Too sunny to blog

The weather here has been incredible. It finally started to rain again after weeks of sunshine. People say it hasn't been this nice in at least 6 years. We have been very blessed to have our adventures in the sun, and that way we can enjoy the rain when it comes.

It has been a long time since I last blogged. It's just been busy and I'm not incredibly motivated to blog from my phone. It's too much work. Since being in Scotland, we have spent a few days in Dublin, worked at two clubs, and taken a few days off in Belfast too.

Dublin was amazing. It reminds me a lot of Seattle actually; we even ended up staying in the equivalent of International District, so that was homey. We visited the Guinness Storehouse, took a beautiful hike, played in the freezing ocean and navigated across the city to the Kilmainham Gaol (jail) which closed 15 minutes before we arrived. Apparently everything closes early in Europe...who knew? We might go back if we make it into Dublin again.

~Dublin

After that, we headed to Bailieborough, which is in the county of Cavan, in the Republic of Ireland. It was a lovely team, I had so much fun with them. They really love to play games...Some would say too much, but not me. Even at meals we had games we played. Through this team I learned gems of games like "Pass the Snort," "Sad Solemn Day" and "My Cow." Bailieborough was a teeny town in the absolute middle of nowhere. We stayed in the minister's home called the Manse and would run kids programming in the mornings and then teen programming at nights. I played Mission Command in the drama, worked with the Mini Martians (age 4-6), and gave my testimony one night to the teens. I also became a platypus and I'm pretty sure I lost the most forfeits during the week. (Each meal, they play a game that's pretty much no-nose-goes and whoever is last has to complete a forfeit.) I lost three times (slowest reaction speed ever) and had to be a platypus, be Nikki for an evening and and eat something gross. I really enjoyed my time on this team and loved each and every team member.

~Bailieborough

We went immediately from Bailieborough to another team in Orritor & Claggan. This was rough because I loved Bailieborough so much. This was the first time we had to from one full time team to another and I was wrecked. Luckily, the team at Orritor & Claggan was great. I met awesome friends there, played a lot of Signs and the kids were incredibly well behaved. This location was actually in the middle of nowhere, but only about 20 minutes from Cookstown, the retail capital of Mid-Ulster...I'm sure you've heard of it. Not. This was our first week with zero internet access as well so we had only the cows and each other to keep entertained. Orritor and Claggan are actually the names of two different churches, so we stayed in Claggan, ran kid's club in Orritor in the mornings and in the evenings we had the youth come to Claggan. Unfortunately, neither hall had showers, but the local congregations were incredible. They opened their homes to us, and fed us what was probably the best food we've had since coming to Ireland. They were unbelievably welcoming. The kids were fantastic and so fun to talk to. I really enjoyed the time spent there. I worked with the Cheerios (teens) in the morning and the theme was Superheroes of the Faith...so I even got to dress up as Batman. (Unfortunately forgot to get a picture...oops.) The team was grand...especially my section leader Nathan, what a bro. (There you go, bud ;))

~Orritor & Claggan

Basically, we're having an incredible time. Now we are back at Derryvolgie Hall in Belfast for a bit of rest, and our camp at Friendship House in Sandy Row starts on Saturday. Tomorrow, we start going down there during the day, we just don't know what we're doing yet. We have had some adventures during our time off though. We navigated our way to Vineyard Church in Belfast (Fun fact: Marcus Mumford's parents started the Vineyard churches in the UK.), found Belfast Castle and hiked up Cavehill and sped through a tour of Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge on the North Coast. We have seen beautiful sights and had a lot of fun doing so.

While hiking up Cavehill (named after its five caves), we could hear thunder and literally see the rainstorm moving towards us. We decided to keep trekking in the spirit of adventure and are so glad we did because the view at the top was magnificent.

~Belfast Castle & Cavehill

I've learned that tourism on public transit is not an easy task. We decided to take the Goldline Express up and down which means we had just under three hours to see both the Causeway and rope bridge. Those are unfortunately seven miles apart, but I figured out the buses and I thought we could do it. We managed too, but not without speedwalking everything ever. This is tourism on hard mode, but we did it. Feeling accomplished. It was beautiful, a tad rainy, but beautiful nonetheless.

~North Coast: Causeway & Bridge

Too much fun! Three wonderful weeks left before I am home! I will try to do at least one more post before then. Cheers!