So, here it is. My last blog post from Ireland. Well, I guess you could say that. I’m actually in the airplane, but I’ll probably have this done before I get to Chicago. You see, Somehow my seat is like all the way on the other side of the plane from the entire rest of my group, which is quite sad, but there’s no one in the seat beside me so I have plenty of room. I also have a window. So I think I’ll be fine.
I’ve had the chance to reflect a bit on Coolnagreina and my time there over the past couple of days. I remembered that I’ve never told any of you details about my second home or all of the fun that goes on there, so here goes.
Coolnagreina is the YWCA compound in Greystones, County Wicklow where we’ve been staying since we left Galway. It’s a beautiful place owned by Jon and Lisa Ellis and their children Joe (15), Theo (11), and Teyah (18 mos.). The old Victorian house which was the original YWCA now includes the cafeteria, library, Taylor office as well as some other offices, the craft room, the red room where the T.V. is, the blue room where the ethernet cabels are, the game room, and the porch of truth. That’s where the bulletin board is that gives us our schedules for every week as well as sign-up sheets or whatever else is necessary at the time. Then there’s the classroom and the dormitory, which are both brand new as of two years ago, I think. Our classrom is an awesome little building with plenty of room for our little group. The dormitory is absolutely beautiful, with space for groups much bigger than ours (it’s an ideal place to stay if you’re bringing a church retreat or something to the area). Our rooms were like hotels, with two guys to a room and two or three girls to a room. We even had our own bathrooms in each room! The laundry room is on the ground floor, and it was free for us to do our laundry.
Jon’s assitant, Rachelle, is a great friend of ours. She’s been working there since May, and she lives upstairs in the old house. There is also an awesome team of girls who clean and do dishes for us! Pam is our out-of-this-world cook who makes lunch and dinner for us Monday through Thursday. On the weekends we make our own meals, with a team of four students each weekend. Each of us had to sign up for at least two. We picked our own recipes, went shopping for the ingredients with Tammi, then cooked and did dishes at the end! It was so much fun.
We’ve had so much fun here. It hasn’t all been traveling and seeing things, but it hasn’t been all schoolwork, either, and it’s really the little things that make it so great. One time we roasted hot dogs with Theo and Joe over a fire (cooking food like that isn’t normal in Europe) and then made s’mores. Teyah’s learned nearly all of our names, or at least a form of them, and we’ve really been able to see her grow and develop since we arrived.
My roommates, Livia and Shelby, are absolutely the best. They usually go to bed later than me, but they do a good job of being quiet. No one really goes to bed very early, though! On nights when we did go to bed at the same time, I read the book that I’m writing, The Assassins of Breelan, to Livia before we went to sleep. I was on chapter eight when I arrived, and just last night I read chapter eighteen to her. I’ve gotten to much done because she keeps pushing me to get new chapters finished! On nights when she was there, Shelby listened, too. Their encouragement excites me so much. Everyone is so amazing. I love all of them with my whole heart.
You want to know a secret? I’ve seen all of Downton Abbey season five even though it won’t be released in the U.S.A. until January! In Europe it’s released in the fall, and those of us who were dedicated watched it every Wednesday night in Tammi’s little house, which is right beside the old house where we eat and things. I enjoyed it so much!
We were able to get on the Dart, which is like an above-ground subway, and travel to Dublin whenever time allowed. We were given Dart cards when we arrived that are pre-filled with money. Dublin is exciting. We’ve gone on several adventures/scavenger hunts there as a group to find the important things. We’ve seen the national museum with it’s super interesting Viking exhibit, the national library, the art gallery, the General Post Office where the 1916 Easter Rising took place, Dublin Castle where the seat of the English government in Ireland was, the Great Famine statues, and so much more. It’s a very interesting city. The River Liffey runs right down the middle, and there are no skyscrapers anywhere. There are often street performers out like in Galway, especially in the shopping places like Graffton Street.
One of my favorite day trips that we took while in Greystones was our trip to Newgrange. This enormous, grass-covered stone mound was built during the time of Abraham. It’s in absolutely beautiful shape, however, with a stone facade that you could never believe was built by such ancient people. It’s on the top of a hill with no trees in sight so we were buffeted by cold winds the entire time, but no one cared much. Two meters above the low doorway into the mound is an opening called a roof box which is exactly on level with the horizon. On certain days in December (the number depends on the weather), sunlight flows straight through that hole into the inner chamber. We were allowed to enter, but not to take pictures inside. What you don’t realize as you’re climbing through the narrow passageway is that you’re actually ascending that two meters, so that when you’re in the chamber the sunlight does not enter at your head, as you would expect, but at your feet. Fun fact: the beam of light is smaller now than it was when Newgrange was built because the earth has shifted since then.
No one knows for certain what Newgrange was used for. When the modern archeologists first entered, they found the huge stone bowls which stand in each of the three alcolves filled with bones. It was only a few skeletons in all, but we have records from 1600 when the mound was first discovered which describe there being much more. Since then, however, until the modern restoration, the site was open and so people came in, took souvenirs, and left their mark. Now, right alonside the original carvings is graffiti from as far back as 1803 and probably farther. The roof of the structure has never been touched, it is built in such a way that each stone supports the one above it all the way up to the capstone on top. The ancients definitely knew what they were doing! For years during imperial domination the English came up with all kinds of ideas about who built Newgrange, suggesting both Vikings and Romans, because they refused to believe that the Irish could ever be smart enough to do such a thing. The Irish were considered to be second-class humans – basically Neanderthals. They did build it, however, and they clearly knew more than we do, because a few years ago some students from Trinity College tried to reconstruct a copy of Newgrange with only the tools which the ancients would have had. They were unable to do it.
Speaking of Trinity, our Irish history lectures are given by three out-of-this-world professors from Trinity. We had Dr. Ciaran Wallace for the first week, then Dr. Robert Armstrong for two weeks followed by Dr. Sean O’Reilly for two weeks and then Dr. Wallace again for two weeks at the end. We learned so much! All of them were engaging and unforgettable. We went through Irish history from about 1534 when Henry VIII first declared himself King of Ireland up until the modern time, touching on some older periods here and there.
We have chapel two times a week, with different students singing or playing instruments and always an amazing speaker either from the Coolnagreina staff or from Tammi’s Irish friend base. We’ve learned so much! Once we had a guy who talked to us about the Israel/Palestine conflict from an entirely different angle than we usually hear in the U.S., and then for our last chapel Jon and Lisa spoke and their message included a tea recognition contest. Olivia and I volunteered to do it, and we got all but one right!
One night we went to see an Irish play in Dublin. It was a very interesting performance that you didn’t immediately understand or even like, it was one of those things (like the stuff you read in Literature), that had to be considered afterwards. That night we had deserts and coffee at Coolnagrenia and then Tammi played music and we all danced. Michaela, who played Cinderella in the musical of that name in the spring, was teaching people to ballroom dance!
Dancing is kind of a common theme. Once when I was in the kitchen talking to the kitchen crew who were doing dishes, Tammi’s assitant Megan begn a spontaneous dance party in the kitchen and even Joe and Theo joined in. These are the kinds of things that make our life so much fun! We had a talent show a week or so ago. I sang and then also did a hilarious skit with Michaela. Everyone’s acts were unbelieveable and hilarious! Livia and Shelby made a parody of these history videos that we have to watch and edited the whole thing with music and all. It was so funny! Afterwards, we all had a dance party.
One time we had a girl’s night in Tammi’s flat with facials, chocolate cake, and essential oil foot baths. Then we watched “P.S., I Love You.”
A few times on Monday mornings Meg took us to a coffee shop in Greystones called Insomnia for “no-make-up-muffin-Monday”. Nobody wore any make-up, of course! Muffins are also kind of a theme for us. Sometimes Tammi would bring them in for class. Even if she didn’t, Pam always made us cookies or banana bread or something for our tea break. Last night Tammi and Meg gave each person a gift that had something to do with them or their personality and then we all had muffins. 🙂 We also had our last chapel, which was like a mirror of the first chapel that we had when I first arrived. Pretty much everyone was crying. We’re just going to miss this place so much!
Every night at 6:00 we’d watch the news in the red room. It’s required. My favorite school project that we did was our biographical presentations. Each person had to read a biography on someone important to Irish history and then do a dramatic presentation from the point of view of that person or someone who knew them. I did Grace O’Malley, the sixteenth-century Irish pirate queen. I looked perfect for the part! I’ll show you pictures sometime. That’s the reason that my gift last night was a children’s storybook about Grace O’Malley. 🙂 I loved learning about her.
We had a Halloween party on the night of November 1st. Everyone dressed up, and we decorated the schoolroom and had one of those murder mystery dinners. You know, when some people have parts and you have to figure out who committed the murder? To our elation, our friends Aine and Emily from An Tobar Nua came down to surprise us that weekend! I was Arwen from The Lord of the Rings in my costume which Mom and Mary Kate brought me.
Mom and Mary Kate were in Ireland over Fall Break. They arrived on October 22 and left on the 28. It was so great being able to show them everything, especially my favorite of all places, Glendalough. I certainly hope that they had the time of their lives! We were even able to meet some relatives in Dublin one night!
Halloween wasn’t our only party. Since no one had a birthday party during this trip, we had an un-birthday party for everyone. We all drew names for gifts, and decorated cupcakes. Luna got me the most beautiful scarf – and the pictures taken with the photo booth kit are priceless!
My favorite classes were our Irish dance and drum classes. I was actually surprisingly okay at Irish dance. I loved it. I feel like it could’ve been my sport, and I’m so mad that I didn’t get into it as a kid. Hey, who says I can’t, now? I’m absolutely terrible at the Irish drum, but classes are so much fun because our instructor is, in Tammi’s words, “clinically nuts”.
I could tell you so much more, but I think that the stories will come out little by little. I’ve loved Ireland so much. It’s changed my life. If you want to know what my thoughts are on it, this is the response that I wrote in class. You could also read my 15-page final integrative paper, which I’d love for you to read sometime. I might put a link to it on here.
“Ireland changed my life. I’ve dreamed about going there basically forever, and I was able to visit 26 of the 32 counties so I’ve seen just about everything that you’d ever want to see. Besides that, however, I really did get a taste of the college workload and was able to work through that with a small group of people who were all taking the same classes that I was. I wasn’t just living overseas, I was honestly learning to become culturally competent and to become one of the people that I’m living with – even learning everything I could about their current politics and issues. I know that this will aid me throughout my life as I continue to travel. Being a tourist is one thing, actually being Irish is another, and while I’m certainly not all the way there, I know quite a bit about what it is to be Irish, now. Greystones has become a second home to me. I learned to love Jesus so much more through both this and my surgery – for the first time in my life I realized that I really do love Him every single day, every single moment. I’m braver because of this trip, I’ve learned to fear less and try more. I’ve also forged amazing relationships with fourteen new friends (including a new roommate!) who will make my transition back to Taylor so much easier.”
So, my friends, I guess I’ll leave you with my thoughts now as we’re flying over the mighty Atlantic Ocean towards home. This has been so much better than anything I could ever have imagined. God has blessed me absolutey innumberable ways. Ireland is truly my second home, and my experiences there will be woven into the fabric of who I am from now on to forever. I’ve changed. I’m not the same Kenzi that I was. I’ve learned to live, to learn, to take risks, have courage, and trust God. I’ve learned the skills to become a culturally competent traveler who understands the people in other places – or at least knows how to go about that. The Irish are my people. I’d be one of them in an instant. I’ll never forget those I met at Coolnagreina and at my Irish church, Hillside, and I hope that they’ll never forget me. In the words of the Celtic Woman song:
“Sailing, I am sailing home again, ‘cross the sea,
I am sailing stormy waters to be with you, to be free.”
Quote of the trip:
“So you’re telling me that eggnog was invented in Middle Earth?” – Aaron to Olivia (back of the bus conversation I heard on the way back from the play)
