So, turns out Ireland isn’t that into free wireless internet… or internet at all really.... So I bought a wireless card for about six American Dollars…. For one hour of Internet. Not that good of a deal… but it’s what is happening.

I will try to best describe what has been going on.

We arrived in Belfast and got stuck in customs because apparently we sound very suspicious for wanting to be in Northern Ireland for 3 months simply to “tour”…. (We aren’t allowed to say we are studying because then we need a student visa) So once we got through and picked up our bags we immediately headed North. We stopped at a restaurant in Ballymena and I realized pretty much immediately that Northern Ireland is definitely in the U.K. Pretty much everything seems English. Nothing much out of the ordinary except that enormous amounts of strange breads and tea (which I still haven’t enjoyed a cup…good thing they have coffee here too).

We moved along to the North Coast to a town called Bushmills (this is the town where I stayed the first 3 nights). The North Coast was definitely as incredible as I had heard it was. Truly amazing scenery and the people were of course welcoming us young Americans. My friend Jeran and I went in search for coffee one night at 6:30 and of course, no place was open. We went into a convenience store to ask if the worker knew if any place would be open. He said no but he could make us a cup. So we went to the back of this store and this man made us coffee. I asked him if he wanted us to bring the cups back tomorrow and he said “why do yuns always want to run off with your coffee, please, stay. Enjoy” They really think Americans are crazy for walking with their coffee.

We got to spend a lot of time by the ocean, which is always great in my book. One of the best things that happened was a man named Ross Wilson came and spoke to us. He is a painter and sculptor. He has the sculpture of C.S. Lewis in Belfast. He was a very simple, but remarkable man. He talked about how when the children seen the sculpture of Lewis and the wardrobe, they truly think they can walk into Narnia. He of course told the story very dramatically and wonderfully.

We then headed to Derry/Londonderry where all of our learning up to this point really applied. Northern Ireland has this incredible history that I of course was oblivious to. This town is where Bloody Sunday happened and we actually got to stand on the spot where it all happened. The man that gave us the tour was one of the “Bogside artists” who paints murals on the buildings of the main road where all the fighting occurred. This side of town (Bogside) is Catholic and they are mostly members of the IRA. Billy (our leaders) grew up in the opposite side where his family fought the IRA and were Protestants. Billy had never been to Bogside for fear of identification. It was very apparent that Billy was still quite offended by many of the Artist’s words regarding the IRA.

Northern Ireland is a fascinating place of extreme diversity. The Northern Coast seems completely happy and lovely. That is because they are all devoted to the Queen and happy to be that way. Many parts are still fighting to be Irish and very much dealing with the “troubles” as they call them, which would be the things most of you remember seeing on the news and such.

Tonight we arrived in Enniskillen and we will be here for 3 days until we finally arrive in Dundrum. I’m beyond excited to be at a home where I can unpack.

Things are going better than can be expected, so no worries. Please email me and I will update more soon. I wrote this very quickly so I’m sure there are mistakes and I’m sure I did not do any of it justice… but at least I wrote.