If I find my way, how much will I find?

Well I did promise to write again... :) It's so hard to think of where to begin, although it's only been four days since my last "update" I feel like SO much has happened.  One of the most surreal things about this experience is that part of me feels like I've been here forever and at the same time another part of me hasn't really grasped where I am.

So where to start... I guess Maria Von Trapp would tell me to start at the very beginning so that is what I will do! (Oh wait a second, I'm not in Austria)

Tuesday night me and a few of my American friends decided to try and each actual Irish food... so we walked the few miles down to Coleraine and then realized that Irish people don't eat out on weekends as we found aimlessly wandered around the town and found that almost all of the places were closed.  However we lucked out and found this really adorable wee fish and chip shop that was incredible!  (seriously, so far I've loved all of their food)  Although I had NO idea what the women was telling me as I ordered, and for the first time she couldn't understand me at all either, I miraculously ended up with what I wanted.  The shop was only take-away so we took our fish and chips and ate it on some benches in the center of town- it was so surreal.  Then we went to check out one of the pubs on campus (yes, there are several) and I ordered by first beer! It was a little more ceremonious than my first accidental drink, but all-in-all not that big of a deal.  Side note- I love all of the girls I'm hanging out with, they make sure that I'm not drinking anything too strong.  We ended up staying there for a while and talking to some kids from Sweden.  Then, we all headed over to one of the flats of some of the kids from Spain who were having an international shindig of sorts.  It was actually really fun, unlike American parties, everyone was more interested in talking to each other than getting wasted so I had some really great conversations and met some really cool people!

Wednesday  was the first day that I realized that I am here- in Northern Ireland.  After orientation meetings were over, me and a few of my friends (Courtney, Tricia, and Hailey) headed down to Coleraine to get some essentials from Tesco (the Irish publics and wallmart all rolled into one).  If you've looked at my pictures, all of those were taken on Wednesday, as you can see, we got super distracted and ended up sight seeing most of our time there.  It is still so incredible to me that things like St. Patrick's Church (see pictures) are just hanging out in the middle of their town.  It seems like every time I turn around I see something else that literally (and yes I do mean literally) takes my breath away.  After running around like tourists (much to the chagrin of all of the locals), we decided to take a tea break and sat down for an hour or so at a cafe, where we had deep conversations and talked about all of the places we want to visit. That night, a few of us (Molly, Tricia, and I) went to Portstewert, a town right on the sea that is a few minutes driving time away from us, to visit Jean-Marie and Julien's house (two French international students) and then all of us went to a pub and discussed American politics (Alice, all of my friends here are extremely into Obama, even the international ones).  

Ok, this is so long, I'm so sorry if you are bored I don't really blame you.... just skim :) 

Thursday, I got to meet the mayor of Coleraine... who was very nice and I sort of understood him, which is a plus.  He had a reception for all of the international students and I think my picture is going to be in the local paper.  That night a lot of the international kids decided to hit up the Anchor club, which is this AMAZING pub in the middle of Portstewert.  I can't even describe it to you, I walked in and I felt like I was in a movie- the pub was everything that I ever thought an Irish would be.  There were beautiful wood carvings and huge leader booths everywhere.  There was even an Irish band that played Galway girl (one of the songs from P.S. I Love You- I tried to record it, but I don't know if it worked) and some of the locals would clear the floor for Irish dancing.  Like most pubs here, there was a discotec on top of the pub where a lot of the Americans went.  But, I ended up hanging out with some of my Belgian friends (I kind of have a crush on one of the Belgian guys, who came and sat next to me the whole night- woot) and German friends in the pub.  I did have a Guiness, which I actually liked more than other beer because it isn't as biting, but I finished after one... Needless to say, it was amazing.

Friday was pretty chill. I did get registered for classes- finally.  I'm taking Abnormal and Clinical Psychology, Individual Differences, and Social Psychology, the best part of it is that I don't have classes on Fridays so I'll have longer weekends to travel!  Tricia, Courtney, and I went back into Coleraine and did some fun shopping- I got my first pair of skinny jeans, which my Irish flat-mate assured me made me look less American (however, she said I was still way too tan to ever fully look Irish, but I think that'll change soon).  We were all pretty exhausted from staying out every night so we just watched some Arrested Development and then went to bed. 

I don't even know how I'm going to describe yesterday to ya'll.  I went on the tour of the Northern Coast from 9 until 5.  I got to see Gaint's Causeway, Dunluce castle, and went across the Carrick-a-Rede bridge (actually I kind of jumped across it, which freaked people out).  It was one of those days where you see so many things that are so incredible and almost inspiring that you can't even wrap your mind around it all.  I kept trying to convince myself that it was all real.  One of the things that really hit me when we were walking the trail up to the rope bridge and just surrounded by all of the natural beauty around us was that in the face of all of this, God says that we are more beautiful and precious to Him.  It was such an elated feeling to know that God must see me, and all of us, in a way that we can't even imagine.  I will put the pictures up right after I'm done, but I'm sure even those won't really capture it.  Last night, Jean-Marie and Julien had a house party and we all went over to hang out there.  For one of the first times, an Irish student hung out with us- a very funny rugby player- and was super intense about drinking and playing drinking games.  Don't worry, my competitiveness turned out to be an asset because I dominated and really didn't have to drink more than a sip :) Just wait till they see me in Disney trivia.  After the drinking games got old, we all just sat around and talked- it was really relaxed and nice.  

Alrighty then, I think I have just exhausted the attention span of even my parents, so I'm gonna close up and go put up some pictures.  I love ya'll and I'm thinking about ya'll.