As to what I am doing here exactly? Well they've placed me and the rest of my team in more administrative roles than anything else. Yet as for myself personally my role is now working with a new online auction charity/fund raising initive they are trying out here. Which to put it simply I'll be gathering stuff up from surrounding community, cataloging and sorting it, and then selling it on eBay. Around ten percent of the proceeds from the shop will go toward a local charity and the rest will go to The Greenhill YMCA which is where I work. It may not seem like much of a job but it will most likely be the majority of what I am doing, that and volunteering at a local youth outreach program that’s run out of a local church. Both the funding and the extra youth work in the community are good to have and will be a great benefit in the community.

Things are wonderful here in Northern Ireland. I am enjoying my time here very much. It has been a great last few weeks and the weather is beautiful gray windy skies and we live right on the ocean like I can cross the street and I am on the seashore and we live at the foot of this huge hill/mountain thing and just oh it's amazing. I am living in a house with people from all over from Germany, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Peru, not to mention the awesome Northern Ireland people here.

I have my own room which is the really tiny and its on the kind of the third floor of the house we are staying in, it is literally almost just a whole in the wall but I like it a lot. It has a skylight which amazes me so. I am thankful that I am here and not going to have to be doing tons of outdoor stuff sure maybe some but I can handle some. Oh and I have stopped drinking soda and am trying to eat healthy. An example of this is that I haven't had a Pepsi or coke since I've been here which is impressive that and I went out and bought myself a lot of fish to eat in the next couple weeks so yeah, that and I am letting my hair grow and will not cut it till I return if at all. I love the weather and the people here so much its amazing that and its that pleasant mixture of like its not quite a town/suburb but its also definitely not a city by any stretch of the imagination. I have however started drinking tea with sugar and milk which sounds gross but eh it has to be at least somewhat better for me than soda but yeah I don't go crazy with it like I used to do with soda.

I am officially in love with Northern Ireland and enjoying my time here, I mean this is a pretty amazing place. I mean the weather is just fantastical it’s not that awful kind of weather where its all sunny and bright and all these hippy nature people singing and running through fields, and its not like super hot or anything. Nope instead its not one constant rain shower don't get me wrong but like its cold and kind just bright but not too bright and not all the time. I love how windy it is and the overcast clouds that go over the mountains and the mist and the lapping of the shore I hear from my window, and the fresh cool breeze. YAY

Here is an except from my diary a few days ago ~”The days and nights here are cold here, and its only getting worse what with the poor if any heating we have in the house. Yet I am enjoying it here immensely the people here both at the house where I am living/working and in the country in general have been nothing but friendly to me. I love living by the seaside, I look out across the water and become simply awed by the vastness of it all and the cold rough beauty of it. It reminds me a bit of that feeling you get when kind of wade into a pool when your dry, the feeling of a brief shock that courses through your veins when you step in a cold shower. The weather here and scenery is kind of like that, the only definitive word I can use to describe it is brisk. Its not freezing, but its not cool its yeah....brisk. I hate to admit it but atmosphere is important to me, not into the superficial hey look at me I'm going to be a irritated cause the setting isn't right type way but more in the appreciative way. Like the appreciation you have for an old book that you read when you were little to fall asleep. You may not enjoy it as much now that your older or it may not be your style anymore but you appreciate it.”

This past weekend we went to a gathering of several of the YMCA's in Ireland. It was of sorts a conference/seminar and was held in the city/town of Swords which is right outside Dublin. It was held at The Emmaus Center which is a retreat center/school/ conference center that focuses on spirituality of a Christian persuasion. We traveled there on Friday and spent the night and most of the day Saturday there. It was really interesting to hear some of the speakers, and get an an idea of what the YMCA is over here. The YMCA here in Ireland isn't like it is over in the states which has more of this glorified gym feel to it. The YMCA over here as more of a global vision of helping people physically, socially, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. I know the YMCA isn't a "Christian" organization in the strictest sense of the word, having sadly drifted away from that part of its origin especially in the states. Yet here its, oh I don't know different somehow like it would seem the majority of the people who attended the conference who are the staff at the various Y's were for the most part Christian or at least encouraged spirituality.

I chose to go to two of the workshops they had at this conference/seminar that were on YMCA international, and one called Youth Texting. The YMCA international was more administrative and long term planning focused, yet still it was enjoyable to get an idea of how different Y's branch out internationally. The workshop on youth Texting I thought was fascinating. As it would turn out one of the Y's here in Ireland is trying to incorporate text messages to get information out to the community both adult and youth alike and its coming back with positive good results. People in the community can sign up to get info on anything from local events to advice on basic health issues. I can't explain it all here but suffice it to say the whole concept of youth texting sounds like it could be a powerful communication tool/information medium.

Oh and of course its also quite wonderful the fact that this is a dog place, yup you heard me this is a place filled with people walking there dogs and four legged friends on the beach, in the park, around town and in the forest. Its quite splendid seeing animals all the time it makes me cheery.

One sour thing is the fact that there is a horrid exchange rate here. Its like two dollars to a pound or petty close to that so yeah what for them is eh just a pound or two for bread becomes for us like a 5 or 6 bucks for a loaf of bread. So yeah the exchange rate is bad but oh well

Oh and I shaved today so yeah that was annoying but overall for the best, I've been wanting to for awhile but yeah today was the day. Oh hush I know I'm lazy there is nothing wrong with waiting to shave till I get razors in a care package rather than going out and getting them on my own. Yet still I look much better now that the awful little start of a mustache and beard are gone, there’s nothing wrong with having either but yeah its just not my thing you know. It's kind of like the fact sticking my head in a big vat of jello and yodeling isn't my thing.

An interesting fact I found out recently while checking out things to do over at the local tourist information centre is that C.S Lewis used to live moderately close to here. I mean one of the greatest literary Christian minds of the last century lived, a couple of miles from here for his child hood and early adult life. Not to mention the fact that the land of Narnia in his famous book series The Chronicles of Naria, looked like to him and was inspired by the views and landscape of the very hill/mountain range we are on. While we are on the topic of books, words, and literature I thought I should note I am currently reading in what little spare time I have a book of short stories by H.P Lovecraft, and the book of Luke. Another interesting literary bit I was intrigued by was the fact that Brahm Stoker who wrote the horror classic Dracula was Irish and they have a whole museum and such here dedicated to him.
This next thing is a view of our house and the town from the beach.

My absent-mindedness and lack of organizational skills have created a really interesting dilemma a few times while I'm here. I'm one for misplacing or losing small objects so I have a tendency to leave my one lone key for the house I'm living in here up in my room which is on the third floor. Now normally this wouldn't be that much of an issue had this happened at home where I live cause yeah I live in one of those communities back in Ohio where yeah you can leave every door in your house open let alone unlocked and no one will mess with it. Yet sadly that is not the case everywhere even here on the Emerald Isle, and yeah to put it shortly the house is always locked. Now normally this isn't a problem cause someone will always let you in and like I said earlier there is almost always someone doing something here in the house. Yet several times already I have been locked out of the house with no way in, now normally this is the point that would defeat some people but being the resourceful little individual that I am, I've had to remain persistent. I’m one for always somehow managing to get inside the house.

So yeah once I managed to find the back door hallway open just on the bottom and by reaching my hand under it I could pull it open, I've also found a screwdriver on the back porch one time and managed to take a lock off the back door. Sadly though as clever as that last one was I realized it had two locks and wasn't locked by the one I managed to take off and open, oh and I also managed to climb the fire escape and by chance the girls bathroom window was barely open in one of those tiny little windows, and it was just big enough for me too shimmy into, thankfully I did it right and didn’t end up with my foot in the toilet or breaking anything.

My New Room

It was hard being away from home for Thanksgiving and I think it will be the same for if not worse for Christmas when it finally rolls around. It was a bit odd realizing your whole family is together on the other side of the world without you yet still carrying on. I find it amusing that as humans its hard for us to get the point or remember that the world really doesn't revolve around us friends and family with or without us will still go on. Sure things might not be exactly the same without you or I there but there will still be things that go on and the world won't stop spinning. So yeah my point basically is just that Thanksgiving was a hard time. Thankfully though it wasn't all bad, we as a RAD team managed to get the majority of people living in the house along with ourselves to make our own thanksgiving/big meal. It makes me smile when I think about it how we managed to all sit down together as a house and share a meal together. Sitting together for a meal has never been something my family at home has been good at so it was oddly heartwarming when we did everything for Thanksgiving this year. Our team and the house had everything from a turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked apple dumplings for desert, rolls, and several other traditional and non traditional dishes. We even put candles up on the table and had a center piece…it was great. And for Halloween which is much bigger, we grabbed the couches in the staff uh living room and literally carried them across the street in the dark to watch the fireworks display, so overall even that managed to be a fun night here.