REALLY COOL OLD STUFF

     So as part of UCD's study abroad program they have day trips which are free to us. Well last weekend I got to go on another one of these awesome trips. The great part about this one is that most of my roommates were able to go as well. Here are a few pictures from the adventure.

Newgrange-old burial tomb

     Here is a little background on this site (which is not written by me I should add). "Newgrange was constructed over 5,000 years ago (about 3,200 B.C.), making it older than Stonehenge in England and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Newgrange was built during the Neolithic or New Stone Age by a farming community that prospered on the rich lands of the Boyne Valley."

 

     "Archaeologists classified Newgrange as a passage tomb, however Newgrange is now recognised to be much more than a passage tomb. Ancient Temple is a more fitting classification, a place of astrological, spiritual, religious and ceremonial importance, much as present day cathedrals are places of prestige and worship where dignitaries may be laid to rest.

     Newgrange is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. Above the entrance to the passage at Newgrange there is a opening called a roof-box. This baffling orifice held a great surprise for those who unearthed it. Its purpose is to allow sunlight to penetrate the chamber on the shortest days of the year, around December 21, the winter solstice.

     At dawn, from December 19th to 23rd, a narrow beam of light penetrates the roof-box and reaches the floor of the chamber, gradually extending to the rear of the chamber. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens within the chamber so that the whole room becomes dramatically illuminated. This event lasts for 17 minutes, beginning around 9am.
      The accuracy of Newgrange as a time-telling device is remarkable when one considers that it was built 500 years before the Great Pyramids and more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge. The intent of its builders was undoubtedly to mark the beginning of the new year. In addition, it may have served as a powerful symbol of the victory of life over death."

Me with my friend Jason and roommate Karlie at the entrance to the tomb.

Me and my roommates (minus Tina). From left to right- me, Geneva, Karlie, Morgan, and Nicole.

The Irish country side. We got a beautiful sunny day which is hard to come by here.

Trim Castle

     "Trim castle is an Anglo-Norman castle, possibly the first stone castle in Ireland.  It is located about 28 miles northwest of Dublin in County Meath, along the banks of the River Boyne."
     "The Castle was used as a centre of Norman administration for the Liberty of Meath, one of the new administrative areas of Ireland created by Henry II of England and granted to Hugh de Lacy. De Lacy took possession of it in 1172." This was the castle used in the filming of Braveheart. I love that is is still in its ruin state...made it feel much more like you were actually experiencing as it used to be though much of it has degraded.

Inside the castle looking up at the walkways.

Looking down to where the previous picture was taken.

View from top of the castle.

Another view from the top.

Awesome windows which allowed them a wide radius to shoot but made it very difficult to shoot in from the outside.

Inside one of the gates connected to the wall that led into the castle grounds.

The exterior of another gate into the castle grounds.

UCD

I finally took my camera to campus so here are a few pictures of my campus. You will notice a "modern" theme to most of the buildings....which I find ironic that something can be modern but kind of old school at the same time. I must say I am grateful to not be living on campus. I do not feel like the campus reflects the vibe of Dublin at all. And as beautiful and green as Ireland is you don't get that feeling much on campus probably because it is winter but also because of the endless amounts of concrete used everywhere. Anyway, hope you enjoy another small glimpse into my life here!

A building I do nothing in....however, this is where Sue Philpott's office is who is more or less my academic adviser.

This building holds the main cafeteria and the Global Lounge which is a lounge for the international students.

The library...I think.

Since it rains here so often most of the walkways have these concrete overhangs....useful but ugly in my opinion.

The double-decker buses I ride to school everyday.

The "lake" which is kind of removed from the main traffic area so is quite but also not utilized. Pretty none the less though.

It is about a 15 minute walk from my bus stop on campus to the other side of campus where I have my architecture classes. This is a covered soccer area which is probably one of my favorite parts of my walk because I love seeing all the different people using. This day it was a little kids' P.E. class....so cute!

This is "Richview" which is the name for the architecture part of campus which is rather removed from the rest of campus.

So this building is right next to Richview but isn't part of the campus...I just wanted to add it cause I think it is an awesome looking building :) I think it is like a math and science research building or something.

This is one side of our architecture library.

The modern building on the Richview campus...I'm not sure how I feel about this one design wise. This is where I have my History of Planning class (a.k.a. my favorite class).

This is the building that houses all of the studios. It faces the courtyard I was standing in when I took this picture. Most of the buildings of Richview surround this courtyard.

This is the other side of the architecture library which faces the courtyard.

SMALL GROUP

I am a firm believer in the omnipresence God. However, I once heard it said that God meets community in a unique way and I could not agree more. We were created for community. Community is not a “bonus” but a necessity. Upper Room is an excellent example of that. For those of you who haven’t gotten to experience this first hand, let me explain. Upper Room is an hour of just worship held on Tuesday nights at Judson. It is honestly one of the most incredible things I have ever experienced. It is usually only worship and is completely student led. It also is not mandatory which is probably one of the best parts of it. People come out of their desire to seek the Lord, not out of obligation. There are many things I miss about Judson but few compare to how much I miss Upper Room. I made a promise to myself that no matter how busy and crazy life gets I would not skip Upper Room, because if there is one thing God has taught me is that nothing compares to His presence and to the and to the inexplicable freedom found in that. It is life. God is life and outside of Him there is only death.
No longer having that community surrounding me has been one of the most challenging parts of being here. That is why finding a community of believers while I am here has been so important. I have gotten to meet with my small group two times since I posted about church last and how amazing those two times have been. I really do love my small group. It is a group of between nine and twelve usually and runs for about three or four hours between reading the bible, praying, singing, drinking tea and just hanging out. I feel so blessed to have found these people in this place. God is always FAITHFUL!

FRIENDS AND FIELD TRIPS

So I am aware I haven't posted any pictures in FOREVER! There is a reason for this, but it is uninteresting so I will not go into detail. However, this post is all about pictures, so I hope you enjoy!

These pictures are a a combination of some I took on Saturday when Geneva and I went "exploring" and from a Dublin field trip I went on on Wednesday.

This is the old parliament building which now serves as the Bank of Ireland headquarters I believe. It is a beautiful building! It was the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house.

This is an old church that has been converted into a tourist information center...which is kind of unfortunate because it has lost much of its character inside because of it.

This is the "Bald Barista" which is considered to have the best coffee in Dublin. However, I'm still partial to Accents.

This is the front entrance to Trinity College which was the first university in Dublin founded in 1592.

Inside Trinity College.

Our group leaving the college on its cobblestone walkways.

The Spire, or the "Monument of Light", is 400 ft. high and located on the famous O'Connell Street.

POETRY

For those of you who are my friends on good old facebook will know I have been on a strange poetry kick. Well, for one of my classes I have to study the famous Garden of Remebrance here in Dublin. In the garden is this beautiful Irish poem by Liam Mac Uistin. Hope you enjoy!

"We Saw A Vision"

In the darkness of despair we saw a vision,

We lit the light of hope and it was not extinguished.

In the desert of discouragement we saw a vision.

We planted the tree of valour and it blossomed.

In the winter of bondage we saw a vision.

We melted the snow of lethargy and the river of resurrection flowed from it.

We sent our vision aswim like a swan on the river. The vision became a reality.

Winter became summer. Bondage became freedom and this we left to you as your inheritance.

O generations of freedom remember us, the generations of the vision.

ACCENTS

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Oh, she’s going to talk about how she loves the Irish accent” and so on and so forth. Well, nope. Okay, well in all fairness the Irish accent has been fun to get to hear everyday.  This post, however, is about one of my favorite places in Dublin to hangout-my coffee shop called Accents. It isn’t a grab your coffee and go type of place. Here you order your coffee, find a seat and they bring your coffee to you. It also isn’t served in one of those cheap 110% recyclable cups either. They serve it to you in a REAL coffee cup. It’s wonderful. And since I am remotely on the subject, I must mention their hot chocolate. They don’t use any of that cheap powder....no, they serve you a cup of steaming hot milk with chocolate morsels for you to stir in. So, as I was saying, this coffee shop is a come and stay type of place. All the seating is leather chairs and beanbags.  “Chill” is a good word to describe it. My roommate Geneva and I both love this place and can easily pass an hour or two here doing homework, reading, or blogging! (I am sitting in Accents right now as I write this ironically enough.) Tonight is free live music night! I so wish I could just pick this place up and plop it down in Elgin, IL. Of course, then I would probably be in studio less and spend all my money on coffee...

So I know this post was short and sweet and completely non-philosophical but I just wanted to share a small and wonderful part of my life here with all you faithful readers.

Cheers!

CHURCH SEARCHING

I don't believe I have posted any updates about church lately so I figured I'd start this random blog with that. (I usually start each blog with a general idea of where it is going...not this one!) Finding a good church/Christian community was one of my main goals while being here. This became even more of a priority after arriving and realizing finding good Christian friends was going to be a challenge.
Reflecting on my life I realized that every time I have found myself in a new place for whatever reason it was always in some sort of Christian context (such as college or a Christian camp or whatever). Now I am realizing what a blessing that has really been. I must interject that I am not saying I don't want non-Christian friends. I love all my friends, Christian or not. However, Christian community is vital in "the Christian walk". (Haha, I love all this random cliche stuff we Christians say and don't really think about. We just know where to interject them to make us sound correct. Either that or we just know everyone (Christians) will get what we are saying even though we rarely take the time to break down what we are saying into actual life language.) So I have been searching for a young Christian community the past few weeks. I was having a particularly hard time because Catholicism is so prevalent here. And even if a congregation is not Catholic, they usually meet in what used to be a Catholic church so they still have a name like "St. Katherine's" or something, so you may not know if they are Catholic or not until you go to a service or do research on them or something. Well, one of my professors from Judson (who I am friends with on facebook) heard I was having trouble finding a church so he hooked me up with one of his friends who lives in Dublin. She ended up giving me a list of a few churches she thought were good and might have people my age.
My roommate and I tried one out that was pretty close to us and enjoyed it. We heard they had a young group that met on Tuesday night so we tried it out also. It was AwKwaRD. We thought it would be 20 somethings but it was more like 30 and 40 somethings. Not what we were looking for. Typically I wouldn't choose a church based on how many people my age attended, but in this instance I really need a community I can engage with outside of church which is easiest with people who are in the same stage of life as myself. So, we decided to try another.
We decided to try one called C.O.R.E. which stands for City Outreach through Renewal and Evangelism. We both LOVED it. I try my best not to make decisions based on feelings....but I do believe that when you are where you are supposed to be you will just know...and we did. We got there nice and early, just as every awkward new person does. A group of three girls came in a while after us who we realized were American as well. My roommate over heard one of the girls say she was from Washington which is where my roommate is from as well. It sparked a conversation and before we knew it we had made a new friend! Her name is Dannielle and she and her friends are here for a year working at a Christian mission here in Ireland. They volunteer with all ages of kids doing things like after school programs as well as working the the homeless. By our second Sunday at church we were already sitting with friends. What a blessing! We also met more people that Sunday and joined a small group. Tonight we are going to meet up with the group for the first time so I am very excited about that! We met two of the people from the small group last week so we won't go in knowing no one which is always a bonus. So thank you to all of you who have been keeping this particular request of mine in your prayers these past few weeks. God is FAITHFUL!

Cheers!

HOMELESSNESS

I've had a lot of time to think today, much more than anticipated, and I can't help but share a few of my thoughts. Here was my plan for the day. Get up at a decent time. Get a few things around the house done. Be out of the house and headed to the train station by 11. Be to Rush (a town a little north of Dublin) between 12:30 and 2. Analyze my site and be headed back to Dublin by no later than 4 to make it to my night class at 6. However, today did not go as planned. I will spare you the long boring (and rather pathetic) details, but let's just say it was "one of those days". So as I spent most of my day riding some sort of public transportation or walking (walking, walking and walking) by myself I was finding it hard to stay positive.

I am a planner. I hate when I can't plan things or when things don't go as planned. I think this is because I hate stress, so I do whatever I can to avoid it....thus all the planning. So when days like today find their way into my life it typically ends with me psychoanalyzing myself along with all of mankind.

Here I was, having a bad day....and by bad day I mean "bad" day. Then I realized I am blind. Today I had food, shelter, clothing, a safe home with lights and hot water and a bed to sleep in. Yes, things that weren't fun may have been a part of the day, but my day was far from being truly bad.
In between getting off one bus and on to another I grabbed a muffin to curb my "starvation". I noticed they were buy one get one free (which is an irresistible deal to a Dutch girl like me). So I took my two muffins and headed for the bridge where my bus would be stopping. Now I had just bought some muffins earlier that day which were waiting for me at home, so I decided I really had no actual need for my second muffin. Everytime I walk by this bridge there is a homeless person sitting with there cup on either side, so I decided to  give it to however was sitting there. It was a woman probably in her upper 20s who was sitting there this time. We exchanged a few quick words and I gve her the muffin and then got to my bus stop.

I realized who am I to ever say I am having a bad day. In all reality, their are people all around the world who would die to get to live a day like my "bad" days. SO this is me saying praise God for "bad" days.

This leads me to my other thought. I have been thinking about the homeless a lot lately. I mean I have seen lots of homeless people in my life but not on such a consistent basis as I do here. I have never been homeless, which I am forever grateful for, but my philosophy while here has changed a lot when it comes to homelessness. (Again, I am only writing out my thoughts which come from observation and not experience so they are skewed, even if correct.) I used to think about being hungry and tired and cold when I thought of being homeless. Now I think of loneliness and belittlement. I still realize the very real physical needs of the homeless. However, I see the way people pass them by, like they don't exist because their existence is some how "inconvenient" or something. On this "side of the fence" that reality is easy to forget because I am not the one being shunned by every person that passes by. This is, however, a problem that extends far beyond the homeless. So here is my final thought. What if I saw everyone as Jesus saw them. Did He pick and choose which people he stopped and talked to or helped? Was he ever too busy for anyone? Did he ever help anyone based on whether they deserved it....cause He never died for anyone who deserved it. Myself included.

(Written February 1, 2012)