a bit of hook lighthouse and a lot of northern ireland.

Starting off with a random picture of me and my dear friend Anna from IWU. We hiked a mountain called Little Sugar Loaf on the most beautiful day...

We took a trip to Hook Lighthouse for a morning and enjoyed the amazing shoreline...

And then... Northern Ireland. This was our hostel. Right on the beach. It was adorable; we had the whole place rented out to ourselves. We were there one night. We began our stay with pizza, which I have been craving for weeks. I may or may not have eaten eight pieces. Yes, you read that correctly. This girl can pack it away when she wants to. That night we had a campfire on the beach complete with smores and even took a dip in the FREEZING North Atlantic Ocean!!!

Me and Deanna are SO excited to begin our exploration of the surrounding beach and ruins!!!

That beach. Wow.

Cute little birdie, not to be alarmed by our peering in on its nest :)

No words.

Gated entrance to some ruins called Downhill House, a mansion built in the 18th century.

All for us to explore...

You can't really tell, but I'm sitting on a wall. Poor Yeqian had to let me climb on him and try and boost me up for a good five minutes... important thing is I made it eventually. Ahh I realized I don't have all the pictures because some of them are on my ipod (camera died) which is not with me currently, but we saw a double rainbow. Both ends. It was incredible, to say the least. Magical, even. Or just a very special gift from God on a stunning day. If I can I will add the pictures later.

This is Dunluce Castle, which inspired The Chronicles of Narnia's Cair Paravel castle. It was not a pleasant day outside, drizzling and extremely windy, but as soon as our tour was done and it was our chance to wander and take pictures, the sun came out!!!

I was in a lot of pictures that day with no hair or figure, but eh it was too cold to care about looks. :)

Giants' Causeway: hexagonal stones everywhere. Why? Some sort of volcanic rock... mysterious. Legend: giant from Ireland and giant from Scotland visited one another then ran from one another. Hm.

Wow. The mystery. Incredible.

That in the distance is called the Giants' Organ.

We were in Northern Ireland for just two days (one night). We also saw Belfast first, mostly from the bus. We saw the peace wall, dividing loyalists and nationalists (Protestants and Catholics). There is still a whole lot of conflict in the area today; it is very fresh. There are other walls as well, lots of graffiti, and lots of murals depicting the historical events that took place there. It was really powerful...

News on Turkey: I have until Friday to be placed. But GUESS WHAT?! There is a family in progress that I have decided if they offer me the job I will take it! Please please pray that Skyping goes well (within the next couple of days) and all the details fall into place... the story behind it is quite miraculous and I will post more details as soon as more is known and set into stone. Just know that it could really be PERFECT... sorry to torture you! Perhaps this is unkind of me. :)

Travel plans for the end of the semester are falling into place! Looks like: Florence and Rome in Italy for a week, Paris for three days, and then Spain for three days!! WHAT?

Wednesday we leave for another trip, this time for three nights, to Galway! I have heard this is an amazing place; I am really excited! Today I went with our director Tammi Maloney, our assistant director Diana Duncan, and my roommates to Avoca at Powerscourt (where Count of Monty Christo was filmed), an amazing stunning mansion. I had the most dense fudgey chocolate cake ever and we had a wonderful time exploring the gift shop (Anthropology-esque) knowing it was all way out of our price range :) I am still having the time of my life. God is so good to me. I cannot think about the fact that our time here is coming to a close... That is all for now.

LOVE