Wrap Up!

Well, I've officially been back for almost a month, so I should probably wrap up the Ireland portion of this blog. Whether I'll keep going with it remains to be seen.

Ok, so our last day in Galway was spent on another bus tour. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous. We saw Kylemore Abbey, a famine wall (a huge stone wall built by starving Irishmen for a penny per day - because, you know, when people are starving to death, why would you just help them?), and a lot of ruins and medieval tombs. At one of the tombs, I chased down an Irish cow and made friends with it! Ok, maybe that's not true, but I did get super close and got my picture taken with it. In other farm-animal news, I fed a Connemara pony! He was adorable. On our way back to Dublin, we stopped to watch a sunset over Galway Bay, and it was completely awe-inspiring. Absolutely magical. Freezing cold, but magical.

We got back to Dublin on Monday night, and we just had a chill evening at Jacobs Inn and rested up after 2 veeeeery long days. On Tuesday, we just kind of hung out and waited for everyone else to get back from everywhere they went. Some people went to Scotland, some went to London, and one went to Kilkeel to visit friends.

That night, we went out because it was our last night in Ireland! A few of us went back to the Temple Bar, hung out there for a while, and then we spent the rest of the evening at The Quays Bar watching some live music. It was a great last night!

On Wednesday, we got up WAY too early (5am!) and walked to the bus stop, where we caught a bus to the airport. We spent the rest of the day travelling home, and we got back to Minnesota around 8pm. It was a LONG day. It was good to see family again! I'm happy to be back, but I just felt such a profound sense of belonging when I was in Ireland that it's weird to not have that here.

All in all, I'm going back - I just don't know when. My Ireland story isn't over yet, and I hope it never will be! Thank you all for sticking with me through this!

Love,
Amanda

Galway!

Ok, here goes a really fast summary of the last 2 days!

Yesterday was basically a free day. We woke up at Jacobs Inn and then we went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College, which was pretty interesting. In the upstairs of the building that holds the Book of Kells is this gorgeous library with tons of beautiful books and busts of writers and other contributors to society, and it also has a really interesting display of books that have contributed to Ireland’s history. It was really fun to see that and read the same pages that people read hundreds of years ago.

After the Book of Kells, I went to lunch with a couple of people and we had some fun window shopping too. Then we headed back to the hostel and I finished up some homework that needed to be done and we had a really interesting meeting about what we thought the class was about for us. It was a long and intense meeting, but it definitely was needed. After the meeting, we hung out for a while, had some dinner, and then we went out to The Celt (IRA bar again) and listened to some music from the same band that was there the last time we went. They were so fun! Then we went back to the hostel and ended up talking until 3 am…I ended up getting all of 2 hours of sleep, which I’m definitely feeling right now. Oh, wow, I’m surprised I’m still awake! The conversation and the rest of today were totally worth it though.

Today we left for Galway…REALLY early. We caught the bus at 7am…which means we left the hostel at 5:45…in the morning…yyyeeaaaahhhh…and yet, it’s 11:15 and I’m still awake! Woot! So anyways, we got on the bus at 7 and it was Hannah, Tony, Jacque and I. We drove the few hours to the Galway bus station and then got on our tour bus for the day – our driver was Desmond and he was absolutely hilarious. He was probably 75 years old and has been doing that tour for 20 years, and is firmly planted in the “I’m old, I can say what I want” camp. He was telling us the story of the claddagh ring and then he started telling us about how after his tour men often propose to their girlfriends at the Cliffs of Moher with a claddagh ring. Then he told us that if our men propose to us at the Cliffs and we want to say no, we should “run like holy hell” away from the cliffs so they don’t throw us over! He was an interesting character, to say the least. So today we saw a bunch of tomb-like structures, Celtic crosses, rock formations, and all that fun stuff – I took a TON of pictures. We also “saw” the Cliffs of Mohr…by that I mean that we saw an enormous amount of fog in front of the cliffs. Today was not observing weather. It was kind of disappointing, but at the same time I feel like what I’ve already gotten to experience of Ireland has been such a blessing that missing one thing won’t even touch the experience as a whole. I love this place.

So right now we’re in Galway at a hostel. We went out and got some really good pizza once we got back from the tour – it was amazing! Then we went to the oldest pub in Galway (The King’s Head) to listen to some music. There was a band there called “The Elastic Band”, and basically they played covers of American songs and then they played Galway Girl (because let’s face it, what is a night out if you don’t hear that song? LOVE it!). After we heard them, we went back to the hostel and talked for quite a while, and now it’s bedtime. Two hours of sleep won’t cut it tonight!

Love,

Amanda

Sorry about the delay!

1/18/11

We left Belfast and it broke my heart. I really feel connected to that city and to leave it was like leaving part of me behind. At first, leaving was just surreal but once we got on the bus and started driving, the waterworks started. I absolutely love Belfast, and I hope with all my heart I have a chance to spend a lot more time there just taking everything in and tracking down family landmarks. It’s wonderful to have this opportunity, and to study the conflict of my grandma’s home city is such an amazing experience for me. Learning all of this is tearing me apart, because I just feel so powerless to help.

Once we left Belfast, we headed up to Derry/Londonderry, which was really hard. In Derry we took a tour with John McCourt, who was involved in Bloody Sunday as a protester. He was amazing, the way he described everything was really difficult. He started off our tour by walking on one of the city’s walls and telling us a little bit about the history of Derry. Then he told us, “I’m going to show you what 18 minutes is like in the real world”, and then he walked us through every death, every minute of the Bloody Sunday massacre. It was gut wrenching to hear it in such vivid detail; nothing could have prepared me for that. He had pictures that had been taken at the scene while the massacre was going on and in one of the pictures were him and a friend of his from school. Just a minute after the picture was taken, his friend was shot and killed by a British soldier. Every once in a while, he would point to a patch of ground that we were walking over and tell us that someone had died in that very spot. That absolutely ripped my heart out. I found myself taking sides in the conflict even though I really have no stake in it whatsoever. It was so frustrating to stand there and listen to the events of such an atrocity and not be able to do anything to help in the healing of the community. I was (and still am) so torn between knowing that as a Christian I’m called to love everyone, and really wanting to hate the British for what they did. It’s so difficult to let my faith win out in a conflict like that, and hopefully I’ll be able to process some of that and put it into action while we’re at Corrymeela.

After the tour, we went to see the Bogside Artists (a group of 3 men who design and paint murals around the world). The Bogside was the area where the massacre happened, and it’s a really strongly Catholic, republican area. Jon, the artist that we met, told us a little history of the area to supplement John McCourt’s, and then told us about a bunch of the murals in the area. They’re really talented, and the murals they do now are ones that promote peace instead of hate and division. I thought that was a really interesting idea. Apparently the citizens of Derry are really supportive of the murals, and the Bogside Artists are completely funded by the public. The idea of using art as a form of reconciliation was really thought provoking to me because I had never heard of it being used like that before. I guess when it’s an area as divided as Derry/Londonderry, people can use anything and everything to promote reconciliation. I also see how people can use anything to perpetuate the division too, though. There is the peace mural in Derry, and that really got to me, but then there are murals and graffiti all over the place supporting the IRA, and the iconic “You Are Now Entering Free Derry” mural. There is obviously still a lot of hate existing in Derry and there will need to be a lot of healing, and hopefully God will use people like John McCourt and the Bogside Artists to bring about that healing.

After seeing the Bogside, we went to Corrymeela and had a little bit of free time. I ended up watching a few movies with some people and then we just went to bed. It was a really long and emotionally draining day, and I really don’t think I’m recovered from it even now. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from such horrifying imagery, and actually, I don’t know if I should. Some things you just need to know. Today was hard for such a number of reasons, not the least of which is my futile attempt to figure out what, if anything, people can do to make the hate and pain go away, or even just lessen.

1/19/11

Today, we had a lot of discussion. The first session was basically an introduction for all of us where we went around and said what so far has had the biggest impact on us as well as what a good outcome would be from our time here. My answer for the first question was the peace walls. To me, they just embodied such an unspeakable sadness, and I just felt overwhelmed by how much hate and fear and mistrust was built up in this country. As for the second question, my ideal outcome would be to take this experience and somehow apply it to how I use my political science major back home. Hopefully this has given me a decent understanding of seemingly unsolvable conflict and I can take what I learn back home to try to fix conflicts there.

The second session was a discussion of perspective and what shapes our perspective of our situation. We brainstormed about what some of the influencing factors were that informed the perspective of people living in Northern Ireland and came up with a huge list ranging from their physical environment and what they see every day to the way they were raised and what church they go to. It was really interesting to put that much thought into what happens here that perpetuates the conflict. I enjoyed talking about it, but it also kind of put me on edge trying to look at these factors in a way in which I can try to do something about them, which I clearly can’t. It’s so frustrating being here and seeing so much hurt and hate and not being able to do anything about it.

For the third session, Jeremy (our leader for our time at Corrymeela) told us his story of growing up in Northern Ireland. He was born of a mixed marriage (his mom was Catholic, his dad Protestant), and because of his parents’ choice to raise him Protestant he has Catholic family that he still doesn’t know. In his work as a Presbyterian minister, he had the opportunity to meet with 2 of the leaders of the UDA (Ulster Defense Association – a militant unionist group) to talk about why he was open to working with members of the Catholic community as well as the Protestant community. Through those talks, he was able to get the UDA to have talks with the Catholic Church for about 18 months. His story was really intense, and it just proved to me that no matter how much of a lost cause something appears to be, a new or unexpected outcome can always come about. His talk was really uplifting to me because I had just been in such a low state after hearing John talk about Bloody Sunday and seeing the peace walls.

Today was really emotionally heavy, but really refreshing at the same time. I really enjoyed hearing Jeremy speak and I’m so glad we had this opportunity.

1/20/11

Today was so awesome! We went to Giant’s Causeway this morning and it was GORGEOUS. We walked down by the stones and I think I got some pretty good shots (even though I didn’t have my Nikon with me L). It was really awe-inspiring, being so small against those gigantic cliffs, and then the contrast of being so tall after climbing them. It was just completely amazing…and freezing cold! The stones were SO SLIPPERY because there was still frost on the ground. Honestly, I’m surprised there were no injuries! It was really difficult climbing up the Causeway stones, but it was totally worth it. It just made me think about the absolute majesty of creation and the Creator. In a place like that, I really don’t think it’s possible not believe in God. It was absolutely breathtaking; there’s no way any caliber of photographer could capture the feeling of awe you get when you stand there surrounded by these magnificent cliffs, breathe in the ocean air and look at the amazing rock formations that look like they’ve been carved out by some master artist.

After Giant’s Causeway, we came back to Corrymeela and had lunch and a little bit of free time (I took a nap – it was wonderful!). We had another session with Jeremy, only this time it was arts and crafts (yep…I did arts and crafts). The assignment was to create something that represented how the trip so far has impacted us (not open-ended at all, right?). I made a collage that looked like a third-grader could have made it, basically just made up of my concept of the conflict. On one side, there were words that, in my opinion, seemed to embody some of the (very broad) reasons for the conflict. On the other were words that represented what peace and reconciliation would look like, and in the middle there were words that made up reasons why there is a wall between the two sides. After we made our “art”, everyone presented theirs to the class…I’m not a fan of presentations, but it actually went pretty well.

Then we had dinner and hung out for a little bit before a bunch of us went to a little discussion thing about the role of violence in movies…it was interesting. One of the girls there reminded me a lot of a girl that I went to St. Kate’s with…I’ll go ahead and leave it at that, haha! I didn’t contribute much, in an effort to not start something no one would want to see finished.

Now I’m just sitting in the dining room writing this and listening to music. I figured I’d put my time in for the day! I think tonight is probably going to be an early night, it’s only 10 now and it seems like people are winding down. We leave here tomorrow to head back to Dublin with a stop in Belfast (BELFAST!!!!!) for lunch. It will only be like 2 hours, but I’ll take whatever I can get in my soul-city! I love that place more than I can say. Now, I think I’ll have some hot chocolate and read, so I’ll post this all tomorrow when we get to Dublin along with an update for tomorrow!

1/21/11

Today I was shocked speechless by the beauty of an Irish sunset. I was sitting on the bus from Belfast to Dublin, and I looked up from my book out the window and all I saw was absolute majesty in the sky. I looked out the window and was greeted by a riot of color. By the horizon, it was a deep red-orange, and that tinted the horizontal clouds to a color that could almost be described as salmon pink. Between the clouds, I could see the dusky-blue sky, and the trail from an airplane made a discordant line through the clouds. It was breathtakingly beautiful, I couldn’t look away until the sun was fully down. I was thinking after I saw that, “How can a place with sunsets that beautiful have so much hatred and fear?” It breaks my heart every time I think about it. This class has been a huge blessing, but it has also been so painful because I see for the first time in my adult life what horrible things people are capable of doing in cold blood. I love this country, and it’s so hard for me to think of how much hatred can be contained in a place with fewer people than Minnesota. That said, I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world.

Today started off in Corrymeela. We packed up and left at about 10 this morning, and we took a bus to Belfast so we could eat lunch and switch to a bus bound for Dublin. I was able to visit Lavery’s one last time! I’m so excited that I could see that place.

Now you can too! Here's Lavery's:

After Lavery’s, we went to the bus station and headed back to Dublin. It was during that ride that I saw the amazing sunset. Needless to say, my mind didn’t switch out of overdrive until we got back to the hostel. We’re back at Jacobs Inn, where we stayed at the beginning of the trip. We had a little bit of dinner and then a few of us went out to the Temple Bar to hear some music. It would have been good if they hadn’t played Sweet Home Alabama 6 times.

Thinking back on the time at Corrymeela, I’m amazed at how much processing I did. It was a blessing to be able to take that time to think things over. I’m still trying to figure out why I’m here – what am I supposed to be thinking? I’m here to learn about the conflict, but I never expected it to affect me so deeply. Everything I learn goes straight to my heart, and it’s so hard to stay calm when I hear about atrocities being committed and the hate being perpetuated. I love this country and it hurts that there are such deep divisions here.

Hopefully I’ll continue to process throughout this week and after I get home and come to some conclusions about what is actually going on and what my role is supposed to be in it.

I'll post for today once I'm back at the hostel for the night!

Love,
Amanda

1-17-11's post

Today was rough. Very emotional…not fun at all. First, we went to meet with a guy who worked with the WAVE trauma center, which helps victims and families of victims of the Troubles. The man told us the story of how his wife was killed by an IRA bomb while she was working at her father’s fish shop. It was a very intense story, and obviously it had me in tears. He talked about his daughter and how she was only 2 when her mother was killed. The first thing that popped into my mind was “How can they do that to someone with a family?” Then I realized that everyone has a family, even if the only one in the family is God. That was a huge deal for me when I realized it.

After that talk, we went back to our “classroom” for lunch, and then we watched Bloody Sunday. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t cry at all during the movie, but afterwards we got in a circle to pray, basically one giant group hug, and I pretty much lost it. It was rough…I was in tears basically the whole prayer (which seemed to go on forever because I couldn’t stop crying, and then I realized that people probably noticed it, and then I cried harder, and on and on and on…). It was not a great little bit.

After that, we went back to the hostel and had dinner. That was when I realized that tonight was our last night in Belfast…that hit me like a ton of bricks. I LOVE this place, and now I have to leave it. We decided to go out to celebrate our last night in Belfast, and so we started off at Lavery’s (where I DID take pictures, so I’ll have those uploaded as soon as I can!) and then we went to this really fun little pub called Fibber McGee’s – awesome! They had live music, and the band dedicated “Galway Girls” to us Americans(just us girls, not the guys haha). It was so much fun!

Tomorrow we leave to spend the day in Derry, then we go to some place called Corrymeela (I still haven’t figured out what that is, but I do know it doesn’t have wifi – so maybe don’t expect any updates for a few days). After that is our free time, so we’ll see how that goes. I think I’m going with a group to Galway to see the Cliffs of Mohr and then Connemara because I hear they’re both absolutely gorgeous. That’s a 2 day tour, and then I’m not sure what we’ll spend the last day doing – I’ll keep you posted as I get wifi!

Love,

Amanda

Another free day, kind of

Today was really laid back. We started off by going to church. We split off into groups of three and went to all different churches - my group went to Windsor Baptist, which is right down the road from our hostel. It was pretty good, but the pace of the service caught me by surprise...it was so slow! It was definitely no Eagle Brook. After that, we went back to the hostel and picked up some more people and went out to lunch. It was this really cute French-style cafe, only they had Irish food. Mixed messages, but it was still good.

After that, a couple of us went over to the Botanic Gardens and the conservatory there - pictures will be added later, it's way too late to do that now - I should probably be sleeping right now! The conservatory was so pretty, I can tell why Grandma liked that and Como so much.

Then we went back to the hostel where I helped make an apple pie for one of the professors' birthday (even though it's not until August...I'm still not sure why we did that). I rule at peeling and cutting apples with a dull knife, as it turns out. After that was done, a couple other people and I (Sarah, Trevor and Neil) got ice cream at Maud's (YES, they have an ice cream shop named Maud's here - woot!) and then headed over to Lavery's to watch the first half of a soccer game before we had to meet up with the rest of the class. We all discussed our different church experiences, expectations, etc. for a while, and then we split up again for the night. Me and the group that watched the soccer game went back to Lavery's to watch the Jets/Patriots game (I bet on the Jets...and won!). Now, we're all back at the hostel and pretty much everyone is asleep now, so I guess I should be too.

I'll write more tomorrow...apparently it's supposed to be a pretty intense day, I didn't hear why though. We shall see. It's also our last day in Belfast unless we come back here on our free days, so I'll probably cry...again. I swear, Ireland/Northern Ireland makes me emotional (at least, that's what I'm going to blame it on!). So, more later, including pictures from the conservatory :)

Love,
Amanda

Free time!

Today was really fun, though it wasn't really what I expected it to be. This morning I woke up apparently much earlier than I needed to, and so I just hung out and did some homework and listened to music. When I found some other people who were awake enough to go out, we headed over to St. George's Market, which was really fun. There were a lot of antiques places, food stands, etc. It was basically a really big flea market (as if I'd know what a flea market was like! Haha). There, I found a present for Mom and Dad from one of the antiques guys :) It's awesome, even though I'm pretty sure we already have them.

After the market, we went shopping! We headed over to Victoria Square and looked around at some adorable little shops, got some clothes and gifts for people (I may have to buy more luggage for all my souvenirs...whoops!). It was really fun.

Then we went to lunch at this ADORABLE little cafe called Maggie May's. It was SO GOOD. I got what's called a 'full fry' which is an egg over easy, a pancake (AMAZING), sausage, bacon, potato bread, soda bread, some mushrooms and half a tomato. I couldn't finish it, because WOW that's a lot of food, but what I did have was SO GOOD. Yum. If those pancakes were all I could eat for the rest of time, I'd be fine with it.

Later a few of us went out. We started off at Lavery's for dinner, then we hopped around to a couple different pubs to see what was happening, and we ended up at this one pub called Bar Twelve, which was hilarious. Cougar city! It was so funny. There was a lot of Abba music going on there.

After Bar Twelve, we went back to the hostel, where we just talked for a while. All in all, a good day. The one thing I didn't get to do that I really wanted to do was to see the Titanic dry docks. I was really looking forward to that, but it was raining and apparently a mile and a half walk, so no one else wanted to go. I'll just have to come back again to see it! I could see Ireland being my vacation spot of choice for the next, say, 8 decades or so.

I think it's bed time, since it's almost 4 am here and I have church in the morning! Hoo boy.

Love,
Amanda

Long Day

Today was so long! And it wasn't even the fun kind where you're out doing stuff and interacting with people. All we did for most of the day was listen to people talk. They were relatively interesting, and they talked about different organizations in Northern Ireland dedicated to integrating communities and bringing reconciliation to the people, but if I had to sit still another 10 minutes my brain would have imploded. It was so weird, because normally I like lectures, but apparently not today.

After lectures, me and a few other girls went SHOPPING! The mall we were at was SO amazing. There were no doors to get into the mall, there was just kind of a dead end type thing at the end of the street where a roof started, and if you walked under the roof all of a sudden you were in the mall! Awesome. It was probably not as big as the Mall of America, but it was definitely cooler looking. We had a good time, needless to say!

After the mall, we went back to the hostel where we got a group together to go out for the night. It ended up being me, 4 other girls, and 1 of the guys (poor Ben!), and we just kind of wandered until we found a pub that looked interesting. We ended up at The Basement which had a really great atmosphere and was just really fun. There was a band there, and they were awesome. I finally decided that I loved them when they played "Friday I'm in Love" by The Cure...LOVE that song! AND it was in an Irish accent...absolutely wonderful.

Anywho, tomorrow we have the day off from learning (finally!) and we're free to just roam around the Belfast area. I'm not positive what I'll be doing yet, but I'll keep you posted!

Love,
Amanda