a week in the life of an irish...me.

so it's been a week since i left america and traveled to ireland.

WOW!! a lot has happened...

and i wanted to kinda journal my daily events. now, this may be a bit boring to you, but part of this is so i won't forget.

friday, june 26.
finally arrive in dublin at 10:03 am. only 2+ hours late. yuck.
i was greeted by my sweet flatmates: christy, paige, and alex. lovely, lovely women.
lunch was at 7wonders...it was a bagel joint with delicious lattes too!
i had my first meeting with alan (pastor of abbey- the church i am working with) and marc (works at abbey)
apparently the usual friday night routine is dinner at alan and ruth's (pastor and wife)

it was a great, exhausting first day, and at this point i felt God continuing to give me peace about being here. in dublin.

saturday, june 27.
LOTS of coffee. i wanted to try and trick myself into not having jetlag. sometimes it would work, sometimes not.
we (roommates and i) journeyed to greystones, just a DART away. we ate at the happy pear and had delicious pita with feta and butternut ginger soup. yum!
then a visit to the irish sea. brrr.

sunday, june 28.
church at abbey, with tea and coffee afterward. wish america would pick up on this great tradition.
lunch at an asian buffet with new friends.
later in the afternoon was my first experience at penny's. you might be thinking j.c. penny's but you my friend are completely wrong...this is one of the greatest things since sliced bread and maybe even bread itself. okay. that's a little too far. anyways, it's like a forever 21 but bigger, better, and cheaper. yeah, that good.
on my way to penny's was my first run-in with a northern irish man, raurie (pronounced rory). he was delightful, heading to the ac/dc concert. think he wanted me to go with him. i didn't.

monday, june 29.
this was my first experience with the hardwicke community centre. LOVE these children!
and this night i tasted my first guinness in ireland and grand central (pub). two words. oh yeah.



before the guinness and actually the need for the guinness, we all went ice-skating. i know. ice-skating in ireland. big mistake. it was cured by a guinness.

tuesday, june 30.
i wrote a little blog about this earlier, but we went to the st. georges community centre to work with the kids. my oh my! i was stabbed with a straight pin, cussed at, and pretty sure i received some death threats. oh well i didn't die. we would be back on thursday.
this night i went to george of jungle's home and meet some of his friends. you would think great! irish boys...key word here is "boys." i have yet to meet any boys that are my age or remotely resemble being old enough to flirt with. grand.
after hanging with george and young ones...we headed to the palace bar. which by far has been one of my favorite places so far. it's a tiny little pub with traditional irish music. this was my favorite part. the gentleman who was singing was brillant, and on our way out...he was like, "who told you could leave?" love him. he was older. but it would be pushing it with a 60 year old.

wednesday, july 1.
my sweet flatmate, alex's bday. she turned 21 today.



donking can to visit and work with the kids at hardwicke. he taught us all hip-hop. he was unbelievable!!



alex found this great flyer about free salsa lessons...we were like, why not? free salsa lessons in ireland. duh. so we went. i learned some serious moves, and l.o.v.e.d. our salsa instructor. he was from cuba. muy deliciouso.
after some dancing we headed to a friend's cook-out and then off to grab a drink for alex's bday. the night became a monumental experience in that alex received her first kiss by a irishman. okay well an old irishman. not exactly or really at all what she wanted. he tricked her. sneaky little leprechaun...

thursday, july 2.
back to the centre where i feared for my life. st. georges. praying on the way for God to do something big today with these kids. we realized art was out, and high energy activities was the only way to go.
well God showed up. the kids were excited to be there and not near as terrible as before. i think they might have enjoyed themselves. we will see next week for sure.
on thursdays, we help out at "the lighthouse." which is a soup kitchen for homeless. i was able to serve dinner to several dulin folks who were in need of some food and lots of smiles. my heart definitely grew from this experience. why am i not doing this in nashville? i was pretty convicted. but God used my smile and love to give a little hope for the night.

okay one week down...i'll fill in the rest later.