The fair was interesting.  Tim, our director, told us we were going to a game fair, so we mostly assumed he meant we’d be going to some football and hurling games.  Wrong.  Game = country sports, like hunting, fishing, and archery.

We were greeted by the Ulster-Scots who gave us some freshly-made soda bread and a nice little concert involving accordions.  Then we meandered around the fair looking at all of the interesting traditional items they had for sale like hand-carved walking sticks, guns and gun accessories, and lots of l

ittle animals.  I did get to hold a ferret and a barn owl – THAT was really neat – and I had the chance to rekindle my love of archery by shooting a few arrows.  I also had the chance to meet one of the most attractive traditional drummers in Scotland.  The fair was actually really interesting despite the mou

nted creatures.  In Ireland it’s not illegal to be near a bald eagle, so they had a handler showing one off and letting people hold it.  The other birds of prey were really interesting.

Some professional falconers did a demonstration with their birds.  One of the hawks decided to fly around and sit right on top of Tim’s head.  He hates birds.  Naturally, the falconer invited Tim into the demonstration ring to do some demonstrations.  Tim was allowed to pick a friend to help out and chose the lone male in our group, Ryan.  Ryan is already the butt of every joke, but this was the best one yet.  Tim and Ryan watched as the hawk flew between smaller and smaller openings.   Everything from between their legs to between a loose-leaf-sized opening between their hands.  It was fantastic.

After some more meandering, introducing all of my fellow Americans to curry chips, and contemplating running out of there with a baby ferret, I hopped on the bus with everyone else and we went over to the lake Hillsborough Lake and played around in the old fort there.  The layers of history in Northern Ireland are amazing.  This medieval fort was actually built on top of where an even older barricaded farm house, I believe, and you can see the trench inside the fort which would have surrounded the house or been used as an underground escape tunnel.  Super cool.

My friend Andrea and I had the good fortune of running into an eighty-year-old local named Michelle.  We chatted it up with her in the local grocery store for at least twenty minutes.  She told us all about her life and her children and her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren.  I loved it.  I can’t wait to be a grandma.  I’m going to stop every young person I see and tell them about how wonderful my grandbabies are.  Anyways, after our chat with Michelle, Andrea and I tried to make the ATM work, to no avail, and Michelle stopped by to drop some chocolate she had bought for us into Andrea’s purse and thanked us for talking with her.  She was so cute.  And tonight she prayed for us on her Rosary before bed haha

Our group decided we wanted to go out tonight since we were back early and get to sleep in a little tomorrow, but the town we’re staying in is so small that literally nothing is open on Sunday, except the gas station which closed at 10pm.  So, instead, we stayed in, played Uno, and swapped stories.  It was actually some really great bonding, but not nearly as great as the bonding that happened while we were detained, but great nonetheless.

So, I remembered to bring my camera today, but I forgot my SD card in my computer.  Please  click here to go to my Flickr photostream and enjoy all of my pictures from yesterday.

(the internet connection here isn’t great, so I don’t know how often I’ll be able to upload pictures)

my detainment slip

Comments    Life, Travel    

If the rest of this trip is anything like the last 24 hours, it will be the most eventful two and a half months of my life.

Yesterday morning, I realized the Obama’s were in town and that Barak decided to take a day trip to Louisiana.  What this meant for me was that the highway between my house and the airport would be completely blocked off at an undisclosed time.  Naturally, it happened while I was on my way to the airport, so my mom and I took a super secret shortcut and luckily made it to my flight to Newark, NJ on time.

This flight was supposed to take me to Newark where I would connect to a flight to Belfast, and I only had twenty minutes between the two to run to the next gate.  The Newark flight was delayed by forty-five minutes while I was sitting at the gate, so I already knew I’d miss the flight to Belfast.  Then, while we were sitting on the tarmac, Obama landed.  Our pilot came on and said we would be delayed another forty-five minutes, which turned out not to be true, and we took off soon after.

As we finally stepped off the plane in New Jersey, the PA system shouted, “Final boarding call for Belfast.”  I booked it, and so did a few other girls who I realized were in the program with me.  We made it just in time to get on to our last flight.

One movie and three hours of sleep later, I finally touched down in Belfast.  The green fields were a pleasant welcome home, reminiscent of my last summer in Conamara.  When we walked up to customs though, we were given a much less pleasant greeting.  Yes, my groupmates and I were detained for the first time in our lives.  It was actually kind of nice though because it gave us a chance to bond, and our program director, Tim Campbell, was able to get us into the UK.  Apparently there’s a very new law that says you need work visas even if you’re volunteering.

After we were rescued, we went to our little cottages, dropped off our things, and bused over to the St. Patrick Center in Downpatrick.  It’s such a beautiful building.  We toured around, came back to the house for a showers, naps, and grocery shopping, and then we headed back to the St. Patrick Center for the Peace Garden blessing and  a nice barbeque with other members of the Friends of St. Patrick and some of the people we’ll be working with for the next two weeks.  There were a lot of politicians and other important Northern Irish people present.  We had the chance to schmooze and meet a lot of interesting folks.  I actually spoke in Gaelic with a few people.  That was soooo intimidating!  But I think I did well.

I’ll be volunteering at a bunscoil (a Gaelic immersion school for gradeschoolers) an then with another Gaelic-speaking group.  Hopefully the kids at the bunscoil don’t put my skills to shame.

Tomorrow we’ll be going to some sort of fair that Tim said involves ferrets.  I don’t know how I feel about that.

I’ll post pictures tomorrow (my time) :]

Bedtime Stories « AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com 01/12/2010

Sleep tight.

YouTube – Emiliana Torrini – Jungle Drum

So, I just realized that I leave for Europe on the 28th, not the 31st. So… three less days of packing//getting ready. Oh well.

Watch out, Europe! I’m on my way

This semester, I was accepted into two different summer programs in Ireland: Northern Ireland Young Ambassadors and Irish Language in An Cheathrú Rua.

I have a month between the two, and I’ve decided to take that month to see all of my European friends, immerse myself in new cultures, and roam strange new places. I intend to grow personally and document my entire trip with photos.

Subscribe to this blog to get my updates

Happy Mother’s Day to all the TamaMommies and real moms out there :]

YouTube – I’m Your Tamagotchi Dance

My marketing class group is doing a project on reviving Tamagotchis, and this “celebrity endoresement” was one of our ploys.  I took the video we found of Joe Jonas dancing to Single Ladies and laid this Tamagotchi-themed track over it.  The ultimate synching perfection made this one of the best viral videos I’ve ever seen.

Ace is loaded, Gene is irritated, etc – ARTHUR MAGAZINE

LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE