BYE BYE IRELAND .....TEAR!

In about 10 hours I'll be officially leaving Ireland and I'll be off to Ohio for three weeks....tear! Not that I am not excited to visit the sisters in Ohio because I am but...this evening I realized that I will be very sad to leave Ireland. So no more posts for probably three weeks.
Apparently I've become quite attached to Ireland.....not surprisingly! It is probably because it reminds me of Nova Scotia. ohhh beautiful Nova Scotia.
But yes, back to Irleand. Last night I had my last night in Ballybofey and we all went out to Jacksons and it was just the best last evening one could wish for! ...The girls (and christopher) stayed out with me right till jackson's closed and then Morgan played the piano in Jacksons right before we left. We got ourselves some chips on the way home and then walked around the bridge to Stanorlar.
......That sounds a little like the that Joel Plasket sound doesn't it..

" Listen up kid
It’s not what you think
Staying up too late
Had a little too much to drink
Walked home across the bridge
When the Marquee shut down
There’s a reason that I love this town

Nobody cares how much money you have
If you’ve got enough to get in a cab
There’ll be drinks on the house if your house burns down
There’s a reason that I love this town"

In fact now that i recall...the baretender happened to be from Canada and he gave us all great deals all night. He gave Mark a great deal when we has some Irish car bombs. So that also fits in with the song. What a wonderful evening!

Then when we arrived home we ate cheese grilled sandwiches and attempted to watch "a man for all seasons" but then i fell asleep.  It was probably for the best because the girls had to work the next day.

Today I took the bus down to Dublin to stay over with Cathy and Tim because they live close to the airport. The bus took forever to get here because there was a million detours because lots of roads were washed out because of all the phyco rain! Yeah Ireland. hahaha! But now I am here safe  and I even got to go to the prayer meeting tonite. Hurah.

So good-bye for now NET Ireland....I will miss you all, Mark, Sheila, Caitlyn, Morgan, Juan, Kristen, Kevin and Wee ConCon. See Yous soon! Thanks for taking me in and in the words of Gareth "Love Youuuu!"

Assisi to Ireland as told by Morgan McCormick

I think for the last bit of the Trip (that is from our arrival back at Castel Club Fusano to arriving in Ireland) I will let Morgan narrate it for you! She is much more entertaining then me J....in fact I’ll let here tell you the whole story of how we got from Assisi back to Ireland

ENJOY: (a little piece of a letter to her parents)

"After leaving the basilica, we walked back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and made our ‘pilgrimage’ to the train station. I’m referring to it as a ‘pilgrimage’ because we could have easily caught the town bus to the station, but NO, let’s go out in style...and just walk the freaking 6kms to the station! No problem! Grrrr....such idiots...oh well....you’re only young and stupid once!!! Plus, it was hot, sunny, and a beautiful sunset was about to take place...so let’s drink it all in...because before we know it...our fingers are going to feel like icicles back in Ireland!

So we began our trek to the station. Back roads of Assisi. Not a single car around. He said Farewell to our beautiful Gondor, looking back A LOT, wishing we didn’t have to leave; vowing we would be back!!!

We came to a mysterious 4 way stop...and had NO idea which way to turn...we didn’t have enough time to walk back into town, and no idea where to turn...but a la Assisi...it just happened that there was a man walking by, and just happened to speak fabulous English, and he pointed us in the right direction. (Thanks for taking care of us, God! J )

So we went on our way (which...in fact...required no turning at all, but just a straight road, the WHOLE way...yep...geniuses I know...)

 So, we got our Pilgrim butts to the train station in ample time, finished off the very last of our crackers and apples, and hopped on the train back to Rome. The sun set over Assisi, and we nostalgically looked on. Thanks Assisi, we love you! See you again!!!!

Unlike our train adventure getting to Assisi, we were such travel pros by now, it was easy as ABC.

We checked into the same hostel in Rome that we were at previously, and on the train back to the hostel, we saw the girls from London!!! So fun to get to catch up with them again!

To our dismay we weren’t put in the same room, so we bid farewell to the Naomi and Frances, and headed to our room. We were initially hoping to have a room to ourselves, since it was our last night and wanted a solid night’s rest...but turns out there were two other girls there...BUT...just happens that they were American!

Shanna and Brianna from St. Paul, Minnesota! They’re studying in Spain on exchange for the year, had a week off, so decided to see Rome! And again, shocking, were lovely girls. We had SO MUCH FUN WITH THEM! They were the kind of girls that we would have easily been friends with in the real world. We just wanted them to come back to Ireland with us! Shanna is particularly fond of Ireland and it’s on her dream list of places to go, so, who knows, we might meet up again!

We just chatted up a storm like we had been life-long friends catching up with one another! We were having such craic that we didn’t even care about the lack of sleep. We all laid in our bunk beds and chatted for HOURS like we were 12 year old girls at a slumber party!

1 30am approached, and although none of us were the least bit tired, we forced ourselves to stop talking to shut off the light. 5 30am seemed to come the second I shut my eyes...ugh...was not happy...but for the fun we had with the American girls, it was worth it J

We hopped on the 6 30 shuttle to the Termini Metro Station, and from there, tried to decipher a route to get to the airport. The only morning bus from the station to the airport had left already, so we were forced to go to plan B.

We went to the information desk, which just happened to be empty (there was a queue a mile long the first time we looked), told the lady where we were headed, and she told us “Right, Train 21, leaving in 6 minutes, here are your tickets, GO”

 GO GO GO.

Mom, if you’ve ever wanted to do the Amazing Race, don’t do it.

a)      You’d kill dad

b)     You’d then die of a stress-induced heart attack

It was by a miracle that we got on that train. Absolute miracle how everything just happened to fall into place for us.

The train brought us to the town of Ciampino, and from there we had to find the shuttle bus to the airport, and turns out, it was just outside the train station, and was leaving 5 minutes after we placed our tired bums in the seats.

A quick ride to the airport, quick check-in, quick security check, and we were on the plane...headed back to our blessed Ireland!

I am glad to write that there were NO emergency landings this round. An uneventful and smooth flight, it was! Meaghan slept the entire way...and I worked. I had to lead a massive 2000 person rally outside of Dublin the next day and was supposed to be giving a talk on Confession...so I had LOTS of homework to do....yikes!

Anywho, the then connecting bus ride from Dublin to Donegal was also uneventful, thank God. We got back to Donegal, and crashed on our couches.

Rome and Assisi was THE best trip I’ve ever been on. I would definitely do both again, Assisi I would, in a perfect world, live in. Ahhhhhh Assisi! Bellissimo!

So, after ALL these pages, this concludes our Italian adventure!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings J

Ciao"

YEAH ASSISI

Hello small peaceful and mountainous Assisi!! We arrived in Assisi mid-afternoon will lots of light and time to get some exploring in before dark! So we hop on the bus from the station that takes you up into the old city of Assisi and we happen to sit down across from two Americans, one priest and one sister. They were going to St Damiano (the place where God said to Francis “rebuild my church”) and because we once again did not have a map or any idea where we were we thought we’d just tag along. It was a great idea because they were lovely and the priest knew all about Francis and told us stories along the walk down to the chapel. Then when we arrived we met and Irish Friar who told us even more stories about Francis and Clare too! Hurah!

This is where we first started to experience the beautiful peace and silence that is Assisi! It was such a welcomed change of pace for me as I quite dislike cities and unfortunately to see all the amazing things in Rome you have to be in a city...boooo! Assisi is still pretty small and out in the country and there were trees galore which I hearted. It’s the kind of place I could just set up a tent and stay for a long long while. The Irish Friar taught us all about St Domiano so it made our exploration of the little chapel all the more real.

We parted ways from our American friends and headed to Santa Ciara ( St Clare’s Church). It has St Clare’s tomb...which we had no idea about...and just stumbled upon! Morgan loved St Clare , so she was so moved, as was I. They also had a whole display of things that were Francis and Clare’s, like clothing and such. We went outside into the big square after and sat in the sun while we waited for 5:30 mass. We went to mass in the little side chapel and then headed to our hostel for the night.

Our hostel in Assisi was quite tricky to find but once again Morgan came through by asking for directions for us! Good on ya Morgan! That night in our hostel we made a new friend Jill. She was a middle aged Australian lady who was staying in our room. Also there happened to be a piano in the dining room so Morgan (who happens to have a music degree...in piano and is amazing) played for everyone. The few guests that were around were so delighted!

After a good sleep we began the last full day of our trip! This hostel had breakfast included so Morgan and I chowed down as much as possible to fuel us on our big day of exploring the very hilly Assisi. The first and more important thing that I wanted to visit was the heritages/caves up in the hills that Francis and the early brothers used to pray in. Basically you take the city bus as high up as it goes and walk outside the city wall and it’s about 4kms up into the hills. You can’t take the city bus up there and you pretty much can only go by car or foot, not even tour buses can go up. I really wanted to go so Morgan agreed to make the walking trek. Of course after about 30 minutes of walking up hill we thought we might want to come up with plan B.

Plan B = hitchhiking. Our roomie from last night, Jill, had said that she had done it the day before so we thought we would also give it a shot as it seemed like it was going to take us forever to get up to the caves. Sure enough the second car stopped and a lovely middle aged Italian couple picked us up. They were soooo nice and the man even spoke some English.

This was by far my favourite place we went. It was so beautiful and so peaceful. It is cool to see big churches and paintings and such because they are for the glory of God but personally I find He’s a lot more striking in the small simple things! The first thing we did before we walked around the trails where all the caves where was that we visited the little chapel there. UNDESCRIBABLE! Favourite moment of the whole trip. Then we quietly in awe walked around and visited the little caves where the first friars had prayed. First was Francis’s, he actually has a whole little building built around it but the others where more or less just out in the woods.

Basically Morgan and I could have easily spent all day or maybe even the whole trip! You can climb right down into the caves and go right inside most of them and pretty much pretend you were one of the early Franciscans! This little portion of the trip just confirmed my growing love for Francis and all his ways. Not to sound lame....but I just think he is super cool!

After we had adventured all through the hillside we decided we had better get back to Assisi. On our way out we met up with the couple that drove us and they asked if we would like to go to the very top of the mountain with them. We of course agreed and hopped in their car. We drove us this crazy windy road forever on a road that seemed like only a 4x4 truck could go up and then we reached the top! Beautiful!!!! You can see all the other mountains surrounding you and you are just as high up at they are. We were way above the tree and all there was was cows....with horns...very strange!

Our new Italian friends dropped us off back in Assisi for the afternoon. We ate some lunch; crackers, with jam we had from breakfast at the hostel, SCORE! Then we went on a whirl wind tour of Francis life. We visited where he was born, where he grew up, where he was baptized, the first church he preached in and finally San Fancisco, The huge bascillica built shortly after his death where he is entombed. So we had a huge Francis filled day! I also went to mass in German and Morgan miraculously found confession in English and of course we had some gelato in between all the adventures!

We finished off the day by picking up our stuff from the back shed of hostel where we stayed (apparently it was safe to leave them there??) then walking ALL the way to the train station. By this point as you may have guessed our feet where a little sore. So when we arrived I had more place I wanted to go so which was right behind the train station; Our Lady of the Angels (aka the Portiuncula). This was one of the places where the Franciscans really all began. It was Francis’s Fav places and it is also where he died. It was pretty cool they have the little chapel sitting right there still intact with a huge church built right around it...very interesting J! This completed my Franciscan pilgrimage and I made my way back to Morgan at the train station. Mission accomplished! Good-bye new favourite place on Earth: Assisi!!!

 We successfully made it back to Rome by train and then all the way back to .........you guessed it, Country Club Castel Fusano. You just can’t beat that  6 Euro a night price! We needed to get back to Rome because we had to get to the airport in Rome by 9am the next day....but that is another story all together!

Trip to Rome Day 2 and 2.5

San Giovani....inside with GIANT apostle statues!

DAY 2! We woke up at seemed like the crack of dawn and caught the shuttle to the train station. We had a full day ahead of us in Rome and since it was Sunday first thing first was going to Mass. We were planning to go to this church called St Giovanni (the Popes Church) but we weren’t super sure where it was. So we got on the metro knowing roughly what stop to get off at. Anyhow we spotted this Nun on the metro with us and she seems to be getting off at the same stop as us. It was 8:45 in the morning so we thought, where else could she possibly be going on a Sunday but to mass. So like two ultra creepers we decided we would follow her! So from a safe distance we followed her a couple blocks and she led us right to a church. YEAH! Also it happened to be the church we wanted to visit anyway. What Providence!!!

After Mass we visited the Scala Sancta (sacred steps). This church holds the steps that Jesus walked up to be sentenced by Pilate. He climbed these steps just after having been flogged and scourged. The steps, made of marble, were taken from The Holy Land and reassembled at this church in Rome. They are covered by wood, but you can touch the marble and there are circular holes with a glass protective barrier that show the stains of Jesus’ blood onto the marble. People from all over the world ascend these stairs – there are 28 of them – on their knees, as a form of penance and prayer. As the saying goes...when in Rome...so Morgan and I climbed the steps in prayer. Beautiful, harder to do than I thought, but so worth it.

Statue of St Francis (of when he came to see the Pope in Rome)
located in the Piazza across from where we ate.

Time for breakfast. We found a corner shop and go some bread etc and I believe Morgan bought a very interesting peanut candy bar thing too. We then went to visit the church which had the relics of The Passion. They were enclosed in a glass case, and there was: thorns from the crown, pieces of wood from the cross, the inscription, and one of the nails from his hands.

We stayed in the church for a while and we prayed. Then we headed back to Vatican city to visit the St Peters Tomb because it was closed on Saturday. Also before we visited this last church we had to wait because mass was going on so we thought, why not have some Sunday morning gelato? Great decision on our part.  One thing I learned on this trip is that gelato is never a disappointment.

We had another go at St Peter’s square and saw the crypt where a bunch of the popes are including St Peter. It was wild. Well, wild in the very silent prayerful sense where you walk around and no one is talking and you just take it all in....you know that sort of wild!

We had two other things we wanted to see in Rome....The Coliseum and the Pantheon. One thing to know about Morgan and I is that both of us don’t really find it very necessary to travel with a map. The Coliseum is easy enough to find because there was a metro stop called that and sure enough when we walked out of the station..... BAM....there was the Coliseum. It is so huge! Way bigger than I imagined from pictures. Its costs far too much to go in and you totally get the jist from walking around the outside. They also have men dressed as Roman gladiators walking around the outside. An interesting tourist touch, I thought.

We noticed that the Pantheon was in the general area of the Coliseum from the big city map in the metro station so we figured its huge and famous so it would easy to find. We were quite wrong. But Morgan and I make a killer team....she asks people where to go and people are nice to her because she is lovely and friendly and I make use of the directions that she obtains to get us to where we are going. No map needed! Actually on our trek to the Pantheon we met several people with maps who had no idea where they were going so i think we were better off without the sub-par tourist maps that they all had. Here is some video documenting our search for the pantheon.

This night was the only time we actually ate out anywhere and had real food on our trip. It wasn’t fancy or anything but compared to eating only crackers, cheese and apples it was amazing. Morgan and I had pasta with cream sauce , peas and mushrooms. We even splurged and got wine with dinner and cake at the end. Pasta in Italy is better. Enough said.

One of my favourite pictures...I believe it is
some Dominicans and Franciscans being
hanged. I know...morbid, but a beautiful
painting! 

Monday morning we checked out of Castel Fusano and then we went to the Vatican Museum. We went really early so we only waited about 30 minutes to get tickets, which apparently isn’t that bad.  We did a speed tour of it because on this day we were also going to travel all the way to Assisi and hopefully see some of it before dark. The Vatican Museum was totally art overwhelming and frankly me trying to describe any of it would just no do any of it justice. My vocabulary just isn’t that well developed. It was worth it to go though. We went really quickly through most of the statues parts and went straight the Sistine Chapel which I didn’t think would be that cool because I’ve seen pictures of it before but when I actually saw it, it blew my mind. I’ve never seen painting that looked so 3D before and so in perspective considering it was a ceiling. What a genius.

To deal with our art overload we treated ourselves to some gelato before we headed to the main station to figure out how to get to Assisi. Obviously we had not planned this in advance because that wouldn’t be any fun, now would it? Turns out it was pretty easy to figure out how to get there, expect for the fact that we had to switch trains, which we were unaware of. Luckily this somewhat scary looking man helped us find our next train that would take us on to Assisi. We felt bad for judging him based on his scary look L. Bye Bye Big noisy touristy Rome.......

Trip to Rome Day 1

Morgan and I’s flight left at 6:30am from Dublin to Rome on a Saturday morning. We had done our last retreat with the NET team all day Friday and were staying at the NET team’s house. The plan was that they would drive us into town to get the 3am bus to the Dublin airport...to arrive by 4:50. So we get up around 2am to head into town only to very quickly realize that we are lost in the town and that we can’t find the bus station and our bus comes in 10 minutes! Lucky because we were driving in a strange fashion (going around the round about twice because we didn’t know where we were going) the Garda started to follow us, probably thinking we were drunk because we had turned down a dead end street. They block us in and come over to the window. Becca is driving us and she roles down her window and whips out her cute American accent and explains that we are lost and trying to get to the bus station. The Garda believes her right away and we follow them this crazy back ally way to the bus station which was super quick! Praise the Lord!! If the Garda hadn’t of thought we were drunk drivers we would have totally missed our bus to the airport! Yey for Becca’s drunken driving skills hahaha!

Flash forward Morgan and I are now on our plane to Rome...flying NOT in style with ryanair.  I had sort of just woken up because it seemed like we were starting to land. Morgan and I are looking out the window at all the cool mountains. I wasn’t really expecting it to be so mountainous around Rome. I had never flown into the Ciampino airport (there are two airports in Rome) but it looked like we were landing in the middle of the countryside. So we land at the airport and it is super tiny. I knew this airport was smaller than the other one but seriously it looked like the Sydney airport. So the captain comes over the intercom and it like welcome to Bologna! Apparently we had made an emergency landing because someone on the plane was sick and they didn’t even tell anyone! Crazy Ryanair! The man was okay and onec we all got off the plane and they refuelled it we were back on our way to Rome. When we landed in Rome this cute Italian lady attempted to ask about our trip to Rome....but because she couldn’t really speak English she ended up asking about our trip by singing the Cindy Lauper song “girls just wanna have fun”. She just kept saying...”you like sien-dee-low-pear” which I believe translates to “ are you girls coming to Rome just for fun?”. I thought she was very clever for making the comparison! J

As soon as we landed (around 12:30) we took a shuttle to the main station in rome (Termini) and we headed on the metro to Vatican city.  So around 2 in the afternoon we arrive in St Peter square! I should mention at this point that Morgan and I only have a little less than two days to see Rome so we will be speed seeing. Okay so back to St. Peter’s square...now I know this is a rather cliché thing to say...but pictures just don’t do it justice. Seriously. Actually pictures didn’t do almost any of our trip justice, which is why we took almost no pictures...to busy seeing I suppose. We go in the line to go inside St Peter’s basilica right away and it was really short so got in in about  5 minutes.

We are here for two reasons.
#1 Morgan wants to see the Pieta
#2 Meaghan wants to see Blessed John the XXIII in his tomb...aka in the flesh...incorrupt!

So the first thing we see when we go inside to the right is the Pieta and Morgan crys! I’ve personally never had any great love for this statue...but then once I saw it up close I realized how wonderful it is...and my disinterest changed. Then we go up the right side of the basilica and Bam right in front is Bl. John XXIII. I cryed. I got to go right up next to the tomb of my hero! Soooooooooo Amazing!

After we had wandered around for a little bit longer we realized we hadn’t eaten since about 5:30 that morning. In God’s providence after wandering the streets for about 20 minutes we found and actually supermarket! Since we were on a super pilgrim budget this was really necessary. So we bought a giant amount of crackers and blocks of cheese and some fresca like orange drink. Oh we also got water haha! So then we walked back into St Peter’s square and sat down for the first time in hours. We sat in the wonderful sun and ate our pilgrim feast. This was possibliy the most beautiful part of our day! The square was clearing out and the sun was going down a little and it was just quiet enough to feel peacefulJ.

Our first day in Rome had finished so then we headed to our mystery hostel, which was called Country Club Castel Fusano, about an hour ride away from Rome?? We thought how can you go wrong for 6Euro...right? haha! We followed the directions to the hostel which involved going on the metro and then taking a train for about 40 minutes to the last train stop “cristophoro columbo” where we were supposed to get off and wait outside for a “shuttle” which goes Country Club Castel Fusano every 30 minutes. So there we are at dusk in a rather abandoned looking train station waiting to get picked up. Eventually a ragged bus like thing pulls up and we ask “Castel Fusano?” and the guy nods after trying to explain that we hadn’t checked in and he agree to let us on and we drive off.  The closer Morgan and I get to this mystery hostel the more we start to laugh. It was actually a really big camping resort off in who knows where; pretty much in the woods. It was a totally fine place to stay, just not exactly what we were expecting. So we checked in and bought our 2.50 synthetic sheets and headed to our room and prompted unpacked and went to sleep.

NET Adventure in the BOG!

Life has been restful these past days. I’m getting all settled in here in Ballybofey which is where I’ll be spending the rest of my time until I leave Ireland.  I’ll be staying with Kristen and Morgan at their flat...which actually happens to be in Stranorlor...just across the bridge from Ballybofey. It’s lovely here and close to everything! The parish church happens to be across the street which is a huge plus in my books! Basically I’ve been spending my days at the NET office helping out wherever I can and also the staff had a few days off which consisted of a lot of just hanging out. The NET office reminds me of being back at the office in Canada because it’s just as cold hahaha, and I drink lots of hot water all day long. Just like old times. J

An interesting thing that I have gotten up to is that myself, Morgan, Kristen and Kevin went to help out one of the NET teams with two of their retreats. They were there first two retreats and they were with about 100 girls . They are the team that does the Adventure retreats and since they are a local team they only have 5 people on the team. One hundred girls would be a little bit much for them to manage, especially on their first retreats so we went out to help...and Kristen and Kevin to observe as well, as they are the supes for the team.

Anyhow, so basically on these retreats for one half of the day they do your basic NET retreat kind of stuff but then for the other half of the day they go out into a bog and do team building activities. Most of the activities are pretty run of the mill kind of outdoor team building things...you know working with ropes or puzzles or carrying people etc etc.  It does happen to be a little muddy because its out in the forest and it has been raining a lot. For the last activity the girls have to travel across bog. They have one rope that goes across and then one overhead to hold on too as you cross. It wouldn’t be too tricky except there are two or three people on at once and people often shake either the top or bottom rope to try to fling the others in the water and they just push them in when they cross in the middle..ahahah. Surrounding the water part of the bog is pretty much a huge mud pit. The kind of mud pit that you sink into up to your waste and have to have other people dig you out. It is pretty hilarious to see teenage girls have to walk through the mud and get covered in it from head to toe. Two girls in my small group actually lost their shoes in the muddy part of the bog......never to be seen again. One of them found another random shoe in the mud so she just claimed it as her own for the rest of the activities hahaha.

At first the girls are sort of timid but then they get right into it. I’m sure most of them have never been so muddy in their whole life. I think the only time I’ve been more muddy is the time we went mud sliding by causeway and at least when I did that I was wearing a bathing suit and I wasn’t fully clothed. The first day I had a super great small group and they worked together very well on all the challenges and didn’t even mind getting muddy. They also had great questions in regular small group. Props to them. They were in sharp contrast to my small group the second day who couldn’t work together at all and two of them ended up crying during a bog part....tear! It just shows how much difference having a couple strong leaders in the group makes. The second group was still sweet though, and I felt supe bad when one of them started having a panic attack about touching the mud.

After you get out of the bog all the girls obviously have to shower....but before they let you near the outdoor shower buildings most of the girls have to get hosed off because they are sooooooo caked in mud. I must say this is a less then pleasant experience. By the time you walk back from the bog you are already pretty cold....because it is October! Then you stand in a line and one by one one of the adventure staff sprays you down with water from a freezing cold garden hose. BRRRRRRRRR!!!!  It is sort of amusing to watch him spray the girls and spray their faces...until it’s your turn!!

Anyhow these two days were great experiences! It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to be back on retreat like a netter. Retreat ministry is such a great life!  So basically I had two really wonderful days. It was a great change of pace. I did remember how exhausting it is though....but the Lord provides. It’s so worth it, especially when it comes to prayer ministry time and you get to pray with your small group! Wham!  The one draw back is trying to get groups of 50 girls to shower in a timely fashion! IMPOSSIBLE! I know that everything is possible with God....but I think some drastic miracle working would need to happen to accomplish this!

All in all my two first Adventure Retreats where a success....none of small group got lost in the bog and everyone survived. HURAH!

Tour of Ballybofey and Stranorlor...for MUM

Part 2...Across the bridge to Stranorlor:

Return with many postings!

Many of you may have begun to think that I have given up on posting on my blog, however that couldn't be further from the truth. Due to my lack of internet access whenever I have had free time I just havent had a chance to post them....BUT..... I  have been compiling them and will now post them in quick succession!
I thought I would begin with a few memories from my time at NET Training...Then onto my time in Ballybofey finishing off with Morgan and I's trip to Italy.

Here is a tribute to my little friend ConCon (aka chick-pea). Here is him making a brief appearance:

Shortly after this was taken the Road team was practicing there very first fun through of the sketch called "I'm glad that I'm a netter". They did a pretty good job for their first time learning it...maybe some more working on the timing but all in all entertaining. Well, it was entertaining for everyone except little chick-pea who promptly started cry during the sketch. Soooo, maybe it was a little to intense if it makes little children cry?

My last memory from when all the Netters where together would be the day that the girl with the Harp came to the door. We are just about to start dinner when one of the netters tells me there is a girl at the door here to play her heart. So I go over and greet her assuming that she is here for something going on at the other house where they have prayer meetings and such for the locals. However she then explains to me that she met two of the Netters at mass last sunday and they were talking about music and then they told her she should drop by one evening around 6:30 to come play her harp. This would be fine I suppose except they didn't tell anyone this....hahahaha! So now there is random 15 year old girl here at NET training with a huge harp. So of course I let her in....and after dinner we luckily had free time until 8:00, so we had a harp concert. SOO RANDOM! Nobody was sure what to expect but it turned out this girl was amazing and also super cool and pretty brave too! You know she did just trust people she barely knew and showed up to play her heart with zero details! This girl could play everything from traditional to pop songs! She rocked the harp like i've never seen before.
CHECK HER OUT.....