For starters, I am currently on my cross-cultural experience in Northern Ireland for Bluffton University. There are 13 of us in this particular group (Bluffton has many different experiences that students can choose from). , and we are all staying in Derry (Or Londonderry, depending on your politics. We were advised to call it the former) with host families. For 2 months of our semester, we are taking classes that can count towards a Peace and Conflict Studies minor from The University of Ulster at Magee Campus. The last month of our experience we are placed in internships of our choosing (I am hoping to be placed in a local women's center to gain credit for my youth ministry major). During our stay in Derry, we are being hosted by local families who have hosted abroad students for many years. My roommate Lydia and I are living with a family who runs sort of a B&B for students. There are also Turkish students/teachers who are living in the same house with us who are placed at the language school here in Derry. Luckily, our house is right across the street from the college, so we don't have a far walk to class. In fact, the walk is shorter from the house to the class room than it is from Ropp to Centennial.
We have been in Northern Ireland for a week so far. When we first arrived in the country, we were met by our program director, Mervyn, and we were taken to Corrymeela for a week, which is a Christian Reconcilliation center in Ballycastle, to rest up and get over jet lag.
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| It also sits right on a cliff. |
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| And on a clear day, you can see the coast of Scotland! |
Last week during our stay at Corrymeela, Mervyn took us to sight-see at local tourist areas and get signed up for classes at Magee. The first place we ventured to was Giant's Causeway, which is a beautiful geological structure on the coast of Northern Ireland. I was particularly interested in the mythology behind the Causeway - It was built by the Irish giant Finn McCool to challenge his Scottish rival Benandonner. You can read the story here.
The next day we drove to Derry to look around and meet the Deputy Mayor, Gary Middleton to tell us a bit how the political system worked in the city and later he mentioned us on Twitter and even followed some of us back! After our meeting, we took a tour of the city walls and the murals in the surrounding area.
Our last full day at Corrymeela, we made the trek across the famous Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which is not nearly as terrifying as the Bluffton's swinging bridge. The actual bridge is suspended 70ish feet above jagged rocks and rushing sea water and it was TOTALLY AWESOME.
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| ...which is also on a cliff. |
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| It's not like Ohio. There are sheep and cows EVERYWHERE. |
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| Our group on the rope bridge! |
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| Crossing the rope bridge! |
Which pretty much brings us up to now. We moved in with our host families on Saturday and we had the rest of the weekend to settle in and explore the city. I'm slowly but surely learning my way around Derry and I absolutely love it. The people are very friendly and helpful and are understanding when I try to sort out the foreign coins when buying things (Of course, they're probably thinking, 'Ugh. Americans.'). We've already scoped out some fantastic and decently priced pubs to eat at (Wetherspoons and the Ice Wharf are amazing) and yesterday we pretended we were home for a couple hours while we watched "We're The Millers" at the local theater.
Now that I've brought y'all up to speed, let's see if I can keep up with regular entries!
Especially since I know my mother will share every little keystroke and picture about my trip (Love you, Mom!).
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