The long road home

Wow! I can't believe I've been home in Minnesota for 3 days. Quite a whirlwind.

My mom and I didn't have internet the last couple days of our trip, but it wouldn't have mattered much anyway since we packed our days full of exploring.

After we left Bunratty on Tuesday, we drove through Cashel, visited the "Rock of Cashel", and eventually ended up in the town of Kilkenny. Kilkenny is, in my opinion, a perfect sized town to visit and/or live in or close to. It was small enough to become familiar with quickly, but large enough to be able to find new quirks about it. Twas the right size town where you may walk out on the streets and know a few faces, or you may not happen to run into anyone that day. During our stay, we visited the Kilkenny castle, which was strange as it was COMPLETELY finished and decorated with similar pieces to what would have been there in its day. I suppose the only castles I've toured in Ireland are ruins, so I wasn't really expecting something so grand. Anyway, as my mother said it was interesting to think that people had such luxurious living environments on the East side of the island after seeing so many wee thatched roof cottages and ancient famine villages in the west. Yay England.

We stayed at a nice hotel in the heart of Kilkenny called the "Pembroke Hotel". 72 Euro a night for a gorgeous, modern, clean, room with breakfast included. We decided we'd definitely stay there again if the opportunity presented itself. The rest of the time, we walked around town, explored, and eventually settled down for a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant. The night in Kilkenny ended with the absolute loveliest Irish coffees either of us have ever had.

Our last day of the "roadtrip", we took a scenic drive from Kilkenny through the Wicklow Mountains. Thanks to our best friend the GPS, we navigated our way through the quaint town of Avoca, spent loads of time in the famous woolen mill there, visited the ancient glacial valley and medieval monastic city of Glendalough, which means "glen of two lakes".





and at last were in awe of the ruggedness of the Sally Gap. Mom enjoyed it quite a bit, I daresay:



We THOUGHT we were just a few minutes from the hotel for our last night when we exited the Sally Gap to see Dublin sprawled beneath us, but we're going to go ahead and blame Conor Mcgrath for typing in "Swords Street" into the GPS rather than "Swords Road". You'd think we would have learned by the end to double check where Ms. Brit Posh was taking us, but we didn't this time. Hence, we spent about three hours winding our way through Dublin, getting frustrated, almost getting into accidents, and wanting to cry when we arrived at Swords Street and realized how far away from our hotel we actually were. At least it's funny now...it wasn't so much at the time. Despite that blip, it turned out to be one of my favourite days of the trip. Also aided by the fact a wee Irish lad who we were a bit frustrated by earlier in the day drove down to Dublin from Newry unannounced for a final goodbye :)



Our flight home could not have been smoother. We were a little anxious as Mr. Volcano has been having a few more mood swings, but everything went perfectly on time and I was asleep in my bed in Maple Grove by 11:00 PM on Thursday evening. We didn't realize how lucky we really were until I got word from another American friend in Ireland who was supposed to depart Saturday that the soonest she can leave is now Tuesday. Gosh, Eyjafjallajokull! Enough already.

All in all, it's great to be home. I have a couple weeks off before I start work again and I plan on relaxing, sleeping, reuniting with friends, and doing a few projects I've conjured up in my mind...ta ha


Ta!! Cheers
Karen

O'Loughlins

Mom and I had a great day yesterday exploring County Clare, which is on the western coast of Ireland. My aunt Sheila was able to trace our family's roots back to a small town called Kilfenora which is just a few miles inland in Clare. Even more amazingly, my aunt was also able to locate the place where a few of our ancestors are buried. Thanks to our posh British GPS woman, we found the cemetery and paid a visit to Peadar and Padraig O'loughlin...




We also made a wee stop at a Megalithic tomb:


Explored Ailwee Cave:


Weren't sure which way to go in this town:


All in all, a jam packed but fun filled day! We're up early this morning and headed for Kilkenny.

<3 Karen

mom's arrival

Hello!

My time is wrapping up here too fast! My mother arrived on Friday morning and we've been at full speed ever since. Literally... we rented a car and I've learned to dominate the left hand side of the road. Ba ha ha. We drove from Dublin to Ballycastle on Friday, spent the night at Corrymeela and got all my final goodbyes finished, drove to Derry and Donegal town on Saturday, and drove to Galway and Clare this afternoon. We've been almost all the way around the country in 3 days!

Wooo!



My mom decided it would be a good idea to get a GPS, which I fully support. The default setting we received was one with an American narrator which I had to immediately shut off. It sounded too funny in an American accent the words "carriageway" and "roundabout", etc. We now have a posh sounding British woman giving us directions.

My favourite part of our journey thus far was lunch in Derry (one of my favourite cities in Ireland), and the discovery of two of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The first is a beach called Silver Strand. It's in SW Donegal and is surrounded by dramatic green cliffs with sheep roaming around. The second is the cliffs of Slieve Lieg, which is one of the highest seaside cliffs in all of Europe. On the horizon we could see the Iceland volcano's ash cloud slowly moving across the sky as well as a rainbow coming from it. Slightly eerie, and beautiful.

We are staying in the Bunratty Castle Hotel the next two nights, which I'm happy to say has internet :) Yay!

Also snaps for figuring out the timer on the camera :) :)


Cheers,
K

the first farewell

Conor and I stopped in Magherafelt this weekend to say goodbye to my friend, Tom Mullin. He's become quite a good friend throughout my time here in 'norn iron and it was sad to bid the first farewell :(

By the time we left Magherafelt to head back to Newry, it was about 11:30 p.m. I was a little knackered and fell asleep about five minutes into the car journey. I must have been EXTREMELY tired, because it was only when we arrived back in Newry an hour and a half later was I informed by Conor that we had gone through two police checks. Apparently, police in Northern Ireland are starting to have checkpoints again at night to make sure there isn't any funny business going on (i.e. bombs being transported across the country). Supposedly they had flashlights, asked where he was going and who the sleeping girl in the passenger seat was, checked the backseat, and checked the trunk. This happened twice, and I slept through the entire thing. I'm completely oblivious.

4 days until my mom arrives :)
1 week and 3 days until I depart for home!

Cheers,
Karen

mayo mayhem

Well, the day has arrived. My final day at Corrymeela! It's quite strange as I feel like the time absolutely flew by and that I arrived last week, but at the same time it feels like home at the moment. Naturally once I've gotten used to community living and daily meal times once again (thank you, AOII), it's time to return home and become independent again. I feel like I can't remember what I like to cook for myself at home and what time I like to eat at...sad.

My last couple days were quite an amusing way to end. I worked with a teenage boys group from County Mayo (btw: they have exactly the stereotypical Irish accents that Americans think of-precious!!) for two days and had quite a shocking experience. I was somewhat excited to work with boys as it's not typical we get all boy groups up here. Also, in my opinion activities are easier to plan for males (just make a football appear and you're set for 2 hours). HOWEVER. These boys were slightly rambunctious. Slightly nightmarish. Slightly racist and maschovanist. The other volunteers and I had to bite our tounges so many times over the course of their stay and ended up just trying to make it through until the end with no one snapping rather than excecuting the great programme we had set up for them. It was a little tragic. Nice note to end on!

I have a rough idea of what I'll be doing in the next week before my mother arrives, but have a lot open for spontaneity. I'll be in Maghera tonight, Magharafelt tomorrow night, exploring the Sperrins on Sunday, then hopping around between Newry and Belfast until Thursday when I catch a train to Dublin. Great craic!

I'm departing Corrymeela in the next hour or so. Packing wasn't too hard as I don't have any luggage with me (my mother is bringing it), so I'm storing most of my stuff here and picking it up on the 7th of May. It's strange to see my bed bare and all the paintings, drawings, and notes off my wall. On the flip side, quite amusing bringing all the arts & crafts supplies I stole from the store room back up to the main house in a big bag this morning. Mwa ha ha. I'll definitely miss having a fully stocked arts and crafts building 30 feet from my bedroom.

I'm planning on saying more of a "see you later" to everyone rather than a goodbye. I know I'm returning to Corrymeela on the night of the 7th with my mom to pick up my things and I'll see most again, but my time as a volunteer is over and the relationships I know with the other volunteers here is coming to an end. I didn't realize it until the last day or so, but I'm quite heartbroken to think about the possibility of not seeing some of my friends ever again. That's the beautiful but tragic thing about this place...When else am I going to live in the same hallway as my friends from Germany, Myanmar, N. Ireland, Florida, England, Rhode Island, and Scotland? It's a wonderful thing, but it's rare and over too fast. Throughout the next few months, we'll all be back where we came from. Hopefully more enriched and satisfied with life.

Corrymeela begins when you leave...and that is rapidly approaching

Sorry for the lack of updates!

I spent the midweek relaxing in Newry with Conor, made brilliant stir-fry, visited the seaside town of Newcastle, and overall had a bit of craic. 'Twas lovely :)
On the drive back up to Ballycastle Thursday afternoon, we decided to stop at No.8, which is the office I worked at in Belfast for two months last year. I wasn't sure if the lovely women there would remember me, but alas :) they did, and it was great to catch up and see familiar faces.

We arrived back at Corrymeela Thursday night and began preparing for "Community Weekend". As a peace and reconciliation centre, the "Corrymeela Community" is a network of folks who support the work of the organisation by donating, volunteering, working, or just have a genuine interest in the visions of the organisation. Twice a year the Centre hosts a community weekend where members come to spend two nights socializing, learning about recent events at the Centre, and planning. It was a bit crazy with about 200 people at the Centre, but it was fun talking to so many new people.

I can't believe it's my last week here!! Three other volunteers had their last day on Monday, and it got me thinking more about mine. It's crazy how new people and friends come in and out of your life so fast... I hate to think about how many I've met here I'll most likely never cross paths with again.

I get to work on a High School boys group this Wednesday and Thursday, which should be interesting for several reasons. 1)High School aged Irish boys=hilarious. 2)Conor is the facilitator, meaning he's running all of their sessions and planning their program. 3)There are two schools coming together for the programme, one from the South of Ireland and one from a particularly posh district of Belfast...

I'm attempting to plan out where I'll be this Friday-the following Friday when my mother arrives :) After brainstorming last night and weighing out options and possible couches to crash on, I have a rough idea that I'll be bopping around from Kilrea to Newry to Belfast and eventually Dublin. Should be two great final weeks on the wee island! My mom and I are planning on visiting Donegal, Clare, Limerick, Kilkenny, Dublin, and wherever the road takes us. As long as I can navigate on the left side of it, that is.

Karen

Dear Iceland,

It's been quite an interesting couple of days due to an unnamed volcano deciding to start spewing over in Iceland. Actually it does have a name, but I wouldn't dare try to pronounce it: Eyjafjallajokull. Honestly... Apparently part of the problem is that Eyjafjallajokull is sitting on a glacier, so aside from shooting scorching lava into the air there's also deadly ice chunks the size of houses being shot into the sky. The past few days have been quite hazy, and we're told to be on the lookout for ash clouds....is this real?

One of the Corrymeela volunteers is stuck alone in France, one is stuck at home in England, one has had her trip to Sweden cancelled for Monday, and two more are waiting to hear if their flights are cancelled for Thursday. We're told it isn't safe to go outside if it begins to rain, and some parts of the UK people are being told to wear masks to protect their lungs.

It would help if certain news reports stopped overexaggerating and saying things like "Volcanoes can erupt for up to periods of six months" and "There's a larger volcano next to this one, and volcanoes are known to affect each other's eruption patterns", blah blah blah. I'm banking on things being sorted in four weeks time. I'd like to see my mother and although I'm loving it here, I'm not quite ready to prepare for a Northern Irish summer. Things to do at home!

Anyway, the group that was coming to stay at Corrymeela for a week had to cancel their trip due to the natural disaster issues, so all of a sudden all the volunteers (who are here anyway) get the weekend off. At least there's one instance of a positive situation in the whole horrible volcano plague!

Ta,
Karen