Not quite wedding crashing....

Recently I have had a lot of contact and rekindling of old friendships-over email of course. It has been so so wonderful to keep up with friends and to reconnect with those I have regretfully lost contact with since graduation. I have laughed my bum off at funny memories and even gotten a bit teary eyed missing it all. Don't worry no big time homesickness! Funny how a new year can make you think...

Life in Belfast is going well. Alison and I just got home from crashing the arrival dinner for the new international study abroad students at Queens! haha. A man from her church who is Argentine told her about it, but not exactly what it was. So we showed up to get some free food, only to find that all the other students had just arrived in Belfast today. We laughed as they greeted us with welcome to Belfast, and felt super sketchy when we had to admit that 1. We aren't even students at queens and 2. We have been here for 5 and a half months! But, it went over well at least. haha.

I am working on getting placements set, possibly picking up an afternoon at a place called The Vine Centre, which is a community centre run by The Presbyterian Church of Ireland, like PC(USA). The partnership, who all my schools work and community work is for, will be ending as a program at the end of March. I will take a fortnight of holiday (EGYPT!) then come back to an empty office. In order to prepare for this, we are looking at my schedule, making sure it is full and getting me involved in some new things. Tomorrow morning I will start work with a mothers and toddlers group that is going to be using our church hall. I am excited to be around some wee ones. It should be fun.

I am showing my youth Invisible Children on Sunday at The Point. I am so excited. You know I love the film and the movement and it feeds my passion for all things Africa. I am excited to share this with them, to see their reactions, and to be able to discuss the hard realities of life with them. At our lock-in I sat with some of my youth, going through a wee tin of random question cards I have. One of the questions is 'if you could switch bodies with someone for a day and them with you, would you do it and who would you swap with?' One of my youth blew be away with her answer. She said she would like to swap with a poor person, or someone in a 3rd world country so she could see how hard it was on them and could really understand what she could do to help and the impact she could have. WOW. The questions range in depth, but she took that one deeper than I have ever heard. Most people say a person of the opposite sex, just so they could experience it (also a valid answer!) I was baffled and super impressed. So, I am excited to see where this film takes us discussion wise and the depth that my youth can reach.

Speaking of IC and Uganda, things aren't going well over there. The peace talks are falling apart and the LRA are again threatening attacks on the north. Please keep all these people, the children, and the peace talk on your heart and in your prayers. For updates, check allafrica.com (the link is on the sidebar...)

On a happier note, I made a new website for my youth!! check it out: http://thepointfm.wetpaint.com

alright, enough for tonight! xoxo

Lock-in love

Good morning! Yes, at 3:30 I am saying good morning! Last night was the Lock-in with The Point, so after coming home and sleeping for 5 hours, I finally feel like it should be morning! We had a great night, out at Balleylinny Presbyterian Church, about 20 miles outside of Belfast. It was great fellowship time, with a few fun activities and a little discussion about church. The insight I gained about my youths opinions of church and its importance were very interesting. The fact that they go to church to see friends and because they are made to go reminded me of my past at UPC. When I asked if they often thought about God or faith or anything religious while at church they said only during the hymns and when I ask them questions in bible class (Sunday school). As I thought about it, I was very much like them when I was their age. It wasn't until much later that I really began to claim my faith. The honesty and openness to talk about it was wonderful. One of my youth told me that in the past he would have always said what the volunteer wanted to hear (I am the 7th PC(USA) volunteer at Fortwilliam) but the he could be honest with me, which was pretty sweet.

We made stained glass windows using shredded crayons and wax paper. They didn't turn out quite how I remembered them from my kindergarten days, but it was still fun.

We also had a biscuit castle building contest, where each team was given a pack of custard cremes (my favorite biscuits) and 4 toothpicks to build a creation. The results were judged and the winning team was awarded a gallon of milk to drink with their biscuits. The flag was the winning factor...


The highlight of the night for me was our flossing party. The previous week at the point we had talked about flossing and how none of my youth do, so I made sure to bring mine with me last night. We all headed to the toilet to brush our teeth and floss our teeth. As I handed each person a string of floss, they looked at me unsure of what to do with it. All but one of them had never flossed before, NEVER. I was so shocked! I taught them how to wind it around their fingers and how to use their thumbs and pointer fingers to get it between their teethies. It was hysterical and definitely a bonding experience! And maybe, just maybe, they will continue to floss. check out the picture, it was great!


Overall, a great night- minus the zero sleep even though we technically went to bed at 3:15.
On a different note, I am officially going to Egypt on 27 March! I am so so excited! The getting there will be fun, I'll take a bus at 1am to Dublin to get my 6.30 flight to Paris then on to Cairo. Will be an adventure. My friend in Spain, Bryce, will fly in about 20min before me. sweet!

I hope you are well. I know the weather is a little wintery in NC and around there... be glad you're not just getting coldness... and those of you in Africa, Peru, and other tropical places... enjoy the sweating!

Livin the Busy Life...

The gaps in my blogging, while apparently annoying to my sister, are always refreshing for me because they mean that I have been busy, a wonderful thing!

The week started well, with office time to get caught up after the new year! On Tuesday at Newington Day Centre I had a rough morning. I am a little bit embarrassed to share this with you, though I am slowly accepting that I didn't do anything wrong. I was asked to walk one of the members to the barber shop at the top of the road. PJ and I have become buddies, so I was okay with the task. He walks with a cane, but its fairly mobile. As we walked up the street we chatted about the weather and our holidays. I lightly held his arm as we crossed the street and warned him of the step up of the curb. My warning came a little too late, as his foot slipped and he began to stumble.

His feet got tangled and he began to fall, unfortunately not towards me. I panicked but had enough sense not to yank his arm out of the socket or bruise him trying to brake his fall. Somehow, with the support of my arm he gracefully lowered himself to the ground and thank goodness was not hurt. My immediate reaction was 'OH GOD what have I done!' A Taxi driver who does lifts for the day centre and new PJ stopped to help along with another woman. I was mortified, blaming myself. I was thankful for their help, as I couldn't lift him alone and he was in the middle of the road. The saint of a taximan drove us across the Antrim Rd (the big road) as to prevent us from having to manage traffic. I was very thankful. Once we got into the Barber shop, I inspected PJ's hands to make sure he hadn't hurt them when he caught himself and asked if he felt okay. He apologized profusely for scaring me, to which I assured him I was just glad he was okay.

The whole experience seemed very foreign to me. I have very little experience working with or even interacting with elderly people. I have enjoyed my time at the day centre very much, but it is still work that I have to admit is not the most comfortable. Not only do I sometimes not know what to say to the members, when things go wrong I feel the very least qualified to help. Rosemary and the Newington staff assured me that I did the perfect thing and had I not helped the fall go more gently it could have been way worse. I am still working to find the value in that experience. I am thinking so far that theres something about 'you can't really control everything' in there somewhere. Or maybe just prep for when M&D get old!

I attended my first F&M Badminton Club meeting last Wednesday night and had a great time learning how to play with some of the ladies of the church and one lonely youth of mine.

Last Friday was the Castle High School production of Oliver that I have been working on since early October. I spent more time at school than I have in a long time, with extra rehearsals and the full cast missing all classes Thursday and Friday. I helped back stage during both performances, getting the stage set, making sure mics were on and off when they needed to be, and helping to wipe away nervous tears and cure the stage fright. The evening performance was attended by 320 friends and family members to the cast, a whole lot more than we expected. It went beautifully. I have a video of 'Consider Yourself' from the dress rehearsal, that I think I can get up on webshots, so check for that! Here are some pictures, I am working on getting more of the ones I took on the school camera...


Afterwards, I was glad it was over. There was high stress all day Friday with extra rehearsals between the shows (the first one didn't go all that well in Act 2) and cranky, cheeky students. Plus, we were all exhausted. No one should ever be at school from 9 to 9.30. I am unsure now what I will pick up at Castle, but I am hoping to keep up my involvement there. I finally feel like I know the kids and they are finally beginning to respond to me well. There is a girls football club (soccer) that I am thinking of working with, partly because the teacher who leads it and I have gotten to know each other. There is also some talk of some one-to-one tutoring. So we shall see.

Saturday night I was invited by my friend Michelle, whom I know through Newington, to celebrate her 21st birthday with her and her friends. Her mom and sister were surprising her with a limo, dinner, and dancing. I have never been in a limo and am excited to be able to say my first limo ride was here in Belfast! Living the simple life, huh? haha. I had never met any of Michelle's friends nor family, so it was a great time getting to meet them. I am so thankful to have a friend like Michelle in Belfast- someone pretty independent from my job(s) here since she no longer volunteers at Newington because she is in Uni. She has been great to me, always checking in on me and inviting me along to things. I told her she will have to take advantage of my house in the States and come over for her first trip to America, so I can repay her kindness.

The Birthday girl!


Some new friends


Gettin into the Limo!

So that's me. I also have one final bit of super exciting news. Although it's not booked, I think I can be safe to say that I will be spending 27 March - 10 April exploring EGYPT with my dear friend Bryce who is teaching in Spain! I am so, so excited! But wondering if I can bring an Easter basket along with me... haha. More details to come soon, I have kept you long enough!
xoxo

Excitement Everywhere

I don't know if it was the perfect blue skies today, the laughing with my youth, or talking to the bride-to-be but nothing could get me down right now. I don't even know where to start, but I guess the bride-to-be kinda stumped you so I will gladly start there. My wonderful friends Sam and Chad got engaged last Friday night, at the Biltmore Estate (He did well...). The wedding will be August 25th at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill. Thank goodness I will be home, or I would cry my eyes out. So many holidays and random nights have passed that I have asked Sam if he had done it, and we would laugh and complain that he was taking forever. While I am sad to be away during such an exciting time, I am so very excited for them! And I bought a new dress, ironically on the same day that he proposed. I had nothing to wear it for, but now I do... insane how that worked out.

On another super fun note, I spent Wednesday and Thursday of this week in Dublin- as you know if you keep up with my blog : ) The city was great, the weather was eh, but we made the best of it! There are millions of pictures on my webshots, but here are some of my favorite and some highlights of what we did.

The Guinness Storehouse was probably my most favorite thing in Dublin. I am not a huge fan of Guinness, but it is decent. The Storehouse was just really cool. I even took a little stash of Irish Barley for my scrapbook : ) We saw everything I had wanted to see, including the Molly Malone statue who is exposing more than half of her breasts. Pretty risque Dublin, pretty risque. The sites were pretty, the rain was annoying, and the Euro has an amazing exchange rate compared to the pound! We had amazing kebabs in the Temple Bar area and found good craic at the pub with Dave, Alison's friend and his friends. Overall, wonderful trip. I would never want to live in Dublin (too big) but fun holiday spot.

Today, I spent the afternoon with my youth, playing mini-golf and hanging out at McDonald's. We had a great time, and I came in second. We played girls team vs boys and the girls won. Overall it was great, I love hanging out with those kids. We took some pretty funny pictures so I will share some with you, of course.


Well, things are good. No complaints from me, other then I super miss my friends at home. And I have set the date for my return, August 15th. That will be an interesting day! Until then, Miss and love you all. xoxo

A New Year...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It has been a while since I posted, really my only excuse is pure laziness and enjoying time off. We had an eventful New Years weekend: We ran out of oil Saturday morning. So, it was a cold one to say the least. As I sit writing this I am waiting for the new oil supply that came about two hours ago to work its magic and reheat the water so I can have my first shower since Saturday - yes, nasty I know, but I don't do cold water when its 30 outside and there is no heat. If I were somewhere tropical it would be different. And you thought I was high maintenance and had to shower HA. or maybe its the need for hot water that makes me high maintenance? lol. Church sent me home Sunday with a space heater that has kept our living room sufficiently warm. I also learned the pure joy that a hot water bottle in you bed at night (or for naps) can bring. Really, it wasn't all that bad at all. And I was more than happy to stay in my PJs and not shower : ) YUM! haha.

All the New Years events put on by Belfast City Council were cancelled due to 80-100 mph winds, rain, and overall just nasty weather. So sadly, no fireworks : ( The famous Hogmany in Edinburgh was also cancelled! I was hopin to go, so I am glad I didn't! I spent New Years (an evening that really could pass with no notice in my opinion) with a couple from Lauren's church and their friends. We had amazing chicken curry and more Indian starters, played who wants to be a millionaire, which was fairly British so I was very little help, and watched the new year celebrations in countries across the east. I even saw fireworks in the Philippines where my fellow YAV friends are serving! But it was a fun evening, and nice to be in a warm house! While we didn't practice this tradition, we learned of a Northern Irish new years tradition, of opening the front and back door at the stroke of midnight to let the new year in and to let the old year out the back door. I did this today when the oil man ran the big hose through the house. haha. The best part about their house was this cool clock, seen below! I was so stoked to watch it change! (even if the year didn't....)


On top of no heat or hot water, we have a houseful of people. Lauren's boyfriend and Alison's three friends are in town. Yes, it has been an adventure! We are all heading to Dublin tomorrow for an overnight trip. I am really looking forward to our trip, plus, Alison studied abroad there so she knows her way around like a champ! We have a built in tour-guide! I am sure I will post about our trip this weekend.

Until then, I hope you are all well, and have survived the Holidays!!