just some great news.

No pictures for this post, sorry. :) I just wanted to quickly update you all on a few things!

Yesterday I Skyped with Huma, my coordinator with the au pair organization who is actually in Turkey searching for a family for me. I thought she was going to ask me some questions and I was going to ask her some, but it turned out she basically just talked for 40 minutes, which was great! She mostly talked about things I should and shouldn't do, especially with the kids, and having an open mind and not expecting everything to go perfectly and all of that. But I also learned some new things and asked a couple of questions!...

First of all, my availability dates are only a problem for some families. She mentioned there was a family with two older girls (ah, how perfect!) who weren't picky about dates who she sent my information to. She will continue to look and she said hopefully NEXT WEEK she would send me the contact details of a family or families to consider! I cannot wait.

Also, I learned more about the type of family it will be. She said basically all of the families they work with are basically nonreligious. (She said even if they are somewhat practicing Muslims only the men are allowed to go to the mosques and the women may or may not observe the times of prayer.) She said there are definitely more conservative Muslims, but they aren't the families wanting to bring foreigners into their homes. She said they'll be fine with me being a Christian and even going to church or whatever, but they probably won't give me the whole Sabbath off (which is understandable).

She also told me there are other au pairs for Turkey for this summer in the works, and that they usually try to place au pairs in the same area and give them the same days off so that they can go site-seeing and spend time together, which is awesome! And she said that probably 4-6 weeks into my time there I will go on vacation with the family, most likely on the Mediterranean coast. AH.

Finally, she told me that they Turkish families will adore me as long as I'm open with them and talkative, and that they are VERY generous and hospitable; they will want to buy me gifts and cook foods I like and things like that. I will also have at least one day and one afternoon off during the week, and I will have set start and end times to my "work day." All of this was so good to hear, made it a little more real-feeling, and made me even more excited!

If you are one of those praying for me, THANK YOU!!! Please continue to pray that I would be paired with just the right family and that the Lord would begin to soften the family's hearts even now. Please also continue to pray that I would receive the grant I applied for to help with the flights and program costs. I have not yet heard.

In other news, I just booked flights to go to London for a long weekend in March and to go to Edinburgh, Scotland for spring break in April!

My life right now is a fairy tale.

xxoo

Catching up.

Hey everyone!

This past week has been an extremely full one as you will soon see! Although we haven't had a lot of class since the professor teaching our history course left on Tuesday, we've done a lot of traveling and site-seeing! It's crazy to think we've only been here two weeks in light of all we've seen and done, but at the same time I feel like I'm not quite (but just about) adjusted to being here. I think it's almost sunk in...

Anyway, I better not ramble much more because I have LOTS of pictures to talk about!!

This is Newgrange. It was built around 3200 BC, predating the Pyramids of Giza! It is called a passage tomb and when it was discovered it had the bones of five people inside on stones that together weighed 200,000 tonnes!!! We got to go inside. It was quite small and the entry passage had a low ceiling and was very narrow. The most interesting thing about the place is that on the winter solstice the sun lines up perfectly with the front opening and illuminates the entry and back to the far stone inside! The speculation is that this was because they worshiped the sun god and perhaps they thought the light would come in and take the souls of the corpses out of the darkness.

The stones used for the walls were quartz and limestone. The builders would have had to carry them from 30-50 km away!

This is a nearby smaller tomb room (and cute sheep in the background).

The design of three spirals showed up many places on and in Newgrange. They really don't know what it symbolizes and only speculate...

We also visited a site called Monasterboice. I was like a mini Glendalough and contained the tallest Celtic cross in Ireland. It depicts Biblical scenes. Maybe you can figure out which ones.

This bottom picture we were told shows the monks' sense of humor... it's two old men pulling one another's beards.

This is free porridge served every weekday morning at a local cafe and organic market called The Happy Pear. (The granola cost 1 euro :)

This picture has an interesting story behind it. My new friend Deanna, my friend Kayleigh, and I rode the DART back from Dublin one night. A curly redheaded man across from us randomly jumped in our conversation in the middle of it to give us travel advice and then ended up moving over by us to talk with us the rest of the way to Greystones. He was a brilliant recent graduate from Trinity in Dublin and VERY interesting to talk to (although much of what he said was over my head!) Anyway, he told us about a secret garden in Trinity. He claimed most people go through their time there without ever knowing about it. So, I asked him to draw us a map of how to get there and he did! This is the map on the back of a receipt. We enjoyed our adventurous search for it a couple of days ago, but sadly we couldn't find it! We think maybe it has since been gated off as we came to a few locked fences in our search. Also, this map isn't exactly very ornate.. :)

This is my first glimpse of Blarney Castle! This was the beginning of our first road trip of three days to Western Ireland.

This is us in the dungeon :) We had fun climbing through caves around and under the castle.

We got to climb through the castle. It was SO cool!! It wasn't furnished inside or anything, just stone. But it was pretty surreal and some of the room descriptions were pretty interesting!

This is me kissing the Blarney Stone. The legend behind it is that a king with a speech impediment saved a witch's life so she had him kiss this stone and it cured his speech impediment and made him eloquent. I've no idea where the laying on your back and kissing it upside down over thin air while a man helps you not fall came from, but it was an experience! Rest assured, he did have a spray bottle of sanitizer next to him, so the thousands of other kisses' germs were at least dead.

When we got to the top there was a rainbow! This was one of three I saw that day. :)

This is the view from the top of the castle of a nearby mansion...

This is the mansion up close. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside! We tried knocking on the door but we were ignored.

The next day we went to Muckross House (this mansion). It was beautiful on the outside but even more so on the inside. Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside, though. I felt like I was in a Jane Austen book setting! I could've spent hours in it but we were hurried along by a tour guide. All the decorations are still in it from when it was lived in. Queen Victoria had visited there so lots of the ornate and expensive decor had been for her (it actually brought its owners to financial crisis when they tried to get it ready for her). It had canopy beds and bells in the rooms that went down to the basement to call the servants, just like in Cinderella!

Next we drove to the Gap of Dunloe and partially hiked it. It was very cold and we were all quite exhausted... I wished this was the only thing we had that day because these pictures don't do it justice, it was incredible! We were surrounded by mountains and green pastures and came across streams and a stone bridge and were passed by horse and carriages...

The next day we just did a lot of driving along the coast and stopped along the way to get out and take in the view. Again, it was breathtaking. I don't have enough words to describe the beauty of all the places I see! They're all so unique but all unlike anything I've seen before.

The roads we were on made me scared to death. I literally looked straight down the cliffs to the water from my side of the bus and the only thing between us and the edge were this wimpy fences... yikes.

This is my new friend Deanna (pronounced Dee-Anna). She's an art major from Westmont in California. She's amazing and we're quickly becoming good friends!!! I'm so thankful.

We got to walk down these stairs to an isolated rocky beach...

These boats were there and lots of lobster cages but no people.

Here we stopped to hike. I had no clue we'd be hiking that day and it turned out to be the most difficult climb of my life thus far... It doesn't look bad, right? Wrong. It was quite treacherous with thorn bushes we had to walk through and rocks to climb. I got scraped up but miraculously no one got injured. It was quite an adventure!

This is my view of the bus we came from. Again, this looks so easy! It's so deceiving!

Finally, this is an oratory we stopped quickly to see.

I guess this is a little cemetery?

I am amazed again and again by the variety of beauty just here in this one country!

This week will be a big change from our constant traveling. It will mostly be a reading week with discussions over our history book. We will also begin our Irish Drum and Dance classes which I'm really looking forward to!

I should also update you on Turkey! The family search is in progress. I am hopefully going to be Skyping with the Turkey coordinator on Tuesday. She has some more questions for me, I have some for her, and she's going to give me more Turkey-specific details. I'm hoping she may have some prospective families to tell me about, but who knows! One thing I would ask for prayer for is for the dates I'm going to be there. I originally planned to go around May 24 (that would give me 2 weeks after my Ireland semester to travel Europe before flying over) and to then go home around August 16 which would give me about a week and a half at home before going back to Taylor. However, my Turkey contact told me the summer vacation for the kids is from mid-June to the second week of September. I can still go at the end of May, but they may want me to stay longer, which would mean I'd have hardly any time at home after being gone 7 months before going back to Taylor. I'm trusting the Lord to work this out, because He knows what I can handle and what I need way better than I do. I'll just feel better when all the details are in place.

All my love!

I've seen Him.

“I see his blood upon the rose

And in the stars the glory of his eyes,

His body gleams amid eternal snows,

His tears fall from the skies.

               

I see his face in every flower;

The thunder and the singing of the birds

Are but his voice – and carven by his power

Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,

His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,

His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,

His cross is every tree."
Joseph Mary Plunkett 

    I read this poem in a book I'm reading for class called How the Irish Saved Civilization. It struck me as a beautiful verse and extremely fitting for the creation I have been blessed to explore the past few days, and especially yesterday at Glendalough, which is the most beautiful place I have ever been (at least in my memory). Glendalough is a monastic city that began with St. Kevin who went there originally intending to be a hermit, but he gained a reputation through miracles and it became an ecclesiastical community as people followed him. Over time Glendalough became considered one of the four most important pilgrimage sites in Ireland. Glendalough was also a place of legal sanctuary where hospitality was highly valued and women allowed to be leaders. Not only the Bible was studied there but also music, art, literature, etc. (my trip leader likes to say this was the start of the liberal arts, ha).

  It was FREEZING.

But it didn't matter... we were blessed with a clear and BEAUTIFUL day.

 

First glimpses.

 

 

 

Beginning the hiking... can you imagine living in one of these houses?

 

 The trail.

It was an amazing place, to say the least. Thankfully we will get to return in April when it is warmer and will do a longer hike. I thoroughly enjoyed Glendalough, but after I left and reflected on the time there I wished I had gotten to take more time to hike alone and be prayerful in silence. This would have been more like what it was originally "used" for also. We were put in groups for hiking and the talking, overwhelming beauty, and drive to take pictures was somewhat distracting I think. I look forward to future trips when I can learn from this and take these opportunities to connect even more with the Father through His creation in prayer and meditation as we go.

We serve an AMAZING God. Just look at what He's made for us to enjoy.

In other news, I'm doing very well. I mean, how could I not be, really? We have started class now as one of our professors is here for a short amount of time. I guess that is how it will be for the most part... when a professor comes we have days of nearly endless class until he/she leaves. I feel like my sleeping patterns are still not completely adjusted and I'm tired a lot, but that's really my only complaint. The facilities are wonderful, the food is incredible (maybe too good! we have two cooks, one of whom was a cook for a really nice restaurant previously), and I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know people in our group little by little. Interestingly, the most common majors among us are Psychology, Art, and English/Writing. One thing that is stretching me already is just the need for flexibility with scheduling. We often don't know what time classes/trips are or how long they're going to go, and every single day is different. But it's definitely really good for me and in a way it's really nice!

Hearing from some of you has been extremely fun and encouraging! I truly appreciate your prayers and encouragement immensely! Thanks so much and I love you all very much!!!