Welcome to Ireland...

Welcome to Ireland...Well friends, I've made it here with out too much difficulty. Our plane took off on time, only to turn around after an hour and land back in Atlanta for us to switch planes, because something happened... but I'm not totally sure what. After arriving a few hours late to Dublin, we met up with the rest of our team. We headed to our hostile and got settled in, then headed off for a walk and then dinner. We walked through the Temple Bar area, which is the Bar area of town but also has tons of shops and restaurants. But in Ireland, what's not the bar area right? Just kidding, that is quite a stereotype. They do drink beer like we drink coffee, but it's much more a social thing here.

We've got to have a lot of free time walking around and really soaking in Irish culture. We went to an old prison that held rebels from back in like the 1920s in the Michael Collins era. We saw the post office where one of the battles took place and watched the Michael Collins movie that night. So, a lot of history regarding why Ireland is the way it is today. The next day we went to the Chester Beatty Library in the Dublin castle. It had origin sketching from Rembrandt (the artist, not the toothpaste!) and also original excerpts from the bible. I got to see one of my favorite passages from Ephesians in its original Hebrew writing, done by Paul himself!! So incredible. Today we went to an Anglican church called Christ’s church in a HUGE cathedral and then went shopping the rest of the day. It's been a great, relaxing time adjusting to the culture. I'm exciting to continue. We leave Dublin tomorrow to head west for a few more days before heading in Dundrum.

I'll leave you with an old Celtic blessing...

May the blessing of light be on you—
Light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
And warm your heart
Till it glows like a great peat fire.

-ANDRA BETH