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.