your moms a shamrock....

Hello again from the Emerald Isle! The past weekend has been a pretty dang exciting one, with Red Nose Day, St. Paddy's Day, snow, and a fun unexpected house guest. I spend Red Nose Day (Friday) working on counting and organizing the money we raised with the Point. There was a ton of change to be sorted and counted. Today, I finished it up and we have a grand total of 346.55 from our dance marathon and spare change collection. The church took up a Red Nose Day offering and I will be given that total next Sunday and the Fortwilliam shops will also be donating to our cause. Pretty stinkin awesome. I will get the final total we have raised eventually.

Everyone told me leading up to St. Patrick's Day that the celebration was bigger in the states and not to expect too much. My response was simply- oh we will make it BIG over here! And we did. In the morning I went to meet up with Krisie with Lauren and her mom for the parade. Wearing green is really hard when its freezing and none of your outerwear is green and you sent all but one set of scarves and gloves and hats home. So, I wore green knickers to make up for my lack of really visible green, a green shirt and a new green belt from Primark. We watched the parade, which was good. Alison was in it with her kids from Mornington Community Project. haha. It was really funny to see her in it. But really good because being American I felt decently like a tourist as I heard other American voices around and so having a big connection to the parade was nice. Most of the people in the parade were dressed with some kinda of snake thing since St. Patrick is known for driving all the snakes out of Ireland (one of my favorite things about this place- snake free!) Here are some pictures so you get a feel : )

My flag with a shamrock on it!

A snake man

We couldn't really tell if that was St. Paddy or Jesus. haha

A kinda scary St. Patrick....

An Irish band playing bagpipes.


After the parade, Krisie and I headed to what else, get a celebratory drink at Kelly's Cellars. It was packed out mad, and it was 1.15. People were covered in crazy tri-colour wigs, as seen below

Me and Mighty, the mascot at Kelly's Cellars

and all kinds of crazy costume Irish things. It was great. We had a round and somewhere in the middle of enjoying our cider and the turf fire, decided it would be a good idea to do a pub crawl and see how many different pubs we could have a St. Paddy's drink in. GRAND. We moved from Kelly's to Maddens where we met Miriam, a California girl who has been traveling the world since 4 December. We chatted, enjoyed our second pint, loved on some FREE Irish stew, and were joined by Lauren and her mom, Alison and her two friends Kate and Annie. Annie became the only non-American on our pub crawl, she is German. We then headed to the cathedral Quarter for another row of bars, The John Hewitt where they finally had shamrocks in their Guinness

It might not be green beer, but it works for me! We then hit the Duke of York, The Spaniard, and The Northern Whig. After retrieving Miriam's luggage and decided she would not continue her travels but stay in Belfast with us, we had a dinner break back here at Thorndale, then met back at Kelly's to keep going. We went to White's Tavern where we randomly found one of Alison's co-workers and friends. So we ended up there for the night. It was a brilliant day, great craic, and tied with Key West for my best St. Patrick's Day!

Decked out, even the socks!

A pub Crawl Stop!

Now. For those of you who think I am a complete heathen and as a YAV should be learning more than just the best pubs in Belfast on St. Patrick's Day, let me share with you this. On Sunday, I gave a children's address about St. Patrick's and after living here I can proudly and confidently say I know more about St. Patrick than I ever would have or ever cared to. And while St. Patrick's Day might mean an obscene amount of drinking for the Irish, it also is religious too. The oh so famous shamrock is a symbol for the trinity originating from St. Patrick. When he returned to Ireland to convert them to Christianity and the people couldn't understand the whole concept of father, spirit, son 3 in 1, he looked down, found a shamrock and used it to show what he meant (the three leaves but all in one leaf). Pretty sweet huh. Betcha didn't know that's why the shamrock is so cool. And forget four leaf clovers... they aren't the real deal. Its all about the trinity. (The Americans are the ones who created the whole 4 leaf clover luck thing... silly us...) So there ya go.

Sunday we had the wildest weather I have ever seen in my life, even topping the shenanigan Boone can hit ya with. We had snow! ( FINALLY) and sun, in about 30 minute intervals. The bluest skies I have ever seen in Belfast then swirling insane snow you could barely see through. And this cycle went on ALLLL day. The sun naturally melted all the snow, but not enough that I still got pelted with three wee snowballs on my run from the car to my front door by Daniel and Christopher. Crazy boys. But all in good fun. Miriam and I ate cheesecake (which was more like fudge with a cookie crust) and hung out all day. It was great. Having a random house guest was good fun. I got to hear about her travels all over South East Asia, India, and Europe and ask some advice for the Hunters Do Europe trip in August. (If you haven't heard Anne and Mackie -my sisters...if you don't know that you shouldn't be reading this...- and I will be traveling from Amsterdam down to Rome for a fortnight in August...the big time!) Very good!

Overall life is good. This time next week I will be hot and loving life in Egypt with my childhood, high school, and current friend Bryce! OH how I can't wait! So prayers for safe travel to come!

over and out. lib

live for March Madness

it is 4:54. 3 NCAA games are underway. I am currently listening to the Davidson Maryland game and watching small glimpses when the video actually decides to work. This is better than nothing. Davidson is doing much better than I expected, its always a bad sign when the first game to start already sets your bracket wrong. We shall see.

I spent the morning cleaning out and organizing the youth club art and craft cupboard with Maura down at the Macrory site. If there is anything I have truly learned about myself this year, it is that I adore order, plans, and organization. The cupboard was a disaster, but taking everything out fed my love for cleaning and organizing. There is still more to be done, but I know that now that the actual supplies we have are somewhat orderly, the crafts the kids can go on Saturday nights will be better. So that is a plus.

I also helped my photography club students enter their photographs into a local competition today. It was pretty stressful as the computers were not good to us and we lacked the skills with photoshops to really do what we needed. I was very frustrated, but the boys have given up too much time and been annoyed enough of their own with club getting cancelled that I wasn't leaving until I'd submitted all their entries. We will see how they do, but I hope at least one of them wins something or gets an honourable mention. Some of the pictures were really good.

Tomorrow is Red Nose Day! woo hoo!! The local shops at Fortwilliam will be giving The Point a percentage of their profits from tomorrow, with the leading man Stanley the Butcher. I admit I have not been as good at followingthroughing with this initiative as I could have. But we will see how it goes. Even if they give us .50p that is okay with me.

So, fun enough, I got an email from the denominational curriculum coordinator for the PCUSA. One of the pieces she is working on is all-church summer which is a multi-generational curriculum of 13 sessions geared for summer use in 2008.

In this summer curriculum each session includes a mission connection, and they have decided that this year all mission connections will be YAV's. And I have been chosen as one of the YAV's to be featured! Fun huh? I have spent some time reflecting and thinking about why I became a YAV and why in Belfast to send Judy, and I guess I should share that with you, in case you do not know.

I decided to be a YAV for many reasons. first, I wanted to travel. But I didn't just want to go here and there for two weeks at a time. I wanted to live somewhere for a decent period of time, where I really got to know and be a part of the culture. I wanted to serve, I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others, and change the lives of others. I wanted to see the bigger Church, to see what PC(USA) was doing around the world. I wanted to prolong graduate school, to gain experience working with different people and in different roles, and to boost up my resume. I wanted an adventure.

I don't know if I really chose Northern Ireland or it chose me. I say this because I entered into the program determined to go to Africa, either Kenya or Ghana. I had thought about Belfast as a back up, but was pretty set. My interview with Doug Baker for Northern Ireland went fabulously. I liked the questions he asked and the conversational tone of it all. My interest was peaked by what I heard, namely I was attracted to the program because of the nature of the work: youth work and church work. But I will still stuck on Africa. I left the decision up to the Site Coordinators to decided and here I am. I guess Doug that my interview went well too : ) I have worked at a summer camp for 3 summers and adore middle and high schoolers. I wanted to continue to work in that age group. I loved my youth group days growing up and have always had an interest in working as an advisor for a youth group. Here, I am not just an advisor, I am the youth director. Northern Ireland was also of interest to me because of the Troubles and the situation here. I knew nothing of the Troubles before I interviewed for this placement. Now, I have learned so much and still can't confidently say that I understand it all.

So I am pretty stoked to be part of a curriculum. haha. Summer 2008, you should all take part in this summer program! Not just to hear about me, but to hear about all the other YAV's experiences across the world and US. What a good way to get the word about YAV out and to wee kids at that. Very good idea PC(USA).

Alright, BC and Texas Tech are intense! and poor Stanford, how did they get into the tourney??
Enjoy your comfy couch access to CBS this March for me!
xoxo

A love/hate relationship with life....

1. Love: HECK YA for a UNC ACC championship! State did you really think you'd get em twice in a season and in a ACC tourney game at that. NAH.
2. Love: Laughing at Dooks #6 seed, although they are in an easy bracket. Loving UNC #1 even though they are in the hardest. They will pull it out.
3. Hate: Missing March Madness like woah. Do I really wanna miss two more years of this?
4. Mixed: Speaking of two more years, I officially have my Peace Corp interview on Tuesday 13 March. Woah Nelly.
5. Hate: Catching up with old friends is super, yet makes me a wee bit sad. Oh how different our paths have been. and how massive my phone bill will be : )

xoxo

the past two weeks, all at once.....

I was told recently that my blog has been lacking. And I know if Anne were not in Haiti she would be complaining too. And looking back over February, I have not shared much with you. So, prepare yourself for a massive update now. so make your tea, grab a biscuit, and cozy in for a good read.

For youth group, just before Ash Wednesday we talked about Lent and Pancake Tuesday and of course Mardi Gras. I thought it would be fun to make king cake cupcakes and let the kids ice them with green, yellow, and purple icing in pure Mardi Gras fashion. Our oven was on the Fritz, so I went up to bake with Rachel McCormick. I didn't know that the idea of measuring things in cups and thus the silver common kitchen measuring cups. So we converted my recipe to grams- or tried- and made a disaster of a pan of cupcakes. Rachel made so much fun of them, this is her with my failed recipe that tasted like granola bars! haha.

We had a great time trying many recipes to finally get good buns. I put a button in one instead of a plastic baby and didn't tell the kids the tradition of the king cake until Michael found the button. Good times.


On Fat Tuesday, Shroud Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday as it is called here, I made pancakes for Lauren and I for dinner. And they didn't have pancake mix so I had to make them from scratch. I was pretty dang proud that they turned out amazingly tasty!


On the 1st of March I went to Dunmurry, a small town just outside of Belfast, to celebrate my friend Lynn's Birthday. Lynn is a fellow Boys Brigade officer who has become a very dear friend of mine. This was her 31st Birthday, and the first time she had EVER been out to celebrate her birthday. Needless to say, we had to make it a good one. I have never seen someone cry with joy so many times in one night, it was a great sight. The DJ was a cross dresser named Tina likes Tantric (sorry for my failure to censure). He was absolutely hysterical dancing and singing. We had a wonderful night dancing to silly 80's songs and avoiding the dodgy soldiers who were out at the bar looking to pull. It was a brilliant night out, with about 20 of us out to celebrate with Lynn. And I even went Eurostyle in my leggings! Shocking- I know! Of course, I have pictures!


Mom, Drew and Nana, Troy, and Kaitlin Morelli were just here this past week for a visit. We had a great time seeing Belfast and a few other places in Nireland including my favorite the North Coast. One of the Highlights of the North Coast trip was the Carrick-a-reed rope bridge. In November when Anne and Mom and I went, the bridge was down for the winter. I was excited this trip to get to cross it. As well, Nana, who is not afraid of anything, almost wet herself while crossing it. Her face was priceless but I am not cruel enough to have taken a picture. Once she was safely across Troy and I had a grand time jumping on it to see just how much it would bounce. Somewhere in the background I heard mom yelling at me to stop haha. We crammed into my room and living room, but had a good time with great meals and fun bus trips. Drew is now taller than me, and it was a shock when I opened my door to find him struggling with jet lag, yet a good 4 inches above me. We had two wonderful pub dinners, one at the Posh Potthouse and another at Whites Tavern which has been in operation since 1630 and had a turf fire. Pretty good view of Belfast. Nana took lots of pictures with signs to send to her hubby so he would know she was thinking of him. I will only post the somewhat appropriate ones. haha. I also took Kaitlin out to Kelly's and the Duke one night to meet friends and see some traditional music played by friends of mine. I completely forgot that at home she was underage and had never ordered from a bar before, so I got her to make the orders. She tried a variety of Irish beers, including Guinness, Harp, Tennets, Magners Irish Cider, Strongbow Scottish Cider, and Bushmills Whiskey since we had visted the town that afternoon. Pretty successful night out! (Don't worry, she had half pints!) Here are some pictures from their visit, and I will hopefully post more on Webshots soon!

Drew with his nasty dessert at the Potthouse, looked like pate

Nana and one of her crazy pictures!!

Mom and Drew at the Causeway

Drew and I on the Carrick-a-Reed Rope Bridge

On the walk to the Tesco on the day they arrived

Drew pretending to fall over the edge

Mom and Nana messing around on the beach
HUNTERS!
The Coast

MORELLI'S at Nana's in Derry! haha.



Last Night we had a Red Nose Day Dance Marathon. We were intending to dance or at least remain standing from 8pm-8am. It ended up that most of my youth had sport today so they couldn't stay all night. After about 1, when there were only 4 youth left, it was really hard to stay motivated. Then one got sick and we all decided it would be better for us to just go home at 3.30am. While the dance marathon part wasn't as successful as it could have been, we did raise a lot more money than we were shooting for, with at least £260 already counted and more to go. It was a fun evening while it lasted, and I am still waiting to see what all will unfold for our group for next Friday on the actual Red Nose Day and the whole total amount of money we raise!

Tonight, one of our long lost boys on the street came over to tell us that some kids had drawn with permanent marker all over our front wall around our garden. We cleaned most of it off with nail polish remover, but the black parts just smeared a lot and now look awful. Looks like we have some painting in our future, although part of me feels that painting it is just asking them to do it again. Oh the delinquency of Belfast.

On a more day-to-day note, the photography club that I work with between St. Patrick's college and Castle High School has been better. Club is often cancelled at Castle, and so I have been going up to St. Pats and just meeting with that half of the club instead. The students will be submitting their photos into an energy saving competition at our next meeting on Monday and then we will start a transformation project. My youth at The Point have been doing a movie series, using clips of films to talk about big issues, like death and heaven, which has led to lots of theological topics and big discussion. It has been really great. Mom came while she was over and said that they have come a long way since November. I think they are very much adjusted to having a program each night and something very structured planned for them, unlike when I first arrived and they were used to just anything. Very good.

I have also been taking the children's sermon for the past 5 Sundays or so and will continue indefinitely. It has been pretty funny, ranging from 2 kids to 10. My favorite so far was my Johan story, which I will do part two tomorrow. I made a big whale out of poster board and the kids had to throw their paper dolls on straws into the whales mouth. It went over pretty well, I was pretty proud of it.

**Other cool fun fact! Daylight savings time is tonight in the US but not until the 25th here. So for two weeks or so I will only be 4 hours ahead, Crazy huh?!?

Alright, I hope that has caught you up and fulfilled your need for updates from Belfast. And that should have been enough reading to keep you off my case for a while : ) I will try to be better in the next two weeks before Egypt. And I am sure when I return from that trip I will have LOTS to tell!
Take care of you!
OH and GOOOOOOOOOO HEELS! I live for March Madness!!