An American in Coleraine

So I can't believe it's been a week since I last updated... wow! Time seems to be slipping through my hands :) 

Let me just start this blog by letting ya'll know how much I love it here.  For some reason, I was hit once again this morning by how completely blessed I am to have this opportunity.  I just love it here and I feel so peaceful and right about being here.  

I don't think I'll go through details on each day because that would probably take forever, but I will just lay down some highlights.  Monday I was supposed to have my first class, but it got cancelled and since I only have class on Monday and Thursday, my week was pretty chill... Monday night was really fun- one of the pubs on campus has like a crazy discotec night every Monday and so a big group of international kids all went and we had a blast making fun of Irish "freshers" whose girls make Americans look modest (seriously, it was CRAZY, Nina, this adorable girl from Sweden, kept shaking her head and saying white trash) and dancing to crazy techno music.  Tuesday I was pretty wiped out so I just chilled all day :)  Then that night, after meeting the provost of the school and getting free food, I went over to Pieter and Lien's (Belgians) with a few other people and watched a ridiculous Japanese movie (LB, you would LOVE it).  Wednesday Courtney and I were going to try to go to Derry but we missed the train so we ended up just doing stuff in Coleraine and spending a few hours in an amazing cafe!  That night a lot of us went to the Anchorbar for Marcus's (German) birthday, which ended up being so much fun because it was trivia night and I convinced a ton of kids to make a team appropriately named "we aren't from around here" and laughed our way through language and culture barriers while attempting to compete. (We actually came in 7th out of 12 teams, which I was pretty stoked about).  Thursday I had my first class- woot! I actually had two classes and although they weren't extremely amazing, I think they are going to be pretty easy, which will be nice.  That night I tried out the CU (Christian Union), which was pretty cool.  It reminded me a lot of Intervarsity, but I was the only international student there so it was a little awkward.  After that I went out to the Anchorbar again (ya, there really aren't that many pubs around us) for their traditional Irish music night!  

Courtney, Tricia, and I were going to go to Dublin this weekend, but we realized shortly after looking up hostels that you have to plan these trips much more in advance.  So... we decided to spend Friday in Belfast and then take a trip into Derry on Saturday.  

So I'll start with the Belfast trip! Just in case ya'll don't know (I know I didn't), Belfast is the largest city in Northern Ireland.  It was so incredible being there.  One thing that I love about Europe is that everywhere you look there is this beautiful mix of old architecture with new stores.  It's almost like you can feel the history around you.  The first thing we did when we got there was find a pub and eat (I mean common do ya'll know me at all)- I can beef and guiness pie for the first time which was actually a lot better than it sounds.  One of the really cool things that we did there is we took a boat tour around the harbor where Titanic was built.  Although they don't have museums or anything about the ship (they feel like it is a black spot in their history), just being the same waters that launched it was such a mind-blowing concept.  Then we kind of just walked around- taking the city in.  We attempted to find to find this political murals depicting the wars in Northern Ireland, but ended up getting really lost in a very dodgy side of town.  But thanks to Courtney's amazing naviagation skills (they'd already learned to NEVER ask me to look at the map) we found our way back and saw many more beautiful churches and buildings before settling in to dinner at the crown pub, which is one of the most famous pubs in Northern Ireland.  It was really cool! 

Now on to Saturday, through a lot of randomness I ended up going to Derry with a bunch of Beligians, Germans, and Greeks.  Although I was the only American, it wasn't awkward at all and I had the best time! I loved Derry (Mom and Dad, I'm taking you there) it's so rich with history and you can almost feel all of the conflict that has taken place there.  We went to the Free Derry museum and then signed up for a tour that goes through all of the murals done by the Bogside artists (they show a lot of the violent history leading up to and after Bloody Sunday and are huge murals painted all throughout the bogside of town). Signing up for the tour, we really had no idea what we were getting into.  Our tour guide was this amazing older man who was a freedom fighter during all of those years.  He gave us his account of all that had happened in such a personal way that made everything so real.  For example, we were looking at this monument put up to memorialize the Irishmen who went on hunger strike and as we were looking at it, he pointed out names that were his friends and family members and then told us how he was put in charge of relaying information to them from the Irish party.  It was an experience I will never forget.  After that we actually got to go to the Bogside artist's studio and actually meet one of the artists that had painted all of the murals.  (Don't worry I took pictures of all of them and will probably put them on facebook later today)  After that we went to the Irish version of a waffle-house and I had a cheeseburger (I know I'm such an American) and then we went to a pub and had coffee and tea while waiting for the horrible horizontal rain to pass (ya, it's Ireland).  Once it had calmed down we went back outside and did some more sightseeing of churches and building and actually got to walk on the walls of the city before jumping on a train back to Coleraine.  Because we were all pretty exhausted, Lien, Pieter, and I watched Independence Day (which is so funny to watch with Europeans) before passing out.

This morning was really great because I actually got to church all by myself! It took me like 45 minutes to get there (I get lost...) but I did it! It was just such a great feeling to know that I can get there by myself.  Afterwards I just sat and did a devotion in a cafe and it was amazing! 

Alright well I'll try to write more often so it doesn't have to be this long.  I love ya'll and I'm so blessed to have each one of you in my life!