Its a whirlwind

Well, at this point it has been kind of hard to keep my days straight, as well as names, faces, and places.  But maybe this week will begin to unfold into what my "normal" schedule will be like each week. And then I will be able to get my bearings a bit more and can tell someone the date without looking at my phone.

But good news is, I bought a planner or diary as it is called here. So I can begin to write in my schedule and feel a bit better about things. 

Friday night all of us in the house stayed in and just hung out and I worked on a powerpoint for Peter. On Saturday, all of the YAV's wanted an outing so we went to Stormont Castle which has the offices for Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson and a lot other important political people. 

It was European Heritage Days, so many buildings were open to the public this past weekend that normally would not be. I was sad because no photography was allowed once in the building so I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked. However, it was very interesting and we went on a tour of the building and got to see the different offices. 

Then we went to Mount Stewart. It's a big house out in the country with gardens and a lake and it's just really beautiful. We got to look around the house and see all the different pieces of artwork and architecture throughout the house and it was all very lovely.  Some of us walked around the lake and it was really fun to just to be out in the sun and in such a gorgeous place. 

Another "it's a small world" type moment. A family was at the gardens as well and Kathryn asked the man where he was from. I guess I hadn't noticed he didn't have an Irish accent and he told us he was from Milwaukee. Long story short his wife is from Northern Ireland and there has been a history of Presbyterian Ministers in her family.

We explained why we were here and ended up exchanging numbers to have dinner with them sometime. It was a crazy moment for me because here we are just meeting these people and they already want to have us over for dinner. It was a great feeling and just made me think again the world is a small place when I'm still meeting people from the U.S. 

And another fun tidbit, Caroline's cousin went to ISU and met his wife there. So when I told her and her family that I was from Des Moines, they actually knew where I was talking about! Awesome!

Yesterday was my second Sunday at Garnerville and it was great. I got interviewed by Tom from Garnerville and it went really well. It was simple questions like where am I from, what I want to get out of this year, tell a little bit about yourself and so on.  And I got to help out with F.O.G which went really well. The kids are adorable and one girl told me she was an only child too after I had mentioned that during my interview. It was really cute. 

After church I talked with a lot of people and had biscuits and tea. I went to Caroline's house for lunch with her sister Rachel and I got to meet her other sister Christina.  Fiona was also with us, a member at Garnerville. 

Then Caroline took me to Streamvale farm which is reminiscent of Carol's Pumpkin Farm in Grinnell, Iowa. Only without the pumpkins and more animals. It kind of made me feel at home even though my daily life didn't revolve around livestock. 

And then I got to have a real treat. I was invited with everyone to go to Squeak's first birthday party. Squeak is a guinea pig of a family in the congregation. And it was really fun, I got to meet more of their family and we just hung out in their backyard and ate more delicious food.  Then I went back to Caroline's for dinner and had my second potatoes for the time here. 

Today everyone met with Doug and went through our highs and lows. I feel like everything I had to say for my lows were pretty juvenile because everything has been really good so far. The scariest moment came from trying to cross a major round-about on my way home from Garnerville. It was about ten minutes of solid panicking about how to approach it. 

Tonight I am excited to go bowling with people from the congregation. They go bowling every Monday night so it is something I will be able to participate in a lot. 

Stormont Castle

Stormont Castle

Mount Stewart 

Lake at Mount Stewart

Peppa and Sir Sausage at Streamvale Farm. (Aren't they adorable)