral, Tower of London, Big Ben, Towerbridge, Millenium Bridge, Shakespear's Globe, Natural History Museum, Camden Market, National Gallery, Hamelys toy store....I told you we saw it all...!  Pictures to come soon, but I really do have to get to bed!

Off to Westport, Co. Mayo tomorrow with my roommate Jordan to spend the night in a B&B before climbing Croagh Patrick on Friday morning! Woooohooo!  Then, on Saturday, Connie comes over for our weekend to the Dingle peninsula!  More pictures from all these adventures soon as well.

It's getting pretty hectic with classes, traveling, and trying to figure out my life for back home the next few semesters as well.  But, it is all great!  Or as we say here: "It's simply grand! Im 'getting on' quite well! and having a great bit of craic everyday!"  All for now folks! peace!