My heart will linger here...

Life has been pretty normal here since my last post. I haven’t travelled at all, other than the short train rides into Belfast. I have been fighting a cold for the past couple weeks – two boxes of Kleenex and countless naps later I think I’m finally starting to get better. Just because life has been normal, doesn’t mean I haven’t been having a ton of fun! Here’s a recap of the past ten days:

Tuesday, March 10:
As if classes couldn’t get easier, I didn’t have my Tuesday Managing Behavior class because he gave us a reading week in order to work on our group projects. This group project consists of a written analysis and a five minute presentation. The written analysis can only be a maximum of 4000 words and every group member must participate in the presentation. There are five people in my group – you do the math. I don’t really recall what all I did during the day Tuesday, but I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with managing behavior.

Tuesday night we had small group outreach at New Mossley Presbyterian Church. This was my first time going since our initial info meeting, so I was really excited to be a part of the prayer walks. After a slight mishap on the drive there (let’s just say Jo, Nicky, Kari and I had no idea how to get there and Paul and Stu didn’t wait for us after we got caught at a red light), we finally made it only to discover that we weren’t going to be doing a prayer walk that night. Instead, we got to participate in the outreach committee’s meeting introducing the theme of their Easter services. The theme is to be forgiveness and it all revolves around a congregation member’s extremely powerful testimony. This woman was abducted and raped when she was seven, she was bullied and abused all throughout secondary school, and she was gang raped when she was fourteen. At age seventeen, she was pregnant with her first child and therefore married the child’s father. This man brutally beat her in the nine years they were married and then left her for another woman, leaving her to raise their two children on their own. A few years later she married another man who turned out to be a murderer, which led to the woman having to be uprooted from her home by the paramilitary police and moved to Mossley. When that second marriage broke up, this woman fell into post-traumatic stress which confined her to a wheelchair. She was in that state for about ten years and nearly almost died from other health complications. But God healed her and brought her into the New Mossley church family and over the past few years she’s been dealing with everything she’s been through and learning to forgive the terrible people in her life and to forgive herself. Hers was one of the most powerful and emotional testimonies I’ve ever heard. I can’t fathom having so much bad stuff happen to one person in one lifetime, and then for her to be able to forgive and to trust again? The most amazing thing is that she’s been able to use what she’s been through and to talk about it with victims of similar tragedies. Only God could have created this master plan. I think we all left with a new perspective on the struggles we’ve gone through.

Wednesday, March 11:
Wednesday night I didn’t go to iCafe like I usually do. Instead, Kari, Bethany and I got dressed up and went to The Box Club with our three friends from church, Leanna, Ruth and Jayne. Thursday is the biggest night at The Box, which is exactly why we decided to go on a Wednesday. None of us are crazy partiers or drinkers, so we all enjoyed the partially empty dance floors and the lack of plastered people spilling drinks on us. It really was a lot of fun going out with these girls! My cold was probably at its worst that night, however, so I was exhausted by about midnight and we decided to call it a night at around 12:45.

Thursday, March 12:
I slept late, did a bit of coursework, took a nap and did a bit more coursework. Thursday evening we had our small group over for dinner so we could plan our participation in an upcoming evening church service at New Mossley. We had spaghetti, Caesar salad and cake – it brought me back to my soccer days and pasta dinners! After dinner we all went to CU together. I was in a daze pretty much the whole time because my cold left me super congested and feeling like I was in a tunnel. As soon as CU was done I came back to my apartment and went to bed.

Friday, March 13:
Friday was more or less the same as Thursday. Other than a group meeting for our Managing Behavior project, I did a whole lot of nothing all day. Amanda, Kari and I were the only girls in our apartments all weekend, so we decided to take advantage of it and spend the night in. We attempted to make chicken penne al fresco for dinner. It turned out a bit soupy but as far as I could tell it still tasted okay, but that’s not saying much considering I haven’t been able to taste any of my food the past ten days because I’m all stuffed up. I made the mistake of drinking a glass of wine after taking some cold medicine only a couple hours before…woops! While we ate we watched a Comic Relief Red Nose Day special on TV and then we put in Big Daddy. Surprisingly, I stayed awake for the whole movie!

Saturday, March 14:
I woke up early enough to catch the 10:12 train into Belfast in order to meet Kari and her friend, Lauren, at St. George’s Market at around 10:30/11. They didn’t actually get there until around 11:30, but I had a great time wandering around. The market is in this hug warehouse. A bunch of vendors have carts set up. There were fresh baked goods, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, fresh fish and meat all for sale. Everything looked so delicious and the food was all so colorful, I just wanted to take pictures of all of it. I also bought myself an apple crisp muffin and a caramel square. Then I found a seat at one of the table and ate them both, while enjoying the live music and some people-watching. When Kari and Lauren arrived we wandered to a few jewelry vendors and met some lovely saleswomen. I took the 1:12 train back so that I could get some coursework done before we went to The Bureau in Whiteabbey Village to watch the Ireland v. Scotland rugby match. I had a blast watching the game there. It was packed full of Irish fans who erupted into cheers every time the Irish scored. The beginning of the game was a bit scary, with the Scottish taking and holding the lead for a while, but in the end, Ireland came out on top. Victory! I can’t wait to watch the next match (which happens to be tomorrow).

Sunday, March 15:
I did coursework all day until leaving for church at 6:30 in the evening. Pastor Cecil gave a great sermon on revival and awakening in the church. It was the first part of his Easter series. After service we went out for a bite to eat at a restaurant in Carrickfergus. There I had my first taste of soda bread – it was fried and served with an egg, bacon and ham on the top. Unhealthy, but mighty tasty! We had some very interesting conversations at the restaurant that night, including Crazy Horse and lots of other political topics. We also talked a lot about our upcoming trip to London. I am so excited to experience the city with our friends from church! We are going to have so much fun!!!

Monday, March 16:
God definitely has a sense of humor. Last week I skipped my Monday morning class. This week I made sure to get up and go, even though my cold was still getting the best of me and I really had no motivation to go. I got there to find the room dark and completely empty. I guess my professor cancelled class when I wasn’t there to hear the announcement. Oh well! I’m not objecting to having the morning off. I went back to my apartment and worked on job application and coursework stuff. That afternoon I had Service Marketing. All the girls went up to the Student Union later that night for the St. Patrick’s Day special, but I decided to stay in and get some work done and then get to bed early because St. Patty’s was going to be a long day!

Tuesday, March 17:
ST. PATRICK’S DAY!!! SEE SEPARATE POST FOR DETAILS.

Wednesday, March 18:
Stu brought us back to campus around 9:15 after spending the night at Sharon’s. I spent the entire day finishing my part of our group project paper, which was unfortunate considering it was actually sunny and warm on Wednesday! At least my desk is right in front of the window, however, and the window faces west. I kept the curtains open and let the sun beat down on me all day. It was so nice! That night all of us went to the special St. Patrick’s iCafe. I ate some delicious Irish stew and hung out for a couple hours and then walked back to campus with Baz and Aine. I went to bed at 11:30 that night because I was so tired from the night before, and I slept until 10 the next morning!

Thursday, March 19:
When I finally got up, I embarked on a mission to get things on my to-do list done! I did two loads of laundry, I finished a couple job applications (thanks for your help Mom!) and I did some coursework. I was so proud of myself. It certainly helps boost your spirits to see the sun shining for the second day in a row! I think spring has definitely arrived in Northern Ireland and I like it!

Last night was absolutely fabulous! I went to CU at 7:45, but left early to go get dressed up and then Kari and her two friends from home, Lauren and Megan, Stu, Sharon and I went to The Box. Like I said before, Thursday is student night at The Box, so drinks are cheap and it was busy. It was pretty crazy at times, and I ended up playing mom to a few of my friends, but I still had lots of fun! Seriously, it was SO MUCH FUN! I can’t wait for another night like that.

Today, Friday, March 20:
Despite the fact that I went to bed at 2:30 this morning, I woke up before my alarm at 8:30. Naturally, I laid there for another hour and then got up to bake some yummy oatmeal muffins (recipe courtesy of Cassie Narbe). Since baking, I’ve just been hanging out in my room, writing this blog and replying to emails. I got a package from Oma and Opa today – yay for peanut butter and peanut clusters and animal crackers! And can you believe it’s sunny for the third day in a row!!! Amazing! Tonight, Amanda, Kara, Emily and I are going to see Duplicity at the Yorkgate Movie House and then I’m going to talk to mom and Jake on skype. I’m looking forward to another uneventful weekend. I have to get serious about coursework because two assignments are due next week and one the week after and we’re going to London this coming weekend!

I’ll leave you with this little poem from the St. Patrick’s Day card Grandma and Grandpa sent me:

There’s no place quite like Ireland, there’s no place quite so green –
Where blue-green sea meets emerald hills, to make a lovely scene,
Where shamrocks poke their sleepy heads through drops of morning dew,
And jade-green leaves dance happily against a sky of blue –
There’s no place quite like Ireland, there’s no place quite so fair,
And many hearts, though far away, will always linger there.