Leaving Dublin

I'm leaving Dublin today. The next week of my travelling will be spent in London and area! We haven't had wireless internet at any of the places we've stayed yet. As far as I know we should have internet access while in our hostel in London. I'll put my pictures up then!

The past few days in Dublin have been nice and relaxing. We've watched a lot of movies and just walked around the city. Christmas dinner last night was Tesco Strawberry Crunch cereal, apricot yogurt, an apple, and some emmental cheese. :)

Hopefully I will talk to you soon (or, as the Irish say "yous soon"). It's weird not being at home for Christmas. It feels like it's September or October here.

High Kirk, Radio Cracker, and a Change of Plans...

We went to High Kirk church with Claire's family today. It was really nice to be in a "normal" church again. After church we had a delicious lunch and went sledding at a hill on Claire's property. We had a lot of fun! Her brothers and sisters came with us. There is about 3 inches of snow on the ground here and everything is looking pretty white and Christmas-y (to everyone's surprise). It's nice having the snow, but it's pretty chilly for backpacking!

After we finished "sledging" (as they call it here), we went with Claire's dad to the charity radio station that he does a show on called Radio Cracker. Kim, Courtney, Janaya, myself, and another girl staying at the Hunters' called Anamika (from the Netherlands) were on the air from 4:30-6! It was a fun and weird experience to be on the radio in Northern Ireland!

From there we went back to High Kirk for an evening carol service. They had a large band and choir playing, and the service was followed by supper (that is, a snack of mince pies and shortbread).

Claire's family has another house closer to the coast, and we were originally going to go there tonight, stay the night, and tour Giant's Causeway tomorrow. From there we were planning to go all the way down to the south of the Republic of Ireland to see Cork and Killarney. However, we changed our plans as it is too time consuming and expensive for us to get there, especially with the weather being as it is. So, we are staying in Northern Ireland at Claire's other house in Castlerock for a couple days and touring around places there. It should be a nice and relaxing time.

Talk to you soon!

Belfast and Ballymena

I am in Northern Ireland!

We arrived in Belfast last night at around 8:30 or 9, and found our hostel without too much trouble. It was a little bit of a trek, and the building was small and inconspicuous. We actually walked past it without realizing it and had to backtrack a couple blocks. It was a nice little place and the free breakfast was really great!

We spent today touring around Belfast. We took an open top bus tour pretty much all day. There were lots of things to see, as Belfast is the home of the Titanic and of C.S. Lewis. We also got to sign the Peace Wall. I will give you more details about all of this later.

Now we are at Claire's house, just outside of Ballymena. Claire is on my netball team. Her sister planned a surprise homecoming party for her tonight, so we got to meet her friends and enjoy some delicious home cooked food. It was really nice!

Tomorrow we are going to church with her, and then we're going to see the Giant's Causeway. I am using Claire's computer right now, so I won't be able to post pictures for a couple days. I just thought I would let you know that we have arrived safely and are having a great time!

Cheers!

Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning Escapades

Sam and I with Bradley Burneski.

Erika Lynn and Samantha Lynn <3

Playing the piano in the lounge.

Sam and I adopted a new secret sister: Bradley Burneski (the guy in the first picture)! He was complaining about not getting any secret sister presents, so we decided to wrap up something extra special for him...
...3 birthday candles, a fortune-telling Yoda toy from McDonalds, a chocolate covered digestive, 2 cough drops, and a can of 20 mini hot dogs that we won at German night about a month ago. The can said that the meat was "mechanically recovered". I was curious as to what this meant, so I looked it up online and found that this kind of meat is "an amalgamation of gristle, cartilige, and fats from animal carcasses." I thought that was a little sketch--it reminded me of a certain expired "6 Bean Blend", except worse. :) It was kind of a gross gift, but somehow it made his day.
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Last night was our Christmas banquet! It was a lot of fun--we had a fancy dinner served to us by the staff, which was lovely. They were all dressed in Christmas costumes (reindeer, Santa, kings, etc.)...except for Trevor, who was dressed as a giant whoopee cushion. (?)

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After the banquet, Deborah, Lauren, Rachel, and I spent the night together, as it was our last night as roommates. Lauren and Rachel are leaving tonight for Chicago. We just talked and played games until about 1 am. Then we watched a movie, which went until about 2:30. After that, we sneaked into the castle and you will not believe what we did...

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....we went mattress surfing down the main stairs! It was unbelievably FANTASTIC! So fun! Then we went to the lounge and sat by the Christmas tree and had some chocolate ice cream. And then...we slid down the banister! And then we ran across the ornamental lawn/croquet pitch! And then we formed a secret society and wrote encouraging notes to a couple of the students, which was a lot of fun. We plan to continue doing this in the new year. We also made a really funny secret handshake!

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Basically we stayed up late and had a really great time! I am going to miss those girls over the next couple weeks. It will be weird to not have them as roommates anymore.

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I'm having trouble uploading more photos now, so I'll try to post some more tonight. It snowed today for about 15 minutes! It was quite a sight--most of the student was outside running around and screaming!

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Tomorrow I will be in Ireland...I can hardly believe it! I am REALLY EXCITED!

The Pig Sheep

Yesterday, Sam and I went on a walk. It was chilly, but the sun was out and it wasn't raining!
As we were walking, we came across this poor, decrepit looking sheep, which the students here have dubbed "The Pig Sheep". Seriously. It is the ugliest sheep I have ever seen! It has a hump on its back and its legs are kind of twisted up so when it runs it looks more like a lopsided trot. It also snorts like a pig! And, as you can see, in comparison with a more normal sheep, it looks pretty pathetic. However, in comparison to most of the sheep, Pig Sheep is without a doubt the most affable! (Look, Mrs. Nickel: I used a vocab word!) :) So, we took some pictures with him!
The pond at sunset (that is, at 3:30). So beautiful. There are a lot of ducks and swans that make this pond their home.

Sam with Pig Sheep

Me with Pig Sheep

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It was a really good weekend. On Friday, I went to Carnforth and got a couple little things for my secret sister and a present for my family group's "White Elephant" gift exchange. On Friday evening, I watched two movies with my roommates, and then we went out for a walk to the canal to look at the stars since the sky was clear. It was so beautiful. I was able to see Mars, so that was neat. On Saturday morning, I woke up at around nine, and went for a run. It was so quiet and peaceful, and there was frost everywhere, which made the landscape look so different. Then I went to brunch, did some reading, hung out with Sam (and Pig Sheep, of course), went to tea, and then watched "The Grinch" (Jim Carrey version). There were about 100 students who watched the movie, and seriously--if you want any understanding of the sense of humour of the students here, watch that movie. Everyone was simply roaring with laughter; some literally were rolling on the floor laughing. Good times.

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I'm halfway through the book of Jeremiah now. I started laughing as I was reading chapter 13 last night. That passage brings back memories of a certain sermon after a choir performance at the Warman Bergthaler Church...dad, I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about. Do you remember that pastor who spoke on "burying your dirty underwear 2000 miles away in the desert and then digging it up?" Haha!

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My team won our netball game this week! It was 27-17, and against the second place team in the league. We were happy with the result!

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On Friday I had a work day, and I had to scrub black mold off some of the windows in the castle. That was really gross!

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I've started to pack up my things. It's so crazy that I'm flying to Ireland on Friday!!

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Other than that...there's not too much else going on. My roommate Deborah has a weekly outreach called "Sunshine Corner", which is just a children's church program. Lauren, Rachel, and I are going to watch their Christmas performance tonight instead of going to our own church service. It should be a fun time!

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As the British say, cheers! I will talk to you soon.

Shallow and Profound

"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person--God became a baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all--the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, "A disciple is not above his teacher..." (Matthew 10:24).

We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.

Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

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I read these words by Oswald Chambers a couple weeks ago. There is so much to learn from them, and this topic has been a common theme of our studies during this first semester. I thought I would share it with you.

Skittle Sheep

It was really nice outside yesterday, and all my roommates were gone (either on day trips or on an outreach), so I decided to walk to Carnforth. In total, I probably walked about 10 miles and I was gone exploring the area around Capernwray for about 4 and a half hours. I bought some apples, kiwi, and carrot sticks at Tesco in Carnforth, for 2.88 GBP. It was a nice, relaxing Saturday! Also--I accidentally clicked something on my computer, and now I am connected to the internet when the internet is apparently supposed to be shut off! It's really nice--and fast, because I'm the only one using it! So, I'm taking advantage of whatever I did and uploading some pictures! Enjoy!

I met this horse about 2 miles from Capernwray. He was really friendly, and came right up to the camera!

He decided to stick his head through the fence. He got stuck, so I had to get him loose! It was kind of funny.

Then, of course, I saw some sheep. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you will notice that their backsides are painted orange or blue. All the painted sheep (which I like to call "Skittle Sheep") are pregnant and will be having little lambs in February!

Green pastures.

The rolling hills are so lovely...everything is still so green here!

Interestingly shaped cloud.

Some trees and a bright blue sky.

More trees and a run-down building on a local farm.

I LOVE seeing the sun here.

The bridge, about a mile away from Carnforth.

CapernRAVE

So, I've told a couple of you about CapernRAVE--basically people get bored on Friday or Saturday nights and decide to have a dance party! Last Saturday, it was a dress up dance party and we were all assigned a theme based on the first letter of our last name. Here are some of the costumes, and some more faces from Capernwray: These are the all the New Ravers! From left to right:

Back row: Megan, Steph, Emily, Marika, Derek (he's from Winnipeg and is also in one of my small groups), Trevor, Mark, Elena

Front row: Markus, Amy, Laila

This is Samantha Hanlin and Sean Koop. Samantha won best costume of the night, and rightfully deserved--she looked beautiful! She was a mythical creature. Sean was a zombie, and his makeup was quite impressive!
All the pirates (last names starting with "B") and their fantastic ship they made out of a bedsheet and some cardboard from the recycling bin! Haha! From left to right:
Lauren (she is on my netball team), Ben, Calvin, Caitie, Charity (one of our RA's), and Ellaina (also on my netball team, and from Saskatchewan).

Sam

Sam and Lael. Lael's theme was "futuristic". She was one of the first students I met. We met in Manchester airport and she came on the train with Courtney, Kim, and I to Carnforth.

Brooke--also futuristic.

Tyler and Beau--two of the cavemen.

My next door neighbours: Heather, Sam, Courtney, Sarah, and Breanna.

More from Edinburgh

It was a dark and stormy night in Edinburgh, Scotland when Deborah, Lauren, and I decided to go explore the castle. Actually, it was only 2:30 pm, but the sun could not be seen anywhere, and it was very cold and rainy...
inside the National War Mueseum of Scotland we saw some BEAUTIFUL stained glass windows.
We enjoyed the museum and how dry it was inside.
But then we had to go back outside so we could see everything else.

We then proceeded to view the National War Monument. This was absolutely incredible and intricate inside. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed.

From there, we went back out to the courtyard, got soaking wet again, and tried to decide what to do. Earlier in the day, Deborah bought an umbrella. Sadly for her, it only lasted a couple hours before it snapped in half. It was around this time that we saw a lady walk by, struggling with an inside-out umbrella. It was the same umbrella Deborah had bought earlier that day--oh the irony!

Next we went in to see and learn about the crown jewels. This was really amazing as well, but once again, no photography.

Then we went to the Royal Banquet Hall

Suits of armor lined the sides of the room.

We then decided we were dry enough and once again braved the outdoors.
This is "Mons Meg"--it is located in a small tower overlooking the city.

This is the view of Edinburgh from the defence tower.

We were once again cold and wet, so we walked around, looking for the underground prisons.

We didn't find them right away, so we went back into the Royal Banquet Hall to take more pictures. There were windows from floor to ceiling, all stained glass. By the windows there were some small seats.

After that, we found the underground prisons! It isn't very clear on this picture, but the doors were all scratched and clawed up by prisoners. Some of them even had little pictures carved into them.

After that we went to St. Margaret's Chapel, and saw some more beautiful stained glass.

From there we went down into the catacombs....

...and saw some more interesting things.

and then we were done at the castle, but Deborah really wanted to go find a graveyard her dad slept at when he travelled here in his 20s. We walked around for a LONG TIME. And got completely drenched. And we were SO cold. We had a great adventure, but were really glad when we got back to the Bed and Breakfast!

Swine Flu Epidemic?

The student body was warned today to be specifically careful about washing our hands and throwing out tissues as the threat of H1N1 has now reached Capernwray Hall.

One of the slightly older students has a daughter who has it, and one of the maintenance workers is sick and in bed. No students have it yet...so hopefully it stays that way. It has the potential to spread very quickly here, as we are all in each other's space all the time.

There is no possibility of getting a vaccination, so pray that people stay generally healthy!

Sunny Day Mini Photo Shoot

We decided to take advantage of the sunny weather today by taking some photos together. Me, Lauren, and Rachel

Deborah is short!

Deborah, Lauren, Rachel, and I with Capernwray Hall in the background.

Rachel is short too!

Lauren, basking in the sunlight

Rachel, in the sunken garden outside the Conference Hall

Me, Lauren, and Rachel

My shoes

My home