How do you say gobble gobble in German?

So I know that this is ridiculously unprecedented (two posts within the same week?!?), but I thought that I had to fill ya'll in on my Thanksgiving festivities.  Not gonna lie, I really wasn't looking forward to Thanksgiving here.  It's probably my favorite holiday and I've never spent it without any family before, and I especially have never been outside the country for it.  Plus, if you know me at all you know that I love holidays and my crazy family traditions and I knew that without my crazy family I couldn't possibly enjoy Thanksgiving.  Although I wanted to celebrate it, I was kind of hoping that I could pretend that I wasn't missing it and just let it pass by without getting too sad about it.  But, I ended up celebrating after all.

My celebrations started Wednesday.  One of the girls in my small group had mentioned a few weeks back that she wanted to cook me dinner so that I wouldn't be sad about Thanksgiving (love her) and that I could bring a few friends along.  So on Wednesday I showed up with Courtney, Pieter, and Tricia not really knowing what to expect.  We walked in and I was immediately surrounded by the smells of Thanksgiving- she along with some of the rest of our small group had made everything that goes along with a typical Thanksgiving dinner, including turkey (she even looked up how to make sweet potato casserole because someone told her that was what all Americans ate for Thanksgiving).  If that wasn't enough, she told us to go upstairs and wait for dinner to be ready and as we walked upstairs I started to see that they had decorated the entire house with Thanksgiving decorations.  We walked into the dining room and they had found Thanksgiving napkins and table settings (her mom ordered them off the internet) and filled the whole room with candles.  It almost made me cry.  It was so beautiful and such an amazing expression of love that I didn't even know how to respond.  We all sat down to dinner and had wonderful conversation where I filled them in on what Thanksgiving means to me and then we all went around and said what we were thankful for. She even rented It's A Wonderful Life and we all ate dessert, drank tea, and watched it and talked for hours.  It was perfect. 

The next day I woke up a little sad and to be honest my morning and afternoon was pretty sad (I did laundry, went to class, and mostly felt sorry for myself because I wasn't with my family).  But around 2 Courtney, Genifer, and I went to Tescos (grocery store) to prepare for a massive Thanksgiving dinner (yes, I cooked?!).  I'm pretty sure we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into whatsoever.  We left the store at 4 with 70 pounds worth of food (oh ya, you get to double that to change it to dollars) and started delegating cooking duties.  Because Genifer is the only one who can actually cook (who am I kidding?) she took over cooking the 4 chickens (no turkey) and the cranberry sauce while Courtney and I handled the mashed potatoes (from scratch!), fruit salad, stuffing, corn, peas, green beans, gravy, and desserts. Good thing dinner didn't start till 8:30 :) Pieter came over to help and we actually finished with very few mishaps, although I did smash a glass bottle of mayonnaise and then cut open my finger... but all in all, not a lot of difficulties.  It was actually kind of funny because we had two kitchens operating and we would send Pieter back and forth from our two flats delivering status reports :) Taking a page out of my small group's book, we set up candles everywhere, got a tablecloth, and I added some yellow roses.  It actually looked really nice (pictures should be going up on facebook soon).  It was totally worth it when our Belgian and German guests arrived (Lien, Elaine, Markus, and Felix), they were so excited about their first Thanksgiving! We then stuffed our faces for what seemed like forever (I silently engaged in an eating competition with the two 6 foot 5 German guys- they won) and then ate dessert while playing scrabble.  Sadly, the only team without native speakers beat all of us in English scrabble- talk about pathetic.  Although it was still really difficult to skype my family and realize that I wasn't there, it was fun.  Isn't it wonderful how God provides in ways that you least expect Him to? 

The next day we all rolled out of bed (or at least I did) around 1 and met up to eat leftovers. We ate for a little while and put a dint in the food then did Thanksgiving crafts (they wouldn't do them that night because they were "too cool") while watching this hilarious movie from the 70s- check it out- Jack the Giant Killer, oh ya it is as great as the name sounds.  Then Friday night we all went into Coleraine to see the Christmas tree lighting.  There was a parade and children's choirs and fireworks.  It was adorable and a great start to the Christmas season.  I can't wait to come home and celebrate Jesus's birth with ya'll.  

Happy holidays!

Life's Blessings

Well hey there! I know it's been WAY too long since I've updated and I'm sorry about that, but at least I'm updating now! 

I've been a little busy since I last updated :) This past week I had the extreme blessing of traveling throughout Ireland with my beautiful friend Sarah.  I can't tell you how wonderful it was to have her all to myself for a WHOLE week! 

It all started last Thursday when we met up in Dublin at Isaac's Hostel (and yes, we freaked out everyone there with our WAY too enthusiastic greeting and squealing).  Exhausted from traveling, it takes me about 6 hours to get to Dublin, we decided to pretend that we were not effected by the lack of sleep and go out on the town.  We enthusiastically walked down Grafton street, feeling very European and catching up.  Then, two museums later, we conceited that we probably were not appreciating the artwork (I still can't remember what we saw) we should stop and have coffee.  Which was a wonderful idea :) We then strolled through Grafton street on our way to St. Stephen's Green- all of the Christmas lights were on and it was so beautiful! Having another hour to kill before dinner time and not really feeling up to any more tourism, we randomly decided to stop in a salon and cut off my hair.  Yes! I walked in and told the hairdresser to do whatever she wanted, as long as it was shorter.  I think I freaked her out and she constantly tried to get my opinion, but it was fun.  During this time, Sarah passed out on the couch in the reception room :) That done, we went to dinner.  After an intimate candle-lit dinner (once again, romantic dates with girls is my forte), we headed over to Duke's pub for a literary pub crawl.  With a group of mostly middle-aged tourists, we bounced throughout the streets of Dublin following two actors reinacting scenes from Dublin's most famous writers (Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, etc.) and stopping in famous historic pubs along the way.  Needless to say, being the nerds that we are, we loved the whole experience.  I don't know how we had any energy at this point, but because it was our only night in Dublin, we made ourselves walk through the Temple Bar area, stopping in to listen to a little bit of Irish music along the way before crashing into deep sleep that night.  

Friday we let ourselves sleep in a little bit and ended up having to "speed walk" (which looked a little bit more like a jog) to make our historical walking tour of Dublin.  Although I had been warned by someone- cough Courtney- that this tour was lame, we loved getting the 3 hour history lesson.  I guess we are just more nerdy than the average person...We walked through Trinity College, Dublin castle, the Old Parliament building, City Hall, Christ church, and so much more.  Our tour guide was probably one of my favorites- picture the typical disheveled historian who gets really excited when talking about anything to do with the past.  Not gonna lie, I had a little bit of a crush on him :)  Once our tour was over, we stopped in at the Queen Tart for lunch (if you realize that this is the same place that I ate with my parents, then you are a seriously dedicated blogger and I love you for it), it was just as incredible the second time!!! I then took Sarah to my favorite thing in Dublin- the long room and the Book of Kells.  We sat in the long room for awhile and decided that if Sarah ever got more money than she could handle she would invest it in creating me a library just like that one.  The only condition is that I have all of the chairs branded with her crest (which I swear we didn't make....). After walking through the streets of Dublin for a little while longer, we jumped on the bus to Galway.  About 4 or so hours later we arrived in Galway- woot!  Exhausted from the bus ride, we ambled up to our hostel- the Kinsley House.  It was such a nice hostel, seriously the nicest one I've ever been in (way to go Sarah!).  So everything was going swimmingly... until we got to our room.  For some reason, unbeknownst to us, our key didn't work.  Slightly embarrassed, I went back to reception and requested another one.  But, this one didn't work either.  Confused and a little exasperated, we were about to go back to reception when all of the sudden the door swung open and we met our Australian hostel roomie- ALL of her.  That's right, she was completely naked and hadn't been answering the door because she was drying her hair... naked. ya.  So she sat and talked to us for a little while (still naked) then got dressed and left.  After recovering from the shock, Sarah and I made a beeline for the center of town to get, you guessed it, food!  We randomly ended up in an Italian restaurant that was incredible and talked for hours :) 

Saturday was a BIG day! We woke up early for our bus/ walking tour through the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.  To start our tour off right, we got dropped off in a farm in the Burren for a personalized walking/ hiking tour by John- who is probably one of the most attractive guys I've ever seen in real life, with an Irish accent :) LOVED IT!  He took us through the mountains that his family has owned for generations and talked about his farm and the history of the burren- it was wonderful.  I loved hearing about all of the unique qualities of the burren and seeing the history of the land through the eyes of someone who's family has been there forever.  We also made a lot of random one-serving friends in our tour group (including some crazy Spanish guy.... who almost got left).  At the end of our hike, we all went back into a little room for tea and his mom's homemade apple pie.  We then ambled back onto the bus to go to our next destination.  Our next stop was Poulnabrone Dolmen, this ancient gravestone that was considered by people back in the day to be a place where they could communicate with the dead.  Although a little creepy sounding, the actual site was very interesting and, once again, I liked seeing parts of history that are so seemingly untouched since then.  Getting back on the bus, we drove through Lisdoonvana, which has the largest matchmaking festival in the world (too bad I missed that!), on our way to the Cliffs of Moher.  For some reason, Sarah and I found that Ireland loved us and completely held off rain while we were there.  It was breathtaking, I don't think I'll ever get used to how beautiful the landscape is around here... and I really hope that I never do.  Jumping back on the bus just in time (the driver was super anal about leaving on time- he actually left 4 people there!) we stopped at a pub for lunch and then went to Galway bay for pictures where Sarah and I put all our effort into trying to take jumping pictures... we eventually got one :) Our last stop was at Dunguaire Castle, which was a little difficult to see at night but still very cool.  Once we got back to our hostel, we were more than a little bit tired, but after taking showers we felt ready to take on the world, let alone Galway.  We went to the Quay's for some pub grub before going to the King's Head where we were hit on by some extremely drunk biochemists on a stag night (who asked us to be their entertainment- gross!!!).  Peacing out of the pub scene we stopped for a chocolate crepe and some other forms of chocolate and made a picnic on our hostel beds and had incredible girl talk time (love you Sarah).  However, this little pow-wow was regrettably cut short on account of our really really really rude new hostel roomie who told us off at 12 o'clock on a Saturday night for talking in the room- seriously, seriously?  

Sunday we woke up and hit the streets of Galway for some serious shopping... our plans were slightly dampened by Ireland's famous horizontal rain, but we still got some wonderful things! We then jumped on another 5 hour long bus ride to Derry, Northern Ireland (yes they are different countries) where we spent an hour in trying to eat rice with our hands (rice why do you tease Sarah so) and sooth my throbbing throat before jumping on another hour long bus to Coleraine! Monday we slept in and then went to lunch/ breakfast with some of my friends, I went to class, and then showed Sarah around campus and around the wonderful town of Coleraine.  Because Coleraine is so adorably little, we were done in a few hours and ended up eating at Wetherspoon's pub at 5:30 :) I really liked showing Sarah pieces of my everyday life here- it was really special.  Tuesday we hit Giant's Causeway, Dunluce, and Bushmills (don't you love my attack strategy?) and still had time to spare to meet my friends for dinner at the Anchor before Sarah had to go... not gonna lie, it was a pretty difficult putting her on that train- love you girl.  

I just want to be lonely tonight.

Sorry it's been awhile ya'll, but I've had a crazy few weeks!  I think I'm just going to skip two weeks ago and talk about this past week... but don't worry it will still be obnoxiously long. :) This past week my two wonderful parents came to visit me!  I can't begin to describe how great it was to see them, especially since the homesickness has been kicking in a lot lately.  I think I almost severely injured my mom in my classic run-and-tackle-hug move.  

So they came on Sunday and we spent a grand 2 hours in Belfast (ya, the biggest city in Northern Ireland is THAT exciting) were we ate in the Crown Liquor Saloon (my dad wanted to order something "irish" and ended up getting fried shrimp "is that what prawns are?") before jumping on a train to Dublin.  Although I am ridiculously close to the Republic of Ireland (maybe a 2 hour train will get me into County Donnogal) I had never been there before, needless to say I was pretty stoked.  The most exciting thing that happened on that train ride was watching my parents in their sleep-deprived/ jet lagged state :) Jk, parents- you know I love you! We miraculously made it into Dublin and found our B & B, the Leeson Bridge House safely.  It was so nice to be able to stay in nicer places than hostels, and hearing my dad (who had never been to Europe) talk about how ridiculously small the bathroom was that night was probably one of the highlights of my day :)

We started the next day ambitious and ready to take the city by storm.... slight snag in that plan was that I was put in charge :) And handed the map.  Ya, needless to say, it took us awhile to get on our attack plan, but we got there!  We started in Dublin castle, which was beautiful but looked way more British than Irish, which I found really interesting especially because of the horrible history there.  After the castle tour and spending about 30 minutes wandering the streets trying to convert dollars to Euros, we settled down in this cafe recommended to me by my Irish friend, Ashley.  The name of the cafe was gruel, mmmm appetizing, but it was actually a lot better than it sounded.  We then tried to find out hop-on-hop-off bus for a while (funny story, I spent the whole day telling my parents that we weren't on a certain bus that we kept seeing, only to find out at the end of the day that we were...smooth britt).  So we ended up walking to the Guiness Brewery, which was actually really interesting and we got to sit up at the cafe on the top floor, which is completely glass and has incredible views of the city.  After that, we went to Kilmainham Goal jail and took the tour, which was my parent's favorite part of Dublin.  The history there was so rich you could almost taste it.   That night we wanted to go on a literary pub crawl (ok, let's be honest, I wanted to go, my parents weren't super into it), only to go to Duke pub and find out that it stopped running the day before :( But, we actually ended up having a great night just on our own.  We stayed in Duke pub and me and my mom had martini's (my first one!) and then went to a really nice dessert place and just sat around and talked!  

Tuesday we were a little tired from conquering the city the day before, but we still were ambitious :) We started the day at the National Museum of Ireland, which was awesome but I'm really glad we did it before I had a chance to compare it to Parisian museums.  We then went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Long Hall.  The Book of Kells is this celtic copy of the Bible which dates back to the 6th century.  It never ceases to amaze me how God has reached out to so many people throughout history and how many people Christ's sacrifice enfolds.  Wow.  The Long Hall is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life, it was definitely my favorite part of Dublin.  It is the most ancient and magnificent library ever (Jill, you would have loved it).  Think of the library in Beauty and the Beast, this one blows it away completely.  Please look it up online, I wasn't allowed to take pictures... We then ate at this amazing little cafe called The Queen Tart- it was SO good!!!  After that we did what any mother-daughter combination would do, drag my dad to shopping! We spent a few hours on Grafton street trying on things we could never even imagine affording and driving my dad crazy :) Although we were still pretty tired, we still managed to fit in going to the Moore St. Market and the Garden of Remembrance, ending with going to the Brazen Head Pub (the oldest pub in Dublin) and then a ghost tour, which was so not as cool as the Edinburgh one- we spent most of the time laughing at how ridiculous our guide was.  

Wednesday morning we waved goodbye to Dublin and got on a train going to Waterford.  I don't know if ya'll know what Waterford crystal is, but if you do, then you will understand that we went to see the crystal factory there.  We spent most of the day on the train, trying to teach my dad how to play hearts :)  When we got to the factory it was actually really cool, my mom was in heaven and we got to watch them go through all of the steps of making their crystal- including "glass" blowing!  After oogling crystal, we got back on the train to go to Cork, where we were staying that night.  Getting in a little late, we just had a nice dinner, watched a movie, and passed out.  This slower paced day was really nice after all of our conquering the previous days! 

Thursday was probably the most touristy day of my life.  I have never felt like a more cliche tourist- it was awesome.  We went into the town of Blarney (right next to Cork), and shopped for a few hours in their wool factory before touring Blarney castle, and yes, you guessed it, kissing the Blarney stone.  I'm not going to lie, my favorite part of kissing it was probably watching my parents uncomfortably lean backwards off of the ledge and try to reach this stone... it was hilarious! After fulfilling our roles as tourists in every way possible, we caught a cab to the Cork airport (and got laughed at the whole time by the driver for actually kissing the stone).  We got on our plane and before we knew it, we were in Paris! Not gonna lie, that first night there made me completely respect anyone who is studying abroad in a country where English isn't the native language- I can't imagine how difficult that is and my hat is off to you.  Regardless of difficulties we had because of language barriers, we found our hotel and had a nice dinner!

Friday we shifted back into domination/ conquering mode with an extremely ambitious itinerary.  After having a lovely croissant and eclair for breakfast (yup, I'm still ridiculously unhealthy, isn't it nice to know that some things never change?), we went to the Musee de Orsee (no I don't know how to do accent marks on my computer, so sorry!) and saw confusing works of Picasso, beautiful paintings by Van-Goh and Deegal, and much more.  We then went to another museum, the Louvre.  Can I just say, "wow." I LOVED it- we spent hours there just walking around in amazement.  It was also really nice because there weren't that many people there because it wasn't tourist season, so I got to get really close to the Mona Lisa with only like 20 other people in the room.  Although the Mona Lisa was the most "famous" thing we saw, my favorite work was probably Venus de Milo, which I also got close enough to touch!  Still processing all that we had seen, we ate lunch before trekking across the Seine to Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame.  Words will not be able to describe how beautiful these two churches were, so I'm not going to even try.  We then fit in, you guessed it, another museum (my dad was pretty pumped about that)- the Centre Pompidou, which was filled with modern art.  We actually  enjoyed the escalator all the way to the top of the building (it is a lot cooler than it sounds) and the views from there more than the art (sorry Linds)! Exhausted, we went back to the hotel, ordered room service, and passed out. 

Saturday we were a little less ambitious and spent most of the day walking around amazing street markets filled with everything from fish to shoes.  It was really nice to get more of a real/ less touristy feel of Paris.  I loved counting the number of people I saw walking by with a buret :) We also walked along the Seine looking at the street artwork shops before heading to the Eiffel Tower, which I found more impressive from a distance... after taking naps, we got all dressed up and went out to a nice dinner, then a night cruise on the Seine (beautiful!), and a show at Moulin Rouge!!! WOO HOO! It was great.  I should really give more details, but I'm getting tired of writing and I'm sure your getting tired of reading... so I'll cut it short.

Sunday we went back to Belfast and then drove (ya my dad drove in the UK, talk about terrifying) to my campus and I showed my parents around the lovely Coleraine.  

Alright kiddies, I'm going to go try and catch up on all my work, but, as always, I'm thinking about ya'll and miss ya'll more than you know.  Let me know what is going on on that side of the sea. Love and lot's of it, 

Me

But I won't be lonely tonight.  

Because my Maker's holding me. (matt wertz)

Raindrops keep falling on my head.. but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red.

Cheers! So this week was so much more relaxing than what I've been used to- for the first weekend since I've been abroad I didn't gallivant across the UK! It was so nice to just sit around yesterday, doing homework in the "learning center" and watching movies with friends.  Although not as exciting as running through Edinburgh, hiking up Giant's Causeway, or exploring the London tube system, I LOVED the change of pace! 

I do have a few highlights from this week to share: 

Monday night I went on an amazing date with Tricia (once again, I end up doing really romantic things with girls... interesting).  After having a pretty melancholy day (the rain will get to you) we randomly decided to get really dressed up and see a play- Romeo and Juliet- at the Riverside Theatre.  Although we were probably the only ones there not involved in some kind of middle school field trip, yes middle schoolers are amazingly awkward in every country, and we weren't really expecting the VERY modern interpretation, it was really fun! We felt super cultured as we each got a glass of wine during intermission and discussed Shakespeare :)

Tuesday was pretty uneventful; I had my small group that night, which is actually becoming really great.  I'm starting to "bond" with the people in my group more and it's pretty awesome to actually hang out with Irish people (go figure!).  Another really interesting thing about small group here is that even though they start at 7 they don't get out until 12.  People just sit around and talk forever after going through the Bible lesson.  Like most things here, the atmosphere is so much more relaxed an people actually take time to get to know one another- I really liked it. 

Wednesday was probably one of the most random days I've spent here.  I actually went wedding dress shopping.. yes you read that right, wedding dress shopping.  And no, parent's don't worry, I didn't go for me :) I went with two girls from my small group, one of whom is engaged, and watched her try on wedding dresses all day.  Although it was slightly surreal, it was really fun!  She actually found her dress and she looks lovely in it.  We then ran to T.K. Max (their version of T. J. Max) and spent an hour trying on the most atrocious looking clothes we could find.  It was hilarious.  Then after that I met up with some people to get coffee in Coleraine where I fulfilled one of my life goals.  Yes this is a HUGE deal.  So... we are all having coffe and I look over and see that the table next to us had left a massive piece of chocolate cake with only one bite in it... And, of course, my next thought is.. free cake! So I walked over and swiped it!  Eating that cake (which I now am starting to like- weird??!!!) was probably one of the most defining moments of my life! I'm such a rebel.  That night Gennifer, Tricia, and me all made this really amazing dinner and hung out, it was perfect.  Then Pieter joined us and we watched Emperor's New Groove- amazingness (yes I know that isn't a word, but its my blog so I can do what I want!)

Thursday... I was feeling pretty homesick- I think the honeymoon period is over :( But it ended up being a pretty good day regardless.  I went to CU and heard a very needed message on prayer and what it really means to come to God just as you are and meet Him just as He is (if you want more about it, email me- it was great).  Then we were going to go to the Anchor to hear Irish music, but Tricia wasn't feeling so well so Gennifer, her, and I went to a local gas station (spar) and spent 15 pounds (ya that's 30 dollars) on junk food.  Don't worry I took a picture of all of it.  And basically had a binge fest while watching the First Wives Club- best girls night ever. 

Friday I went on my "first date" with Pieter.  Although it didn't have the amazing awkwardness that usually accompanies my first dates (I guess we have been hanging out for a while), it was a great day.  We explored these ruins in Castlerock, which were beautiful.  They were basically deserted with the exception of a few sheep- oh Ireland how I love thee- so it was such a picturesque experience just looking at things like the Mussenden temple with literally no one else around.  Pictures will be coming soon.  After that we attempted to find this old church in the middle of this nature path, but thanks to Pieter not asking for directions (what is it with men never asking for directions??!!! I can't believe that cross-cultural) we ended up meandering through this nature path for a while, which I didn't mind too much because it was beautiful and we stumbled across this amazing waterfall.  Once we got out of the forest, we walked to Castlerock town, and almost got run over multiple times and walked around the beach (ya, it was a pretty nature filled day), and watched the sunset (insert gagging noises here).  It got super cold so we caught a train back to Coleraine and Pieter had his first fish and chips experience (which I forced him to do).  And I out ate him- ladylike.  We then met up with a few of our other friends and ate Belgian chocolate and watched Kong Fu Panda. 

Yesterday was really relaxing and I was actually productive- homework, what's that? Last night, International Friends (this Christian organization that links International Students with host families) hosted a Cehligh, which is an Irish dancing night.  We all went, mostly motivated by the free food, with the interpretation that we would be watching the dancing... oh we were so wrong.  Three hours later and drenched in sweat, I now know how to Irish dance.. sort of :) It was actually So much fun! All of the dances were ridiculous and there was a lot of spinning.  Girly note, it was really nice to actually have a partner to dance with... 

So that was my week.  I didn't realize until writing this how incredibly lazy I was this week/ how many hours I devoted to watching movies.  But it was worth it! 

As always, I love ya'll and I'm thinking about each of you from across the sea. 

Finding meaning.

So.. this past weekend I went to London to visit Jill and Bell- it was amazing! It was so nice to see them and to experience London (we hit up most of the fantastically touristy stops- London Tower, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Church, Harrods, London Eye, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, Hyde park, Kensington Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Notting Hill, and the British Library).  Although I do have so many stories and experiences from this past weekend that I would love to share with ya'll, I think I'm going to spend this blog sharing some things that I've been learning or really coming to terms with lately.  If you want funny stories, skype or email me (or I'm sure Bell and Jill's blogs will be updated soon so you can check them out)...

One thing that everyone told me before I went abroad is that I would learn so much about myself when I got there- I would become more independent, cultured, and be challenged in ways that I had never been before.  They said that I would come back different- matured. 

Until this moment, I didn't really believe them- I have been struggling with anxiety and restlessness over the fact that my study abroad experience was too "easy." After all, they speak English here (or at least a version of it) and I really do only go to class 6 or 7 hours a week.  I was having too much fun/ not enough of the study abroad "cultural difficulties" that I was expecting.  And, in complete honesty, I've had a lot of fun.  I love the people here and there hasn't been a night where I haven't had something to do- a pub to crash, trivia nights, small group, movie nights, or some intense traveling across the UK.  It seems that everywhere I turn there are so many things to delightfully distract me from the "difficulties" of abroad.  How can you be sad or wrestling with deep spiritual, intellectual, and emotional questions or self-discovery when you aren't struggling?  I know this sounds so weird and like I'm attempting to be melodramatic, but it's honestly something I've been really bothered by.

Until now, I thought that I hadn't been learning anything- that I would walk away from this experience unchanged and unchallenged.  But I've realized something while typing this... no matter where you are, who you are with, or what you are doing- you are growing.  I've found that consistently throughout this life journey (and it is a journey, not a destination) we are daily presented with situations or people and in those small, seemingly inconsequential interactions/ decisions, we see who we are (good and bad).  It's the simple conversations between new or old friends, how you chose to deal with seemingly stressful situations (like trying to navigate the public transportation system in Northern Ireland), the moments of pure joy when you realize you can't stop laughing even though it's become physically painful, the silent moments of awe when you are surrounded by so much beauty that you can't even begin to process it, and the moments where you decide to push through and not dwell on your failures because we know that God doesn't.  In a way, I'm coming to realize that there is so much about myself, my God, and this world that I want to understand better. I'm realizing that each day I miss moments and opportunities to love others.  And I'm realizing that although I will continue to miss those opportunities and fall into self-centered patterns, that's part of the journey.  Those failures don't define me. 

And, miraculously, God still relentlessly wants me.  

Is captivated by me. 

Because when He looks at me He doesn't see my "successes" and way them against my "failures" (thank goodness)- He doesn't value what the world values.  He views me as the most beautiful version of myself imaginable- the person He created me to be- renewed and reborn in Christ (as Paul said, our old self is gone, dead).  No matter where I am, He constantly desires to pull me closer to Himself. 

Why is it that we find this almost simplistic, absolute, unrelenting, and passionate love so hard to grasp?  

I think it's because deep down, we realize (or at least I am coming to realize) that His grace and love is so contradictory to the way that the world works that we almost keep looking for a catch- nothing is free. But this is. I think that what I'm trying to come to terms with or realize is that grace has no boundaries and that accepting grace changes you and revolutionizes your perspective. 

Overall, I guess I'm learning that there aren't "meaningful" experiences and ones that aren't- all experiences are God's way of molding us into the people He created us to be.  And He will continue molding us. 

If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast- Psalm 139 

Those who journey can easily understand, the more you see, the more you learn, the more that you will be.

Alright girls and boys get ready for the longest blog entry EVER- can you handle this? This blog entry is not for the faint of heart, it's length requires stamina that some people only dream of aspiring to.  Consider yourselves appropriately warned. 

This past weekend Courtney and I decided to check out Edinburgh, Scotland.  After some pretty intense/ frustrating hours planning how we were going to get there and where we were going to sleep, we were ready.  Filling our backpacks to the absolute brim (I actually also had clothes in my purse), we set out to explore on Thursday night.  We caught the 9:00 train from Coleraine to Belfast with very little difficulty and then attempted to find our "classy" 5 pound a night hostel- The Linen House. Ya. We got in and immediately had an amazing impression when 3 extremely dirty and sketchy looking mid-thirties European guys awkwardly looked us up and down- multiple times.  Then another great sign that this hostel was safe was that the guy checking us in couldn't find the key to our 18 person mixed gendered room (ya, what were we thinking???) and just told us that we didn't need one anyway.  Already feeling really safe in this hostel (did I mention that it is located in the middle of a dark alleyway outside of the center of town) we ambled up to our room to find that there were already people sleeping in it (it was around 11:30) so we had to use our phone lights to find our bunks which were conveniently the farthest from the door in a very dark back corner.  As we were trying to get all of our stuff into our different beds with us (so that it wouldn't be taken... or at least we would hopefully wake up while someone was taking it), we realized we were being watched.  A woman whom we assumed was sleeping was actually just lying in her bed staring at us- so creepy.  I don't know how I did it, but I actually fell asleep and slept pretty much the whole night (I honestly know that God has His hand in calming me down because there was no way that I would have even stayed there let alone slept there without Him).  

Ok, well the plan was to catch our ferry (from Belfast to Stranrear) that left at 7:30 and then catch the 10:00 train from Stranrear to Edinburgh and then arrive at Edinburgh at 2 (ish) and start our touristy domination.  However, that plan got slightly altered.  We left the hostel at 7 and got a taxi and arrived at the ferry port (station?) at 7:13... to be told that they closed the door at 7:10.  Then we were informed that the next ferry didn't leave until 12:30, which effectively took away any chance we had at touring Edinburgh that day.  Doing a pretty good job at maintaining my optimism (I kept retorting Courtney with lemonade), I proceeded to read (still working on Velvet Elvis- and it's amazing) and journal for the next 3 hours, while Courtney slept (she is one of those people that sleeps anywhere and I'm one of those people that can't sleep anywhere- it was a really funny combo).  We were then told that we could go upstairs to the cafe and wait for the ferry to start boarding, so we went upstairs and got some scones and tea.  While I was trying to figure out the different train schedule (b/c we had already missed everything we were supposed to take), Courtney all of the sudden got up and ran to the bathroom- where she threw up.  So now it's around 11 and after debating whether Courtney was well enough to go for about 30 min we decided to bite the bullet and got on the ferry.  So we are sitting in the waiting room trying to collect ourselves when all of the sudden some kind of silent signal goes off and all of the people in the waiting room stand up and start racing towards the ferry.  Scared of missing the ferry, Courtney and I in a panicked state jump to our feet and start our own version of the amazing race- it was intense.  Then we got on! To preface, I've never been on a ferry before so I really don't know how they are supposed to be, but it was SO nice- it literally felt like we were walking onto a mini cruise ship- there were coffee shops, nail salons, shopping centers, live music, movies, a kid area, and a silent lounge (which we made a beeline for).  After a very comfortable ferry ride, we got off in Scotland (woot) and made our way to the train station, got two tickets to Edinburgh and jumped the next train.  The train ride was pretty long where the majority of it was spent reading, listening to music, and journaling while Courtney slept (are you starting to see a pattern?).  However, after a few hours, we met a little girl who I like to dubb "clips" after the 20 or so very sparkly clips she had in her hair.  She promptly sat in the seat next to me and stared at me, without responding in anyway, while I tried to make conversation with her.  Courtney woke up and together we tried to get her to play a game with us, but then ended up just playing squares (or boxes- I don't know what to call it) while she sat staring.  Then, clips started spouting gibberish which made no sense at all and kept asking the same question even though we answered her.... ya it was interesting.  Our train then stopped in Glasgow where we then were told that we had to change train stations in order to catch the 6:00 train to Edinburgh.  After grabbing dinner (the last thing we ate were those scones) we grabbed a shuttle that took us across Glasgow to the other train station.  The shuttle took longer than we expected, so we ended up running through the train station trying to catch our train... just as Courtney jumped on... the doors slammed shut..... with me on the other side of them.  I think my heart literally stopped as I stood furiously pushing the open button trying to get onto the train (her phone was dead, so there would have been NO way for me to get in touch with her).  Then my heart rapidly sped up to a jolting thumping as the train starting inching forward.  It was shortly after that moment of utter despair that I realized that I wasn't the only one standing on the platform, I looked behind me and was calmly informed by a Scottish boy that the train would open it's doors again soon.  So, needless to say, I got on the train a few minutes after that- humiliated but grateful.  We finally pulled into Edinburgh around 7:30 that night and it was raining (of course), we had booked a ghost tour that started at 8 so we went straight there with all of our stuff to find out that it was a 2 hour WALKING tour in the rain.  The turning point of our trip was deciding to not do the tour, getting a refund, and walking to the most wonderful thing I had seen that day- a cafe named Chocolate Soup.  Oh yes, they served a type of hot chocolate (obviously there were multiple flavor options) in massive soup bowls.  We joyously consumed a brownie sunday and a bowl of chocolate soup- each. We then randomly met these two American guys who we talked to for the next hour while downing our chocolate.  Then, the guy working at the cafe gave us free croissants and sandwiches- it was glorious.  Exhausted, we decided to find our hostel and pass out.  Although our hostel was completely outside of the city (as we found out after a 12 pound cab ride), it was so nice! We only had 4 other people in our room (a really sweet Hungarian couple and then another anti-social couple) and we got lockers to store our stuff in and CLEAN bedding!!! It was amazing.  And, coincidentally, their mattress was the most comfortable one I've slept in since getting here (mine at school is kind of like an air mattress that is really low on air... ya).  Oh, and did I mention it was only 8 pounds a night??? 

Alright so Saturday was probably one of the longest, craziest, and most fun days of my life.  We saw more of Edinburgh in one day than I think most people would fit into 3 or 4.  We started our day by catching a 9:30 shuttle from our hostel (Globetrotter Inn, btw) to the center of Edinburgh.  After walking around admiring the amazing architecture, we stopped into an adorable cafe for breakfast and map out our game plan for the rest of the day.  After the cafe we walked down the Royal Mile towards Edinburgh Castle stopping in at St. Giles Cathedral (which was mesmerizing) and looking at the Adam Smith monument.  We also would stop in at souvenir shops and check out cool street vendors.  We checked out Edinburgh Castle and then took a tour of the Scottish whiskey museum.  It was ridiculous how much they obsess about whiskey, but it was actually really interesting at the same time (like did you know that there are only 8 people in Scotland who are allowed to blend whiskey).  Courtney and I then got lunch at a cafe where I had the best tuna sandwich I've ever eaten- it was incredible.  After that, we went to the National Library of Scotland (where there was this really cool literary exhibit that had letters in it from Lord Byron, Jane Austin, and David Livingstone) and then on to the National Museum of Scotland, which wasn't really that exciting.  We stopped in at the Elephant House where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter (I think I enjoyed this a LOT more than Courtney- I'm such a nerd).  While we were walking around the museum, we realized that there was no way we could physically walk up Arthur's Seat the next day b/c we would have all of our stuff. So, we decided to go from the museum straight to Arthur's Seat.  At this point, we really thought that Arthur's Seat would be this nice nature walk with a paved path that wouldn't take more than 20 minutes to get to the top..... we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into.  Just to let ya'll know, we were wearing skinny jeans, ankle boots, flats, scarves, and in NO way were prepared for the hike that lay before us.  I don't know how we made it, but after many falls, breaks to catch our breath, and taking off many layers of clothing, we got to the top.  It was breathtaking.  You could see all of Edinburgh and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.  After admiring the view for a while and making the painful trek down, we made an executive decision to head back to the hostel to take showers/ nap (for Courtney) before our 9:30 ghost tour and 11 candle-light dinner reservation at the Witchery by the Castle (it was around 6 by this time).  This was a VERY good decision.  So after resting, we took the 8:30 shuttle into Edinburgh for our 9:30 ghost tour.  Because we had time to kill, we popped back into our favorite cafe- Chocolate Soup! The guy, of course, remembered us and even though we were only going to split one brownie sunday he gave us two for the price of one- he loved us. :)  After fulling stuffing ourselves with chocolate (again) we walked down to Marcat Square to meet our group for the ghost tour.  When we signed up for this tour, we were thinking that it would be kind of funny like a historic tour with a few silly twists designed to freak out children. We were wrong.  This tour was probably the scariest thing I've ever done in my life.  We went into these abandoned vaults under the city with one candle and listened to stories about how people have had "supernatural" experiences in these vaults.  At one point, this crazy girl standing next to me grabbed me and started saying I have to get out of here over and over. Ya, creepy.  I don't believe in ghosts, but the whole thing was just creepy and definitely got our adrenaline pumping.  After the vaults we walked to this ancient graveyard and heard more ghost stories.  We loved it- our guide was fantastic and such a character (ironically, her name was Faith).  Our tour ended at 11 on the opposite side of the Royal Mile than the Witchery at the Castle (restaurant where our 11 dinner reservation was).  So, we ended up sprinting/ jogging up the Royal Mile to make our reservation (after hiking all the way up/down Arthur's Seat- it hurt).  Thankfully, we made our reservation and got to eat at the most beautiful restaurant I've ever been in.  Walking down the candlelit stone steps to get to our table was like entering our own little secret garden.  There were beautiful sculptures, plants, candles, it was amazing.  We both had a glass of wine (I tried rose wine- a mix of white and red- and actually really loved it) and had wonderful deep conversation until 12:30.  It was probably the most romantic thing I've ever done... except it was with a girl :) Next time I'll have to make Pieter travel with us! I'm not going to go into details about the next two hours or so b/c they were pretty awful, but let's just say that there is a severe shortage of taxis in Edinburgh and the buses were all over an hour late at their pick ups so we spent the next two hours sprinting around Edinburgh trying to find some sort of transportation (and we were the only two sober people in the entire city).  But we did get back and crashed into our beds around 3. 

Sunday.  We dragged ourselves out of bed around 9:30 in order to check out of our hostel at 10 and then took the shuttle into Edinburgh.  Where we (after consuming the largest breakfast known to mankind) headed to the Palace of Hollyrood for a tour! It was such an interesting tour and it was really cool to be able to walk through the rooms where people that I've learned about throughout history (like Queen Mary of Scotland) actually lived.  Although, it would have probably been a better experience if Courtney and I didn't have to lug ALL of our stuff with us throughout the entire tour... the tour ended in the abbey that is connected to the palace.  Not gonna lie, this was by far my favorite part of the tour.  The abbey is basically a ruin, the roof is non existent and there are very old graves throughout it, but there was something so sad and beautiful about it that it took my breath away.  Our audio version of a tour-guide informed us that the abbey had inspired many writers and musicians- it just had that feel about it, I could have sat there all day.  However, we didn't have time in our schedule for sitting (we had some serious domination via tourism to do) so after our tour was over we booked it to Carlton Hill, which is kind of like Arthur's Seat in that it looks over the city, but it also has different monuments on it as well.  It was a really cool place to take pictures from and I basically walked around and tried to be a much better photographer than I am :) Then we ambled back towards the train station- checking out the Scottish Monument on the way.  Thankfully, we got on the train with NO hiccups (although in the train station I did get VERY intensely hit on by a drunk 71 year old Scottish man- at 2 in the afternoon).  4-plus hours later, we arrived in Stranrear and were picked up from the train station by this adorable man from our B and B.  He and his wife were probably the cutest people I've ever met.  The B and B was INCREDIBLE!!! We had our own private bathroom (with a bathtub), really clean nice sheets, bathrobes, chocolate, teacups/ scones... it was like a little piece of heaven.  

Well I could go into the details of our trip back into Coleraine (including a 4 am ferry ride and a few more interesting mishaps), but I think I'm going to wrap it all up here. If you have stuck with me this long, I'm very thankful.  And you are a very good friend.  

Maybe the landslide will bring it down...

Well hello again! As I'm beginning to accept as a norm of my study abroad experience, more things happened last week then I could possibly begin to describe.  So I'm having a little bit of a conundrum about what I should include...

Well, let me start by telling ya'll that I am now "officially" dating Pieter! Woot! Who would have guessed that I would go to Northern Ireland and start dating a Belgian- WHAT? Only I could do that. 

But, moving on, I am starting to fall into a little bit of a routine here.  Although I spend just under 7 hours in class each week, I still feel like there is always something that I want to do or people that I want to spend time with- so ya, I still don't really get anything done (however, I read for my classes today for the first time- oh how far I've fallen from the overachiever I once was).  On Wednesday I went to Kelly's- this nightclub in Portrush- and it was INSANE! There were sooo many people there (it was student night) dancing very awkwardly (I never thought I would miss American dances, but here everyone dances like 3 feet away from each other while awkwardly glancing around at the other people attempting to dance).  Don't worry, I found a room (each room played different music etc.) that played alternative music and we all just went crazy jumping up and down.  I also taught some other international kids how to do the shopping cart and other ridiculous dances.  It was definitely an interesting experience.

Thursday was really relaxing- me, Courtney, Tricia, Lien, Elaine, and Genifer decided to make Pieter watch The Holiday with us.  It was hilarious! 

Then Friday morning, I went into town with Pieter, Courtney, and Genifer to do some grocery shopping and pick up Jill!  Courtney and Genifer had to head back to uni and so Pieter and I went shopping and I found really cute boots (and it was actually his suggestion to go shoe shopping since he knew I needed boots).  And then we had coffee until Jill got in.  It was so wonderful to see Jill's beautiful face from across the train station- I'm not gonna lie, I dropped all of my bags and basically attacked her! The rest of the day we took it pretty easy, I walked her around Coleraine, which took about an hour to see the whole town (I love my wee Irish town).  Then I showed her my favorite places on campus (the alien looking windmill and the daffodil garden). After that we headed over to Portstewert to have dinner at the Anchorbar- pub food is so good! 

Saturday, the Chaplaincy took the internationals on a tour of the Glens of Anrtim (I snuck Jill onto the bus).  Although it was the most miserably rainy and cold day I've had so far here, it was beautiful!  Walking the trail through the forest felt like I had been transported back in time before all of industrialization touched nature's beauty (wow I sound like a tree hugger).  But, nevertheless, it was breathtaking.  We would be walking and then all the sudden look up and see like six waterfalls cascading down the Irish hillside.  It was also cool to see all of Ireland through Jill's eyes- it was like seeing everything for the first time, all over again.  After the glens, we got dropped off at this extremely random shopping mall for an hour- it was a little bit of a weird transition from hiking in the forest to shopping in designer stores.... strange. After our hour long shopping spree, the bus picked us back up and took as to this beautiful little stone church that I'm pretty sure I want to get married in.  It was just so peaceful resting on this hill overlooking the dormant Irish countryside.  Exhausted, we all (Jill, Molly, Courtney, Marcus, Malte, the other Marcus, Tricia, and I) went over to Lien and Pieter's flat and Lien made us this incredible dinner and then we watched The Matrix.  I love my friends. 

Sunday Jill and I adventured out on our own to see Dunluce castle and Gaint's Causeway.  It was a little bit of an experience letting me be the tour guide because, of course, I had no plan and no idea how to navigate my way through public transportation.  I prefer to just ask people and go with the flow :) Regardless of my horrible navigation skills, we ended up in Portrush and then walked for what seemed like forever to Dunluce castle.  Although the walking was a little rough after our hike the day before, it was totally worth it just for the view.  We also saw this AMAZING rainbow that literally looked like it came directly from the sea, it was incredible and my first Irish rainbow! After Dunluce we grabbed a taxi (our legs were pretty sore) to Giant's Causeway.  Showing Jill Dunluce and Giant's Causeway was so cool because since I had already been there, I- in a weird way- felt like I belonged, kind of like I didn't fit into the tourist category anymore.  Sadly, Jill had to head out that night- but we do get to reunite in London in two weeks with Bell so our parting wasn't too bad :)

Alright, well I think I'm done but let me just leave ya'll with this beautiful verse shared with me by a great friend: 

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love

- Galations 5:6

I'm thinking of all of ya'll on the other side of the sea and sending each of you my love.