As Shelby Rogers, Emily Little, Samya Monem, Jake Franck, and I were sitting in the Dublin airport, waiting for our flight to leave to head back to England, I took the liberty that I had to write and reflect upon my weekend. Luckily what I wrote encompassed what I felt about the weekend prior to that as well.
"This weekend was such a learning experience in so many ways," was the very first thing I wrote in that airport, and it was so true for the past two weeks I've had.
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, and that's precisely the reason that I've haven't written a blog post in about that time.
In these two weeks, I've attended a Christian retreat with some fantastic British university students, had a crazy week chock-full of homework and exams, and also been to Ireland. All in two weeks. Life moves really fast here. Really fast. This semester is really slipping by.
Okay, so first I'll talk about my weekend in Norfolk with the students from New Life Church in Lincoln (which is about 40 minutes away from Grantham).
British students are fabulous. All this time, I just thought that we loved them. And I never thought about the love being reciprocated. It is definitely reciprocated. And they were so welcoming.
Also, I found that I absolutely love British humor. It's witty and clever, and even a little snide. But it's great. When we played a game, I went up to the stage to volunteer as tribute and they all started chanting "USA! USA! USA! USA!" And they liked to chant that quite a lot. Also, apparently no Brits have ever heard of or danced to "The Wobble." We Americans thought we might as well take this opportunity to teach it to them, which we did. And they were in love. They kept saying that they were going to make it a trend in the UK and teach it to their friends. And then after that they sang The National Anthem. Which made me feel bad because I don't know God Save the Queen all that well.
One thing I definitely realized that weekend is that Jesus is so international. The Spirit is the same in England as it is in the States. Not that I expected it to be different, but just experiencing Him in a different country was such a unique experience for me. These students are just like us, but only living in a different country, with a different accent, and a different culture. They love Jesus like those in America to whom I look up to spiritually.
And God moved, enormously. Which is quite beautiful because we worshiped in a tiny little space.
Thanks to that weekend, I have so many new British friends who I am still talking to today. We also talked about going to visit them in Lincoln and/or them coming to the manor sometime in the semester. They're so fun to be around. Love demm. One British guy named Andrew had this hilarious South Carolina accent in which he talked like he worked on a farm and loved blueberries.
It's impossible to chronicle in pictures how awesome that weekend was. So here's just a few pictures I took of some people just being goof balls.
Sam and Josh are fun. Indeed.
GERALD!!!
Stair ball was the most ridiculous and fun game. It was one of those things that's so simple, but they play it every year just because.
Okay, next, we have the picture time. Because I went to Ireland.
Wow. Ireland was so great. If you ever get the chance to go, go. But if you go, see the countryside. The absolute best part about Ireland, apart from the people.
Before departing for Ireland, I had a rather stressful week. I can't lie. I had an application due, a research plan due, and a big exam on Wednesday. All on top of preparing to head out to Ireland.
Our exam ended at 3:30 on Wednesday and we were headed to the airport by 3:45 to make it to our flight out by 6. So it wasn't a relaxing day, Wednesday wasn't.
But that's okay! Because we got to Dublin Wednesday night and had dinner at an "authentic" Irish pub called The Celt. It was really cool; they had live music! They played the song "Galway Girl", which was basically the only pub song I knew before coming to Ireland. See below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lcnvd8BNFE
And we loved our hostel. Called the Globetrotter. The staff were so accommodating and it was very welcoming.
The next day was Dublin day! We took a tour of the city and saw the Guinness Storehouse, where Guinness (the famous beer) is made. It was very cool indeed.
The best way I can describe Dublin is robust. It's a big city, with a lot of industry and history, and a lot of Irish pride. One thing I said while there was that it definitely is a man's city. It's chock full of men grunting, business-like things, and beer. Perhaps my perspective of Dublin was slightly marred because it rained all day there. Oh well. The best of Ireland was yet to come.
We went on our Paddywagon Tour the next day. Which I highly recommend doing. Paddywagon is a very well-run company and knows how to make their customers happy. And they're punctual.
On the way to Galway (a city in western Ireland, one of our destinations for the trip), we stopped at perhaps the cutest village I've ever seen. And I'm not lying. It really is. I'm not just being an American here and over exaggerating. It was called Cong and we didn't stay long, but it was great for the amount of time we stayed.
After this, we drove through the countryside of Connemara in west Ireland. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
This is Kylemore Abbey. It was built by a couple many years ago and then was abandoned and is now a tourist site. It's so beautiful, completely surrounded by mountains, trees, and a lake.
After this, we got to Galway. Galway had such a fun atmosphere. It is a bay city, so it's got a lot of water aspects, and had so much liveliness and culture. I'd love to go back. The locals there were great. I talked to this one little Irish couple in a pub and they were so much fun. We compared and contrasted America and Ireland. It was so cool to hear what they thought of us. And it was either good or true.
Now, I must tell you a few things about the Cliffs first. They are holy ground for multiple reasons. One: they're beautiful. Two: part of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were filmed there. If you go to 1:10 in the following clip, you'll see them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0mVNFCcMXQ
The Cliffs of Moher must be on the 1,001 places to visit before you die. They have to be. It's necessary. They're so majestic and gigantic and wonderful.
I stopped trying to capture the moment in pictures and just took a video to show you guys what it looks like to dangle your feet off these things.
They were so amazing. I want to go back there as well if I ever can.
After this, we got back to Dublin and headed home the next day!
I'm so sorry this was such a long entry. I just had so much to tell! And if you're still reading this at this point, I'd also like to congratulate and thank you for coming this far and not having anything else to do at the moment but sit and read this. Glad all my work is not in vain!
If you are reading my blog, please let me know! It's nice to know if you are. And I love you.
Next week on As the World Turns: The Shelley Diaries, we'll venture to Wales! I'm so excited for it. We're going to North Wales which looks so beautiful. And this Wednesday I'm having dinner with my meet-a-family!
Love you all.
Cheers,
Shell
Ahhh Love this!
ReplyDelete