Ireland at last!

New York

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Had a swell time in New York despite being dead tired. (this is the view from inside a mall near the Plaza Hotel) These stars were hanging from the ceiling, they changed colors! Cool :) Once it started raining we too refuge in an Argo Tea Shop and stayed there for a couple hours before heading back to the airport :)

✳After two red eye flights and a day of wandering around New York aka 36 hours of no sleep

Bonjour from Ireland!

We got in at the Dublin airport at about 8 or 9 am yesterday morning (Irish time). When I got off the plane and looked outside I was like <Oh! we're back in Oregon!> the landscape and weather is very similar. But when people say Ireland is green they're not joking! It is! 

That is how my day began...

 

After picking up our rental car at the airport, my dad took it for a spin in the parking lot to get used to the whole driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car and shifting gears with the left hand kind of thing... no biggy.

I will not lie, the first time we pulled out on to the highway scared the crap out of us! Once we got used to it though it was fine :) my sisters and I crashed in the back seat of our tiny European car as my parents found our way on the highways of Ireland. We stopped for lunch at a little village called Cahir (I think...) It was beautiful. first we stopped by an old Church and Graveyard, Beautiful!!!

                                                                   

After that we hopped over to the Shamrock Lounge for some Irish fish 'n chips. :)

Right down the road from that was this...

Ta da!
















Nothing to great it's just a CASTLE!!!!!
So that was pretty neat :)

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Now we're off to Clonakilty where we will be staying for four days with our friends Justin and Alison. At this point all we can think about is getting there, but God said <Lets make things a bit more interesting and have their car break down at the toll booth about 50 km (about 30 miles) from their destination, ya thats a good one lets do it!> so thats what happened! It took about an hour for the rental company to bring over a new car, so we waited.
I think lots of people might say we had good cause to be quite disheartened, but honestly if your gonna have your car brake down why not in Ireland! It was a bit uncalled for but hey what can you do! We were beat but alive thank the Lord :)

☙

We arrived, a little later than we thought but nonetheless.
So! although we desperately needed sleep our friends asked if we wanted to go to the traditional Monday night at one of there favorite pubs in town. Well of course we said yes! Can't pass up traditional Irish music in a real Irish pub. And FYI it was totally legit! just a couple of guys sitting in a circle in the center of the pub, fiddles and banjos in one hand and a beer in the other. It was AMAZING! we had a fantastic time! Plus I bought my first beer! All by myself :) and the best thing is that I wasn't even carded! (just in case your worried the drinking age is 18 here so I'm totally fine) It was a great beer too :)
Anyways we ran home in the pouring rain to finally get our much needed sleep. I woke up the next day right before lunch, never felt better! :) I finally got to see our new home in the light of day.

This is the view from the front window of the house.














Dang it! I should have done a Panorama shot it would have been so much cooler!








That,
was our first day in Ireland.

I should go to bed it's one o'clock in the morning January 1st 2014.
Happy New year everyone!

On our way!!!

I'm sitting in Rockefeller Center right bellow the Tree drinking an Eggnog Latte after a sleepless flight from Portland to New York City! What a relief to be sitting down! Whats even more exciting is that we are one step closer to France!

After Spending the day here we will head for Ireland on another Red Eye flight in to Dublin, from there we will drive down to Clonakilty (way down south) where we will be staying with our good friend Justin and his wife for a couple of days. 

Despite being dead tired after missing an entire nights sleep (it could be worse :) I'm super excited that this trip is now under way :)

Bonjour toute la monde from New York!!!

Getting Close

   Hello again! Only 13 days until I leave on my trip and I'm getting super excited! It just hit me the other day that in exactly two weeks I'll be leaving Oregon and wont be coming back for six months! This realization has brought with it other realizations as well. For instance the fact that I haven't made any preparations since receiving my French Visa about a month ago. Yikes! So now I'm (frantically) making lists of what I need to get done before I leave (what to pack and so forth)! Not to mention Christmas! Oh I can't wait for Christmas; but since I'm leaving three days after I need to get most of my To Do's done before then, not only am I shopping for little last minute things I'll need while I'm away (cloths and silly things like hair ties, since I wont be able to use Jessica's anymore!!) but I also need to get the rest of my Christmas shopping done! :) So thats what I'll be up to this week, meanwhile every day brings me closer and closer to the reality of my departure, I'm ecstatic! On a sadder note I've also realized how homesick I'm gonna be (for a while at least). So I have decided after a long and painful debate with myself and certain friends that I'm getting a Facebook. I have avoided it for so long just because it has never been necessary for me, but now I think it's time. So now I will be able to keep up with whats going on here while I'm away, to put it simply you won Facebook Congrats... Ok I can only talk a bout me for so long, I hope to post exciting stuff in the near future! Until then, Adieu. :)

What It's About...

 Ⓦⓐⓝⓓⓔⓡⓛⓤⓢⓣ,
      I'm not sure where it came from, all I know is that I caught the bug at a very young age and all I've known since is that I want to travel the world, meet new people and get lost in this wonderful world God has Created! It started with a short term Mission Trip (2 weeks to be exact) To Zambia with a few close friends. After that I was hooked and I knew I couldn't stop exploring.
      Finally the opportunity has presented itself, and now I stand on the brink of another wonderful adventure, this time in France! I will be spending six months with a wonderful Organization called YWAM (Youth With A Mission), an organization that my parents have been a part of in the past as well! I will be taking part in the January 2014 DTS (Discipleship Training School) where I will be learning about ways to 'disciple' different people from all over the world.
       For the first three months we will be stationed in Biarritz for the lecture phase (with a couple of camping trips and such scattered throughout), then we will go to Paris and London (possibly Berlin) for our outreach. :) The school goes from January 5th to June 21st, and I. Am. Stoked!
       For the past month I have been working on my application for the school and on my long term Visa for France. This has taken allot of work, like 20+ pages of application and flying to San Francisco to get my Visa! But at long last I'm ready! I have been accepted into the school and my Visa is on it's way! All I need to do now is pack! :)
        I will be Blogging about my experiences before during and after my trip as much as possible to let people at home whats going on and to make memories/give me something to do :) Plus there will be lots of pictures involved! :) YAY Can't wait!!!!