Weekend Adventures

What a way to wind down my time in this beautiful place=)

On Thursday night, we turned in our last final...and are now down with all schoolwork for 6 weeks! Upon completion, and for celebration, we competed in Erieband. I was able to halfway fulfill a dream of mine-singing "Needful Hands" by Jars of Clay-the other half would be to be able to play that same song on the guitar and sing...at the same time. That might take some coordination. Then Ana and I sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" as a duet, and it rocked! The rest of the acts were absolutely wonderful, and I can't wait to see what the "real" Airband looks like next fall at Taylor!

Later that night, we got our housing conformation for J-Term and the spring...I was blessed to be able to room with Megan (my amazing other half), and blessed to be on the first floor (no stair climbing when moving in), and in Olson (near almost everything). I was also blessed to know that my other favorite roomie, Leah, will be on the same floor as us. Even though we wanted the three room (mainly for our own bathroom!), we will settle for same floor rooming/community bathrooms. Apparently, all sorts of great things happen in there...like sing-a-longs, homework problems, poetry readings, etc. This could be fun=)

After finding out where everyone else was staying, my roommies and I went down to the Beach House Pub for one last Rock Shandy for Dr. Maloney. We laughed. We cried. We made it awkward. It was all good.

On Friday, the roommies had another great date, with one last hurrah in Dublin. Bewley's Coffee, Grafton Street Christmas lights, and crazy Irish people. Everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit, from the smells, to the sounds, to the sights. It is beautiful at night. After an afternoon in Dublin, we hooped the DART north to Howth. None of us had ever been there, and all of us wanted to go. It's a port town at the very end of the line, and we were told it was beautiful. Thus, we went. It was dark by the time we got there, so we walked the tow of the piers, soaking it in. The boats on the water, the lights from the city, and the outline of the moon made it a perfect night. We ate fish 'n' chips, ice-cream, and Digestives. After walking and taking lots of evening pictures, we headed back to Greystones.

This morning, Kyle set up a few stations for us to "reflect" on our time here in Ireland. It was absolutely wonderful. There were places for us to pray, write, listen, and talk. It was a really neat way to thank God for all He has done for us here and to pray for the future, our plans, and our friends and families.

This afternoon, I decided to be brave and ride the DART to Malahide, all by myself. The thought of riding an hour and a half to a city I'd never been to was a bit intimidating, so I wanted to conquer that fear. I went to Dublin where I had to make a connection, but I didn't realize that the next train to Malahide wasn't for another hour. I decided that I didn't want to waste one of my last hours in Dublin by sitting in a train station, so I headed out to Grafton Street, got a coffee, and killed an hour. The street players are starting to preform Christmas carols, which were beautiful. I love Christmastime. I made my way to Pearse Station, caught my train, and went to Malahide. Unfortunately, by the time I made it there, it was dark, so I stayed on the train and went back to Dublin, then Greystones.

I officially learned everything I need to know about navigating cities, public transportation, and mass crowds in a foreign country. Think about it...I didn't learn it at home, and I won't learn it at Taylor=)

Well, tomorrow after church will be a Thanksgiving dinner, a white elephant gift exchange, and finishing packing. Boy-if I could ever drag my feet on any activity, it would be packing. Most definitely. I hate it.

Can't wait to see you all! Can't wait to eat American food! Can't wait for cheap prices! Can't wait for Christmas! Can't wait to see the animals! Can't wait to experience Taylor for the real "first" time!

Much Love From Dublin,
-Rinny

T'was The Best Of Times

As I'm sitting here finishing my final paper for my last class, I am finding myself allowing my mind to wander over the memories of this semester. The friends made, lessons learned, sights of God's handiwork, and memories cherished will last me for a long, long time.

These past few weeks, we've had "debriefing" sessions with Kyle and Laura-It's really just an easy, open time to process all we've seen and learned, and to figure out how we will live life differently from now on. While the idea of our time here coming to an end is certainly not welcome, I appreciate that we are not just being left with an anticlimax. We have been encouraged to engage in those conversations, take those people on walks, and enjoy a chat over a "cuppa" (coffee). We have especially needed those walks and talks after some recent class times. In our Cross Cultural class, we watched a movie about laundries that were being run by the Catholic Church in Ireland during the 60's. The events that happened there were hard to believe, and even harder to process. After watching the movie, Jen Lewis asked us to write a paper about what the gospel was and how we would present it to the people who had been deeply wounded, like the people in the movie. It was a really hard, but neat time to be raw with each-other in how we handle grief, anger, pain, suffering, and brokenness. I know that I have enjoyed the chats with various people over coffee, and being able to pick their minds on all sorts of subjects. The people in this group are smart, witty, deep thinkers, and completely in love with Jesus. What a blessing to be surrounded by the body of Christ.

I can't even begin to list all the lessons I've learned, so I've been going through my journal to try to figure out which ones have meant the most to me, or been the hardest to learn. I am so thankful that I was able to keep that journal during this time, as it has been my best friend and most trusted confidant. It has in no way eaten its way into my relationships here, but it is the one place I can go to work out thoughts on paper that I can't say in words. Thanks, Dr. Maloney, for making us do that=)

In the meantime, I will be saying my goodbyes, living up my last few days in Ireland, and ceaselessly praising God for His wonders anew every day...

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come, thou rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of of hell thy people save
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here
And drive away the shaves of night
And pierce the clouds and bring us light
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might
Who to thy tribes, on Sinai's height
In ancient times did'st give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

-Much Love,

Rinny

Fall Break In Spain!

Hello Everyone!

Well, I'm back from Barcelona, safe and sound. It was SO much fun-Everyone needs to go there at least once in their life. What a great city!

We left at 5:00 on Friday morning, but little did we know what a morning it would be! So, the bus system in Ireland is...not great. Even the Irish don't like their bus system. Ashley, Ariel, Laura, Leah, Megan, and I waited in the dark at the bus stop for 30 minutes (did I mention that it is a BIT cold in Ireland now?), at which point we saw a figure running towards us. Seeing as we had just been over all of our self-defense moves, we felt confidant in our abilities to fight off any unwanted escorts. However, as the figure drew closer, we recognized it as one of our own FISPers! It turned out to be Ellie, who was en route to Germany to visit a friend. Apparently, her alarm didn't go off when it was supposed to, so she missed her original bus and wasn't sure if she could make her flight at this point in time. Laura decided to go with her to make sure that she got to the airport and to try to help her if she really did miss her flight. She told us she would meet up with us at the airport when we arrived. Off Laura ran to help Ellie, and the 5 of us were left to fend for ourselves. After waiting for the bus for another 10 minutes, our group trekked further up the road to wait for another bus that we would have to pay for. Finally, our original bus came to the wrong stop, 47 minutes late.

We were all slightly apprehensive on our bus ride (ask the family about the crazy Irish bus drivers), first because of the breakneck speed at which we were traveling, and second, because of how late we were. We arrived in Dublin, where it was (surprise, surprise!) POURING buckets of rain. We sprinted across Dublin to catch another bus, with our backpacks bouncing and our passport holders tucked safe inside our coats. We missed the bus we were aiming for by 2 minutes, then had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one to come. Wait in the rain, more precisely.

We got onto that bus and were headed for the airport. When we FINALLY arrived there, we decided to go straight through security. RyanAir must be chill about their security, because I felt COMPLETELY illegal going through the metal detector with my shoes, belt, and coat still ON me.

We arrived at our gate, and had about 12 minutes before the queue for the flight would start, so we fed a college student addiction: coffee. We met up with Laura, and then got onto our plane with no more troubles and were off to Barcelona. It was the first time in Spain for all of us!

(That was just Friday morning!)

We landed at 11:15, Barcelona time, to 60 degree weather and gorgeous sunshine. After getting on a bus to the city, we practiced our Spanish for an hour. We decided to be easy-going the first day, and see where the weekend lead from there. We walked under the "Triumphant Arch", which is uncannily similar to the arch of the same name in Paris. We then got bread, cheese, guava juice, and chips to eat in a park nearby. The park was the PERFECT picture of a lazy day in Spain-groups playing frisbee, people playing guitar, couples walking, families out with the kids, etc. The thing that struck me the most was how relaxed the Spanish are about life and work. They never rushed, there were no car horns blaring, no one had to dash to an appointment; they were just enjoying the life they have. It was super refreshing to be around them. We had a photo shoot in the park after our late lunch, and then went off to locate our hostel.

We found SeaPoint Hostel easily enough. It was a stones throw from the edge of the ocean, and the water was WARM! After swimming the Irish Sea quite a bit, and getting used to simply being numb during the swim, the warmth of this water was heavenly. I unashamedly ran into the sea with my shoes and socks on, quite aware that I was being secretly laughed at by the locals. I didn't care-Life was good.

Our hostel was AWESOME. There were six to a room, so our group took up our own. However, the walls weren't all the way to the ceiling, so we heard MANY conversations outside of our room. At one point in time we were trying to figure out what time we needed to be at the bus station for the return flight. Ariel was asking us what time 18:30 would be in not-military time, and a voice called over from another room "that'd be 6:30!". There's not much you can hide in an area that...open=)

Saturday was GREAT. We had breakfast and decided to try to find the "Saturday Market" that everyone talked about. Oh boy, did we! This market went on and on, for at least 2 and a half miles. Almost everyone picked up Christmas presents there, since Spain is SO MUCH cheaper than Ireland. We then stumbled upon a food market which was in a sort of three-sided shed, the size of the indoor arena. There was food galore and we splurged on fresh coconut, pineapple and guava smoothies, and chocolate of all kinds. That night, we walked up and down our beach for a good 2 miles. There was a huge ropes course/piece of modern art type thing that was on the beach-We couldn't decide what to do with it, so we climbed on it! For a long time. A very long time. It was incredibly entertaining.

Sunday morning involved mass...in Spanish (duh!)! I chose to sit by myself to truly "experience" the culture. And I was doing great until we were asked to, I'm assuming, greet our neighbor (I really only caught every other word, so I was guessing a lot). The woman in front of me turned to shake my hand and say (again, an assumption) "Christ be with you", at which point I shook her hand and said "Hola!" in my best Spanish accent. I repeated my greeting three times. These people CLEARLY knew I was a tourist-But I didn't know that I was one until after the service when I saw where all the tourists were SUPPOSED to sit. In the waaaaaaaaaay back. Oops. The rest of Sunday was spent getting lost on little back streets, having photo shoots on park benches, and looking at crazy architecture.

Our flight home would've been uneventful...minus the angry RyanAir costumer who crawled through the luggage conveyor belt, the EPIC turbulence (I just love turbulence-No, really), and my seat mates. I didn't bring a book or my i-pod, for both space and safety reasons. But I also wanted to learn how to be ok with being bored. WHAT a lesson I signed up for! On the 2ish hour flight home, I memorized the safety card, picked out all the inconsistencies on it, and mentally made up the life story for everyone sitting within four rows of me. I even picked out my soulmate, who was sitting two rows ahead of me in row 29, seat F.

All in all, it was a perfectly refreshing weekend and it was just what I needed to prepare for finals. I can now attack Art As An Experience with zest, Contemporary Ireland with passion, and Irish History with renewed curiosity. Perfection in a weekend.

Hope all is well with ya'll-I'll be seeing you soon=)

-Rinny (My new nickname, as dubbed by my roommies, Meggles and Rum)