The past four days...

I'm just going to tell you about the main highlights of each of the past four days, but based on the rest of my posts, you know that the main highlights might turn into a pretty long read. Oh well!

Sunday's Highlight: First Carrickfergus Presbyterian Church
Kari went on her homestay all weekend and didn't get back until Sunday afternoon, so we contacted our friend Andrew (a high-school teacher involved in leading the church's youth programs and worship team) and arranged for him to give us a lift to the Sunday evening service. Bethany joined us as well. Basically, I LOVE this church! The night service was held in the church's fellowship hall and was much more laid back than the morning service. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, the teenage youth group led the service. The worship team led us in a bunch of contemporary and upbeat songs and the church's old youth director was invited back to give the sermon that night. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time I was in that church! Everyone we encountered made welcomed us with the love of Christ. I am so thankful God brought us to this church family! After service, we met a lot of the college-age church members. What a wonderful group of people! We all went to Papa's Restaurant in Carrick for a cup of tea/coffee and some dessert. They told us all about the places to go and things to do in Northern Ireland and even offered to be our tour guides. We headed back to campus with several new contacts in our phones and the excitement of potential frienships with real-life Irish people!!! A minor side-note: we watched part of the Superbowl when we got back to campus. It was a major letdown. They didn't show any commercials...none whatsoever. And, they had some British guy announcing the game...so weird!

Monday's Highlight: Talking to Mom, Dad and Laura about their visit to Ireland!
Monday morning I had Management of Change from 9:15-12:30. That afternoon I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when I talked to my roomie, Laura and found out she had booked her flight to come visit me in Ireland over Easter break!! We're going to have oh-so-much fun!!! Later that night I talked to mom and dad and we started making plans for their trip. We're going to tour all of Ireland, starting in Dublin and driving to Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Londonderry and Belfast. I can't wait to see some of my favorite people and to tour the country that is my home away from home. Perhaps the best part of this little arrangement is that it's all going on Dad's credit card statement, not mine! Thanks dad!! After talking to mom and dad, I met up with the girls at the student union for a Kopperburg Mixed Fruit Ale before heading to bed at 1:30.

Tuesday's Highlights: Mail, Booking Flights and Bible Study
I got a late start Tuesday morning, basically getting up in time to shower, dress, eat breakfast, spend a bit of time in the Word and then head to Managing Behavior at 1:15. After class, I went with Kari, Baz and Amanda to the Accommodation Office to check our mail for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised to find two letters with my name on them. Thanks Jenny's Mom and Elsa! When I got back to our apartment, Emily and I booked our flights for our weekend in Austria February 20-23! They were quite a bit more expensive than we had hoped they would be, and Ryan Air is a pain in the butt, but it's going to be worth it, especially since that's our only major expense as we'll be staying with Bernie. The last part of Tuesday I spent with Kari, Amanda and some awesome people at the small group Bible study we joined through Christian Union. We were there for nearly three hours and had a blast! Two of the girls, Jo and Nicki, who are obviously really good friends, were in a super giggly mood and were absolutely hilarious. They reminded me so much of the way Laura and I act pretty much all the time...oh Laura, I miss you! We played a goofy ice-breaker game and then started the Bible study portion of the night. We're going to be working our way through the book of Ephesians throughout the semester. The Bible study will be every other Tuesday night; on the other Tuesdays we're going to do various outreach or service activities. This is another great opportunity for me to meet Irish people and see what life is really like here, so I'm excited. When the Bible study was finished, we stayed for another hour for Q & A time. Basically, they all asked us random questions about life in America. They couldn't believe that we could consider a six hour drive from Minneapolis to Canada a relatively short drive, or that I would drive nine hours to get to school. They were also shocked to hear how much snow Kari and I live with in Wisconsin and how cold is sometimes get - remember those days of -30 back in January? The thing they found most peculiar though is that we can choose between driving automatic or manual cars, and that most people drive automatic. Nearly all of them have never driven an automatic, and if they had, they found it extremely difficult. Another sidenote: I found out on Tuesday that GCC won't give me credit for one of the classes I'm currently enrolled in, so I spent a good portion of Tuesday and Wednesday trying to sort out that mess...yuck!

Wednesday's Highlights: Library, Planning Trip to Italy, and Dinner at Elsie's
I never would have thought I'd consider going to the library a highlight, but it's true. The library, or Learning Resource Centre as they call it here, is really nice. There's hundreds of public computers, lots of tables and desks where you can plug in your personal computer, and best of all there is a vast collection of books. That collection includes multiple copies of the textbooks needed for classes, which means I'm going to make it through a semester of college without spending a pence on books! I was so excited to discover that because I had no idea what I was going to do with my books at the end of the semester if I had to buy them. With the class schedule the way it is here, it wasn't until I went to the library yesterday and checked out some of the texts that I felt like I was actually here for school. After the trip to the library, I met with my studies adviser to figure out which class to take in place of the one I'll be dropping. Then I came back to my apartment and Kari, Amanda, Kara and I, having booked our flights to Italy at some point this week, decided which hostels to stay at in Florence and Rome. We'll be going to Italy for the second half of our Easter Break and meeting up with Stephanie Carroll while we're there!!!! Elsie picked me up at 5 pm and brought me to her house for dinner - spaghetti bolognese. We watched some TV after dinner and then her son, Matthew, brought me back to campus. I felt like I was coming down with a cold, so I went to bed soon after getting back.

Thursday's Highlights: Snow and Sorting out Classes
I know Thursday isn't over yet, so there may be more to talk about, but as of now, the highlight of the day has been what the Irish consider snow. I woke up this morning to a very wet snow/rain mixture falling from the sky. The snow was sticking to the ground, but turning to slush pretty much immediately. There wasn't even enough snow to measure on the ground. Ireland is no Wisconsin though, and this "snow" resulted in a 2.5 hour commute by train from Carrickfergus to Jordanstown (it normally takes ten minutes) and only three people coming to the human resources management class I decided to check out today. It made for a good laugh! I just found out that I will be able to join and get GCC credit for a services marketing class that meets on Mondays. I'm much more excited about this class than HR Management or Business Strategy, especially since I'm considering going into event planning - a service that will require marketing, and because I will only have class on Mondays and Tuesdays - five day weekends!!

Alright, this post got really long again. I'm going to go order some Chinese food and then head to Christian Union tonight. As always, I love to hear from all of you at home and at Grove City, so drop me an email anytime, even if it's just a couple sentences about your day! Miss you all...