Monasterboice, the Shankill road, and the President.

So, I left off telling you about meeting the Irish president. Well, Tuesday morning we all got dressed up and were ushered to the front row of this event. There were community leaders there, and the president put her speech aside and spoke verbatim. She was a very eloquent speaker, and then our prof. Derrick Bingham spoke after her and presented her with a booklet that he wrote on St. Patrick. She was a beautiful lady, and from what I hear she is highly respected in the Irish community. It was a privilege and an honor to hear her speak and she came around and spoke with all of us afterward.

Wednesday we had class, and then got ready to go eat lunch at 'The Crown' which is the oldest pub in Belfast. It was really nice, the atmosphere was incredible. Billy and Mindi came in from JBU for a few days and took us to eat there before giving us a little Belfast tour. After lunch we walked across the street to the Europa, the most bombed hotel in all of Europe. It had been bombed roughly 75 times and so we went in for a cup of tea. Then we walked down the Shankhill road where Billy grew up, and he told us his testimony about being the son of a UVF terrorist. The murals on the buildings told a powerful story of pain and suffering, but Billy's testimony was a powerful story of God's grace. The Shankill road and the Falls road are the main roads in all Northern Ireland where terrorism activity took place. The Shankill road: protestants. The Falls road: catholics. This was probably the highlight of my trip so far.

That night me and a few others decided to walk to the starbucks that we were told was "right up the road." We didn't figure we would be going on a 5 mile adventure through Belfast. So, we took off walking. A little less than an hour later we made it to starbucks, 5 minutes before they closed. The whole walk took about an hour and a half, and we estimated it to be about 5 miles round trip, based on the shocked look in our professors face when we told him where we went, and also because there were road signs that said 'City Center' 2.5 miles... and as we got closer to the city center, we got closer to the people with cups. It was a really fun time though, and besides the blisters, it was nice to get our for a walk.

the last interesting thing we've done lately is the Monasterboice high crosses. We drove to see some famous High Crosses. they were very beautiful, and since I had to write a 2,000 word paper on them earlier in the semester, it was nice to see them and have a little prior knowledge about them. (there will definitely be pictures of this on my website, they were incredible).



Tonght we're going to a semi-professional rugby game, and other than that I don't know what else is going on in the next for days except that I leave for PARIS in a few days...(wednesday to be exact!)

hope all is well with you, and that you find lots to be thankful for this thanksgiving season!! Blessings. -ap.