Belfast, Home of the Creeps

The only pretty thing in the city of Belfast
and I'm not even sure what it is. The city was
filled with grime and sketchy looking people.
Not a tourist friendly place.

Don't go to Belfast. I wish I could say differently, but my weekend there was nothing but trouble. Starting with a walk in torrential rain to the bus stop, sitting on the bus for five hours in soaking wet clothes, having an awful tour and way more time sitting down than anyone should spend in a weekend, Belfast ended up being a disappointment. There were a few highlights of this weekend and so I'll share those with some pictures :)

Look Meghan, it's a Yeti.... :) We spent a lot of time in the
bookstore because we're all bookworms. I spent my time reading
the Hunger Games trilogy...a must read for EVERYONE

yet another priceless moment at a Disney store.
I really love those places :)

cows cows and more cows. we spent a LONG time on
the busses and I did get to see a lot of pretty green
landscape. And cows. And sheep.

On our tour we visited the Giant's Causeway, one of the most famous sites in Northern Ireland. Here's the story:
The Giant’s Causeway was built by Finn McCool as a walkway to Scotland, in order to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner. Finn fell asleep before going across to Scotland and he woke up to find the Scottish giant appearing in the horizon. Finn realized Benandonner was much bigger than himself and ran to his wife Oonagh wondering what he should do. Oonagh disguised Finn as a baby and made him curl up in an enormous cradle. Benandonner saw the huge ‘child’ in the cradle and thought "If this is the size of their babies, I don't want to wait to meet his father!" Benandonner ran back to Scotland and destroyed the Causeway as he went. All that is left today is a small portion sticking out into the ocean.

The non-believers version is that
these rocks are the result of some sort of
volcanic activity, and are shaped this
way to let the lava flow. BORING

ahh the giants boot. a perfect place to relax.

All the stones were wonderful geometric shapes...
not surprisingly, my first thought was that this would
be a great location to use in a word problem for elementary
students. Oh the teacher in me.

Another cool stop on our tour was at the
Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge. Not
as exciting as I hoped, it was very
secure. I bounced just to test it :)

So the trip wasn't a total waste, as I got to see a few cool natural places. And got to read the Hunger Games. Really, they are a must read for anyone. Especially for 14 year old boys....Nathanael. 

READ ME

This week marks the seven week mark of our time left here and I really can't believe how fast it has gone. While I may have struggled in the beginning, I really got the swing of things here and don't really know how I'll cope with not seeing these people every day. Going abroad is a strange experience, because you're flung into a totally new world with complete strangers, spend every day with them for three months and then expected to go back to life as if nothing happened. I know for sure that I won't be able to do that with some of these people, so a reunion is definitely in the future. 

On a TOTALLY unrelated side note- today is my 4 year anniversary with that boy back home :) It's really weird to think it's only be four years cause I swear it feels like forever. Going abroad has definitely made me realize that I have what I want back home and he's it. Oy that's mushy. Also, I've realized just how strong our relationship is. I mean, we've made it in highschool, made the transition to going to college four hours apart, and now we're on different continents. I'm pretty impressed with us if I do say so myself.

That's all for now folks!

-K