Life In A Northern Town

Hey everyone! Today is the beginning of week five. We've been in Tully Cross for about a month now. Time really has started to go by rather quickly here.

Our time in the north was amazing. Friday we went to Belfast and saw the town. There were a lot of murals there as well which were interesting to look at. It's so interesting to look at these murals that contain so much history and really display the sentiments during the time of the troubles. After seeing the murals in Belfast, we did a quick loop in the bus of the city and then we had a few hours to explore. We found the mall and I found ANOTHER Starbucks, which accepted my American Gift Card that I had. Downside was that the barista apparently didn't understand that she needed to mix my Iced Mocha for me, so I shook it at her violently to mix it up. I think she got the message... After I got my fix, we went window shopping (I almost bought out an entire store, but I restrained myself). After that we boarded the bus to head back to Inch, had dinner, and then we had a class discussion about everything that we had seen and experienced that week. A lot of us are still trying to process everything. It was so much to take in that it was almost overload, but I can honestly say that I've never learned so much in one week. We had an awesome discussion and worked through some of our questions and general comments from the past week and called it a night.

Saturday we went to Giant's Causeway. It is without a doubt most beautiful sight I've ever seen. According to Irish Legend, there used to be a Causeway that connect Ireland to Scotland. There was a Scottish giant that wanted to fight an Irish hero. The hero duped the giant and scared him away, making him run back across the causeway and as he ran, the causeway crumbled under him and fell into the sea. The view was spectacular. I could have simply sat there and watched the waves crash on the rocks all day long. And, we were just 11 miles from Scotland. I could SEE the country across the ocean. It was awesome.

After the Causeway, we grabbed lunch and did a few more scenic stops on our way back to Inch. Those of us that wanted to go to mass did, and then we returned to an awesome dinner that Tony provided us. Candles, wine, table cloths, and a harpist. It was pretty stellar. I think we all ate our weight in food that night, and then some. The rest of the night was spent packing and playing Euchre until the early hours of the morning so we would be able to sleep on the bus ride back.

Sunday we left Inch around 9 and headed back to Tully Cross. We got situated in our cottages and had some dinner. The guys in my cottage hung out for a few hours before we made our way to Sammons where I spent way too much money, unfortunately. Lesson learned. They played the first half of the Super Bowl and then closed the pub so we didn't get to see the rest of the game, or any of the commercials. Bummer. We headed back to the cottages and called it a night.

Today I went into Clifden with Dr. Dawson, Beth and Heather to shop for our respective cottages. It was quite a mission; I really dislike not having a grill because I don't know how to cook otherwise, but I'm learning. We made our way back and I worked on some homework and then decided to walk down to Tully because the sun was back out! I saw an awesome rainbow over the OCEAN. It was simply amazing. No other words can describe it. After getting slightly rained on, I went back to the cottage, made fish and chips for us and we continued making our way through Season 6 of Scrubs. Tonight's episode was the musical which we found (and I always find) amusing and hilarious. I made a quick visit to cottage 9 and interrupted their dinner and we had some good conversations.

For the rest of the night, I'm planning to get my paper mostly finished that is due on Friday for Dr. Dawson on the novel we just read, and then most people are heading out to Coynes, where I'll be grabbing a cup of coffee so save myself from spending too much money again. Tomorrow a group of people are going for a hike down near Kylemore Abbey again, so I'll be joining them for that, and then Friday we are hopefully going to try to hike Diamond Mountain again. Friday is also Gretchen's Birthday party part three at Sammon's, so that will be a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures from the past week.

This is at the Causeway. Unfortunately, my camera died and this doesn't do the picture justice but I did manage to get a video, so I'll post that on Facebook eventually.

Murals in Belfast.

Our group got to meet the Mayor of Derry. He was the youngest Mayor in the town's history, 27.

That's all for now. I'll put more up on Facebook later.

Peace. Love. Ireland.

Rob