Funny Little Things

 This is Kinsley and I at our Halloween Party planned by Levi, one of the students here. We decided to be Faith and Learning because we enjoy both and it also happens to be Taylor University's motto. We also had little to work with here people. It was such a funny night, we had people dresses up as Mitt Romney all the way to Bob Marley. We carved pumpkins and Faith and Learning went head-to-head in a bobbing for apples competition. Of course, faith prevailed.

 This building is where we eat all of our meals, watch the news, play games, read books in the library, watch movies, and just hang out Red Room.

This is the Red Room. It is called that even though the only thing that is red are the curtains. This is main hang out place. It gets so crowded and I think everyone has a love/hate relationship with it.

Northern Ireland - A Divided Land

Northern Ireland is actually not a part of the country of Ireland. It is a colony of the United Kingdom with Great Britain and Scotland. Our bus driver, Brian King, grew up during the "troubles" in the North. Walls were built, gates were shut, neighbors violent against neighbors. The troubles were the Irish Protestant Loyalists fighting against their own Irish Catholic Nationalist brothers. Our first day we spent in Derry, a city that is divided in half by a peace wall. On one side there is the Union Jack flying and painted on every sidewalk and on the other is the tricolored Irish Republic flag. Murals and memorial gardens cover the city. Both sides still blaming the other under the surface. "The walls will come down only when the people want them to come down." The violence has decreased but the underlying tension was evident. 

Our second day was more of a run around free day. We went to the castle you see below us and also to a World Heritage Sight- The Giant's Causeway. The third day were in Belfast and heard three different sides to the divided Ireland. We got tours from our bus driver (a nationalist who was involved in the IRA-Irish Republican Army), a man named Noel (a loyalist who was in prison for 16 years for being involved in murders of leading IRA members), and from a man from America who has lived in Northern Ireland for about 30 years.

This was my favorite trip out of all of them. I loved the place we stayed and the tours and the Counties up North were very thought provoking. The stats in the North right now are 52% Unionist, meaning they want to stay united with Great Britain, and 48% Nationalist, wanting to become one nation with Ireland. The issue is still very real and prevalent today.

 The Giants Causeway

 Down Hill Hostel by the beach

 The living room in the hostel where we played games and whatnot.

 A mural in Derry- a city divided in half by Unionists and Nationalists.

Lots of pictures, places, and beautiful people.

 Okay everyone, I know it's been a while since I've put some pictures up. These past few weeks have been busy with traveling, ER visits, and the Rousselow-Winquists. The picture above is from our Parent's week trip to Glendalough, a monastic city in County Wicklow. There are thousand year old ruins of churches and monastic buildings, a round tower, and great hikes to the Upper and Lower lakes.

This is the stunning Japanese Gardens from Powerscourt. This was a great trip because of the famous desert from Avoca. Oh, and it was great because my parents were there too :)

This is Powerscourt Estate, not too shabby eh?

On our last free day my parents and I made it up to Howth (a town about half an hour north of Dublin) to eat lunch and see this lighthouse. It rained, but what else is new.

One big happy family at Blarney Castle: Zach, Baili, and I.

So, the Rousselow-Winquists are our Art As Experience teachers. They are the cutest, most strange married couple in the whole world. They were here for the week so we endured many lectures and presented two paintings at the National Gallery and the Hugh Lane Gallery. This pictures is from a day trip to Nowth. These are passage tombs.

So many buildings on the Rousselow-Winquists architectural tour..

Sorry about the lack of updates, I've had a busy and interesting past few weeks! A few weeks ago I got to spend time with my wonderful parents and the same day they left the group of us left for Cork and Killarney (Southern Ireland). On the way back I started having a sharp pain in my lower right side that wouldn't go away so I ended up in the hospital (classic) and stayed for two nights while the doctors did blood work and tests and whatnot. They decided it was most likely a large cyst that burst because of the liquid and blood in my stomach that showed up on the ultra sound. 

ANYWAY, I'll be uploading pictures of my adventures, excluding the hospital, very soon. Less than 6 weeks left here in Ireland. Miss and love all of you. 

Nicole

Venice

Day 1: Arrived at Camping Jolly. Many jokes were made about Camping Jolly and the white mini van that picked us up from the airport, but the Bungalows were a dream. We took the shuttle into Venice and spent the day walking around the streets and looking at shops and whatnot. We ate dinner and had gelato, but not without finding a beautiful alley to sit and look like hobos.

Day 2: We were exhausted from traveling and slept in and had a relaxing afternoon reading by the pool. We went to Venice for dinner and to see San Marco Piazza at night. Venice is stunning at night.

Day 3: When we got into Venice on Sunday we went to a Catholic Italian mass service in an exquisite cathedral on the Grand Canal Street. It was surreal because we couldn't understand what they were saying but the service was so reverent. Afterwards we had nutella crépes and shopped around San Marco Square. The streets were full of designers: Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc. So I basically just drooled and kept walking, don't worry mom and dad. We took a gondola ride though the water streets and the Grand Canal of Venice. It didn't even feel real.

Day 4: Travel went smoothly and I'm back at home in Ireland! Great trip but I'm glad to be back in a bed that doesn't shake when semis go by on the highway!

Fall Break-Venice, Italy

Fall Break Friends

 This is Erin! She's adorable and so fun. But she kept touching the slug because she's weird.

 This is Kinsley and I. She's my roommate and one of my closest friends here. She has a beautiful spirit and is a English Lit major. She reads our room poetry every night before we sleep haha.

These are some of the best guys you'll ever meet and they're going to be our protectors over fall break. This is Charlie and Austin, they are roommates here and just decided they're going to room together back at Taylor.

So all these wonderful people (plus Baili) make up my fall break group! We're headed to the airport at 2:00 AM Friday morning and will be back Monday afternoon. We're staying in Bungalows right outside of Venice. We don't really have a plan except that we'll be attending a Mass service in Venice.

No more news really, just some more pictures from our trip to Galway. The one below is of the view from Sky Road.

The Burren is a huge limestone field that used to be purely limestone with no grass at all, but because the weather has become less harsh some grass has popped up here and there. This is me and my roommate Kinsley, who is precious.

On Sunday we left for a 4 day trip to Galway! My favorite 4 days of the trip so far. Such beautiful

sights, I hope you enjoy the pictures! So many different landscapes in such a small country!

                The Cliffs of Mohre, better known as The Cliffs of Insanity from Princess Bride!

                                   A panoramic view of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.

                                           Dash and I at the Burren - A limestone field.

 Baili and I on top of the cliffs at the Aran Islands after a bike ride. Don't worry, Tammy wouldn't let us get any closer than 6 feet without army crawling.

This is my friend Baili, we went to Dublin on my birthday and got our noses pierced together! It was so much fun and we've had a great weekend at week so far. We have an Art As Experience paper due tomorrow so we're writing our paper (with some distractions) at the Beach House, a local pub.

I was really worried about my birthday being so soon after we got here, I was afraid that I wouldn't have good friends to celebrate with but that is definitely not the case! I have been blessed with all these wonderful people to experience this journey with. This is a picture of my bed and some of the goodies they surprised me with. I miss you all from home and wish you could be experiencing this with me! God has given me a peace about where I am right now and the banner that hangs in my room here says "Love Your Ground" which I encourage you all to do as well!

 Earlier this week on Monday we left for Kilkenny. This is the hotel that we stayed at for the night. Well, the girls stayed there and the boys stayed at a hostel.

 One of the round towers outside of a church in Kilkenny - Beautiful Celtic influence.

My favorite place I've seen so far: Hooke Lighthouse in County Wexford. My camera died right after I took this picture so it is the only one I have. No pictures would do this area justice. To the right of the lighthouse is a rocky coast where Brian (our bus driver) grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. This is the oldest lighthouse still in operation and is about 800 years old.

 After our scavenger hunt in Dublin we stopped by the once a year Tall Ship Festival (sail boats). Throughout this past week there have been races by boats from all over the world!

Part of my scavenger hunt team (Katie to my left and Mikayla to my right) on the Haypenny bridge. We ran all over Dublin today looking for sights such as the biggest coffee shop, Bewleys. Our team won the scavenger hunt!

Today was another beautiful day, with a little rain of course. We had Foundations of Christian Thought and all shared our testimonies today. This took about 3 hours and was an amazing and emotional time. I felt like it was a good 10 steps forward in building relationships with all these wonderful people. My heart was broken hearing their stories. I went to a coffee shop, Costa, with Kinsley today and it was wonderful. Before dinner every night we watch the Irish news then after we watched The 13th Warrior and wrote a paper comparing it to Beowulf.

Yesterday was an amazing day. Each person in the group shared their testimony and it was very emotional but extremely inspiring. The picture above is from the hike to Bray. It was about a 3 mile hike to the next town over. The train in the picture is the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport) which we took back to Greystones. Tomorrow we will be traveling to Glendalough, hiking, and seeing the Monastic City.

BFF Kinsley.

The flight and everything today went smoothly. We arrived in Dublin around 8:00 AM and then took a bus to Greystones. We got the chance to unpack and eat lunch then took a walking tour of Greystones. I spent this evening after dinner at the ocean with a small group and talked. It has been great getting to know everyone here. We joke about it as "extreme speed friending" but we really have and will continue to become a family. Tomorrow starts class here and we'll have a little more free time to explore Greystones. I'm not sure what the wifi situation/schedule will be from here on out but I'll be posting some pictures hopefully a few times a week. Goodnight from Ireland!

The BEAUTIFUL coast right in our back yard. Some of the guys went swimming even though the water is freezing. Today we took a walking tour of Greystones and I already found some great thrift stores..of course. It's a cute town with lots of coffee shops!

These are my roommates for the next 3 months, Kinsley and Kaitlyn! The building behind us is where our rooms are, the place is beautiful!

These were my roommates for the week we were at Taylor, Amanda and Lauren. Such sweet girls! I had a great time with them this week. We all ended up in different rooms in Ireland, but I'm looking forward to getting closer to them throughout these next 3 months. My roommates for the next few months will be Kinsley Koons and Kaitlyn Jameson, so excited!

Hey everybody! I created this blog because I decided to deactivate my Facebook profile for the next 3 months. I'll be posting pictures and stories throughout the trip to keep everyone updated. This is a picture of most of the group playing Ultimate at Taylor!