Its All Good

It has been a while since my lovely adventures during spring break in Scotland and London so I will do my best to update! Spent the last two weeks at Aware helping out with the depression awareness week doing mail outs, goodie bags and various other helpings. James and I also met with the U.S. Consulate to Belfast Kamala S. Lakhdhir and we talked about the happenings at Aware, as well as some suicide issues that have been prevalent recently in Northern Ireland. Along with meeting with Kamala, I met up with Steve from an organization called Cara-Friend that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups (LGBT) in Belfast. Essentially James wants to work with Steve in setting up some more support groups that are connected to the mental health issues associated with this cohort. So, I had a couple meetings with Steve in setting up a proposal in what a support group focusing on the mental health of LGBT groups might look like.

My last hoorah! at Aware was participating in the Depression Aware Week launch which took place at the Belfast City Centre, which is a beautiful building as well as going to Bangor at the Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre with Andrea and Pat for their mood matters program! The launch was successful and I got my picture taken with the Lord Mayor Naomi Long, and Lynda Bryans (BBC personnel) was also present at the launch! Then James threw me a wee "American" party! It was fun! On that Friday Andrea, Pat and I went to Bangor to the only juvenile center for kids aged 11-17 in all of Northern Ireland. There are a range of felonies that the kids have committed including murder, to stealing money, clothes etc. Some of the kids responded very well to the presentation about depression and others could care less.

For our last weekend in Belfast Abby and I went out on the Shankill road which is a predominantly Protestant working class area as well as the Falls area which is a Catholic area. In between the two neighborhoods lies a peace wall or an interface. We are doing a group project on the peace walls and interfaces and took this day to go photo the area. Its all very foreign as an outsider and I can not imagine the impacts of living in fear of "the other" for a majority of my life as many have.

Spent the evening out with James, Andrea, and Liz! We started out at the Duke of York, then went to Robinsons, though tried to get into Fibbee Maggee's which is in the back part of Robinsons but there was a Scottish band playing and it was packed! Liz left us after a while and then James and Andrea went to the Spainard which I hadn't been to yet and was really fun and I liked the atmosphere a lot.

Sunday Claire, Janel, Erin Hocking and I traveled to Ian Paisley's church. We had attempted to at the beginning of our time in Belfast and didn't make it time so we made sure it happened for our last day! It was an interesting service. We were clearly the outsiders as we did not have our Sunday best on which would've included a huge hat and gloves. The congregation was not that big at all, but afterwards Ian came and shook our hands and introduced ourselves to him. It was definitely an interesting experience!

That evening we had gone to the Queen's Film Theatre to see a movie called "We carried our secrets." The Belfast film festival was happening so there were lots of movies happening all over the city but this was a free one and just so happened to be relevant to our coursework and studies in Northern Ireland! It was a documentary about a theatre production of 7 individual stories of those who have been affected by the troubles in some way or another through what is known as Theatre of Witness I believe and was started in Philadelphia I think. It was a very powerful film and talked a lot about when is it the right time to tell your story, and how that can be helpful in the healing process.

Later on that night the whole Belfast crew met up at Robinsons for a couple drinks for we were celebrating Justin's 21st! Than we traveled to none other John Hewitt for one last time. It was a wonderful last evening and the singer sang Happy Birthday to Justin! :D

Monday Nigel picked us up with the Derry folk already in the beast(the van) and we headed to pick up Erin and Eva from the train station who were coming from Ballycastle. We were heading to DUBLIN!!! It was mostly a travel day though we did stop by the River Boyne where the Battle of the Boyne took place, and then also at Newgrange which is an ancient tomb site from the neolithic period, and was probably built 5,000 years ago! O my! Our accommodations for the week were at All Hallows College and is said to be pretty haunted, according to one of our taxi drivers! That evening Claire, Abby and I met up with Lesley one last time at the Gaiety Theatre to see the musical Evita! It was so much fun to see her again and the show was awesome.

Tuesday we went to Trinity College which is one of the oldest colleges in Ireland, and we saw the Book of Kells. We had lunch in St. Stephen's green and then headed over to Kilmainham Gaol which is an old prison and housed the 14 people who were involved in the Easter Rising of 1916. And how can I forget we then went to the Guinness Factory! Got our free pint and were on our way!!! Wednesday we went to the Irish parliament and met with various representatives from different parties. It was all very interesting to hear there parties perspective on how they view the state of Northern Ireland and the peace process. Wednesday evening we did a literary pub crawl around Dublin! We started at a bar called the Duke, headed to O'Neills, a bar where Michael Collins used to drink where Ashley, Erin and I talked with two 80 year olds who happened to be brothers! Then ended up at a bar that some of us didn't stay at too long cause we were tired.

Thursday we traveled to the Wicklow mountains to an organization called Glencree. They are a peace and reconciliation organization and we talked with them about what they do, and some of the groups that they have dealt with dealing with paramilitary organizations and issues surrounding conflict. We had a wonderful lunch there and then played a game of football (soccer)! It was a lovely day! Then we went to an old monastery called Glendalough. Went walking through the mountains and then went up to the old monastery site where there was a graveyard and some other old buildings. We stopped for food and then headed back to All hallows!!!

Friday we were heading back to Portrush! On the way though we stopped in a town called Crossmaglen where we met with Ian Bothwell who is the director of an organization called Crossfire Trust. He started the organization 30 some years ago and has a very interesting story and background. Crossmaglen is a predominantly Catholic town and is located very close to the border. We then went to the Darkley House where Ian has set up his organization and Darkley is an old Mill so there is a large facility for them to use for the many aspects of their organization. Crossfire Trust is a faith based organization and Ian has run into many hesitant people because of this. He also met with George W. Bush before we went to Afghanistan and Iraq and said one thing to him, "Blessings are better than bombs." Then of course we went to war. Very interesting man with a very unique story.

On the way back to Portrush we traveled through Nigel's home town and he finally told us his story. It was a very moving story and has been a long time coming considering he is the back bone of our experiences here. Got back to Portrush pretty late so we all just unpacked and hung out. It is a little weird being back in Portrush. It seems like we were just here. Tonight we are going back to Kelly's (biggest night club in Northern Ireland) for Eva's 22nd birthday which is tomorrow! Then we also have Monday off because it is a bank holiday. It should be an interesting final 2 weeks in Northern Ireland considering we want to pack in as much as possible as well as starting/finishing papers, and projects. Look for at least one more blog update before I head back home on May 15th.

:D

Spring Break in London & Scotland

Where have I left off? Not quite sure but I'll do my best! Before easter holiday Abby and I went to see Rocky Horror Picture show, which was an ABSOLUTE BLAST! We laughed, sang and danced the time warp! We didn't have time to dress up but it was still good craic! :D Besides this I have recently returned from easter holiday travels to London and Scotland. Last weekend me and Erin traveled to London near Camden town where are hostel was located for the weekend. We hung out in the area the first night and on Saturday we ventured around the Camden Market, traveled inward more towards the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Globe Theatre, National Gallery, and Trifalgar square area. It was a jam packed day! On Sunday we celebrated Easter by walking down by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and houses of Parliament area. It was a gorgeous day! Abby met up with Erin and I for a family easter brunch at a local Italian restaurant and then we ventured out to Abbey Road for some Beatles action. Besides almost getting run over by cars, we had time to jam out to "Hey Jude" right outside the Abbey Road Studios.

Sunday night Erin and I traveled to Edinburgh for the evening. The next morning we left on our 5 day Highland mountains bus trip with MacBackPackers. There were 30 of us from a wide range of places around the world including South Africa, Canada, Sweden, Germany, France, Australia, Tasmania, Czech Republic, China, and of course America! Monday we went to an old barracks site, the Tomatin Whiskey distillery where we got a free shot, and then that afternoon we all took a dip in Lochness with Nessie. It was freezin but totally worth it for that free t-shirt! :D That night we stayed at a hostel in Inverness. We went to a local pub where they had scottish punk music upstairs, and then traditional Scottish music downstairs. It was great! Then on the way back to the hostel we realized that we forgot our orange cards to show the people at the hostel that we were staying there. We ended up having to dance for them instead of having to pay but then ended up talking with Tyler and Dan who are both from America just working at the Hostel in Inverness. Crazy!

Tuesday we traveled to Isle of Skye, which is on the western part of Scotland. We went to the Culloden Battlefield, walked through Raven's Craig, Eilean Donan Castle and some old stone grave sites that may be older than stonehenge! Then that evening we settled in to our hostel which was in Kyleakin. We got fish and chips and drinks at the only pub in town called Saucy Mary's. There was a futbol game going on so we watched that and then later enjoyed some traditional local scottish music. By the end of the night Erin was showing me all of her scottish dance moves that she learned when she was a WEE child and everyone joined in with us. It was great!

Wednesday we started the morning off by dipping our face in this stream for 7 seconds for eternal beauty! It has to do with an old scottish legend with the woman warrior Scathach... I believe! It was quite refreshing and quite beautiful! Afterwords we stopped in a little town in Portree for lunch and then traveled to a Fairyglen, and then to another mountain overlook where we hiked for an hour. It was quite a trek and when we got to the top it was really windy but felt so nice after the sweaty hike! That night we went over to a different restaurant in Kyleakin which had just reopened for the season, and then traveled back to Saucy Mary's with the rest of our bus crew.

Thursday came too quickly!!! We packed up our things and left Kyleakin for we were moving onward to bigger and better things! ;) Our tour guide had been making tree sap beer (or something) so while we were passing through his hometown we stopped at a monument so that he could run into his family and get the tree sap beer! haha. We then went to the Hogwarts Express Bridge, stopped for some fish and chips, then went to the Ben Nevis whiskey distillery where part of Braveheart was filmed. That evening we stopped at the grocery store before heading to our hostel in Oban because we were all making a big dinner for the last evening. It was quite the procedure with 30 people on the bus, everyone helped out and it all turned out great. We got cheap wine, tried the tree sap beer, and had lots of pasta, potatoes, and veggies! Later on we traveled just down the road to the Skipinnish Ceilidh House which was quite the scottish music experience! (according to my ticket!) We did traditional irish dancing, hung out with other people on our bus tour, and had quite an interesting night there after. It was a great way to end the week with everyone and we all had fun reliving the moments the next morning! :D

Friday morning was funny! We started the day off with a Harry coo (Highland Cow) safari! We got off to take pictures of them and the sheep that were near by them, and we see that one of the sheep was laying on it's back. We all thought that it was playing dead but then soon discovered that it had a broken foot and looked like it was dying! Oh no! :( As we were leaving one of the cows went over to it and started licking it though. We then continued on to a church where Robert the Bruce has part of his shin bone buried...or something. We meet Hamish the king of Harry COO's, saw Doune castle where Monty Python and the Holy grail was filmed and then we ended the tour with the William Wallace (Mel Gibson-Braveheart) monument in Stirling, Scotland. Our tour guide Greham dropped us off back in Edinburgh and we all thanked and said good bye to him and everyone else who wasn't staying in Edinburgh for the weekend. Everyone else who was staying met up for dinner and drinks one last time before everyone went their separate ways. It was really the most fun I've had so far on the trip and was a nice break from the intense rigor of the program.

Saturday Erin and I went to the Edinburgh Castle which was literally right outside our hostel, and then journeyed out to Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn Chapel is most famous for it's conspiracies of having the holy grail, Mary Magdalen, Jesus' head, (and many more) buried there. It is such a gorgeous church and there is so much detail with the architecture in and outside the church. The history and the stories that go with it are just as interesting. Saturday night Erin and I just laid low, reminisced about the past 5 days and packed up for Belfast for Sunday's travels.

It was an amazing break and it'll be hard jumping back into the routine that I was in before, especially since there are really only 4 or 5 weeks left of the program. It has all gone by soooo fast and probably the coming weeks will go by just as quick! We have lots of papers, group projects, and presentations to be working on and all we want to do is explore the city and talk about the issues, but I suppose something needs to be shown for it all! Two more weekends in Belfast, a week in Dublin and then 2 weeks back in Portrush/Coleraine area. Until next time...