literature, cathedrals, and old friends

We got to see this play which we read for our Irish Literature class last week. It only had one actor (the wand seller in Harry Potter I'm told), a complete monologue, and was very unusual, but he was incredible and it was very interesting!

This was Marsh Library, the oldest public library in Ireland. Some interesting facts: women were allowed if they were accompanied by men, there was a time when people were literally locked in cages while they referenced the books in order to ensure no one stole any, and it was one of the few public places Irish Catholics were allowed. It has old books of all genres and lots of languages as well.

The current keeper of the books was proud to show us some of their most unique books that live there. This one is wooden and he enjoyed demonstrating how the clasps still work.

This one shows a diagram of the planets around the earth (I think it might be upside-down, oops)

Then we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin as well. These were Catholic until the Reformation then they were made Anglican, Churches of Ireland. They were beautiful but I couldn't help thinking how they didn't compare to Westminster Abbey I saw a few weeks back :)

The original Book of Common Prayer

It's a little difficult to tell, but here Moses has horns, which is also apparent in other art of the time. This is because Scripture was incorrectly translated and said Moses' face was "horned" instead of "glorified" or "radiant." Ha!

Selina, Bridget, Anna, and I went to St. Patrick's for Easter Sunday! It was a BEAUTIFUL service. I especially enjoyed the all men and boys choir. The boys' voices were just so pure and angelic! The traditional texts, prayers, and recitations were so rich and Scriptural. I also took my first communion with real wine. My friend Bridget is gluten-free so she took the wafer but wasn't going to eat it and went over to take the cup... The priest got extremely upset and said, "Consume the wafer!" When she explained she couldn't he grabbed it from her and ate it himself. It was quite humorous to say the least... oops.

A few days ago me and my two roommates got up at 6:30 to watch the sunrise over the Irish Sea! It was actually my first time watching a sunrise and it was a stunning experience. We thought we missed it at first because it was already light outside and the sky was pink so we were confused. I'm glad we waited though! I'll definitely be doing that again.

On Wednesday I had two visitors: my friend Conny and her sister Vicky! I don't have any pictures of us because they took the pictures on their cameras. Conny was an exchange student to my high school my Sophomore year from Germany and we were best friends! We have managed to keep in touch pretty well and she and her sister visited Dublin for a few days and came down to Greystones for an afternoon! We shared lunch together here at the YWCA and walked along the sea and went to the Happy Pear. It was lovely but way too short! We talked about the possibility of me visiting her in Germany at the end of the semester... I'd love to do it so we'll see!

The next day (which is really funny because they're my only two guests all semester) Stephanie Ingold came to visit me with three of her friends. She is a second cousin of mine who is doing mission work in Bradford England, and she and her friends also visited Ireland for a week. We did the Brayhead hike together and pet some horses, had great conversation, then ended at the Happy Pear. I loved hearing about her ministry and meeting her friends! Having two guests during maybe my most difficult week academically was difficult to plan, but SO worth it and it ended up being a huge relief to be able to get away and take a break!!

I've never met a horse with a mustache before this one!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day! (I have this awful mark on my camera lens that I can't figure out how to get off! If any of you have any ideas, let me know, but I'm afraid it may be there until I go home because it's not on the outside lens and I don't know where I could take it here to get it cleaned or whatever! :(

Me and Stephanie, a bit windblown, at the Happy Pear

In other news, my Irish Literature class with a great but slightly crazy professor is over!! I had two papers and an essay final this week. Needless to say, I am RELIEVED! The same day we took our final two more professors came and we had a few hours of lecture. No big deal. Ha. It's ok though, now that that class is done I feel pretty carefree :) Time to plan my schedule for next year, find a roommate for the new dorm, and plan our quickly-approaching trip to Edinburgh!

I finally contacted the HQ of the organization I'm going to Turkey through. Mom helped me realize it was necessary... The lady I contacted is the one who helped me through the application process and seems much more punctual and on top of things, and she was very understanding. She said she knows I've been in processing for a long time and that my grant won't be determined until I'm placed, so she said she'd find out where Huma is in the process and hopefully speed it along. She said she would have information to me about what's going on by early next week at the latest. Pray with me this would be the urging Huma needs to complete the process as it really is getting to be time for finalization!

Love you all!