hi again,
yesterday and today have actually been good. Stan, JBU's campus pastor, is here so we are acting like we actually do things.... Yesterday we went to Saul church, which is where St. Patrick preached his first sermon (apparently). It was really neat. It is an Anglican/Episcopalian church and the dean gave us communion. I will put pictures up in the next day or two (i have to steal them from Jacob).
Then Stan was taking everyone out to eat and I didn't feel like going.. sometimes you just need to be alone.. so i stayed home and finished a paper and listened to music.

Today we had class and then traveled to Armagh which is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. This is the town which has the protestant and catholic church facing eachother on opposing hillsides. Turns out it really isn't that dramatic... but still an interesting place. You will really just need to wait until I get pictures up for me to explain what they looked like... i won't do them justice. The Catholic church was really incredible and HUGE.
For you Catholic friends of mine- The Pope just elected 23 new cardinals this morning. And I definitely saw one. When we went to visit the church they were holding mass for all of the Catholic students in the town. We were able to sit in and someone came and told us that the bishop of Armagh, and the primate of Ireland, was just elected Cardinal and was going to be making an appearance at the end of mass. However, we were not going to be staying til the end. I just happened to go to the restroom and had to walk around the outside of the church. There were a few news reporters and I glanced over and all of a sudden there he was.... walking into the church. Sean Baptist Brady is his name.. you can look him up. It was really incredible to randomly see him. :)
Then we went to the first ever public library in Ireland. Basically there were a lot of really old books. If you know me at all, you will know that this intersted me very little. I saw a first edition of gullivers travels and held a lot of books published in the 1500s... eh.
Then on to the Protestant church. It was older, but not near as beautiful as the Catholic church. Pictures will come soon enough...

Then we went to Pizza Hut. Seriously, I love pizza hut... or just american food. It's SO good. :)



There have been a few hard days, but we are in the very middle so i guess it's expected. Tomorrow we go to Belfast and in a week I will be 21 and in Italy. weird.


I posted pictures... please enjoy